'Castle Rock' Season 2 Episode 3: Heartbreaking mother-daughter drama takes centerstage
It’s getting darker and more twisted.
‘Castle Rock’ Season 2 episode 3 ‘The Ties That Bind’ descends into a feverish pace, and doesn’t care whether you catch your breath or not. The brewing distrust between Joy and Annie is brought to the fore and leads to a cliffhanger of an ending.
Annie wildly tries to tell Joy about how she murdered Ace, and that he returned to life. This worries Joy, who realises that Annie hasn’t been taking her medicines properly. Anne insists she has, but ‘they’re not the right recipe’ and the doctor in the hospital is trying to kill her. Joy takes matters into her own hands and her methods are not entirely to her mother’s taste. Annie makes crucial revelations to Joy about her father, which she had hidden from her all along. Meanwhile, Ace returns to Pop Merrill who is in hospital after a stroke, and he is less than pleased to see him. There is a memorable small sibling moment between Abdi and Nadia.
The questioning of family relationships is what is at the heart of his episode. While the Merrils stew in their own tangled melodrama, the relationship between Joy and Annie has reached a breaking point.
A majority of the episode is focussed on the conversations between Joy and Annie. In the midst of the gooseflesh, there is a strange pity for Annie, as she keeps repeating to Joy, that she wants to do everything for her. The acting by the two is phenomenal at this point and they create a sense of nervous tension that is spread throughout the episode.
There is a feeling of loss, sorrow, grief for this mother-daughter duo, who love each other deeply, but the deeper mental health problems keep resurfacing and acting as a barrier between them.
The brilliance of Lizzy Caplan’s performance shows in the fact that she’s always just inches away from an outburst. It’s visible in her deadpan eyes, and in her nervous manner of walking. It just takes one small little push.
This season’s emphasis on strong familial relationships, unlike the first, is what is working in it favour.
The sense of horror and doom is glossed over by a feeling of brokenness, and sheer helplessness when you see a loved one being damaged by their own demons. ‘
Castle Rock’ keeps the supernatural elements looming on the periphery, while focusing on the family angles and their twisted lives. And this might just be the best decision that the creators Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomson have ever made.
‘Castle Rock’ Season 2 Episode 3 premiered on Hulu on October 23.
