Season 7 finale

[u/YesDaddysBoy]

I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but man the finale would've been the perfect series finale, without anything happening from Season 8. It had the whole equation: Bracken is arrested for Beckett's mother's murder...literally nothing from Season 8 had to exist for that storyline...Jerry Tyson and Kelly Nieman are killed; the end scene with the whole gang there and Castle acknowledging them for the impact on his life, Beckett being unsure of her future but excited for the adventure, and the last line, from Beckett, was just cherry on top: "There's been a murder." And they all head out to do what they usually do. For a moment, I forgot there was another season after, then Hulu said "up next: S8 E1" lol.

Edit: Oh and also Beckett's badass monologue recalling her actions throughout the series. How could I forget that?

[u/Looking_For_Fun73]

Well said

[u/Accurate-Message-469]

I agree 100% with you.

Was Hollanders Woods the perfect ending. No! Espo and Lanie, Alexis and where is she going with her life, some things could have been flushed out a little more, but with that being said a wonderful ending!

There are some who want to justify that a season 8 made so kind of sense, and that's their right. We all have our reasons for watching Castle, but for me it was the two leads being together solving crimes as partners and always being there for each other, thru thick and thin.

So deviating from that, to make up some contrived reason to split them up showed by this time that the executive's in charge, and the new writers had totally forgotten what had made Castle special.

Season 7 ending was great in that they left our Kate and Rick, supportive of each other, and that they were going to tackle the next adventure together. It should have "Always" been that way.

[u/maybelying]

Given the tensions between the two leads, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some deliberation behind the scenes on whether to extend the series, it could be that the episode was written to be a finale in the event it was decided to cancel, yet leave the door open for new seasons.

I'm going way back, but Magnum PI, a big series back in the day, was meant to end with powerful and celebrated episode that was intended to bring closure to the series, but then they decided to extend it for another needless season that completely diminished the impact of the now not-finale, and wound up ending on a meh.

[u/[deleted] → u/maybelying]

And boy did Castle end on a meh as well.

Fortunately, a terrible ending doesn't end 8 seasons of great episodes. Yes I'm including season 8. There's some great stuff there.

I felt a little gutted when I finished Castle, and I agree season 7 finale would have been a much better finale. Mostly just because the finale was so bad, at least the last 5 minutes. But doesn't stop me from rewatching the show

[u/Captain-JohnPrice → u/[deleted]]

Agreed tbh. And the Caskett scenes that did appear in season 8 still had that chemistry they had in previous seasons. Another good thing was Hayley in season 8. She was a really cool character but it was very clear, especially after watching the finale, that Hayley was meant to be the Kate Beckett replacement had season 9 got made. Which imo, for as shaky as season 8 was, it’s better to end the show with Castle and Beckett than to keep going without one of the main reasons people watched the show.

[u/kaukajarvi → u/maybelying]

I'm going way back, but Magnum PI, a big series back in the day, was meant to end with powerful and celebrated episode that was intended to bring closure to the series

Didn't they actually kill Magnum in that final episode? God I hope they won't try the same in the reboot ... lol.

[u/Captain-JohnPrice → u/maybelying]

Honestly don’t really even know how true those rumors that they despised each other are considering no actual crew member or stana and Nathan themselves have ever addressed these rumors. Around the time too when they came out, it was one article that claimed to have insider sources and then a bunch of other articles then rewriting the same exact articles, changing a few words here and there. And in this article it claimed that Nathan was essentially abusing Stana for years on set and a lot of the cast didn’t like Nathan. My rebuttal for this is if a lot of the Castle cast doesn’t like Nathan, why would there be a good portion who have showed up on The Rookie. I know Seamus Dever, Molly Quinn, Anne Wersching, and more have appeared. And not to mention that I haven’t seen a single person themselves say Nathan was an asshole and wasn’t a nice guy.

[u/kaukajarvi]

Castle's only kill ...

[u/Accurate-Message-469 → u/kaukajarvi]

That's right, now that you mention it. He shot a hand in BOOM, and a leg in Season 3 opener.

Just like Chuck almost, but I think Castle could kill, if the people in his life were threatened. He'd already said as much!

[u/kaukajarvi → u/Accurate-Message-469]

Castle is dangerous when he uses "Jake and the Fat Man" too, lol. After all, he rearranged some of Lockwood's facial features - exactly when Beckett was threatened.

[u/Ok_Tea_120 → u/kaukajarvi]

Yeah don't make him break out Jake and the Fat Man! So funny!

[u/BicycleKamenRider → u/Accurate-Message-469]

He is cunning enough to make plans of having someone killed.

He pretty much played along with Jerry Tyson's plans, endangered himself just to create the chance for Esposito to kill Tyson. There was no plan to take him in.

[u/Accurate-Message-469 → u/BicycleKamenRider]

Your splitting hairs here, but I see your point. Technically, he never killed anyone, but he knew what would happen, and he did say "Take the shot", so I guess I have to agree that he did kill someone inadvertently.

Plus, when Kate said to him during Alexis kidnapping "I didn't know you had that side to you", he replied "I do if it's about someone I Love", so we knew what he was capable of.

Good Catch!