[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Season 1 Finale Episode of Castle Rock, “Romans.”] Hulu’s Castle Rock concluded its first season Wednesday night and offered some shocking insight on the town’s dwellers. The series which began with the discovery of The Kid (Bill Skarsgård) in a cage led viewers on a wild journey that explored the town’s mythology, a family’s haunting past, and much more. Henry Deaver (André Holland) returned home to the sleepy Maine town and all hell broke loose, but by the finale’s end we know what’s responsible for the peculiar events… kind of. We’re taking a look back at some of the episode’s wildest moments and breaking down what it all means below. Read on for the finale break down, but beware of series altering spoilers. Ruth’s Cycle Picking up where the eighth episode left off, Henry is alerted that his mother Ruth (Sissy Spacek) is missing which leads him on wild chase disregarding the cops questioning him at the bed and breakfast. Eventually Molly (Melanie Lynskey) finds her in a precarious spot — perched at the edge of the bridge like the same day Alan’s (Scott Glenn) ceremony took place. Their exchange suggests that Ruth’s continuous cycle through time and space is still going on and that the conversation has happened before. Once she’s returned home and tucked into bed, she clutches the chess piece which grounds her in reality, but did she ever find peace? By the episode’s end, we discover Ruth passes away in the months following the events of the story, buried alongside her love Alan. Despite the somber tone, this conclusion may be construed as happy since she’s no longer stuck in an unending loop. Molly’s Path After bonding with The Kid in the penultimate episode, Molly is a little too keen to help the oddball character. When she reveals what she’s learned about The Kid’s “past” she pleads for Henry’s help, but he’s ready to have the being locked up. Despite Henry’s adversity to the situation, she follows suit with his orders to bring his son Wendell (Chosen Jacobs) back to Boston, and leave Castle Rock, and her life turns out better because of it. Almost like a sacrifice, Henry frees Molly from the cage of the town and its memories only to be caged himself… but more on that later. The Warden’s Fate The finale included many similarities to the premiere, including an odd suicide committed by Shawshank’s warden. The event occurred shortly after the prison was closed down, and Warden Porter (Ann Cusack) found a little carved figurine in her apartment. She seeks out The Kid, suspecting him of playing tricks, and she tells Molly that Warden Lacy (Terry O’Quinn) was right — The Kid is the “f***ing devil.” But moments after Molly expresses concern for the woman, she turns towards the street right in front of a bus that happens to be transporting prisoners from Shawshank. Talk about irony. The Kid’s Prison Break When Henry is taken into custody after being accused of killing the man in the woods who had locked him in the sound proof chamber, he alerts authorities to The Kid’s location. Little did he know that they would be put in cells next to each other. As they talk, The Kid continues his case, telling Henry he needs to go to the woods. When prisoners from the bus that hit Warden Porter are brought in and The Kid and Henry are forced to share a cell all hell literally breaks loose. From a fight within the cell to brutal gun fights, chaos follows this terrifying being, but Henry no longer has a choice when they break free. Holding him at gun point, The Kid ushers Henry towards the woods and away from the scene of the massacre. When they arrive the sound they both hear gets louder, but instead of some peaceful transition, The Kid’s face contorts into an ugly mask of horror — what is he? Viewers don’t get much time to decide as the scene cuts forward one year. But it’s abundantly clear, The Kid isn’t exactly human. Some Things Should Remain Caged In the future timeline, Henry’s still living in Castle Rock and working as a lawyer. He remains at the house he grew up in, but isn’t neighbored by Molly as she’s now a successful realtor in the Florida Keys. Meanwhile as Wendell visits for the holidays Henry has his own task at hand. As we see him sneak into Shawshank, the conclusion is becoming more and more clear, and when he reaches the hatch, it’s sealed — Henry’s taken over as prison guard for The Kid. When he joins him in the hatch, he offers up a burger and fries “for Christmas.” But why is he here? Does Henry know something we don’t? Or is The Kid truly evil? Suspecting from the final shot of The Kid’s eerie smile, it wouldn’t be difficult to say yes, but his remark, “after a while you forget, which side of the bars you’re on,” certainly leaves you thinking long after the credits. See Also Roush Review: 'Castle Rock' Viewers Are in For a Frightfully Fun Ride Neither adaptation nor remake, the Hulu series aims high in seeking new menace within Stephen King’s fabled town of terror. Jackie’s Family History It’s no secret that Jackie Torrance (Jane Levy) is a descendant from the family depicted in Stephen King’s The Shining, and a mid-credit scene hints that we may learn more about her history. Castle Rock‘s been renewed for Season 2, so could Jackie’s trip out west, and affinity for horror be the next installment? It