Castle Rock Season 2 finale: A breakdown of Annie Wilkes and The Kid

The Castle Rock Season 2 comes to an end with a surprising season finale and questions on the future of the villains of the series.

Castle Rock‘s season finale had a lot to wrap up since this is the end of a chapter where Salem’s Lot and Misery crossed paths. Though the series left a lot more unanswered then we would have liked, there is some sense of resolution within the finale. At the very least, we can say that Annie Wilke’s story ended on a note that would contribute to the future version of her we see in Misery.

However, after two seasons, The Kid is even more of a mystery then he was when we first learned of the enigma trapped in the bowels of Shawshank prison. The only consolation we have at the end of Season 2 is that we now know for sure that The Kid is evil like any of the other Stephen King villains we’ve encountered. That being said, here’s a breakdown of what we did learn on the season finale about Castle Rock after an entire season of torture.

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Annie Wilkes lost her Joy

Annie’s goal during this episode was to interrupt the ceremony that would allow Ace, aka Augustine, to kill Joy and replace her soul with Amity’s. As Abdi and Nadia blew up the ground underneath the statue of The Kid, the town woke up from their trance. Annie was able to find Joy in the mess of people running and escape.

The real concern came during the days that followed. Joy was behaving the way she had when she was mad at her mother. She was distant and cold as if she was still angry about Annie pulling a knife on her. This behavior prompted Annie to watch her daughter closely as she took a live-in caretaker position in Canada. Annie soon discovered that Joy was drawing pictures of eyes and The Kid’s statue, watching French television, and at one point, on the phone with someone.

By the looks of it, the ceremony had been completed after all, and Amity was in Joy’s body. Annie tried to drug Joy and then drown her in the lake to remove Amity’s entity. But Annie discovered in a letter that she was wrong and it was really Joy. The phone call was Joy speaking to a lawyer about getting emancipated so she could live on her own.

Annie performed CPR until Joy regained consciousness, and they moved on. It was during this challenging time that Annie had first picked up Paul Sheldon’s book Misery. So when Annie and Joy head back out on the road, they attend Sheldon’s book signing.

It is only when a woman asks if the seat beside Annie is taken that we realize that Annie is not sitting next to Joy. Joy had died during the drowning and has now become another hallucination in Annie’s mind.

The Kid didn’t get to make his comeback

After blowing up the statue, Abdi and Nadia head back to the main house to blow that up too. Their plan was almost ruined when Ace’s entourage swarmed in with Pop. However, Pop wasn’t embodied by one of Amity’s followers as they all thought. He had taken a few injections of a drug knowing that it would prevent the soul ceremony from taking root.

Pop survived because he couldn’t go out without making sure that Abdi and Nadia survived the final hurdle. The plan was to blow up the main headquarters of the Amity followers. Pop would hold the bomb while in the house to get all of the followers in the explosion. And as Nadia mourned her adopted father’s death for a second time, the smoke from the explosion rises above the town. The Kid appears above the lake, sees the smoke, and disappears back into time.

What sucks is that we still have no idea what The Kid is or even what he hopes to accomplish. What we do know is that during Annie’s escape, she encountered posters of a missing Henry Deaver. This confirms that The Kid’s claims from the previous season aren’t true.

The Kid said that he accidentally traveled to Castle Rock when he helped Henry get back. So why was The Kid in Castle Rock if Henry is still missing? The Kid is truly something else entirely then what he says he is and was coming to get his minions. But for what?

In the end, Annie survived Castle Rock but lost the most important person in her life. Though I’d argue that it was inevitable that Joy would die or leave her mother. Annie had too much to juggle in addition to a mental health condition that she couldn’t always treat because she was on the run. It would be interesting if she ever returned to Castle Rock since there are so many years before she becomes the woman to harbor an author at the peak of her obsession.

However, The Kid will definitely have to come back for another installment because he’s still a mystery. I’m crossing my fingers for another season so that we can delve further into the Stephen King Universe

What did you think of the Castle Rock season finale? Share in the comments below.

Castle Rock Season 2 is now available in full on Hulu.