Editorials
This Week’s Mind-Bending, Totally Bonkers Episode of “Castle Rock” Explained
“When continuity is interrupted, everything starts to slide.”
Well, we were begging for answers. And we got some pretty crazy ones this week.
Way back in the very first episode of Hulu’s “Castle Rock,“ a mysterious man (played by Pennywise himself, Bill Skarsgård) was found deep in the bowels of Shawshank, where he had been imprisoned by the warden for 27 years. Freed from his makeshift cell, “The Kid” was asked for his name. “Henry Deaver,” he told us. He was telling the truth. We just didn’t listen.
Last week, I had noted that watching “Castle Rock” is like trying to put together a puzzle, only there are so many pieces missing and someone keeps tossing pieces from other puzzles onto the pile. This week’s episode, titled ‘Henry Deaver,’ picked up all those pieces and threw them up in the air for a mind-bending 45 minutes that essentially rewrote everything we thought we knew about the series’ storyline. And by the time they landed back down, they formed an entirely different puzzle than the one we thought we were building these past nine weeks.
A puzzle, in many ways (but surely not all ways just yet), finally complete.
So what’s going on in Castle Rock? Well, ‘Henry Deaver’ managed to answer the two main questions that we’ve been asking ourselves throughout the season thus far:
1) What happened to Henry Deaver as a young boy, back in 1991?
and…
2) Who/what the hell is “The Kid”?
The answers to both questions are highly otherworldly in nature, with ‘Henry Deaver’ informing us that there are multiple timelines/universes that can be accessed through a portal/thinny in the woods of Castle Rock (that’s J.J. Abrams for ya). What happened to young Henry? He traveled through the portal and was temporarily trapped in an alternate reality.
Who is “The Kid”? He’s… uh… he’s actually Henry Deaver too. To break it down as neatly as possible, Skarsgård’s Henry exists in one reality. Andre Holland’s in another.
Crazy, but none of this craziness came entirely out of left field, as the character Odin explained to us what’s going on in the woods of Castle Rock back in Episode 6, titled ‘Filter’…
“Other heres. Other nows. All possible pasts, all possible presents. Schisma is the sound of the universe… trying to reconcile them.“
This piece of dialogue is the key to understanding the events of ‘Henry Deaver,’ which mostly took place in an alternate universe. This week, Bill Skarsgård played the role of Henry Deaver, a doctor who has just made an incredible breakthrough on his quest to correct the disease his mother Ruth suffers from, Alzheimer’s. This version of Henry returns to Castle Rock when he learns his father has killed himself, and it’s there that he finds and rescues a boy in his estranged father’s basement: a young Henry Deaver (Caleel Harris). Yeah, they went there.
After, the alternate version of Adult Henry reunites with childhood friend Molly Strand, and the two of them are led out into the woods by the young boy who we know to be Henry Deaver. It’s in the woods that the big reveal is made, with Adult Henry (Skarsgård) traveling through a portal and arriving in the show’s main version of Castle Rock (where he doesn’t belong) and Young Henry (Holland) returning to the show’s main reality (where he belongs). As for Molly, she’s accidentally shot dead out in the woods by an alternate version of Dennis Zalewski (Noel Fisher) in the alternate universe, the same man who went on a shooting spree in the other universe. But don’t worry, she’s still alive in the main reality we’ve been inhabiting.
Yes, there are *at least* two different realities for everyone in Castle Rock, and the gifted Henry Deaver has traveled between those realities. In Universe A, which the series has primarily been set in, Henry (Andre Holland) is the adopted son of Ruth and Matthew Deaver, who spent many years locked up in the basement of Universe B’s unrelated Matthew Deaver… perceived as mere days in Universe A. He grows up, moves away from Castle Rock and becomes a death row attorney, returning to the town to defend “The Kid” after he’s found in Shawshank.
In Universe B, Henry (Bill Skarsgård) is the biological son of Ruth and Matthew Deaver, who moves away from Castle Rock and becomes a doctor, returning to his hometown after his father kills himself. After discovering and saving Universe A’s Henry, Universe B’s Henry crosses over into Universe A, where he’s captured by Dale Lacy and held captive at Shawshank.
Two ordinary men. Wrongfully imprisoned due to the belief that they were each the Devil.
All along, we’ve been watching Universe A’s Henry interact with Universe B’s Henry, the two realities bleeding together without Universe A’s Henry (or us) ever realizing it. What’s the secret behind all the nightmares that have been consuming Castle Rock? Well, it seems the bleed-over of different realities has been messing with the town big time.
Never the twain shall meet, lest all hell break loose. You know the drill.
Henry Deaver’s entire existence is vastly different depending on which universe’s Henry we’re talking about (he’s a special case, after all, having been biologically created by a couple in one universe and adopted by that same couple in another), but the lives of the town’s other residents are also quite different depending on the universe. In Universe B, for example, Ruth and Alan Pangborn moved away from Castle Rock when they were younger, Ruth escaping her abusive husband in the way Universe A’s Ruth was never able to. The town itself is quite different as well, depending on the universe, with Universe A’s Castle Rock being run down and haunted by its past and Universe B’s Castle Rock presented as a much livelier, happier place.
If Universe B’s Henry was returned to Universe B, would the darkness over Universe A’s Castle Rock lift and become more like that alternate place? It seems Skarsgård’s version of Henry Deaver is indeed a plague on the town, not because he’s evil but simply because he’s been brought into a world that he’s not actually supposed to be part of. In his own world, Skarsgård’s Deaver is by all accounts a good man, leaving behind a (possibly pregnant) wife when he was displaced into Universe A. We wonder, how much time has passed in his world’s timeline?
