Hey everyone! I'm Lena, and I'm new here! I introduced myself back in March over in the introduction thread. I've been a fan of Castle since it's beginning, but I've only been involved with the online "fandom" for about a year. I have migrated over from TWOP. I have read every post over on the Castle thread over there, but I've never posted. I enjoy reading and following the discussion and I hope that when it closes at the end of this month, that the great discussion will continue over here.
I wanted to share my two cents on the finale. I think my opinions are fairly similar to most of the fandom. I did not enjoy it. I went into it "spoiled," so I knew on some level that I wasn't going to be wow'ed by it, but I wasn't expecting to out right dislike it as much as I did. I, like most people here and at TWOP, think the Beckett prior marriage angle was and IS just down right ridiculous. As soon as I read that that was going to be apart of the story line I was hoping that it was going to be either a dream or a joke like many speculated. I find it completely unbelievable that someone who is as intelligent as Beckett (yes, she's done some stupid things, but she is not an idiot) would believe that her marriage wasn't real just because she got married in Vegas. I mean, even Rogan knew they were married and he was a complete moron. Marlowe said he wanted to bring her down a peg and he certainly did that. Not knowing you're married may work for characters like Phoebe from FRIENDS and Penny from TBBT, but it does not work for Kate Beckett. Plus, as many others have mentioned, how she went 13 plus years as a police detective and then a special agent without finding out that she tied the knot, is beyond ridiculous.
I mentioned to someone on tumblr that often with TV shows you can suspend reality in order to enjoy a program. Everything can't be perfect all the time, story lines can deviate and have plot holes, etc, but with this finale, IMO, Marlowe asked for his audience to completely disregard six years of character development and backstory. I have no idea how he and the writing team are going to climb their way out of this hole. There is still a big part of me that is hoping that the marriage story line is a dream, but I fear that it is now just apart of Beckett's history and we have to live with this new facet to her character.
Regarding the cliffhanger - I have to say that I'm not that bothered by it. It is pretty cliche to have a main character "die" in a season finale, but to me the prior 38 minutes of shoddy writing was the real problem with this episode. I have to say that I am interested in seeing what they have planned for the beginning of season 7. We know Castle isn't dead. I am hoping that we don't have to have a long drawn out kidnapping arc or having Castle be in "peril" for too long at the start of the season. I guess we'll see in September.