As we sawlast season , and as we ’ve know for decades thanks toStephen King ’s interconnected stories , Castle Rock is a grim little Ithiel Town — there ’s no way one odd foreigner is gon na shift the status quo too much . But of course , Annie Wilkesstill manage to stir up some topsy-turvydom .
The first five ( of 10 total ) episodes of Castle Rock ’s second time of year were made available for review , and we wo n’t be spoiling any of the turn of events here . We can say , however , that you utterly do n’t need to have seen the Hulu serial ’ first season to dive powerful in ; there are some familiar landmarks , like the big church service in business district Castle Rock and the Mellow Tiger bar , and a few guileful name - cliff ( includingShawshank Prison ’s belated Warden Lacy ) , but otherwise the first half of time of year two follows the anthology playbook by offering up a new story and characters .
Well , not entirely newfangled . Anyone who ’s register King ’s Misery or watch Kathy Bates ’ Oscar - winning turn in the 1990 movie has Annie Wilkes brand into their nightmare . She ’s the prudish , folksy , severely disquiet nanny who “ rescue ” a famous romance novelist after a car accident , then keeps him prisoner and torture him while forcing him to spell a new Word of God that revives her favourite reference . Castle Rock , which is set in the present day , apply its own timeline to Annie ’s level ; here , she ’s in her 30s ( played with mannered , manic energy by the excellent Lizzy Caplan ) , so it ’s probably a decade before the events of Misery , with flashback that grade her puerility and adolescence in the 1990s .
Trouble follows Annie Wilkes (Lizzy Caplan) everywhere, and that includes Castle Rock.Image: (Dana Starbard (Hulu)
https://gizmodo.com/castle-rocks-new-trailer-shows-us-a-glimpse-of-the-town-1838628239
The season open with one of those flashbacks , and though the context are n’t explain until a later episode , it ’s dependable to say that teenage Annie got mixed up in Something Very Bad that will bound throughout her life . Without pay anything forth , it ’s something that instilled her passion for reading and the estimation of being a writer ’s “ turn one devotee , ” but also awaken the full capability of her terrifying dark side .
When we meet contemporary Annie in Castle Rock , she ’s dwell like a nomad with her daughter Joy ( Eighth Grade ’s Elsie Fisher , here play another clumsy teenager with unquestionable angst ) . The two are on a continuous road trip as Annie , who ’s tightlipped and understandably on the run from that thing in her past , infiltrates hospital dressed in her nursemaid garb to slip the tab she call for — not to feed an addiction , but to keep her mode swing and her occasionally slippy relationship with world in balk . When a late - night car accident strands the duo in Maine , Annie and Joy become drawn into the dramatic play — ethnical , familial , and supernatural — that ’s already brew in Castle Rock , as well as the adjacent town of Jerusalem ’s Lot .
Joy (Elsie Fisher), surrounded by ominous Castle Rock atmosphere.Image: Dana Starbard (Hulu)
Once again , if you ’ve understand ’ Salem ’s Lot , its related to poor stories , and/or watched the made - for - TV movie or miniseries ( side note : a James Wan - acquire feature filmis also in the works ) , you know what to bear : sanguinary creatures of the night ! The area ’s sinister past , already teased in the story thanks to strangely macabre signs touting Castle Rock ’s approaching 400 - class anniversary celebration , is impart into sharper focusing when Annie has grounds to bring down the infamous Marsten House — a loaded structure in the King literary macrocosm , perhaps not as well - love as The Shining’sOverlook Hotelor It’sNeibolt Street household , but overflow with just as many bad vibes .
We wo n’t get into why Annie is there , but geographically speaking , the Marsten House overlooks an challenging projection happening in Jerusalem ’s Lot : a ethnical center being built for the area ’s Somali refugee . building manager Abdi Omar ( Captain Phillips ’ Barkhad Abdi ) and his babe , Nadia ( Yusra Warsama ) , who ’s the head doctor at the local hospital , came to Maine as teens after losing their mother during the Battle of Mogadishu . When they arrive in Castle Rock , Abdi and Omar were take in by Pop Merrill — played by Tim Robbins , whose cast is a decent mirror to his function in 1994 ’s The Shawshank Redemption , though he ’s playing a altogether different fiber here . daddy is a gruff but fair Army old hand dying of Crab who ’s long been one of the town ’s most powerful residents . Like Annie , he ’s also cover an dreadful arcanum .
dad is kind of a King deep cut of meat ( he ’s in the novella The Sun Dog ) , but another shaver he helped raise — his nephew , John “ Ace ” Merrill ( Paul Sparks)—is notorious for his bullying antics in write up like “ The physical structure ” ( adapted into Stand By Me ) and Needful Things . The middle - aged interlingual rendition of Ace is no less cruel and menacing than he was as a untested man , though Castle Rock balance him out a little by giving him a brother , Chris ( Matthew Alan ) , who ’s a much kinder soul . The Omar siblings and their biotic community — in all likelihood prompt by Maine ’s veridical - lifespan Somali population — bring some welcome diversity to the story , and also make King ’s translation of New England feel a little less bound to the past . But just because Abdi and Nadia share Pop with Ace does n’t think of he take them as family unit ; you expect him to be anti-Semite , but he ’s especially infuriated when Abdi ’s clientele transaction start impinge on his turf .
Wyd, Annie?Image: Dana Starbard (Hulu)
All this is to say that time of year two of Castle Rock — still showrun by creators Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason , with J.J. Abrams and King among the exec producers , and an raiment of dissimilar writers and directors involve throughout the season — surrender the witness into a very tangled web . There is a lot going on even without the supernatural chemical element , which really rise to the surface by instalment five and are plain go to have a huge impact on the back half of the time of year . know that Annie will endure no matter what happens ( so she can meet her final stage in Misery , that is ) does n’t really compromise any of the dramatic event , because there are so many other characters with so many other thing at stakes .
It ’s probably a good thing that Castle Rock is n’t being released in a splurge - quick format ; though the first three episodes ( “ allow the River Run , ” “ New Jerusalem , ” and “ Ties That Bind ” ) will all drop on October 23 , the rest will arrive each week start October 30 . Each installment is emotional and packed with difference and just , in general , a lot to take in . While time of year one also piled on a plenty ( inter - dimensional portals and fractured timeline , spiritual fanatism , dementia , psychic empathy , etc . ) , the patch did n’t quite fit together in the oddment , as much as the show require them to . Despite all its mellow drama , time of year two feels a little more established in its narrative , and that ’ll likely make for a more satisfying story electric discharge , especially with all the horror - fantasy elements to come .
The decision to make a known antagonist the main protagonist — Annie is the ultimate treacherous narrator , being a perpetual prevaricator who also experiences hallucination on the unconstipated — is also an challenging one . Among King ’s hundreds of type creative activity , Annie ’s someone whose backstory seems especially ripe for exploration . We ’re prim to revere and dislike her from the scratch , considering what we know from Misery and from seeing the strict way she controls Joy , a diffident daughter who want nothing more than a stable , normal life . But there ’s a specific moment in the season premiere ( no spoilers , but you ’ll know it when you see it ) when you will incur yourself rooting for Annie as she faces off with another character . They clearly have no idea what she ’s subject of , but we sure do , and the payoff is tremendous .
Castle Rock premieres October 23 on Hulu .
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