More importantly, where does “Castle Rock” go from here? With only one episode remaining, we expect the series’ mystery box madness to only get more intriguing in its final hour.
Here’s hoping it all comes together in a satisfying way next week.
In this day and age, the word “troll” is often used to describe various online nuisances. Yet as abundant and irksome as the modern troll can be, they aren’t usually as fearsome as their mythological counterparts. I’m not talking about the small and gentler versions that have become more common to see in media. No, there are much bigger and scarier trolls out there—and André Øvredal’s movie Troll Hunter is one of the best places to find them.
It doesn’t take long for Troll Hunter (or Trolljegeren) to dump the Blair Witch Project-esque setup and aim for something a lot fresher. The trajectory of the story is augmented by Otto Jespersen’s character Hans, the titular Troll Hunter. The second he comes barreling out of the deep, dark woods and shouts “troll” at the camera, this movie takes a turn into what feels like uncharted territory. Not only subject-wise, but also conceptually.
For fantastical and made-up subject matter in cinema, found footage is a fast way to add a guise of believability. After all, what we accept to be the most crucial aspect of documentaries—the truth—rubs off on pseudo-documentaries, despite our understanding of the pretense involved. That is what Øvredal delivered with Troll Hunter: a movie so convincing that some viewers wondered if trolls really do exist. So, had this been straightforwardly made, it likely wouldn’t have been as effective. Conventional narratives would be more inclined to treat something like trolls as flat out unreal, and never try to convince the audience to think otherwise.
Hans petrifies the three-headed Tusseladd troll.
The viewers, like the characters trailing Hans, are quickly thrown into the deeper end of that extraordinary story. They have to process all this new information while staying on the go. So, although there is no significant amount of meandering, narratively or physically, there is still a good amount of atmosphere, not to mention tension building. It’s never anything frightful, but then again, Troll Hunter isn’t your standard offering of horror; it’s more on the low end of the dark fantasy spectrum. We aren’t ever spirited away to a faraway world—we stay in rather familiar surroundings, as well as dip into those less so. The outcome is a movie where you’re constantly more in awe than in terror.
As fantasy fiction might do, Troll Hunter prefers not to deal with incredulity. There is no time to waste on doubt, as interviewer Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), soundperson Johanna (Johanna Mørck), and cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) all follow Hans around, recording whatever this character is willing to reveal about his bizarre job. Of course, the Troll Hunter himself is not an open book; in that respect, the diegetic documentary fails to fully capture and unpack the more interesting of its two subjects. Yes, all those giant, monstrous trolls are indeed incredible, but understandably, your mind wanders to their pursuer. What kind of person signs up for this gig and then chooses to stick with it for so long?
Reviews have called out Troll Hunter for its lack of character development. In regard to Thomas and his fellow documentarians, that criticism is valid, but bear in mind, they aren’t the focus of the story, either. Meanwhile, Hans is a well-crafted character. At least better than first realized. Before he was introduced, Hans had already grown tired of the troll grind. Fed up with that low compensation for his services, resentful of the bureaucracy, and wanting to expose his employer on a large scale, Hans’ discontent is glaring.
Then there are those finer details about the Troll Hunter, such as that indifference to both the natural splendor of his everyday surroundings and the affections of an obviously smitten colleague, that also suggest some level of despondency. So it is fair to say this movie doesn’t feature any sizable growth for its characters; however, the namesake isn’t underwritten. No doubt, putting a real-life character like Otto Jespersen in that role is partly why Hans is so fascinating—maybe even relatable.
Otto Jespersen as Hans the Troll Hunter.
There is always a small risk whenever using the term “mockumentary” to describe a found-footage movie, as the word could imply humor where there is none. In the case of Troll Hunter, the term’s usage is appropriate. Some folks have claimed the English-dubbed version has the more comedic tone, however, the Norwegian cut isn’t exactly humorless. Apart from the trolls’ absurd appearances, this is a movie where the characters nearly choke on the monsters’ farts, and Christians are like walking targets. Hans’ complete apathy towards everything is another cause of laughter. Overall, the comedy is intentionally dry and inconsistent. Unfunny, though? Absolutely not.
In a movie where endemic creatures are maltreated, as well as disavowed from living freely and peacefully, it’s hard not to notice the ecological message buried beneath the story. In addition to that is the unmistakable political satire. There is this whole business about intrusive and unsightly power lines—like trolls, they’re big blemishes on the land—that leads to what is perhaps the movie’s funniest moment. The scene in question is that one where certain electric lines, the ones secretly being used to keep the trolls at bay, go in a loop and don’t actually send power to any residents. Yet the monitors of said lines don’t find this at all weird. So it stands to reason that Øvredal was having a go at those who accept the government’s doings without question.
Looking past the fact that trolls aren’t actually real, this movie is an enlightening source of information. And not just for international audiences; Norwegians, too, get schooled about their homeland’s own mythology. It’s also evident from everything on screen that Øvredal and his crew were enthusiastic about the topic. The creature designs are the most indicative of that zeal; those imaginative yet myth-accurate manifestations are equally amusing and grotesque. One second you’re laughing at their phallic noses, the next you’re white-knuckling during a hairy sequence. Most surprisingly is how well the trolls’ visual effects hold up after fifteen years. It’s not all spotless, but on the whole, they remain impressive.
Vouching for a mockumentary about trolls isn’t easy, but those who do come around and give it a shot will more than likely be grateful for the recommendation. For Troll Hunter is a real find in that vast and varied genre we call “found footage“.
A bridge troll reaches up for food and finds Hans decked out in armor.
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