Castle: Always

Season 4, Episode 23

Castle and Beckett are finally in a good place, in fact they might have...a date? Alexis is graduating from high school, and will be busy partying with her classmates after the ceremony. Martha is going out of town to see friends. And Castle is planning a movie marathon to drown his sorrows. He invites Beckett, and she accepts!

Unfortunately, it seems like the date might be put on hold.
They are at the scene of a homicide, and one of the recent addresses that the dead man visited was Captain Montgomery's house. If you're an avid Castle viewer, you'll remember that Montgomery was the old chief of police, and he was mixed up in Beckett's mother's (Johanna Beckett) murder. He tried to redeem himself though, and died trying to protect her. It was in vain, because Beckett was later shot by the same men who killed Montgomery, and she barely survived.

They all rush to Montgomery's house, only to discover that there was a break-in and all of his files were taken. Beckett becomes anxious, sure that it all has something to do with her shooting. She asks Castle to be reassuring, showing how much their relationship has grown.

They discover that the man who was shot used to be a member of a gang. He had cleaned his act together and joined the military, but they think he might have gone back to the gang life. Especially because he was having trouble paying bills, and there were sightings of another gang member near where his body was found. His wife assures them this is not true, and begs them to find his killer. Beckett and Castle breathe a sigh of relief, because it appears that this case may have nothing to do with her shooting. Castle is particuarly hopeful that this is the case. Particuarly because, as we learned in earlier episodes, he is helping support a deal made by Montgomery's friend--that vital evidence in Johanna Beckett's murder case will remain hidden if Kate Beckett stays alive, and that she will stay alive if she doesn't reopen the investigation.

They bring the other gang member in for questioning, and he says he had no role in the murder. Beckett is loathe to believe him, but soon she has to, because his DNA does not match the skin cells found under the murdered man's fingernails. It turns out the DNA isn't even in the system.

But there is a DNA match--to the sample got from Beckett's shooting. It's the same shooter. Castle panics and Beckett's on the warpath. She tells Esposito and Ryan that they have to leave everything out of the system, and not divulge anything they learn, because they have no idea if dirty cops are still around. Esposito immediately agrees, though Ryan is more wary.

Beckett meets the gang member in his prison cell, and promises to make his five year sentence disappear if he'll tell her what he knows about the murder. She finds out that the murdered man was paid a lot of money by someone he had met in the military to steal the information from Montgomery's widow.

When they track the money, they realize that the murdered man's wife knew about it all along--she just withdrew the huge sum. Which must mean that: 1) she knew about it all along, and 2) she is preparing to run.

Beckett and co. catch her before she does, and force her to tell them everything. She admits that her husband was meeting the man at a church. When they go to the church, they find surveillance footage, and a photo of the shooter. Beckett won't let them run it through the system, because of the potential for bad cops. Instead they realize that he is holding a rental car keychain, and Ryan and Esposito start combing through the company's logs.

Castle goes to Beckett's apartment to confront her. He calls her Kate through out the confrontation, which is what he always does when they're having a more personal conversation. He asks Kate to stop investigating, and finally divulges everything to her. She is stunned and feels betrayed. He explains that he did it because he loves her, but she says he was treating her like a child. They argue, and ultimately Castle declares that she is right, she is her own person, but he won't stand by and watch her get killed. He tells her he is leaving, for good.

Beckett is still on the warpath, and chooses not to process Castle's departure. The next day, when Ryan and Esposito ask where he is, she merely says that he is off the case. They figured out who rented the car, although they still don't know the shooter's real name. They luck out because he hasn't returned the rental yet, and all the cars have GPS. They track the car to a hotel. At this point Ryan wants to call for back-up, he is worried that Beckett is in over her head, and that she'll get herself killed. She tells him that he's wrong, and that she has been preparing for this moment since she was thirteen years old. Esposito agrees with Beckett, presumably due to his experience in the war, and they rush off to confront the man. Ryan, extremely concerned, attempts to call Castle, but Castle ignores the call. He has truly chosen to move on.

Esposito and Beckett enter the shooter's room, and discover all of Montgomery's files. They also see his wedding album, and notice that one of the photos has been torn out. Just as they are getting ready to call for backup, the shooter appears out of no where. He kills a hotel employee, knocks Esposito unconscious, and shoves Beckett to the ground. She chases after him, attempting to shoot him but missing. She follows him up to the roof where they fight, and Beckett is repeatedly knocked to the ground. Finally it seems like she has the upper hand, and she tells him that he has no idea who he is dealing with. But then he manages to knock her partly off the building. She is barely hanging onto the edge of the building, and she is so high up that if she fell there is no way she would survive the drop. He tells her that he has a very good idea who he is dealing with, and then runs off.

Beckett tries to hold on, but she is losing her grip, and her fingers are barely grasping the edge of the building. In her panic she whispers for Castle. Then she hears someone yelling "Beckett" and she repeatedly yells for Castle. She is pulled back onto the roof, and she is still saying Castle when she finds herself face to face with Ryan. Castle isn't there. But Ryan's there, and so is the chief, and she is not pleased.

Meanwhile, Castle is attending Alexis' graduation. When she told him how scared she was about moving on, and losing things, he told her to write from the heart. And her speech is certainly meaningful. The overarching theme is that the people you truly love and care about are with you--always. Castle looks pensive here, and it's not surprising. After all, "always" is the phrase that Beckett and Castle use to reassure each other that they will support each other.

Back at the precinct, Gates (the chief) tells Esposito and Beckett that they are suspended. Beckett tries to argue, but she is quickly shot down. Espoito turns in his badge and gun immediately, but Beckett is more hesitant. When she does, she lovingly strokes her badge, and then places it on the table and tells Gates that she resigns. She then leaves the chief's office, and immediately goes to pack up her desk. She never looks back on the precinct, although she does glance at the chair that Castle normally occupies.

Beckett walks through the rain, eventually ending up on a park swing. She looks at the empty one beside her, and it is clear that she feels lonely.

Castle is back at his loft after the graduation ceremony, and he is on the phone with Alexis. He promises her that she doesn't need to be concerned, and that she should have fun. He'll just watch some TV. His phone then rings, and looking down he sees that it is Beckett. He hits ignore. He switches on the television, only to have his electronic case file of Beckett's shooting pop up. He hesitantly drags the file to the trash. Then there is a banging on his door. He opens it only to find Beckett, dripping wet, standing in his doorway. He asks her, "what do you want?" and she says, "you", and then kisses him. He kisses her back once, but then takes a step away. She offers explanation, telling him that she went after the shooter, and that she almost died, but that all she could think about the entire time was him: "He got away and I didn't care. I almost died, and all I could think about was you". He must accept this apology, because they start kissing furiously. He unbuttons her shirt, and when he sees the scar from the bullet, he places his hand over it as though to protect her. She takes his hand and they walk toward the bedroom.

Montgomery's friend hears a noise in his house, and turns toward it. It's the shooter. The friend tells the shooter he thought they had an agreement, but the shooter tells him that it was all blackmail. And now that they're going to have all the information, the blackmail is over. And Kate Beckett will die.

How's that for a season finale? What did you think?

The season finale aired on Monday, May 7th 2012, and was written by Andrew Marlowe and Terri Miller.