"Henry Deaver" – Castle Rock S01E09 Review

Well, that explained everything. And nothing.

Hang on, because there's spoilers up ahead. Although the episode doesn't really "spoil" anything.

We find out the Kid is Henry Deaver from an alternate dimension. There, he's the child of Matthew and Ruth who died when he was a baby in "our" reality. In the alternate reality, Henry came back to life after Matthew's mother strangled him.

This led to a number of divergences. Henry/The Kid (let's call him "Henry 2") became a doctor specializing in Alzheimer's treatment. He took in a pet named Puck, although a cat rather than a dog. Henry 2 met and apparently married a woman named Marret (which is Henry 1's wife in "our" reality). Matthew Deaver heard the voice of God, and thought Henry 2 could as well. Henry 2 lied to him about it with some prodding from Ruth. Ruth moved to Florida with Alan instead of staying with Matthew. Matthew found the young Henry 1, thought he was his son since he knew so much about Matthew's life, but eventually realized he was "the Deceiver" and locked in him a cage in his basement.

Matthew eventually shot himself in the head, and Henry 2 came home to a happy cheerful Castle Rock with booming businesses and found Henry 1 in the basement: unaged. In the alternate reality, Molly is a councilwoman with the Shining, and was Henry 2's childhood friend. When Henry 1 ends up at Juniper Hill and sets a fire, Molly takes him home for the night. Dennis (the prison guard in the original reality) is a deputy in the alternate reality. Molly lets Henry 1 go into the woods to follow the schism he hears. She can sense via the Shining what Henry 1 is seeing.

Dennis fires a warning shot as he chases after Molly and Henry 1. Someone else (presumably) shoots and kills Molly. With her dying breath Molly asks Henry 1 to help Henry 2. Both Henrys find themselves in 1991 in a snow-covered forest, and Henry 2 watches as a young Alan finds Henry 1.

At the end, back in "our" reality, the Kid asks Molly if she believes him.

So the Kid is Henry Deaver in the alternate reality. He stumbled through a "thinny" (Stephen King term for door between dimensions: this one is filled with the images of other people caught in-between), ended up in the show's primary dimension, and Warden Dale found him and locked him up in a cage at Shawshank.

All of this explains... nothing about the Kid. How can he drive people into homicidal fits? Is he driving people into homicidal fits, or is he just an innocent bystander and the "cursed" Castle Rock in this reality is causing it? Is the Kid just an innocent bystander, or is the Devil as Matthew 1 believed?

For that matter, what or who is cursing Castle Rock? It's not clear--at least to me--if the alternate Castle Rock is cursed or not. Matthew 2 describes it as cursed, but it's not clear if he's having visions of Castle Rock 1 or not. Castle Rock 2 seems to be doing well enough, what with the bright cheery downtown and the Fall Harvest Festival. And a lot of balloons, in frame with Bill Skarsgard of Pennywise/It fame. So is the curse limited to Castle Rock 1, or is it a multiverse curse kind of thing?

The episode, as is true for the show in general, has lots of great music and cinematography. But there's no real explanation for what's going on in this, the penultimate episode. Since Castle Rock is an anthology series, it could be a cross-season explanation so not everything is wrapped up in a nice neat package at the end of season 1. Look at American Horror Story. They're still explaining things from season 1, seven seasons later.

We do get to see Bill Skarsgard acting "normal" as Henry 2. So if you were tired of him creeping around and acting all spooky, this is the episode for you. But that raises the question: why has he been creeping around and acting all spooky isn't clear. Yes, he did spend 27 years locked up in Shawshank, and that would warp anyone. But then that just raises another question: why didn't he age in 27 years? Okay, maybe coming through the thinny somehow changed him so that he doesn’t age. But then why didn't Henry 1 age? Matthew 2 says in the tapes he conveniently made--and Henry 2 finds--that Henry 1 didn't age. So is Henry 1 from yet another reality and came through a thinny in the first place, which made him ageless?

Or is Henry1 really the Devil and/or the source of Castle Rock 1's "curse"? But then what was the point of Henry 2 being locked up for 27 years? Did Henry 1 engineer that somehow? Did the real "Devil" do it? What's the end game of whoever is responsible for this situation? Is someone responsible for the curse?

And Henry 2's touch seems to be... supernatural. He gave his cellmate fast-growing cancer, and apparently drove Dennis to go on a shooting rampage when the prison guard fist-bumped him. Did coming through the thinny give him a cursed touch as well as immortality? I suppose that might explain some of Flagg's abilities in the Stephen King novels. Flagg has at least some of his supernatural abilities because he's jumped dimensions so many times. But such an explanation seems to go beyond the series' typical Easter eggs, and into actual out-Kinging King territory.

There's no sign of Andre Holland, Jane Levy, or Sissy Spacek this week. Scott Glenn literally calls it in because we only hear Alan 2's voice on the phone.

There's also at least one cute visual gag: Henry 2 literally lets a cat out of the bag, in the episode that lets the cat out of the bag about (some of) what's going on.

"Henry Deaver" is a good standalone episode. But it doesn't seem to make much sense as part of the series. Maybe we'll get the rest of the explanation next week. Maybe the creative team is playing the long game and we won't get an explanation for another season or two. Maybe we'll never get an explanation for why Castle Rock is "cursed", and both Henrys are just other victims of the curse.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?