‘Castle Rock’ Easter Eggs: Every Stephen King Reference We’ve Noticed So Far
By Chris Evangelista/Sept. 12, 2018 9:00 am EST
Hulu’s Castle Rock is now available to stream. As expected, the show, which is set in the Stephen King universe, is loaded with Stephen King references. To honor Stephen King nerds everywhere, we’re compiling a list of every King reference in each episode. We’ll be updating the list every week with new references from new episodes as they become available to stream.
The first three episodes are available to stream right now, so let’s take a look.
Episode 1: Severance
Shawshank is, of course, the prison from Stephen King’s short story Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, later turned into the the film The Shawshank Redemption. When the new warden checks into the prison, a guard begins to talk about a bullet hole in the wall of the warden’s office. This is the hole from when the Shawshank warden (played by Bob Gunton in The Shawshank Redemption) killed himself. When Warden Lacy drives through Castle Rock before his suicide, he listens to the same section of The Marriage of Figaro that Tim Robbins’ character played in The Shawshank Redemption in this scene. Alan Pangborn is the only character here explicitly from King’s work. The character appeared in King’s novels The Dark Half and Needful Things. In the respective film adaptations of those books, Pangborn was played by Michael Rooker and Ed Harris. The Pangborn of the books is haunted by the death of his wife and son in a car crash, but that doesn’t seem to be carried over into Castle Rock’s interpretation of the character. It’s not an direct reference, but at one point, the Kid sees a mouse scurrying through the prison. King’s The Green Mile prominently features a mouse in a prison, but the rodent here meets an untimely demise, while the Green Mile mouse, Mr. Jingles, lived for a very, very long time.
Read our full “Severance” review here.
Read our full “Habeas Corpus” review here.
Read our full “Local Color” review here.
Read our full “The Box” review here.
Read our full “Harvest” review here.
Episode 6: Filter
It’s not a direct reference, but Odin and Willie traveling around in an RV might be call-back to King’s Shining sequel Doctor Sleep. In that book, a group of “psychic vampires” roam the countryside in RVs, feeding on the psychic essence possessed by people who have the shining. Juniper Hill was mentioned in a previous episode, but we get to see it in full this time. The mental hospital originated in King’s It. It’s where bully Henry Bowers ends up after the town of Derry assumes he – not Pennywise the Clown – was responsible for killing several children. A murder of crows swarm above Juniper Hill when the Kid arrives. The sight of all those birds in the sky could be referencing King’s The Dark Half, which has birds as harbingers of death. That said, the birds in The Dark Half are sparrows, not crows. Speaking of crows: as the Kid looks up at all the birds, one of them falls dead. Watching that, I was reminded of the way King described the big bad of his apocalyptic novel The Stand: “He looks like anybody you see on the street. But when he grins, birds fall dead off telephone lines. When he looks at you a certain way, your prostate goes bad and your urine burns. The grass yellows up and dies where he spits. He’s always outside. He came out of time. He doesn’t know himself. He has the name of a thousand demons…He knows magic. He can call the wolves and live in the crows. He’s the king of nowhere.”
Read our full “Filter” review here.
Episode 7: The Queen
Alan showing Ruth a magic trick is yet another reference to the Alan Pangborn of King’s books, who is an amateur magician. Juniper Hill is mentioned yet again. As previously stated, it’s the same mental asylum from King’s It. Speaking of It, when Ruth watches a news report about the fire at Juniper Hill, we can hear a reporter saying that firefighters from “as far as Derry” have come to help put out the blaze. Derry is, of course, the town from It
Read our full “The Queen” review here.
