Protagonist with No Name
That’s how crazy it’s been. I haven’t had a chance to rant to you about Castle Rock. This Hulu show is inspired by characters from Stephen King’s universe. It was only eight episodes and you have all probably watched it so let’s just dive in and talk about what I took away from the first season.
Who’s the Monster, Henry Deaver?
This is the make believe town of Stephen King, so the monster isn’t just some clown in the sewer. It will be several clowns littered throughout the town that will attack you in all manners.
I’m not ready to write off the other Henry (played by Bill Skarsgard) as the bad guy. Am I a chump for believing his story? After we’ve been led to believe that he is the big bad brought to Castle Rock to bring a reckoning upon all of its inhabitants, his story pans out to me. Why? Because it’s sad.
Skarsgard was the big bad in IT and he’s slated to be a type of big bad in Castle Rock, but I believe his explanation is the truth because of how tragic it is. He was minding his own business when he saw a scared kid that was just looking for a way to get home. Trying to help the kid had him falling through a ripple in time that puts him on another time line.
He isn’t good or evil, he’s just someone that was unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and that can happen to anyone. The 27 years in jail for a crime he didn’t commit? That’s the layers King will put into his work that isn’t that far-fetched from reality. Horrible flukes happen every day.
I can’t explain away the way his face changed to a white walker for a second at the end or his evil smirk when they put him back in jail. PTSD maybe for the smirk? The season one ending for the other Henry is reminiscent of Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery. Maybe the cruelest truth of all is that for the town of Castle Rock to be normal, the other Henry has to remain locked in a cell in a closed off wing of Shawshank forever.
With the inability to pinpoint who the ultimate big bad is, I have a hard time deciding who the protagonist is. Maybe it’s all of them.
Don’t Leave Me Again
Ruth Deaver (played by Sissy Spacek) had one of the best hours in a dramatic television series this year. From when we meet her in her prime to thirty years later when she’s riddled with Alzheimer’s, Ruth had one wish — she wanted to be with Alan Pangborn.
On our Henry’s timeline she doesn’t find Alan again until they’re in their golden years. It also coincides with the other Henry showing up to town. If you’ve seen the show (and I hope you have, otherwise, stop reading this) then you know Ruth has a lot of timelines going on at once. Even though she can access the different timelines from her own world, I don’t think she was aware of the other Henry when he showed up at her house.
I re-watched Ruth’s episode from the other Henry’s perspective and it fits as to why he acted the way that he did. For all of us, he was the big bad that had made his way into her house and she’s a woman suffering from Alzheimer’s and everyone in her family is away so she’s alone with this monster — what will happen to her? For the other Henry, he was back in his childhood home, confronted with the aged version of his mother that he grew up without. Don’t forget, in the other Henry’s timeline, Ruth decides to pack her bags and take off with Alan. In the other Henry’s world, Ruth is living with Alan somewhere in Texas and they’re happy.
Ruth and Alan are the doomed couple in love. The planets just didn’t align enough for them. They were meant to be together, but Mercury wasn’t in retrograde and it tilted the axis just enough so that they find each other, but don’t get to be together. In one world, she abandons her child to be with Alan, so they live happily together, but this dark cloud will always be with her for the choice she made. In our world, her and Alan are split up for a few decades and once they find each other again, she’s losing her memory. She knows something big is about to happen because she has seen several timelines, but it still doesn’t stop her from shooting Alan on her doorstep by mistake.
I believe what Ruth loses in the span of the first season is more than the other characters. Being thrown into different dimensions, believing that you are losing your mind. Those are obstacles to overcome in this supernatural world you were born into. Ruth has to relive killing the love of her life over and over and not being able to figure out exactly when she does it. She has a snippet of it, but she can’t grasp when it will happen so she can stop it. She even tries to kill herself a few times before she can hurt him, but fate had other plans.
There are other worlds than this…
I’ve heard they might not revisit these storylines next season. That they may take a page out of the American Horror Story format. As much as I love the Henry Deaver storyline, I see that as the main story, sort of like the Gunslinger is the main character in King’s universe, but a whole lot of story was told around him before it was complete.
The other storylines may include Jackie Torrance (played by Jane Levy) whose character is the niece of Jack Torrance from The Shining. The season ends with her declaring in her novel that she is heading out west to where the story begins. Is she headed to The Overlook Hotel? If Hulu takes us to The Overlook for season 2 that will be amazing.
It has taken me over two weeks to write this up. Other shows and movies have come on. I got really busy with work. My goal is to put out at least three of these a week while I work on my own manuscript. It’s been busy, but in a good way. Thanks for reading.
