CASTLE ROCK Recap: (S01E08) Past Perfect

Noetta Harjo

Holy Cow! Who is this kid? And What is he doing to the people of Castle Rock? Ruth (Sissy Spacek)thought she had a handle on reality with her chess pieces as breadcrumbs.  The Kid (Bill Skarsgård) scared her and she mistakenly shot and killed Alan (Scott Glenn) .  How will this death affect Ruth now?  
Henry (André Holland) was locked inside the filter by two of his father’s old friends.  Molly (Melanie Lynskey) knows he’s in trouble, but doesn’t know where to find him.  Will the filter give Henry some answers?  Let’s find out. 

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B & B

A few weeks ago, Molly showed the Lacy house to a professor and his wife. They said they needed a change of pace.  The reason they needed a change is because the professor, Gordon (Mark Harelik) beat up the man who was having an affair with his wife, Lilith (Lauren Bowles).

The Lacy house intrigued them, but they were more interested in the history of the town and Dale Lacy’s (Terry O’Quinn) artwork. They bought the house and immediately began renovations, turning the place into a bed and breakfast.  They find more of Dale Lacy’s paintings in the basement. Almost all of the paintings are of the Kid.

Their idea is to turn the B & B into a murder house experience. They want to buy more property in Castle Rock and turn it into a tourist attraction. Gordon decorates the rooms with mannequins set up as reenactments of murders that occurred in the house.  They also hung several pictures of the Kid around the house as well.

Gordon and Lilith are working on their marriage, but Gordon is having a hard time forgetting the affair.  A young couple arrives, stirring up some hurt feelings.  Lilith asks how long they’ve been married and they give different answers.  They are married to other people. Maybe that’s why Gordon kills them.

Castle Rock
Castle Rock — “Past Perfect” – Episode 108 – Newcomers set up shop in Castle Rock, Henry follows a clue. Shown: Lauren Bowles (Photo by: Dana Starbard/Hulu)

Rescue Henry

Molly wakes up in the middle of the night because she can hear and see Henry’s fear.  In her vision she saw Henry in three places: in the woods near a campfire both as child and adult; inside of a cage in someone’s basement; inside the filter, afraid and in pain.  She also saw the Kid. He was in the basement and was startled by something or someone. Molly leaves her house and uses the signal to find Henry.

Molly finds the camper and has to use fire extinguisher to open the filter.  Henry has to take a minute to clear his mind before he sees her. When they leave the camper, Henry asks where the two men are. Molly doesn’t know, but Odin (Charles Jones) is laying next to a tree trunk with the metal rod in his eye. Willie (Rory Culkin) is nowhere to be found.

Molly takes Henry home and they talk about his experience.  He asks if she was with him, but Molly can’t explain it. She’s just as confused as he is.  The experience makes Henry question what he thought he knew about the world. He also thinks he sounds crazy.  Molly says she’s been called crazy all her life; he’ll get used to it. Henry holds her hand and apologizes. He tells her that she’s not crazy.

Protect Ruth

Henry goes inside, not knowing what happened the night before, but he feels it.  He searches the house, calling out to Wendell (Chosen Jacobs) and Ruth. Ruth is in her room asleep, but Wendell is not there.  Henry hears water running in the kitchen. He finds the Kid and is confused as to why he’s there. Wendell walks in the house and wonders why the Kid is there as well.  Henry tells him to go upstairs and lock the door.

The Kid walks out the back door and Henry follows him, telling the Kid that he shouldn’t be there.  The Kid takes him to Alan’s body.  He says Ruth got confused and killed Alan. He cleaned it up and now they have to bury the body in the woods to protect Ruth. The Kid asks Henry if he hears it.  Henry gives him a strange look. The Kid knows he did and says they have to go to the woods now.

