Castle Rock

type

TV Show

run date

07/25/18

performer

Andre Holland, Melanie Lynskey, Bill Skarsgard, Sissy Spacek

broadcaster

Hulu

seasons

1

Genre

Drama, Thriller

Warning: The following contains spoilers for the season 1 finale of Hulu’s Castle Rock. Read at your own risk!

Maybe the Kid (Bill Skarsgård) was always a monster; maybe Castle Rock made him one. Either way, in the season 1 finale of Castle Rock, Henry (André Holland) chooses to lock the Kid back in his cage. It doesn’t matter whether he believes the Kid’s story; it only matters that he protects his town from the Kid’s influence — and he doesn’t need those instructions to be etched in gold and signed by God himself.

Still, did Henry do the right thing? Despite all the proof of the Kid being a monster, should he have heeded Molly’s (Melanie Lynskey) advice and taken him where he wanted to go in the woods? Will Henry be okay staying in Castle Rock with Wendell (Chosen Jacobs), where Ruth (Sissy Spacek) once did with Alan (Scott Glenn)?

More questions remain: Where (and when) else did the schisma lead? What was up with Desjardins (David Selby)? Will the next Shawshank warden survive the gig? And what will Jackie (Jane Levy) find once she delves into her work (and no play) as she heads west to trace her notorious uncle’s footsteps?

In other words… Go then, there are other mysteries than these — and luckily, season 2 of Castle Rock is on its way. Below, co-creators Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason (Manhattan) break down the final moments of season 1 and hint at what’s to come in season 2.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: As soon as the credits started rolling at the end of episode 9, I thought, “How are they going to wrap all this up with one hour left to go?” There were so many mysteries left to be solved — how did you decide which ones to prioritize?
DUSTIN THOMASON: For us, from the beginning, we were always really excited about the idea of telling a story that takes a guy who defends the people we consider to be monsters, and asking ourselves, “What does it take to get a guy like that to actually become the jailer? To find himself on the exact opposite side of the story?” We always knew that we wanted to end in this moment where André’s Henry Deaver is posed a question, and it’s an answer that has a lot of doubt for him. Does André’s Henry believe this story that’s been told? This incredibly imaginative, true-but-maybe-not-true tale about who Bill Skarsgård’s character is?

Well? Did you, while writing it, believe the Kid one way or the other?
SAM SHAW: We both have a pretty strong point of view about that question, but it ultimately feels like the creative choice was to present the audience with a whole series of uncanny and seemingly inexplicable events over the course of the season, and then to give the Kid the opportunity to provide a kind of Rosetta Stone that answers some, if not all the questions, and then put the audience into the position of deciding for themselves whether the story is true. I have an opinion, but I would rather not state on the record.

THOMASON: And I will not tell you Sam’s opinion, nor mine. [Laughs]

But both of you have opinions one way or the other.
THOMASON: We do.

SHAW: For sure. And in the early going, when we were talking about what was interesting to us about a town like Castle Rock, one thing we returned to a lot was the idea that the town wouldn’t have one unilateral point of view about the meaning of all the disasters that have rained down on it. It seemed to us that people would probably adapt with narratives to make sense of traumas, so from an early point, it felt to us like the story should be a story that examines storytelling in a way, that examines the kinds of explanations we turn to when we’re faced with events that seem to defy rational explanations.… Life’s most troubling when it is a bit harder to pin down, and many of the genre stories we find most disturbing, including Stephen King stories, are ones that have a lingering sense of unease.

What were your conversations with Bill like, particularly around these final two episodes? Is he leaning one way or the other? That final shot with him smiling seems pretty definitive.
THOMASON: Well, I don’t think that either one of us would feel comfortable speaking for Bill on this, but certainly we’ve had a lot of conversations with him from the beginning. Bill’s committed so incredibly to the idea of a guy who was getting used to light and sound and food for the first time again, and I think we were just amazed by his commitment to that idea that he had spent all that time in the cage.

