Castle Rock S01E03 "Local Color" Recap

A flashback reveals that a young Molly Strand snuck into the Deaver home after Matthew was found. He was hooked up to a breathing tube which she unplugged so he would die. Her motives aren't entirely clear until further flashbacks insinuate that Matthew was abusive towards Henry. Henry as a child is also shown to be burning a VHS tape while saying "Fuck you, dad."

As an adult, Molly is still haunted by the guilt of taking someone's life and has nightmares about it. She is reunited with Henry again and pretends to not remember him much, becoming quickly overwhelmed by the sound of extra voices due to her psychic abilities.

Molly becomes increasingly anxious while practicing for her upcoming television appearance so she drives off in search of the local drug dealer in the hopes of purchasing something to take the edge off. However, he is out of pills so he refers her to another location where there is another dealer named Derek she can ask to purchase from. When she tracks down Derek, he is acting out a courtroom case with children wearing masks. Derek brings her to a back room but before any drug deal can take place, police arrive and arrest both of them.

Molly has to spend the night in the holding cell at the police station. Henry bails her out and she admits that she remembers him and opens up about her psychic/empathetic abilities and that being around him has exasperated the situation. She is worried about how she'll be missing her scheduled TV appearance but Henry helps rush her to the TV station on time. However, upon getting to the TV station and on the live broadcast she becomes overwhelmed by Henry's thoughts and worried and instead of speaking about the real estate developments, she makes a speech about the injustice of the local prison wrongfully keeping a man imprisoned (in reference to The Kid, whom Henry is still struggling to get access to).

The warden of the prison sees the broadcast and finally relents, allowing Henry to visit and offering a plea deal which will give The Kid $300,000 and his freedom in exchange for his silence on the unfortunate incident of his imprisonment. Henry is able to speak with The Kid for the first time and asks after his well-being. Henry advises him to maintain his anonymity, as it's a strength to getting the best deal possible. Henry says that he'll be able to get him out of prison and then they'll file a civil lawsuit that will get him an even greater settlement amount. During the conversation, The Kid asks him whether "it has begun" and if Henry can "hear it" but their conversation is cut short before Henry can ask anything else about what The Kid means.

Castle Rock premieres new episodes on Wednesdays on Hulu.