If it were me I would have filmed another scene to replace the, "Cliffhanger," that didn't really work all that well anyway. It was too over the top, even if they had gotten that ninth season.

It wouldn't have cost much or taken much time to film an alternate version of that scene that would have made more sense with the tacked on ending. That's what I would have done had I been in charge...

Wow, that was a sloppy ending. Last season's finale provided much more smoother closure. I'm disappointed. That last epilogue felt so tacked on. No wonder the showrunners were hoping for the pick up.

It was so obvious they were intending to kill off Beckett and have the "9th season" jump forward in time.

Anyways, I think I'm going to pretend Castle ended at season 7. Season 8 had a few good moments, but was a disappointment overall.

On the plus side, I didn't see the reveal on who Lokstat was coming.

That was abrupt. the ending was so obviously tacked on and some of the events seemed odd (how did the LAPD get out of that CIA building exactly?) I didn't see the Lokstat reveal coming so that was a nice surprise. The show was fun while it lasted.

Since they had to tack on the epilogue, they would have been better off not having the original cliffhanger. I guess they might not have had enough time to go back and edit it, but the way they did it was lame. If they knew ahead of time that this was the last season they probably would have handled these last episodes better in terms of the Locksat story line, it ended quite abruptly for a story line that has been going on for so long.

Kind of sad to see it end though, the show had its ups and downs but I enjoyed it overall.

Was never really a big fan of this show even though I really enjoy Nathan's work. However the very last second rescues that seem to happen every episode just got old to me really quick and I stopped paying attention to it. My wife loved it so she continued to watch and I kinda of half paid attention as she had it on.

Has anyone mentioned the ending seemed to be sort of tacked on? Yeah it was pretty lame. Give the viewers a happy ending though - I would agree with. Better than leaving them both on the floor wondering what was going to happen. At least in my opinion. YMMV.

Jed Rees did such a good job also. I liked him better as a Thermian though.

The ending could have been better, but really this was not a show screaming out for a big finale .. though I am sure they would have done one if they knew this was the last season. The wrapup of the locksat stuff was good enough, though I generally liked the less serious episodes .. some crime, Castle comes up with some whack job theory .. and they solve the case. To me, that is where the show really did well. The ongoing plot lines ranged from OK to ehhh ... get back to some vampire alien abduction theory.

It will not go down as one of my all time top shows, but certainly one that I generally enjoyed

Loved the first 5 season or so. Once they got too close it became redundant with too many other shows.

I didn't see the reveal until the moment it happened. Just as he was coming out I wondered if it could be him. That was not an alternate ending, that was a quickie tacked on feel good ending.

I am going to assume people aren't reading this until they have seen the episode. I didn't understand the ending. How did they think it was the wrong guy in the trunk? Why the extra twist? If anyone wants to shed some light on it I would appreciate it.

They said the DNA of the burned guy was Caleb. That is why they thought he was dead.

Finally finished the season/series.

I believe I said up thread early on - we were entirely disappointed and confused with the season premier. Events seemingly forced them apart for no apparent reason other than, "I'm doing this to keep you safe." Eventually we watched episodes here and there as we'd been with the show since they very beginning. I will say, there were some string episodes over the season, to the point I thought they may have found a footing. The Halloween and police academy episodes stand out.

All that said, that finale was a a hot mess and rushed. When Castle has turned serious - was usually 4-6 times per season - the episodes were always riveting and tense. Yet, on several occasions through the years there were similar episodes, but it's like we were watching at 1.5x speed. Unfortunately, the finale felt like that. All the main plot points were getting hit, just to breeze the episode along.

I will say I didn't see the big reveal coming either. I had my money on Vicram being LokSat, and 9/10 times I'd call the episodes killer in the first 10 minutes. Gladly I was wrong here. On another plus, the shoot out in the empty parking lot and the torture scene were particularly good!

It's a shame really, because as good as this show has been over the years it just fizzled out. I do wonder if there were legitimate on set issues, or just odd rumors and the cast were burnt out. If it was honestly that bad, I think season 7 would have been it. Season 8 was a one year contract for them all of memory serves.

I freely admit when the previews first aired for the series I thought it would be cancelled with the first 6 episodes. The concept seemed way too cheese and I figured Fillion had better things to do. However, the hook worked and the cast built some memorable characters that will last, including those like Captain Montgomery. It's amazing how far and deep they took the story line of Beckett's mothers killer and wove that into the narrative of the show.