Does Henry still have any doubt at all about the Kid’s innocence? Even after seeing his face in the woods and everything, it still seems like he’s struggling to accept what he’s done.
THOMASON: Any guy who is a death row attorney is a guy who has a sphere of doubt, of allowing for possibilities. Again, I wouldn’t speak for André in terms of his interpretation of it, but for us, what we felt was we wanted André’s Henry’s experience to be similar to the experience of the audience.

SHAW: I think Henry has decided, based on everything he has seen, that it is less costly to him and to the world and to this town to disbelieve Bill’s Henry Deaver’s, or the Kid’s, story — even naming him reflects a judgment about whether you believe the story is true — but Henry has decided that the costs of not believing are more acceptable than the costs of believing and potentially being wrong. And depending on your interpretation of the story in episode 9, that may either be an ironic and tragic but somewhat heroic sacrifice he’s made, or a significantly darker place to lead this character.

Speaking of naming him, how did the writers’ room define the Kid and keep all that straight? Did you call him by different names? Was it always changing?
SHAW: [Laughs] Yeah, it was like an Abbott and Costello routine. He was always generally “the Kid” to us when we were talking about him.

Would the ending have been different if you hadn’t been renewed for a second season? I know you had written and filmed everything before the news, but did you have something more conclusive ready just in case?
SHAW: There were some editorial choices and some options that might have tied a slightly different kind of bow around this story… but, you know, we were excited to have the opportunity to keep exploring.

THOMASON: Yeah, even if we had gotten word that this is going to be the very last moment, I don’t think that we would have changed anything, because those questions of doubt are so central to the story we were trying to tell.

Let’s talk about that mid-credits tag. What was the genesis of it? Did someone in the writers’ room just read Doctor Sleep, or simply want more Jane Levy?
SHAW: Who doesn’t want more Jane Levy? [Laughs] We all need more Jane Levy in our lives in general.

THOMASON: As Sam was saying before, this season at some level is a story about stories, about narratives, about how we see ourselves. There was always something really fun about the idea of Jackie, who at the beginning of this story finds herself a person without a story, but over the course of it finds herself a story, embellishes on it and makes a drama out of it.

It’s definitely fun to hear her talk about going west, but does this scene have anything to do with the direction of season 2? Where are you with crafting the second season?
SHAW: Here’s where we’ll probably be infuriatingly tight-lipped, but what I would say is that we would sure love to see Jackie explore the Overlook Hotel. Part of the fun of season 2 and beyond will be seeing what some of the questions [will be]. The penultimate episode of this season points to the idea that there are other worlds than these, and in this final tag there’s this sense that there are worlds of Stephen King’s that this show may explore eventually that are more far-flung than the state of Maine.

Will season 2 feature an entirely new cast, or will we potentially see any of these season 1 characters again? Do you know at this point?
SHAW: Part of what we always set out to do from the beginning is tell a new story each season, to see things we haven’t seen before from the point of view of characters we haven’t met before in any season. That said, I think there’s something really terrific with the way Steve handles his anthology and his universe — you see Father Callahan in Salem’s Lot and then you bump up against him again in a huge way in The Dark Tower. The pleasure of finding your way back to stories or characters you’ve seen before in unexpected ways is a huge, exciting advantage of this series. I think it’s something that we can do, and allow it to be an anthology but still embrace stories and characters that we love. It just may not happen in the way that one might expect.

On that note, have you kept up with the theories out there about the season while it was airing? Any chance you could confirm anything? Like, can you definitively call the schisma a “thinny”?
THOMASON: The one thing we can confirm definitively is that Sissy Spacek is not playing a reincarnated Carrie White, which is a theory we’ve seen a lot. Sorry to disappoint. [Laughs] But, look, we’ve loved watching the astonishing support and love for Stephen King that people have brought to the show, and making connections that sometimes we didn’t even make. We have kept up, in a way. I don’t think Sam’s about to tell you that he can confirm that episode 9 means that there’s a thinny in the forest, but all of the writers have been tickled by watching the fans teach us things about Stephen King that we didn’t even know.

