Castle: The Best Season Finale for the 2010 - 2011 Season

Castle has consistently been one of my favorite shows since it started airing three years ago for several reasons. One, Nathan Fillion is a genius. Two, Stana Katic is gorgeous. And three, their chemistry is great. However, in the past two seasons, the finales of other shows often eclipsed that of Castle. But for their third (and thankfully not their last) season, the show delivered the most heart-wrenching and mind-blowing episode for all shows of the entire season.

Going into the episode, I knew someone was going to die (after mistakenly reading a spoiler on an entertainment website) but I had no idea who. Of course, it couldn't be Castle or Beckett because without them there wouldn't be a show. Detectives Ryan and Esposito weren't going anywhere because they're just as important. I thought maybe Alexis or Martha to give Castle a little more drama but I figured they wouldn't do that before solving Mama Beckett's murder. But in the end, I didn't find out until the latter half of this episode.

For the sake of not boring you to death, I'll just quickly go over the first part of the episode.

Hired gun Hal Lockwood kills dirty cop, one of the two involved in Mama Beckett's murder, in jail. Lockwood gets to go to court then BOOM explosion. Lockwood gets away via helicopter. Castle figures out there may be a third cop involved. Papa Beckett shows up at Castle's doorstep and tells him to stop Kate from doing something stupid. Castle decides to confront Beckett but they fight and Beckett tells Castle they're over.

And now, the first OMG moment of the episode. Guess who the third cop is? Still have no clue. Up to this point, I had no idea either... not until Hal Lockwood shows up at Captain Montgomery's house. He threatens the captain's family, telling him that if he does not make Beckett go to the hangar where they found the helicopter, his family dies. Captain Roy reluctantly agrees. And I knew Captain Roy was a goner by the end of episode... but I had to who would kill him? Lockwood or Beckett?

A full day later, Ryan and Esposito figure out who the third cop is. This scene is particularly heart-breaking because the two could not believe the man they look up to could be capable of doing such a thing. The two of them end up fighting when they disagree over whether they should believe what they found out or not. They try to warn Beckett but they were too late, Beckett was already at the hangar.

Beckett receives the text from Ryan and pulls the gun at Captain Montgomery. He tries to explain his side... that he was a rookie at the time and he was in over his head and that he spent every day of his life trying to make up for his past mistakes. Beckett tells him to turn himself in but he said that he couldn't. He said he had to end things.

Then, you can see the car with Lockwood approaching from the distance and Roy tells Castle to take Beckett to a safe place. Castle (who I imagined was hiding almost comically somewhere in the hangar) picks Beckett up and drags her out of the hangar (who knew he could be that strong). Lockwood is pissed that Beckett isn't there and a gunfight ensues. Lockwood is dead and so is Captain Roy.

On the next scene, the team decides not to tell anyone the truth about Roy's past. Later, Captain Roy gets the funeral he deserves. Beckett delivers her eulogy with Castle standing right next to her. He notices a flashing light in the distance but is too late to protect Beckett from the sniper's bullet. She is shot and she falls to the ground. He covers her and, in the final OMG moment of the episode, tells her that he loves her.
 

All in all, it was a brilliant episode with plenty of shocking twists. I was in tears during Captain Roy's last moments and I was squealing like a schoolgirl when Castle finally dropped the L-bomb (even as Beckett lay there 'dying').