1.
The car was empty … The episode picks up right where last season left off, with Beckett discovering Castle ’ s flaming car lying in a ditch. Kate wastes no time running to the car, but the fire is too intense for her to do anything until firefighters arrive. In a (rather predictable) turn of events, the car turns out to be empty. A search of the area reveals that he was run off the road and dragged away by two people. Or so we assume.
2.
Follow that SUV! A handy roadside fruit vendor helped Beckett, Esposito and Ryan identify the car that was likely responsible for Castle ’ s accident: a black Escalade. At the same time, Ryan gets a call that Castle ’ s phone was remotely accessed. The team follows the signal to a junkyard and arrives just in time to see the car crushed. Beckett demonstrates an alarming amount of strength as she fly – tackles the guy operating the crusher and has to be pulled off of him by Ryan and Espo. However, there was no blood or tissue in the SUV, meaning Castle ’ s still out there somewhere.
3.
Play that tape again … Evidence leads the team to Vinnie Cardano, the Jersey mobster from seasons past. Cardano admits he was paid to destroy the car, but doesn ’ t know who hired him. They get their hands on security footage from the drop site and see … Castle?! Understandably, Kate is irritated, as she is now confronted with the possibility that “ love of her life ” orchestrated an abduction to avoid their wedding. Though some people have remarkably little faith in Castle — I ’ m looking at you, Espo — Beckett refuses to give up.
4.
“ Shouldn ’ t we give him the benefit of the doubt? ” Two months pass. Beckett is seen super desperately trying to find Castle. Just when it seems all is lost, Castle is found unconscious in an Atlantic Ocean dinghy. While the comatose Castle is taken to a hospital, Beckett, Esposito, and Ryan track the dinghy to a man named Henry Jenkins. Right before they confront him, Lanie explains some strange objects found on Castle: a “ 38 ” key sewn into the lining of his pants, antibodies to dengue fever in his blood and a mostly healed bullet wound. Then, Jenkins tells the team that Castle had been camping down by the beach for the last few weeks. Um, what? What the hell has Castle been up to?
5.
A conspiracy unravels … Castle finally wakes up, but has no memory of the last two months. There are no medical signs to explain his amnesia, so there ’ s a possibility Castle is pretending to forget. Beckett ’ s understandably angry. Castle ’ s all like, “ I will never leave you, even though my stuff is in a tent on the beach. ” They head to the campsite to trigger Castle ’ s memory, but he continues to insist that he was never there. They go to see Jenkins, but it turns out that the first man was a fake. The evidence was all planted and the team still has no idea where Castle was or why. In a touching scene at home, Beckett and Castle promise one another that they ’ ll find out somehow. We can ’ t wait to find out right alongside them.