would certainly be intriguing and keep the characters we’ve met in Season 1 relevant. Make what you will of it, but we can’t help but hope. Castle Rock, Streaming now, Hulu<doc-sep>Of all the horror icons in film history, none have more thoroughly embraced or had more fun with their sinister persona than Vincent Price. From his days playing the villain in the American stage version of Gaslight (then titled Angel Street) to baring his fangs with Kermit the frog on The Muppet Show, Price knew the power and fun inherent in playing “the bad guy.” But before his macabre reputation was fully formed, he was a versatile actor who was known for all kinds of roles in a wide variety of films. He slowly rose to stardom working with legendary Hollywood filmmakers like Michael Curtiz, Otto Preminger, Samuel Fuller, and Joseph Mankiewicz, alongside some of the screen’s greatest stars like Robert Mitchum, Ava Gardner, Gene Tierney, and Jane Russell. His roles in horror are also extremely varied. Though known for the Vincent Price “persona,” one would be hard-pressed to nail down the particulars of it. This was true for his life offscreen as well. He was a man of many interests and talents, a Renaissance man in the very best sense. As his daughter Victoria wrote in the preface to her book Vincent Price: A Daughter’s Biography, “every day, he filled his mind, his spirit, and his life with everything that interested him—acting, art, cooking, gardening, history, poetry, opera, people, places, things. He was a collector of experience, and found ways to make a living doing most of the things he loved.” By all accounts, he was also a man of tremendous warmth, humor, and generosity. Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was the youngest of four children born into a family of some repute on May 27, 1911 in St. Louis, Missouri. His father was a successful confectioner and highly respected in the candy-making industry. His grandfather had invented baking powder and amassed a fortune in creating, sustaining, and then selling the Price Baking Powder Company, but most of that wealth was lost in the devastating depression of 1893. Because of the crash (or at least suspected by his family), Vincent’s father returned from school early to pursue a career in business in hopes of saving his family from financial ruin rather than pursue his creative interests. Raised on these stories, the young Vincent was determined to live the life he really wanted to live, and that life involved the arts and acting. His love of visual art began at an early age. When he was twelve, he did a number of odd jobs to scrape together $35 to purchase an original etching by Rembrandt on an installment plan. The piece remained in his vast art collection until his death. He caught the acting bug while studying art history at Yale. He saw every play and movie he could in New Haven between 1930-1933 as he completed his degree, which he switched to English when he became interested in acting. After graduating, he moved to New York to take on Broadway, but was unable to land any acting jobs. So, he ventured across the pond and eventually lied his way into a walk-on role in a small professional theater in London. Soon after, he had his first taste of success playing Prince Albert, a leading role in a series of short plays about the life of Queen Victoria titled Victoria Regina. The play was a huge success and caught the eye of an American producer who brought it, and Price along with it, to Broadway in 1935. It wasn’t long before Hollywood beckoned. He signed his first contract with Universal Pictures in 1937, but it took some time before the studio was able to find a suitable project for him. In the meantime, he continued to act on Broadway in various productions. He even worked with the renowned Mercury Theater Company under the direction of Orson Welles during this period. In his time with that company, he made several lifelong friendships and married his first wife, Edith Barrett, on April 22, 1938. Finally in June of that year, Price made his film debut in a screwball comedy titled Service de Luxe. Price later described the film as a “wonderful experience for me but it was a dreadful picture.” Despite Universal’s reputation for horror movies, he appeared in very few during his time with the studio. One of his earliest film roles of note was as the Duke of Clarence in Tower of London (1939), a pseudo-horror film about the life of Richard III. It was billed as horror because it starred two of Universal’s greatest genre stars, Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone, who both became great friends of Vincent’s. His other notable horror role of his early career was as the titular character in The Invisible Man Returns in 1940. Following a few more films including the disastrous Green Hell directed by James Whale, the gothic romance The House of Seven Gables, and a small role as the founder of the Mormon church Joseph Smith in Brigham Young, Frontiersman (all three from 1940), Price returned to New York to play the role that would redefine his acting path going forward. The play Gaslight has been a major success in its native England. It was transplanted to the United States with some revisions and a new title, Angel Street, and Price was given the lead role of the villainous Mr. Manningham. It was a