Castle - XY - Advance Preview

Castle is back with its eight season and picks up right off the back with an intense two-parter. The first part, titled "XY", is Castle's perspective as he searches for his wife.

As already revealed, Beckett has turned down the offer to run for State Senate and has been promoted to the captain of the 12th precinct. Beckett's promotion has certainly brought a change in her and Castle's life as "partner's in crime". As Beckett is getting ready for her first day as Captain, Castle gives her a surprise. Beckett then heads to a meeting as Castle goes to his recently remodeled P.I. office to take some cases but finds a surprise waiting for him there.

While Castle is still at his P.I. office, he gets a call from Ryan and Esposito wondering if he wants to come in to help them on the case. While at the crime scene, Castle finds a something that assures him that Beckett was there, and isn't now.

The new regular introduced in this episode is Hailey Shipton, played by Toks Olagundoye. She is a former police officer who is currently working as freelance security specialist. I quite liked her character. She is fun and has a lot of sass. However, she is also quite clever and fierce and isn't afraid to get in the line of fire.

Alexis has definitely grown. She immediately connects with Hailey and also plays an instrumental role in figuring out where Beckett has been going as she follows some leads on her. We also get to see the emotional side of her in this episode.

The episode intense and full of action. Despite only seeing the first part, I think it's safe to say that this already one of my favorite two-parters. The episode ends with quite the cliffhanger and a clear sign to how Beckett's perspective of her story will start off.

Here are some teasers from the episode:
-Spiders. A lot of spiders.
-Ryan and Esposito play Knife, Gun, Kevlar.
-What happened to Gates is very briefly explained.
-Castle's present to Beckett will make many fans swoon.
-There are two things that Alexis has been doing without her father's knowledge that directly relate to him.
-Castle's P.I office gets a major facelift.
-Something happens inside the precinct that we have never seen happen before.

Dialogue Teasers:
-Yeah, you are great at fetching, I trained you well.

-If you wanted a binding agreement, we should have pinky-sweared.
What are you, four?

-Your earlier work was better, you got soft once you met the skirt.
Everyone's a critic.

-She's ignoring me.
Just like every other woman in his life.

-Oh sweety, I am so much more than words on paper.

Watch Castle's season premiere on September 21st at 10/9c on ABC.