Give Me My Remote Castle CASTLE Post-Mortem: Alexi Hawley and Terence Paul Winter on the Castle-Beckett Twist: This Season Will be About the Journey of That Relationship

CASTLE Post-Mortem: Alexi Hawley and Terence Paul Winter on the Castle-Beckett Twist: This Season Will be About the Journey of That Relationship

[Warning: This post contains major, major, major spoilers for the CASTLE episode, “XX.” If you have not watched the second hour of season 8, please go watch it now, and then come back to see what showrunners Alexi Hawley and Terence Paul Winter had to say about what went down.]

CASTLE shook its central couple up in a major, major way: Beckett left Castle — to keep him safe — in the second hour of the season 8 premiere, “XX.” (Thanks, in part, to Castle’s stepmother warning her that attachments are troublesome. Though, to be fair, she wanted Beckett to stop going down the path she was on versus trying to break up the duo.)

Though the move may have fans heartbroken right now, “this show is about their love,” CASTLE co-showrunner Alexi Hawley reassured. “Whatever bumps that are in the road, people shouldn’t be worried we’re abandoning that love affair.”

That being said, Hawley acknowledged the duo are in a tough place right now, and it will play out.

“Hard choices are being made, painful choices are being made — with painful repercussions — but what drew them together will continue to draw them together,” Hawley said. “The fight for that relationship will still exist. This season will be about the journey of that relationship. Happiness is not dramatic. At the end of the day, they’ve been through so much together.”

And yes, Hawley and his co-showrunner Terence Paul Winter are also very aware this move might not be a popular one with fans.

“Of course there is [concern about their reaction],” Hawley said. “Absolutely. Our job is to tell the best, most compelling stories we can tell. And at the end of the day, as much as people can trust us, given our track record — all you have to do is look at the episodes we’ve written…”

“Between the two of us, we’ve written about 25 episodes, and they’re some of the most shipper-friendly episodes in the history of the show,” Winter pointed out. “I get [any upset feelings]. The show means a lot to us, too. And that’s why we’re going to protect it. And that’s why it’s always going to be about Castle and Beckett and the love story.”

Going forward, Castle and Beckett will still interact — “they’re working cases,” Winter teased — but there will be some awkwardness, given the up-in-the-air state of their relationship.

“There’s fun,” Hawley said. “I was here in [seasons] 2, 3, 4, before they got together. So the spark of that will they, won’t they, and how clearly they were in love with each other was palpable. That energy was palpable. That’s what this is about. It’s about that energy.”