The Stand – E3 Blank Pages

Jason and Cristina break down episode 3 of The Stand. Show me a man or a woman alone and I’ll show you a saint. Give me two and they’ll fall in love. Give me three and they’ll invent the charming thing we call ‘society’.

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CBS The Stand, The Stand, Stephen King

Podcast Notes –

EPISODE 3:  “BLANK PAGES”

WRITTEN BY:	Jill Killington & Owen King
DIRECTED BY:	Bridget Cole & Danielle Krudy
RECEPTION:	Imdb – 6.9 / RT – 54% (A – 33%)

“Today, we take our Stand and review Episode 3”

CRITICS

“Blank Pages is the first episode that feels like a true ensemble affair, branching out into scenes that don’t serve to introduce us to Nick or Tom.  The show is starting to bring the entire case into focus, and it’s getting easier to see both its strengths and weaknesses.   It struggles a bit with pacing but allows for deeper character work.”

TITLE:        “Blank Pages”

NA – “This world was never interested in anything I had to offer.”  MA – “God believes in you, and he’s got a job for you – he wants you to be my voice. You see, the world is now a blank page, and unless we’re all working together, we’re not going to be able to rewrite it.”

DIRECTOR: Danielle Krudy – Black Swan, The Conversation, Blow the Man Down (movie with Bridget Savage Cole) 

MUSIC:

• Desperate – by Ashlynn Malia (plays while Nadine readies herself)
• Do it Again – by Steely Dan (plays by Stu & Glen eat/ smoke)
• White Rabbit – by Jefferson Airplane (plays at the end of the ep, Harold)

ABOUT LARRY:
There was something hard in Larry.  There were good uses for such hardness, she knew that, but Larry hadn’t found any yet. He would go along, not thinking, getting people, including himself, into jams.  And then when the jams got bad enough, he would call upon that hard streak to extricate himself, like a child using it as a bludgeon to beat his way out of traps.  As for the others? He would leave them to sink or swim on their own.  He still used his toughness destructively.  He had never sharpened that hard piece of him into a blade to cut people with, and that was something. There was something in Larry that gave you the bitter zing of hearing chalk screech on a blackboard.  Deep inside, looking out, was only Larry.  He was the only one allowed inside his heart.   Once she had told herself Larry would change. But she feared those days of change – the deep and fundamental sort they called a change of soul – were behind him.  There was good in Larry, great good, but this late on, it would take nothing short of a catastrophe to bring it out. 

“I never said a mean word about you to anyone else, but since you’ve pushed me to it, I’ll tell you exactly what I think of you.  I think you’re a taker.  It’s like God left some part of you out when He built you inside of me.  You’re not bad, that’s not what I mean.  The worst part is that you mean well.  Sometimes I think it would almost be a mercy if you were broke worse.  As it is, you seem to know what’s wrong but not how to fix it.  You’re a taker, that’s all.” 

NEW FACES & PLACES

• Glen Bateman 94: Ray Walston / 20: Greg Kinnear   

A professor of sociology that went into retirement some years before the superflu hit, Glendon Pequod Bateman met Stu near his home in Woodsville, New Hampshire. A senior citizen handicapped by arthritis, the character of Bateman is often dispenses sociological advice as to how humanity might rebuild itself.

Greg Kinnear: “The weed-smoking, philosopher professor who has all these ideas, there’s kind of a jazzy quality to Glen that I loved. He sort of makes it up as he goes along but I think he really believes everything he’s saying. I think he has a strong mandate about his life and [that] somehow this was all preordained, this is all destiny. And to get to play that character with these Yoda-like qualities was quite fun. And I do think that he’s heavily sedated in many moments when he’s in the show so that might give him a little worldly vision as well.”

• Nick Andros                   94: Rob Lowe / 20: Henry Zaga  

A 22-year-old drifter with hearing loss, originally from Nebraska, Nick is beaten and robbed outside of (fictional) Shoyo, Arkansas shortly after the start of the superflu. Mildly injured in the assault and initially jailed, Andros is befriended by the local sheriff and his wife. In the revised–expanded edition of the novel, a sickened and fugitive Ray Booth (now plague stricken) attacks Nick a second time in the emptied town. Booth nearly blinds one of Andros’ eyes, and in a panic, Nick accidentally fires his holstered gun and the bullet scrapes his leg, causing it to become infected. Although Nick kills Booth, the resulting damage to his eye means that he must wear an eye patch moving forward.

