Spoilers from last night’s series finale of Castle are all over this article.
It’s hard to believe that Castle is over and done with. Just a few days ago, we were pretty confident that the ABC drama was looking to greenlight a renewal. A short time later, not only has the series been cancelled but it has also officially and firmly ended its run. While there was a life or death situation for Caskett near the end of the episode, the finale ended on a lovely note for fans, jumping ahead seven years to reveal a happy ending for Kate Beckett, Rick Castle and their children. Yes, children. However, it wasn’t the only ending that was shot for the series, in case Season 9 was ordered.
This week, various outlets are reporting that if Castle had been renewed the Season 8 finale would have looked very different. THR says that we would have gotten an ending that was similar to one point in the episode, when Castle and Beckett were trying to figure out the mystery of Loksat. Of course, there was a twist in the finale we got. It turns out Caleb was actually the real baddie. In the ensuing chaos of the reveal, people were shot, Caleb was dead and Beckett and Castle were left holding one another as they waited, wounded. That’s reportedly where the finale would have ended if there had been a Season 9 renewal. Instead of a cliffhanger, the show jumped ahead to give us a happy ending.
EW took these rumors a step further, noting that since Stana Katic’s contract was not renewed for Season 9, the show was likely going to kill off the character, which was the bent of the previews leading up to the finale. Currently, the showrunners are mum on whether or not that was true, but really, it’s the only ending that would make sense.
There were a lot of problems with the Castle and Beckett storyline during Season 8, mostly because of the big break-up. Once we learned Stana Katic and Tamala Jones would be leaving, a lot of fans seemed pretty disinterested in new episodes. (Or, even if they would have stuck around for a potential Season 9, they were vocal that the wouldn’t.) With all that goodwill, ABC seems to have backed away from plans to bring the show back for a final season.
So, fans ended up getting a happy ending to the Castle story, but it may have come at the expense of where the creative team really wanted the plot to go. Still, depending on your taste, that wrap-up with the happy ending might be better than a cliffhanger any day.
ABC doesn't have a ton of new stuff premiering until this fall, but the network does have a few fun things on the summer TV premiere schedule. Check it out while you wait for the 2016-2017 TV season.
