If you would like to read my review of the last episode, click here.
Synopsis: A stranger comes to town; Castle Rock honors Sheriff Pangborn. (IMDB)
Writer: Lila Byock
Director: Andrew Bernstein
Rating: TV-MA
Running Time: 49mins
Airs: Wednesdays at 10pm on Space (Canada)/ Wednesdays on Hulu (United States)
Now we’re getting somewhere. The pieces are there but this episode started to connect them by giving us just enough while still leaving plenty of mystery. What isn’t a mystery is Nick or The Kid or whatever his name is super creepy and this episode let him strut his creepiness all around Castle Rock. It obviously wasn’t going to last forever but The Kid is out of Shawshank.
However, the episode started with a recent flashback of Deaver being administered some sort of psychological test. Meanwhile, the surrounding county was facing severe wildfires while still in shock by the massacre at Shawshank. Being at the center of the massacre, Deaver was left with a severe ringing in his ears that he suffered with throughout the episode. Worried about his mother, Deaver set up a security system in her house so he and Pangborn could keep their eyes on her. Unfortunately for him, Ruth wasn’t the only person he had to keep an eye on. Deaver’s hearing was supposedly delayed for several weeks but he later got a call to inform him that The Kid was being released.
Deaver took The Kid to the hospital to get the same tests that he took before and the doctors discovered that he suffered from retrograde amnesia. The Kid had no place to go for the weekend so Deaver had to find somewhere for him to stay. Strand chipped in by offering her office. The fact that they still didn’t know anything about The Kid left Deaver uneasy. Of course he didn’t stay there the whole time because he just had to wander off and stumble onto a kid’s birthday party and seemingly compelling the parents to kill each other.
Another big event in the episode was a bridge naming ceremony honoring Pangborn for his service as a police officer for Castle Rock. Deaver reluctantly attended but it would prove to be the right decision as a barking dog that reminded Ruth of her dead dog led her to jump off said bridge. He then jumped off to try and save her. At the hospital, Pangborn talked about his relationship with his mother and what led him back to her. He simply wanted to keep her safe. He remembered the person she was before the dementia and never stopped loving her. Ruth knew what was happening to her which made her very sad.
Jackie stumbled on to The Kid in Strand’s office and they went out in Jackie’s car. Strand returned to find The Kid missing and was understandably worried. Meanwhile in Jackie’s car, she yearned to go back to when all the interesting stuff happened in Castle Rock (referencing several Stephen King Easter Eggs along the way). She called Strand once The Kid was on the roof ledge of an old factory building. The Kid didn’t believe he should be out since bad things were happening because of him.
When Deaver returned home, Strand and The Kid were there. She explained what happened and what she picked up from him using her power. She felt how damaged he was. Deaver allowed The Kid to stay with him for the night and put him in his dad’s workshop. A piano helped him to start remembering more about himself.
Pangborn was not grateful about the bridge but his attention shifted to The Kid who he saw on camera. He found The Kid in the woods and confronted him. Their showdown was intense. They shared a past as he stumbled on to Warden Lacy when he had The Kid in his trunk and let him go. He wondered if The Kid was the devil but The Kid said that he wasn’t. It wasn’t fair that he seemingly didn’t age (we didn’t see The Kid in Lacy’s trunk) and everyone else was again and Ruth had dementia. The kid offered to help. The Kid also claimed to know what was happening to Castle Rock.
Overall, this was an amazing episode and the best of the series so far, getting us some more answers while offering plenty of strong moments thanks to some excellent performances from Holland, Spacek, Glenn, and especially Bill Skarsgård who delivered a mostly quiet but still very powerful performance. It will be exciting to see what The Kid knows and whatever other mysteries that will be unraveled in the next episode.
Score: 9.5/10
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.