Thoughts on Castle Season Finale For Better or Worse

Last night's season finale still has me shaking my head.  I should have known . . .

We start out with Castle's family going over wedding details---venue is set, tuxedo fittings are being set up (although I still think having Alexis as best man was silly.)  Our happy couple is heading to get the wedding license and everything seems in order except for the fact that Beckett doesn't have her divorce papers.  And didn't know she was married!

Apparently, she'd gone on a drunken weekend to Vegas with Rogan O'Leary when she was in college and thought it would be fun to go to a wedding chapel drive-thru.  She didn't think it would be legal, but it is.  Of course Kate is freaking out a bit and Castle calls his lawyer.  He presents her with dissolution of marriage papers that she has to get Rogan to sign.  Castle stays behind to keep going with wedding plans, Kate heads off to find Rogan. Probably one of the funniest moments was Espo and Ryan telling her what her "husband" has been up to and how long his rap sheet is.  They are really rubbing it in and it was funny. The other funny moment with those guys was when Ryan tried on his tux and it was really really small. And Espo made fun of him. Haha! I love those two.

Although, when Kate does find Rogan, I have to say, I laughed pretty hard when he looked up from the floor where he landed after his current girlfriend clocked him and he says, "Kit kat?"  Haha.  Anyway, she tells him about their marriage and he sees that she wants him to sign those papers pretty bad so he says he will if she steals the garage door opener in his girlfriend's truck.  The look on Castle's face when she tells him what she's about to do? Priceless.

She gets the garage door opener and goes back to get Rogan to sign the papers, but he's being abducted. Kate calls it in, but as soon as the police officer realizes it's Rogan, she puts her notebook away saying they don't have enough manpower to look for Rogan with all his shenanigans.  Poor Kate.  Castle heads up to help her look for him and I liked how this episode really highlighted how well they work together as a couple. They balance each other, even under the worst circumstances.  I mean, during this episode alone, the venue had a fire, Kate's dress was ruined, and she's still married to a loser.  She starts to unravel a bit, but Castle's little speech about how every great love story has obstacles to overcome and that's what makes it great made me say awwww.  Love, love, love them.

Caskett go back to Rogan's apartment where an armed gang is waiting for them.  They reveal that Rogan had hired them to steal a stripper's phone and they wanted their $5000 for the job. Castle only has $500 on him which buys them twelve hours before the armed gang breaks Castle's legs.  They head over to question the stripper and get nowhere, but Rogan's girlfriend lets them see the laptop he was trying to get back from her and that has a lot of information on it---like downloaded pictures from the stripper's phone that has a local pastor getting a lap dancer  They go to the pastor and he admits the blackmail but says he was going to pay $25,000 to make it all go away.  Our dynamic duo realizes that Rogan was taking over the stripper's blackmail, so they go back to her strip joint, but she's gone.  Her friend gives Caskett her boyfriend's address, though, so they go looking for the stripper there.  She isn't there, but Rogan is, being held in a barn.
They sneak in and approach a hooded figure on a bale of hay and when Beckett touches his shoulder, his head falls off.  It's a scarecrow.  But Castle screams like a girl which makes Rogan cackle like an old woman and question Castle's masculinity.  Their little digs at each other go on for the rest of the episode and they were funny as well---except for the fact that Rogan starts to call Castle Man Parts.  That was weird.

Beckett gets down to business and won't untie him until he signs the papers.  He's futzing around, doesn't want to sign them and lets slip that the guy who has him is named Barbosa and they want the laptop because it has his picture on it.  Kate remembers that Barbosa is a mob hitman that has eluded authorities for years. They have to get out of there.  But it's too late. They're all caught and tied up.  After some pretty funny dialogue when all three of them are tied up, Castle leads them back to Rogan's apartment where the armed gang is waiting for them. Kate mentions to the gang that they get the $100,000 reward for Barbosa's capture and they take it.

Kate and Castle wrap things up with Rogan, get the papers signed, and head for the wedding.  Everything is set.  The Hampton house looks beautiful, Kate is in her mother's gown, Martha gives her family heirloom earrings, Castle is on the phone telling her he loves her and will be there in twenty minutes.  However, a mysterious black car is tailing him and getting closer. Uh oh.

An hour later he hasn't arrived and everyone is worried.  Then Kate gets the call and rushes to the scene of a fiery car crash where she stand there in her wedding dress, staring in horror.  Oh no Castle! The look on her face is devastating.

And matches my own! How could they leave us hanging for an entire summer with that? Aaaarrrrrggghhh.

Did you see it? What did you think?