Admittedly, I have gradually come down from my Stephen King Easter Egg Hunt and have settled into the series, giving more investment to the story arc and mysteries involving "the kid" (Skarsgård). Skarsgård is asked by a drunk, angered former-sheriff, Pangborn, when confronting him (after seeing a "security warning" inside Ruth's house) in the woods on the outskirts of the town if he is "the devil". He does answer this as, "no." So there you go. However, in saying that, when approaching a house in a neighborhood, going inside and noticing a happy-go-lucky family inside celebrating their kid's birthday, after he leaves the parents turn on each other, with what is left behind including rage, profanity, screams, threats of violence, and eventual stabbing! So it is like Skarsgård carries with him some type of evil that functions as a spreading virus...not exactly what you want living in the next room or loft, or even in your vicinity. Nonetheless, Henry Deaver doesn't know any better, trying to relocate Skarsgård before he leaves Maine. Molly Strand offers a loft bed for Skarsgård to sleep, helping out Henry, but he wants "the kid" moved somewhere specific as soon as possible. After overlooking the town from the edge of her roof, Molly talks him down from the ledge needing Henry to understand that there is just something not quite right about Skarsgård. Molly mentions to Deaver that with everyone else what she senses, feels, and hears goes up and down in frequency but with Skarsgård all the voices of the town seem to surge through him...just Henry alone gives her agony, so imagine the added decibels of Skarsgård. Skarsgård tells Pangborn that he can help Ruth, leaving the conclusion quite intriguing because with gun drawn and an intent to shoot, can Alan pass up the chance to see if "the kid" can in fact give him what he has wanted so badly for thirty years: lucid Ruth without the pangs (yes, pun intended) of dementia disrupting Alan's idyll with her. King fans do get some homage love thanks to a brief dialogue scene when Jackie mentions to Skarsgård (who she meets in his temporary loft bed naked!) that she had a relative who went nuts at a hotel along with crazed dogs in the 80s desiring to have her own experiences in such madness...be careful what you wish for! A bridge ceremony honoring Alan's name goes awry when a dog begins barking and Ruth takes a trip off a steeple on the bridge into the lake...what encouraged her to do such a thing and what was significant about the barking dog which caught her attention? Deaver has a child he's not much of a father to and an unsettling ringing in his right ear that was never diagnosed despite efforts to identify the cause. So as the show continues the questions and developments still emerge. Skarsgård's release stems from Warden Porter taking a scolding for the murders of the security guards and death of Zalewski because she failed to do something about Lacy's prisoner...her humbling is quickly shown and the series move on once Skarsgård is released. But Skarsgård is quite an eerie, barely-speaking presence, moving about like a ghost, his face not breaking from this morose expression...his lack of personality and charm distances himself from all of those around him. That he sojourns throughout without a destination, seemingly lost in a fog without direction, leaves him quite an enigma...what is his purposed and is the town doomed with him free to roam about its environs? Established in this episode is a fire starting to engulf the forest as it marches towards Castle Rock. Henry offering a place for his client to stay nearby, and his desire for the son to visit Ruth set up future developments. Funny "prison release rehab" motivation video as Skarsgård responds very little to it, and Jackie's smoking pot while chatting him up offer amusement because he seems so disconnected to his surroundings. Alan and Henry's relationship remains strained as Ruth's condition continues to be a dividing factor between them.
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