Lissete Lanuza: I remember the beginning. I remember the short hair and the spark. I remember.
My CASTLE story doesn’t begin with Stana Katic, not really. I didn’t know her when I started watching the show, and she wasn’t the reason I tuned in. Neither was Nathan Fillion. What drew me to the show was the premise: A writer and a cop! It was the perfect combination for my writer-wannabe-procedural-loving-heart. I was in. I was hooked even before I started watching.
And sure, at first, it was about the chemistry. About the shenanigans. About two different ways of seeing the same thing. But the more the show went on, the more it was about Beckett. About who she was. About who she could be. About her development. The show was always called CASTLE, but for me, Castle was the supporting player – the one making things happen for Beckett. I could relate to about 10% of the things he did, and yet I was always at least 95% on board with what she was doing.
Characters (especially well written ones) can teach you many things. From Kate Beckett I learned that it was okay to have issues, that it was fine to be a work in progress as long as you actually did something to be better. I learned that hard work and perseverance are the only ways to get ahead in life, and that if you don’t earn what you have you’ll spend your life proving that you’re good enough.
I also learned that therapy wasn’t something to be afraid of, but a tool to use in your favor, and that admitting you needed help didn’t make you any less strong. From Kate Beckett I learned that you are who you are and you don’t need to change yourself for someone else, you just need to open up your heart.
And now Kate Beckett is gone.
Or maybe she won’t be gone. Maybe they won’t kill her off, maybe they’ll ship her off somewhere with a ridiculous excuse. Either way, her journey has come to a close. My journey with her has come to a close. But, like with a few other wonderful actresses and wonderful characters, what I learned from her won’t ever truly leave me. And that’s not just because of the writing, that’s also, in great part, because of Stana Katic.
Good television is about leaving a mark in your viewers, and though CASTLE as a show was hardly ever deep enough to earn a permanent spot in my heart, Kate Beckett did. She did it by being an ideal — not of a perfect woman, no, but of a flawed, strong, determined, loving, real person. One we could all relate to.
May the television gods grant us many more characters as great as Kate Beckett, and may we all remember her for who she was, no matter the end the show has in store for her.
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