Castle Rock: Lizzy Caplan stuns as Annie Wilkes in Season 2

The long anticipated second season of Castle Rock began on October 23rd. Hulu released the first three episodes with the remaining ones to be released every Wednesday for the next few weeks.

As Castle Rock Season 2 begins, a young single mother, Annie Wilkes and her daughter Joy are on the run from something undisclosed. After many years and a cross country trip they end up in the small town of Castle Rock, Maine.

Things go on for them as usual. Joy begins to make friends her own age in town, and Annie gets a job as a nurse at the hospital.

When Annie thinks her self prescribed medications aren’t working she begins to have a psychotic break down. This leads to her murdering town bully Ace Merrill, or maybe she doesn’t as he shows up again later. Annie thinks it’s his ghost.

Unlike his nephew Ace, Pop Merrill is a respected member of the community and proprietor of the Emporium Galorium. Stephen King’s long time constant readers recognize the name from the King short story “The Sun Dog” a prequel to Needful Things. The polar opposite of Ace, Pop has adopted two Somali refugees and even helped others relocate in town.

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Now that Joy has finally made some friends. she doesn’t want to go on the run anymore. As Annie’s breakdown threatens her new social life, Joy takes matters into her own hands. She drugs her mother and ties her to a bed until she agrees to take her medication. That’s an odd look into the role reversal of events in Annie’s future, isn’t it?

Castle Rock probably isn’t for everyone. There’s much more psychological tension and character development than gore with just enough weirdness to keep you guessing.

Seeing a prequel to Misery set in modern times takes a bit of getting used to. However, Lizzy Caplan is incredible as the young Annie Wilkes. You can almost believe she’s a younger Kathy Bates.

She is that good with this highly challenging role, and I can’t wait to see what happens next. Stay tuned for more Castle Rock here on 1428 Elm on Thursdays as it moves to a more traditional weekly series.

Let us know what you think of Lizzy Caplan’s performance and Castle Rock Season 2 in the comments.