Stephen King content on the small or big screen just seems to always have great narration when used. In the second episode, "Habeas Corpus", that is the case once again; the voice of the dead, in the form of Warden Lacy (O'Quinn), in a letter (we later learn by episode's end) to Pangborn. Skarsgård is considered the Devil and Lacy tells Alan Pangborn that the Devil must never see daylight or leave Shawshank. I personally still remain curious of Lacy's suicide, the decision to do so after committing to God (and vice versa, it would appear) regarding keeping the Devil in his cage. With Henry Deaver dedicated to locating Skarsgård-willing to defend him, using a church bus as his means to get in Shawshank as the congregation responsible for "spreading the Word" in his adoptive father's former church sing choir for prisoners willing to "experience the Love of God"-his remaining in Shawshank as Lacy desires could prove difficult. If Alan sees fit to maintain Lacy's "calling", it would put him in the crosshairs of Deaver's mission...what remains puzzling is why Lacy would tell the Devil to call on Deaver to help him and then request assistance from Alan to keep the Devil from leaving the prison. The episode only encourages more questions which is the point....continue to create intrigue, leave more bait for the viewer to pursue. I was amused at how Pangborn confronts Warden Porter (Cusack) in a bar speaking about the bridge named after him and his former occupation as a law enforcer, none of which interests her until he speaks about the Devil in her prison. Later Warden Porter debates whether or not Lacy was indeed a decent man, finding a bucket of nails, realizing that Skarsgård perhaps should never leave Shawshank...her assistant has the Devil put in a cell with a neo Nazi who seems "interested" in his new cellmate. That is until the neo Nazi is found dead in the cell, the Devil perfectly fine...autopsy results show the prisoner had all kinds of cancer, infesting all his major organs. Introduced is a fun character I look forward to seeing more of is Jane Levy's Jackie Torrance (cool last name!), a rather assertive, no-nonsense type who has a way of just cutting to the chase, noticing Deaver arrive at the church, later meeting him at a pool hall/bar with questions about that fateful day when his father was found and his "lost eleven days" (and wants to see his foot with the missing toes that were frostbit!). I was curious about just why Jackie would be such a church devotee...she kind of doesn't fit that sort of Christian profile...it was curious, and her up there in the choir at the prison singing just makes for quite a complex character. The opening where there is a trip back in time pays homage to "Christine" except the football tackle doesn't result in the player injured from the sport, instead a girl in the stands watches as a waving mascot leaps to his death from atop of the high school! A death in a bathroom and a victim in a chair, details of a Castle Rock narratively echoed by Lacy to us that there has always been darkness in the town. Just to put a ribbon on the user view, poor Deaver sure emerges these last two episodes like walking melancholy...the burden this young man has endured just wears like a weary weight he carries, heavy baggage. And seeing his adoptive mother have a "good morning" where she's lucid and aware only for the night to come when she requests Alan to dig up a dead dog to remind her it did die just further piles on the sadness. Speaking of the rotting dog in the case Alan photographs as evidence...not a pretty sight. Skarsgård remains an enigmatic and ghoulish presence, his eyes looking about while the face reveals relatively nothing...and the words aren't available to detail anything much about him. When Zalewski confronts him about the end of the pilot episode being just a hallucination, there is nothing. Warden Porter confronts Skarsgård, with questions about him, there is nothing. Zalewski is requested to get evidence for Deaver in regards to Skarsgård, but risking a job isn't an option with a baby on the way. In conversation with Jackie, Deaver learns of the town's blight, its inability to even have a decent restaurant undercut by "secret brothels and blackmail gone awry". But by episode's end, Deaver does get a glimpse (and camera shots on his phone) of the Devil, leaving us to wonder if a prison exit is in Skarsgård's future. And if that is the case, will Castle Rock ever be the same?
Review of Habeas Corpus
