Fridge Page for Castle Rock. Beware May Contain Unmarked Spoilers.
Fridge Brilliance
- The Alternate Universe as depicted by The Kid seems a bit too optimistic for being part of a Stephen King multiverse until you realize its The Kid. And this is almost completely proven to be BS come Season 2.
- Related: this explains all the questions on the Headscratchers page. They're literally Plot Holes that The Kid glossed over.
- In Needful Things Alan's backstory had his wife and son killed in a car crash which appears to be Adapted Out...only they weren't technically. Ruth and Henry Deaver could've been the closest he would've had to a family and be alternate versions to his wife and son from the book.
- This could play into his apparent Adaptational Villainy: that if he experienced the events of King's books, along with the uncertainty he had all these years about Lacy and The Kid, it would've led him to become a major cynic. Imagine having to deal with the likes of George Stark, Leland Gaunt, and potentially others and not even get the girl in the end.
- The first season had a cast of Canon Foreigners with only one being a character from a previous book (Alan Pangborn) and another having a loose connection to another (Jack Torrance's neice Jackie). Then Season 2 we get Annie Wilkes and the Merrill family while tying into a new original story, so why? There's a meta reason, such as the showrunners going in a different direction, but there's an In-Universe reason, but its a bit convoluted to follow closely.
- Throughout season 1, hints are dropped that events from previous books had taken place around the 80snote but according to Jackie Torrance things calmed down considerably in the last 30 years. 27 years before the series, Warden Lacy locked up The Kid in Shawshank, right when this would've happened, and its shown The Kid is a literal magnet for chaos and death. Then, throughout Season 2, we get hints and later confirmation that both he and Henry Deaver went missing; further, The Kid had a hand in the formation of the New Jersalem cult that was "the original sin" Lacy mentioned in his letter in Season 1. This paints a clear line between The Kid and the town's dark past, and hints that now that he's out and about, this could mean that the events of other books could start up again.
Fridge Horror
- Revelations in Season 2 causes serious Rewatch Bonus for Season 1, as it brings up some serious questions. For example: if Henry didn't end up on the alternate Castle Rock and was caged for 27 years like The Kid claimed...then where the hell did he go for the days he was missing? Even if he didn't go there, he would have gone somewhere else instead.
- Nothing Is Scarier in full effect thanks to the Time Skip between Season 1 & 2. A year is a long time, and a lot of things can happen, and very few clues are given to the audience about what they may be. And then there are the things you realize they haven't mentioned...like when Jackie Torrance decides to visit The Overlook Hotel.
- Speaking of which, the fact Jackie can visit The Overlook for her book research. Thanks to Doctor Sleep most fans would assume it was a abandoned like in the movie. But there's nothing to say it wasn't either. Other serious crimes had happened before Jack Torrance so it's not a stretch. Furthermore, with modern retrofitting it could remain open all year round. To reiterate: one of the most infamous hotels in Horror fiction could still be open to this day with a constant stream of new victims. It might even use its dark history to get more customers.
- After Annie kills Joy, she abandons the bedridden patient she was supposed to be taking care of, most likely condemning him to death as well.
