Viewers tuned in to Castle Season 7 Episode 1 for the answer to one very important question:
WHERE IS RICK CASTLE?
Indeed, the mystery writer became the mystery on an intense opening hour, as Kate Beckett searched frantically for her missing fiance.
We start off where we left off in May, with Kate arriving on the accident scene and seeing that Castle has been dragged away. She heads to a junkyard with Ryan and Espo because that’s where Rick’s phone is pinging.
And although they get nothing out of the worker there, we do see just how crazy and intense Beckett is over Rick’s disappearance.
Kate (told to keep her cool by Espo and Gates) then confers with FBI agent Connors, who figures the crime had to be personal because… why else snatch up Rick on his wedding day?
After digging through some files, Kate questions Vinny Cardano (from the Castle Season 5 episode “Murder, He Wrote”), who evidently ordered the Escalade to be destroyed – at the behest of an unknown client.
So Tory cues up security cam footage of where the drop was later made and… wait, WHAT?!? Rick himself paid for the disposal? Using the money he had withdrawn days earlier for his “honeymoon?!?!"
Beckett is assured by Martha that Rick "couldn’t wait" to be her husband, putting an end to any fear that he really did stage his own vanishing just to avoid exchanging any vows.
Kate does all she can to find answers, but TWO MONTHS pass before there’s any news. At that point, a Coast Guard ship off the coast of Delaware finds a dinghy adrift; an unconscious Rick is inside.
Despite being an experts in dead bodies, Lanie takes a look at a still-unconscious Rick and determines the following:
- A key stamped with “38” was sewn into the lining of Rick’s pants.
- There are dengue fever antibodies in his system.
- He was shot a few weeks earlier.
In Gloucester, the point of origin for the dinghy, the team finds Henry Jenkins, a private security firm owner to whom the little vehicle belonged.
He says it had been stolen or it floated away and then says someone matching Castle’s description has been camping nearby. They find a tent with Rick’s belongings there and newspaper clippings about his disappearance. WTH is going on?!?
When Rick wakes up, he says he doesn’t remember anything beyond the crash. But insists he "wouldn’t just leave her." Not ever. He’s being framed.
Upon going back to Gloucester, he and Kate learn Jenkins was a fake.
Back at the precinct, Castle notes that whoever is behind this mystery has “unlimited resources,” and, therefore, could even be responsible for his memory lapse.
We end the confusing, busy premiere with Castle and Beckett having a heart-to-heart and Castle reassuring his love: "We’ll find our way home."
That was a lot to take in. Are you satisfied with how things went down? Can you believe they just ahead two more months? What could POSSIBLY be going on here
Watch Castle online at TV Fanatic and sound off now on this crazy series of events.