CASTLE ROCK Recap: (S01E02) Habeas Corpus

Noetta Harjo

Updated on:

Castle Rock

Henry Deaver (André Holland) returned home to Castle Rock after receiving a mysterious phone call from Shawshank prison.  The homecoming brought up old memories that leads to a lot of questions about the past and present. And the mysterious Kid (Bill Skarsgårdfound under the prison. Who is he and were did he come from? 

Lots of references to old stories in this one. See if you can name them all.

RELATED: Recap the Series Premiere of CASTLE ROCK, “Severance” 

Last week, Dennis Zalewski (Noel Fisher) sounded the alarm at Shawshank prison after seeing a bunch of dead bodies on the security cameras.   The prison is put on lock down as Zalewski grabs a gun and searches for the Kid.  He almost shoots one of the other guard.  The other guards call for a false alarm after counting all of the prisoners. And the Kid is back in his cell.

Dale Lacy (Terry O’Quinn) said bad things have always happened in Castle Rock. The story about a rabid dog.  And the one about the strangler. Dale has his own story. The autumn after they found a kid’s body by the railroad tracks, his brother jumped from the roof of the high school.  He says every house has a story. People say the town is evil. Dale prayed for  years for a solution to rid the town of evil. One day, God answered. 

Castle Rock
CASTLE ROCK– “Habeas Corpus” – Episode 102 – Henry gets a new client at Shawshank Prison. Dale Lacy (Terry O’Quinn) shown. (Photo by: Patrick Harbron/Hulu)

Sometime around 1991, Dale left his house one day, telling Martha he had a meeting. He went to the prison, but did not go to the board room.  Instead he went to the empty cell block,  into the secret room and built a cage. Dale says only a few know about the bad things they did for their town and their home.  He prays they’ve forgotten.

Invitation Rescinded

Henry Deaver pays a visit to the Lacy home, looking for the Kid’s file.  Martha Lacy (Frances Conroy) invites him in and into the office. Martha gets a phone call while Henry looks around the office.  He finds a file with newspaper clippings about the strange occurrences and bunch of desk calendars. Each calendar has the same bible verse printed on it.  

Martha goes into the office and asks if he’s Henry Deaver. She says a neighbor called to let her know she let a black man in the house. He says he is and Martha gets upset.  Martha was apart of Rev. Deaver’s congregation.  He apologizes for offending her. She accuses him of taking advantage of a blind woman and tells him to leave before she call the police. 

Redemption in the Flesh

Henry pays a visit to the church to ask about Warden Lacy.  The Reverend (Aaron Staton) tells him that Warden Lacy rarely came to church.  He usually dropped off Martha and went to the woods.  The reverend says Henry’s mother told him that Henry represents death row inmates.  Henry says he does and the reverend is astonished.  Not because he works with inmates, but because of Henry’s history in Castle Rock. He says it’s nice to see redemption in the flesh.

Who is The Kid

Castle Rock
CASTLE ROCK– “Habeas Corpus” – Episode 102 – Henry gets a new client at Shawshank Prison. Bill SkarsgŒrd, shown. (Photo by: Patrick Harbron/Hulu)

At the prison, Zalewski picks up the Kid’s full lunch tray and asks if he got out of his cell the night before.  The Kid doesn’t answer.  Zalewski thinks he’s crazy. He blames it on mind fog and nausea from sympathetic pregnancy that fathers get.  

Alan (Scott Glenn) goes to a hotel bar and sits next to a woman. He catches a glimpse of her ID badge from Shawshank. Her name is Porter, Warden Porter (Ann Cusack).  Alan starts talking about his experiences as a cop.  He says one night he pulled Dale Lacy over for speeding. That night Dale told him what was wrong with Castle Rock.  Dale said he always thought the devil was a metaphor, but he now he knows the devil is a boy.  Dale said he caught him and locked him in a box.  She asks how long ago this happened. He tells her not to let the Kid out and walks away. 

Warden Porter and her assistant, Reeves (Josh Cooke) take another look at the cage.  She finds a box with some scissors and nail clippings.  Reeves asks if they need to call their boss, but Porter wouldn’t know what to tell him.  She says that everyone considered Lacy a decent man. So he must have had a good reason.  Reeves asks if he should make it go away and Porter nods. 

Reeves takes the Kid to a solitary confinement where he pushes him into a cell with another man.  The Kid stares out of the bars. His cellmate tries to talk to him, but the Kid doesn’t answer. The prisoner gets up and walks towards the Kid. The Kid gets scared and tells his cellmate not to touch him. 

RELATED: SDCC 2018: Stephen King Rings Our Bell at the CASTLE ROCK Panel

Happy Birthday Old Friend

Castle Rock
CASTLE ROCK– “Habeas Corpus” – Episode 102 – Henry gets a new client at Shawshank Prison. Ruth Deaver (Sissy Spacek) and Henry Deaver (Andre Holland), shown. (Photo by: Patrick Harbron/Hulu)

Henry wakes up and looks for his mom. Ruth (Sissy Spacek) is looking for candles. She puts one in a small cake for Henry.  His birthday is coming up.  Henry points out that he’s older than his father ever was.  He blows out the candle.

