Castle Fans Still Bristle at How the Series Ended

"There are two kinds of folks who sit around thinking about how to kill people: psychopaths and mystery writers. I'm the kind that pays better."

And with those words, the ABC series Castle (2009-2016) became one of our favorite shows. It was witty, amusing, and heartfelt. It was a show with a unique talent for making murder fun.

The two lead characters, writer Richard Castle, played by Nathan Fillion, and Detective Kate Beckett, played by Stana Katic, had sexual chemistry so hot it could melt your screen.

But the show lost its luster somewhere between the wildly entertaining Castle Season 1 and the slog that was Castle Season 8. It wasn’t one big thing -- well, maybe there was one big thing -- but a lot of little missteps and missed opportunities that disappointed fans over the years.

So, as much as we adored the show and in some ways always will, let’s recap the moments fans longed to see but never did.

A Real Wedding

Yes, this is the biggest misstep on the list. We know Rick and Kate eventually got married during Castle Season 7 Episode 6, and their vows were beautiful, but the quickie, obviously green-screened ceremony was not!

The Castle Season 6 finale strung fans along, making them believe they would see their favorite couple tie the knot in the Hamptons overlooking the ocean and in front of their family and friends.

After steadfastly watching for six seasons, fans deserved that moment.

What they got was Kate Beckett in tears while wearing her mother's now destroyed wedding dress and the missing Rick Castle’s car on fire. If they wanted to start Castle Season 7 with another epic mystery, they could have done it while still giving fans a full episode to enjoy the wedding they longed to see.

Castle Never Learned What His Books Meant To Kate

During Castle Season 1 Episode 9, Beckett’s ex, Will Sorenson, remarks on a younger Kate waiting in line for over an hour to have Rick Castle sign one of his novels for her and how Castle’s books helped her deal with her mother’s death.

Over eight seasons, Rick Castle never learned any of this, at least not from the real Kate Beckett because we're not counting that alternate universe version from "The Time of Our Lives."

It’s a shame, as this could have made for quite a heartfelt moment between our favorite couple.

One and Done Should Have Meant One and Done!

"I'm not an 'if at first you don't succeed' kind of a girl, Castle. When it comes to marriage, I'm more of a 'one and done' type."

Kate Beckett told Rick that during Castle Season 1 Episode 2, and fans never forgot it. We all knew Rick Castle was meant to be Kate's one-and-done.

But while fans knew it, the show's writers somehow missed it because, during Castle Season 6 Episode 23, it's revealed that college-aged Kate Beckett married Rogan O'Leary at a drive-thru wedding chapel in Vegas and hadn't remembered she was still married.

It was meant to be a silly obstacle to Rick and Kate getting married. Silly being the operative word, given that as an NYPD detective and former Federal investigator, Beckett would have gone through several comprehensive background checks that would have likely uncovered this wayward spouse.

But what hurt the most was that the show ruined something the fans held dear for a lame gag to impede a wedding that would never happen anyway.

Kate Broke Up With Demming For Castle

Kate Beckett dumped the handsome and incredibly nice detective Tom Demming to take Castle up on his invitation to his house in the Hamptons. But before she had the chance to tell Rick, his ex-wife showed up to accompany him instead.

Kate and the fans were angry and heartbroken. Even when Rick wandered back to the precinct during Castle Season 3 Episode 1, Kate kept the timing of her and Demming's breakup to herself.

Fast forward to Castle Season 5 Episode 4, and Rick finally gets to bring Kate, now his girlfriend, to his Hamptons abode.

This would have been the perfect opportunity for Beckett to share with Castle how she tried to take the chance on him all those years ago, but things went horribly wrong.

Fans longed to see the shocked look on Rick's face when he finally learned that Beckett broke up with Demming for him. It would have been an amazing scene. Alas, it was one viewers never got to see.

Kate Breaking Up With Josh

Beckett claimed she "really, really liked" Josh during her conversation with Rick on the swings during Castle Season 4 Episode 1, but fans really couldn't tell.

At least when Beckett briefly dated Demming, we could see the appeal as he seemed like a genuinely nice guy.

