‘Castle’ Turns 15: A Timeline of Castle & Beckett’s Relationship
For several seasons of ABC series Castle, viewers sat on the edge of their couch cushions to see whether novelist Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) and NYPD detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) would get together as they worked to solve both small cases and big-time conspiracies.
Katic, for her part, wanted the two characters together sooner rather than later. “I might be naively romantic, but I believe that a relationship can be just as spicy when people get together as it was in the chase,” she told Entertainment Weekly in 2011. “The complications that happen when characters like Beckett and Castle get together can make for interesting viewing.”
But Fillion wanted to draw it out. “When you get people together, [viewers] stop with the yearning, they stop with the wanting,” he observed to EW. “They go, ‘Ah, finally. They’re together. All right, what else is on?’”
Eventually, of course, the ship known as Caskett set sail — and lasted all the way through a rushed series finale. To celebrate Castle’s 15th anniversary on March 9, here’s a timeline of Castle and Beckett’s relationship.
The First Meeting (Season 1, Episode 1)
When Beckett meets Castle in the series premiere, “Flowers for Your Grave,” he assumes she’s just another fan wanting him to autograph her body. (He even asks, “Where would you like it?”) But then she reveals her badge and tells him he’s wanted for questioning about a murder case.
The Pigtail-Pulling (Season 2, Episode 13)
After a season and a half of Beckett suffering Castle’s foolishness, the two of them reach a turning point in Season 2’s “Sucker Punch.” When Castle botches a chance to ID the person responsible for the murder of Beckett’s mother and offers to leave, Beckett urges him to stay. “I’ve gotten used to you pulling my pigtails,” she says.
The Hand-Holding (Season 3, Episode 6)
After a long summer apart — which Castle spends with his ex-wife — the future couple share another tender moment in Season 3’s “3XK.” When Castle rues his failure to stop a serial killer, Beckett puts her hand on his knee, saying she knows the feeling. And Castle grasps her hand, saying he knows.
The Fake Kiss (Season 3, Episode 13)
Castle and Beckett finally lock lips later that season, in the episode “Knockdown.” But it’s not a romantic kiss — at least, not entirely. While still on the case of Beckett’s mother’s murder, Castle and Beckett pose as a drunk couple and pack on the PDA to throw off the suspicions of a guard.
The Freezer Moment (Season 3, Episode 17)
At the start of Season 3’s “Countdown,” Castle and Beckett are trapped in a freezer, having landed in that frigid position while investigating a terrorist bomb plot. Before she passes out from the cold, Beckett seems to be on the verge of saying something momentous to Castle. “I just want you to know how much I…” she mutters before falling unconscious.
The Three Little Words (Season 3, Episode 24)
Season 3’s finale, “Knockout,” ends with Beckett giving a eulogy at Montgomery’s funeral — before a bullet from an unseen sniper takes her down. As he cradles a seemingly-dying Beckett in his arms, Castle utters the three words fans were waiting for one of them to say: “I love you.”
The Actual Kiss (Season 4, Episode 23)
Castle’s fourth season seemed determined to keep Castle and Beckett apart, with hurt feelings on both sides. But after another brush with her would-be assassin in “Always,” the season finale, Beckett gives in to her feelings for Castle and stops by his apartment to tell him that he was all she could think about. And they make up by making out!
The Proposal (Season 5, Episode 24)
Season 5 certainly ends on a “Watershed” moment. In that finale episode, Beckett seems braced for Castle to break up with her after he discovers she’s considering a federal job in D.C. Instead, he goes in the opposite direction, pulling out a ring and popping the question.
The Wedding (Season 7, Episode 6)
Of course a Caskett wedding didn’t go off without a hitch. Castle was abducted on his original wedding date at the end of Season 6, as part of a CIA plot that turned into a months-long disappearance. But he and Beckett finally tie the knot — in front of a CGI sunset, of course — in Season 7’s “The Time of Our Lives.”
The Happily Ever After…? (Season 8, Episode 22)
After Katic was let go at the end of Season 8, Fillion and others signed on for another year, and then ABC canceled Castle anyway, a slapped-on epilogue at the end of the Season 8-ending “Crossfire” resolved what would have been a cliffhanger. The brief scene shows that both Castle and Beckett survive an assassination attempt at home — and that seven years later, they are raising a happy family of three kids.
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