Annie Wilkes discovers that trying to cover her tracks is harder than it should be, Joy starts looking into her mother’s past, and a famous house makes an appearance.

It followed that if you’re going to set parts of time show around Salem’s Lot then you’re eventually going to see the Marsten house, the home of Messrs Barlow and Straker in Stephen King’s novel of the same name. The surprise is that we have seen it so soon in the season – the sign is revealed in the pre-credits sequence. However, it looks like we’re not dealing with vampirism this time, but necromancy.

Another big surprise is that Ace is back, his demise courtesy of Annie Wilkes being just a temporary setback. As any true King fan knows, you can’t keep a good villain down, and the dispatching of to Paul Sparks’ nasty character part one seemed a little premature.

But it’s not just the big moments driving the show, with Tim Robbins’ Pop being far more nuanced than the version we saw in The Sun Dog story. He lives in shades of grey and we’re getting a greater insight into the relationship with Abdi and Nadia and he is incensed when he hears of the Molotov cocktail that Ace threw.

Lizzie Caplan continues to impress and convince as Annie, getting in deeper and deeper, fighting to hid her past from daughter Joy, who is picking up the pieces from the internet.

Verdict: Christmas! Those dirty birds in Castle Rock are making things tough for Annie Wilkes, and it’s great fun watching everything fall apart. I’m this show’s number one fan! 9/10

Nick Joy