Castle Rock
Series, 2018, Castle Rock, Set in The town and Shawshank
Castle Rock is #28 of 42 in release order and #35 of 42 in chronological order in the Stephen King Universe.
The story
Based on the stories of Stephen King, the series intertwines characters and themes from the fictional town of Castle Rock.
Castle Rock recap
Castle Rock (2018) is a Hulu anthology series set in King's fictional Maine town, running two seasons of 10 episodes each from 2018 to 2019. Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason created it, with J.J. Abrams and King among the producers. In season 1, death-row lawyer Henry Deaver (Andre Holland) is called home when a pale young man known only as The Kid (Bill Skarsgard) is found locked in a cage beneath Shawshank Penitentiary and says Henry's name. Henry's mother Ruth (Sissy Spacek) is losing her memory, retired sheriff Alan Pangborn (Scott Glenn) lives with her, and childhood neighbour Molly Strand (Melanie Lynskey) has a psychic link to Henry. Henry vanished in the woods as a boy in the winter his adoptive father died, and The Kid may have come from somewhere else entirely. Season 2 follows a young Annie Wilkes (Lizzy Caplan), the nurse from Misery, and her daughter Joy (Elsie Fisher), stranded in town after a car accident, alongside Ace Merrill (Paul Sparks), his uncle Pop Merrill (Tim Robbins) and a Somali community led by Abdi Howlwadaag (Barkhad Abdi). The show threads in Shawshank, Jerusalem's Lot, Jackie Torrance (Jane Levy), a niece of The Shining's Jack, and other King references.
Castle Rock ending explained
Castle Rock ends with Annie Wilkes alone with a hallucination of her daughter. In the season 1 finale, "Romans", Henry decides The Kid is evil and locks him back in the abandoned Shawshank. In season 2, Ace returns from the dead as host of a 17th-century cult leader from Jerusalem's Lot, and the town is nearly lost. Annie drowns Joy, believing her possessed, and in the final scene sits in a bookshop with the Joy she imagines, waiting for a signing by author Paul Sheldon. Hulu cancelled the show in 2020.
Where to watch Castle Rock
Castle Rock is streaming on Netflix and Hulu in the US. You can rent or buy it on Amazon, Apple TV, and Google Play.
Ratings
IMDb 7.5/10
Where it fits
- Release order: after It, before It Chapter Two.
- Chronological order: after Needful Things, before The Shining.
What to watch before Castle Rock
In release order, the essentials before Castle Rock (2018) are The Dead Zone (1983), Cujo (1983), Stand by Me (1986), and Needful Things (1993).
Cast
- André Holland as Henry Deaver
- Lizzy Caplan as Annie Wilkes
- Melanie Lynskey as Molly Strand
- Tim Robbins as Reginald "Pop" Merrill
- Sissy Spacek as Ruth Deaver
- Elsie Fisher as Joy Wilkes
- Bill Skarsgård as Shawshank Prisoner
- Yusra Warsama as Dr. Nadia Howlwadaag
- Jane Levy as Jackie Torrance
- Barkhad Abdi as Abdi Howlwadaag
- Scott Glenn as Alan Pangborn
- Matthew Alan as Chris Merrill
Created by Dustin Thomason, Sam Shaw.