Did you have any favorite theories?
SHAW: There’s a certain breed of Castle Rock fans who are just in it for the moment that Bill Skarsgård reveals that he is Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and I had great respect and admiration for the doggedness of that fan base, even if I felt a little bit reluctant about the inevitable dashed hopes.

THOMASON: I think the Carrie one because we joked about it in the writers’ room, about having Alan Pangborn and Carrie White [instead of Ruth] on that tombstone together. It would have been really fun! [Laughs] But alas, it was not to be.

Any characters, arcs, or mysteries you wish you had more time for this season?
SHAW: There definitely were some threads and strands that we talked a lot about in the writers’ room that had to be compressed. We’re reluctant to say too much because there’s a chance for resurrection in a future season. But, look, this cast is so extraordinary, you always wished you could see more of everyone.

THOMASON: Without giving too much away, one of the things we loved about making the show was the fact that, as a result of the extraordinary cast of series regulars we had, we were also able to assemble a sort of Avengers of guest cast as well, and it was really amazing to have the chance to work with David Selby and Frances Conroy and Alison Tolman and have them in smaller roles, but letting each of them shine and ultimately longing for more with all of them. That’s part of what we’re excited for going forward.

With that in mind, I would like to personally demand lines for Mamie Gummer from now on.
SHAW: [Laughs] She was amazing in Manhattan. We were so thrilled to get her to do that little moment for us.

Castle Rock season 1 is now streaming on Hulu.

LONDON — Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that his country has identified the two men that Britain says are Russian intelligence officers suspected of poisoning a former spy and his daughter with a nerve agent in an English city.

Putin said there is “nothing criminal” about the pair, who are known to British investigators as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.

Sergei Skripal, a Russian former spy, and his daughter Yulia were found unresponsive on a bench in Salisbury, about 90 miles southwest of London, on March 4 after they came into contact with the Soviet-developed nerve agent Novichok.

British prosecutors last week charged the two suspects, who are likely to have traveled under aliases, in absentia with conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, causing grievous bodily harm and use of Novichok.

More: UK Prime Minister: Nerve-agent poisoning suspects were Russian spies

“We know who these people are, we have found them,” Putin told a panel of an economic conference in Russia’s Far East of the suspects. “There is nothing special or criminal about it, I can assure you,” he added.

Asked by the panel’s moderator if the men work for the military, Putin replied that they are “civilians.” He urged the two to come forward.

“I would like to call on them so that they can hear us today: They should go to some media outlet. I hope they will come forward and tell about themselves,” he said.

Britain blames Russia for the poisonings but Moscow denies any involvement.

Sergei Skripal was jailed in Russia for spying for Britain, but was released as part of a spy swap and moved to Salisbury in 2010.

The Skripals were taken to the hospital in critical condition and released weeks later. In July, Dawn Sturgess, a 44-year-old woman from Salisbury, died after she and her partner Charlie Rowley, 48, were found unconscious in Amesbury, a town about 10 miles from Salisbury. British authorities said they were also poisoned with Novichok.

British police believe the nerve agent was smuggled to Britain in a fake Nina Ricci perfume bottle and put on the front door of Sergei Skripal’s house. Rowley found the bottle months later and gave it to Sturgess, who is believed to have sprayed the substance on herself. Rowley spent weeks in the hospital before being discharged.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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England’s first-half performance in the friendly win over Switzerland was “embarrassing” and the players “weren’t happy with how we were playing”, says full-back Danny Rose.

The Three Lions struggled early on, but emerged 1-0 winners in Leicester.

Striker Marcus Rashford scored the winning goal in the second half, converting from Kyle Walker’s cross.

“We could have been two or three-nil down at half-time,” Tottenham’s Rose told BBC Radio 5 live.

Gareth Southgate’s side were looking to avoid a record fourth straight defeat after losing against Croatia in the World Cup semi-finals, Belgium in the third/fourth-place play-off and in Saturday’s Nations League opener against Spain.

The Swiss had 65% possession in the opening period at the King Power Stadium, with Liverpool’s Xherdan Shaqiri striking the post.

