'Castle Rock' Season 2, Episode 10: 'Clean'

 

Thus, the season and the series come to a close.  This episode had quite a few loose ends to tie up, but it did it fairly well.

Of course, the first matter of business is dealing with Augustin and his cult.  He announces that he doesn't plan on stopping with the town.  Despite seemingly having a finite number of cultists from 400 years ago, he reveals that he plans to spread their influence worldwide.  Then again, they did get large numbers under their thrall via the statue, so there is at least an established method of achieving the goal.  Even though Annie and the others are unaware of this, it does add some degree of pressure for them to succeed.

The plan is pretty simple: Annie and Chance will go retrieve Joy while Nadia and Abdi set up explosives in the tunnels to blow up the crypts and especially the statue.

The episode does try to throw in some tension.  Chance gets noticed almost immediately when she roams the crowd searching for Joy.  She does try to play along and act hypnotized, but it doesn't work.  We also see her drawing a gun, apparently going for a "take as many with me as I can" play, but they stop that too.  Upon seeing this, Annie lets herself get caught so that she can rat out the whole operation in the hope of negotiating Joy's release.  Joy has been her priority from the jump, but that was still pretty messed up.  She doesn't really suffer any consequence for it either.  Chance calls her on it, but that's about it.

Were it not for Pop's preparation, the operation would have failed.  Even though we saw him inject himself prior to his confrontation with Augustin, it was still awesome to see his foresight.  His ability to pretend to be Etienne was also impressive.  The scene has the added bonus of bringing the schisma back into the fold and revealing how it ties into everything that's happening.

All in all, Pop does manage to allow his adopted children to end the threat once and for all.  Sure enough, blowing up the statue does work, as the townspeople are freed from the spell and are left to flee in terror from the immense swarm of flies that has emerged.

You could argue that it's a little anti-climactic.  All of this happens within the first 15 minutes of the episode, but the last episode put quite a bit of focus on a more direct confrontation.  

It was a little weird to see the "angel" react.  He's not mad.  He doesn't seem disappointed that the 400- year plan was brought to a screeching halt.  He just turns around, walks a few steps and disappears into thin air.

The rest of the episode focuses squarely on Annie and Joy as they try to rebuild their lives after what has transpired.

Annie does make a genuine effort to reach out to Joy, but she seems indifferent.  It's pretty jarring and it does lay the groundwork for what Annie does later on in the episode.  Given what we see, you can't really fault Annie for coming to the conclusion that she did.  A part of me was expecting it all to be in her head.  It's clear that she is still taking fake medication, as she still hears voices; but from what we see, everything happened as we saw it, she just picked up the wrong cues and concluded that Joy was still possessed.

There's another twist regarding Joy's fate.  You kind of see it coming just because of how it plays out and because of how Annie ends up later.  The episode doesn't spend too much time on it and there are plenty of hints to suggest it.  Still, it made for a good episode ending reveal and it puts Annie on the path to do what she does in the original novel.

We do see her pick up and start reading one of Paul's books.  At first, I thought that she and Joy would bond over it and that would feed the hold the material has on her, but she goes off and reads the books on her own.  It happens quite a few times, so the suggestion that she's hooked is quite strong.  I'm not sure I buy her claim that she's his number one fan, though.  She didn't come off as that obsessed with it, not yet anyway.

All in all, it was a solid denouement.  It wrapped things up and tied Annie's story back to where we know it.  The focus on character actually worked overall and the acting was quite strong on both Caplan's and Fisher's parts.    It was a good watch.

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'Castle Rock' Season 2, Episode 9: 'Caveat Emptor'

 

At long last, we come to the penultimate episode of both the season and the series.  Things have been ramping up for some time, so it's no surprise to see everything start coming to a head as the few remaining townsfolk gather together to stop the otherworldly threat.

Fittingly, this is one of the more action heavy episodes of the season.  There's a car chase and shootouts galore. 

It turns out that Pop is something of a prepper.  He's got guns and bombs stashed away and is able to instantly lock down the store where he and the others take refuge so that it acts as something of a bunker.  It was pretty cool to see him in action.  Not only does he hold his own in the aforementioned confrontations (which is impressive given his age and failing health) but he is also quite shrewd.  He's able to put pieces together quickly in several instances in ways that benefit the group.

He's the one who figures out who the mole is, he figures out why Augustin and his followers don't just storm the building, and he even figures out what they are looking for.  

It turns out that Warden Lacy documented his time keeping the kid prisoner and Augustin wants those letters to help discern where their "angel" may have gone.  I did rather like the references to the events and characters of the first season.  Sure, they only touch on that, but it was still nice to see everything coming together.

While the action is certainly gripping, the episode also delivers some well-done quiet drama scenes.  The interrogations to figure out if the cult has managed to infiltrate them were gripping.  If the show had more time, they could have drawn this out and really played into the paranoia aspect as characters constantly questioned and turned on one another, but thanks to Pop's aforementioned deductive skills, the mole is revealed fairly quickly.

Annie doesn't get too much screen time, but she does still leave an impression when she does.  I'm not going to spoil it, but her scene with the tied-up infiltrator will definitely not be forgotten by viewers anytime soon.  Also, having her pick-up a sledgehammer first when she was weighing her options for interrogation implements was a nice touch.  It goes unused, but the nod was still appreciated. 

