Nadia tries to reach Pop on the radio, and Ace hauls Pop's corpse away.
The next day, Ace drives his pick-up truck out of Castle Rock with Pop's body in the back. He arrives at the Marsten House where the townspeople are still staring at the Angel statue. While Ace looks on, the Converted take takes Pop's body to the tunnels and put him in a coffin filled with liquid. They close the lid and the liquid flows over Pop's body.
The next day, Joy is preparing for Amity. Meanwhile, Ace tells the Converted that Amity returns at sunset and it's their world now: the world Amity and the Angel gave them.
Outside on the lawn, the townspeople place cornstalks and a large knife near Amity's coffin.
Ace tells them that they're taking the land back in the Angel's name. He says that when the Prophet returns, the real work begins, but first they must protect their place in the old, rotting world before they take the rest of it. The mesmerized people will be Amity and the Angel's army. Ace then goes to Joy and admires her in her white dress.
At the construction site, Annie tells Nadia, Abdi, and Chance that if they destroy the Angel statue, it will end the townspeople's trance. Nobody has a better plan, and Abdi goes into the construction trailer and gets explosives. Meanwhile, Annie finds the spot where she fell, and Abdi returns with the explosives. Annie tells him to wait until she gets Joy out of the House. Nadia gives Annie a walkie-talkie and tells her to let them know when she has Joy, and Chance and Annie leave. Abdi wonders why they're saving the town, and Nadia says that it's for the townspeople. He tells his sister that whether Annie gets Joy or not, they still have to do it.
Pop climbs out of the coffin, dresses, and meets with Ace in the latter's office. Ace greets his follower, Etienne, and Pop says that he knows Ace choose the diseased vessel because he knew things from Lacey, who held the Angel prisoner. Pop tells Ace that Castle Lake is a doorway to another dimensions, and their Angel travels between them at his will.
Abdi and Nadia use a backhoe to break open the tunnel entrance and climb down. They then start planting the explosives in the tunnels and on the coffins.
Annie and Chance go through the woods to the House.
Nadia and Abdi find a tunnel filled with the insects covering every surface, and continue on.
At the House, Chance steps out of the woods and enters the crowd of townspeople, pretending to be one of them.
Abdi and Nadia reach a spot below the House and Abdi climbs up to place more explosives.
Chance sees Vera among the townspeople, mesmerized like the rest. Vera notices Chance and says "no", pointing at her. The other townspeople do so as well, and as Chance draws her gun, Clay comes up behind her and puts his gun to her head.
Nadia and Abdi go up the stairs.
As the sun goes down, Annie radios her allies, saying that they have Chance. There's no signal through the rock, and Crysilda whispers through the radio to Annie, saying that she has to save Joy. Crysilda tells Annie that a good mother would never let it happen.
Clay takes Chance inside and tosses her on the floor in front of Ace and Pop. Annie knocks on the door yelling, that they have to get Joy out.
Abdi tells Nadia that the deal was that Annie had until sunset to rescue Joy. Nadia insists that Joy is a girl, not a deal.
The Converted drag Annie to Ace, who says that they're in the tunnels. She sees Pop, and Ace points his gun at Annie and demands to know who "they" are. Annie tells him that Nadia and Abdi are there and have dynamite, and insists that they have to get Joy out. The Converted take Annie away, and Pop offers to go with the others when Ace sends them to kill anyone in the tunnels that isn't them. Ace gives him a gun and Pop goes with the others.
Nadia tries to raise Annie on the radio, and the Converted capture them. Pop is in the back, and Abdi tells Nadia not to tell them where the bombs are. While Nadia considers, Pop shoots the Converted and tells Abdi that it's him... for now. Nadia realizes that he took the Haldon, and gave Ace enough from Lacey's letter to earn Ace's trust. Pop gets a walkie-talkie from Nadia and tells them to blow the other bombs while he takes one and goes up. He tells them to blow the first two bombs, and then the main explosive once he gets Chance out. Pop says that they have to hurry because "He" is coming, but leaves without explaining further.
The townspeople watch as Ace takes Joy to Amity's coffin.
The Angel steps out on the cliff overlooking Castle Lake.
A Converted woman trains a gun on Annie.
Abdi and Nadia run out of the tunnels and emerge at the construction site.
Pop goes back up to the House. He finds a handcuffed Chance and says that it's him.
Abdi triggers the first two bombs, the second one beneath the Angel statue. Joy and the others are freed from the spell, and the bugs fly out of the hole left by the explosion. Annie knocks the gun out of the woman's hand and runs. Pop frees Chance and gives her the gun, and she runs outside.