Stoke goalkeeper Jack Butland – in for Jordan Pickford – looked particularly jittery with the ball at his feet and almost passed the ball straight into his own net.

Rose admitted the players had words with each other at half-time.

“It’s great we can all shout at each other and tell each other to improve like we did,” he said. “In the end, we are over the moon to keep a clean sheet and get back to winning ways.

“The morale we have set within the squad is fantastic and we have taken off where we left off in the summer.

“We spoke at half-time and we weren’t happy with how we were playing, but we took control after the break and got the goal.”

Southgate told 5 live: “The players certainly had a lot to say to each other when they first got into the dressing room.

“It was important then that we solved a couple of the problems they were facing and kept things calm. A combination of the two meant we got a good response in the second half.

“It is easy for them to be harsh on themselves but Danny has only has had one match this season and we are suffering a physical situation on the back of the World Cup for so many of the players.”

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A new law in Morocco criminalising violence against women goes into effect on Wednesday in what critics say is a first step in the right direction.

Approved by parliament on February 14, the bill, called as Hakkaoui law, imposes tougher penalties on perpetrators of various types of violence committed both in the private and public spheres, including rape, sexual harassment and domestic abuse.

Those found guilty of violating the law face prison terms ranging from one month to five years and fines from $200 to $1,000.

While welcoming the law – which also criminalises cyber harassment and forced marriages – critics say it stops short of addressing the full repertoire of crimes.

More specifically, the legislation does not explicitly outlaw marital rape or spousal violence and does not provide a precise definition of domestic violence, leaving women vulnerable.

The law also fails in providing financial assistance for survivors and does not define the government’s role in providing support and services to victims, Human Rights Watch group said in a press release. 

Women violence

Violence against Moroccan women remains widespread and a largely taboo subject in the country.

In 2009, a national survey reported that 62.8 percent of women had experienced physical, psychological, sexual or economic abuse.

Of the sample interviewed, 55 percent reported “conjugal” violence and 13.5 percent reported “familial” violence.

It also became a hot issue last August after a video was posted on the internet showing a young woman on a bus being sexually molested by a group of boys while the driver or others passengers failed to react to her appeals for help.

This sent shockwaves throughout the country and intensified calls for more to be done in the Kingdom.

According to AFP news agency, around 1,600 cases of rape were heard by Moroccan courts last year, twice as many as previous years.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

Researchers at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences developed a new printing technique that allows them to manipulate the size of liquid drops with sound waves. That may not seem revolutionary at first glance, but it actually opens the door to a world where human tissue manufacturing is easier than ever. Here’s how it works.

Editors, USA TODAY
Published 3:30 a.m. ET Sept. 12, 2018

Hurricane Florence takes aim at the Carolinas, Virginia

Forecasters said the first rain bands from Hurricane Florence could reach the Carolinas and Virginia on Wednesday. As the hurricane took aim at the East Coast this week, Marine recruits were ordered to evacuate their famed Parris Island recruiting base. An ominous update from the National Hurricane Center reported that Florence was driving maximum sustained winds of almost 130 mph, a Category 4 storm out of a possible Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. The update warned that the storm would strengthen and be an “extremely dangerous, major hurricane” through Thursday. “This storm is not going to be a glancing blow,” FEMA Associate Administrator for Response and Recovery Jeff Byard said. “This storm is going to be a direct hit.”

Here come the new iPhones!

The unofficial kickoff to the tech gadget buying season opens Wednesday when Apple unveils a suite of new products at a press event, highlighted by what could be the largest iPhones ever released. Apple is expected to unveil three new iPhones, an update to the Apple Watch and the AirPods, the $159 Bluetooth earbuds first unveiled in 2016. However, only 13 percent of respondents said they plan to upgrade their phone within the next three months, with only 22 percent indicating they’d do so in the next year, in an exclusive SurveyMonkey Audience poll for USA TODAY. Last week, Apple wrote a letter to the government protesting the tariffs, saying they could lead to higher prices for several products, including the Watch and Air Pods.