The episode was pretty heavy on montages.  The last one was probably the best as it went over the scene with the most emotional weight.  The first two were OK but having three in one episode is a bit much, even if we are nearing the finale.

All in all, though, this was a strong episode.  It definitely kept me engaged and it does leave threads open for the final episode.  On the one hand, it'll be good to finally cross this one off the list.  On the other hand, it'll be sad to see it go.  Sporadic as my viewing has been, this has been a solid series overall.  I honestly can't recall there being a bad episode in the bunch. It really could have gone on longer in all honesty.  But that's neither here nor there.  

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'Castle Rock' Season 2, Episode 8: 'Dirty'

 

It's been quite some time since we last dove into this series.  There's only a handful of episodes remaining, so it seems like we should finally try to wrap this up. 

This episode consists of two plots, which both consist of a character being pursued by cultists.  The first is Annie, who tries to escape after she and Joy are taken in.  She has no knowledge of the upcoming ritual, but she does know that she and Joy need to get out.  This is spurred in part, by hallucinations that come about due to Ace giving her fake meds so that her real ones can't hinder the transfer.  

Oddly enough, the hallucinations are oddly helpful.  By and large, they point her in the right direction.  That is until the end when Annie is almost coaxed into attempting another murder/suicide.   Just as she did when she was a baby, Joy brings Annie back to reality.  It was a tense and heartwarming scene.

Annie doesn't get to deliver any grand declarations of protection, but she does step up in her escape attempts.  Taking her off her meds proves to be a bad idea as she is able to take down a couple of cultists before reuniting with her daughter.

Speaking of Joy, the cult redirects its intent towards her.  The art excuse is a little flimsy, but they needed something to spur the shift.  Although if Augustin's soul is in Ace's body and his lover's is in Joy's....yeah, let's not go there.

Meanwhile, Nadia has to contend with a possessed Chris, who is dispatched to kill her.  Given that she is one of the few people left in town it makes sense.  They're not making the same mistake the Tommyknockers made.  Oddly enough, they make no attempt to bring her to the statue.  You'd think having another citizen under their thrall would be beneficial, but then again, the hypnotized townsfolk either stand around and gawk or wander around aimlessly. It wasn't without its creepy factor and it did kind of remind me of the final episodes of the second season of "Cloak and Dagger", so that was oddly amusing to me.

Nadia is able to temporarily bring Chris back through the use of Haldol, which she utilizes after getting the impression that Chris was suffering from a psychotic break.  It wears off quick, and even with it, Chris has to struggle to hold onto himself, so it isn't a total fix, but it does enable to him to nobly sacrifice himself to save her from two other cultists who had also been sent out for "clean up". 

I think if Chris had gotten more time, this would have packed more of a punch..or maybe I shouldn't wait months before I watch the subsequent episode.  Despite Nadia's anguished scream, I wasn't all that blown away.  

This sub-plot does still deliver some good tension before, so it's hardly a dud on that front.

All in all, this episode's OK.  The show's delivered better, but this did set some things up and it did keep me engaged.  Both Nadia and Annie get shining moments and the episode has a pretty solid cliffhanger ending.  

Just two episodes remaining.  Hopefully, I can finish this off this year.

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'Castle Rock' Season 2, Episode 7: 'The Word'

 

This episode takes us back to the past.  Not to play bad video games, but...wait, I have deja vu.  We do kind of have another flashback episode fairly quickly.  However, where that focused on Annie's upbringing this one reveals the origins of the cult that is slowly overrunning the town.

I was expecting this to be a whole episode flashback, but instead, this intertwines those with events that are unfolding in the present day.  I think it worked out for the better.  While the flashback story did have highlights once it gained momentum, I don't know if there was enough there to carry a whole episode.

Annie and Joy mostly sit this one out.  There is one scene where Annie is trying (not very successfully it appears) to maintain the cover story that she was the one who committed the murder in the previous episode.  It seems like they're overcomplicating this.  The woman really was trying to do Annie harm, so wouldn't that give Joy a pretty strong defense in court?  It seems like they're lying when they don't necessarily have to.  We'll have to see where that goes.  In the meantime, though, the cult is still aiming to make her a vessel for their prophet, Amity, who's story is told in the aforementioned flashbacks.

Most of the present day plot focuses on Ace, as he is made aware of the strange things his son has been up to.  There's a little bit of dumb luck to get things started, but once Ace is put on the trail, his part becomes pretty compelling.  Even though he doesn't have all the pieces, it was interesting watching him put the pieces together to figure out that something is up.  He even tries to warn Abdi, who ignores said warnings.  The latter is later made aware when he sees 

It was also amusing to see Tim Robbins return to Shawshank.  Sure, it's a different character under entirely different circumstances, but that had to be intentional.

This also allows this season's plot to tie into that of the first.  While this season has done well telling its own independent story, the link was a nice touch.  The timing fits, as we are nearing the end of the series.  I doubt it'll tie everything up, but it does shed light on some things that were left hanging.

It's been quite some time since I was able to sit down and watch this.  Despite the gap, I was still able to keep up with what was happening.  Really, the only point my brain needed to stop and think about what was going on was with Annie and the cops.  Even that didn't take that long to click back into place for me.

The episode is fairly well paced.  I wasn't sure about the flashbacks at first, but they found their footing and became just as engaging as the present day plot progression.  

