BWW Preview: CASTLE Kick's Off Season with Case of the Wedding That Wasn't

Doesn't every couple have an adorable, wacky story about what went wrong on their way to the chapel of love?

Maybe the wedding venue is destroyed by circus fire-breathers two days before the ceremony. Maybe the wedding gown falls victim to a flood. Or maybe the bride finds out the drunken, drive-thru Vegas wedding to a college boyfriend is still valid, and she needs a divorce before getting married for real to the love of her life.

And if the bride is beautiful, uber-detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) and the groom is ruggedly handsome crime novelist Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) on ABC's CASTLE, all of these things happen. And more.

When we first met Castle and Beckett six years ago, she was trying to solve a string of murders that mirrored his bestsellers and he was brought in to consult on the case. He flirted, she shot him down. She worked with facts, he worked with fiction. But they made a great crime-solving team. He found his muse, and she met her match.

Every episode became a smoldering game of will they or won't they. A few years later when they did, they also managed to survive a common TV death: Somehow, the show didn't lose its sexiness because the hot couple had sex.

When we last saw Castle and Beckett, the ceremony had been moved to his home in the Hamptons, her mom's wedding gown came out of storage and they had managed to find her "husband", get him out of his wacky jam, and dissolve her prank marriage. Beckett stood in a sun-filled room by the beach, a vision in white lace, on her cell phone with her tuxedoed groom, who was in his car, 20 minutes away from the beginning of the rest of their lives. I love yous were exchanged. But Castle didn't arrive. One phone call later, and there was Beckett running in her white lace gown, to the edge of a ravine, where she looked down in horror at the fireball that used to be Castle's car. Worst. Wedding day. Ever.

So was Castle in that car? Um, the show is called CASTLE, so, no. A plot is afoot.

The Season 7 premiere episode, "Driven", which airs Monday, September 29 at 10 p.m. on ABC, will pick up right at that moment, with the grief-stricken bride looking down at her groom's fiery wreck. But Beckett is first and foremost a detective, and solving the mystery of what happened to Castle will prove to be the toughest case of her career. Poor Beckett. She finally nails the guy who killed her mother and here she has to go after whoever kept Castle from becoming her husband.

So what's in store this season for our favorite crime-solving couple? There's word of a fun, alternate reality episode that explores a world in which Castle and Beckett never met, as well as an old-time west-themed episode. Yee-ha!!!

Will the wedding still happen? The powers that be say yes, but not right away---a safe bet is November, February or May to take advantage of sweeps. So fans will just have to tune in, and prepare for another edge-of-your-seat season of the roller-coaster romance of Richard Castle and Kate Beckett.

What do you think the future will bring Castle and Beckett? Let me know what you think in the comments below. I will be back on Monday night to recap the Season Premiere, as I will every episode this season.