ABC’s hit TV show Castle premiered Monday, Sept. 19, and I was absolutely PSYCHED. I sat down on my couch with mi familia hoping to see the beginning of the BEST SEASON EVER. But was I wowed? Not really. Castle is a show about an author named Richard Castle (played by Nathan Fillion) who writes murder-mystery novels and asks his friend, the mayor, if he can shadow the beautiful Detective Kate Beckett (played by Stana Katic) to inspire him with more ideas for his books.

Beckett and Castle’s relationship revolves around him bugging her, her getting mad, but in the end, they help each other solve every murder case they encounter because the strengths of their teamwork despite their quarrels. In the last season, Castle’s feelings for Kate become stronger as they dig deeper in the mystery of her mother’s murder. In the season finale, Kate is shot at Captain Montgomery’s funeral and Castle finally confesses his feelings for her before she blacks out.

The episode opened with images of Kate in the ambulance, losing a lot of blood as she is rushed to the hospital with the company of Castle, Esposito, Ryan, and Larnie. Josh Davidson, her cardiac surgeon boyfriend, is the first to evaluate her condition as blood splurges out of her body on the table. Castle’s mom, Alexis, and Kate’s father arrive later and ask about the situation. As Kate goes into surgery, Castle blames himself for everything that happened and feels that it is now his responsibility to find out who shot her. He, Esposito, and Ryan investigate the possible suspects and look more into the history of Kate’s mom’s murder.

The episode then skips to a couple of days later when Kate is awake, recovering from her surgery. Castle goes to visit her and finds out that Kate doesn’t remember anything from the moment she stood on the podium at the funeral to the moment she was shot. She then tells him not to see her again until she calls him and tells him to.

Three months pass and Kate passes mental evaluations and is allowed to return to work. She learns from Esposito and Ryan that Captain Montgomery’s position had already been filled by Victoria Gates, who they call “Iron Gates” because of her strictness and her inability to be persuaded. Gates had told Esposito and Ryan to close the case of Kate’s shooter and kicked Castle out of the precinct. Kate then goes to find Castle at a book signing where he argues with her about not calling him back once she was “ready” to. They also learn more about a trail of money that disappeared in a fire in a bank days after Kate’s mom’s murder and think that the two events could be related.

Later that day, Castle gets a phone call from a mystery caller who is associated with Kate’s shooter and tells him to keep Kate from continuing her mother’s investigation or he will kill her. Castle acts quickly and tells Kate that she should stop looking into the investigation because she had just recovered from a traumatic event and can always continue it another time. Convinced that Castle might be right, she and Castle help Esposito and Ryan solve the murder of a teenage girl in a hotel. In the end, it is revealed that Castle still holds all the records of Kate’s mom’s murder files and is continuing to research it in secret. We also find out that Kate remembers everything that happened when she was shot.

I felt like the whole episode was lacking a bit of that Castle pizazz. I was able to predict almost everything that happened and didn’t like the transitions between days to months. I also didn’t like how it seemed that Kate was falling back into denial about her feelings for Castle. It seemed like they made a lot of progress in the last season and now their relationship’s back to square one. I mean, really? Why does she have to make it so complicated? I already know that I’m not going to like Iron Gate Victoria. She’s already on my list of hated characters because she’s trying to break up our main duo.

However, I wouldn’t go as far as saying that it was terrible. It was decent, but still didn’t exactly achieve the Castle-quality quota. Other than that, I really liked the drama of saving Kate and can’t wait to see the next episode.

Castle airs every Monday at 9 on ABC.