"Everyone In This Town Has Some Sin Or Regret. Some Cage Of His Own Making..."
For the majority of television series, the real discussion regarding a show's particular merits generally land on the effectiveness of the book-ending episodes, with scrutiny more than most applied to both the opening and concluding chapters, particularly the latter with criticism always leaning towards whether the respective end of a series bows out in a well balanced and universally accepted manner or crashes and burns under the weight of the hours of storytelling which have come before it (see Dexter for such an example). In the case of Castle Rock, Hulu's debut series was undoubtedly a refreshingly interesting, albeit flawed, genre bending haunted house of a series which attempted to pay respect to the mind of horror's most influential contemporary writer whilst offering a glance into a town riddled with nightmares and head scratching mystery. When it came to the show's concluding hour therefore, there was no doubt that theory after theory regarding the potential resolution of the main plot thread involving Bill Skarsgård's The Kid was always going to be one which divided audiences, and whilst Castle Rock finished on a familiarly atmospheric and creepy note with a lot to admire, "Romans" still managed to feel ever so slightly underwhelming considering the potential that was in line to be grasped.
Picking up on events directly after episode eight, with the previous episode entirely dedicated to revealing The Kid's true nature as Henry Deaver mark one, or maybe not as we'll discuss later, Castle Rock's final chapter focused on Deaver one's willingness to return back to his own reality with the aid of Deaver mark two, whose reluctance to abide is shifted as we see through his eyes potentially more truth to Warden Lacy's opinion regarding mark one's closeness to evil. With the town of Castle Rock crumbling by the hour thanks to shocking character deaths, the rising sound of paranoia and a particularly violent prison escape, all plot threads seemingly accumulate as we follow both Deaver's into the heart of the woods where Deaver mark one's faint flicker of embedded evil seems to manifest in the show's most terrifying jump cut throughout the entire series, and whilst many thought, myself included, that the show would inevitably veer towards a more Hollywood style resolution with Deaver one safely reunited with his true reality, what a kick in the teeth we were left with as the circle closed on seeing Deaver one once again held captive within the heart of Shawshank, this time watched closely by his alternate counterpart whose belief in his prisoner's evil is enough to warrant a lifetime of sin. Ultimately, Deaver's decision may not be the most humane or rewarding from the perspective of the audience but hey, throughout the series we have been warned of Castle Rock's underlying seediness, and with a post credits sequence which suggests further exploration into the mythos and mind of Stephen King, Castle Rock's debut series was a brooding, bewildering and maddening slice of horror which can only get better with time.
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