Rose the Hat

**Rose O'Hara** (also known as **Rose the Hat**) is the main antagonist in the *Doctor Sleep* novel and its film adaptation. She is a sorceress and the semi-immortal leader of a nomadic tribe of quasi-demonic vampires known as the "True Knot". Rose and her followers are known to seek out children with telepathic abilities and torture them to death, feeding off their psychic essence, which they call "Steam". By feeding off of this, they are able to functionally live for centuries.

## Biography

### Appearance & Personality

Rose the Hat is extremely cold, calculating, and uncaring. She has nothing but contempt for humans, whom she and the rest of the True Knot refer to as "Rubes". She is a cold-hearted killer who demonstrates no remorse when she tortures several young children to death. She is also highly intelligent, able to conceive and execute complex plans with ease. Her powerful telepathic abilities make it easy for her to track her prey's next move, and thus to capture them more easily. Rose is shown to be extremely obsessive, becoming irrationally fixated on finding and killing Abra Stone when she realizes how powerful Abra is; this obsession turns from fascination to rage once Abra continues to defy her. She is also threatened by the idea of anybody else having more power than her. Rose is very protective and has a maternal instinct towards the True Knot, and is willing to do anything to ensure their longevity.

Rose has a relationship with Crow Daddy, her second-in command of the True Knot. She also had sexual relationships with women in the books..

She is described by multiple characters as being the most beautiful woman that they have ever seen. Rose is also vain, referring to herself as "the prettiest". However, when she is in need of steam, she opens her mouth unnaturally wide, revealing a single, discolored tooth resembling a walrus's tusk. She constantly wears a battered silk top-hat, which is the source of her nickname. The origins of the hat are never explained. She has a very strong connection to it, to the point of flying into a violent rage if it is ever knocked off of her head.

### *Doctor Sleep* (book)

#### Background

Little is known about Rose's past, except that she was born in County Antrim, Ireland, as Rose O'Hara. At one point, she emigrated to the United States. At the time she became a member of the True Knot, she was living on the western frontier, and was known as "**Irish Rose**". Her exact age is unknown, but she has been a member of the True Knot since at least the mid-19th century. She acts as the leader of the group as she has the most powerful telepathic abilities. These enable her to locate children with psychic abilities, referred to by the collective clairvoyant term the "Shining", in order to feed off of their "Steam", or psychic energy.

At a movie theater with Barry the Chink and Grandpa Flick, they are their to spy on a girl named Andrea so she could join the True Knot. Rose is not impressed but when she notices Andrea using her powers, she is convinced. Barry tells her to keep on watching. She does and then forces Andrea to come with her. The next day, she wakes up Andrea and offers her a deal, which she has to take. Rose and the rest of the True Knot make her one of them, not without some little trouble. Later, she makes love to Andrea.

One day in 2001, the True Knot start to travel to get a kids steam. It’ll take months to get there. On September 8th, they stopped at a New Jersey town. On September 11th, the True Knot witnesses the attack on the Twin Towers.

One day in May of 2011 while in Lexington Kentucky, Crow Daddy comes in Rose’s EarthCruiser to tell her that Tommy the Truck has cycled. She is shocked but Crow Daddy says he probably died because the world isn’t as steamy. Crow offers to take out a canister which she agrees to. Later that night, the True Knot opens a canister to eat the steam of a kid named Richard Gaylesworthy. In July going to Iowa, Rose asks who Grandpa Flick is with. Apron Annie says he’s with her and Long Paul. Grandpa Flick tells Crow that they’re going the wrong way but they soon go the right direction. When the True Knot get to Iowa, a kid named Bradley Trevor is kidnapped by Barry the Chink and SnakeBite Andi. The True Knot take him to an abandoned ethanol-processing plant where they kill him, slowly and painfully and torturous. Rose does most of it, but she notices that there is a looker. She doesn’t tell Crow until they leave, Crow says they should get the looker but Rose puts if off for a little bit.

#### Main Events

In September of 2013, while at a grocery store with some other True Knot members (one of them being Barry) to get some for Grandpa Flick, she feels that someone is temporarily in her head, causing an explosion inside the store. The True Knot leave, not getting anything. She calls Crow Daddy telling him what happened and that they need to catch the person responsible so they can have the huge steam!

