The first season of Castle Rock concluded not with clear answers, but with a choice. The finale left viewers wondering if lawyer Henry Deaver made a heroic sacrifice or committed a tragic act when he locked The Kid back in a cage beneath Shawshank Prison. Meanwhile, Molly Strand found her escape, leaving the cursed Maine town behind for a new life. The season’s ending deliberately plays with the idea of reasonable doubt, asking the audience to decide what they believe about the nature of evil and the stories people tell.
Who Is The Kid? The Alternate Reality Theory
In the season’s penultimate episode, The Kid tells a compelling story. He claims to be Henry Deaver from a parallel dimension. In his world, he had a happy life with his mother, Ruth, who left his abusive father, Matthew. He says he crossed over into the main story’s dimension as an adult to help a young Henry, who was being held captive by the alternate version of his own father. Instead of helping, he became trapped here.
This story acts as a “Rosetta Stone,” explaining many strange events. It suggests the two Henrys are doppelgangers, or “twinners,” each stuck in the other’s world. The place where they cross is called the “Schisma,” a thin, screaming rip in reality that some characters hear as the voice of God. This concept is a direct nod to Stephen King’s multiverse, particularly the “thinnies” from The Dark Tower series.
Henry’s Memory and Matthew Deaver’s Fate
The finale solves one major mystery: what happened to Henry’s father. Through flashbacks, we learn that the Reverend Matthew Deaver planned to kill his wife, Ruth, as punishment for her affair with Sheriff Alan Pangborn. He quoted the Bible verse Romans 6:23 to young Henry: “The wages of sin is death”.
To save his mother, Henry lured his father to a cliff in the woods and pushed him. Matthew survived the fall but was left in a coma. Later, Henry used his psychic connection with Molly to guide her to the house to unplug his father’s life support, an act Ruth witnessed but did not stop. Henry’s first act of violence—pushing his father—is also what triggered the Schisma to transport him to the alternate universe as a child.
The Final Confrontation in the Woods
After a violent prison riot at the Castle Rock police station, which The Kid seems to influence, the two men head into the woods. The Kid, desperate to find the portal home, forces Henry to lead him at gunpoint. As the Schisma’s sound grows louder, Henry fully remembers his father’s death.
A struggle ensues. Henry gains control of the gun, and in that moment, The Kid’s face transforms. For a split second, Henry sees a monstrous, ancient, screeching visage. Some viewers noted it looked like a decayed version of Matthew Deaver. This terrifying glimpse decides Henry’s course of action.
“The question at the heart of it all is did Henry lock away the devil and put him into a cage to protect the people of Castle Rock in a sort of heroic sacrifice? Or did he tragically imprison his own doppelgänger?” – Co-creator Dustin Thomason.
Fearing this entity, Henry chooses to imprison The Kid once more. He returns him to the same underground cage in Shawshank where Warden Lacy first kept him.
One Year Later: The New Warden and a Mysterious Smile
The finale jumps ahead one year. Henry has moved back to Castle Rock for good, working as a simple property lawyer. His mother, Ruth, has passed away and is buried next to Alan Pangborn. Henry’s son, Wendell, visits for the holidays.
The most significant change is Henry’s new routine. He now brings food to the cage beneath Shawshank, becoming The Kid’s jailer—the very role he spent his legal career fighting against. As he leaves, The Kid looks up from the darkness and gives a slow, eerie smile.
Co-creator Sam Shaw explained the ambiguity, linking it to classic King endings like The Shining. The smile lets the audience decide: Is it the grin of a devil who has finally corrupted a good man? Or is it the broken smirk of a prisoner losing his mind after years of isolation?.
Molly Strand’s Escape to Florida
While Henry becomes trapped in Castle Rock, his childhood friend and psychic link, Molly Strand, achieves a different fate. Molly, a real estate agent who has always been psychically connected to Henry’s pain, manages to leave town.
The finale reveals that Molly has moved to Key West, Florida. She has taken her young son with her and started her own realty business. For a character who felt every hurt the town inflicted, her departure is a genuine happy ending, a clean escape from the town’s gravitational pull of misery.
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The Post-Credits Teaser and Connections to The Shining
After the main story ends, a mid-credits scene teases future stories. Jackie Torrance, the true-crime enthusiast and hinted descendant of The Shining’s Jack Torrance, is seen typing a manuscript. She has titled her book “Overlooked” and announces she is traveling west for research, clearly heading to the Overlook Hotel.
The showrunners confirmed this was a playful nod to King’s universe, leaving the door open for stories that could connect more directly to his iconic locations.
