Tonight on CASTLE, Ryan, Esposito, and Castle investigate the murder of former child star Charlie Reynolds, who rose to fame playing the lovable nerd on an early 90s High School sitcom (Ryan is a huge fan).  Things get a little crazy, however, when Dets. Beckett and McCord descend on NYC after the case goes federal.

I spent some time chatting with Seamus Dever (Ryan) about what Beckett’s return looks like, what the new guy Sully brings to the table, and what else we might see as the season continues!

Loving the show so far this season – and what I love the most is that another show might not be able to handle having Beckett take that job in DC, and still have it be believable.
Yeah, I think they had to follow through with it.  It’s one of those things where it’s Beckett’s dream to go off and do it, and they didn’t want it to be one of those things where she changed her mind.  Without spoiling anything, you’re going to see that explored, and then, eventually, you’re going to see things get back to normal around the old 12^th Precinct.

Sounds like this week, we’ll see “DC Beckett” heading back to the old stomping grounds – what’s that interaction like, now that she’s not part of the team?
She’s an outsider.  We’re very appy to see her go off and pursue her dream, but Espositio and Ryan are taking over now; they’re in charge and taking this responsibility.  So they’re very happy when she comes back, but when she comes back, it’s one of those things where she’s pretty much taking over our case, taking over jurisdiction.  We’re not very happy about it.  It becomes “all these years we’ve spent with you Beckett; whose side are you really on?”  I think Beckett does something at the very end of the episode that proves what side she’s really on, and you’ll see that.

What can you tell us about Sully, the new guy?
Sully is a very funny character.  I really like him – a great actor Josh Bitton.  He’s a lot of fun.  It’s a different dynamic.  Now we have a new guy who is sort of with us on the crimes, trying a little too hard to fit in.  He’s making jokes, but doesn’t quite fit in, and he’s really trying to get these guys to like him.  It’s fun because we’ve never had that before.  It’s kind of fun to see that all come around [laughs].  He’s a slob.  He’s an utter mess, and his desk happens to be Beckett’s old desk, and she gets to see what has happened to the world she used to know!

What can you tease for us about this week’s episode, and the case we’ll see?
Without giving away too, too much – the case itself is a lot of fun.  Basically, it’s about this show called Too Cool for School, kind of a SAVED BY THE BELL Saturday morning show that Ryan was really into, and so it happens that one of the lead characters, who was Ryan’s favorite character, turns up dead, so Ryan really feels this emotional pull to find out who did this to this little piece of his childhood.  In one scene, everything sort of explodes.  We get to a warehouse where the actor had been visiting, and Beckett shows up with her new partner, and basically takes over the case [laughs].  And then at the same time, the case gets taken away from her as well, so it’s a funny “wait a minute, really?  Really?”  All these things happen quickly – lots of guns being drawn on each other.  It was fun – we’d never done something like that.  That’s what sort of brings her back to NY.  We see the repercussions of that – Castle being on this side; Beckett being on the other. She’s wandering around the precinct, and we actually turn on Castle at one point, like, whose side are you on Castle? [laughs]

You say in passing the idea that “we’d never done something like that” before – it’s so much fun that in a 6^th season, you’re still doing “new somethings” – it has to be so exciting to go to work, and explore something new each week!
They’re sort of variations on a theme.  We do stuff and then we go “what if this happened this way” and it’s like, oh yea!  It’s fun to play around with that.

What will see in Ryan’s life outside of the precinct, with Jenny and his family life?
Ryan’s going to be racing towards being a father.  There is definitely a point where that is going to happen.  Probably midseason we’ll see that happen.  We’ll probably see Ryan deal with all the things that young fathers deal with, in terms of not getting sleep, and still trying to do his job, but being asleep at his desk.  I perceive Ryan trying to juggle the demands of being a father with the demands of his job.  Hopefully we’ll get to do some fun stuff, and hopefully we’ll get to see my wife (Juliana) come back on the show, and hopefully pregnant, and more fun with that.  I have yet to see how it shakes out – the whole having the baby.  I don’t know what they’re going to do with it, but hopefully we’ll have some fun with it!

Do you get some time to sit and watch TV?  Do you have favorites?
On the weekends and at night.  I DVR a ton of stuff and catch up.  BREAKING BAD was one of my favorite shows.  I still think it’s amazingly courageous what they did with that show, and it’s awesome to see the follow through.  On the other hand, I was a fan of DEXTER but it’s probably one of the worst series finales EVER.  They really treated him like a super hero towards the end.  It was flawed.  Those finales came a week apart from each other and it was like “WHAT?!”  One way to end the show perfectly, and another ended like with this sort of spineless ending.  I watched those shows. GAME OF THRONES, but that’s only on 10 weeks of the year [laughs].  THE WALKING DEAD. MODERN FAMILY, I think is hilarious.  They’re great – I’d love to guest star on that show; they’re so funny!

For more on CASTLE, head to ABC.com!