Global Climate Action Summit: US mayors to voice their concerns

The Global Climate Action Summit, meant to showcase the ways American cities, states and businesses are moving forward in dealing with the root cause of global warming opens Wednesday even as the Trump administration has withdrawn the US from the Paris climate agreement. The three-day meeting aims, among other things, to find ways for groups from states to non-profits to Fortune 500 companies to make headway on lowering the greenhouse gasses that cause climate change when national elected officials will not. Ahead of the conference in San Francisco, the US Conference of Mayors issued a report that 95 percent of surveyed mayors said their cities had experienced climate change impacts in the past five years, with heavy rains, inland flooding, heat waves, drought and wildfires at the top of the list. 

Stormy Daniels set to make ‘big announcement’ on ‘The View’

Adult film star Stormy Daniels is due to appear on ABC’s “The View” with her lawyer Michael Avenatti on Wednesday, where she is set to make a “big announcement,” according to the program-makers. It comes after Donald Trump’s attorney said in a court filing Saturday that the president does not believe the hush-money deal Daniels signed to stay quiet about her claims of an affair with Trump in 2006 is valid and will not carry out threats to sue her for breaking the agreement. Hours earlier, an attorney for the company set up to handle the deal offered to rescind Daniels’ nondisclosure agreement. The company, Essential Consultants, also scrapped a threatened $20 million lawsuit against Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. The president denies the affair.

Britain’s Royal Botanic Garden seeks respect for world’s fungus

The scientists at the renowned Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London are trying to correct an injustice: They don’t believe fungus gets the respect it deserves. That’s one reason behind the release Wednesday of their “State of the World’s Fungi” report, touted as the first-ever global look at the way fungi help provide food, medicine, plant nutrition, and lifesaving drugs. The focus on fungi is designed to call attention to potentially vital new uses now being studied – including possible deployment of a fungus that “eats” plastic and degrades it quickly, and one that may clean up radioactive waste. “When looking for nature-based solutions to some of our most critical global challenges, fungi could provide many of the answers,” Director of Science Katherine Willis said. “We ignore it at our peril.”

Contributing: Associated Press

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The death toll from a suicide bomb attack at a protest gathering in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar on Tuesday has risen to 68, with 165 wounded, a government official said.

The provincial governor’s spokesman, Attaullah Khogyani, issued a statement with a revised casualty total on Wednesday after earlier estimates put the death toll at 32.

Scores of demonstrators had blocked the highway between the provincial capital Jalalabad and a key border crossing with Pakistan, when the bomber struck.

The protesters had come from Achin district to demand the removal of a local police commander.

The attack was one of the worst in Afghanistan for months but security officials have warned that similar attacks are likely if crowds gather for campaign rallies ahead of parliamentary elections in October.

“… the explosion happened and I found myself surrounded by blood and flesh,” Zar Khan, one of the injured, told AFP news agency.

Bombing schools

The deadly suicide attack came hours after multiple bombings targeted schools in Jalalabad.

One blast went off at the entrance of Malika Omaira girls’ school in the morning, killing a 14-year-old boy and wounding four other people. It was followed by two explosions in Behsud district, also near two schools.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the suicide attack, as well as the school bombings in Nangarhar.

In a statement he said that “attacks on civilian facilities, mosques, women, children, are all crimes against humanity”.

The Taliban denied any involvement in the attacks and no other group claimed responsibility for the violence.

Nangarhar has been a main stronghold of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters since early 2015.

Attacks continue

A number of attacks across Afghanistan in recent weeks have killed hundreds of civilians and prominent journalists.

Twin bombings at a sports club in the capital Kabul last Wednesday killed at least 20 people and wounded 70 others. Two journalists – a reporter and cameraman – working for local Tolo News were among the dead.

On Sunday, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives close to a procession commemorating the death of a former anti-Soviet and anti-Taliban commander, Ahmed Shah Massoud, killing at least seven people and wounding 24.

A ceasefire in June between the Taliban and the government – as well as talks between US officials and Taliban representatives in Qatar in July – raised hopes the 17-year conflict could end with negotiations.

