What Happens Next: Castle's Kate Owes Rick An Answer — Can She Possibly Say No?

TVLine hits rewind on the TV season’s biggest “What Happens Next” finales, then invites you to predict the cliffhanger outcomes

The Season 5 finale of ABC’s Castle left viewers — and the guy on bended knee — wondering how Kate would respond to Rick’s marriage proposal, which was tendered in the wake of Kate pursuing a plum gig in D.C. (which in turn raised questions about their relationship’s trajectory).

But really, can Kate possibly turn down the proposal, if Castle is to keep going? Is she, like Ado Annie, just a girl who cain’t say no?

Then again, can Kate possibly say yes, if Castle is to keep going…?

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Embedded within this conversation and thus Kate’s ultimate answer is another question: Will she take that job with the U.S. Attorney General’s office? Some TVLine commenters have opined that between the season finale’s interrogation scene (in which Kate declared the 12 precinct to be her “home”) and her demeanor when approaching Rick at the swings, she had already decided to decline the offer. Thus, she is visibly defeated when it sounds as if Rick is set to give her the hook, for having subtracted him from her decision-making process.

Going with the assumption that Kate is staying put in New York City and as a character on Castle, how could she also turn down Rick? Worst case scenario, she asks for time to decide (“So much has been going on in my life…,” yada yada). That theoretically could keep them working together, though with a tinge of awkwardness. Because if she says no outright – even with some asterisk of “Ask me again three months from now/during November sweeps, when I know it’s not a desperate ploy in response to me possibly leaving town” — that’d tee up a lot of awkwardness, though it would allow for a better, less dreary second popping of the question. (Maybe it’s even her that asks him, Brennan-and-Booth-like?)

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But if Kate comes back at Rick with a quick yes, does that put a different kind of expiration date on the show’s premise? Because while Gates may be willing/able to look the other way as Rick and her top detective carry on a romance, wouldn’t the prospect of marriage incur official red tape and such?

Rewatch the proposal here, then carefully pore over the hand-crafted poll options I have offered and vote for what you think is Season 6′s most likely — not the most desirable! — opening scene.

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