'Castle Rock' Recap: 'The Queen'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

Be careful what you wish for. That’s a phrase that continues to roll around in my mind today, thanks to Hulu’s Castle Rock, of course. Because I have to be honest in telling you that I more or less rushed to my couch at the first available opportunity to tune in and watch the next episode of this incredible series since I was dying to know what happened to Ruth Deaver while she and the Kid were seemingly alone in the house and well, I paid dearly when it comes to my quest for knowledge because ‘The Queen’, not only delivered on answering that all important question, but it broke my heart and countless others in the process of giving us that big reveal.
 
Yet, as this series it wont to do, it figured out a way to tell this particular tale in the most unique way possible, by posing other important questions to the audience, in that, is Ruth Deaver actually mentally ill, or is she able to travel through space and time? Because this particular story took the time to fill in a lot of blanks when it comes to Ruth by showing us how exactly she travels into the past to re-live both beautiful and harrowing moments, and many of these little voyages through her mind (and possibly time) just so happened to coincide with moments wherein it seemed as though we thought she was lost mentally, and that made for a fascinating narrative to say the least.
 
However, while it was cool to get to know Ruth and everything she stands for, the darkness in this episode all came about from two key plot threads. The first one involving her husband Matthew, because Father Deaver was a far more twisted and angry individual than we have been led to believe since he pushed Henry and his family time and time again to hear the sound of God in the woods, and we also learned that hearing this sound nearly drove him to suicide and well, it’s inherently clear that Matthew was quite the stereotypical priest to his wife and adopted son since he consistently questioned their morals and their motives in abusive fashion while maintaining his image and stead as a man of the Lord.
 
But, the heartbreaking moment I made mention of at the opening of this article, was also the second and darkest moment of this particular tale. Because Ruth was convinced that the Kid was some kind of unholy reincarnation of Matthew (and there’s merit to that which we will get to in a moment), and she was ready and willing to defend herself and after hurting the Kid, Ruth eventually got her husband’s old gun and loaded that sucker up and at the sign of first trouble, let her aggressor have it, only to discover…she’d fired on dear Alan, which means this is likely where his journey comes to an end and that’s a shame because Alan really is a good man who genuinely loved Ruth and only wanted the best for her.
 
So, there’s the answer to the big question, the Kid never hurt Ruth, she instead caused harm to the man she always loved and that hurts, and their farewell moment was a thing of beauty. Yet ironically, more questions were posed in this tale despite it answering a big one. Because I’m left wondering, did Ruth also die since her ‘Totems’ were present in her favorite memory with Alan? And we never found out if it was mental illness surging through her or not and to top it all off, the Kid made things weird for everyone in this episode because he knew a lot about Ruth and Matthew, which means this man is either the reincarnation Ruth thought he was, or…a being that knows every single moment that exists in time and space. Either way, wow what a powerful and moving episode, and kudos to Sissy Spacek for utterly killing it with her performance and once again, we are left starving for more when it comes to this incredible television series. Until next time. 

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