Castle: Season 4 Premiere

Influential millionaire mystery novelist Rick Castle (Nathan Filian) has used his pull with the mayor to get him assigned as a sort of sidekick to a NY police detective for “research purposes.” Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) is less than thrilled when she finds that she is Castle’s muse for the new book series he’s working on. He’s a goofy playboy with no respect for authority while she’s a gritty cop who’s had to work her way up the hard way. Together they fight crime; he with a puppy-like excitement, and she with an eye-rolling disdain for his antics. This is the main premise for ABC’s successful procedural cop drama, Castle.

But it’s not all fun and games anymore. Last season left us with a doozy of a cliffhanger.  Detective Beckett returned to the decades-old cold case of her mother’s death after Castle encouraged her. But the investigation led to some truths that were hard to take—one of her close mentors was intimately involved with the people responsible, and there’s several unknown high-ranking cops who’d rather not be found out. Her mentor dies trying to save her and make things right. During his funeral, Castle spots a sniper, but it’s too late. Beckett is shot. As he’s begging her to hold on to life, Castle finally professes his love for her… we’ve been waiting for this for three seasons. So, will Kate survive? Will she return Castle’s love? What about the hot doctor she’s been seeing? Are they going to catch the bad guy? Season 4 has been primed.

And thankfully, the show doesn’t miss a beat. The season 4 premiere picks up right where we left off. Unconscious, Beckett is rushed to the hospital and Castle is right there with her, along with the rest of her team. Helpless in the waiting room, Castle goes back to the crime scene with detectives Ryan (Seamus Dever) and Esposito (Jon Huertas) to try and make some headway while they wait. The next day Castle shows up with flowers, but Beckett explains that she doesn’t remember anything from the shooting and she asks Castle to give her some time to recuperate on her own. Castle, always the gentleman, grants her space—but three months later, it’s her first day back on the job and she still hasn’t called him. She asks for an update on the shooting from Ryan and Esposito, and they are surprised to find that Castle hasn’t already filled her in. While she was recovering, he was there at the precinct everyday working the case with them until the new hard-ass Captain Gates (Penny Johnson) kicked him out. They explain that she’s moved the shooting over to cold-cases since there weren’t any new leads—at least, none that wouldn’t implicate her former mentor in scandal. Ryan and Esposito tell Beckett there is a lead, but Castle’s got the files, and per Captain’s orders, they’re not allowed to work the case.

And blam, just like that we’re back into the swing of things. It can be tricky to write your way back from a character’s serious trauma, but the writers of Castle do it flawlessly. They address all the burning issues—they even answer the hot doctor question. And then they bring Beckett and Castle together and Beckett explains her silence quite eloquently: “After my mother was killed, something inside me changed. It’s like I built up this wall inside. I guess I just didn’t want to hurt like that again. I know I’m not going to be able to be the kind of person that I want to be. I know I’m not going to be able to have the kind of relationship that I want until that wall comes down. And it’s not going to happen until I put this thing to rest.” It’s simple, true to the character, definitive, and yet it leaves room for them to keep working together while also providing a direction for them to head toward. Thus reinforcing their sexual tension and ensuring their continued partnership.

It just goes to show you how important it is to really know your characters, to ask questions, and then to ask more questions about those questions. All of the “what ifs” in last season’s finale brought us all of the satisfying answers in this season’s premiere. And, of course, laced within those answers were more questions that will lead us to future “can’t-miss-it” moments—What’s Kate going to do when she finds out that Castle has steered her away from her mom’s cold case murder in order to protect her? What’s Castle going to do when he finds out that Kate lied to him about not remembering what happened at the shooting? The stakes for this show’s characters continue to be intense (life and death, true love, honor and integrity), and the questions continue to be pertinent to those character’s stakes. Castle has opened strong with this very satisfying season premiere, and it looks like this show will be here for quite a while.