There are a couple of mysteries to be solved on Castle Rock. One, who is the Kid (Bill Skarsgård), how did he get in a cage under the prison, and is he really the devil?
And two, what really happened to Henry Deaver (André Holland) in 1991? He doesn’t remember. The only thing he knows is that he disappeared for eleven days during which his father died. The townspeople blame Henry for his death. But his friend Molly Strand (Melanie Lynskey) knows who really killed him.
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Henry has a dream about being put in a cage. His captor enters the room with a flashlight, but Henry can’t see who it is. He wakes up and sees someone standing at his bedroom door. When he turns on the light, there’s no one there.
Dennis Zalewski (Noel Fisher) hates his job, but he goes in…everyday…to do watch the monitors in the security room. Everyday, he sees the guards mistreat the prisoners and everyday, he hates it a little bit more. Zalewski is the person who called Henry to Castle Rock to help the kid. Warden Porter (Ann Cusack)and her assistant Reeves (Josh Cooke) tried to hide him, but Henry was able to see him last week. The warden offered Henry a deal of $300,000 and an NDA if they agree to let the prison say the kid was wrongfully convicted. Henry said no. He’s taking it to trial.

Reeves visits with the Kid to talk him into taking the deal. Reeves tries to intimidate him with talk about how the town will suffer in a lawsuit against the prison, but the Kid doesn’t respond. Then Reeves says he was in the military and used to torture Iraqi soldiers, but The Kid isn’t scared. Instead he stands up, walks toward Reeves and recites scripture. Reeves gets scared and backs out of the cell, yelling for the guards. The Kid stops at the doorway and closes his cell door on Reeves.
Alan (Scott Glenn) and Henry have been at odds with each other since Henry returned home. First, there was the matter of Alan signing to have Matthew Deaver’s body moved with the rest of the cemetery. Alan takes Henry to the new cemetery to exhume Matthew’s casket. Henry plans to move it back to the church.
There’s also the matter of Ruth (Sissy Spacek). Henry wants to take her to Texas with him, but Alan thinks that Henry is being selfish and ungrateful. Alan even suggests that he marry Ruth to keep her in Castle Rock. He returns home and suggests to Ruth to move Texas, but Ruth says she’s fine where she is.
Henry confides in Molly about the Kid’s trial and the deal from the warden. Molly thinks he should take the deal, but Henry says that means they will get away with kidnapping. Molly mentions that people thought he had been kidnapped once and that triggers a memory from Henry’s dream. Molly senses it and reminds him that she can see things. She calls it guilty dysphoric daydreams. She starts to explain, but Zalewski interrupts, desperate to talk to Henry.
Zalewski gives Henry a drawing of the cage that he found the Kid in. He says the prison got rid of it. He also tells him about mistreatment of the prisoners. Zalewski says he realized that he is a prisoner of that place too. Shawshank is a terrible place and the jury needs to know it. Henry informs Zalewski that there is no jury, only a judge. He tells Zalewski to remain calm until the trial. Zalewski says that the bad people stay in Castle Rock because they know they are safe. He goes to work the next morning and draws happy faces on the security monitors to get through the day.

Henry goes to the library to look at old articles about Shawshank. He comes across an article about his disappearance. He finds two more articles and one has a name. Vincent Desjardin. The police investigated him, but he was cleared. Henry returns home to ask Ruth about Desjardin and Ruth gives him a vague answer about some crazy stories. Henry ask about Desjardin’s felony conviction, but Ruth avoids the questions. He asks her where she thought he was for those eleven days. Ruth doesn’t say anything. Henry demands that he talk to her, so she talks…about moving to Houston. Ruth is angry with him for having Alan suggest that she move to Texas. She sternly tells him that the only way she’s leaving her house is in a box.
Molly meets with a couple interested in buying the Lacy house. Mrs. Lacy left Dale’s ashes on the kitchen table, so Molly hides the urn in the freezer. The buyers find the urn, prompting Molly to explain Castle Rock to them. She says while bad things happen in Castle Rock, nothing bad ever happened in that house.
Henry goes to the Desjardin property to look around. He finds a box with a padlock on it. He breaks open the lock with a shovel but only finds a bowl of food and a spoon. A car drives up and Henry goes to meet the driver. The driver is Joseph Desjardin (David Selby), Vincent’s brother. Joseph says he inherited the house after Vincent died. When Joseph figures out who Henry is, he takes him upstairs to show him a box of files. The files are all about Henry. Joseph looks at the missing poster and says he can see the little boy in Henry’s face. Henry asks why Joseph has his file. He says he wanted to know what the police were saying about him. Then Joseph explains how the police were there and looked through everything. He says Henry knows that he never touched him.

Henry returns home and asks Alan why he didn’t investigate Joseph Desjardin more. Desjardin doesn’t have an alibi for the day he disappeared or when his father was found. He wants to know why Alan didn’t do his job. Alan says it’s because Matthew told him that Henry did it. Henry gets upset and leaves for Molly’s. She can hear his thoughts and meets him outside. He thinks he might have killed his father because of what Alan told him. Molly says it doesn’t matter because he was just a kid. Henry starts to leave, but Molly makes him stay.
The next day, Ruth is taking a walk with a friend when a truck pulls up to the church. In the bed of the truck is Matthew’s coffin.
Henry calls Zalewski and leaves a message that his plans have changed. He is taking the warden’s deal because he needs to return to Texas ASAP. Dennis hangs up before hearing the entire message. He goes to the security room and looks at the guards abusing the inmates. He takes the marker and draws on the monitors. And then takes a gun out of the safe.
On the first night after finding the Kid, Zalewski saw a vision of dead guard bodies around the prison. He flipped out thinking that the Kid had gotten out of his cell and killed the guards. Zalewski goes through the prison and starts shooting the guards. The bodies are in the same locations as Zalewski’s vision. He makes it to the warden’s office where Henry is waiting. He tells Henry that he wants to testify. A SWAT team throws small grenade in the office, killing Zalewski.
Thoughts
WOW! The Kid showed Zalewski what would happen. So he has some kind of supernatural ability, like Molly. But I don’t think he’s the devil. I feel bad for Zalewski. He was a good egg and just lost it!
As stated before, there are two mysteries here, Henry and the Kid. I’m pretty sure they have a connection. I’m starting to think that Alan isn’t telling the whole story…and neither is Ruth. This is just getting better.
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