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While watching the season 7 premiere episode I noticed in the very last scene with Beckett and Castle in the bedroom and how I saw a comparison of that to the last scene of “Veritas” with Beckett and Bracken.
In the last scene of “Driven” Castle and Beckett are getting ready for bed and he asks her how she didn’t lose hope all the time that he was gone. She answered by admitting that she did, in fact lose hope at times, but then she would get it back by coming up with rituals to keep him alive in her heart. By staring at his picture on the “murder board” every day and then the whole thing about not letting anybody touch “his chair” that sits next to her desk at the precinct. Basically guarding and protecting that chair with her life, which culminates by almost getting the night janitor shot.
Castle sat down at the end of the bed as he listened to her tell him all of this and actually chuckled when she made the remark about the janitor……then something so sweet happened….he looked at her and she looked back at him. Then he looked at her again and she looked back at him. It was that unavoidable awkward silence that they knew they were eventually going to have to finally face. He’s back, but he’s been gone for two months…..TWO MONTHS–how do you jump back in to everything again?
Not knowing what else to say, but at the same time speaking straight from her heart, Kate let out an audible sigh, then gently sat down on the bed next to Rick, put her arm around him, and buried her head in his chest. After he apologies for putting her through everything, she knows that in her own way, she has to apologize to him, too for doubting that he would knowingly and voluntarily ever leave her. So, she lifts her head and softly tells him it wasn’t his fault–he had gone through hell as well. And we see the emotion as she sniffles and wipes away the tears from her eyes.
That five minute-or-so exchange, totally reminded me of when Kate marched into Bracken’s press conference and confronted him about the crimes he committed. As she formally charged him, she had him turn around, and as she slapped the handcuffs on him and pulled them tight, she again, let out an audible sigh. This was a sigh of relief–a relief that finally after all the time searching, and questioning, and investigating, and heartbreak, and putting her own life at risk–as well as her loved ones at times….it was over. It was a release–a release of letting go all of those walls she had built up since her mother died. Yes, Castle, himself was able to help her break through some of those walls by loving her, but by finally nailing Bracken and getting justice for her mother, she was able to knock down the last remaining brick in the final wall.
When Kate made that audible sigh in the bedroom with Rick–it was the same type of release. Once again releasing all the emotions she had gone through while searching, questioning, and investigating Rick’s disappearance. The heartbreak, the joy. The anger, the resentment….she was able to release it and finally let it go because it was over…..or at least a part of it was over. As we all know there are still many, many questions left to be answered.
But I just wanted to make this acknowledgment about those two scenes. Whether Marlowe and Co. had intended it or not, this particular viewer saw a connection of those two scenes–though each one only lasted a few minutes. I think it was so awesome to see this from Kate! And whether or not Stana did it intentionally as a tie in or not, it was a small gesture, but to me it came across as HUGE!!! She rocked that scene so hard and gave it 150%! Kate Beckett has grown leaps and bounds as a character from the pilot to now and though the writers and producers have had their hands in that–and as a writer myself–I whole heartedly believe that–I also whole heartedly believe that Beckett wouldn’t be the Beckett we love today without the TREMENDOUS TALENT OF MS. STANA KATIC!!!! Stana, your fans love you and in me you have definitely got a “Stanatic” for life!!! Thank you so much and may “Castle” live on for many years to come!!!!!!!!!