Wendell watches them walk to the shed. He takes out his phone and makes a call.  A few minutes later, the police show up and the kid gets angry. He tells Henry that he rescued him from that basement. He’s been waiting for Henry for 27 years. He didn’t ask for any of this. The Kid walks out the back door.  Henry goes out the front door of the shed and meets the police.

Strange Neighbors

Jackie drives around town, listening to the news. The police are still looking for the Kid. He is the primary suspect in the Juniper Hill fire that killed fourteen people.

Gordon and Lilith clean up the bodies.  Gordon says he doesn’t know what came over him, but Lilith tells him to forget it. They cut up the bodies, putting the parts into trash bags and load the bags into Gordon’s van.  Jackie walks into the house as Gordon and Lilith are cleaning. She’s there to talk to them about using her taxi service. In return, she will refer tourists to the B & B. She is distracted by the decor in the living room.  Jackie says she had the idea to turn the town into a murder theme park five years ago. Lilith wants to get rid of Jackie so she says they are preparing for a big group and they push her out the door.

Castle Rock
Castle Rock — “Past Perfect” – Episode 108 – Newcomers set up shop in Castle Rock, Henry follows a clue. Shown: Mark Harelick (Photo by: Dana Starbard/Hulu)

Jackie thinks the couple is strange.  She peeks into their car at the number of trash bags inside.  As she walks back to her car, she finds a bracelet. There’s blood on it and that makes Jackie more suspicious of the couple. She pockets the bracelet and leaves quickly.

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Dazed and Confused

The police investigate the grounds of the Deaver house.  Henry sits in the living room when Wendell joins him. Wendell asks if Henry was close to Alan.  Alan took care of Ruth for a long time. Henry says he could be a good man. Wendell says Ruth told him to leave her alone with that guy.  He didn’t know where to go so he spent the night at Matthew’s church. Wendell asks where Henry was all night. They are interrupted when Ruth calls for Henry.

Henry goes to her room and Ruth starts babbling about protecting Henry. She says Henry knows what ‘he’ was capable of. She was scared that ‘he’ would hurt Henry because of the way ‘he’ used to treat him. Ruth says he was coming at her and she tried to hide.  She stood up to him this time and protected Henry. Ruth needs Henry to help her explain that she had no choice. She tells him to find Alan to help him talk to the police. Ruth thinks she shot Matthew. Wendell stands outside of her room listening.

Henry and Wendell go outside. One of the officers  says Ruth is still confused, so she will return later to question her. Henry says she can only talk to Ruth when he’s there  She asks Henry about the Kid being at the house. She finds it interesting that Henry never got his name and now fifteen people are dead.  The officer knows who Henry is. He went to school with her daughter. The kids used to call him Black Death.  She thinks its interesting that he comes back to town and there’s another death in his house. She also blames him for Dennis Zalewski’s death at the prison. Henry grabs Wendell and they go back inside.

Ring-A-Ling

Henry decides to send Wendell back to Boston. He says Castle Rock is a messed up town and he shouldn’t have ever brought Wendell there. Wendell says the things that Ruth told him about Matthew kind of explains some things.  Ruth has dementia, but she told him more about his father than Henry ever has. Henry says they will talk later, but Wendell knows Henry won’t. Henry promises to visit Wendell in Boston after things are settled in Castle Rock.  Wendell tells his father to leave with him now. Henry promises he will be there in a few days.  Wendell watches him get in his car and drive away.  A bird flies into the front windshield of the bus, killing itself. Wendell starts hearing a high pitch ringing in his ears and it’s painful.

Henry calls Molly and tells her that wherever the kid goes, people die. Shawshank, Juniper Hill, Ruth’s house, but he’s not the one killing people. He has other people do it for him, like he’s pushing them. Molly says she ever felt anything like what she felt when she was near the kid.  Henry tells her how the kid said he rescued him from a basement and waited for 27 years for him. Henry asks if Molly ever went down to Dale Lacy’s basement. The widow said she couldn’t find the key.

