'Castle Rock' Season 2 full recap: The Angel, the Merrill family and everything that went down before the finale
'Castle Rock' Season 1, which was based on locations in the Stephen King universe, was uneasy, uncomfortable and made you twitch. The ending was ambiguous, and the audience was left with many questions.
While this could be debated as screenwriting brilliance or loose ends, the first season was an example of a Stephen King novel that left viewers wanting more. With season 2, the writers of 'Castle Rock' decided to kick it up a notch, and took characters, story themes and locations from Stephen King novels and wove it together.
Annie Wilkes (Lizzy Caplan), the budding nurse from hell in the novel gets waylaid in the town, and runs into the Merrill clan, who are from the novels 'The Sun Dog' and 'The Body'.
Emotional dramas unfold between Annie Wilkes and her daughter Joy, while the Merrills face their own family feuds. Yet, this isn't the time for family discussions, as a satanic takeover is on the rise.
There were many storylines in the second season of 'Castle Rock', that all converge at one point finally. Here's breaking it down and explaining what went on in this dark and gritty psychological horror.
Annie Wilkes and Joy
Everyone familiar with Stephen King's 'Misery', knows that Annie Wilkes is far from being a paragon of virtue. In the book, she is cunning, sadistic and devious and enjoys torturing author Paul Sheldon, who she has gleefully abducted.
Yet, in the show, apart from the raging problems Annie Wilkes has, she isn't cunning or devious. She is always eager to protect Joy (Elsie Fisher) from all trouble, and if it involves shoving an ice-cream scooper down someone's throat and killing them, so be it.
And that's how she kills Ace Merrill (Paul Sparks), who poses a threat to her and Joy. Yet, this murder leaves Annie rattled, and the fear is etched on her face as she drags the body to a burial ground. But alas, unhappiness is in store for her, as Ace is resurrected.
But that's a different story, as Annie's own family problems with Joy take centrestage for a couple of episodes. Joy begins to be suspicious of Annie, and this involves her even tying and drugging her, in order to elicit the truth from her.
Later, through her own investigations, Joy discovers that her mother really is Rita, (Sara Gadon). A startling flashback to Annie's origins are shown, and we see her as a child with repressed violence, something that her parents ignore.
Her father, who is a struggling writer, dotes on her, while her mother (Robin Wright) grows more weary and exhausted as the years go by, and finally commits suicide in the river to "cleanse herself".
Annie's father marries Rita, much to Annie's chagrin, and they have a baby. Things come to a head when Annie realizes that her father credited Rita in his book and not her, and in a scuffle, she accidentally kills him.
Rita is witness to this, and a frightened Annie stabs her and runs away with the baby. Yet, Annie cannot kill the baby, as she hears the baby laugh. That laugh is what saves Annie, and it's just about all that managed to keep her sane through the years.
Rita is not dead, though. Yet. Joy contacts her and she comes tearing back to Castle Rock to see her daughter and get some little happiness in her life back. However, Joy is torn between Rita and Annie and decides not to go with Rita.
This pushes Rita over the edge, and she almost tries to kill Annie. In the scuffle that ensues, Joy rushes to Annie's rescue and injects Rita. However, the gun Rita is holding goes off, and Rita dies. Policemen swarm them, and Annie takes the blame.
Yet, Castle Rock is beginning to be possessed by the Angel, and no one is innocent anymore. Ace Merrill, who is possessed by a frenchman from the 1600's, takes Annie and Joy into the Marsten House.
He believes Joy is the vessel, and wishes to complete a deadly ritual. Annie and Joy escape, only to run into the satanic parade of the town's populace parading the statue of the Angel.
Unfortunately, Joy gets possessed too and Annie loses the little bit of sanity she has. In the latest episode, she shows that she is willing to kill and mutilate anyone who knows what has happened to Joy, making the way for her 'Misery' character.
She has already begun to hold the ax and make ominous threats. The episode ends with Annie escaping the Emporium Galorium, where she had taken refuge with a few other survivors. In Episode 10, it will be interesting to see whether Annie manages to get Joy back or not. What heralds the madness in 'Misery'?
The Merrill family
While the engrossing Annie Wilkes drama tends to be in focus for most of the season, another family gets torn apart from the inside.
Pop Merrill (Tim Robbins), the tough gangster, who is fond of his foster children, Nadia (Yusra Warsima) and Abdi, as well as his "good" nephew (Matthew Alan), has some dark secrets about his life that only his wayward nephew Ace knows.
The reason why he had adopted Nadia and Abdi from war-torn Mogadishu, was because he had shot their mother while on military duty in the country. Nadia discovers this ugly truth and is heartbroken that her foster father has such a dark past and severs all ties with him.
In the latest episode, banded with the few survivors who are not taken in by the Angel, Pop Merrill tries to heal his relationship with Nadia and Abdi, but they make it clear that if they survive the apocalyptic night, they want to never talk to him again.
Ace, who is possessed by the Frenchman Augustine, also reveals that Ace had "always loved" Pop Merrill, but he had just beaten him as a child. The possessed crowd closes in on the Emporium Galorium where Pop and the others are hiding.
Pop ensures Nadia and Abdi escape to safety, realizing that he cannot leave the building alive. He tries to blow himself up, but that fails. Ace shoots him in the head, and it is left to be understood that Pop might just be the next vessel.
The Angel
While emotional torment is a strong current of the season, the horror gradually builds up in the form of the army of the dead. The motivations behind the evil men possessing Ace is finally revealed in Episode 7.
The town's gloomy history is revealed, and dates all the way back to the 1600s. The past is no longer staying in the past. Throughout the season, there were hints that the town was prepping for its 400th anniversary.
In this episode, we learn the story of the town's rebellious leader Amity Lambert (Mathilde Dehaye) in 1619, who has returned from exile, and claims she "has met an Angel".
This isn't a considerate Angel, because even though Jerusalem Lot's prospers, those who question Amity are burned alive and hung upside down on a cross. The Angel has declared that everyone must die by a ritual and be reborn 400 years later. Everyone obeys.
This harks back to the dusty coffins under Abdi's construction site, which means that the Angel's followers are slowly returning. And so they are, if the grim count of people being murdered and resurrected as 1600 French people is any sign of it. Ace has been possessed by the former priest of Jerusalem Lot, and wants Annie to be the vessel for Amity, who is also his lover. However, he later changes his mind to Joy.
The Angel is linked to the devilish "Kid' in Season 1, whose mere presence caused brutal violence in the town. Due to his demonic presence, he had been locked away by Dale Lacy (Terry Quinn) in the Shawshank Prison.
However, he is released in Season 2 and is hell-bent on causing hell and fire in the town. In the latest episode, Ace kills Pop and appears to use him as his vessel next. 'Castle Rock' airs on Hulu, Wednesdays at 12 am ET.