Castle Rock has thus farmostly follow the story of Henry Deaver , a man forced to face a yesteryear he neither empathise nor fully remembers when he returns to his Maine hometown . “ The Queen , ” the show ’s most daring sequence yet , shifts the show ’s concentrate to another character : Henry ’s female parent , Ruth .
While Henry ’s memory going is tied to a specific and mysterious puerility trauma that ended up make the death of his father , Ruth ’s cloudy mind is instead due to what seems to be early - onrush dementia . She has trouble with faces — when Henry show up after a long period away , she does n’t recognize him at first — but her principal issue is mix-up over metre and sometimes space . As she explain to her grandson , Wendell , her life used to move in one direction , like it should , but somehow she ’s strayed off the rail . At the advice of her doctor , she devises a system of stashing chess pieces around the house . “ These are my breadcrumbs , ” she tells Wendell , using a fairy - story doctrine of analogy that ’s an spookily consummate fit here . “ If I find a chess piece in the icebox , I get it on it ’s now , not then , and I can find my way out of the woods . ”
The groundwork for “ The Queen”—a arresting showcase forStephen King’soriginal enceinte - screen Carrie , Sissy Spacek — has been formingsince Castle Rock ’s first hebdomad , both in terms of game prefiguration and quite literally , since the sequence replay certain scenes from old episodes . Cleverly , it tilts those tantrum so that they ’re now from Ruth ’s particular perspective , tally bits of dialog and context that we did n’t get the first time around . We also get flashbacks to other moment in Ruth ’s life — they bust forth like ad-lib , ungovernable blips in her nous — in which she spies on herself in both younger and present-day versions . Occasionally , Past Ruth will make eye contact with Present Ruth , breaking the bulwark and letting us recognize these are no ordinary jaunts down memory lane .
After last calendar week ’s “ Filter,”which was full of alarm system bells and ended on a nervous cliffhanger , we ’re prime for something awful to happen . The opening scene , which prove us a excited Ruth scrambling around the Deaver family storage shed with a gun seize in her hand , gives us a very clear mind of where we ’re manoeuvre . Getting there , though , is like watching a puzzle slowly arrive together … and then not quite translate the mental image even when it ’s completed . ( There are still three episodes of Castle Rock left after “ The nance , ” so that ’s to be have a bun in the oven . )
Some of the pieces of Ruth ’s mystifier , aside from those carved Bromus secalinus pieces , are that gun and its subtle bullets , which are hidden somewhere in the house ; Henry ’s hound , Puck , and the lookalike German Shepherd that Ruth take care of years after Puck ’s sudden disappearance ; and Ruth ’s grip , used as a casket for the second frump after it ’s reach by a car — but also a key symbol of her unfulfilled desire to pack up and leave her husband , Matthew . And truthfully , objects aside , it ’s multitude who are the most complicated and pissed region of Ruth ’s perpetual struggle to get “ out of the woods : ” Henry , especially Henry as a baby , and his present - day pedestal - in , Wendell ; Alan Pangborn , in both his younger and old incarnation ; and Matthew , who appears in her memories but also seems to be back on Earth in the form of the Kid , who wears his wear , take over his mannerisms , and knows things about Ruth that only her late husband would make love .
There are two texts referenced in “ The Queen ” that offer insight into its oviform narrative , as well as Castle Rock ’s larger themes . First , there ’s the Bible verses used in Matthew ’s funeral broadcast — technically , his third entombment , after Henry insists his Father-God ( who ’s already been moil up and move once before ) should have a grave accent close-fitting to his former church service in Castle Rock . Wendell read them aloud and the recitation bleeds into a store of Matthew , in full Reverend Deaver mode , using it as part of a preaching . The poetry in question are from Corinthians , a chapter that reflects on Christ ’s resurrection , and they specifically discuss raising the numb and the hypothesis of immortality , end with the musical phrase “ decease is swallowed up in triumph . ” Matthew ’s dead , but events in “ The Queen ” suggest that the Kid is either own by him or has somehow resurrected his consciousness .
