Castle Rock

Castle Rock is an American psychological horror anthology web television series, featuring and inspired by characters, settings, and themes from the stories created by Stephen King and his fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine. The series premiered on July 25, 2018 on Hulu. It was created by Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason, and stars André Holland, Melanie Lynskey, Bill Skarsgård, Jane Levy, and Sissy Spacek in its first season. On August 14, 2018, it was announced that the series had been renewed for a second season, which premiered on October 23, 2019.

Plot[edit | edit source]

Castle Rock combines "the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of King’s best-loved works, weaving an epic saga of darkness and light, played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland."

2x07- "The Word"[edit | edit source]

In extended flashback to four hundred years prior, a group of French settlers in New Jerusalem are starving until one of them, Amity, has an encounter with a hooded "angel" and returns with food, land fertility, and a new religion. Those who reject the new religion are killed. Amity is eventually commanded by the angel that all of them must die in ritualistic murder and await resurrection in four hundred years. The last to be killed is Amity's lover, Pere Augustin, who is the first to be resurrected in the present day in the vessel of Ace Merrill. The Marsten House is being renovated and decorated with cult drawings. Augustin has decided that Annie is to be Amity's vessel, because she was the one who woke them. Pop learns that Ace/Augustin and his cultists searched for a caged man in Shawshank prison, but the cage was empty. The Castle Rock anniversary parade marches through town and stops in front of the church, where the pastor reveals a wooden statue of the hooded angel. Everyone who sees it is hypnotized, except Pop who doesn't look at it and flees.

the cultists display the statue of the angel in Castle Rock Square
all the people in the square are mesmerized
the statue hypnotizes everybody
Pop Merril is the only one not to be hypnotized, for not looking directly at the statue
seeing the reflection of the statue in a balloon; Pop realizes what caused mass hypnosis.
in a trance, the citizens of Castle Rock approach the statue.
Pop watches mesmerized citizens approach the statue
with no choice, Pop runs away from the square.
the hypnotized citizens listen to Augustin's speech

2x08- "Dirty"[edit | edit source]

The cultists hypnotize almost all the people in Castle Rock into being Amity's mindless army. Annie and Joy are brought by the cultists to Marsten House. Augustin changes out Annie's meds to "clean" her for use as a vessel, causing her to hallucinate. Augustin sees Joy's drawings, which are reminiscent of Amity's art, and decides that she is Amity's true vessel. Annie fights off the cultists and almost escapes with Joy, but Joy is hypnotized, forcing Annie to leave on her own. Chris, possessed by the cultist Bertrand, tries to kill Nadia but she fights back. Thinking that Chris is having a psychotic break, Nadia injects him with Haldol, which allows Chris to temporarily take control of his body and save Nadia from other cultists, before he dies again of his wounds.

the enslaved citizens carry the statue
the statue crosses the town, mesmerizing everyone who looks at it
a crowd is mesmerized by the statue, following it to Marsten house, in Salem's Lot
Annie Wilkes and her daughter Joy try to escape from Marsten house, but are stopped by the mesmerized crowd.
the crowd doesn't seem to notice Annie and Joy
Annie and Joy try to get through the zombified crowd.
Annie is unaffected by the statue's spell (because she is crazy) and screams for Joy.
Joy looks at the statue
not being immune like her mother, Joy is hypnotized.

2x10- "Clean"[edit | edit source]

The cultists prepare for a sunset ritual, which includes Joy dressed up in Amity's likeness. Pop is awakened as "Etienne", who tells Augustin the content of Lacy's letters: there is a schisma at Castle Lake that allows their angel to cross dimensions at will. Annie, Nadia, Abdi and Chance return to Salem's Lot; Annie and Chance go to Marsten House to find Joy, while Nadia and Abdi place explosives in the underground tunnels. "Etienne" reveals himself to still be Pop, who injected himself with Haldol before he died, and he helps Nadia and Abdi set up the explosives. The bombs go off, breaking the hypnotic hold over the townsfolk. Pop is killed again in the explosion, Annie finds Joy, and the angel sees the explosion from Castle Lake and disappears. One week later, Annie and Joy leave Castle Rock. Joy remains distant, and Annie mistakenly concludes that she is possessed by a cultist and drowns her, only to learn her error afterward. Annie frantically tries to revive Joy and seemingly succeeds; the pair reconcile and revive their loving relationship. However, Annie is merely hallucinating Joy's recovery. The final scene is of Annie and "Joy" waiting for a book-signing with "their" favorite author Paul Sheldon.

mesmerized, Joy is prepared to receive the amity's spirit
Joy has her mind totally controlled by cultists.
Chance tries to get through the mesmerized crowd
Chance is denounced by her hypnotized friend, who recognizes her as not being one of the angel's slaves.
the mesmerized crowd surrounds Chance
Augustin prepares to place Amity's soul in Joy's body.
the statue is destroyed
with the statue destroyed, Joy wakes up from the trance.
the citizens of Castle Rock and Salem's Lot are also freed from the spell, and flee with the chaos that ensues.