Finale Forecast: ‘Castle’ season 8 hopes for Nathan Fillion, Stana Katic, cast

We’re at the beginning of a new month, and really that means one thing here at CarterMatt: The beginnings of a new series! We are now kicking off what will be called Finale Forecast, where every day we focus on a different show we cover in hopes of charting out where the story will likely go by the end of this season … and also where it should.

The perfect place to start this series in our mind is almost certainly “Castle,” and largely because there are few other shows out there that tend to generate the sort of passion or attention from us that this one does. Granted, we have our highs and lows with the show, but we want the best for it and that includes seeing it have the best finale possible … especially since its future is currently so unclear.

How it could end – We’ve already seen quite a bit of buildup surrounding the LokSat story, which Beckett (Stana Katic) was so protective and worried about that it led to her splitting from Castle (Nathan Fillion). However, since that time the two have gotten back together and have agreed in the process to work on shutting this down, given that Rick has some memory of trying to solve in now from his missing time. In tying these two different pieces of mythology together, we get the sense that new showrunners Terence Paul Winter and Alexi Hawley want to try to tie these stories up at the end of the season. They have already said that one of their hopes for season 9 is to primarily get around to sharing some great case-of-the-week stories.

How it should end – Much of this from our vantage point is right. We do love “Castle” at this point for the case-of-the-week plots, provided that they are particularly strong and really show off the writers’ sense of humor. We also are ready for LokSat / Rick’s missing time to be over. More than anything else, though, we want the season to end with some sort of construct that makes it easier for Fillion and Katic to share more screen time, whether it be Rick being hired as more of a consultant versus a private eye or Beckett finding some more flexibility in her job so that she can be out in the field more. “Castle” doesn’t need to do anything huge other than pay tribute to what it was for so many years: A fun whodunnit mixed with a love story. Without those two characters together onscreen, it’s harder to feel that love.