So, as someone who seems to be fairly level headed in general about the show and how it is handled, what are your thoughts on how/when is the best way to introduce Caskett baby? I'm in no rush, but seeing chatter about it so I'm just curious. :)
First of all, apologies in the delay to answering this question, I had an answer typed out and Tumblr ate it, then life got all crazy and I just never got to retype it.
I really do feel like that is probably where we are headed and, in one way or another, Beckett being pregnant or not will be a (if not the) cliffhanger of season seven. Like maybe she suspects but can’t take the test or she takes it but the audience doesn’t know the results. It’s the next step in their personal relationship on the show and, as I’ve blogged about before, I think the days of Castle following Beckett to work as her shadow every single day for every single case is something that you won’t see again. Even before he was kicked out of the precinct, they spent a decent amount of time apart this season and this show does love a good test run before they dive headlong into big storylines.
My ideal way for it to be revealed is probably a fandom favorite because I just really like symmetry and them discussing it at the swings. Those things have pretty much defined every single moment of their relationship bar the wedding, so why not have there be a full circle moment. It’s a very Castle-esque parallel, at least to me.
The sole issue I have with it is that I don’t particularly want to watch a whole season of Beckett pregnant. I know its tv land and you have to check realism at the door most of the time, but there is just no way that an active duty officer would be permitted to be on an active investigation while pregnant. It puts the NYPD in a position for about a thousand lawsuits and liability issues and, in the case of a female detective, I’m pretty sure there’s probably some sort of clause in the terms of your employment that mean as soon as you discover you are pregnant, you must tell your CO to be removed from active duty. If you don’t, you face all sorts of issues. At least that’s how it works in the military and in a lot of ways, the organizational structure of police departments aren’t that far removed.
Bones is the only other show which I can use to compare a potential Caskett baby and while I know that Bones couldn’t exactly avoid it considering Emily Deschanel was actually pregnant, I didn’t find any of the storylines engaging or believable. It was just clunky and very awkward, which doesn’t give me high hopes for a season of Beckett gestating a kid. But what might be worse is the stuff they pulled on Rizzoli and Isles where each episode sees Jane in some life threatening situation. That’s the sort of show that might just be on in the background while I’m doing other things but I believe in the course of twelve episodes Jane was shot, negotiated a hostage situation with an armed gunman, got in a fight, and fell off a bridge. Just ridiculous to me.
But as you can’t exactly write a pregnancy SL and then take the development of that away from your audience, it’s just one of those things that you have to suffer through though I generally don’t think most of the fandom actually wants a Caskett baby. Some of the people who do want a kid want the cute little scene partner that can be trotted out for adorable fan-fic moments and then shoved away as not to interfere with Castle and Beckett’s sexy time or working together. Which, again, just isn’t reality for me or what I’d want to see. If we’re gonna have a kid on the show, have a kid on the show. Do the whole deal where they struggle with jobs/parenting/alone time and have actual relationship/parenting obstacles.
