Here's What You Missed On 'Castle'

The first half of Castle Season 7 hit the reset button a little bit, but not in the sense that they reinvented the entire show. Nope, all Castle did was give a strange and mysterious story to perfect person, Richard Castle — and this one is a doozy. Castle is already a pretty fun TV show to watch, considering that Nathan Fillion plays a crime novelist who solves crimes, but now its got a little more intrigue to it. So go make yourself a cup of camomile tea, pull on your bathrobe and snuggle up cozy on the couch, because here's what you missed during the first half of Castle Season 7.

(There might even be a Firefly reference or two going on, you never know!)

The end of Season 6 finally gave us the much anticipated Castle and Kate Beckett wedding. Too bad that nothing went according to plan, and on the way to the venue, Castle ended up in a fiery car crash — or at least that's how it appeared. He was no where on the scene, and Beckett showed up, still clad in her wedding dress, to find Castle's wrecked car, but no Castle. He was MIA.

When Season 7 opened, Castle was still missing. Beckett has managed to piece together the fact that Castle was abducted, but it's like without him she can't fully crack the case wide open. Two whole months pass, and then miraculously Castle is discovered — where else? — but out at sea. Really. He's found on a boat floating out in the ocean, and best part about all of this is that he can't remember anything for the past two months. Nothing. Nada. It's all wiped clean.

Following The Castle Money Trail

Lo and behold, Castle took some money out of a bank shortly after his "crash." Too bad he can't remember doing it, or why he did it, or who the money was given to. We learn that it was actually given to this guy, Vinny, who was paid to crush Castle's car after the wreck — something Beckett, along with Ryan and Esposito watch first hand. They know Castle is still alive, but why would he pay to have this car crushed?

After his return alive, a second money trail leads Castle and his daughter, Alexis, to Montreal. Castle had a key sewn into his pants at some point during his lost time, and Alex thinks it might belong to a bank where Castle was photographed. The key does in fact open a mysterious lock box. Inside are memory cards, naturally. Each one contains a message to Beckett, Alexis and his mom, Martha. All the messages basically boil down to, "if you're watching this, it means I'm dead."

Who The Hell is Henry Jenkins?

So there's this mysterious guy who was supposedly with Castle for the whole length of his MIA wanderings. He claims his name is Henry Jenkins, but that's not his real name. He's impersonating the real Henry Jenkins, who has never seen Castle before. And then fake Henry Jenkins disappears.

But, he does pop up in Montreal long enough to tell Castle that Castle chose not to remember the past two months. And then heavily suggests that it's better if Castle doesn't remember what happened. And it's going to stay that way.

Bye Bye, Castle

The mid-season finale, and dual Christmas episode, brought about the biggest blow to the Castle so far, and it wasn't even anything to the Castle mystery: Castle can no longer work with the NYPD. Captain Gates passes down the information herself, after Castle got too involved in an investigation with the perp, the mob, and the NYPD. Now what?

Hopefully the back end of Season 7 will answer all of these burning clues, like where did he go, what happened to him and why doesn't he want to remember?

(PS: Esposito and Lanie are finally a thing again, and Ryan now moonlights as a bouncer at a club.)

But if this recap isn't enough for you and you find yourself like, "ugh, I've got two hours to spare, which two episodes do I watch?" I'd suggest "The Time Of Our Lives" and "Once Upon A Time In The West." The first one implements strange Aztec sorcery, where basically everyone else gets their memories wiped clean, and Castle is left trying to sort out everything by himself — Beckett has no recollection of their happy times together. And second episodes brings Castle and Beckett to the old west — and remember we LOVE any time Fillion plays a cowboy, where in space or actually on Earth. Trust me.

Images: Colleen Hayes/ABC; alwayswiththecoffee/tumblr (2); fyeahcastlegifs/tumblr; Giphy