Castle Rock Review: Restore Hope (Season 2 Episode 4)
Covering your tracks can sometimes lead to the truth coming out, as Pop finds out on Castle Rock Season 2 Episode 4, “Restore Hope.”
It’s an episode bathed in guilt, Pop’s truth and his refusal of doing more about his cancer one and the same. He’s punishing himself, smartly revealing more about him through his self-destruction. That he is the instigator of Abdi and Nadia losing their mother is a betrayal of trust, not only for them but for us.
Pop has been slowly showing his true colors, and that he sees Abdi and Nadia as a transaction of sorts, a righting of a debt and making sure they have a future after he effectively stole theirs, is a hard thought to bear. It calls into question whether or not he ever sees them beyond his misdeed.
He does appear incredibly hurt by Nadia figuring it all out, but the hurt could easily be his own guilt of the knowledge now in the open rather than concern for her.
The descent of the town to Ace’s conversion is happening much, much faster than expected. The converted are even helping turn others at an alarming rate. It’s a wonder if the main characters, of Annie, Joy, Nadia, Abdi, and Pop, will be the only ones left to battle the enemy ahead.
It’s exciting that the show is taking on such a wild idea of wiping off so much of its characters in favor of making them Ace’s drones. This isn’t normally something that happens so early on a season, and so what this could possibly be leading to is full of potential.
Paul Sparks makes a great villain on Castle Rock. His performance shines from the very still, unnerving calm that he possesses even when facing off against Chris in the church basement. Even watching old home movies, it’s almost alien to Ace, observing happiness as though it’s completely foreign to him. Sparks nails this disconnect, and becomes one of the more fascinating performers on the episode.
That same scene, watching the home movies, has a moment that is almost blink-and-you’ll-miss-it. When the screen goes black, Ace’s reflection isn’t his own, but rather someone else entirely. Is this the person who is possessing his dead body now? The conversion appears to be possessing the dead, and wiping out as much of Castle Rock as possible to raise their following.
A disappointing factor of the episode comes with the sidelining of Annie for another episode. Castle Rock Season 2 Episode 3, “Ties That Bind,” leaves Annie mostly tied to the best for most of its run. That the following episode again sidelines her, and that she isn’t going out of her way to turn the events of Joy leaving to her advantage, doesn’t feel much like the Annie we’ve been seeing.
But this is also not really her episode, so perhaps the next episode will remedy this.
This episode belongs to Nadia and Pop. Yusra Warsama and Tim Robbins both do great work on the episode, able to take the slow burn reveal to Pop’s adoption and make it a deconstruction of their fragile relationship. The journey to get to the big reveal could have been handled a little differently, though, as it’s rarely riveting to have someone going through papers to find the truth.
Castle Rock Season 2 Episode 4, “Restore Hope,” is a tad messy with its delivery. But at the same time, it manages to up the ante and make what comes next completely unpredictable. It’s rare for a show to have that luxury so early into its run, and provides a great continuation of Stephen King’s novel Salem’s Lot as the main collapsing point for Castle Rock.
What did you think of this episode of Castle Rock? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Castle Rock airs Wednesdays on Hulu.
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Kevin Lever
Kevin Lever has been following television closely for most of his life, but in starting to cover it, he has grown a further appreciation. He strives to give the blockbusters their due, and give the lesser known shows a spotlight to find more fans.