Castle Rock: Henry Deaver
September 5, 2018 9:36 PM - Season 1, Episode 9 - Subscribe
Medical researcher Henry Deaver is called back to his hometown of Castle Rock, Maine, where he discovers that his recently-deceased father had been keeping a shocking secret. Inspired by the works of Stephen King.
I thought this was a well-executed twist that didn't overplay the hand that had been dealt in prior episodes, and as evidenced by people's theories from the last few weeks, they left enough clues to make it guessable without it being brutally obvious. We still have one more episode to tie together certain loose threads (Namely, what is the Schisma?), but this seems to solve the mystery of Henry Deaver's (and Henry Deaver's) disappearance.
I thought this was a well-executed twist that didn't overplay the hand that had been dealt in prior episodes, and as evidenced by people's theories from the last few weeks, they left enough clues to make it guessable without it being brutally obvious. We still have one more episode to tie together certain loose threads (Namely, what is the Schisma?), but this seems to solve the mystery of Henry Deaver's (and Henry Deaver's) disappearance.
Dammit JJ Abrams. Multiverse is a tired crutch of a plot device. It liberates the scriptwriters from causality. If the Kid has been alternate Henry Deaver all along, why didn't he say anything instead of skulking around sinisterly? This is not satisfying.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 9:44 PM on September 6, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 9:44 PM on September 6, 2018 [3 favorites]
I was surprisingly far into the opening scenes before I realized that was Bill Skarsgard. Smiling made him genuinely unrecognizable.
posted by rhiannonstone at 9:54 PM on September 6, 2018
posted by rhiannonstone at 9:54 PM on September 6, 2018
So, was that a thinny or Todash?
posted by rhiannonstone at 11:06 PM on September 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by rhiannonstone at 11:06 PM on September 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
So, is this going somewhere, or is it just "intrigue" for next weeks cliffhanger?
posted by lkc at 11:30 PM on September 6, 2018
posted by lkc at 11:30 PM on September 6, 2018
Dammit JJ Abrams. Multiverse is a tired crutch of a plot device. It liberates the scriptwriters from causality.
Let me refer you to my comment from E01. Contrary to the impression that people seem to have (about all Bad Robot productions, it seems), Abrams does not run this show, Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason do. They appear regularly on the official aftershow podcast, where they supply a good deal of insight into their particular narrative choices, and the specific elements of Stephen King (such as alternate universes) featured in each episode.
More to your point, I do agree that multiverses can be a lazy storytelling technique that allows writers to crumple up their continuity so nothing matters (see "Sliders", or the CW DC-verse's tiresome timeline shenanigans), but the whole point of the episode is that the fate of both Henry Deavers (and the people in their respective timelines) matters. The stakes are doubled, and it seems likely that the resolution will require an additional sacrifice from both Henrys. Although King has a reputation for whiffing the endings on some pretty grandiose yarns, I think the self-contained scope of the seasonal anthology format means the showrunners have had a pretty good idea of where they were going from the beginning. We'll see for sure next week.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:02 AM on September 7, 2018 [1 favorite]
Let me refer you to my comment from E01. Contrary to the impression that people seem to have (about all Bad Robot productions, it seems), Abrams does not run this show, Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason do. They appear regularly on the official aftershow podcast, where they supply a good deal of insight into their particular narrative choices, and the specific elements of Stephen King (such as alternate universes) featured in each episode.
More to your point, I do agree that multiverses can be a lazy storytelling technique that allows writers to crumple up their continuity so nothing matters (see "Sliders", or the CW DC-verse's tiresome timeline shenanigans), but the whole point of the episode is that the fate of both Henry Deavers (and the people in their respective timelines) matters. The stakes are doubled, and it seems likely that the resolution will require an additional sacrifice from both Henrys. Although King has a reputation for whiffing the endings on some pretty grandiose yarns, I think the self-contained scope of the seasonal anthology format means the showrunners have had a pretty good idea of where they were going from the beginning. We'll see for sure next week.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:02 AM on September 7, 2018 [1 favorite]
So, is this going somewhere, or is it just "intrigue" for next weeks cliffhanger?
It's only a cliffhanger if the same bunch of characters come back next season. And from the looks of things, this is going to be an American Horror Story/True Detective/Fargo-style anthology series.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:05 AM on September 7, 2018
It's only a cliffhanger if the same bunch of characters come back next season. And from the looks of things, this is going to be an American Horror Story/True Detective/Fargo-style anthology series.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:05 AM on September 7, 2018
If the Kid has been alternate Henry Deaver all along, why didn't he say anything instead of skulking around sinisterly?
Recall that our Henry (Henry1?) was gone for several days (many years in his experience) and couldn't remember what happened or where he had been. So the Kid (Henry2?) is coming off of 27 years of solitary confinement (something that is literally torture enough on its own, without any weird supernatural multiverse stuff) with only Lacy--who thinks he's the devil--to speak to. He's getting his bearings and trying to remember. Henry1 is now all grown up, even though Henry2 hasn't changed a bit. No one recognizes him, not even Molly. He's wiggin' out, basically.
posted by lovecrafty at 10:38 AM on September 7, 2018 [1 favorite]
Recall that our Henry (Henry1?) was gone for several days (many years in his experience) and couldn't remember what happened or where he had been. So the Kid (Henry2?) is coming off of 27 years of solitary confinement (something that is literally torture enough on its own, without any weird supernatural multiverse stuff) with only Lacy--who thinks he's the devil--to speak to. He's getting his bearings and trying to remember. Henry1 is now all grown up, even though Henry2 hasn't changed a bit. No one recognizes him, not even Molly. He's wiggin' out, basically.
posted by lovecrafty at 10:38 AM on September 7, 2018 [1 favorite]
Oh! I just realized... Molly unhooked Matthew1 because she was getting Henry1's desires to kill him after being held captive for 27 years by Matthew2... Daaamn.
posted by lovecrafty at 10:46 AM on September 7, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by lovecrafty at 10:46 AM on September 7, 2018 [4 favorites]
Let me refer you to my comment from E01. Contrary to the impression that people seem to have (about all Bad Robot productions, it seems), Abrams does not run this show, Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason do
Maybe he runs the show in an alternate timeline.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 6:27 PM on September 7, 2018 [6 favorites]
Maybe he runs the show in an alternate timeline.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 6:27 PM on September 7, 2018 [6 favorites]
Go then, there are other worlds than these.
posted by terilou at 8:12 AM on September 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by terilou at 8:12 AM on September 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
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So apparently the presence of someone from another universe is psychically disruptive, such that people around the interloper develop murderous or otherwise destructive impulses. Castle Rock is a place with weak boundaries between universes, so such interlopers are fairly common. There, mystery solved as far as why CR has so many murders.
All that's left is to get the Kid back to his home universe where he is the one and only Henry Deaver, and everything will be back to normal until the next cross-universe breach. Not sure what else needs to happen to bring season 1 to a close. I suppose Wendell will get sucked into another universe, which, as they say, will not wendell.
posted by five toed sloth at 10:36 PM on September 5, 2018 [3 favorites]