From J. J. Abrams and Stephen King comes Castle Rock, the new Hulu series that brings the acclaimed horror author's wildest imaginings to life in disturbing fashion and mixes them with intriguing teases from the master of the mystery box. Now that folks have had a chance to check out Castle Rock for themselves, King fans will undoubtedly recognize a number of Easter eggs from the writer's many, many tomes and short stories. But for others who might have some questions about characters, settings, and even recreated cinematic scenes in Castle Rock, we've put together a handy episodic guide to all the Stephen King Easter eggs we could find.

Now while we'll do our best to keep the regular cast, guest stars, and the many references and homages straight, we'd love it if you'd join us in the conversation. We're trying to figure out just what's going on here, same as you, but we're also bringing you the extra content that only Stephen King and his twisted mind could have dreamed up in the first place. So come with us as we visit Castle Rock and try to make it out alive!

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Co-creators and executive producers Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason (Manhattan) bring an original story set in King's many worlds to life in Castle Rock, starring André Holland (Moonlight, The Knick), Sissy Spacek (Carrie), Bill Skarsgard (It), Melanie Lynskey (Togetherness), Terry O'Quinn (LOST) and Jane Levy (Suburgatory). New episodes air weekly on Hulu every Wednesday, and we'll update this guide accordingly.

Here's the list of Episode Easter Eggs so far, so click to jump to the episode in question:

Here’s the full synopsis:

A psychological-horror series set in the Stephen King multiverse, Castle Rock combines the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of King’s best-loved works, weaving an epic saga of darkness and light, played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland.The series stars André Holland, Melanie Lynskey, Sissy Spacek, Billy Skarsgård, Jane Levy and Scott Glenn. Sam Shaw & Dustin Thomason developed the project for television and serve as executive producers along with J.J. Abrams, Ben Stephenson and Liz Glotzer. Castle Rock is from Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.

"Severance"

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We're going to start our by providing you a baseline for the regular cast of characters:

Henry Deaver - The core character in the mystery of Castle Rock is also an amalgam of some of King's finest protagonists. He ticks a lot of boxes: Hometown kid who escaped only to be dragged back into the small town and its drama as an adult, a mysterious circumstance in his youth that he can't quite remember yet still haunts him to this day, and his nature as an outsider who's shunned and distrusted by his own community, with the exception of a few close confidants. Deaver's also likely going to be the one who cracks the case as to just what's going on in the town of Castle Rock. Those attributes sum up a majority of King's protagonists and their stories, so clearly Shaw and Thomason have done their homework with this hometown hero, a hero of the people, whether they accept him or not.

Ruth Deaver - Henry's adoptive mother suffers from a declining mental state, a theme that's found in many of King's works whether they be due to old age, dementia and Alzheimer's, or some more nefarious influence. However the more obvious link here is that star Sissy Spacek famously played the title role in Carrie, the Oscar-nominated Brian De Palma-directed adaptation of King's first novel that put both the writer and the actress on the map.

Alan Pangborn - We meet this small-town sheriff early on in the telling of Castle Rock's tale, but his story spans a few decades on the show. That means the older version of Pangborn, who has stepped in to take care of the ailing Ruth in Henry's absence, has quite a few years of secrets, grudges, and life lessons to dole out. In King's world, however, Pangborn is the Castle Rock sheriff in his prime in a number of stories, namely the novels "Needful Things" and "The Dark Half", and the novella "The Sun Dog." (He's mentioned in "Bag of Bones" and "Gerald's Game" as well.) There's a lot of backstory to mine and reference should Castle Rock choose to do so, but it's also interesting to see how this version of Pangborn deals with so many years of terrible things happening in this town.

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Dale Lacy - In one of the most stunning moments of the premiere, we're introduced to the warden of Shawshank in pretty brutal fashion. Lacy's violent suicide not only clues us in to his battle with demons (personal and, perhaps, actual ones), but it also leaves us wondering, "Is that all O'Quinn was here to do?" Rest assured that he'll return since Castle Rock jumps back and forth in time. And his role in the story is an important one, a failed and flawed authority figure who went to extremes to do something he thought it was his moral obligation to do. Time will tell if we agree with his actions, but his connection to King's infamous penitentiary is a welcome one.

The Kid - We can't say much about The Kid at this point, save for Skarsgard's creepy performance--and his role as the wildly popular Pennywise in the latest It adaptations--but he's a classic King character: Mysterious, spooky, and altogether ooky. Something weird is going on with The Kid, and whatever that is will tell us if Lacy's behavior was justified, just how much danger Henry Deaver and the town are in, and how close to King's "creepy kids" like those in Children of the Corn and The Regulators he'll come.

