“He is a dirty bird guys like that don’t do anything for free”
Castle Rock opens following a woman and her daughter as they travel the country. The woman who had a nurse’s outfit would head to hospitals and steal medications for herself to keep her mental state in check. The show follows her for several years until she ends up in an accident that brings her to Castle Rock. If I had to guess by how she is talking that this is Annie from Misery though not using the same last name. They also mention Salem’s Lot a few times as well. Deciding to settle in Castle Rock Annie shows she’s not someone to mess with in episode one.
Episode 2 opens with Annie in a deep hole on a construction site. She finds her way out through a back way that leads to the Marsten House(another reference to Salems Lot). Pop begins looking for Ace and confronts Annie who blames it on the adopted brother of Ace (Abdi) taking blame away from her. Pops has flashbacks to a war he was a part of and passes out while confronting Abdi. Annie tries to convince her daughter Joy that they need to leave as her daughter begins to discover the truth about her mother.
Episode 3 opens with Pop(who has cancer) being taken to hospital by Abdi even though Pop had him tied up wanting a confession for killing Ace. Annie after seeing ghosts goes back to the construction site to make sure the dead are dead but discovers everything has either been concreted over or locked uptight. Meanwhile, her daughter goes on a Stand By Me quest to find a dead body with the local teens. A major plot twist is thrown in and it will remain spoiler-free as to not give it away but shocked me for sure. Annie confesses to Joy her secret and Joy must figure out what to do at this point with her mother whom she thinks is having a psychotic episode.
Episode 4 opens with a flashback to Somalia with Abdi and his sister Nadia whom also was adopted by Pops and is now Pops Doctor. Joy escapes her mother’s paranoia and tells the doctor about her mother’s issues and asks to stay with the doctor. Annie shows up at the house trying to convince Joy to leave with her right now. Nadia fnds out a secret that pops has been holding onto for years and another major plot twist as body counts begin to rise.
Episode 5 We get a flashback to Annie’s childhood and what caused her to go down the path of killing. Annie has dyslexia and to help her father home schools her by writing his own book and having her read it. Her mother and father begin to grow apart because of their different opinions on Annie getting better at reading and the mother feels there is an unhealthy relationship developing between Annie and her father.
So far the second season has lived up to the first. If you are a fan of Stephen King’s stories then this show is right up your alley. If you watch carefully you can catch some of the homages to the stories he has written over the years. Example The mouse in Annie’s home reminder of the Green Mile. The kids looking for a dead body tribute to Stand by Me. Ace Merrill and his brother from Stand By me and Needful things. Annie Wilkes from Misery, and Pops Merrill from The Sun Dog. Castle Rock follows the American Horror story type format with a new story this season but in the same town. Although based on the writings of Stephen King it is nice to see a different spin and fresher stories of characters we as fans want to know more about. Lizzy Caplan’s take on Annie’s character first played by Kathy Bates is a great addition to an already well-written story. Dustin Thomason and Sam Shaw continue to develop a working series that shows no signs of ending anytime soon as we all know there are many characters in the King universe with lots of source material to work with. A must watch series for fans for sure.
Newsdesk