‘Castle Rock’ Season 1, Episode 7 ‘The Queen’ Recap: Haunted

Before one of the protagonists came home, a series of strange events left the house in shambles. Hallucinations and trips back to memory lane continuously pop up now and then. While the main protagonist of the episode struggles with these, the fates of the other protagonist stay unknown. However, the focus on one main character proves to be a success. A man from the past returns and no one in Castle Rock seems to know what to do with him.

In this week’s episode of Castle Rock, Ruth Deaver’s (Sissy Spacek) memories of her husband, Matthew Deaver (Adam Rothenberg). As this happens, The Kid (Bill Skarsgård) arrives home with a new personality. While Ruth plays along with The Kid, she manages to send her grandson, Wendell Deaver (Chosen Jacobs) away to safety. However, Ruth’s resolve to kill Matthew/The Kid once and for all ends horribly.

The Past

We finally got to know how the chess pieces worked for Ruth. Every time Ruth had a hallucination, she would look for the chess piece. Once she grabs it, she would snap out of the dream and find herself back in real time. Ruth had trouble distinguishing reality from her hallucinations, so the chess pieces helped her find her way back from the woods.

Ruth’s flashbacks helped us get to know more about Matthew. Just like the man Henry Deaver (André Holland) met in the woods, Matthew has a strange aura. Matthew spends his days ‘hearing God,’ dragging a young Henry (Caleel Harris) out in the woods to ‘listen’ with him. It reached a point where Henry got sick because of this. To put an end to it, Ruth decided to pack her bags and leave with Henry, but she could not push through with her plan. In the end, Henry ended up hating Matthew more, and when Molly Strand (Melanie Lynskey) checks the house for Henry, Ruth tells her that pulling Matthew’s oxygen tube is the right thing to do.

Time Walker

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Ruth had more time with Wendell than what we saw previously. While Wendell stayed there, he shows Ruth a video game on his phone. Also, Wendell compares Ruth to the character in the game, since Ruth did let him know about her condition. The video game’s main character is called a “Time Walker,” someone who could kill the dead permanently. In Ruth’s case, she is after her deceased husband, Matthew. Fortunately, when The Kid arrives, Ruth sends Wendell to a nearby mall, keeping him safe.

Personality Switch

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When The Kid comes home, Ruth sees him as Matthew. As they talked, The Kid claims to be Matthew. Terrified of what she saw, Ruth tries to play along with him. However, when she got him to leave her for a few moments, she came up and executed a plan to kill him. Ruth kept Matthew’s gun through the years, so she planned on using this against The Kid. However, the bullets were missing. Ruth eventually found the rounds, but The Kid saw her take them. Seeing this, Ruth buys herself some time by stabbing The Kid with a screwdriver. When Ruth finally holds the loaded gun, she fires on the wrong person, Alan Pangborn (Scott Glenn), who startled her. The end of this episode is entirely unclear since Ruth has another flashback of when Alan arrived at her house.

Castle Rock continues next Wednesday, August 29th, with “Past Perfect” on Hulu.