Molly Strand - Molly's an interesting character for a number of reasons, but we don't get into too many of them in this first episode. It should suffice to say for now that she has a drug problem, is obsessed with Henry Deaver, and is aware of both of these afflictions rather than delusional about the control they exert over her life. Actor Melanie Lynskey, however, did play a part in a previous King adaptation, that of Rachel Wheaton in Rose Red.

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Image via Hulu

Easter Eggs:

The whole show itself takes place in Castle Rock, Maine, a familiar haunt for King's tales that brings a familiar look and feel to the setting (even if parts the series were filmed in Massachusetts and West Virginia).

Great catch from Twitter user Big Mo Shark:

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/sharkdiesel21/status/1022462085752647681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw[/EMBED_TWITTER]

The song in question is "Sull'aria" from Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" and can be heard in The Shawshank Redemption and during Lacy's suicide scene. The radio station in question, 100.3 FM, is a local Maine station that King himself co-owns.

Also helping us in these Easter egg articles are showrunners Shaw and Thomason themselves, who blissfully participate in episode breakdowns. One such nugget of trivia knowledge that could only come from the showrunners themselves is that Doc's Lizard Bowl was originally called "Jungleland" in earlier scripts; that's the title of a Bruce Springsteen song that also served as the origin of the title and the epigraph to King's tome "The Stand."

We're not sure what's up with the sheepdog just yet, but King does have a fascination with dogs in his books, like "Cujo" and "Gerald's Game", and of course, Molly the Thing of Evil. This particular heckin' pupper seems far less evil though.

In Shawshank, the tour through the prison not only reminds us that former wardens have met violent ends here--notably Warden Samuel Norton's suicide, since the bullet hole is still in the wall--but also that an entire cell block has been closed off after the "Christmas fire of 87." The infamous and fictional prison is mentioned in a number of King's tomes, but we're not quite sure where this factoid comes from or if it's original to the series.

Henry Deaver's death-row client is Leanne Chambers, who's on trial for murdering her husband Richard Chambers. Her death by lethal injection goes awry, much like the purposefully sabotaged electrocution death of Eduard Delacroix in The Green Mile. (And I guess we can call the execution chamber "The Green Tile" thanks to its garish decoration.) But also, Richard Chambers, a.k.a. gang member "Eyeball", is the older brother to Chris Chambers from "The Body", better known as Stand by Me.

A plot point revolves around the removal of the remains of Henry's adoptive father from the local cemetery to bury them in another plot outside of town; the obvious Pet Sematary nod, with a little non-King horror movie Poltergeist, here is reinforced later on as well.

Back in the prison, The Kid sees a small mouse running loose in the prison, another nod to The Green Mile and Del's long-lived mouse, Mr. Jingles. (We don't think this was Mr. Jingles if only because he'd be too smart to get caught in a mousetrap after all these years.)

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Image via Hulu

Miscellaneous:

Ruth: "My white oaks are dead, it's a miracle they haven't toppled over and killed someone." The famous tree from Shawshank Redemption is a white oak, which did in fact topple over back in 2016. (Thanks to our own Vinnie Mancuso for catching this one. The reference, not the tree itself.)

Boyd: “Sometimes a rope’s just a fuckin’ rope.”

Pangborn: “It was minus 40 last night. You know how cold that is? You can freeze to death in an hour. And you’ve been gone 11 days … so what happened out there?”

That hatch leading into The Kid's holding cage was certainly LOST-like, a nod to both J.J. Abrams and O'Quinn's famous mystery series.

The new warden references Willie Horton, a violent felon who was released on a weekend furlough program only to escape and commit more heinous crimes before being re-apprehended.

There's a haunting moment where a big-bellied man standing next to a red 80s sports car, saying, "Hey, Killer," to Henry as he walks by. King does love his cars, but we can't quite place this one and where it's from in King's stories, if anywhere.

Warden: “Forced buyout; not everyone handles the 19th hole well.” Deaver: “And some people guillotine themselves with a Lincoln. I guess people handle retirement differently.”

Pangborn: “It’s not always a happy job, carrying the keys.”

Zalewski's listening to the ball game on the radio and we're going to assume it's the Boston Red Sox, a favorite of King's.

Lacy: “When they find you, ask for Henry Deaver. Henry Matthew Deaver.”

"Habeus Corpus"

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This is the first time we get to see Castle Rock's credit sequence. The stylish opener includes references to ItSalem's Lot, The Green Mile, Dolores Claiborne, The Shining, Misery, and Cujo, along with things like a map of the local Maine area (including the Arrowhead Project that pops up in Firestarter, The Mist, and The Tommyknockersand Little Tall Island, the setting of the Storm of the Century) and a Shawshank prison map.

