As this week’s episode of CASTLE proved, a kiss is never just a kiss. A kiss is always a promise of something more. It may be a kiss hello, a kiss good-bye, a kiss-off, or a kiss-up, but a kiss always has an ulterior meaning.
In CASTLE, Detective Kate Beckett agreed to play along with Richard Castle’s preposterous plan to distract a guard by pretending to be lovers on a date. When their cuddling did not appear to be enough, Beckett murmured that the guard was not fooled; so Richard Castle did the next best thing he could think of: he kissed her. It was not a momentary peck on the lips or a glancing caress — it was a full-blown passionate, knee-melting kiss. As Beckett allowed herself to fall into the ecstasy, one could just feel the heat emanating from both of them. Then as Beckett stepped back as if to take a breath, she threw caution to the wind and moved back in Castle’s embrace to fall into the abyss once more.
It was perhaps the most erotic scene on CASTLE ever. Fans everywhere sank back into their sofa cushions in relief and then quickly rewound their DVR’s to replay that moment over again. It was a kiss worth reliving time and time again — and from the looks on both Beckett and Castle’s faces, it is one they would have liked to have immediately relived again as well. Beckett may have been able to regain her composure faster, but Castle looked rocked to the core. He was shaken and overcome, and wiped a hand across his face as if to say, “oh, lord, what just happened?!”
However it was but a brief moment of passion at the worst possible moment — for the lives of Detectives Ryan and Esposito were literally hanging in the balance and every second Beckett and Castle delayed could cost someone their life. They had to move quickly. There simply was no time for reflection and appreciation.
But, whether under the guise of pretense or fiction, the kiss did happen. What is that saying: a moment on the lips, forever on the hips? In this case, a moment on the lips, forever engraved on their hearts. Neither Castle nor Beckett will be forgetting THAT kiss any time soon. The heat of the moment may have swept them away for but a few stolen seconds, but they are still reeling from the boiling passion that it invoked. For love discovered cannot be undone.
If Castle’s conversation with his mother was any indication, he knows perfectly well that he is no longer shadowing Detective Beckett for inspiration with his writing, it is something more. But what he did not know until he kissed her was how powerfully she felt the same. It was a revelation for both.
For the mystery writer, the charade of playing detective has become something more: it has become the chance to rise beyond the mere words on the page and partake of the thrill and excitement of solving actual crimes. But it is not merely the enticement of real crime versus fictional crime that draws Richard Castle; it is the woman who solves those crimes. Kate Beckett has become his drug of choice and he is addicted. It is an addiction he is loathe to give-up and until they kissed, he would have stood nobly by keeping his feelings and affections to himself. But this kiss was a promise – it was the promise of a future that neither Castle nor Beckett will want to give up. With eternal bliss staring them in the face, they are at a crossroads. Do they embrace the opportunity presented or pretend that it was merely a moment of illusion?
Undoubtedly they will choose to hide behind masks of pretense, claiming it was not real. But they know the truth. That kiss was very real. There was nothing pretend about it. It rocked both their worlds. If we could feel the heat through our television screens, they must have been scorching hot. Passion that strong cannot be denied forever. Their kiss is the promise of a fairy tale: there will one day be a happily ever after. 
Tiffany Vogt is a contributing writer to TheTVAddict. She has a great love for television and firmly believes that entertainment is a world of wondrous adventures that deserves to be shared and explored – she invites you to join her. Please feel free to contact Tiffany at Tiffany_Vogt_2000@yahoo.com or follow her at on Twitter (@TVWatchtower).