We're down to the final three episodes and it's quite clear that things are being set up for the final confrontation.  It'll be sad to see the series go.  This season has been quite strong overall, but I am still looking forward to seeing how things wrap up in the episodes to come.

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'Castle Rock' Season 2, Episode 6: 'The Mother'

 

While the plot of this episode is centered in the present, it pretty much acts as a sequel to the events featured in the one that preceded it.  

After Joy's phone call, Rita has a pretty easy time tracking down her long lost daughter. It does take a bit of reluctant assistance from Chance, but Rita is eventually able to reunite and tell Joy about what really happened all those years ago.  Suffice it to say, it's a curve ball that leaves the young girl reeling.

Nadia herself is reeling from her own revelations.  Learning about Pop was bad enough, but following that with learning that  her brother also knew the truth does little to help the matter.  She's left confiding in someone who technically isn't even there anymore.  It does put a dark twist on the scene.  Not much is really done with it, but I noticed it.  

The reunion between Ace and Annie also seemed like a missed opportunity.  After all this time, you'd think that there would be more tension, but she gets even more drunk, then he take her home and puts her to bed...that's it.    

While we're on the subject, we are given some illumination about what Ace is doing.  It turns out that the resurrected townspeople are reincarnation vessels for the town's early settlers.  Ace himself is referred to as "Pere Augustin" at one point.  We also learn that certain medications hinder the transfer process.

This aspect of the plot is put on the back burner, but there is enough to keep the viewer satisfied.  It's also nice to see all the plot lines converging.  Nadia is (sort of) brought into the fold when a young woman (briefly) escapes the clutches of the cult and makes it to her hospital.  Annie is unknowingly brought in when Ace/Pere decides that she is to be the vessel of a woman named Amity.  

Not surprisingly, the Wilkes family drama brings the best material for the episode.  All of the characters are put through an emotional wringer and you can empathize with all of them and see where they're coming from.  We also get another impassioned plea and declaration of devotion from Annie to Joy.  You'd think that it would be old hat by now, but Caplan is just so damn good at it that it works every. freaking. time.  

Overall, this was a solid episode.  It wasn't quite as impressive as some of the other outings, but there was a lot to like.  The plot advanced on several fronts and the cast all turned in strong performances.  It's weird to think that there's only four episodes left.  It seems like there's still a lot of plot to cover, so we'll see how things play out.

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'Castle Rock' Season 2, Episode 5: 'The Laughing Place'

This episode takes us back to the past; not to play bad video games, but instead to show us how this iteration of Annie Wilkes came to be.

Her upbringing was less than ideal, but not quite as dire as one might think.  Her parents are lower income, and they clearly resent the hell out of each other, but they do both seem to be on good terms with Annie and want what's best for her. I was a bit worried when her dad started complaining about political correctness in schools. I was certain he was going to end up a strawman, but the episode did a good job of fleshing him out.

It's true, he does take her out of school to teach her himself.  It doesn't work too well, mostly because he's using his own (in fairness, well written) novel in progress as a guide.  It makes for a great bonding tool for the two and their relationship is quite heartwarming.  It also makes the collapse that much more tragic.

This does allow for another subtle call back to the book, where Annie is able to provide cogent criticism of a work and how its plot flows.  It's a small, but welcome touch to this depiction of the character. 

Interestingly enough, Annie's psychological issues are downplayed for a majority of the episode.  There's one scene where she attacks a girl at school, who to be fair was one of many who picked on her.  Other than that, though she comes off as a sweet kid, especially when she gets a tutor who helps her get her development back on track.  She's happy and pretty well adjusted and it just makes the fall that much harder.

We do, again, see Annie's psyche spiraling downward.  Oddly enough, it doesn't feel like a rehash.  The circumstances are different enough and, given what we see, we can certainly understand why Annie is as off as she is.

Being the survivor of an attempted murder-suicide by your own mother (who actually did die) is bad enough, but finding out soon after that your father had an affair with your tutor and now has a new child.  Yeah, it's no wonder that Annie went to dark (very dark) places soon after.

There wasn't too much plot progression as far as the present goes.  Joy does attempt to get some information from Annie to no avail and finds a new information source after reading Annie's father's manuscript.  Annie herself is approached by Ace, though she hasn't noticed it yet.  It's not that big a fault, all things considered, as the flashbacks were more than compelling enough to carry the episode.

This was another very strong episode.  The writing was strong, it was well paced, and the acting was also on point.  It doesn't top "Ties That Bind", but I'd rank it as a very close second.  It's a very good hour of television.  

We're coming into the second half of the season, it'll definitely be interesting to see how things play out.

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'Castle Rock' Season 2, Episode 4: 'Restore Hope'

 Yeah, I don't have any punny turn of phrase to open this article.  It's unfortunate, but what can you do?  Hopefully, future episodes will present more opportunities, but I can't promise anything.

After the powerhouse that was the last episode, this episode acts as more of a breather.  I get the logic, but it would have been nice to see the momentum put to better use.

Not that this episode is bad, there's quite a lot to like, but it doesn't have the same impact that the preceding episode did.

