ABC’s ‘Castle’ season 8 spoilers: First look at penultimate Stana Katic episode
Unless something drastic changes at the last second, we have to assume that Stana Katic’s last episode of “Castle” will be the May 16 season 8 finale. Also with that in mind, we have to assume that “Hell to Pay” airing on May 9 is the penultimate one. It’s like the transitive property of TV.
We hope that Katic and Beckett get a somewhat-worthy send-off if this is the end, but we don’t really get any specific sense that such an exit is coming based on the just-released “Hell to Pay” synopsis:
“When an axe-wielding, escaped psychiatric inmate drops dead in Castle’s P.I. office, Castle and Beckett’s investigation leads Castle to suspect the victim’s death could be the work of the Antichrist.”
Would this be a fun, entertaining episode of the show were it airing in, say, January or February? Probably, especially since we’ve been more and more convinced that “Castle” is at its best in the story-of-the-week format. Yet, we’re so close to the finale here that if you’re going to produce a shocking change to the series, you have to start hinting about it, unless this is a case of the showrunners being just as blindsided about the news of Stana’s exit as we were and had no way to plan for it.
Unless there is something unexpected in this episode hidden in the synopsis, the finale may be the only time the rest of this season that we get any major mythology, or explanation about what the ninth season could look like … if we even get that. We’ll continue to have coverage of the episode as it nears, and our opinion will be very much based on how the show chooses to handle this super-delicate story.
Buddy
April 26, 2016 @ 3:28 am
I just finished watching episode 19 of Castle. I tried an interesting experiment of what happened on the show tonight. After the episode was over I thought about what each of the characters of Beckett and Castle contributed to the interest that I had in what was happening in the episode. Castle contributed comedy of interest to only the 15 year olds in the house and distracted my interest in the story by the kneejerk comedy. Beckett on the other hand kept my interest in resolving the case in the episode of the night and in the solution of the LokSat case. Score: Castle – 15, Beckett – 85. If the role of Castle in the episode is of any indication of what is to come if there is a season 9 I will not watch it. My interest is towards adult shows not slapstick comedy of interest only to teenagers.
shirley
April 26, 2016 @ 12:00 am
We fans are so upset about Stana not returning or lets just be truthful ABC did not make an offer. I hope they save the money they think they will. I don’t exactly believe that story but that is what we are being told.
How many of us will watch?
Don’t know. This was Marlowe baby. A story about a relationship. A romance if you will.
It disturbs me greatly that ABC thinks it will have a story.
We are talking mainly true fans here and I’m having a hard time watch the last few episodes as it is.
Buddy
April 26, 2016 @ 3:09 pm
I wonder, too, what the potential sponsors of a proposed season 9 are thinking. It very well may be that they are concerned that a season 9 might be a total flop and are unwilling to invest in anything that might not last beyond the first episode. This could then be why the budget for a season 9 is not sufficient for Stana Katic.
I wonder also about Ryan and Esposito and whether their contracts have been renewed. Last I heard they knew nothing about whether they would return or not. If they do not return it would result in no visible connection between Castle PI and the police which, of course, is not really necessary anyway. Makes you wonder what will finally happen and we might not know until time to start filming for season 9 if there is one.
Leo
April 27, 2016 @ 4:56 am
Look at it this way, the ratings for S8 are half of S6. That is half the revenue. Ratings are money, Castle lost half it’s value to the studio .Keeping the entire cast became impossible .