Or, during one of his mystery writer poker nights, one of the other guys looks at him and asks when he's going to face up to the fact that Beckett's The One.

"You know, if *I* were writing this, the Novelist would have realized he was in love with the Cop by now..."

I think Castle knows he's in love with her but is really not sure she will ever love him.

And he's willing to let it be like that. He does occasionally stupid thing, but I was very impressed with how smoothly he changed gears from whatever declaration he was going to make when he saw Beckett's boyfriend approaching from behind her.

I think she knows he care a great deal about him, but I don't think she trusts him romantically. He's twice divorced, and she saw him break up with his ex, so she knows he doesn't have the greatest track record. She needs to be sure he's grown up.

Yep, I agree, and I think that's why I have patience with the arc.

She's also extremely protective of her heart. She sticks with the doctor because she knows her heart is safe. With Castle, she knows it's definitely not safe-- as it stands, he already knows more about her than pretty much anyone. She trusts him more than pretty much anyone. It's that final step that she's petrified of, and with good reason.

I have this mental scene in my head, though, of Ryan and Esposito giving Castle the "big brother" talk. You know, the "Understand if you hurt her..."

I mean, dude-- they know where to hide bodies.

I can see Castle looking at them and saying "If I hurt her, I'll take myself out."

Last night's CM: a rather average ep, but certain things stood out. Loved all the soccer stuff with Hotch and Rossi, from Hotch's comment about how they don't keep score at Jack's age (Rossi: "That bad, hmm?" Hotch: "Oh, yeah.") to Rossi's diagrams and co-coaching at the end (and seeing Hotch on the jet with no tie was very unusual!).

Reid really creeped out the cop when he was profiling the victim's body at the hospital.

Seaver got some good snark in, but they're still letting her do too much too soon on her own.

Loved the soccer - and smiling!Hotch was nice.

I liked it because they really harkened back, style-wise, to the type of episode they've done so well in the past, showing us the real people behind the team. Also, the way in which they framed some of the shots and the style of filming was interesting.

Average? When contrasted with the entirety of the show, yes. When speaking of S6? Outstanding.

Did anyone think to check TG's dimples for dust? It's surprising that his face didn't outright crack during his convo with Rossi on the plane.

And a wet Hotch and Morgan... that was a nice treat.

I loved Reid's casual correction of the number of pictures and Morgan's sarcastic relaying of the info back to the team.

One thing this episode did do very well was highlight how testosterone-heavy the team now is. Prentiss and JJ's absences were noticeable. Seaver is getting better, but she doesn't yet have the gravitas and fortitude of character that I've come to expect of females on this show.