Now that we've made our introductions, we can dig into some of the King-liness of the characters and settings a bit more:

Early on in this episode, the dearly departed Lacy lays out some exposition about the town's evil history, a history that includes nods to "Needful Things"--the missing owner of an oddities shop named Leland Gaunt--and "The Dead Zone", though it's Lacy who's knocked unconscious before "awakening" in more than one sense. Part of this story includes a nod to Stand by Me once again, referencing the finding of "that boy's body out by the train tracks", and the bulk of it features a gory montage of deaths over the years. The town, and its ground, are tainted with blood and death, a familiar facet of King's work.

Jackie (Levy), Molly Strand's assistant, gets an interesting introduction here. The King connection here is her last name: Torrance. We've yet to see any direct line between Jackie and The Shining family, and the follow-up, "Doctor Sleep", so we'll keep our eyes peeled.

Just as the reverend mentions it's good to see "Redemption in the flesh" in the form of Henry Deaver, the scene cuts to Shawshank Prison on Redemption Rd.

Though King's villains are occasionally fascist, he shies away from using outright Nazis, except in the short story "Apt Pupil." The White Supremacist/Nazi in this episode, who's reading "Lord of the Flies" by the way, ends up dying by systemic metastatic cancer after his encounter with The Kid, making for a sort of reverse-John Coffey scenario.

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It's possible that Molly Strand's neurological affliction--which is a real disorder that impairs the person's ability to empathize with others--has a more supernatural cause ... perhaps, a sort of shine.

Molly wants to renovate the local, rundown Yarn Mill. There's your nod to King's story and the underrated (okay it's terrible) adaptation, The Graveyard Shift.

Henry runs into Jackie at the Mellow Tiger, a bar that's owned by Henry Beaufort in "Needful Things." Jackie also mentions Nan's Luncheonette, an establishment that is mentioned in "IT", "Needful Things" and "The Sun Dog."

The new warden and her cohort mention talking to Pruitt on the board; the only Pruitts in King's lore appear to be the young twins in "Under the Dome."

Henry finds Pangborn digging up a dead dog in the middle of the night, one they buried after it was hit by a car. He's doing so to make sure it hasn't gotten up and started wandering around again, giving us both a "Pet Sematary" plot point and an almost shot-for-shot scene recreation at the same time.

Speaking of dogs, that same sheep dog from the first episode apparently finds Lacy's severed head dug up somewhere out in the woods. There's also another "Cujo" reference when Henry finds the newspaper clippings about the rabid dog, which Lacy himself also talks about it in his exposition.

While it's thin at the moment, there's a religious thread that runs through Castle Rock's story, just as they tend to do in King's work. We'll see how this one develops.

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Miscellaneous:

Dale Lacy: “It’s not luck, it’s a plan. And not God’s either. Remember the dog? The Strangler? Sure you do. How about all the others that didn’t make headlines?” - The Strangler references Frank Dodd, a serial rapist/strangler featured in "The Dead Zone" and mentioned in "Needful Things", "IT", "Cujo", and "Uncle Otto's Truck."

Lacy: “Take any house in this town, hell, take mine. Every inch is stained with someone’s sin. I lie awake at night thinking about all the blood spilled under my roof alone. People say, ‘It wasn’t me, it was this place.’ And the thing is, they’re right.”

Lacy: “With all the guile of Hell arrayed against this town, what’s a decent man to do?”

(Acts 16:33) "At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized."

Jackie Torrance: “All God’s children.”

Pangborn: “Don’t let that fuckin’ kid out.”

Seen on the solitary cell wall: GFBD (God Forgives, Brotherhood Doesn't)

Zalewski: “It would take an act of God to get you into that prison.”

Lacy: “’Never again let him see the light of day.’ That’s what God told me. He told me where to find him, how his prison should be built, how to put an end to all the horrors we’ve seen in this town… What he didn’t tell me was how full of doubt I would be about what we did, or where I’d wind up in the end. I fear for this place. I fear what’s to come, Alan. But I know Castle Rock still has a defender, even in the dead of night…”

Shaw and Thomason reveal, in the episode breakdown, that they worked with composer Thomas Newman, who previously worked on The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile.

They also mention that Jackie Torrance's early character description was "Tracy Flick meets Ed Gein."

To keep the timelines straight, most if not all of the 1991 storyline takes place in the winter and it was also shot on film, compared to the present-day storyline, which was shot digitally. Cinematographer Richard Rutkowski wanted the differences to come through on an unconscious level even if audiences weren't overtly aware of the change.

"Local Color"

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And this is where things start to get really weird.

