'Castle' series finale tried the best it could to deliver

IMAGE: ABC

BY SANDRA GONZALEZ15 HOURS AGO

Warning: This post contains spoilers about the series finale of Castle. 

If it was a happy ending you wanted, it was a happy ending you got. 

The series finale of Castle may not have had the luxury of a season-long heads up about its end, but a last-minute ending switcheroo at least gave fans something good to hold on to. 

SEE ALSO: After all the drama, ABC has canceled 'Castle'

So what did it look like? 

At first, it seemed the episode would end on a beautiful note — the gang had believed they'd taken down LokSat, the Big Bad behind several seasons worth of Big Bads. There was a sweet "thank God we're all safe" reunion then Espo and Ryan headed off to some very early celebration drinks, while Castle and Beckett headed home to enjoy some much needed R&R. 

That lasted all of five seconds, as the thought-to-be-dead Caleb appeared in their kitchen and shot Castle in the chest. Beckett entered upon the noise and took down Caleb fairly easily, but also got shot herself in the process. Injured, they crawled to the floor and held hands as they took what could be their last breaths. 

IMAGE: ABC

Thankfully, that wasn't the case. 

In the next scene, we see a flashforward to seven years and three kids later. We see Castle and Beckett gather their brood together for breakfast, as Castle says in a voiceover: "Every writer needs inspiration and I found mine." 

Beckett adds: "Always." 

On its own, the ending is a solid last-minute sub — it gave a view of the pair's happy future and painted a perfect family picture. But the divide between what was delivered and what could have been was a little obvious.

Consider the episode without the coda. I'd imagine if the show had been renewed for a Stana Katic-less Season 9, the Season 8 finale would have ended with the pair on the floor and the rebooted series would have revealed Beckett died as a result of her injuries. And that would have been terrible. 

In the end, I suppose viewers really got the best of the two situations that were presented. Secret option 3, of course, would have been a proper final season, with the full cast intact. But as much as we'd like to think it's not, TV is a business and sometimes viewers get shorted because of it. 

In this case, the prevailing opinion seems to be Castle delivered the best ending under the circumstances and on screen did right by the characters. For that, we should be thankful. Always.