After the fire is put out, Kate realizes that Castle's body is not inside and the search begins. They track his cellphone to a junkyard where an SUV is being crushed with his phone inside, but no Castle.

The crusher links back to mobster Vinnie Cardano, Castle's Hamptons neighbor. Vinnie tells Kate that someone anonymously asked for the vehicle to be crushed and left $10,000 at a drop site. When they pull video footage, it is Castle making the money drop.

The FBI and Esposito believe that Castle set this up himself. After two months, Castle is found unconscious in a dingy at sea but he remembers nothing. Kate and the boys track down where the dingy came from and a Henry Jenkins says he saw Castle camping on the beach. 

When the tent, filled with Castle's wedding clothes, watch, and newspaper clippings of his disappearance all have traces of his DNA, even Kate and Ryan doubt Castle's story…until Henry Jenkins turns out to be a fake. 

Kate and Castle head home, realizing that they simply can't pick where they left off. As Castle holds a teary eyed Kate, they promise to find answers together.