Annie herself takes a backseat this time around.  She tries to reconnect with Joy to no avail.  When we last see her, she's curled up on the couch, eating ice cream in a bit of depression.  You can't really blame her.  Joy wants nothing to do with her, Nadia steps in and not only enforces the separation, but tells Annie that she can't work at the hospital anymore, which I assume cuts her off from her medication supply (though seeing as she stopped taking them anyway, that might be a moot point.)  On top of that, Annie comes out the loser in two major confrontations. Abdi getting the upper hand, I understand.  He's more seasoned and has a tougher background, but even Joy's friend Chance mouths off to Annie and shoves her with no repercussions.  Not exactly a proud moment for Annie Wilkes.

Instead, the episode shifts its focus to Pop Merrill, as he learns that his chemo isn't working.  While Nadia does present him with possibilities beyond that, he chooses to accept his fate.  The scenes with him are well done and Robbins does a good job making it count.  The Irish wake that he decides to throw is one of the highlights of the episode, bringing both a bit of humor and pathos to Pop, as well as his family.

Speaking of family, a bombshell is dropped as Nadia learns the real reason why Pop adopted them in the first place.  It had been hinted at, but it's made clear here that he was the one who killed their parents and took them in due to what he saw as a debt.Suffice it to say, Nadia doesn't take it well.  Her storm off was well deserved, but I'm not sure why that was the note the writers decided to end it on.

I would've thought that the scene with Ace taking his brother to the church to be "converted" would have been the way to go. It was the most intense scene in the episode and, despite being fairly brief, did a lot to set up what is to be the arc for the remainder of the season.  Ace's speech to Chris is a bit of an exposition dump, but at the same time, it's a milder example as Ace is speaking rather casually about what had happened before.  

Credit to Chris, even after being stabbed in the stomach, he puts up a decent fight.  His response was both a highlight and oddly humorous.  Things don't end well for him, but he went out on a high note. 

One quick follow up, apparently it was Greg Grunberg who played the cop.  Neither his Wikipedia nor his IMDB page said anything about it, which is why I concluded that it wasn't him.  After seeing him again here, I became even more convinced it was him and did some more digging.  On the plus side, I was right, so that's good. It would have driven me nuts if I had remained under the impression that it wasn't him, but just someone who looked almost exactly like him.  

In any event, this episode was solid.  It doesn't leave as lasting an impression as its predecessor, but it does what it does well and while it isn't quite as tense, it's never boring.  It's sad to see Annie sidelined, but there's still plenty of good character and story arc material to keep the viewer happy.

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'Castle Rock' Season 2, Episode 3: 'Ties That Bind'

It appears as though Annie no longer has her ace in the hole.  I mean, of course, Ace Merrill's corpse being buried.  Man, my wordplay is on point with this season.  The fact that it all seems to be centered around holes is a little weird, but whatever.

Anyway,  Annie's encounter with a seemingly revived Ace Merrill has her a little spooked.  To her credit, Annie is aware of her condition; thus takes into account the possibility that it's all in her head.  The first thing she does is try to go back to where she left the body to confirm that it's still there.  Unfortunately, she's unable to, so there was no closure on that front. 

Even with that, though, she later comes to the conclusion that her new batch of medication was altered and that she's suffering from side effects.  It's a logical conclusion to come to, though really it seems like it's more there to give Annie a reason not to take her meds when Joy is brought into the fold and starts to think that her mother is spiraling.  

You can't fault Joy for coming to the conclusion that she does.  The apparent reveal that Ace is alive and well only lends credence to it.  All in all, she acts very intelligently throughout the episode.  She still doesn't have the whole picture, but you can see that she's putting pieces together.

Speaking of Ace's state, he's in surprisingly good condition given what happened to him.  Joy may think that Ace's murder was a hallucination or an outright lie, but this is one instance where we know better.  Besides, it would be a shame to negate that awesome moment.   You'd think that other characters seeing Ace alive would confirm that Annie is right, but given his aforementioned state and the fact that she was the only one who was ever aware of the murder, it still leaves the option for his never being killed in the first place.

The episode manages to have its cake and eat it too.  It's a very well done psychological drama, but it also does a great job of integrating more supernatural elements into the plot.  It's compelling as all get out and it keeps you gripped for pretty much the entire run time.

Lizzy Caplan has been doing a great job as Wilkes, but she really gets a chance to up her game here. The opening sequence where we see her running around from the perspective of a camera right up in her face was a bit gimmicky, but you get what they were trying to go for.  Other than that, though, she's nailing it.  Her psychological issues coming to the forefront allows her to be at her most chilling, but her love for Joy is still apparent and genuine.  That speech she gives to Joy about having done bad things to ensure her happiness was chilling in its own right, but also moving in that she really means it.  

Her escape also gives the character another highlight moment.  It doubles as a nod to Gerald's Game, but even ignoring that, it was jaw droppingly impressive.

Speaking of nods, I'm surprised that the episode didn't do more with the 'Stand by Me' shout-out.  I figured Joy and her friends looking for Ace's dead body would have been a whole sub-plot, but it gets wrapped up surprisingly quick.  The stuff with Annie and Joy was amazing, so I get it, but if you're going to do the homage, why not go all the way through with it?

While Abdi and his sister don't get a whole lot to do, what screen time they have is well used.  Abdi admits that he didn't save Pop for Pop's sake, but because Nadia cares for him and he didn't want to see her hit with another tragic loss.  It was a good moment between the two.  On Nadia's front, she does come to check on Annie after getting a frantic call.  Joy sends her off, but the fact that she went through the trouble to come offer help was still pretty nice.

