‘Castle Rock’ Character Confirms Major Connection to ‘The Shining’

The new Hulu series Castle Rock focuses on the fictional Maine town that ties together many of Stephen King‘s tales of terror, exploring the kinds of people and bizarre events that unfold in the sleepy community. After five episodes, the series has included various nods to famous King stories, in both blatant and subtle ways, with this week’s episode offering a major connection to The Shining.

WARNING: Spoilers below for Castle Rock

Early on in the series, Jane Levy’s character revealed that her name was “Jackie Torrance,” a connection to The Shining‘s Jack Torrance who took his family to a Colorado hotel and ultimately attempted to kill them after being driven mad by spirits. Fans have been wondering how Jackie would connect to her namesake, with this week’s episode confirming it was nothing more than a voluntary nickname to honor her uncle.

At one point in the episode, titled “The Harvest,” Jackie is having a conversation with Bill Skarsgard’s unnamed character about the number of horrifying incidents that have happened in the town.

Jackie opened up about her morbid curiosity to have witnessed the bizarre events, admitting, “This town is so blah. People bitch about the bad old days, when there were like serial killers and psychopathic dogs…but I would give my left tit to go back there.”

“I had this uncle though,” she added. “He was a writer too. One winter he just flipped his lid and tried to axe murder his wife and kids in a fancy ski resort. And my folks will never talk to me about it. So I took his name…to piss them off. My real name’s Diane.”

This is arguably the biggest connection to one of King’s most famous stories, other than much of the action in the series being centered around Shawshank Prison.

With the series having originally been conceived as an homage to the author before getting the go-ahead to be an official piece of King lore, it’s not integral to the story to draw connections to the author’s famous stories, as the series can merely pepper in passing nods to his vast library to enrich the experience.

King himself discouraged viewers from trying to point out all the nods to his work, warning on Twitter, “Castle Rock is really good, each episode better than the last. But put all that Easter egg stuff aside and just enjoy it on its own terms. The cast is incandescent and they support a story worth telling.”

New episodes of Castle Rock debut on Hulu on Wednesdays.

Were you expecting to learn this connection to The Shining? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

[H/T Bloody Disgusting]