However, the country has since seen a rise in deadly attacks that have targeted civilians.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

Surging hurricane waters can throw around cars, boats, and houses like toys. 

Six years ago, Hurricane Sandy pushed storm surges into the streets of Staten Island, New York, wrecking entire neighborhoods along the small island off the coast of Manhattan. Homes are still being rebuilt, and some have simply been abandoned.

Now, a more powerful tempest, Hurricane Florence, is set to hit the Carolinas late Thursday with winds reaching some 120 mph.

Regardless of exactly where it makes landfall, the storm’s mass of winds will be destructive, forcing high surges of ocean water into coastlines, barrier islands, and neighborhoods. 

And the storm surge may be even worse due to the effects of human-caused climate change.

The oceans off the southeastern coast of the U.S. have risen by about 9 inches in the last 100 years, boosted by some of the most visible manifestations of global warming, namely melting ice sheets and expanding oceans. 

In light of this reality, how much worse might these Florence-caused storm surges be?

“The simplest effect is that any storm surge is amplified by sea level rise,” Jaap Nienhuis, a researcher at Florida State University’s Coastal Morphodynamics Lab, said in an interview.

“When a major event like this occurs, it’s riding on top of sea level rise,” added Rick Luettich, the Director of the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in an interview. 

Sea level rise can certainly make the difference in whether or not hurricane waters surmount coastal dunes and comes flooding into communities, said Luettich, but it’s not yet as influential as normal tides in determining how a destructive a storm’s surge may, or may not, be. 

Off the North Carolina coast, tides rise and fall between 5 and 6 feet each day — substantially more than current contributions from sea level rise.

“The timing of the surge with the tide is enormously important,” said Luettich. “We might dodge the bullet if it [Florence} were to hit at a low tide.” 

Yet, a looming problem with Florence is that the expansive storm is expected to stall over the region — as more storms are want to do as the Arctic warms. 

This means strong winds could have more opportunities to hit the high tide cycle, bringing the worst of the surges.

“If it’s a real lingerer, then it will undoubtedly end up going through a high-tide cycle,” said Luettich.

The future of storm surges

Any storm surge is dependent on a variety of factors — the shape of the land, winds, tide, etc. — and sea level is just one component. 

But sea level rise is now accelerating as ice sheet melt hastens and the warming ocean expands. Eventually, sea level rise will be a critical influence.

“The effect today is not nearly what it’s going to be in 100 years,” said Hugh Willoughby, a hurricane researcher at Florida International University. “Down the road — when the sea has risen a meter — then it’s going to be a factor.”

Until then, however, sea level rise will still be a growing, relentless problem.

Melting ice and expanding oceans “are going to persistent into the future,” Ben Hamlington, NASA’s Sea Level Change Team Lead, said in an interview. “You know they’re going to contribute going forward.”

And as the surges grow, development along the coast has largely eliminated the natural barriers that once weakened storm surges — things like marshes and dunes. 

“There’s not a buffer zone anymore,” said Nienhuis. “It’s been developed immensely,” he said, specifically citing the Southeastern coastline.

To counteract the disappearance of natural barriers, we’ve built impressive fortifications like seawalls to combat rising seas or surges, said Nienhuis. 

But these efforts are counter-intuitive, he said. Rigid walls reflect wave energy, rather than absorbing it, sending that energy to other portions of the coast, and bringing erosion and damage elsewhere.

Hurricane Florence promises to be such a powerful tempest that it’s wise — if not imperative — to leave the coasts, should the right combination of high tides, surging waters, and ever-growing sea level rise combine to hammer coastal communities. 

Willoughby says it would behoove coastal dwellers to take a trip well inland — perhaps using the storm as an excuse to really get out of town.

“There’s a lot of people in the coastal Carolinas that should be thinking about visiting Aunt Mabel in St. Paul, Minnesota,” he said.

  

Reaction to England’s victory over Switzerland and Northern Ireland’s win over Israel – Live – BBC Sport

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