The episode also ends with one hell of a wham note, as a mysterious figure warns Annie that the story is going to end with her having to kill Joy.  

This episode was really good.  It made all of the elements work in its favor.  The character stuff was very well done, the acting and writing were top notch, it was suspenseful and built up both atmosphere and tension as things progressed.  Really, my only two quibbles are Annie bouncing back and forth between "the drugs are making me see things" and "Ace is really back for the dead and he's coming for us".  You'd think that she'd play up the prior, especially when Joy starts to question Annie's sanity, but she sticks to the latter. I was also disappointed to find out that the cop who approaches Ace wasn't Greg Grunberg.  It really looked like him. 

All in all, though, this raised the bar for the season. There's plenty of momentum to go forward so I'm excited to see where the season goes.  I'd hate to think that the season peaks this early, but this did set a pretty high precedent.  I'll just have to see how things work out.

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'Castle Rock' Season 2, Episode 2: 'New Jerusalem'

 When last we met, Annie Wilkes had gone to a very dark place and was falling fast.  I mean that literally, as she was falling into a hole.  Considering the height of the fall, she's actually in pretty good shape.  Even a second fall after a failed attempt to climb out doesn't seem to do too much.  She has a slight limp, but is still able to jog with little trouble.  Then again, Wilkes was incredibly resilient in the original novel, so that could be a bit of subtly consistent writing.

It turns out that Ace isn't the only corpse down there.  This convinces Annie to change her mind about staying, though Joy is reluctant to leave this time around.  On the one hand, yes she's made friends, but she did see Ace making molotov cocktails, you'd think that she'd be able to figure out why Annie suddenly wants to book it.  

Speaking of Ace, the family doesn't take his disappearance too kindly.  Despite the fact that he hasn't been gone that long, Pop uses every resource he has (which is surprisingly considerable) to try to figure out what happened.

This prompts flashbacks that show us how Pop came to adopt the two into his own family.  It does allow Pop to show a softer side, but we also see that the family tension predates the mall shenanigans. We also see that the adoption may not have been as altruistic as many would be lead to believe.  

This aspect of the plot remains a bit cumbersome, but this does flesh out the characters to give them a bit more depth.

Even with this, though, Annie remains the main draw.  Caplan continues to shine and her devotion to her daughter remains a highlight.  Even with the rising tension between the two, especially as Joy starts to put pieces together, the bond is a very strong one.

Abdi gets a decent showing too, especially when Pop abducts him after Annie leads him to believe that it was Abdi, and not her, who killed him.  It was pretty convenient that Annie had a second prime suspect to disperse suspicion.  At first, I thought that she was going to come clean and argue self defense when Pop confronted her, but she used what she had to present a credible alternate take on events.  

I did find it odd that Abdi decided to goad his adopted father during the interrogation.  He didn't do it. You'd think a straight forward acknowledgement of that would have been more effective than trying to provoke Pop to violence.  He doesn't even try, it was very bizarre.  It would be one thing if Pop just ignored it, but there's no attempt to be upfront about how things played out.

The episode ends on one doozy of a cliffhanger, as Annie turns around to find none other than Ace Merrill standing outside her car.

This episode fleshed out the season on both a character and setting front.  It also opened up new plot lines so that things can move forward.  The first episode was pretty self-contained, which was nice, but I think this gives the viewer more reason to keep watching.  It'll be interesting to see how things play out.

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'Castle Rock' Season 2, Episode 1: 'Let the River Run'

 Thanks to some new tech, I can finally use my Hulu account again.  As such, I can dive back into "Castle Rock".  While it has been some time since I watched season one, the fact that this is an anthology series means that we're given a new arc with a new cast of characters.

One of the main characters is none other than Annie Wilkes.  Lizzy Caplan plays a younger version of the character here and she does a very good job of it.  There are shades of Kathy Bates' iconic take, but she is also able to put her own mark on it.  This is helped by the writing, which gives her a more layered and sympathetic motivation.

She's still a dangerous psychotic, and while she is a fugitive, she keeps a low profile and manages to keep her issues at bay by pilfering anti-psychotics from various hospitals where she works as a temp nurse.

Her main reason for doing this is her daughter, Joy.  It turns out that Annie is a quite good, albeit unconventional, mother.  She has her daughter's best interests at heart and genuinely does everything she can to give the girl a good life.

As a result, they are the best part of the episode.  Seeing secluded Joy find a group of friends was nice to see. Annie herself also gets some of the episode's highlights.  The scene when she comes clean after getting caught stealing meds was really quite heartwarming.  Credit where it's due, though, the doctor empathizing with her and agreeing to work with her to get her the medicine she needs helped seal the deal.  

Annie gets another highlight when she is confronted by Ace Merrill (yeah, this season seems to have much stronger ties to the King-verse than the first season.)  I don't want to spoil it, but it's freaking awesome. 

The whole mall/Merrill family rivalry wasn't the most compelling stuff, but it does play a pretty important role in the plot.   

The episode is also more grounded than the first season. There isn't that foreboding atmosphere and the episode is very light on supernatural elements.  There's talk of witches and satanists being a part of the town's history (this season appears to take place in Salem's Lot as opposed to Castle Rock itself) but that seems more like background information.  While we're on the topic, it is a little peculiar that the show relocated, but it is an iconic King town and it still has the dark and troubled past, so it's not that much of a deviation.  This also puts some distance between the two story arcs so that you're not constantly wondering where various season 1 characters are.