Nearly all organizations, including the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) use the term “deaf and hard of hearing”. Though the next generation often prefers “hearing-impaired”, there are many that think this focuses on what someone cannot do.  Alternative phrasing – a “person with hearing loss.”

• Tom Cullen                   94: Bill Fagerbakke/ 20: Brad William Henke  

A man in his forties who has a mild to moderately developmental (intellectual) disability. Nick encounters him and the two bond closely, despite the fact that Andros cannot speak and Cullen cannot read Andros’ notes. Cullen’s speech includes colloquialisms such as “My laws!”; he frequently references himself in third person, and punctuates important points with “M-O-O-N, that spells x!” When he is required to make a logical connection, Cullen can slip into a form of self-hypnosis. 

Cavell:  “Tom Cullen is a character who I certainly felt strongly about bringing into the modern-day. In the novel, he feels a little bit like Lenny from Of Mice and Men sort of transposed into this book, really inhabiting the trope of ‘this is a child trapped in an adult body.’ Taylor and I have talked a lot about this and in our experience, a person who is developmentally disabled isn’t in the dark about the idea that they have differences in the way that they process information. It’s not a child trapped in a grown-up body. It was very important to us to have Tom not [be] in the dark about having his deficits or his challenges, but that he’s found a way to navigate the world. And it was important for us to try to be honest about that experience and not play him as a trope, but as a real person who’s lived a life before Captain Trips.” Henke agreed, explaining that he based his performance in part on a high school friend who suffered a head injury playing football in college. “I saw him a couple years later and he was disabled, and he said to me, ‘In here, still me.’ So I just tried to make [Tom] not one-dimensional”.

• Ray Booth 94: Patrick Kilpatrick/ 20: Myles McCarthy  

Leader of the group of men who attack Nick Andros in Shoyo.  Sheriff’s wife, Janey’s, brother.

• Hector “Heck” Drogan 94: Peter R. McIntosh/ 20: TJ Kayama  

In the books, Heck was crucified for drug use by Randall Flagg; charged with freebasing cocaine and sentenced to death. Though it seems no one caught him in the act of using, the characters that carry out his sentence believe that Flagg used his unexplainable intuition to perceive that Heck was breaking the law.  The crucifixion is carried out publicly, with the entire population of the community required to attend.

• Mother Abagail 94: Ruby Dee/ 20: Whoopi Goldberg  

Mother Abagail Freemantle is a prophet of God who the Superflu survivors dream of and rally around in Boulder.  In the books, she is 108 years old, living in a farmhouse in Hemingford Home, Nebraska, where she had outlived three husbands and now, seven children after the flu. 

CROW’S EYE VIEW

PAST (NADINE & JOE)

We open on a much younger Nadine, growing up in a group home, where the other girls pull out a Ouija Board and convince the ‘new girl’ to join.  As soon as she does, the planchette spells out ‘Nadine’ on the paper, then starts moving violently, pulling the girls and gouging letters into the wooden floor.  They run out screaming but Nadine stays back to read the message – “Nadine will be my queen.  We are in the house of the dead, Nadine”.

Stephen King tells us a bit about Nadine Cross’ backstory, namely that she was orphaned at the age of six, and lived with her aunt and uncle for ten years before running away when she was 16. It was at this time that she began her “relationship” with Randall Flagg – but the miniseries changes some of those details. For starters, this version of Nadine grew up in an orphanage, but more importantly Flagg starts whispering in her ear at a much younger age.

Around 4 months ago, we see Nadine’s meeting with Larry.  Joe runs at him with a knife and nearly stabs him, but Nadine stops him.  She tells Larry she found him outside of Scranton several weeks ago. They want to go with Larry wherever he’s going but he shares that the woman he got out of NY with killed herself; maybe he’s meant to be alone.   Plus, he’s really just been going wherever Harold leads him (showing her the next sign painted on the cement) – “Anytime I go someplace he’s already been, I just felt like he knew the answers before I even thought to ask the questions.” They decide to go on together.

Later, sitting in a stadium, Joe is drawn in by the sound of Larry playing the guitar, watching intently as he plays.  When Larry offers Joe to try, he immediately plays a very accurate rendition of the song.  But when finished, he refuses to give the guitar up, and Larry lets him keep it, offering to help whenever he wants practice.

