WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Castle Rock Season 2, Episode 4, "Restore Hope," now streaming on Hulu.
Whatever forgotten evil dwelling in the belly of Marsten House is quickly picking up steam. The presence that has taken over John “Ace” Merrill has spread throughout Castle Rock like a parasite, collecting hosts to form what we suspect is an army of hive mind monsters looking to assimilate the entire town. Oddly enough, the murderous body-snatching minions hunting the townsfolk of Castle Rock are not the most damaging figures haunting Hulu’s translation of the work of Stephen King. The real evil in Castle Rock is awful parenting, and the episode “Restore Hope” does anything but.
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Crummy parents are no strangers to King's library. Even in his 1974 debut novel, Carrie, King plants the seeds for what would become a reoccurring motif with the titular telekinetic teen’s mother, Margaret White, the overbearing and mentally abusive maternal figure of the novel. Terrifying parents returned in the form of the poster boy for “Worst Father of the Year,” Jack Torrance in The Shining. The trend continued in myriad subsequent creations, the most notorious being the character Al Marsh, who was the embodiment of a red flag for potential sexual assault in the novel IT (but to be fair, just about every parental figure in the 1,200-page horror opus was far from ideal).
King’s theme of bad parents has wavered over the years. Novels such as Cell, Revival and Dolores Claiborne feature mothers and fathers who go to great extremes to protect their children or simply vindicate their deaths, by any means necessary. Of course, the road to hell is paved with good intentions … and unhealthy obsessions (we’re looking at you, Louis Creed). Hulu’s Castle Rock capitalizes on this theme, two-fold, with parents who truly believe they are doing the right thing, but might just destroy those they hold dear to see things through.
Annie Wilkes (Lizzy Caplan) loves her daughter Joy (Elsie Fisher); there’s no denying that. Sure, one might say what we seen on the screen in more like an infatuation driven by self-perseverance, but in her own way, Annie cares for her teenage child, even if she has a terrifying way of showing. This, of course, can be said the vast majority of King’s shady parents (except Al Marsh; he sucks). Jack Torrance didn’t want to beat his family to death with a roque mallet in the halls of the Overlook Hotel, but damn if he didn’t give the ol’ college try. Annie is doing long term damage to her daughter here for multiple reasons, and now one more might be on the horizon as Joy begins to dig into the truth behind her mother's evasion of unclear forces. Sure Annie may have lied to protect Joy on some level, but a tough truth is easier to swallow than a long lie, even if it's coming from a place of love.
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Despite what the Beatles say, you need more than love to be a good parent. Because love can sour over time. It can become a justification for atrocious behavior. It can also lead to dishonesty, much like it did for Pop Merrill (Tim Robbins). "Restore Hope" finally confirms that Pop was the soldier who gunned down the biological mother of Abdi (Barkhad Abdi) and Nadia (Yusra Warsama) while stationed in Somalia during his time in the Armed Forces. It's the kind of secret that can't be buried forever no matter how much someone would like it to be. Naturally, Nadia learns the truth of her adoptive father and despite what appear to be noble reasons, it's a hard truth, one that's hard to accept and nigh impossible to forgive.
The emotional turmoil the parental figures in Castle Rock inflict on their children is far more resonant than a band of body-snatching monsters (of course, that's going to be a big problem, too). If Nadia and Joy make it out alive this season alive by thwarting Evil Ace's plan (whatever it happens to be), they still have to live with the sins of their parents. They have to reconcile with the lies and the strange behaviors and the emotional scars. Of course, in the world of Stephen King, it's hard to say who will live long enough to see reconciliation.
Streaming now on Hulu, Castle Rock Season 2 stars Lizzy Caplan, Tim Robbins, Elsie Fisher, Paul Sparks, Barkhad Abdi, Yusra Warsama and Matthew Alan.
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