Not that I expected her to return, per se (though people were getting resurrected left and right), but all traces and mentions of her stopped. In fact, it was a two-parter if you include its follow-up, "The Mother."Īnother odd choice here, in Season 2, was the fact that Sarah Gadon's Rita vanished completely after she was killed off. In fact, the Merrill drama before the endgame was thin enough that it afforded the season a chance to give us an entire episode, "The Laughing Place," dedicated to Annie's brutal backstory with baby Joy. But everything picked up nicely in the third act when the splintered family had to come together, with Annie, to fight back against the brainwashed hordes. Notably though, the Merrill family drama (which also included stars Barkhad Abdi and Yusra Warsama), and the initial "vampiric" takeover of the town, gave us some of the flimsiest moments of the season in its early episodes. This story needed a town elder to give it a sense of historic weight someone who would, for the sake of plot, know a few more things than his kids. Robbins fit in well here as the (flawed) adult of the mix, an old-timer who had tons of atoning to do and a responsibility to take care of his family. Pop was a smaller character in the King-verse, appearing in the novella The Sun Dog. Robbins was this season's "movie star who headlined a famous King film," succeeding Season 1's Sissy Spacek. In a weird and comforting way, Season 2's tethering to Season 1 made the Season 1 finale, which didn't contain the payoff or closure we'd hoped for, feel better in hindsight (in the sense that all of this, each season, is designed so that it adds onto, and feeds into, the Deaver tapestry). One of the most surprising things about Season 2 (aside from the "Holy s***!" moment in the premiere when Annie killed Ace with an ice cream scoop) was that its back third tied us directly back into Season 1 - into Henry Deaver, the woods, the lake, and the "Schisma." The "angel" that the original French settlers aligned with was some other form of Skarsgård's Deaver, making the evil cultists, who had a few vampiric qualities, more black magic practitioners than anything else. This season's devious demons, who'd been dormant for 400 years underneath Castle Rock's neighboring town, weren't exactly vampires like in King's book. Caplan and Fisher dazzled throughout the season. She had to be curious enough to seek out the truth, but then also emotionally trapped enough to crave her prison. She had to want to flee her trappings but then also desperately need the unhealthy amounts of love and doting that Annie heaped on her.
It's a very tricky interaction to pull off, the push and pull between Annie and Joy - who had to be both rebellious and loyal. Eighth Grade's Elsie Fisher's was also remarkable here. Caplan was masterful, presenting us with a damaged, wholly misguided protector who could elicit sympathy from fans even though, all the while, she was severely damaging a poor young girl under the guise of love. It all sounds more complicated than it actually is, as the premise, when broken down, is basically the answer to the question "What if Annie Wilkes battled the vampires from Salem's Lot?" It was bonkers and, thanks in large part to Lizzy Caplan's powerful performance as Annie (which even garnered praise from Kathy Bates), it worked. While Castle Rock's first season was ambitious in its own right, bringing us into a mixtape world of Stephen King - filled with a few notable book characters, locations, and an avalanche of Easter eggs - Season 2 is downright admirable insanity.Īnd where Season 1 gave us an original tale involving a mysterious young man (Bill Skarsgård) who had to be caged/protected lest calamity continue to fall on the community, Season 2 notably blended two famous King books (one of which became an award-winning movie): Salem's Lot and Misery.
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