Before heading to catch the person, they stay at the Bluebell Campgrounds in Colorado. The Overlook Lodge (a restaurant by the campsite) is controlled by the True Knot and they have a cookout. Rose breaks up a conversation Diesel Doug and Grandpa Flick have so Jimmy can speak. Crow speaks up instead and says they should put on a longer hold and Token Charlie intervene. Rose ignores Charlie and says they should go after the person now. Jimmy finally says that he has possible places to where the person lives. Rose takes a look and decides the person could be in one of the three towns they found, Fryeburg, Madison, or Anniston. Rose then makes a plan to visit the person in their sleep once she finds out where they live.

On a Sunday, she attempts to find where the person lives for hours, unsuccessfully. In one in the night, she is meditating when Crow and Walmut knocks on her door which makes her mad. She opens the door and Walnut pulls out a drug Jimmy gave him. Crow says they have to hurry up and get the person but Rose says they can wait. They make a plan. Rose and Walnut are just done talking when Jimmy comes and tells Rose that Grandpa Flick is in worrying condition. She makes conclusions but is unable too. Jimmy gives Rose a newspaper which shows there was an earthquake in Anniston last Tuesday. Rose is glad that Jimmy got the paper. Jimmy and Walnut check up on Grandpa Flick, leaving Rose and Crow by themselves. They once again make a plan to get the person and help Grandpa Flick. She later enters the meditative state she wants. Rose gets a canister and sucks up the steam, she then picks up the picture of Anniston and her consciousness is suddenly there. Her consciousness travels around the town until she infiltrates the persons mind. The person’s mind contains her room but has file drawers. Rose walks to the file drawer and opens one. She puts her hand in it and it slams shut, leaving her trapped. The persons consciousness is now up in an unhuman disguise and starts to grow older. It starts to creep up on Rose while she’s cursing it out, Rose also finally pulls her hand out in unbearable pain. Rose then feels a fluttering sensation in her head. Rose turns her and and sees that the person is gone, that’s when she feels the fluttering sensation in her head again and is revealed that the person is know rummaging in her mind now. After the person is done in Rose’s mind, it rotates where it came from. Rose’s consciousness finally makes its way back to her body, her hand is still messed up. Rose gets out of her camper and sees Crow approaching her to tell her that Grandpa Flick is dying.

## Death

### Doctor Sleep (book)

She is killed after pushed off the Roof O' the World (where the Overlook Hotel once stood) by Danny Torrance and Billy Freeman, with some help from the ghost of Jack Torrance. At Abra's insistence, Dan burns her hat to ashes due to the black magic it carries.

## Murders committed by Rose the Hat

#### *Doctor Sleep (2019)*

1. Violet Hanson - Killed after her youth was eaten by the True Knot members.
2. Bradley Trevor - Stabbed. Killed after his youth was eaten by the True Knot members.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Astral Projection** - The power to project the consciousness of oneself from the body
* **Telepathy** - The power to read and project thoughts. she can do this in astral form as well.
* **Memory Reading** - The power to read a target's memories. This is possibly a sub power of her telepathy
* **Psychic Detection -** User can sense the presence of psychic powers and possibly gain detailed understanding about them, including their type, quality and intensity. She first displayed this power when Abra was playing Abracadabra with her parents and she telekinetically dropped all the spoons in the kitchen.

## Appearances

* Doctor Sleep (book)
* Doctor Sleep (film)

## Trivia

* Rose is Rebecca Ferguson's third villainous role that was played on the same year as her other two villain roles.
* Rose the Hat is one of Stephen King's few leading women antagonists.
* Actress Rebecca Ferguson places her age at around 700 years old.
* In the book *Doctor Sleep*, she is dubbed the "Queen Bitch" of a mysterious dark place called "Castle Hell". Maybe the cathedral visage of her mind as demonstrated in the 2019 film *Doctor Sleep* could be a reference to the strange castle place from the book but that has yet to be unproven and Castle Hell itself remains a mystery.