'Castle Rock' Season 2 Episode 4: Will it be Annie Wilkes who saves the town from Ace Merrill and his gang?
It's not Annie Wilkes (Lizzy Caplan) running wild and killing people in the doomed town of Castle Rock. It's the menacing Ace Merrill and his gang, who are murdering people as if it's their birthright. But it doesn't end there.
These people don't stay dead (of course). They're resurrected and come back as some evil pods, ready to slash away and get people to join their cause. This is quite similar to the events of 'Salem's Lot'.
Instead of vampires, the town slowly becomes a horde of murderers on the loose. The infamous 'Marsten House' is the reference point in this season, and it was introduced earlier in the show.
In the story of 'Salem's Lot', after killing the vampires, the protagonists burnt down Marsten House as well.
However, the show has woven several elements from Stephen King's novels. And so, Annie Wilkes from 'Misery' meets the Merrills in a 'Salem's Lot' situation.
Annie had stabbed Ace Merrill with an ice-cream scooper early on in the season. Despite all her efforts in hiding her crime, he returns to haunt her and Joy, her daughter.
Annie cannot fathom this mystery and she nervously tries to explain to Joy, who thinks that her mother has lost all sense of reason.
Contrary to the murderous killer in Stephen King's novel 'Misery', Annie is a terrified, rather unstable woman, who is desperate to protect her daughter at all costs.
She doesn't hesitate to commit extreme violence though, especially when it comes to a man like Ace threatening her and Joy, hence the iconic ice-cream scooper scene.
The cold and calculated killers are Ace and his gang, at the moment. He takes his brother Chris into a church and attacks him right there. The symbolism is quite powerful, as it reminds one of the biblical story of Cain murdering Abel.
Those who had been disposed off earlier, including the hapless lawyer, are back too. While one slaughters an inebriated girl, another collides into a young child. The army of the dead is growing by leaps and bounds, so who will be next?
Given that Annie is prone to violence, could it be possible that she is the one to destroy Ace Merrill and the gang? Another theory suggests that Annie could be killed by them too, bringing her back from the dead and probably paving the way for her diabolic character in 'Misery'.
However, there might just be another theory that seems plausible too. The show has set up Annie's love for literature and writing. The recent episode suggests that Annie Wilkes attempted her own novel too in the form of 'The Ravening Angel'.
Earlier on in the show, we remembered a bloodied Annie running with a box and a manuscript in it. Could Annie have killed her fellow co-author by accident? In 'Misery', she holds a handicapped famous author Paul Sheldon hostage, till he promises to resurrect her favorite character.
Hopefully, the next few episodes of 'Castle Rock' will answer questions and we get to know how Ace Merrill will be defeated… or whether he will face death at all.
