On this week’s episode of Castle, “Sleeper,” we finally find out what happened when Castle disappeared on his wedding day, and everything wraps up in a nice, neat little package.

While the news that Castle saved so many lives as a results of his kidnapping is satisfying, the fact that such a significant storyline was wrapped up this quickly is disappointing. If it was going to wrap up that easily (okay, not that easily, since there are casualties along the way), then it should have happened earlier in the season.

Instead, the audience was led to believe that this as something big and something that would affect the series going forward. So when we finally find out the answer, only to have it wrapped up so fast, we can’t help but feel a little bit cheated. Though there are still some questions left unanswered, there aren’t enough to make me think there’s more to this story.

The whole thing also comes out of left field. The mystery doesn’t come from stories we’ve been invested in over the past several seasons, but instead come from a new character — an old high-school friend of Castle’s.

It feels as thought the writers didn’t have an idea of what they planned to do with the disappearance when they originally wrote it, and finally realized that they had to come up with some sort of answer. Perhaps the rushing comes from the fact that no one knows yet if the show will be renewed for an eighth season.

I certainly can’t imagine how the writers cope with writing the end of a season without knowing if that’s the last one or not. It means the finale won’t be leaving us with any major cliffhangers this season, but it also means we won’t have the kind of series finale (if it ends) that would end the show properly.

The good news is that if the series does end this season, we at least got answers to Castle’s disappearance — no matter how underwhelming the reveal happened to be.

What did you think of Castle Season 7 Episode 20? Do you think more time should have been devoted to this story line, or are you happy with the answers we were given? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Castle airs Mondays at 10/9c on ABC.