Castle Rock season 1, episode 9 recap: Bizarre turn

Castle Rock served up an interesting, but bizarre, episode where the lines blur between what’s real and what isn’t.

How does one explain the inexplicable? Castle Rock surely doesn’t explain much at all in “Henry Deaver” and more questions surround the story with just one episode left in the season. By the end of the episode I wasn’t even entirely sure what I had just watched. However, I’m going to at least try to make some sense out of something that might not wind up making any sense at all because this is a story based in Stephen King’s crazy universe where the inexplicable seems to thrive.

This week’s episode of Castle Rock begins with a look at the chaos that has ensued in the town over the years. The first two incidents we see are a helicopter crash and a school bus being crushed by a train. The narrator then tells a story of his own death and as we see more, we can tell that the narrator is Matthew Deaver.

We see the Kid living in a fancy house and working on a cure for Alzheimer’s, which is far from his current reality. In this version of events, he’s Henry Deaver and Ruth is living with Alan down in Sarasota. If that isn’t weird enough for you, he finds out that his father died and the house is now his. We also see Molly, her sister, and Officer Zalewski in this alternate timeline (or dimension). Molly is Council Chair and her sister is the one who doesn’t have her life together.

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It’s hard to believe this version of events after we’ve spent eight episodes with no indication that any of this is true. The Kid did know a lot about Ruth, Henry and Matthew, but Zalewski is definitely dead and Molly by no means has her life together. We do have been some indications that the Kid knew Henry though when he says he saved him from that basement in a previous episode.

We see that happen, but it’s in his own house and Matthew was the one who put him there. That doesn’t line up with Henry’s memories since he thinks something happened to him at the Desjardins property.

Some parts of the story remain the same whether it’s what we know from Henry or from this version of events. Matthew took Henry out to the woods to get him to hear the voice of God in both instances. Molly still has her powers, they just seem slightly different. She had to touch young Henry for them to trigger. In each version, chaos ensues when the kid isn’t in the cage, as well.

After the Kid finds young Henry in the cage, he tries to run to the woods, but the cops grab him before he can. Molly later persuaded the cops to let her take him home instead of putting him in a jail cell after he’s been kept in a cage. However, Molly lets him go into the woods and her and the Kid both follow him. Before that, the Kid finds old tapes, hundreds of them, that cover strange occurrences in Castle Rock among other things.

Castle Rock — “Henry Deaver” – Episode 109 – A world beyond these walls. Molly Strand (Melanie Lynskey) from left, Wendell Deaver (Chosen Jacobs) and Bill Skarsgard, shown. (Photo by: Dana Starbard/Hulu) /

We also see Matthew interacting with young Henry and he mentions that Henry came back to him, but changed. We see a fire start at the hospital, too, which is before Molly takes young Henry in. So we can confirm that bad things are happening now that he’s out of the cage in the basement.

Molly ends up being shot in a weird turn of events. Zalewski chases them into the woods and fires a warning shot, but it somehow makes its way right through Molly. The Kid follows young Henry further into the woods. We then see the Kid standing over the lake as he sees young Henry being discovered (which is by Alan in the main version of events).

The episode ends with the Kid and Molly together at her old house. We previously saw her enter the house and the Kid was waiting for her. So it seems like he’s just telling his version of events that happened all those years ago. However, that doesn’t account for Molly being the same age as she is now. Unless there’s some time travel element involved in this. Alan did mention that the Kid hadn’t aged a day in over two decades.

Next. When will Castle Rock season 2 premiere on Hulu?. dark

With one episode to go, I wouldn’t be all that surprised if Castle Rock left questions unanswered since this episode brought up way more than it answered. There are a lot of loose ends and even though this show is meant to be an anthology series, there are some things that could provide a through line for future seasons (other than it just being set in the Stephen King universe in general). Adding in the Claiborne Creamery was a nice touch that probably won’t have much to do with the story at all. I’m looking forward to what the finale brings next week.

Castle Rock airs on Hulu on Wednesdays.

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