Episode 8: Past Perfect
We’ve said it once before but it bears repeating: the Kid mentions waiting for 27 years, which is the same amount of time that passes before Pennywise returns in It. On top of all this, having Bill Skarsgard – who plays Pennywise in 2017’s It – say “I waited 27 years!” takes this reference to the next level. The scene where Gordon brutally assaults one of his fellow teachers could be a reference to The Shining. In Stephen King’s novel, we learn that main character Jack Torrence lost his job as a teacher after he assaulted a student whom he caught slashing his tires. Speaking of The Shining, Jackie Torrance killing someone with an axe is a call-back to her uncle’s actions in The Shining film adaptation. (Jack Torrence doesn’t use an axe in King’s novel; he uses a roque (or croquet) mallet. After leaving Castle Rock, Wendell decides to go back. He departs the bus in Jerusalem’s Lot (the name of the town can be briefly glimpsed off to the left-hand side of the frame, etched on a bus stop covering) and starts walking back to Castle Rock. Jerusalem’s Lot is the town at the center of King’s vampire novel ‘Salem’s Lot.
Read our full “Past Perfect” review here.
Episode 9: Henry Deaver
When Henry, aka the Kid, comes back to Castle Rock, his taxi drives by the Emporium Galorium, a junk shop that serves as the main setting for the Stephen King short story The Sun Dog. The Emporium Galorium was also referenced in Needful Things and Pet Sematary. Another location the Kid passes is an ice cream shop called Caliborne Cream, no doubt a reference to King’s Dolores Claiborne. The portal in the woods to an alternate timeline is likely a reference to the Doors found in King’s Dark Tower books. There, the Doors serve as transportation across large distances, and also to other worlds entirely.
Read our full “Henry Deaver” review here.
Episode 10: Romans
During the flashback scene involving young Henry being chased by his crazed father, we see the boy walking backwards in his own footprints in the snow to cover his tracks. Danny Torrance does this same exact move when fleeing from his mad father in Stanley Kubrick’s adaption of The Shining. Henry mentions Wilma Jerzyck to one of his Castle Rock clients. Wilma Jerzyck is one of the residents of Castle Rock in King’s Needful Things. In a post-credit scene, Jacky Torrance talks about how she’s going to travel “out west for a research trip” to finish a book she’s writing – a book called Overlook. The implication here is that she’s traveling the Overlook Hotel, although in King’s novel, the hotel explodes, so perhaps she’s just going to visit the spot where it once stood.
Read our full “Romans” review here.
‘Castle Rock’ Easter Eggs: Every Stephen King Reference We’ve Noticed So Far
By Chris Evangelista/Sept. 12, 2018 9:00 am EST
Hulu’s Castle Rock is now available to stream. As expected, the show, which is set in the Stephen King universe, is loaded with Stephen King references. To honor Stephen King nerds everywhere, we’re compiling a list of every King reference in each episode. We’ll be updating the list every week with new references from new episodes as they become available to stream.
The first three episodes are available to stream right now, so let’s take a look.
The first three episodes are available to stream right now, so let’s take a look.
Episode 1: Severance
Shawshank is, of course, the prison from Stephen King’s short story Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, later turned into the the film The Shawshank Redemption. When the new warden checks into the prison, a guard begins to talk about a bullet hole in the wall of the warden’s office. This is the hole from when the Shawshank warden (played by Bob Gunton in The Shawshank Redemption) killed himself. When Warden Lacy drives through Castle Rock before his suicide, he listens to the same section of The Marriage of Figaro that Tim Robbins’ character played in The Shawshank Redemption in this scene. Alan Pangborn is the only character here explicitly from King’s work. The character appeared in King’s novels The Dark Half and Needful Things. In the respective film adaptations of those books, Pangborn was played by Michael Rooker and Ed Harris. The Pangborn of the books is haunted by the death of his wife and son in a car crash, but that doesn’t seem to be carried over into Castle Rock’s interpretation of the character. It’s not an direct reference, but at one point, the Kid sees a mouse scurrying through the prison. King’s The Green Mile prominently features a mouse in a prison, but the rodent here meets an untimely demise, while the Green Mile mouse, Mr. Jingles, lived for a very, very long time.
Read our full “Severance” review here.
Episode 2: Habeas Corpus
Read our full “Habeas Corpus” review here.
Episode 3: Local Color
Read our full “Local Color” review here.
Episode 4: The Box
Read our full “The Box” review here.
Episode 5: Harvest
Read our full “Harvest” review here.
