One of the most concrete ties to King's previous work is the character of retired sheriff Alan Pangborn (Daredevil's Scott Glenn). In the first episode, he's the one who discovers a young Henry roaming around a frozen lake deep in the woods in the middle of Winter, and he is later seen shacking up with Henry's ageing mother, Ruth Deaver (Sissy Spacek). Before this appearance, he popped up in King's The Dark Half and Needful Things.