Ace stares at the hole in shock, and Joy grabs the knife and stabs Ace in the back. The townspeople run in panic, and Annie yells for Joy.
Pop handcuffs himself where Chance was and grabs the bomb. He radios to Abdi and gets Nadia, and tells her to do it. Pop insists that he deserves it.
Annie finds Joy and hugs her, and then leads her away from the House.
Ace gets up and stares at the House. Inside, the Converted find Pop... and Nadia triggers the bomb, blowing them and the house up.
The Angel sees the cloud from the explosion and walks off, fading away as he goes.
That night, Annie drives Joy out of Castle Rock.
One Week Later
At a motel, Annie wakes up Joy and looks at her collection of Paul Sheldon's Misery books. She opens one and asks Joy if she can read to her. Joy mutters that she can, and Annie reads the first few paragraphs and says that it's a good beginning. She continues reading, and Joy lies on the bed.
Later, Annie drives to the Canadian border. Joy is in the back of the SUV, sketching, and the checkpoint guard asks for their passports. He checks them briefly and lets them through. They drive through the night, and Annie finally asks Joy if she needs anything. Joy doesn't and says that she doesn't want to talk about what happened. When they stop for gas, Joy goes inside and talks to the cashier. Annie starts to go but when Joy sees her, Annie smiles and goes back to the SUV. She notices a posting for a caregiver on a pole and takes one of the numbers.
The next day, Annie drives to the woman's house and admires the outside. She tells Joy that they have the whole house to themselves because the patient is bedridden. The patient's daughter interviews Annie and soon hires her. Annie and Joy move into their separate rooms, and Joy takes a room far from Annie's.
One day, Annie is reading to her patient. She sees Joy outside on the dock and goes down to join her. Annie suggests that it could be the Laughing Place, and Joy gets up and dives into the lake. Later in the house, Annie finds Joy watching TV. When the girl in the show breaks into tears, Annie turns the TV off and says that's enough of that before walking out.
One day Annie is reading in the living room. She stares at the phone and then picks up the receiver, and hears Joy speaking to a man. The man says that she'll be waiting for him the next day and hangs up. Annie goes up to Joy's room and asks who she was talking to. Joy says that she wasn't on the phone, and asks if Annie running low on pills. Annie seemingly accepts her denial and leaves, and that night takes her pills. As she sleeps, Annie hears Crysilda calling to her.
The next morning, Annie washes clothes and stares at the dryer. Voices echo in her head, and one tells Annie to make her clean. Annie finds Joy on the porch looking at the lake, and says that she needs to know what Ace did to her at the House. Joy tells her mother that she doesn't remember and walks out. Annie goes to Joy's room and finds her sketchbook, and finds drawings of dozens of eyes. Sobbing, Annie flips through the pages.
Later in the kitchen, Annie grinds up her pills, serves two bowls of ice cream, and puts the powder in one bowl. She then takes the ice cream to Joy and gives her daughter the drugged bowl. After taking a few spoonfuls, Joy says that it tastes weird. Annie tells her that she put Haldon in it, and she knows that Amity possessed Joy. She shoves Joy down on the couch and shoves more ice cream in her mouth, and Joy grabs her pen and stabs it into Annie's shoulder.
Joy runs down to the lake and Annie chases her. She shoves Joy into the lake, falling in with her, and eventually drowns her daughter. Gasping, Annie walks out of the lake and goes back to the house. She sits on the couch and finds a letter to her in Joy's sketchbook. The note says that Joy has to go and she hopes Annie doesn't hate her. Joy needs to be someone else because she can't be Annie's little girl anymore. She was on the phone, talking to a lawyer about getting emancipated. Realizing that Joy was Joy all along, Annie runs to the lake screaming and pulls her daughter's body out of the water and tries to revive her. Joy finally coughs up water and Annie hugs her, relieved. Annie claims that Joy fell in the water and almost drowned.
Later, Annie and Joy drive away. Joy draws the house they lived in, and they stop for ice cream. Annie looks at some teenagers sitting nearby, but Joy doesn't notice them. In Garneau they go to a public library where Paul Sheldon is giving a reading. Joy wonders if she could draw the covers for Sheldon's books, and Annie assures her that she's the best artist in the whole world. One man asks if he can sit next to them, and Annie insists the chair is taken. Joy tells Annie that she's glad they're there together.
Sheldon goes to the podium and Joy says that they have to get him to dedicate a book to Annie. Annie says that Sheldon will because she's his number one fan. As Sheldon begins reading, Annie sits with an empty chair next to her.
Written by Gadfly on Dec 14, 2019