I loved the AU stuff, especially his re-bonding with Alexis, and that he'd written an Infinite Jest type novel (that ended up being crap) and especially when coming back he told his mother to go for the role she was going to audition for.

No real AUs may need to have applied; it might have just been in his head. I liked a lot.

Yep, but I like to believe (within the fictional universe of Castle) that it was a real AU. That may in part be because Robert Silverberg's "Beyond the Gate of the Worlds" was the first science fiction novel I read.

"I ran out on our wedding, then had my memory medically altered, but I'm sure I had a good reason - trust me."

I don't think it's fair to say he ran out on the wedding. He was run off the road and dragged from his car. I'm sure he made choices after that (including losing the memories), but the initial disappearance wasn't one of them.

One problem I had with the au was that suddenly Castle's world is one where it's possible to travel to an alternate universe. The old "I'm feverish and hallucinating another world" thing is hackneyed, but it's at least plausible.

They also made the guy from the future plausible so not completely out of the blue.

I don't remember a guy from the future.

He was knocked unconscious, so you can call it all a dream if you prefer.

Beckett's face during the entire let's-go-undercover-on-a-dude-ranch scene was priceless.

I don't remember a guy from the future

Time Will Tell [link]

Was pretty clearly real time travel - stuff happened that could not be explained otherwise

Time Will Tell [link]

Thanks, Typo. I was on my phone and couldn't link.

Holtz on this week's Castle!

I haven't seen that episode. I pretty much stopped watching when they wrecked Captain Montgomery.