King Me: Castle Rock- 'The Queen'

After complaining many times about how slow the Show is, they answered my prayers.  Just kidding, it's a mostly-flashback Episode!

After a big cliffhanger last time, we get...a Flashback Episode about the Mom (Sissy Spacek).

This does fill in some holes in the Story, but...who demanded this?

There are some neat visuals (in theory) as she observes her memories from the outside...but then there's *also* the fact that they only use current Spacek for ALL of these, so it just feels weird.

They don't use current versions of the others- just her.  It's more distracting than it is clever.

Some actual Plot happens- which is still in the past, mind you- as the Prisoner (I won't call him The Kid, Internet!) shows up after burning his last place down.

Actual tension- where have you been?!?

We don't get enough of those Flashbacks, even as the tension escalates though.

This is all just to show how she resisted 'Not Sam Elliot' back in the day before, well, no SPOILERS.

To find out how it all ends, watch the Show.  Gotta prep for Season 2, right?  Right?!?

A classy disappointment.  As a side Episode, this is...alright.  The parts we get as Flashbacks are well-shot and well-acted.  There's nothing wrong with them per se.  The problem is the placement.  We get it so late in the Series that it feels more like back-filling than important plot exposition.  It comes off as 'oh crap- we didn't explain this yet' when it shouldn't.  It's not as bad as Black Cobra's classic 'Let me tell you his entire Backstory at the halfway point of the Film' moment, but it's not great.  It goes to a trend that I bitched about in the past when it was done by The Handmaid's Tale, American Gods and others.  It's just a thing people do and I don't like it.  If you can get past the arty flashbacks, the actual bits of story we get are good.  Skarsgard is a nice, subtle menace.  He doesn't do a whole lot, but his presence is nice.  The final moments are interesting, but I don't love it as much as I'm supposed to.  It is a bit overproduced for a moment that is supposed to feel real and authentic.  I really don't like this Episode as much as many people online seem to and that is, sadly, in spite of how good The Prisoner is...

Next time, we return to the Present and maybe get close to wrapping this up.  A man can dream, right?  See you then...