Annie discovers Paul Sheldon in Castle Rock season finale
By Billy Cripps
The second season finale of Castle Rock dials back on the action, and turns up the psychological. We get some answers about Castle Lake.
Surprise! Pop Merrill secretly took Haldol just before he was killed, so he can fight the other spirit inhabiting his body. Now, he can help the last few remaining citizens of Castle Rock who haven’t been killed to be a vessel for another soul.
He gives The Pastor just enough information about the letters from the deceased former warden of Shawshank to gain his trust. It turns out that Castle Lake is a doorway to other dimensions.
Meanwhile Annie, Abdi, Chance and Nadia come up with a plan to save the town, and more importantly to Annie, save Joy. Abdi and Nadia plant explosives in certain key parts of town such as the statue of The Kid while Annie and Chance attempt to save Joy. Things go bad and Annie reveals what Abdi and Nadia are up to.
Luckily, when the body snatched citizens get to them, Pop Merrill isn’t far behind. He kills the body snatched citizens. He then takes the last bomb to sacrifice himself and take down The Pastor and The Marsten House and save Castle Rock.
Before things can get explosive Annie and Joy leave town. It just so happens that at a motel on their travels Annie finds a book about a young girl named Misery Chastain by an author named Paul Sheldon.
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In Canada, Annie takes a job caring for an elderly person. Unfortunately, she goes off her medication and snaps when she spies Joy on the phone talking about meeting someone.
She thinks Joy is under the control of Amity. So, she feeds her drugged ice cream and eventually drowns her in a nearby lake.
When she realizes what she’s done she revives her. The episode ends as Annie and Joy go to a reading of the newest Misery Chastain novel by Paul Sheldon himself.
Joy says Annie should get Paul to dedicate a book to her. Someone asks Annie if the seat next to her is taken. After she berates him, the camera pans out to reveal the seat is empty and Joy isn’t there.
Annie didn’t revive her after all. Or was she ever really there? Was Joy a figment of Annie’s fractured mental state the entire season? I guess we’ll never know…
If Season 2 of Castle Rock is any indication of the future of the series, then Season 3 should be even better. Fingers crossed it gets renewed.
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What did you think of the Season 2 finale of Castle Rock? Let us know in the comments.