Episode 6: Filter
It’s not a direct reference, but Odin and Willie traveling around in an RV might be call-back to King’s Shining sequel Doctor Sleep. In that book, a group of “psychic vampires” roam the countryside in RVs, feeding on the psychic essence possessed by people who have the shining. Juniper Hill was mentioned in a previous episode, but we get to see it in full this time. The mental hospital originated in King’s It. It’s where bully Henry Bowers ends up after the town of Derry assumes he – not Pennywise the Clown – was responsible for killing several children. A murder of crows swarm above Juniper Hill when the Kid arrives. The sight of all those birds in the sky could be referencing King’s The Dark Half, which has birds as harbingers of death. That said, the birds in The Dark Half are sparrows, not crows. Speaking of crows: as the Kid looks up at all the birds, one of them falls dead. Watching that, I was reminded of the way King described the big bad of his apocalyptic novel The Stand: “He looks like anybody you see on the street. But when he grins, birds fall dead off telephone lines. When he looks at you a certain way, your prostate goes bad and your urine burns. The grass yellows up and dies where he spits. He’s always outside. He came out of time. He doesn’t know himself. He has the name of a thousand demons…He knows magic. He can call the wolves and live in the crows. He’s the king of nowhere.”
Read our full “Filter” review here.
Episode 7: The Queen
Alan showing Ruth a magic trick is yet another reference to the Alan Pangborn of King’s books, who is an amateur magician. Juniper Hill is mentioned yet again. As previously stated, it’s the same mental asylum from King’s It. Speaking of It, when Ruth watches a news report about the fire at Juniper Hill, we can hear a reporter saying that firefighters from “as far as Derry” have come to help put out the blaze. Derry is, of course, the town from It
Read our full “The Queen” review here.
Episode 8: Past Perfect
We’ve said it once before but it bears repeating: the Kid mentions waiting for 27 years, which is the same amount of time that passes before Pennywise returns in It. On top of all this, having Bill Skarsgard – who plays Pennywise in 2017’s It – say “I waited 27 years!” takes this reference to the next level. The scene where Gordon brutally assaults one of his fellow teachers could be a reference to The Shining. In Stephen King’s novel, we learn that main character Jack Torrence lost his job as a teacher after he assaulted a student whom he caught slashing his tires. Speaking of The Shining, Jackie Torrance killing someone with an axe is a call-back to her uncle’s actions in The Shining film adaptation. (Jack Torrence doesn’t use an axe in King’s novel; he uses a roque (or croquet) mallet. After leaving Castle Rock, Wendell decides to go back. He departs the bus in Jerusalem’s Lot (the name of the town can be briefly glimpsed off to the left-hand side of the frame, etched on a bus stop covering) and starts walking back to Castle Rock. Jerusalem’s Lot is the town at the center of King’s vampire novel ‘Salem’s Lot.
Read our full “Past Perfect” review here.
Episode 9: Henry Deaver
When Henry, aka the Kid, comes back to Castle Rock, his taxi drives by the Emporium Galorium, a junk shop that serves as the main setting for the Stephen King short story The Sun Dog. The Emporium Galorium was also referenced in Needful Things and Pet Sematary. Another location the Kid passes is an ice cream shop called Caliborne Cream, no doubt a reference to King’s Dolores Claiborne. The portal in the woods to an alternate timeline is likely a reference to the Doors found in King’s Dark Tower books. There, the Doors serve as transportation across large distances, and also to other worlds entirely.
Read our full “Henry Deaver” review here.
Episode 10: Romans
During the flashback scene involving young Henry being chased by his crazed father, we see the boy walking backwards in his own footprints in the snow to cover his tracks. Danny Torrance does this same exact move when fleeing from his mad father in Stanley Kubrick’s adaption of The Shining. Henry mentions Wilma Jerzyck to one of his Castle Rock clients. Wilma Jerzyck is one of the residents of Castle Rock in King’s Needful Things. In a post-credit scene, Jacky Torrance talks about how she’s going to travel “out west for a research trip” to finish a book she’s writing – a book called Overlook. The implication here is that she’s traveling the Overlook Hotel, although in King’s novel, the hotel explodes, so perhaps she’s just going to visit the spot where it once stood.