Castle Rock
Castle Rock — “Past Perfect” – Episode 108 – Newcomers set up shop in Castle Rock, Henry follows a clue. Shown: Mark Harelick (Photo by: Dana Starbard/Hulu)

D. Lacy 1991

Henry goes to the Lacy house, now the Castle Rock Bed & Breakfast. No one is there, but Henry is able to find a way inside through the basement.  He looks around the basement and only finds mannequin parts. He goes upstairs into the house to look around. Upstairs, he finds a room with paintings of the Kid, like a shrine.  He looks at the year the paintings were made. He finds one, drawn by pencil from 1991. The Kid is wearing the a shirt with a single stripe across it, like the one Henry wore in the picture on his missing poster.

Molly sees a flash of Henry’s trip in the woods when he was a boy. In her vision she is with him as a girl, running through the woods at night. She runs into the daytime and she’s an adult.  She sees herself lying in the woods, with blood on her face. Someone steps over her boy and she wakes up. Molly takes the rest of the pills to keep herself from having another vision. She calls Henry to let him know she is coming over.  She doesn’t want to be alone.

Murder House

At the B&B, Henry takes photos of the paintings with his phone.  Gordon finds him, so Henry starts apologizing for breaking in. He explains that he’s a lawyer and the man in the painting is his client.  Henry apologizes again and decides to leave. Gordon blocks the door, but slowly moves out of the way so Henry can leave. Henry backs out of the room. Lilith sneaks up on him and stabs him in the back.  Henry tries to get the knife from her. Gordon tries to pull Henry off and gets stabbed. Henry and Lilith continue to wrestle for knife. Henry pulls away just as Lilith swings at him. She stabs herself in the throat.  

Henry runs out of the house.  Gordon finds Lilith and starts screaming. He runs after Henry and catches him before he can drive away. He pulls Henry out of his car and tries to stab him. Henry tries to fight him off. He is saved when Jackie hits Gordon in the head with an ax.

A bus stops at a small town bus stop. Wendell gets off the bus and looks around.  He starts walking and passes a sign that says Castle Rock is 24 miles away.

Castle Rock
Castle Rock — “Past Perfect” – Episode 108 – Newcomers set up shop in Castle Rock, Henry follows a clue. (Photo by: Dana Starbard/Hulu)

The police arrive at the Lacy house. Jackie and Henry sit in the ambulance. Jackie is trying to decompress from what just happened. She says she didn’t feel like herself.  Henry doesn’t hear her, he only hears the ringing in his ears. Henry gets a call from the Reverend. He says Ruth stopped by the church looking for Alan. The reverend is worried, saying she seemed disoriented.  Henry rushes to his car and drives away. The police chase after him on foot.

Molly Is Ready

Molly speeds to the Deaver house, wearing her sunglasses in the dark. She is having a hard time driving straight.  Molly drives by her parents house, that’s up for sale. She see the porch light on and stops. When she gets to the front door, she finds that it has been opened.  Molly walks inside and finds the Kid sitting on the stairs.

Molly asks why the Kid is there.  He says Henry isn’t ready yet, but Molly can help him because she knows him.  Molly doesn’t understand saying she doesn’t know anything about the Kid. He starts telling her details about her parents house, things she used to do as a child.  They go up to her bedroom and he describes how it used to look. He tells her that she used to paint her nails with white out. She asks how he knows all of that. The Kid says he was there.  They look out the window and it starts to snow. The Kid points to the woods and looks at Molly. He tells Molly that she died in the woods.

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Thoughts

Either he can see the future, or he’s from another space and time…or he’s crazy.  The Kid knows things that he shouldn’t, but why? And bad things keep happening since he got out of prison.  Is he the cause? Or is it just bad luck.

There are only two episodes left and so many questions still need answering.  

Who is he? Why did Dale Lacy lock him up and paint his picture? How is the Kid connected to Henry, Molly and Ruth?  

 

 

 

Noetta Harjo
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