It seems that Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Beckett (Stana Katic) will remain "broken up" through the fall episodes of ABC's Castle.

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Castle and Beckett remain "separated" after she expressed to him that she wanted to take a break. Of course, Beckett is doing this to protect Castle since she doesn't want him to be hurt as she investigates the Bracken (Jack Coleman) case further.

New Castle show runners Alexi Hawley and Terence Paul Winter spoke of the storyline in a new Entertainment Weekly report, revealing that this doesn't mean two diverging plots in future episodes.

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"It's not so much giving them separate storylines, although Beckett is obviously going on a secret mission of sorts," Hawley said. "It does give them some separate issues that they're dealing with but at the same time, it's still ultimately about their relationship and it's still them figuring out how this new paradigm works between the two of them where Beckett is trying to keep him at a distance to keep him safe and not let him get on to what she's doing and he's of course intent on winning her back."

Winter stressed that this break up is, in it's own way, an expression of love.

"The thing about it is that Beckett is 'breaking up' with Castle out of love. It's not because 'I can't stand to be around you' or 'I don't think this is working out' or 'I want to see other people' - that's not what it's about. It's out of love. 'I want to keep this man safe and the only way to do it is to put distance between us.' That's the struggle that we're playing around with, especially in the first third of the season."

Winter's mention that this will last through the first third of the season suggests we won't see an end to this storyline any time soon.

Castle airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.

Tags: Castle television ABC