role that greatly intrigued Price. He found it fun to play a man who “believed in himself, in his own charm, in the fact that he could get away with anything.” It would become something of a template for the kinds of sophisticated villains of nobility he would become known for. The play opened on December 5, 1941, two days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor and became one of the only plays to remain successful during the war, perhaps in part because of a villain the audience loved to hate. When he returned to films, he went with the idea “if I go to Hollywood and can find a good villain maybe that will put me across as an actor, and give me the identity that I want.” Following his return to Los Angeles, most of his roles of note were in noir films and various kinds of dramas of the era. Some of his most famous film appearances include The Song of Bernadette (1943), Otto Preminger’s Laura (1944), Leave Her to Heaven (1945), Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s directorial debut Dragonwyck (1946), and Samuel Fuller’s Baron of Arizona (1950). More often than not, he appeared as complex villains of intelligence, charm, and social nobility or wealth. In his personal life, his marriage to Edith fell apart and custody of their son Vincent Barrett, was awarded to her. Finding himself alone, he adopted one of his great longtime companions, his dog Joe, whom he would later write a book about—The Book of Joe: About a Dog and His Man in 1962. However, he and Joe weren’t alone for long as Vincent married costume designer Mary Grant in 1949. The two shared many interests including gourmet cooking and collaborated on a book of recipes. They were well known for entertaining friends in their art-filled home and serving dishes they made themselves. In 1953, Price finally starred in an all-out horror film, House of Wax, one of the earliest films to employ the new 3-D process designed to compete with the burgeoning medium of television. It was a difficult film to shoot due to the cumbersome 3-D cameras, the tight shooting schedule, and the uncomfortable makeup. “I drank many liquids and because of the running around in the makeup, I fainted one day from lack of oxygen,” Price later noted of the making of the film. The remake of 1933’s Mystery of the Wax Museum was a huge success, becoming one of the top ten films at the box office that year and made Price an instant horror star. Still, for an actor so associated with the genre as Price, very few of the films in the early part of his career could be considered horror. For years following the success of House of Wax, he declined starring roles in genre films (with the exception of 1954’s The Mad Magician) to avoid the kinds of typecasting his friends like Boris Karloff and, at least later in his career, Basil Rathbone received. But his greatest fame came at a time in his life when many stars begin to fade. Instead, he reached an entirely new audience over two decades into his long career when he began to appear in horror and science fiction movies and low budget exploitation films geared toward younger viewers. It was during these years that the performer we most remember Vincent Price to be was born. And it all started with a buzz. In 1958, Price appeared as the brother of Andre Delombre (played by Al—later credited as David—Hedison), the scientist who has an unfortunate mishap with his teleportation experiments, in The Fly. The film was a massive success and 20th Century Fox ordered a sequel, Return of the Fly, hot on its heels. Though these would begin his rise to becoming the King of Horror in the 60’s, he plays neither the villain nor the monster in either film. Between Fly films, Price connected with one of the great showmen of horror, William Castle, and starred in House on Haunted Hill, one of the seminal haunted house movies. As expected from William Castle, it involved a gimmick in which a plastic, glow-in-the dark skeleton on a fishing line hovered above the audience. The gimmicks would return in the form of the infamous seat buzzers for Price and Castle’s next collaboration The Tingler in 1959. Price enjoyed working on these films and admired Castle’s audacity. “Bill Castle was wonderful…He was a nutty fellow, but great fun to work with and very inventive.” Perhaps the films that most solidified Price’s legacy as horror icon are his collaborations with American International Pictures (AIP), particularly the Edgar Allan Poe adaptations directed by the legendary Roger Corman. Beginning with House of Usher in 1960 and culminating with Tomb of Ligeia in 1964, Price starred in all but one of the eight films officially in this cycle. AIP put more time and money (though they were still made on extremely tight budgets) into these movies and filmed them in color and widescreen. Their gamble paid off as all of them were met with great success. The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) remains the most successful of them all and Masque of the Red Death (1964) is considered a masterpiece of the genre. While at AIP, he had the opportunity to reconnect and co-star with a number of old friends and fellow horror icons including Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre. Besides the core Poe films, he also starred in the first film adaptation of Richard Mathieson’s oft-filmed