I did! This is two or three years in a row they passed on awesome potential for the new season to revert to the status quo after, like, one episode.

There are two plot "lines" on this show - the mother murder and the relationship. All other stories are self-contained, and none last more than 2 episodes (special multiparters don't count, or rather, should count as one episode). I believe the more accurrate term would be "new permutations on the typical Castle story told through the lens of the new relationship status." Which is new and different, when you make allowances.

Where do you place the over-under for their fornication practice becoming public knowledge? I'm going with 8 episodes before the majority of the main cast becomes aware (with the understanding that a particular individual might be excluded for reasons, Gates or Alexis being the most likely candidates)

What will be the means of said exposure? Getting caught in flagrante? Blurted disclosure after too many botched lies or cover stories lead family or coworkers to start suspecting worse? Friends & family discerning from their comportment exactly what is going on and humoring them by pretending to believe the one was trying to brush a stain off the other's pants? Calmly and frankly disclosing the new status like mature adults and civilized human beings?

Yeah, that last one was pretty far-fetched.

What role will Castle's father play, or be revealed to have played in the conspiracy surrounding Beckett's mother?Come on! You know it's coming.

Over-under before Alexis snaps and goes all substance abuse/college slut? Six episodes. I thought they might actually hold off until March and Spring Break time, but they already investigated a case related to a Girls Gone Wild expy, so that's unlikely to come up again, and no need to save the Alexis connection to have relevance to his personal life.

How many episodes this season will feature major relationship crises or milestones (alternatively, similar milestones in OTHER relationships causing Castle and/or Beckett to worry about theirs)? My guess is four. Not based on anything hard and fast, but four is more than I hope and less than I fear.

Would you prefer the characters go on with their normal lives and snail's-pace discovery of the secrets of Beckett's mother, only just happening to be boinking like adolescent monkeys, or would you rather that the show devotes significant thematic episodes to the relationship itself? As an example, I would call the first episode an example of the first kind. They did it, and have this thing, but the episode was totally about solving/finding whatever, and the actions of the characters were not governed or motivated by the current intimacy level of the relationship. Alternatively, I would call the finale an example of the latter, to a certain degree - despite the action and movement on the mother-murder story, ultimately that episode was about their relationship and those considerations governed their choices, reactions and decisions.

Of course, they could just use the relationship for genuine character exposition and development, instead of forcing the characters to jump through plot hoops, but that's a little bit much to ask...