Flashback: Molly Strand (Cassady McClincy) and Henry (Caleel Harris) lived across the street from each other were younger.  She watched him all the time and wrote his name in a notebook.  One night, she woke up to someone calling for Henry to hurry. She watched as Henry ran out of his house and jumped into a car. 

Molly (Melanie Lynskey) meets her sister (Allison Tolman) for lunch.  Her sister tells her that Henry is in town, but Molly acts like she doesn’t care. Molly says she’s going to be on TV to talk about revitalization of historic downtown, starting with the yarn mill.  She needs $40,000 for a five year commercial lease on the mill.  Her sister gets upset, insisting that it’s a bad investment.  Molly hands her a lease agreement and says she forged her sister name and already filed the papers.  

Rumors Has It

Henry goes to the town bowling alley for a drink.  He asks the bartender if the prison guards still drink there. They will be there any minute.  A young woman named Jackie Torrance (Jane Levy) sits next to him. they sit and talk about the town and she asks to see his feet.  Jackie heard he lost three toes during his ordeal. He won’t show her. Instead, he asks to hear the story that the kids tell about him. 

Castle Rock
CASTLE ROCK– “Habeas Corpus” – Episode 102 – Henry gets a new client at Shawshank Prison. Henry Deaver (Andre Holland) and Jackie (Jane Levy) shown. (Photo by: Patrick Harbron/Hulu)

The story Jackie heard was that a sweet nice reverend and his wife took in a black child.  She calls him a screwed up orphan who got really weird.  One night in the dead of winter, the child lures the reverend out to Castle Lake and pushes him off the rocks. He corrects her, his father died at home.  The prison guards show up in the bar. Henry sees them and writes something on a napkin.  He tells the bartender to give the note to Zalewski.  Zalewski reads it and turns to see Henry staring at him.  

Henry goes home to find Alan digging up a dog to prove to Ruth that it’s dead.  Henry asks about her doctors, but Alan tells him that she has a new doctor in Boston.  Alan hits a suit case and opens it up. The dog is still in there.  Alan tells Henry not to worry about his mom. They know he’s too busy in Texas.  Henry tells Alan that he is the conservator of his mother’s estate.  He should have been contacted when they moved his father’s body.  And from now on, he says who can go in and out of his mother’s house. 

Habeas Corpus

Molly has a flashback of the night the police found Rev. Deaver.  The police and her mother questioned her about Henry, wanting to know if he talked about hurting his father. The police officer tries to scare her by telling her how cold it is outside.  He says Henry won’t make it in those temperatures..  Molly keeps the covers over half of her face the entire time.  The police tell her to speak up if she knows something.  She assures them that she doesn’t know anything. The police and her mother leave the room.  Molly lowers the covers. The air is so cold, she can see her breath. 

Zalewski goes to the Deaver house.  He fills Henry in on what’s been happening with the Kid. Henry doesn’t like what the warden is doing to him.  He wants to go to the governor. He promises Zalewski that he will get whistle blower protection.  Zalewski freaks out, saying he will lose his job if they find out he talked.  Zalewski says the Kid asked for Henry, so he’s done his part.  Henry needs proof the Kid exists. He can’t get in to the prison. The warden put him on every list to keep him out.  Zalewski says it would take an act of God. 

CASTLE ROCK– “Habeas Corpus” – Episode 102 – Henry gets a new client at Shawshank Prison.Henry Deaver (Andre Holland) and Jackie (Jane Levy), shown. (Photo by: Patrick Harbron/Hulu)

The next day, Henry boards a bus headed for the prison.  He joins everyone in the chapel.  Meanwhile a guard checks on the Kid and his cellmate.  He calls for help because the cellmate is dead.  During the autopsy, the doctor tells Warden Porter that the dead prisoner had cancer throughout his body.  Zalewski watches the Kid’s cell from the security room. 

The church groups leaves the chapel about the same time that  Zalewski pushes the Kid out of a door. Henry sees him and yells across the yard that he will be his lawyer, but the Kid has to say it.  The Kid knows who he is, but the prison alarms go off. Two guards retrieve the Kid and take him back to his cell.  

Dale wrote a letter to Alan, saying God told him where to find the boy and how to build his prison.  Dale thinks it was God’s way of ending the horrors of Castle Rock, but the guilt is too much to bare.  He’s afraid of what’s to come, but he knows Alan will defend Castle Rock.  Alan sits outside the prison, reading the letter from Dale. He burns it after he’s done. 

At the same time, a dog digs up Dale’s head in the woods.

Thoughts

Why does Bill Skarsgard always have to be a child of evil?  Ugh! 

So now we know why Dale too the Kid, but we don’t know who he is or where he came from.  And Molly…she is interesting or crazy. I haven’t seen enough to decide yet.

It appears that Henry is connected to the mystery of the Kid. Did Dale take Henry too?  I’m so excited to find out!

Read all Castle Rock recaps, here!

 

Noetta Harjo
Follow me

Leave a Comment