Castle Rock Review: Dirty (Season 2 Episode 8)

The Marsten House becomes a staging ground for Ace’s plans on Castle Rock Season 2 Episode 8, “Dirty,” as Annie battles demons both real and imaginary.

The shorter, cleaner episode puts in work by upping the stakes almost immediately while keeping that briskness by leaving only a few left to potentially fight the infected. But at the same time, there’s a slightness to the episode that suffers the overall tension.

We’re finally treated to the right amount of Annie Wilkes that’s been sorely missing for large swaths of the season. Her natural curiosity and distrust in everyone makes her thrust of the story one of discovery, so that she can be as caught up as us, as the audience, are. The reborn aren’t great at locking up after they’re done, leaving Annie free reign to find all she needs to find.

Joy’s mostly catatonic state leaves her sidelined, but Castle Rock smartly elevates her as Amity’s new vessel. This finally gives Annie the drive she’s needed to fight back and join the main plot. Both have been more involved in the Rita situation rather than the spreading brainwashing. It’s better late than never, as it plays to Annie’s fear of losing Joy, and of Joy being corrupted by the outside world.

The realization that being “dirty,” according to Annie’s mother, is simply living, makes it a terrifying notion for Joy’s future. Annie fights it the best she can, but now that she’s been “taken” by The Kid’s statue and Ace, combined with Annie’s rash decision-making, places a worrying amount of danger upon Joy.

Annie’s fight for Joy is still strong, though, and so perhaps her mother’s ghostly presence won’t influence her too excessively with so many enemies to barrel through on the way back to Joy. Annie battling her internal demons is a compelling way to make the threat not only one on the outside, but on the inside, as well.

Nadia’s drugging of Chris, in vessel form, helps show the aversion to drugs (or poison, as Ace calls it) and what it can do to those infected. It brings the host back, at least for a short period of time, and helps clear up whether or not the original person is still in there somewhere. It’s a rather terrifying outcome, to be locked deep down despite death and see all of the horrors the infected is doing under your guise.

It appears, both from Annie’s part of the episode and with Nadia’s, that dead again is dead for real. At least so far, the enemy is able to be defeated in some form and isn’t completely invincible, as initially expected. That opens up the potential for the solution being drugging the legion somehow, or taking them all on.

The episode plays with a few images of pure creepiness, with the massive crowd all turning their attention to Annie and Joy as they exit the house, the immense size of that crowd traveling to the Martsen House, and Annie’s excellent aim with both a broken knife and a sledgehammer. There’s also the murals coating the Marsten walls, haunting images of devotion and pain.

Despite all of the good mentioned, however, Castle Rock Season 2 Episode 8, “Dirty,” suffers under its distant disposition, where the events feel at arm’s length rather than up close and personal. This is at times by design, with Annie going in and out of her own mind, and with villains who are, for the most part, deeply internalized and cold.

But it leads to a lot of cold, distant characters, where everyone is getting sucked inward rather than externalizing their emotions and voices. It’s noticeable when the show is doing a lot right otherwise, as the episode leaves a good impression with an asterisk. Joy and Nadia are the two draws of delivering on that missing emotion, and hopefully provide it as the season goes into its endgame.

Some stray thoughts on the episode:

• My Castle Rock Season 2 Episode 7, “The Word,” review makes mention of The Kid potentially being the devil. A commenter made a correction that he is Randal Flagg rather than the devil, which is a far better fit and a likelier scenario. Thank you to the anonymous commenter!

 

What did you think of this episode of Castle Rock? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Critic Rating:

User Rating:

 

Castle Rock airs Wednesdays on Hulu.

 Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!

A Ranking of the 13 Scariest TV Shows You Can Watch Right Now