‘Castle Rock’ Recap: ‘The Laughing Place’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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Audiences will forever be entranced by what exactly makes a villain tick, and I fully understand why. Because being able to dive into the mind of a human being that has in essence turned their back on their fellow man is a fascinating prospect, especially when one considers that no two paths to darkness are the same, and that’s why television shows and movies and books often take the time to explore the moments when people turn, to help all of us understand what makes a modern monster. But while this is now commonplace in storytelling, what I find far more fascinating these days are the stories that take this examination one step further.
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Because people that turn to a life of evil or crime, rarely do so because of a singular moment in their lives, their journey is often cumulative and heartbreaking. So the stories that take the time to show us that proverbial downward spiral, prove to be far more fascinating, since they truly help us to understand how lost these individuals are and how our world failed them and that’s why this week’s episode of Castle Rock was so downright compelling. For ‘The Laughing Place’ gave us Annie Wilkes’ origin story to speak, since we spent a great deal of time with her as a child and a young adult, which allowed for us to bear witness to every heartbreaking and formative moment of the monster that resides within her, and what we uncovered was some powerful stuff.

For in this tale, we came to learn that Annie Wilkes was not always the avid reader we’ve known her to be, mainly because she grew up with a learning disability and her frustration with that and her parents inability to truly dive in and help her daughter led to her being pulled out of regular school. A move that quite frankly insulated her from the rest of the world and stunted her emotional and mental growth. Something that was further compounded by her parents, since her father rarely took responsibility for anything in life, and her mother’s negative view of the world and life, something generated by her mental illness, only helped to narrow Annie’s growth further. But while at first glance none of this sound like it could remotely help to birth an honest to God monster, that kind of life as it turns out, was essential to creating the Annie we know today.

Because her insultation to the world and her emotions for that matter as well, combined with an inherited mental illness, all served as the ingredients for a ticking time bomb, one that was staved off for a time by the kindness of a tutor named Rita, who helped Annie learn to read and pass the GED. But that kind of explosion is inevitable, and the subsequent suicide of her mother, and the reveal that her father was unfaithful to her mother with Rita and a father once again sent Annie into a downward spiral. And the lack of care from her father and stepmother only helped to let the darkness take hold and that brought about the fateful day in question, wherein Annie accidentally killed her father in a fit of emotional and unstable rage, and once her fury was satisfied she took her baby sister and adopted her as her own daughter, and just like that the Annie Wilkes we know was officially brought into the world.

Yet while this story has been quite the guarded secret on Annie’s part, it won’t be long now before the truth is out in the open. For Joy called her biological mother, setting in motion all kinds of trouble for Annie and to make matters worse, our intrepid nurse is also about to come face to face with the man she killed and that… should be interesting. Either way though, what an incredible episode this turned out to be. Because it answered every single question that’s ever been on our minds when it comes to Annie Wilkes and she serves as a fine reminder that evil is complex in nature and that often times, the villain rarely sees themselves as such, and it should be interesting to see where the revelations introduced in this particular tale take us in the weeks to come. Until next time. 

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