#hc . // ʙᴏᴜɴᴅ ʙʏ ᴏᴜʀ ᴄʜᴏɪᴄᴇs

[baeckett-a]

          SEASON 8 OF CASTLE. Canon divergent. 

           I’m putting this under a read more & headcanon, as I feel strongly about this.

          I genuinely enjoyed S8 of Castle, but I have to admit, I was let down. I often feel like it was dragged out for no reason. There were so many times they ended the arc of Bracken being the person behind Kate’s mom’s murder. Yeah, it was hinted that there was often more. Though, I was very disappointed. 

          Since the beginning of this series, we had this slow burn between Castle and Kate. A push and pull. S2 with Kate almost saying she’ll go to the Hamptons, after saying no, and Castle’s ex-wife showing up. S3 with Castle wanting to say he’ll be her one and done, and she gets shot at the end of S3. Season 4 happened, where it made sense to let Kate heal from her trauma before confronting Castle about what he said. It makes sense that a lie slips after being held in so long. It’s fire when they finally connected at the end of S4′s arc. 

          S5 happens, which is comical. We really see them grow and come together. They have the usual moments of couple’s doubt. They work through it. They work well together, giving us what we finally need. Not this ‘will they, won���t they’ until closer to the end of the season when Kate and Castle struggle. He proposes. ** IT’S IMPORTANT TO NOTE, THIS IS A BIG SEASON WHERE HE TELL HER SHE DOESN’T HAVE TO GIVE HER MOM’S CASE UP, BUT SHE CAN’T SHUT HIM OUT ANYMORE. 

          Then S6 revolves around working with her in a new career. Being distant. She comes home and gets her old job. They’re inching up to get married, but then there’s a plot twist with Kate being married unknowingly through a Vegas chapel. Then, after getting that taken care of and having this push and shove of Rogan being an absolute ass, they have Castle end up abducted at the end of S6 on the way to his wedding.

          S7 starts, and it’s about finding Castle. He doesn’t have memories of the last few months he was gone. It really strains their relationship. It changes their dynamic for awhile. They elope then. Then we start to see, after not really getting much information on Castle’s disappearance and lack of memory, these teases. The end of S7 is a big turning point because Kate applies to be Captain. She gets that. She gets her happily ever after with Castle and the next step up in her job. They just got through this big push and pull again.

            S8 is when the writers change. IMMEDIATELY, Castle and Kate are split apart. While I loved the angst and understand the estranged relationship behind the scenes, they completely reset us to S4. All of their hard work becomes shattered when Kate falls back into a new hole with a new lead on her mom’s case. We find that in those missing months Castle can’t remember, it’s because Castle’s memory ends up erased by his own doing. They have this mistrust in their relationship because she’s running off and pushing him away and leaving. 

            NOT TO MENTION THAT THEY REALLY RUINED ME WITH THE LAST FEW EPISODES. When they finally decide to work together. Fix it by sex. When Castle gets abducted by the CIA. All of these huge plot points that suggest bad writing on the production end, they only give me two minutes of Castle babies and their future. lIKE WHAT THE      ? ESPECIALLY WHEN IT INVOLVES KATE AND CASTLE JUST GETTING SHOT AFTER GETTING HOME. LITEARALLY, THEY JUST GOT HOME. GOT SHOT. CRAWLED TO EACH OTHER. IT JUMPS FIVE YEARS.

             Beyond that, I don’t always acknowledge S8. Unless specifically asked for. Simply because I feel like Kate and Castle have survived so much. He stuck by her through the bodies piling up between S2-S4. He sat by her side through the shoot. He asked her, specifically, to not shut him out when they got together in S5. That they’d take it all on together. While I understand the risks and threats she faced, the honesty would have been different. It kind of sucks that Kate preached to Castle in S3 about trusting Smith and how he didn’t know the man’s real intentions      when she blindly leapt into a partnership with Rita and Vikram. Not knowing either of them, but taking their word anyway.

           At the very end of all of that, I just felt like they robbed them of all of the progress and trust they gained through their trials and errors of S1-S7. Just to have a rewrite the two producers/writers wanted to have when they bid, and lost, to S4. It read like an awful fanfic in retrospect of all that happened. So, while I do and will write S8, I just feel like in my canon divergence, I’ll acknowledge Kate being more truthful than hiding behind the same facade Castle clawed at to tear down. They both deserved better than make-up sex and fake fighting to get through. If I stick to canon, I want there to be a heavier consequence than kissing the pain away. That would be a major setback for both of them. 

[baeckett-a]

                                                                 “I love you, Rick.”

          Kate’s first I love you to Rick is literally while she’s standing on a bomb. It’s not a prolific moment for her. It’s not a life changing event that makes her decide she loves Rick. No. He knows her. He knows how she feels about him, but the words aren’t always easy where she’s concerned. She’s been so much better at showing him how she feels. The little things and gestures, soft touches, linger kisses, making them coffee, etc. Kate doesn’t realize she loves Castle in those moments because she already knows. 

                  But Castle’s about words, and she wants him to have them. Indefinitely. Verbally. A solid confirmation, especially if it’s the last thing that leaves her lips. Saying those words, it makes it more real. Even standing on a bomb, just the thought of Rick not hearing that she loves him scares her more than anything else           because what if he doesn’t know? She’s not going to let that doubt sit in her mind or his. 

[baeckett-a]

                                             okay, but Kate is musically inclined. 