We learn a lot about Molly Strand in this episode, which gives us the strongest evidence yet that she possesses some sort of shine or other supernatural ability. She knows what Henry Deaver is doing, thinking, and feeling when in proximity to him, so it remains to be seen whether Molly herself detached Rev. Deaver's breathing tube or if she was simply "walking" along with Henry in his red hoodie (which she now has in her obsession collection) as he did it himself.

The religious thread gets a real fire-and-brimstone kick in this episode, and that's in keeping with King's themes throughout many of his stories.

The Woolen Mill Co. building is showcased again, a possible homage back to The Graveyard Shift.

The kids holding court at the Timberland Motor Court has a strong "Children of the Corn" vibe to it, along with the aforementioned "Lord of the Flies" nod in the previous episode.

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Image via Hulu

Miscellaneous:

Rev. Deaver: “Who are you to overrule the will of my Lord?”

Sign that reads, “Molly Strand Real Estate: Live Like a King!”

Henry: “Fuck you, dad.”

Jackie: "Cool murder basement."

Drug dealer: “How many Minions you kill to make that jacket?”

Rev. Deaver to Henry: “Do you hear it? Do you hear it now?”

Girl: “Our moms are out drunk but our daddies are at Shawshank.”

Derrick: “$60 for three pills … and I want to see your tits.”

Officer: “Little cop [cawp] wisdom for you: Suicides solve themselves.”

The Kid / Nick: “Has it begun? ... How many years old are you? ... Do you hear it now? ...”

In the episode breakdown, Shaw and Thomason remind folks that the title of Castle Rock comes from the landmark in "Lord of the Flies."

"The Box"

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Let's spare a second to talk about the music in this show and, specifically, the music in this episode. This hour's fantastic selections include Tom Waits“Clap Hands”,  a repeat performance of Gene Pitney's "24 Hours from Tulsa", and, as a stunning closer, Roy Orbison's "Crying Over You." There's also "The Weight" from The Band, better known as "Take a Load Off, Annie", playing in the bar. And while I don't believe any of his music appears in this episode, American singer/songwriter David Allan Coe's name in written on the solitary prison cell wall. (Bonus Waits Trivia: King references the acclaimed artist's "Burma Shave" in the 2018 novel "The Outsider.")

Henry and Pangborn's journey up to Kennebec Memorial Cemetery to disinter the late Reverend Deaver and return his body (in a "box", a motif that's repeated often in this episode) is giving us strong Pet Sematary vibes and we don't like it (but we love it).

Henry's visit to the Desjardins family home is a definite nod to "The Body"/ Stand by Me. Vincent Desjardins was a member of Ace's gang--and was apparently busted for felony insurance fraud, having cut off the tips of his forefinger and thumb--but it's his brother Joseph that Pangborn investigated (or pretended to) in the case of the Deaver kidnapping. According to Joseph, Vince moved down south once his sentence was commuted but neither brother ever got the bones back. (There's also a thin connection between this Desjardins family and Rita Desjardins, the gym teacher in Carrie, though it's probably in name only.)

In the foreground of a scene at the Deaver family home, a black-and-white movie is playing, one that features a disheveled man in a prison cell begging for help from people on the outside. I couldn't catch what movie this was, but it plays into "The Box" motif, as to the solitary prison cell, the coffin, Ruth remaining "trapped" in the hometown she loves until "she leaves it in a box", Zalewski feeling trapped at his job where he's forced to watch men in cages while sitting in a sort of cage himself, and, of course, the box at the Desjardins house.

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While Henry is flipping through the microfiche in the county records, here are some notable articles and clippings (aside from the vintage car ads and advertisements for local Gardener, MA spots like Heywood Hospital):

January 14, 1985, newly installed Warden Dale Lacy said, "I feel I have been preparing all my life for this role, which I believe to be a calling. It's funny how God works."

According to the articles, four wardens have died during their time at Shawshank. Lacy apparently also implemented a low-wage worker program using prison labor, which comprised 40% of the town's "volunteer" fire department. Later, the Christmas fire at Shawshank took place in 1987 in cell block F (two prisoners and one on-duty guard died; fire marshall Paul H. Joseph said the fire was deliberately set and the unnamed suspect was being held in military confinement. (We're not sure if this is a Firestarter reference and/or a nod to the Arrowhead Project or not.) (Bonus: King and his wife have been quite supportive of their own local fire department.)

Molly Strand apparently lives in the same house as the town's serial strangler, Frank Dodd

Miscellaneous:

Female Guard: "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands." "Smiling is cheaper than plastic surgery. "

The Kid: “He has a name. He has a name written on him, which no one knows except himself. He’s cloaked with a robe dipped in blood, and his name was called The Word of God.” Revelation 19:12-13 – Describing the leader of Heaven’s armies.

