'Castle Rock' Recap: 'Habeas Corpus' & 'Local Color'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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I have to admit, that while I thoroughly enjoyed the first episode of Hulu’s new, Stephen King inspired series Castle Rock, I had quite a few long-term questions rattling around inside my mind as I settled in to watch the next two episodes available, ‘Habeas Corpus’ and ‘Local Color’, starting with…what was the rest of this series going to look like? Was it going to become a lengthy love letter to Stephen King’s work, with Easter Eggs abound? Was it going to be a fast-paced tale that worked hard to give us an intense ride, or was it going to be a beautiful character study, paying further homage to the master writer that inspired it?
 
Thankfully, all of those questions are answered in those two titular episodes and it turns out, that Castle Rock is going to be a hybrid of a great many things storytelling wise. It will of course pay tribute to King on a regular basis since the opening sequence of the second episode, and several moments later on in that particular tale worked hard to drop all kinds of little Easter Eggs our way. I mean, come on, we get mention of The Body and Cujo within the first few minutes of this tale and it doesn’t end there since I caught a few references to The Dead Zone and Needful Things when Henry works to learn more about why Warden Lacy hid a man in an abandoned part of Shawshank Prison. 
 
As for how the story is going to play out in general, well these two episodes revealed the fact that we are going to be treated to quite the powerful character study instead of a rip-roaring rollercoaster of a ride, and I’m truly okay with that. Because characters are King in King’s work and fleshing these people out is completely worth our while since we did learn plenty about Henry and how he’s struggling with being back in a place that rattles him to his core since he truly is viewed as a monster by so many in this town and I also loved that the King-verse is being expanded by showing us characters that may or may not be related to other important people from this world since I’m fairly certain all of us raised an eyebrow when we met Jackie Torrance, a woman with a name that may or may not relate to the man who lost his life at the Overlook Hotel ages ago and the surprises and character development didn’t end there. 

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​Because the third episode really dug heavily into the past, Molly Strand’s to be specific and all of the skeletons that haunt her closet since she was the one responsible for the death of Henry’s father since she seemingly killed him out of revenge for not treating the object of her obsession and affection with more respect and it was equally as fascinating to learn that she has some supernatural abilities of her own since she can hear thoughts and feel experiences and really, when it comes to Molly’s saga, one has to wonder if her mental state is slowly breaking down and what’s going to happen to her when the truth about what she’s done to Henry’s family comes out, because you know it will and I’m not sure Henry is going to forgive her for helping to ruin his life and of course for that whole, murdering his dad thing… 
 
But, perhaps the most pleasant surprise of my back-to-back viewing experience, was the reveal that there is indeed something bigger that the story is going to work toward in slow burn fashion, and all of that revolves around the mystery man in Shawshank. Because it would seem that according to the late Warden Lacy, this man is the Devil himself, and Alan believes this as well, and there’s some merit to their thinking since this dude’s roommate at Shawshank suddenly caught stage 4 cancer and because…he seems to know things. After all, he was able to ask the same questions that Henry’s father did all those years ago when things got rough, and there’s a real dark cloud hanging over the other question he asked in his face to face meeting with Henry because ‘has it begun?’ has call kinds of negative implications.
 
Either way, these two episodes were an utter delight to watch and I’m quite impressed with how compelling this series is turning out to be, and the creepy and mysterious vibe is what helps to keep your attention since you’re dying to know what strange moment is about to play out on the screen next and well, it’s settled, I’m hooked. This is simply one of the most fascinating Stephen King adaptations that I’ve ever seen, and I truly have to know how this one ends and now that I’m out of fresh episodes to watch, I’ll be counting down the minutes until next Wednesday, when I can return to Castle Rock once again. Until next time.  

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