Castle Rock is a supernatural horror series based on Stephen King’s literary work. The show, which aired two seasons on Hulu between 2018 and 2019, followed an anthology format, introducing new characters in each installment.
The second season starred Lizzy Caplan as the protagonist Annie Wilkes. Annie is a nurse with mental health issues who arrives in the town of Castle Rock with her daughter Joy. She suffers from psychosis and steals anti-psychotic drugs to treat herself.
Lizzy Caplan was announced to lead season 2 in March 2019. Apart from the Hulu series, she is famous for her performances in the Showtime period drama Masters of Sex and the 2004 hit teen comedy film Mean Girls.
Lizzy Caplan plays Annie Wilkes in Castle Rock season 2
Lizzy Caplan’s character Annie Wilkes is a troubled nurse who struggles with mental health issues and has a violent past. The character is taken from Stephen King’s 1987 psychological horror novel Misery. In the show, Annie is on the run with her daughter Joy when she ends up stuck in Castle Rock after a car accident.
The mother-daughter duo stays at the Stargazer Lodge, owned by Ace Merrill, a man who has conflicts with several locals. As Annie runs out of medicine and her hallucinations worsen, she takes a temporary job at Deuxville Hospital under the fake name Anne Ingalls.
She eventually gets caught stealing pills, but Dr. Nadia from the hospital decides to help instead of turning her in by giving her the medication she needs. Annie starts to think she can live in the town forever, but things take a dark turn when Ace discovers her real identity and threatens Joy.
In a fit of rage, Annie kills Ace by shoving an ice cream scoop down his throat. When she tries to hide his body at a construction site, she falls into a strange underground cavern full of coffins, which leads her into the spooky Marsten House. Ace then shows up alive and seems to be part of a cult based in Marsten House.
This cult is tied to ancient rituals where people die and are reborn with new identities. Annie is unsure whether what she is seeing is real or part of her psychosis and tells everything to Joy. Joy thinks her mom is having a mental breakdown and follows their emergency plan.
She ties Annie to the bed and forces her to take her medication. However, Annie escapes and accidentally hurts Joy in the process. As the cult gains more power, Annie becomes more protective of Joy.
When Joy starts acting distant, Annie believes she has been possessed by the cult and drowns her to ‘save’ her. Joy’s death leaves Annie heartbroken, but it is too late. She hallucinates that Joy survives and they reconcile. Castle Rock season 2 ends with Annie and her imagined version of Joy attending a book signing.
Annie’s character frequently blurs the line between fiction and reality in the series. Her battle with mental illness and her love for joy make her a layered character, but her troubled mind and the eerie town of Castle Rock push her to the breaking point.
Lizzy Caplan reveals why she chose to play Annie Wilkes in Castle Rock
Around the release of the series, Lizzy Caplan opened up about why she agreed to play an extremely violent and dark character like Annie Wilkes, something that she had not attempted in her career before. The actress told Vulture magazine:
“I knew when it came my way that it would be an intimidating prospect, which was also how I knew I had to do it. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I’d said no because I was scared to do something different than I’d done before.”
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Castle Rock Seasons 1 and 2 are streaming on Hulu.
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