Seeing as the episode needs to set up the key players, the lack of horror elements makes sense. In Annie's and Joy's cases, it worked to the episode's favor.  

This was a solid opening. The cast is strong and it was well paced.  It does seem like a lot was wrapped up.  On the one hand, that's a good thing, but at the same time, I'm not sure where the plot can go. I guess I'll just have to watch and find out.

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2019 Q1 Report

No joke, the first quarter of 2019 is over and done with.  It's pure madness.  As many other bloggers do, I thought I'd take the chance to look and see how I'm progressing through the goals that I set back at the beginning of the year.



General Content


While I was fired up at the beginning of the year, I did find myself falling back into old habits.  It may be anticlimactic, but I take comfort in the fact that I'm hardly the first person to fall victim to this.

Still, I did manage to knock both "The X-Files" and the first season of "Castle Rock" off the to do list.  The latter was just under the wire, but done is done; and I'm done...until season 2 hits.


Reading


I knocked two books off the list.  The first was "Elevation" and the second was "America the Edible" by Adam Richman.  I'm behind schedule, but my reading is up from last year; so that's a plus.  I'm also currently working my way through "Path of the Assassin" by Brad Thor so I am starting to get back into the groove, as it were.

I also read "The Infinity Gauntlet" knocking one item off of my graphic novel goal as well.



Savings and Dividend Challenges


The first quarter's finances were focused on the acquisition of a car.  As the down payment is often hefty, I wasn't able to make much in the way of stock purchases or transfers.

My forward income is about where it was at the start of the year.  I'm also a bit behind on the savings challenges.    Well, a bit behind on the online account.  My primary savings account took a hefty hit, so I have to re-do portions of last year's challenge and get back up to speed on this year's. 


Car

Speaking of, I did achieve this goal! I'll go into more detail in tomorrow's post, but it's nice to get that out of the way.  I do have some new bills each month, but with the down payment out of the way, I was able to re-set my weekly transfers to my brokerage and online checking accounts, so we should be getting back on track in the months to come.



Side Hustle


Thus far, I've made $12 in side hustle.  Given how Apptrailers and Epoll work, this is about where I expected it to be at this point.  As noted in the docket, Reviewstream is going to by the make or break factor in achieving this goal.  Until I can shift my attention to that, the number won't be that impressive.



Swagbucks


I have put some points into charities, but I definitely need to do more.  I didn't have a specific goal on this one, so whether I'm ahead or behind schedule is hard to determine.  I just know that more needs to be done.


Retirement


The head start is done.  With my birthday having passed by earlier in March, the five year race to have three times my salary saved has begun.  I'm 2% of the way there so we'll see how things go.  Five years is a long time, but it is still kind of sad to no longer be in "head start" territory anymore.



Goal Revision

I had set a 3 year goal of creating dividend income that surpassed Spoony's Patreon income.  At the time, it was about $500 a month, but now it's down to $461.  That brings my forward income goal from $6000 to $5,532.  Granted, 6K is a rounder number, so I might still try to unofficially shoot for that, but as of now, the goal will drop to the latter number as that is really the crux of the goal.


Conclusion

It may not have been the year opener that I was hoping for, but I did manage to put some dents in the list.  Knocking one of the big ones off was certainly nice, but I am looking forward to focusing my attention to the smaller scale goals.















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'Castle Rock' Episode 10: 'Romans'

At long last we reach the end of Castle Rock's first season.  It's been an interesting ride, to say the least?  Does the conclusion follow through, or does it botch like many other shows and stories have before?

All in all, I think this was a satisfactory conclusion.  It tied up a lot of loose ends whilst also keeping the viewer engaged.  The performances are all top notch and there are some real highlights peppered throughout.

The scene between Ruth and Molly on the bridge is tense and unsettling, but also heartbreaking in its own way.  You can't help but feel bad for both characters and the situations that they're in.

I also rather enjoyed the conversation between the two Henry Deavers in the prison cell.  The two have shared scenes before, but with the recent reveal (and Henry himself learning about it) it puts their interaction into a completely different and very surreal light.

It seemed like the episode wasn't sure what to do with "the Kid".  After a whole episode of giving him a sympathetic backstory and a simple motivation (to get home, I guess all that monument talk was just posturing?) the episode actually throws out some hints that maybe he's lying.  He seems to have no qualms about using his abilities to trigger a slaughter as a way to help them escape (something even Henry Prime is mortified to see unfold) and there's a shot of him near the end as some sort of demon.  It could be Henry mentally coming up with a justification for what he does, but then again, maybe not.  In either case, you get why he does what he ends up doing. 

The downside to this series being noted as an anthology is that answers may not actually be given.  It seems like season 2 is moving on to a completely different story.  That could easily work, but hopefully the events and characters we've followed thus far aren't completely forgotten.  They worked rather well and it would be nice to continue following them as the show progressed.

I did find it surprising how the episode managed to tie up loose ends that seemed completely forgotten.  We see what happens to the new warden as well as Shawshank Prison itself.  I'm sure if the characters had been left unmentioned, some viewers would have sounded the alarm, but it was pretty jarring to see them jump back into the narrative at the last second.