All in all Castle was a fun show, with a surprisingly good mix of humor, romance, and suspense. It will be missed.

I missed the first couple season because I go to bed before 10:00. My daughter got the first couple seasons on DVD and got me hooked. We would DVR and then wife and I would watch on the weekend. All in all one of our favorite shows. Started the long slide downhill once they really got together. The last couple seasons were really lacking. Would have been interesting to see what they could do with Castle as a PI with Haley and Alex. Couldn't have been worse then this past season.

Reading through this thread there was little discussion of the actual episodes after about 1/3 of the way through the season, but upon re-watching them I was stunned by how good some of them are. The only thing I haven't liked about this season was the, "Time Out," which I commented on three years ago when the episodes first aired (and which only lasted about 6 episodes). Other than that, this has been a very solid season more than halfway through. Yeah, when you know that Fillion and Katic weren't getting along every scene that has them apart stands out, but if you didn't know it wouldn't nearly be as big of a deal.

Episode 15, "Fidelis Ad Mortem," (which we just watched) was particularly good with my 19 year old daughter commenting that it was one of the best episodes of the entire series.

She also commented about this season the way she did the 7th season - "I thought this was supposed to be a bad season, but it's really good!" I have to agree. My memory was that this season had a major dropoff in quality, but I suspect that the Time Out and related issues skewed my perception. Upon further review, this IS a good season (and we're 2/3 of the way through now). I also suspect that the ending of the series finale also skewed my perception of the entire season (a bad ending can ruin a movie, and a bad ending to a series/season finale can likewise skew the perception of an entire season).

One thing I really like was Alexis getting hands on with the P.I. investigation stuff. Molly Quinn was really good at that, and I've really enjoyed her expanded role in the last season of the show.

The earlier seasons with the flirty banter and growing personal interest and jealousy mixed in with some good procedurals were the best. They certainly had some strong episodes in the latter seasons but the whole vibe of the show started to grow stale once they actually consumatyed their relationship. Then add in all the attempts to keep them apart and I just didn't enjoy at much. Still very strong individual episodes in s6 which I am just finishing.

By Season 8 Alexis was supposed to be 21/22. She had just gone through a personal mini-crisis in Season 7 where she didn't know what she wanted to do with her life, and then the whole P.I. thing came along and she loved it and was good at it. It makes sense that she would continue to do that. She wasn't. "Playing adult," she WAS an adult. It's just hard to think of her that way when the show started with her as a high school sophomore.

Just watched, "Backstabber," (episode 18, originally aired April 18, 2016) tonight, and it was one of the episodes I did remember, and for good reasons.

It's a Hayley-centric episode, delving into her past as an MI6 agent, and it was really well done. For an episode from the 8th season of any crime procedural this was really impressive. It was every bit as good as I remembered.

I didn't expect to enjoy this season as much as I have this second time through.

I'm obviously a season behind in my binge. I do remember those Haley episodes reinvigorating the series. I don't own S8 and not sure I want to buy it for what I know will be a one time thing. Amazon Prime digital is more than the DVD's so that won't help.

Ok, we finished the season, and I really only have a couple of gripes about it.

The, "Time out," got old after a couple of episodes. They dragged that out 3 or 4 episodes too far.

Loksat was both unnecessary (been there, done that), and underwhelming. It wasn't a bad arc, just less than the Bracken arc. Fortunately, it didn't become the primary focus of the season. It was only occasionally brought up.

Finally, the series finale was just ok. The cliffhanger part of the ending should have been edited out in favor of more of the final wrap up.

Other than those things the Eighth Season was firing on all cylinders. It was really good. My daughter thought I was nuts since I told her ahead of watching the season that it was significantly weaker than the rest. It's not. It was really good. She loved it.

ABC was planning on a 9th season sans Stana Katic. They re-signed Fillion, Dever and Huertas to new contracts. But, at the 11th hour, they cancelled it. Hence that's why we got that lame tacked on "Series Finale" ending.

The presumption was that Kate was killed off from that shooting and the 9th season Castle would have been a widow.

There was really no way to fix that episode with what they had to work with.

There was a better edit to be had - just end the current time right before Caleb shows up and move into the tacked on footage. That would have eliminated the cliffhanger stuff and given a better, less jarring conclusion.