Let the River Run

"**Let the River Run**" is the first episode of *Castle Rock* Season 2. It premiered on October 23, 2019.

Annie Wilkes and her daughter Joy are waylaid in Castle Rock. Without her anti-psychotic medications, Annie grows unrestful and secures a temporary position at the hospital in order to obtain pills. Meanwhile, tensions run high in the Merrill family as Pop's adoptive son Abdi begins construction on his new mall, which aggravates Ace with his Somali Mall.

## Recap

### On the run

Young Annie Wilkes, covered in blood, runs through a forest carrying a manuscript box marked "The Ravening Angel" while the sound of typewriter keys clacking is heard. As a grown up, Annie works as a nurse and steals Lithium and other drugs from hospitals before going on the run to new locations with her daughter Joy, and they speak about finding "the laughing place."

As they refuel at a gas station, a stranger photographs their licence plate for collection purposes, which Annie asks him to delete because of "online trouble." She replaces her licence plate from a large collection she keeps in a box. They drive to Castle Rock, which is celebrating its 400th anniversary, and when Annie is distracted by digging for pills in her purse, their car overturns.

### The Merrills vs Somalians

A week later, John "Ace" Merrill listens to the radio on his way to his mall in Jerusalem's Lot, and the host warns that Somalians "have been sweeping up old property around 'Salem's Lot for years" and alludes to the town being abandoned because of "one old ghost story or another." Ace is upset that his tenants are leaving to join Abdi Howlwadaag's new mall and confronts him at the construction site, accusing him of "poaching" his tenants.

Annie and Joy are staying in a cabin at the Star Gazer Lodge, where Ace is the landlord. Annie does not trust him, or anyone else in the town, and lashes out at Joy when she asks permission to go out and buy drawing paper. Annie has been without her medication for a week, but assures Joy that she will get more at the hospital. She applies for a temporary position at the hospital, under the fake name Anne Ingalls. Jamal shows her around the hospital and tells her that the patient intake from Castle Rock is 80-90% overdoses. Because of this, the pharma room requires a code or a doctor's keycard to enter.

Pop Merrill, the patriarch of the Merrill family, is visited by a pair of police officers who are on the take. Ace arrives and accuses his father of failing to intervene and prevent Abdi from opening the mall, but Pop is unreceptive to his nephew's pleas for intervention. Ace mentions a "Sergeant Major," which Pop advises him not to bring up again.

### Town trash and hallucinations

At the Star Gazer Lodge, a bored Joy hears eerie stuff about Castle Rock and Shawshank Prison on the news. Outside, she meets a girl named Chance, who is writing a song about witches from the area. Chance introduces Joy to her friends, Vera and Timothy. Though Joy has a different background to the trio, she fits in.

Without her medication, Annie is beginning to see things, and hears the sound of the typewriter again. She hallucinates a tall man with a bloodied, terrifying face, and is almost hit by a bus. Back at the cabin, she scolds Joy for hanging out with brats and tells her to stay away from the trash in this town. Using the Star Gazer Lodge's free WiFi, Annie researches calming exercises, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia on the internet. She searches for "Annie Wilkes," which returns a page that reveals she is wanted by the FBI for murder.

Another member of the Merrill family, Abdi's sister Dr. Nadia Howlwadaag, whom Abdi is staying with, works at the hospital with Annie. Pop drops by the hospital and pleads with Nadia, his adoptive daughter, to help resolve the conflict between his nephew Ace and her brother Abdi, but she says that she doesn't get involved with the real estate.

### Break-ins and terror attacks

Annie's psychosis continues to grow worse, and the sound of the typewriter and the tall man's voice haunts her. In a desperate attempt to break into the pharma room, she shuts off the power to the hospital, but she is unsuccessful. Jamal mentions that Dr. H has an override key, but she has left it at home, and Annie looks up her address on the hospital computer.

Back at the Star Gazer Lodge, Joy leaves a drawing of monsters for Chance. On her way back to her cabin, she sees Ace preparing a molotov cocktail. Ace heads to Nadia’s home, where Annie has broken into the house to retrieve Nadia's keycard. Abdi arrives home and is about to confront the intruder, when Ace tosses the molotov cocktail into the living room, allowing Annie an undetected escape.

Annie proceeds directly to the hospital, where she gains access to the pharma room and and fills a bag with medications, but is caught red-handed by Nadia. She demands an explanation, and Annie admits that she is self-medicating with antipsychotics so she can be a good mother for Joy, but won't get a prescription because she won't be able to work as a nurse if the drugs appear on her chart. Nadia agrees to write her a clandestine prescription for as long as she remains an employee of the hospital. Returning to the flashback, we see that the box young Annie was running through the forest with contained a baby.

### Settlers and searchers

Annie seems to have calmed down after getting her meds. She speaks to Joy about being searchers and settlers, and says that "any place could be the laughing place if we're there together" – even Castle Rock. Meanwhile, Nadia comes home to the burnt living room after Ace "tried to pull some KKK shit," and Abdi gets a gun and makes it clear that he's ready to confront Ace.

Ace, is questioned by the police about the fire. As Ace knows that Joy is a likely witness, having seen him prepare the molotow cocktails, Ace harasses Annie about her true identity and wanted status, which he knows because he monitors the internet activity. Annie is frightened and jams an ice cream scoop down his throat so he chokes on it. Looking for a place to dump Ace's body, Annie comes across the foundations of Abdi's mall, which will be filled with concrete tomorrow. She dumps Ace's body, but the ground collapses and Annie falls into the cavern as a swarm of insects fly out.

## References

### Stephen King

***Misery***: The main character, Annie Wilkes, is a younger version of the famous character from Stephen King's 1987 novel *Misery*. In the novel, Annie is a nurse who keeps writer Paul Sheldon hostage. The cheesy, child-like phrases that *Castle Rock* Annie uses, like "cockadoodle" and "dirty bird" are taken from the original character. In the opening montage, there is a shout-out to Colorado, the state that serves as the setting of *Misery*.

In this episode, the writers play with the audiences' expectations from the original character and inverts them. In the novel, Annie forced Paul Sheldon to write her a manuscript, so the viewers assume that Annie in *Castle Rock* has that in the manuscript box she is running away with, but it turns out to be a baby; in the novel, Paul Sheldon was in a car accident instead of Annie in *Castle Rock*; in the murder scene at the end of the episode there is a shot of a knife, similar to the one Annie in the novel had, but *Castle Rock'*s Annie instead murders Ace with an ice cream scoop.

**Jerusalem's Lot**: The town has been the setting, or mentioned, in several of King's books - most notably the novel Salem's Lot and its prequel short story Jerusalem's Lot. The talk of witches buried underneath the town... Also, the song referenced in the title and used in the beginning and end of the episode, Carly Simon's "Let the River Run" features a line about "New Jerusalem."

### *Castle Rock*

* On the way to Castle Rock, Annie drives past a sign to Shawshank State Prison, a primary setting in *Castle Rock*'s first season.
* Anne tells Joy, "I've heard things. Massacres, kids vanishing into thin air." Season one's story was about a kid, Henry Deaver, who vanished into thin air.

## Notes

* Manuscript box noted "The Ravening Angel".
* Number 19:
	+ If you add the numbers on Annie’s Colorado license plate together, they equal **19**.
	+ Castle Rock was founded in 16**19** and is celebrating its 400th anniversary in 20**19**.
	+ Annie and Joy rent cabin number 19 at the Star Gazer Lodge.