As noted before, this was a solid resolution.  It wrapped things up about as neatly as one could expect.  There wasn't any sense of frustration as there have been with other finales.  The closest it came was with the time jump at the end.  It initially gives off a feeling of anti-climax, but there's no way to do the big reveal without it, so it was kind of necessary. 

While it's a shame that season 2 will likely be independent, I'm still looking forward to it.  I rather enjoyed this outing.  It's a shame that it took so long to get through.  Hopefully, I don't fall into that trap with season 2, but I always go in with that attitude and, well, here we are.  We'll see.

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'Castle Rock' Episode 9: 'Henry Deaver'

As the season comes to its penultimate episode, answers are given to many of the show's burning questions.  Unlike say, "Lost", this won't leave you screaming obscenities at the screen and calling out how lame it all felt.  This is actually quite well done.

First things first, the central focus of this story is "the Kid" and how he came to be.  Who is he? Where did he come from?  It turns out that he actually answered the question waaay back in the first episode.  He's Henry Deaver (if the episode's title didn't spoil that fact, the episode's recap of the plot so far will pretty much give it away.)  Now I had this spoiled by reading both TvTropes and Wikipedia.  I can't help but wonder if that reveal line would have packed more punch if I wasn't aware of it ahead of time.  Some twists still work, but this one didn't put a whole lot of emphasis on it, so maybe they weren't banking on that being such a mind-blower.

More specifically, he's the Henry Deaver of an alternate reality.  We see this through a flashback that accounts for most of the episode.  As with any alternate reality or timeline, there are differences to be sure, but the similarities were the more fascinating part.  Heck, even the way this episode plays out is very similar to how the show's story has unfolded over in the "Prime" universe.

Both involved someone deemed "the Kid" (this time, it's young Henry of our world, explaining what happened when he went missing as a child) who was trapped in a cage for years as a result of being thought a devil and was only discovered after their captor killed themselves.  Juniper Hill burns down both times and it seems the woods and the Schisma still play a role in things.  It's trippy and intriguing just how much these two universes mirror each other on so many levels.

On other fronts, it was nice to see Skarsgard actually get a chance to converse and show emotions.  Here we see him happy, well adjusted, and easy going.  He's married and is even planning on building a family.  It's a stark contrast to what we've seen in earlier episodes.  Hopefully we'll see more of that in the next episode.

Speaking of, there are still a few questions to be answered, leaving viewers some incentive to tune in for the finale.  Still, this did provide a lot of information and did it in an engaging way.  It managed to cram a lot into just one hour and that's not easy.  This easily could have come off as clunky or out of left field, but instead, it worked very well.  It's definitely a highlight for the season as a whole in my opinion.  Maybe not as good as "The Queen", but still pretty impressive in its own right.  The finale has quite a bit of momentum built up, hopefully it can follow through.

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'Castle Rock' Episode 8: 'Past Perfect'

The last episode saw the Hulu series soar to new heights.  Can the follow up keep the momentum going? Let's find out.

So, remember that couple of prospective home buyers that Molly met a few episodes back?  They make a return.  It seems that, rather than retreat from the town's dark history, they decide to turn into the skid, as it were, and use Lacy's house as a gimmicky murder themed bed and breakfast.  Even Jackie notes that she had considered the idea, but never ran with it, and commends them for doing so.

At first, I thought it was weird to give such bit characters the spotlight, but they don't eat up too much of the episode's time and they serve their roles well enough.

With only two episodes remaining, this episode starts tying threads together.  You can sense that things are coming to a head and it works really well.  Hints are dropped here and there that are likely to pay off as we reach the season's end.

The Kid's continued cryptic dialogue can get frustrating.  It seems like he's abandoned his aforementioned desire to pay back wrongs done to him, but if he's trying to present a more benevolent side, he might want to consider not lurking around and being his usual creepy self.  It's fun to watch from the viewer's stand point, and Skarsgard is great as usual, but how he acts doesn't really mesh with his apparent newfound desire to get people to trust him.

It is also odd how quickly Henry finds himself in another dire situation.  After being held captive, he finds himself being threatened by the aforementioned family.  Granted, he stumbled into this, where the prior had him being lured out specifically, but having them back to back makes it more comical than it needed to be.  Thank God "The Queen" was there to act as something of a buffer.  Could you imagine if the plot had just ignored that and had Henry go from one group of hostile weirdos to the next?

Speaking of "The Queen", there is little mention of Alan's death.  You'd think the episode would spend more time on that, but he only gets a couple of lines worth of mention. The most notable instance is when Ruth tells Henry to get him in order to help clear up her legal troubles.  It stings, but considering the previous episode ended with her reuniting with him on their doorstep, you can't blame her for thinking he's still alive...Of course, her joy at seeing him alive was largely fueled by his recent death, so it's still arguable whether or not that makes any sense.

The show's atmosphere continues to be one of its strongest attributes.  The episode is very well shot, the lighting is effective, and the music helps add to it all.  You can almost feel yourself leaning forward as things start to ramp up.  The fact that this kicks into high gear in the show's final scenes makes it very binge-friendly. 

While it doesn't hit the heights of its predecessor, this episode still managed to be very engaging in its own right.  I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how things wrap up in the next two episodes.

