Castle

Returning Drama

Premieres Sept. 24, 10-11 p.m., ABC

When Beckett (Stana Katic) showed up on Castle’s (Nathan Fillion) doorstep in the season finale, one thing was on her mind. ”I just want you,” she uttered. And that’s presumably what she got, as we last saw the pair walking hand in hand to the bedroom following an explosive make-out scene that left Beckett with a half-removed shirt (and fans’ jaws on the floor). So where’s all that heat when the show begins this season?

Sort of in the same place we left it: Castle’s bed. Season 5 picks up just hours after ”Will they or won’t they?” stopped being a question for the duo. But in the light of a new day, many complicated questions about the future await them. Executive producer Andrew Marlowe is quick to make one thing clear, however: ”Much to the chagrin of a certain part of the fan base, [Beckett] and Castle are not starting a private-detective agency.”

Nah, that’d be too much like Moonlighting… Speaking of which, is giving the Castle audience exactly what it wants — a romance between the charming man-child author and the beautiful, tortured detective with whom he works — the right move? Fillion didn’t always think so. In fact, he’s been outspoken in the past about his opposition to the idea. (”When you get people together, [viewers] stop with the yearning, they stop with the wanting,” he told EW.com last year.) But after reading the first few scripts, which had the couple in the figuring-it-out phase of romantic bliss, he has a new perspective. ”I’m finding that seeing them getting together as an ending has been a folly on my part,” Fillion, 41, admits. ”[The writers] are treating it as if the first four seasons have been a protracted beginning. Now we can finally start the show.”

First on the to-do list is to get Beckett, who resigned in the finale, back into her position at the station. By the second episode, it’ll be business as usual for the pair — at least as far as their family and co-workers know. Turns out Beckett and Castle will be keeping their love on the down-low for the foreseeable future. ”It’s going to be precious to them and them only [in the beginning],” says Fillion. ”They can enjoy it on their own without anyone’s opinion about it.”

The audience will certainly have opinions. When plans for the eventual hookup began at the end of the third season, Marlowe started to study shows from the past, determined not to make the same mistakes. (See: the aforementioned Moonlighting.) He believes the secret to success will be keeping his couple together. ”I think it would be unfair to the audience to have them invest all this time together only to pull the rug out,” says Marlowe. ”The fun of this big move is being able to live in the relationship for a while.”

Though that means Castle and Beckett will be confronting some issues — Can the guarded detective learn how to open up? Will the impish author ever grow up? — the show won’t get mired in the angsty territory that dominated season 4. ”The one-liners don’t stop when a person is in a relationship,” insists Marlowe. ”You just know a person a little better, so they can be funnier and a bit more cutting.” Of course, with the murder of Beckett’s mom still unresolved, and hitman Maddox (Tahmoh Penikett) still gunning for the detective, the relationship will endure some strain. (Look for Heroes alum Jack Coleman to figure into this year’s mythology as well.)

With no limit to the types of murders to be solved and an entirely new avenue for these now romantically linked characters to explore, Marlowe envisions the possibility of ”several more years of storytelling.” And while Fillion thinks a wedding would make ”a lovely series finale,” he doesn’t see that happening for quite some time. ”Oh my gosh. They only just got together,” he protests. ”Slow down!”