But Kate and Josh had minimal scenes onscreen, and what little we did see painted Josh as an arrogant and mostly absent boyfriend rather than a great guy with whom she had developed real feelings.

And as if to add insult to injury, we only heard secondhand that Josh and Kate were over. Fans couldn't wait to see Beckett dump Dr. Motorcycle Boy, but it never happened onscreen.

Beckett Explaining Why She Hid the Truth

When Kate Beckett was shot at the end of Castle Season 3 Episode 24, Rick poured his heart out to her as she lay bleeding on the ground, telling her for the first time that he loved her.

When Beckett woke up in the hospital, she told Castle she didn't remember anything about her shooting. Viewers quickly learned that it was a lie. She recalled every moment, including Rick's declaration of love.

Fans waited months in the hope that Kate would come clean, but not only didn't that happen -- Castle had to call her out on the lie -- but she never explained to Rick why she lied to him.

Sure, fans can assume that emotionally, it was all too much for Kate to handle at the time, especially coupled with her PTSD, but Rick deserved to hear that from her, and the audience was equally shortchanged in not hearing it at all.

Kate Telling Her Father She Brought Down Bracken

After Johanna Beckett was murdered, Kate and her father, Jim, had to endure years of not knowing why she was killed and who killed her. After a decade, they discovered that someone had hired a hitman to murder Beckett's mom.

So when Detective Kate Beckett was finally able to arrest Senator William Bracken for ordering Johanna's murder in Castle Season 6 Episode 22, it was a big moment. One that we should have seen her share with her father. Sadly, we never did.

The Old Haunt

Rick Castle bought the bar where he wrote his first novel during Castle Season 3 Episode 10.

The Old Haunt could have been a place where we saw Castle, Beckett, and the gang from the 12th Precinct hang out and unwind, much like the characters on Bones did at the Founding Fathers.

Although we heard The Old Haunt occasionally mentioned in snippets of dialogue, we never saw it again. It was a waste of a unique setting that could have been used for some much-needed character moments.

Hollander's Woods as a Season Arc

Castle spent six full seasons exploring and solving the murder of Kate Beckett's mother. It was the reason why Beckett became a cop. It shaped who she was and her relationships throughout her adult life. It was a great, detailed, dramatic story.

But when it came to why Rick Castle became a mystery writer intrigued by murder, that entire plot was condensed into Castle Season 7 Episode 23.

The series was called Castle, for goodness sake. Uncovering the serial killer that 11-year-old Rick Rodgers, aka Castle, stumbled upon in the woods should have encompassed Castle Season 7 instead of that convoluted story about Rick's strange disappearance.

Talk about a missed opportunity.

More of Esposito, Ryan, and Lanie

One of the downfalls of the series was that it put almost its entire focus on the two lead characters.

As much as we loved Castle and Beckett, the show would have been better served by giving their talented supporting characters more extensive storylines.

Let's face it: Detectives Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito could have carried their own show. Fans begged to know more about Dr. Lanie Parish, but after eight seasons, only had one episode that even remotely focused on her.

If the series had utilized its entire cast better, perhaps its stars wouldn't have burnt out so quickly.

Rewrite all of Castle Season 8

When we first met Richard Castle and Kate Beckett, they were flawed, but they were likable and real.

Castle could be childish and loved outlandish theories, but he was also a smart man who loved his family. By Season 8, he'd become a milquetoast buffoon.

Becket was a smart, by-the-book cop who worked with her team to catch killers and find justice. By Season 8, she had ditched her husband and her team to play superhero, stitching up her own wounds and fighting super spies.

And don't even get us started on whatever the hell LokSat was. We can't explain it now any better than we could then.

What we really wanted to see was Rick and Kate working with their team to solve mysteries and catch killers while juggling regular married couple worries, like when or if to start a family.

Instead, the once safe and secure loft became the sight of an assassination attempt in Castle Season 8 Episode 22 that left Rick and Kate bleeding out on their kitchen floor.

Yes, we got a tacked-on 30-second flash forward to happier times, and we're grateful for that.

But we'd really like to burn everything else about Castle Season 8 from our brains, including its cringe-worthy new characters and the firing of its two leading ladies. Because Season 8 wasn't so much a misstep as a step off a cliff from which the series couldn't recover.