Castle- Who is Kate Beckett

In this post I am going to try and connect the dots we know abut Kate Beckett.

We do not know a lot so this will of course mean I will lintroduce a lot of speculation about the character of Kate Beckett. But hey what is the point of being a committed Caskett shipper if you do not indulge in this!!

Here goes.

Growing up
We know Kate had a rather privileged up bringing. Her father was a corporate lawyer and her mother a lawyer on the pubic payroll where she endeavoured to help those who were less well off.
Kate was very close to her mother.

She was a popular girl at school and had a lot of friends ( his can be the only place where she is able to be a bridesmaid 6 yes 6 times!) and did the usual things a teenage girl does but one event does stand out.
She and a close friend both liked the same guy. She was asked whether she wanted him to go to the prom( I am an Aussie so proms are a mystery to me). Although she told her friend she had no feelings for him this was incorrect. When her friend actually took him to the prom instead of Beckett they had a massive fight. They did get over it however.
We see here the first evidence of Beckett's poor communication to others about men she likes.

University
Becket goes to university. I am unsure of what undergraduate degree she does. I am assuming the law degree she starts but does not finish is a post-graduate degree. She is obviously a bright student as she had thoughts of becoming the first female chief justice.

Her Mother's murder

Her mother is murdered when she is 19. She has perhaps finished one year of her degree. Her murder impacts in two ways emotionally.
1) She experiences fierce emotional pain like she has never before and she never wants to again
2) Her Father cannot come to terms with the murder and seeks comfort in alcohol and thus becomes an alcoholic. It takes Beckett some 4-5 years before she gets her father off the alcohol and back to 'normalcy'.
Both these events are why she builds a 'wall' and never has a meaningful relationship until Castle comes on to the scene. She only goes out with men she likes but does not love!

We can assume this intense effort with her father is why Beckett never finishes her law degree.

Police work
Beckett becomes a policewoman always intent on specialising in homicide. She becomes the youngest female homicide detective and Roy Montgomery takes her under his wing. He trains and helps her. He tells her she is the best he has ever trained perhaps the best he has ever seen.

Social scene
Before the murder we are led to believe Beckett is a bit of a party animal and a clubber ( This is very strange given her age and strange US 'customs'!)
However she completely changes after the murder. She simply has little social life. The major reason is time. Between attempting to get her father off alcohol, University work and then examining her mother's crime file when she joins the police force she has little time for anything else.

She is an avid reader. It is at this time She becomes a fan of Richard Castle as an author. She even waited in line for an hour for him to sign one of his books for her. It is likely she has a schoolgirl crush on him given her circumstances.
She stays at home at nights and reads rather than going out. Adding to this is that she wears little to no makeup and uses little to no lipstick and dresses very dowdily. In other words she s not looking for relationships at all.



Richard Castle
She actually gets to meet and then interview Richard Castle when there are a series of murders similar to what he has written in some of his books. Unfortunately his manner puts her off and she clearly is not impressed.

However he is allowed to assist her on the cases by her boss Roy Montgomery. She solves the case with his help. He then is allowed to partner her as he is writing a series of books on a character based  on her.
Although it is said this is occurring because the Mayor wishes it too it is more likely Roy Montgomery
is a willing participant to this. He thinks Castle can bring some fun to Beckett's life.

Caskett
Early in the life of Castle and Beckett partnering together there is protests from Beckett however she is like Hamlet's mother. She doth protests too much. She clearly enjoys his company but doesn't want to say it and realises over time he is quite good at detective work. He helped her to become a better detective.
(Also very important here is she completely changes with regard to using lipstick, makeup and her hairstyle as well as wearing clothes which make her look more attractive. This suggests she at least certainly likes him at this very early stage)
Whilst in the first year they flirt with each other there is nothing to suggest anything romantic is in the wings as yet.
The first strong development here is when Castle off his own accord finds new evidence about her mother's murder.
Becket is not impressed at all and says their relationship is over. She assumes he has done this for selfish reasons concerning his book. His heartfelt apology changes her opinion of him. She realises he did it to actually help her.
From this instance we see Beckett now being attracted to Castle and indeed hoping he asks her out which is heavily implied at the book launching.
Demimg
She meets Deming whilst she is at the Gym and also solving a murder. He asks her out and they start dating.
Castle tries to get Beckett to come to the Hamptons for the week-end with him ( although for pure reasons). She says no and tells him a false reason. Eventually Castle finds out that very week-end she is planning to spend in a rented house with Deming.
Roy Montgomery cleverly uses the result of a case ot get Beckett to realise what her true feelings are. She loves Castle not Deming. She breaks it off with him. ( If Montgomery was okay with this then it seems to me she was not acting badly towards Demimg but rather acting on her true feelings.) Also Esposito who acts like a younger brother to her almost tells her to break it off!
BUT Castle strangely and unbelievably has now gotten back with is second ex-wife.
Becket is distraught as Castle leaves the station with her and we hear that when she asks will he come back in the fall.
She never again after this attempts to tell Castle how she feel about him rather she tries to get him to tell her how he feels about her.
Josh
We do not learn of how they met. He is a surgeon. He is quite insecure and jealous of Castle. As with Deming Beckett appears to go through the motins with Josh. She is never quite forthright with him either as we learn at the hospital when she is being operated on. It is shortly after this she breaks off with him.

The next stage of the caskett relationship occurs halfway through the third year. She brings Castle to a meeting she has with the detective who handled her mother's case. She does this because he is the man she trusts.
In the case they kiss for the first time and this is where she shows her true feelings. It is also the first time Castle leads her and she accepts it perhaps implying she wants Castle to take the lead in the relationship not her.

It is telling that in the case where Montgomery eventually dies Castle now knows Beckett very well. Her reaction to Castle when he tells her she only gets into relationships with men she doesn't love is to say it is over.However at the funeral she clearly realises Castle was right after-all.

She finally hears Castle tell of his love for her when she gets shot. This is what she wanted to hear but she doesn't see Castle for three months after her shooting indeed she lies about remembering anything.
When they eventually talk at the swings she tells Castle of her 'wall' and how she cannot have a decent relationship until it comes down.

Their relationship becomes very emotionally intimate after this. Castle is waiting for Her to recover nd Beckett is waiting until she is ready to tell Castle the wall is coming down.

At the end of Beckett's fourth year with Castle they again fight over her singlemindedness to get her mother's killer. He then says it is over however she realises again Castle is correct and finally tells Castle of her love for him.

In their fiffh year together they seem to go swimmingly together UNTIL the last few weeks when Beckett goes off the deepend. She appears to be cold and  calculating. An ambitious career woman to boot.

How can this be reconciled with her mother's ( and her) idealism and how much her father felt about her mother?

It can only be reconciled if Beckett is running away from  a relationship because she is afraid of her feelings for Castle.

No matter which way one looks at her she has yet to appreciate what a relationship actually means. She has to show Castle she not only needs to change but she wants to change! She also needs to acknowledge just how much he has helped her to reach a new and better level of being a detective.

BUT will she?