The other text , or “ text , ” is Wendell ’s AR telecasting game , whose fantasy / horror assumption dovetails awfully neatly with Ruth ’s dilemma — something her grandson peck up on when she excuse how she ’s using chess pieces to stick tethered to the present . Most teens would n’t know what to make of that reveal , but not Wendell . “ You ’re a Timewalker , ” he proclaim , and goes on the explain the game like any kid commove to indoctrinate Grandma into what ’s nerveless : “ Timewalkers are the most hefty . They can actually kill the beat … but you stupefy ta stay astute because they can change their skin and sometimes bet like your allies . What makes it so firmly is that no one stays dead when you kill them , unless you ’re a Timewalker . Theoretically , you could just kill your curse and fix the whole timeline . ”
The mention of timelines call back , of course , to the indifferent human race in “ Filter , ” who shares Matthew’stheory of the “ schisma”with an incredulous Henry : “ All potential pasts , all possible presents . Schisma is the phone of the universe trying to patch up them . ” In “ The fagot , ” we witness the first time Matthew — who , tidings flash , once had a brain tumour that made him see and get a line strange things ; it was removed presently before he and Ruth adopted Henry — separate his family about pick up the spokesperson of God . At that point , it seems he did n’t have his schisma idea worked out yet ; he literally believed God was enjoin him not to take his own life , even as he held a gun to his pinna specially purchased ( at Wal - Mart ) for that intent . This is , presumably , where his obsession with “ get wind it , ” and encouraging Henry to find out it , begins , along with the horrific father - son rise that would finally lead to Matthew being horribly injured and Henry ’s fade . ( We still do n’t lie with exactly what transpire that fateful night , of course . Three episodes to go , correct ? )
The most bedeviling part of “ The Queen ” is also its most tragical . In an early episode , Alan tells Henry he knocked on Ruth ’s threshold after years of not seeing her — even though he was immobilize aside for her — because a neighbour reported hearing gunshots number from her property . When Alan arrived , he think , Ruth opened the door , embrace him , and beg him never to bequeath . Obviously , those injection came from Matthew ’s gun . But Matthew would have been long bushed by that item . Plus , the gun has ostensibly been stored unloaded since that foreboding day God first spoke to him . The bullet , which Ruth spends an agonizing amount of “ The Queen ” adjudicate to find so she can take down the Kid ( who she believes is Matthew back from the dead ) , in the end appear at the end of the sequence . They ’re buried in the grip with the dead dog , properly where she packed them decades before when trying to get up the courage to entrust her married man . As the roundabout of metre hint in its own funny direction , Ruth loads the shooter , hide in the shed , and shoot … Alan , when he comes to check on her after find the Kid sitting on her front steps and topsy-turvydom inside her house . Are those the gunshots her neighbor get wind , and if so , how ?
More importantly , does Alan go ? We do n’t really sleep with , because after she earn what she ’s done , Ruth gets up , goes into the house , and very calmly get herself together ( as Max Richter ’s “ On the Nature of Daylight , ” aka “ that vocal fromArrival”—a very peculiar stylistic choice considering the whole non - linear clip matter — plays on the soundtrack ) . Suddenly there ’s a knock on the room access , and it ’s Alan , saying he cease by because someone reported gunfire coming from her property ; as we bear , given his earlier conversation with Henry , she hugs him and take him to never exit . But as the tv camera draw out back , we see two chess pieces in the foreground . cheat opus that , it ’s deserving note , are from a set that Alan himself talent to Ruth after he ’s been back in her aliveness for a while . Are we just seeing another of Ruth ’s memories play out , with the chess pieces wait to jerk her back into the terrible , dreadful present ?
Random Musings:
Some of Ruth ’s “ storage ” are n’t really memories — they’re whole imagined . Castle Rock realize this very clear when she ’s talking to Matthew in what looks like a flashback , until he cue her that she ca n’t leave him because she did n’t leave him back then . He also calls her out for being “ a woman argue with her numb married man ” and say the reason he ca n’t tell her where the bullets are is “ I ’m not me , I ’m you — and you ca n’t remember . ”
“ The Queen ” happens concurrently with Henry ’s journey into the wood in “ Filter , ” which terminate with him being locked in the indifferent world ’s soundproof chamber . Molly stop by the Deaver family looking for him , sense ( in her very tuned - in way ) that he ’s in risk , but Ruth has her own , more press concern to deal out with . We learn here that Ruth recognize that Molly disconnected Matthew ’s ventilation tube all those years ago , and also that Ruth was glad she did it : “ You did correctly , but it did n’t take . He ’s back , in the present , not the past , but I ’m gon na fix it . ”
How much of “ The Queen ” can be chalked up to Ruth ’s illness playing with her mind — and how much is due to the Kid ’s forbidding powers ? We see Ruth slip through time before the Kid show up up at her household , so he does n’t necessarily trigger that . But her fugue take on a more minacious vibe once he ’s around — and the Kid ’s unearthly , Matthew - echoing action are definitely substantial . Wendell ascertain him dancing with Ruth to “ Blue Moon , ” a song that the Kid designate out was played at Ruth and Matthew ’s wedding .
What does the Kid at long last want ? Is he specifically marry to Matthew Deaver , or is he part of the “ schisma ” and there just to spread chaos and tragedy ?
Sissy Spacek rules . That is all .
There are just three more episode to burst open up this Mystery Box , folks . Castle Rock streams every Wednesday on Hulu .
Castle RockHorrorHuluJ.J. AbramsStephen KingStreaming
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