‘Castle Rock’ Recap: ‘The Word’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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​I would venture to say, that what truly makes Stephen King’s work (and subsequent adaptations of his work) genuinely magical in every way imaginable, is the sheer fact that everything ties together. For it is a well-known fact that The Dark Tower stands over everything in the King-Verse and seeing everything mesh and meld together in seamless fashion in these stories, just offers a sense of realism and connectivity that we don’t get from most authors. Which is why I’m such a fan of Castle Rock on Hulu, simply because this series is working to perfectly assemble the connective tissue that makes up the maestro’s work and for proof, well look no further than this week’s episode.
 
For ‘The Word’ found a way to merge season one and the current season of this magnificent series in stunning fashion, all by way of a story that took us across centuries to properly help the audience understand exactly what the heck is going on with Ace and his people, and this backstory was quite delightful when all is said and done, since it offered up plenty of answers. Because we came to learn that in 1619, New Jerusalem was a dying place, one where only the rich ate well and the people fought for scraps, and when that caste system was challenged by young Amity, the prophet that her group speaks of, she and her love were cast out into the wild. And this is where the weaving begins since she heard the call of the Thinny and met with someone mysterious and this person became her personal God and helped her to create a bountiful community.
 
Which in turn made her the trusted new leader of New Jerusalem, and she provided for her people and brought them great joy and prosperity. But there was just one problem. Her new master demanded things of her. Simple stuff at first, such as dealing with those that wronged her in violent fashion and converting others to believe in Him. But it didn’t take long for His expectations to grow and he eventually demanded that she sacrifice thirty-eight of her townsfolks, including herself and her love, so that they could return to life in 2019 and do more of His bidding and despite having concerns Amity complied and sent everyone to the grave that we discovered alongside Annie back in the season premiere. But why that needed to happen wasn’t quite clear back in 1619, which is why the story featured some important events in 2019, to fill in all the gaps.
 
As it turns out, it was all related to the fact that our mystery deity in this episode, was eager to take His message to new heights and having a large crowd at the 400-year anniversary seemed like the perfect way to spread His infinite ‘wisdom’. But there was only one slight problem in regard to this plan, in that, Pop was starting to sniff out something suspicious. Especially after he swung by Shawshank to absolve his brother-in-law of his sins and came to learn that Ace was sniffing around the Kid’s now empty cage, and that prompted him to get to the bottom of what Ace was up to and it is a shame he fell short in his endeavors. For it would seem this cult was successful in getting everyone’s attention and devotion since so many heard and answered the call of the twisted symphony that only plays in Castle Rock and perhaps the biggest surprise when it comes to this entire episode, is the sheer fact that we came to learn the true identity of this powerful God and it’s someone we all spent a lot of time with in season one; Henry ‘The Kid’ Deaver.
 
Yes, that’s right, somehow the same Henry that inspired evil in this town has returned to the forefront of the story and that raises a lot of questions. First and foremost, is this the same Henry Deaver from season one and if so… how the heck did he escape from a locked crate? And does he want revenge on this town? Also, if it isn’t that particular Henry, where does this one hail from and why is he so concerned with gathering followers? Time will tell of course since this series always answers our ponderances but man, how awesome a twist is this? It perfectly ties together the two seasons of this series and it weaves it tighter to the King mythos and I loved this one when all is said and done. Especially since it also brought Tim Robbins back to Shawshank after all these years and well, the epic revelation here just made the wait for next week’s episode all the more difficult and once more, I’ll be counting down the minutes until next Wednesday. Until then. 

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