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Dennis Zalewski: “You know how they always say that Castle Rock has some kind of luck? Not really luck though, is it. Bad shit happens here because bad people know that they’re safe here. How many times does one fuckin’ town look the other way?”

Ruth Deaver: “This is my home. I’ll leave it in a box.”

Ruth also randomly talks about feeling like one of the legendary shield-maidens, or skjaldmær, the female warriors from Scandinavian folklore and mythology.

Molly: “He didn’t kill himself in the house.”

Joseph Desjardin: “I can see that little boy in your face.”

Joseph: “I never did get my bones back.”

Joseph: “You know I never touched you.”

Alan: “You’re the one who dug up Desjardins. I’m just the one that’s trying to keep this goddamn fence from falling down.”

Dennis: “I wanna testify.”

"Harvest"

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While Nick/The Kid is watching a reorientation video before he’s let out of prison, a familiar name pops up: The narrator says, “I’m Lou Hadley. Who are you?” The last name Hadley is, presumably, a relation of Byron Hadley, the guard of Shawshank played expertly well by Clancy Brown.

We get two instances of older men interacting with The Kid in this episode. Though we have yet to see The Kid back when Lacy found him in 1991, both Lacy himself and Pangborn confirm that he hasn't aged a day while they've grown older. Tied into this fact, which is creepy enough on its own, is the connection between The Kid and Henry Deaver, who also went missing as a kid back in 1991 but has aged normally.

Both Henry and The Kid are shown getting psychological and psychiatric evaluations, Henry for his tinnitus and The Kid for his retrograde amnesia. When asked to repeat back a list of words in any order, Henry responds, “White. Church. Family,” while The Kid responds, “Red. Church. Family.” We'll have more on that discussion below, one that includes the red and white chess pieces.

The Kid might be at risk of going to Juniper Hill, the infamous Castle Rock asylum.

When The Kid unintentionally (we presume) terrorizes an otherwise lovely birthday party, the birthday boy in question is named Gordie. That might be a nod back to Gordie LaChance in "The Body"/Stand by Me, but likely in name only.

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Image via Hulu

The Rottweiler that starts barking and scares Ruth during the bridge-naming ceremony is another nod back to Cujo, as is the many, many references to the "psychotic dog" that once terrorized the town.

Jackie’s uncle is Jack Torrance of The Shining infamy, but her real name is Diane; she took his name because she’s obsessed with his story and stories like it. (And is that a dead frog hanging from her rearview mirror?)

Molly's "shine" continues to both plague and assist her in this episode as she proves her power to Henry and uses it to know that something is very wrong with The Kid (who's surprisingly gifted at playing the piano; who knew?).

Inside the Episode:

Shaw and Thomason conceived of Season 1 of Castle Rock as a three-act novel; Harvest kicks off the second act.

I love that the “Inside the Episode” featurettes have little dioramas of Castle Rock, just like The Kid’s soap carving and Molly’s model of the town…

The wildfires serve several roles in this episode: They’re a dramatic inclusion from Shaw and Thomason’s real-life experiences, a “sign of the times” regarding environmental changes, and a harbinger of doom for the residents of Castle Rock.

It’s also worth mentioning that the background objects in each of these “Inside the Episode” videos are changing slightly, week to week. Here's a look at what we've seen so far:

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Image via Hulu

In the behind-the-scenes featurette for the premiere, we can see white and red chess pieces on the table between Shaw and Thomason. These figures appear throughout the "Inside the Episode" videos, though they move around a bit. Their meaning is getting stronger ties into the series now as we learn about Ruth's fascination with Nordic mythology and Scandinavian culture, Alan's gift to Ruth of hand-carved chess pieces, Henry's clutching of a white chess piece as a child in multiple episodes, Henry and The Kid's word choice when undergoing psychological evaluations, and The Kid's soap carving. The biggest reach but the closest King comparison is that the white and red chess pieces represent the eternal battle between the forces of good and order, and the forces of evil and chaos, led by the Crimson King.

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Image via Hulu

In the Episode 2 featurette, which has the same background as Episodes 3 and 4, we also get to see the mascot head that once belonged to the dearly departed brother of Dale Lacy.

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This most recent episodes features more background changes. The chess pieces have shifted positions (which probably doesn't mean all that much other than a bit of inconsistent set decoration), but the shelves behind Shaw and Thomason now feature a butterfly, a fetish doll, and some sort of mystery box. Do our eagle-eyed readers spot anything else or have any ideas to their significance?

Miscellaneous:

Lacy: “Make me an ark of gopher wood, and this is the fashion thou shalt make it of.” This quote from Lacy comes from the Bible, as you might expect: Genesis 6:14.

