'Castle Rock' Season 2 finale ending explained: How the show sets up 'Misery'
With 10 rattling episodes, Season 2 of 'Castle Rock' finally came to an uneasy end. It wasn't the ending that fans had considered, despite the innumerable assumptions and theories, including the idea that Joy (Elsie Fisher) could be the real Annie Wilkes (Lizzy Caplan) from Stephen King's 'Misery', from which the show had taken its key characters.
At the end of the previous episode, we saw Augustine (Paul Sparks) shooting Pop Merrill (Tim Robbins) in the head, after Pop's suicidal plan of blowing himself up fails. Pop seemingly becomes the next vessel, or so we are led to believe. However. Pop had taken the required drug before being shot, where he could resist the Frenchman from possessing him.
Nadia (Yusra Warsima) and Abdi (Barkhad Abdi) line the tunnel from the doomed construction site to the Marsten House with dynamites, waiting for Annie to give the sign to blow it up. Annie emphatically tells them that only after she rescues Joy, they can blow it up. However, plans don't work out, as Joy's friend, Chance, who is with Annie before the siege, is captured and taken inside the house.
A frightened Annie runs inside the house, informing Augustine and his men that the tunnels are lined with bombs, and requesting them to take Joy outside. Pop Merrill goes down to the tunnels with the policemen, shoots them before they can kill Nadia and Abdi. He takes one dynamite from Nadia, and tells her to wait until he's inside the house. Pop reaches the house, and dies in the blast, before Augustine's men get to him.
The ritual is all set to take place at dusk, with Joy expected to take on Amity's spirit. However, the blasts rock the ground and the possessed people get their sanity back, and run around screaming. Joy stabs Augustine, before leaving with Annie.
The Kid (Bill Skarsgard) sees his plans being foiled in front of his eyes and walks away. But it's not over yet.
The story returns to Annie and Joy, who try to make a life for themselves again. However, Joy is detached and quiet, which worries Annie, who takes to reading 'Misery' to her.
Annie looks through Joy's drawing book and believes that she is being possessed by the Devil. In all probability, these satanic drawings do not exist, and Annie imagines them. Annie drugs Joy's ice-cream, and then tells her that 'You're not my sweet little girl!" She is convinced that Joy is possessed. Joy runs to the lake nearby and tries to escape. However, Annie rushes after her and drowns her.
A shaken Annie returns to the house and sees that Joy had written a love-filled letter explaining that she needed time for herself, and to understand who she really was. This feeling had been growing inside her before the traumatic events and had just reached a pitch. A terrified Annie runs outside and tries to revive Joy. This is where it gets tricky, Annie believes that she has revived Joy, who tearfully tells her, 'You saved me.' This is Annie's imagination and wishes, because, in reality, Joy is dead.
After this, everything that is shown is part of Annie's imagination. She believes that she and Joy are happy again, and Joy is drawing 'The Laughing Place'. At the end of the episode, they go to the reading of Paul Sheldon's book 'Misery'. A man asks Annie if the seat next to her is taken, and Annie snaps at him saying, of course, it is, believing firmly that Joy is sitting there.
But she isn't. Annie imagines her parents at the book reading as well.
The episode ends with an enraptured Annie looking at Paul Sheldon and saying the iconic words, "I am your number one fan." This forms the plot of 'Misery'.
