WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for the Castle Rock Episode 9 "Henry Deaver," now streaming on Hulu.


"Go, then. There are other worlds than these."

Those were the last words to come out of Jake Chambers 'mouth as he slipped away into the dark abyss near the end of Stephen King's The Gunslinger. Jake's ominous declaration would go on to haunt Roland for quite some time, until he realized just what the boy meant when he saw him in the second entry of King's The Dark Tower cycle, The Drawing of the Three. The revelation of Jake not only being alive, but existing in a different world/timeline was earth-shattering in the narrative of the novels, and it's later explained that the protagonist, Roland, saves Jake from being killed in his original timeline in 1977, thus creating a paradox and fracturing Jake's mind... and his own.

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Jake had explained to Roland that his death was what let him to the Mid-World in the first place, but when the Gunslinger averted the boy's demise, the timelines became too much for either of them to process, and the fractured memories of them folding in on one another began to drive them mad.

Stephen King is no stranger to creating alternate realities and doppelgängers. He's had entire novels based on time travel, metaphysical nightmares, and other-worldly horrors, but what makes The Dark Tower special is how the existence of multiple Jakes takes a toll on the fabric of reality.

Now, Castle Rock is playing with the same notion. In the penultimate episode of the season, "Henry Deaver," we discover that "The Kid" (Bill Skarsgard) is more than just some ageless monster. He is, in fact, Henry... but not our Henry (Andre Holland). "The Kid" is from a different world, a world beyond the veil in which Ruth and Matthew Deaver conceived a son instead of adopting one. So before this gets any more confusing, let us refer to Andre Holland's character as Henry Prime and Mr. Skarsgard's character as Alternate Henry.

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It turns out the reason Henry Prime was found by Castle Lake without any memory of what had happened when he disappeared, and how he had no frostbite despite being lost without shelter in a harsh New England winter, was because he traveled to Alternate Henry's world. While only a few days went by for the people living in Henry Prime's world, the young Deaver boy was trapped in an alternate timeline of years, held as a prisoner by Matthew Deaver, who was not the boy's adoptive father in this reality.

Alternate Henry's timeline seemed to be far happier comparatively. He was working on a cure for Dementia that could help his mother Ruth overcome the affliction. Despite suffering from the disease, Ruth left Matthew and ran away to Florida with Alan Pangborn, allowing these two star-crossed lovers to actually live their lives together. The only horror that is fully established is Matthew Deaver's madness, which led him to cage a young boy and eventually kill himself, an act that lead Alternate Henry back to his childhood home of Castle Rock and discover Henry Prime locked in his father's basement.

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How this craziness ties into The Dark Tower is in the way the show portrays what can happen when characters slip into timelines or realities where they are not supposed to exist. Alternate Henry's existence in the Prime Universe causes destruction, pain and horror wherever he is present, illustrating that when realities are tampered with, there are repercussions. Much like how the paradox was created by Roland when he saved Jake, the displaced Alternate Henry upset the fabric of Castle Rock and is kept in a stagnant nightmare from which he could never wake.

The doorway through which the Henrys have traveled is "the voice of God" Odin Branch had been searching for in the woods. Now, to be fair, they are not literal doorways like they are in The Drawing of the Three, but they act in a similar manner. While stepping through them does not put you into the head of someone different, it does put you into a stasis of sorts, transporting you to a reality you don't belong in. All of this is stunning with regards to how it ties into the previous episodes of this season. Castle Rock has essentially taken one of King's biggest themes and completely turned it on its ear. Now, with the season finale on the way, we have no idea how they hell they're going to wrap this up in an hour.