I mean, yeah, I resented her past intimacy with Castle as much as the next Caskett shipper, and I was most definitely guilty of cussing aloud at her character throughout a lot of the two-parter, but that didn’t mean I hated her.

In fact, I found her kind of fascinating.  My mother, a psychologist, once told me something that I’ll never forget: There is a reason for every action.

And not to forget the wisdom of Castle himself: There’s always a story.

Personally, I would just really love to know Sophia’s story, what reasons led her to be the way she is, to make the decisions that she did. And beyond that, it really intrigues me that maybe she and Beckett might just have some things in common after all— beyond Castle himself, of course.

I keep thinking about it this way: Beckett lost her mother, which prompted her to dedicate her life to bringing down her killer in the name of justice (vengeance? Perhaps.), and was even willing to give her life to make that happen.

Is Sophia so different?

She lost her entire country when the Americans defeated the Soviets. She lost her way of life, all she believed in, all she’d fought for. Hell, maybe she lost her mother too in the midst of the war, who knows.

And so what is she doing now, if not the exact same thing Beckett is doing?  Taking down the people who took something she cared about. Granted, their methods are vastly different, and they have very separate views on pretty much everything— ie. collateral damage— but really, they’re just two sides of the same coin, two tail feathers of the same phoenix (by which I mean they have arisen from a similar basis to become mirror images, ‘good and ‘evil’, ‘right’ and ‘wrong’).

And so, despite all she did or intended to do, Sophia was a fascinating character—one that was more than just her actions and though I disagree with just about all she stood for, I can’t bring myself to hate her and be pleased that she met such a tragic end.

Honestly, I pity her.