I Am Legend re-titled The Last Man on Earth (1964), two Dr. Goldfoot movies—one of them directed by Italian horror maestro Mario Bava, and made a number of television appearances, most notably as Egghead on Batman and Count Sforza on F Troop. These are only the tip of the iceberg of his many appearances on television, in commercials and print ads, and on radio that spanned his career. In the early 60’s, Price was given a few unexpected opportunities as well. He was selected to serve on President Kennedy’s White House Fine Arts Committee, became the spokesman for the California Wine Institute, and signed a contract to become the art buyer for Sears stores. He was particularly enthusiastic about the program at Sears as it made original art pieces available to everyone, not just the wealthy. He was also able to discover many new artists and expose their work to a wider audience. For a time, he became almost as well known for his love of fine art, wine, and cooking as for his films. In the late 60’s, Price began to become disenchanted with the roles he was being assigned by AIP. He was concerned by the rising violence and gore being employed in these movies. But despite his concerns, the films of this period remain some of the most impactful of his career.<doc-sep>
(Note: This post contains spoilers for the finale episode of “Castle Rock.”) The final moments of the first season of “Castle Rock” wrapped up most of the plotlines of the show, but it also ended with a whole lot of ambiguity. In last week’s episode, the Kid (Bill Skarsgard) explained his own identity and where he came from to Molly (Melanie Lynskey). The Kid claimed he was the child of Ruth (Sissy Spacek) and Matthew Deaver (Adam Rothenberg) from another, parallel reality — and that he’d been trapped in this world by Shawshank State Penitentiary Warden Lacy (Terry O’Quinn) for more than 15 years. The Kid wanted Henry (Andre Holland) to take him to the woods, since Henry could see the gateway between the worlds that would allow the Kid to travel back to his home reality. The episode ends with a time skip that finds that Henry didn’t do what the Kid wanted. Instead, Henry climbs down into the bowels of the now-defunct Shawshank, to the cage where the Kid was found — and we see that he has locked the Kid back up, the same way Lacy did. The Kid insists that he is trapped in the wrong reality, an alternate version of Castle Rock, and that the same thing happened to Henry when he was young — Henry just doesn’t remember. Eventually, he will, the Kid says, and when that happens, Henry will release him. Henry doesn’t seem to believe him, though. In the last seconds of the episode, Henry leaves the Kid in the darkness with some food, and a flicker of a smile crosses the Kid’s face. So what does it all mean? There’s room for interpretation, but the Kid’s final reaction to Henry imprisoning him pushes one major one: that Warden Lacy might have been right about the Kid’s actual identity. At the start of the show, when Lacy commits suicide, we learned that he imprisoned the Kid because he thought he was the devil, thanks to the horrific things that happened wherever the Kid went. Last week, the Kid appeared to explain why that was the case: He claimed to be from another universe, an alternate Castle Rock, and the fact that he was trapped in a universe that wasn’t his own created the weirdness that made tragedies happen around him. It seems, though, that Henry didn’t buy it. When the Kid dragged Henry at gunpoint out into the woods in order to make Henry help him find the gateway between the realities, Henry managed to get the gun away from the Kid. Rather than helping him get home, the time skip reveals that Henry put the Kid back in the cage — so obviously he never found the gateway that the Kid claimed was real. So what’s happening here, and why is the Kid smiling? One way to look at it is that Lacy was right, and Henry believes his interpretation: The Kid really is the devil, or at least some kind of monster. And Henry is staying in Castle Rock in order to make sure the Kid stays in his cage and can’t harm anyone else. The thing is, the Kid told his story about coming from another universe, and he claimed that Henry also crossed that barrier and was trapped in the other reality for years — but Henry can’t remember those events. The only place that information comes from is the Kid, and it’s unverified. Like Matthew, Henry might be seeing this whole thing as the devil telling him what he wants to hear. The turning point for Henry was the series of events that took place in the jail. He and the Kid were locked up together when a bus full of Shawshank inmates was brought in to be held in the jail. In the Kid’s presence, the prisoners staged a breakout, murdering all the deputies in the office, as well as Willie (Rory Culkin). As Henry watched the murders, the keys to the cell he and the Kid were held in came straight to the Kid’s feet. That moment recontextualizes everything that happened with the Kid throughout the series. The Kid previously acted like tragedy followed him almost accidentally, as a result of him being out of place in this universe. But when Henry sees the Kid get exactly what he wants out of the tragedy in the jail, he sees the Kid’s intent — the way he uses horrific things to get what he wants.