With regard to the wildfires, the local newspaper, the Castle Rock Call, says it’s the “careless leaf peepers”, which is a nod to the fall foliage tourists.

“Exploding casket syndrome” afflicts Henry’s father’s casket, which is a real and gross thing.

Continuing the breakdown of the show's excellent and at-times very creepy use of music, we're treated to Shirley Temple singing “Animal Crackers in My Soup” as The Kid eavesdrops/breaks into a birthday celebration that goes terribly, terribly wrong.

Henry: “We don’t even know who he is. He could be the Bangor Strangler.” Molly: “First of all, you made that up. And second of all, you’re the one who got him out of prison.”

Dad: “Oh a baseball glove! How fucking original, mommy!”

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Image via Hulu

Pangborn: “A magician has to tell a little story, something to distract you while they palm an ace off the deck. I’ve never been any good at that.”

Pangborn apparently “moved south” back in the early 90s after Ruth rejected him, saying “Live Free or Die”, so “moving south” means going to New Hampshire, I guess.

Jackie: “People bitch about the bad old days when there were like serial killers and psychopathic dogs, but I would give my left tit to go back there. The 80s, man. I have this uncle though, he was a writer, too. But then one winter, he just flipped his lid and tried to axe-murder his wife and kid in some fancy ski resort.”

The Kid: “I shouldn’t be here. I should still be in the hole.”

Pangborn: “You wait 30 years for the woman you love and finally you get her, and she slips through your fingers. And here you are, fuckin’ Rip Van Winkle. Where’s the justice in that?”

"Filter"

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This episode happened to feature more miscellaneous connections to our real world than those of King's many fictional worlds, but we'll make sure to explore both:

Henry's son Wendell is played by Chosen Jacobs, who made his big-screen debut in the acclaimed horror hit IT, another King tale (obviously).

The previously mentioned psychiatric institution/insane asylum Juniper Hill is featured here ... briefly. It's only a matter of hours before a deadly fire spreads and The Kid is set free from one of Castle Rock's most infamous institutions again. As Henry himself remarks, it's "a good place ... better than it used to be."

Fire plays a big part throughout the first half of Castle Rock: A deadly Christmas Day fire spread through Shawshank in the past, wildfires are currently impacting the surrounding wilderness just outside of the town, and now the Juniper Hill fire. It's almost as if there's some sort of ... Firestarter causing all this havoc.

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The source of Henry's ringing in the ears is explored in this episode. Castle Rock dubs it "The Schisma", which we'll talk more about in the science-focused section below. But it's in keeping with King lore, most closely connected to the Thinny. This weak spot in the fabric between connected worlds plays a big part in King's The Dark Tower series but also appears elsewhere. It's a little different from the Schisma, which is the sound itself. Could Henry, the late Rev. Deaver, and the newly introduced Willie and Odin Branch be searching for a Thinny? Is it possible this Thinny will transition us into the recently announced Season 2 of the show's anthology format?

While Pangborn is at the junkyard attempting to salvage the late Dale Lacy's car on The Kid's orders, a tow truck driver says, "These cars are going to Fat Tony." This is a fun bit of interconnected King lore, so stick with me: "Fat Tony" is a satirical mobster character played by Joe Mantegna on The Simpsons. The animated series has paid homage to King and his works a number of times over the years. King and Mantegna appeared in one episode together, "Insane Clown Poppy", but Mantegna also played a mobster in the King adaptation, Thinner.

Miscellanea:

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Pastor/Rev. Deaver: “Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed.” 1 Corinthians, 15:51

Music: The Walker Brothers “The Son Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore”

Henry: “Grant Fuhr is the greatest Black hockey player of all time.” Truth. Read up on the Hall of Famer here.

Wendell briefly asks who Henry’s real parents are, and so while Henry dodges the question, we’re left to wonder if his true parentage has any meaningful connection to the King world.

Wendell: “What’s the deal with all the missing pieces?” A good question, Wendell.

We meet Willie (Rory Culkin) and Odin Branch (Charles "CJ" Jones). The latter is, most likely, a thinly veiled reference to the Norse god Odin, who infamously sacrificed himself by hanging himself on a tree.

Branch (through Willie): “Best I can tell, Schisma is actually nano-scale turbulences caused by cochlear quantum totalities operating in parallel. Other years, other nows, all possible pasts, all possible presents … the schisma is the sound of the universe trying to reconcile them.”

