Castle Rock Review: Clean (Season 2 Episode 10)
Annie Wilkes sets out to make everything clean on Castle Rock Season 2 Episode 10, “Clean,” but in doing so, will she lose the last bit of humanity she has left?
The end of the Marsten House situation comes fast and furious, but still mostly satisfying. If the finale kept the undead as the main villain throughout the episode, there would be a missed opportunity that Annie and Joy have been pushed aside again, which has been an issue for some episodes. Dedicating the second half entirely to them works much better by making it a personal story than a larger tale.
But Ace’s survival of the stabbing, and watching the Marsten House collapse before him, makes his ultimate survival a question. He could have been knocked back by the blast into the large hole, but he instead disappears into the dust and debris, his fate unknown. Perhaps that’s on purpose, but it is a loose end that doesn’t quite tie up the undead story with a bow.
The townsfolk appear to be completely fine, no longer under the spell of the Kid statue and running for it as the locust bugs take to the sky. The focus on Castle Rock is lessened once the statue falls, causing the assumption that everything is just fine, despite the alarming amount of lost lives. Even Abdi and Nadia aren’t given much of a send-off, gone from the story once they set off the explosives.
But the focus of the episode is Annie and Joy, just as the season began. There’s even a reprieve of the song “Let The River Run,” that dominates Castle Rock Season 2 Episode 1, “Let The River Run.” It’s as though the Castle Rock adventure is just another wild and crazy stop for the Wilkes duo.
The trickery during the second half of the episode, setting up that Joy has already been corrupted and is now living her life as Amity in secret, is a devastating manner to tear the two apart. Our only frame of reference is what Annie sees in bits and pieces, and we, as the audience, are just as convinced, especially when Joy watches Blue Is The Warmest Colour in French without subtitles and is drawing strange eyes.
It feels clear as day by that point. But Castle Rock takes that set-up and flips it, Annie’s imagination and paranoia for Joy’s catatonic state after the horrors she’s witnessed during their stay at Castle Rock coming almost like destiny. Annie’s origins begin with nearly drowning Joy, and so her story ends with completing the task.
The sense of security never comes between Annie and Joy, despite making a break for it in Canada and finding peace near a lake and providing care to a sick man. The tension still remains, despite the idyllic life they endure and getting along (for the most part). It’s almost like Annie can’t accept normalcy, as though it means something is wrong.
Yet it’s justified, given all the two have been through. It’s what makes the conundrum so compelling, that Annie’s paranoia is justified for once, and Joy’s need to escape and be emancipated is also more needed than ever.
Annie drowning Joy is always meant to happen, in a way, as both are drawn to water. Joy takes a little trip to Castle Lake on Castle Rock Season 2 Episode 3, “Ties That Bind,” and Annie’s fascination with water comes from her mother’s death on Castle Rock Season 2 Episode 5, “The Laughing Place.”
Joy’s resuscitation, in the moment, feels completely cheap and unearned given the amount of time it takes; but for it to become a fake-out and another filled chair of those Annie has taken from this world is as perfect an ending. The emptiness of the chair next to Annie is taken up by another of her victims, made so poignant by the reveal of Annie’s mother and father, as other ghosts of her past.
For Castle Rock Season 2 Episode 10, “Clean,” to end with Annie taking her most important victim, her half-sister/daughter, and to be eyeing her next victim, Paul Sheldon (and setting up Misery down the line), comes as full circle. The Laughing Place, for Annie, is inside her own head, and will be with her now for the rest of her life. She’s turned her demons into her strength, and embraces them with open arms.
It’s a dark ending, to be sure, but the right one.
Some stray thoughts on the episode:
- There’s a hint towards Henry Deaver, the main character of the first season, on a missing person notice near the gas pumps as Annie fills up; the thinny, the “portal” of sorts underneath Castle Lake, is confirmed to be the means to travel to different alternate universes and times; and The Kid moves through them freely, whenever he pleases.
- Pop drugging himself to combat his turn before dying is a clever little moment, Tim Robbins doing a great job to sell himself as fully turned despite the hints telling us otherwise. Pop gets to go out with a bang and saves Castle Rock in the process.
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.