Bullet Point: Castle 706 The Time of Our Lives

WRITER: Terri Edda Miller
DIRECTOR: Paul Holahan

I haven't watched the latest Once Upon A Time so I will interchange my bullet points at the moment. And because finally! Caskett! #CaskettAtLast

• AU*! Woot! This is definitely a great episode!
• Seen on Tumblr: Do not mess with Beckett in the kitchen. Me: I agree. That melon (cantaloupe) just got murdered by Beckett and she pretty much enjoyed it.

• Beckett received an invitation to Will Sorenson's wedding. I thought it was weird to invite an ex-girlfriend but then things ended up amiable with them. Unlike Josh.
• Lanie and Espo are late to the crime scene. Ehem! Traffic is NOT an excuse. Ryan, Beckett, Castle, and the rest of the SOCO team are already there. *coughSEXcough*
• Weird looking artifact! It looks like that wall thing in 606 Get A Clue.
• Beckett: Why do you always have to touch everything?
  Castle: I thought you liked that about me.
  
  I suddenly had some very dirty and smutty visions.
• Castle thrown into the AU. Very Doctor Who.
• Captain Beckett! Too bad though, that this version of Beckett doesn't know Castle. Or does she?

• AU Beckett has a different wardrobe.

• When AU Beckett retracted her hand when Castle touched her just made me sad.
• Frozen reference: Castle jumped a float during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and sang Let It Go with Idina Menzel. He said that he will never sing it as a duet. Castle...you sing it with Beckett, don't you, because it's her favourite movie at the moment?
• In this reality, Alexis is a brunette and Martha is a Broadway star. Some of the detectives of the 12th are fans, especially Ryan.
• AU Lanie is pregnant and pissed off with AU Javi. Is he the baby daddy or is there another? They never said.
• AU Ryan and Jenny aren't married because when AU Beckett got promoted, the workload piled up and AU Ryan became busy and he took Jenny for granted.
• Since Castle never shadowed AU Kate, he never wrote Nikki Heat. Instead he wrote a terribly awful book, Finite Laughter, after he killed Derrick Storm and wasted his money.
• AU Alexis lives in LA with Meredith because her dad drowned in the reviews of his last book.
• AU Beckett admitted to Castle that she did meet him once at a book signing in one of his Derrick Storm novels and that she used to love those books. It was something the real Kate never admitted to him. He just knows she's a fan because of her knowledge of the books, even his lesser known ones (ie Flowers For Your Grave).
• Castle was abducted again by the people who has the artifact.
• The artifact, from Peru, was believed to be magical and brings people to a parallel universe. Castle was holding it when he was thrust into this reality because he was thinking that Beckett is better off without him. (Aw!)
• Whoa! Jeffrey Nordling! Haven't seen him since Dirt.
• AU Beckett came just in time and got the suspects. Unfortunately one of them was still alive and tried to shoot her.
• In this reality, Castle managed to save her. He was the one shot. But the most heartbreaking and heartwarming and touching thing is, even in this reality, he will save her. Even in this reality, when they only knew for one day, he is willing to die for her.
• When Castle was shot, he was holding the artifact and admitted to AU Kate that he loves her. It's that moment that made him come back to his own reality.
• Aw! He called Kate, "My you."
• The wedding, no matter how short, is, in my honest opinion, what they really wanted. Just family and them. Very intimate. Remember, in 619 The Greater Good, they had a hard time on who to invite and in the end, just gave themselves a minute to think who is supposed to be definitely in that wedding. They wrote YOU (meaning each other).
• A lot of callbacks from previous seasons especially Seasons 1-3, especially this parallel:

  

*AU - Alternate Universe (parallel universe to our own; an alternate reality to the reality we're living in)

Aside from the wedding, I love the colouring of the AU (because I thought it was my screen). In the beginning, it was light bordering on dull then as it went on, it got livelier. It was like it would have been dull had he not entered the 12th Precinct. It's a symbolism that everything is different. (I didn't edit the pictures except lighten it.)

Another thing about this episode is that Johanna Beckett's case is unsolved. They could have solved it right then and there because Castle knows. He knows that the biggest evidence lies in the elephants in Captain Beckett's desk, that he knew who did it. But he also knew what that case did to her, he knew what would happen to her if he told her. We also don't know if Montgomery is alive or just simply retired because the Johanna Beckett case remained unopened. What I love about it was that Castle didn't insinuate himself the way he did in his reality and without her knowledge.

Also, people are complaining about the use of green/blue screen during the wedding. I think it was an allusion to the whole episode (because most parallel/alternate universe-themed films/shows are shot this way) and an homage to black and white films. That is aside from keeping it a secret had they been on location.

Here is the gifset for the walk to the altar.

Here is the gifset for their first dance, to Andrew Belle's In My Veins (as they decided in 615 Smells Like Teen Spirit) and Castle calling her Mrs Castle and Kate telling him that it's perfect.

It is a perfect wedding! The embroidered top Stana wore was by Oscar dela Renta and the pants was by Carolina Herrera (via Luke Reichle, Castle's costume designer). The sash that she wore on her waist was from Luke himself.

Here are their wedding vows:

Kate: The moment that I met you, my life became extraordinary. You taught me to be my best self, to look forward to tomorrow's adventures. And when I was vulnerable, you were strong. I love you, Richard Castle, and I want to live my life in the warmth of your smile and the strength of your embrace. I promise you I will love you and be your friend and your partner, in crime and in life. Always.

Rick: The moment we met, my life became extraordinary. You taught me more about myself than I knew there was to learn. You are the joy in my heart. You're the last person I want to see every night when I close my eyes. I love you, Katherine Beckett, and the mystery of you is the one I want to spend the rest of my life exploring. I promise to love you, to be your friend, and your partner in crime, and life, 'til death do us part - and for the time of our lives.

ABC released pictures of the wedding post-ep. In this picture (edited because I cropped it to use as my desktop wallpaper), their love just seems to radiate out of the picture, that you feel the love yourself.

(c) ABC

And here's a sneak peek for next week's episode:

Pretty long post. I think this is what not doing it for two weeks does. :) Anyway, excited for next week's episode! Their "honeymoon".

Dee