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Image via Hulu

A few things here: "Schisma" is a real term for a musical interval that has a mind-boggling definition for yours truly. Also, Branch calls the sound that Henry and they hear “The Music of the Spheres”, another name for the ancient philosophy also known as "musica universalis" which attempts to relate the movement of celestial bodies as "music"; this was more of a concept than anything audible, however. Branch's term, "The Nature of the Schisma", is more fitting for someone who has earned "advanced degrees in bio- and psychoacoustics", which are actually real disciplines of study despite their made-up sounding names.

While the Filter--the device Odin constructed in his RV, like a physics-oriented Walter White--gives the episode its title, its nature as an anechoic chamber has corollaries in the real world, as well. Things can get downright spooky in one of these noiseless chambers, as I wrote about in this Nerdist article a few years back.

On this week's "Inside the Episode", Shaw and Thomason confirm that their attempt at providing an "ancient and eternal" mystery is called the Schisma in this story, and it's what Pangborn first heard when he discovered young Henry on the frozen lake.

Odin Branch: “Not. Deaf. Perfect!”

I believe that the pills Ruth spills onto the floor are red and white, like the chess pieces she uses to navigate her way around the house and stay anchored in the present. We've also talked about how the red and white motif may be a nod to the battle of the forces of good against the Crimson King.

The Kid: “There will be a monument to Warden Lacy, to everyone who helped put me in that cage.”

"The Queen"

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While there weren't a lot of King references in this episode, I'd like to just take a moment to say that "The Queen" is, top to bottom, one of the best hours of television this year. Sissy Spacek delivers a fantastic performance for a part that asked her to jump back and forth between distant, alternating timelines while acting opposite herself, her husband, her lover, her son, her grandson, The Kid, and even a dog in each and every scene. It was expertly crafted from beginning to end. And while "The Queen" serves as an important chapter in the Castle Rock story so far, it's also an excellent standalone episode that depicts the rarely explored themes of dementia, old age, and a lifelong romance. Cheers to the showrunners for this one!

Ruth hiding from The Kid amongst a collection of knickknacksin her house reminded me of the curiosity shop from Needful Things.

The German Shepherd is a nod back to both Cujo, in the general sense, and, more specifically, Gerald’s Game.

There are now 14 confirmed dead at Juniper Hill with The Kid as the reported arson suspect.

Ruth hiding in the clawfoot bathtub feels like a nod back to both Psycho (especially with the reversal of the stabbing scene) and King's own The Shining.

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Image via Hulu

Miscellanous:

It seems the good Rev. Matthew Deaver was afflicted with a brain tumor known as a glioma, which could provide a medical reason for his hallucinations and increasing insanity.

Henry's German Shepherd was named Puck, perhaps a nod to the mythical character and favorite of Shakespeare's.

Turns out the song warbling on the record player was "Blue Moon", a version sang by none other than Elvis Presley. (There's another song that plays later but I couldn't quite source it; I think it might be this, or another version of it.)

Ruth’s birthday appears to be January 22, 1949, but I couldn't find any connections there.

On this week's "Inside the Episode", Shaw and Thomason confirm that this episode was a “deconstructed riff on Pet Sematary.

Ruth: “She’s not a son of a bitch, she’s a bitch.”

Ruth: “You have no idea what [Matthew] was capable of…”

Ruth: “Why do all magic tricks sound pornographic?” Alan: “I don’t know, maybe because they were invented by virgins.”

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Image via Hulu

Matthew: “I can hear it now. Can you?”

Wendell: “You’re a time-walker.”

Wendell: “What makes it so hard is that no one stays dead when you kill ‘em, unless they’re a Time-Walker. Theoretically you could kill your nemesis, fix the whole timeline.” Ruth: “But you’ve gotta stay sharp.”

Ruth: “You did right, but it didn’t take. He’s back, in the present, not the past, but I’m gonna fix it.”

The Kid: “God helps those who help themselves.”

Ruth: “Who are you?” The Kid: “I’m smaller than a teacup.”

Ruth: “Alan, who’s in there? Is it me?” Alan: “I’m so sorry.”

Ruth: “Don’t leave. Please.” Alan: “I’m not goin’ anywhere.”

"Past Perfect"

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Following up on "The Queen", this episode is more of an homage to the gorier and bloodier elements of King's stories, as Shaw and Thomason put it in the "Inside the Episode" featurette.

While Gordon and his wife (whose name I don't think we're ever told; even Hulu's closed captioning just refers to her as Wife or Woman) turned the Castle Rock murder house into a bed and breakfast tourist attraction, the B&B's website doesn't work.

The "Huxley and Rogers" referenced by the evolutionary psychologist early in this episode (before he got beaten up by Gordon) were likely "Darwin's bulldog" Thomas Henry Huxley and psychologist Carl Rogers.

This episode was directed by Ana Lily Amirpour of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and The Bad Batch.

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Image via Warner Bros.