          While she definitely has stage freight, she loves to sing and play guitar. There’s a lot of evidence in the show to prove this. Albeit, we only get one scene where she plays the guitar, she’s self taught. At the very least, she knows the basic four chords. It’s a hobby she picked up when she was going to college. It’s definitely not something she’d ever pursue as a career. When she has a tune or song stuck in her head, she pulls out the guitar to try and help to get it out of her system. It’s an outlet she takes advantage of, especially to de-stress and distract herself from hard cases. Though, it’s not an outlet she has a lot of time to enjoy. It’s a talent only the people she is close to get to hear and see. 

[baeckett-a]

@proveritate​ ASKED : stars, laundry & garden for the headcanon thingy!’

DRABBLES / HEADCANONS                                         

under a read more because oops a drabble became an entire story

STARS / HEADCANON :              The stars are something special. Something her and her mom enjoyed when they’d escape the summer as a family and stay in the family cabin. When she was little, Johanna would point out the constellation. Map them out with her fingers just so her little Katie could giggle at the stories. (While I don’t write Johanna, I definitely imagine she was very big on story telling and trying to inspire Kate to be her best self        especially at a young age.) Sometimes they made up their own, drawing in the sky a connect-the-dots game. 

          The first time Castle and Kate get to really spend a night at the Hamptons, when they’re sprawled out on the lawn or in a hammock, it’s little information she shares with him. She points out a few constellations that she can remember, but she tells Castle about the silly game her mom and her had. Eventually, they carry it over to Lily, Reese, and Jake when Kate has them. 

GARDEN / HEADCANON :           Kate isn’t big on gardens. It’s not that they aren’t pretty or aesthetic. Though, when she’s off of work and away, she wants to relax. Not work. Living in New York, it’s not like she has much room or experience beyond the few basic house plants she manages to keep alive. Her job is just too demanding. Though, if you ask Jim Beckett, he will tell you of a particular time his little Katie Bug ruined a white area rug with a mud pie she made in the garden at the cabin. (Along with the lego story and how she got it stuck up her nose.) 

LAUNDRY / DRABBLE :            ( feat 4-5 y/o Lily. )

          It’s a red pair of jeans that’s the offender. A load of whites tinted pink, mocking their once pristine nature. In the midst of it all, an upset Lily stammering excuses with straying tears down her face. Kate crouches, stroking away the worry and pulling her into her arms. There’s no frustration met with the incident. An accident that happens; something that can be resolved in some way. 

          “Hey,” she coos, brushing the dark hair from her daughter’s eyes. There’s a softness to her touch, thumbing away the still cascading tears. “They’re just clothes. It’s okay,” she promises. It doesn’t seem to make the matter better. As brave as her little girl is, Kate knows just how wounded her pride can be. Lily has a big heart. 

          “I      I ,” Lily tries, hiccuping. “I just wanted to help like dad   dy does,” she sniffles, rubbing at her face. “I just thought you wou  ouldn’t have to do mine if I put it in with yours,” she snuffles a bit more as her lower lip trembles. 

          It makes her heart melt. The writer on a book tour just for a few days. Striking a new contract as he works on new deals      the travel protested on his end but seemingly nonnegotiable. Kate insists they’re fine. It’s hard on all of them, even when he face times. It’s the longest he’s been gone since Lily was old enough to remember. More so, the longest he’d been gone since they had the twins. With the two down for a nap, Kate was just tackling the house chores in the meantime. Picking up and keeping tidy until it came time to switching the loads.  

          Lily beats her there, proud and impressed, until the first white shirt tumbles out pink. The rest follow a similar shade.

          Her forehead rests against Lily’s. “Shhh,” she hums. “It’s okay. They’re just clothes,” she states again, rubbing the girl’s arms to help reassure her. She can’t be mad at an honest mistake. “I can fix it.” She doesn’t press the conversation when Lily wraps her arms around Kate’s neck and sobs. She gives a hug return, squeezing her daughter in reassurance as her hand rubs circles along her back. “You miss dad, don’t you, kiddo?” she asks softly. 

          Lily nods. 

          “What if we made him a fairy-princess costume out of those?” 

     There seems to be hope yet. Her daughter pulling away with that Castle glint of inspiration and creativity in her eye      maybe some of that unabashed childish energy came from Kate as well.  (It was all going to be okay.) 

[baeckett-a]

HEADCANON -

          Kate would have always figured out her mother’s murder, at some point, without Castle. He just sped that process up with further examining the evidence before truths could slip. 

          John Raglan would have still ended up with lymphoma and attempted his confession because what he did haunts him. Providing she didn’t already figure it out, he would have been able to further that confession without being watched. Mostly likely, he would not have been shot at the coffee shop. (That is NOT to say he would have never been shot. Just an observation that she opened the case and was digging where people above her saw. That’s what triggered the dominoes to fall and parties involved to be on edge with loose lips.)  

          Even before that, Kate had always known there was something off in the back of her mind. Granted, it was more wishing for the closure of seeing the person(s) who did this behind bars, gang violence or not. She had just laid that case to rest. Montgomery helped her see that. The confession alone would make her look again, and she’d look harder. 

          She’d still come to the truth in the end. Montgomery says it himself; she’s tenacious. Whatever war was started, she’d run at. She’d run blind, because her mother’s case isn’t just some case. It’s not just another homicide. It’s her mom. 

[baeckett-a]

tag drop. 1