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'Castle Rock' Episode 7: 'The Queen'

The last episode had Ruth Deaver reveal that she (at least believes) that she has become disconnected from linear time.   This episode brings the idea to central focus, as she takes center stage, bringing us with her on a journey through time.  This allows the episode to revisit certain scenes and put them in a slightly different context, but it also allows us to get a better look at events that had only been discussed in episodes prior.

I had mentioned my theory that her condition was akin to Picard's in "All Good Things.." This turns out to partially be the case, but there's also  shades of "A Christmas Carol".  We see two Ruth's, with one largely invisible (though she does seem to be able to see herself) in several scenes as she places her chess pieces around.  I get that they indicate that she's not in her time, but I'm not sure how that helps her "get back".  The jumps seem to happen at random and she has no control over when they happen.  Maybe it's a focus thing? I don't know.

Matt Deaver, her husband and Henry's adopted father benefits the most from this as we get a better look at what life was like in the Deaver household all those years ago.  It turns out that the preacher was more than a little unbalanced.  He doesn't do anything directly, but his dialogue (as well as the actor's delivery) shows us what a disturbed individual he really was.

Ruth herself also shines.  Spacek had a lot of weight to pull and she did a great job of it.  You can see her fear, disorientation, concern, and joy throughout the episode.  Had she not done such a good job, the episode might have fallen flat, but as it is, it stands as likely the best episode of the season.  I kind of feel bad for the next episode as this set the bar quite high.

The time jumps can be a bit confusing at first, but the episode is still very well constructed.  You can tell that a lot of effort was put into making this work and it paid off.

We also get some strong hints as to the identity of "the kid".  Ruth herself is convinced that it's Matt back from the dead.  Whether intentionally or unintentionally, he seems to go out of his way to confirm this. Given his lines of dialogue, you can see why Ruth jumps to the conclusion that she does.  He knows a lot about her and about their history.  While I knew it was all a red herring (again, I spoiled myself on this big reveal,) there is one line here that pretty much tells you who he is.  Not much is made of it now, but it'll probably be elaborated on later.

As with many episodes prior, this one ends with a bang...literally.  Ruth accidentally shoots Alan.  Had I been keeping up, I'd probably be more concerned with dropping a major spoiler, but at this point, I don't think we need to worry.

That scene gives us the plot based wham moment that makes for good binge watching, but the following scene where Ruth is transported to Alan first showing up on her doorstep is what really made the ending work.  The look on Spacek's face just sells the weight of the scene and it'd be hard not to mark yourself as being hit hard in the feels after that.  I mean, damn. 

So yeah, if you couldn't figure it out by now.  This episode was amazing, a fantastic hour of television if ever there was one.  Hopefully, the remaining episodes can keep it going, because the show is really starting to shine.

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'Castle Rock' Episode 6: 'Filter'

The season moves into its second half.  We get some answers, but, not surprisingly, even more questions.

Up until now, the show has been somewhat grounded.  The Kid really being the sole oddity in an otherwise "real" world.  That gets thrown out the window here as the episode introduces the possibility of a multiverse, a character becoming disjointed from time (I imagine it's something akin to what Picard went through in "All Good Things", but that's speculation on my end) and even a "voice of God" or the sound of a universe trying to correct itself.  For the most part, it all fits, but it can still feel like a bit of a curve ball in many respects.

The latter is most pertinent as it ties to Henry's tinnitus, which seems to be anything but.  It leads him to attempt to retrace his steps and find out what really happened out in the woods back when he was a kid.  I'm kind of surprised it took him this long to do this.  Seems like something that should have happened a few episodes ago, but it works well enough being placed where it is.  I think having the "Schisma" talk back in episode 3 would have been a lot for the viewer to take in that early.  Was still a fantastic scene, though.  It stands as one of the episode's highlights.

I'd also cite Ruth's reveal about her disconnection from time as one (Spacek did a great job with only a handful of lines there) and Molly revealing to Henry that she killed his dad.  The latter is especially impressive, as it was revealed to us a while back.  It speaks to both the writing and the acting that the scene packs the punch that it does.

As said before, the answers just raise more questions.  I suppose it's not that surprising, seeing as J.J. Abrams had his hand in this, but it does lead to things being vague for the sole purpose of not providing an answer.  It's another reason why it seems like this episode should have been placed earlier.  It's still compelling and more than a little intriguing, but with only four episodes remaining, one has to wonder how well they'll juggle everything that's being tossed out there. 

With all the complexity that this episode brings to the table, the Kid is given something of a motive.  After breaking out of Juniper Hill, he pays a visit to Ruth Deaver and voices his intent to "build a monument to those who imprisoned him".  So yeah, he wants revenge; at least, that's what I gather.  It's logical, can't really blame the guy, but it is surprisingly straight forward, maybe a little too straight forward.  Of course, even if the motive is obvious, it still doesn't explain his abilities. 

Having browsed TvTropes and Wikipedia, I kind of spoiled myself and now know the answer (well, some of them anyway,) but I'll leave discussion of what's going on until after I've watched the episodes and have full context.

Did anyone else get Slenderman vibes from this episode?  Between the camcorder POV shots, the frequent visits to the woods, and that one guy standing outside Molly's house; I felt like there were a few nods to the popular internet monstrosity.  Not sure if anything will come of it, but it's something to keep an eye on to say the least.   

All in all, this show's still going strong.  I'm looking forward to see what comes next as we move into the season's final four episodes.

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