The felling axe used to stage the Carrick murder scene at the B&B may not be appropriate to that particular death, but it sure looks familiar to fans of The Shining.

The Kid: "I waited for you. I waited for 27 years. I rescued you from that basement and I didn't ask for nothing."

Jackie: "Johnny Carrick. 1929." - I couldn't find anything on this name/date, so if you have something relevant, feel free to let us know in the comments!

The Kid (to Molly): "Out there, in the woods, that's where you died."

"Henry Deaver"

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A decent amount of King Easter eggs are hiding in plain sight in this episode. One can be glimpsed in the image above; the entryway for the Fall Harvest event features two 19s, a mystical number in the King-verse.

As this week's "Inside the Episode" with showrunners Shaw and Thomason confirms, "Henry Deaver" is, “an episode of echoes and reflections; everybody is playing a mirror image of themselves.” In King's stories, doppelgangers from different parallel universes are known as Twinners. While these characters aren't exactly Twinners--in the sense that they're just different versions of themselves instead of completely different people who look the same, or in the case of Henry Deaver, two men who look completely different who share the same name and family and memories--this episode confirms the parallel universe and timelines ... that is, if you believe The Kid's tale.

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Image via Hulu

In this less-rundown version of Castle Rock, the storefronts along the main drag feature a lot of King call-outs, including:

  • “Claiborne Creamery” (Dolores Claiborne)
  • "Sheldon Stationary" (Paul Sheldon from Misery)
  • "Thibodeaux Pie Bakers" (possibly Carter Thibodeau and his family from Under the Dome)
  • "R. Cee's Pub" (stretching on this one but King's short story "Trucks" was turned into the awful[ly fun to watch] Maximum Overdrive, which features a death by tiny RC Monster Truck)
  • "Callahan's Thrifty Lot" (probably a nod to Father Callahan from 'Salem's Lot and The Dark Tower series).

Castle Rock’s 6th Annual Fall Harvest Festival feels similar to the one featured in Derry in IT.

The Kid/Henry Deaver smiles at an actual kid holding a bunch of balloons, including a red one; granted this is a bit of a stretch, too, but I like to find just about any connection between Skarsgard and Pennywise that I can.

The ghostly visions that Henry Deaver(s) and Molly see in the woods include a teenage girl slitting her wrists, a pioneer-era woman/girl with a bloody carving knife, and chained prisoners being chased by police/guards and their dogs. I'm not sure if these connect back to King's tales--with the possibility of the Carvers story tying loosely into that of David Carver & Co. from Desperation--but they may be setting up future seasons of the anthology series itself.

Miscellanea:

Rev. Deaver: “God, he doesn’t take requests.”

“Break a Brain Today! Love ya, M.”

Feline Cognitive Dysfunction (FCD) is a disease in older cats that is similar to Alzheimer’s in humans.

Henry Matthew Deaver #2: “We have to go to the woods. Now.”

The Kid: “You believe me, don’t you?” Do you, readers?

"Romans"

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The season finale of Castle Rock was heavier on its own meta references back to earlier episodes than it was to the greater Stephen King lore, except in one, grand, obvious scene. We'll save that explainer for its own article, but other references we caught are collected below:

It suffices to say that the warden of Shawshank is not a highly sought-after position these days, having claimed two lives in the space of the season's few days.

Harmony Hill Cemetery, the location of The Kid's hideout during the events of the finale, infamously appeared throughout "Salem's Lot" and was inspired by the real-life Harmony Grove Cemetery where King and his best friend Chris Chesley used to hang out. In a less direct tie-in, Harmony, Maine was also the town where Graveyard Shift was filmed; it also features a riverside cemetery.

I certainly have a theory on just what sort of entity The Kid really is, thanks to that face-shifting scene in the forest, but what about you? Castle Rock doesn't give too many solid answers on this account.

That mid-credits scene (you did stick around through the credits, right?) strongly suggests that Jane Levy's Jackie Torrance will be heading to the Overlook Hotel to work on her book, likely carrying on family (murder) business. Could Season 2 be a combo of The Shining and Doctor Sleep references? Time will tell! (Her WKIT 100.3 sticker on her laptop is King's own partially owned and supported radio station, if you'll recall.)

Miscellaneous:

"Death Don't Have No Mercy" by Reverend Gary Davis (or a similar performance) plays over the early montage.

"Romans 6 23: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[ Christ Jesus our Lord." Rev. Deaver saw fit to only repeat the first part, however.

In a nice touch, the season ends with another rendition of "24 Hours from Tulsa" which is the song that started the whole thing off.

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Thanks for tagging along for this Easter egg hunt! We hope we get to continue it in Season 2!

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Image via Hulu