Okay seriously, I know we all love the writers and we talk about it all the time. But before we all freak out after the finale and the inevitable angst we’ll feel after the cliffhanger, can we please just talk about the dichotomy they are setting up with the season finale?
Our writers are flipping geniuses. They’re not throwing a contrived wrench in the Caskett relationship. They are making them deal with a very real situation. Beckett is at a huge impasse - a juxtaposition, if you will. “The case that defined her career, will tear them apart.”
Beckett has a huge decision to make. Castle is pleading with her to step away from this case. He knows it’s going to put her in grave danger - possibly get her killed. But Beckett knows that she’s been waiting for this moment for years upon years now. It literally defines who she is as a person. Remember that one episode in Season 1, or maybe early Season 2 where she talks to the girl who lost her mom. The woman says, “How do I continue to live my life like this?” (or something to that effect) And Beckett responds something like this, “One day you’ll wake up and find that you don’t mind carrying it around with you.” She still carries it around. Every day she wakes up and is reminded of her mother’s murder and with the stunning realization that the killer has yet to have been brought to justice. Imagine carrying that around with you all the time. She’s done a good job of suppressing it, keeping it under the surface. But it’s always there, always seething right underneath the surface of her life.
Enter Castle. The man who first irritated her to no end, has now become the anchor in her life. The one person she really trusts with this thing that defines her. She trusts him because he recognized it in her from the start and never downplayed it, never belittled her for it, in fact, just the opposite - he respected her for it. Respected her for not taking the so called “socially acceptable” route. Instead, he admires her strength, her bravery, her need to find justice. He’s made a vow to help her find her mother’s killer. He freaking handed over $100,000 like it was nothing to honey trap who they thought was her killer in Season 2. He’s done so many things for her to prove himself that he will always be there for her - through the good and the bad.
So now, here’s the turning point. Now, the case is actually putting her in harm’s way. She could actually get killed trying to find her mother’s killer. So does she go with the advice of this man that she so fully trusts with her life or does she follow her head and her heart - knowing that if she turned back now she would never be able to forgive herself for letting her mother’s killer go? Both paths don’t mesh. If Castle got hurt or killed, she would never forgive herself. If she turns her back on the case, she could never forgive herself. So what’s a girl to do? I really feel like her heart is screaming at her to follow the case and her head is yelling, “No, it’s dangerous! Go live a life with Castle. He loves you. He’ll be there for you.” The case wins out. It wins out because she’s lived with it longer.
So the only natural thing is to push away the thing you want the most in order to do the thing that you need to do the most. What an absolute predicament for a character.
Our writers are geniuses. They are geniuses because this is the most natural reaction to this situation. Now obviously Beckett won’t handle it as neatly as I have it written out here. After all, with thoughts and emotions swirling about in your head and your heart, you’re bound to act irrationally. But in that moment of irrationalness, there is truth. Because you are after all, acting with how you truly feel instead of weighing the options. She pushes Castle away because she ultimately loves him. Not because she doesn’t.
The writers of this show deserve every Emmy in the book for creating such believable characters and situations and continuing to perpetuate the character development in such a natural and smooth way. Thank you writers for your hard work, for your dedication, for your care and concern for these characters, and also for your fans.
We love you and your writing minds.
THIS. “So the only natural thing is to push away the thing you want the most in order to do the thing that you need to do the most.”
SO. INCREDIBLY. THIS.