PAST (STU & GLEN)

4 months earlier – Pennsylvania

At a gas station, Harold siphons gas for his and Frannie’s bikes, then goes off to go to the bathroom.  Midway through, Stu finds him and admits he’s been following and waiting for the right time to introduce himself to the duo.  It’s clear he would like to establish a relationship but Harold is instantly suspicious and doesn’t want to take a chance (“He’s a happy asshole with fucking dimples”).  Despite Frannie’s protestations, he gives her an ultimatum and she reluctantly agrees to go on separate.  Before leaving, she tells Stu their plans are to head to the CDC in Atlanta.  Stu heard it was compromised and plans to head to LA.

After separating, Stu comes upon Glen Bateman and his new dog Kojak (an Irish Setter, a rare canine survivor of the Superflu. It took most of the dogs, horses and guinea pigs but left the deer and the rats).  Instantly friendly, Glen invites Stu back for dinner, he has a generator so his place has lights and conveniences.  They talk about their past – Glen’s wife was a professor and physicist who died 10 years ago.  Stu shares that his wife died last year when a man ran a red light and hit her.  Neither ever had kids.  Glen warms to “East Texas” who doesn’t talk much, giving him a chance to spout his sociological ideas.

 “Show me a man or a woman alone and I’ll show you a saint. Give me two and they’ll fall in love. Give me three and they’ll invent the charming thing we call ‘society’. Give me four and they’ll build a pyramid. Give me five and they’ll make one an outcast. Give me six and they’ll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they’ll reinvent warfare. Man may have been made in the image of God, but human society was made in the image of His opposite number, and is always trying to get back home.”

Glen thinks that while society has it’s positives, it also brings prejudice and competition – it is what got them into this mess to begin with and maybe they are better off not starting it back up. 

In the books, he frequently talks about technology being the item that will reintroduce society, and what they need to be wary of is all the ‘toy, laying around, just waiting to be picked up’ – namely, the weapons and bombs. 

The next morning, looking through Glen’s paintings (in the books, Glen loves painting but is terrible – here, very talented), and finds one of Mother Abagail in the corn.  Startled, he asks Glen who tells him it was the most vivid dream he ever had.  He doesn’t believe Stu at first that they could be having the same dreams, which might be prophetic, until they stumble upon their shared knowledge of the location they’re headed – Hemingford Home.  Stu also finds another painting of a pregnant Frannie that Glen made 3 days ago.

PAST (NICK & TOM)

5 Months Earlier – Shoyo, Arkansas

Nick bumps into a man at a bar, accidentally causing him to spill his drink.  But Nick doesn’t notice until Ray Booth angrily comes up behind and punches repeatedly until he passes out. 

Once unconscious, Nick dreams of Flagg, laying out cards for him at a Vegas-style table.  Flagg knows his backstory – Nick’s mother came from El Salvador; she crossed the border in the trunk of a car to give her son a better life that he didn’t receive.  Flagg offers to make Nick his right hand man and give him anything he wants – his hearing, a voice, and full eyesight.  Flagg lays out 3 Aces – a red Stone, a Rat, and a Wolf.  Then, a Queen (with his stone, her mouth covered).  All he asks in return is for Nick to worship him.  Nick gives him the finger and Flagg pulls a King with one eye and a crow (blind worship).    

Nick wakes in a hospital bed, a bandage over one eye that was lost in the beating.  He sees everyone in the room is dead (tubeneck) and walks out to an empty lobby where a newspaper headline reads, “Is this the end?”  A man throws things to get his attention and Nick finds a sick Ray handcuffed to a bed.  He takes care of him.

Nick falls asleep and this time, dreams of walking through the corn, into Mother Abagail’s home.  She tells him he can talk here and asks about the Dark Man. “He scares me”.  She admits she is just an old woman who the Lord has chosen to talk to’ it wouldn’t have been her choice but nobody asked her.  Nick admits he doesn’t believe in God but that doesn’t faze her – he has a job for Nick, to be her voice, so he should come find her.

         (Flagg offers to change Nick where Abagail says God will bring out the best in him)

Nick wakes to find Tom Cullen, who introduces himself with what seems like a prepared speech for meeting new people.  “I’m 42 years old and developmentally disabled, please do not be alarmed by my behavior, have difficulty reading social cues. I’m a hard worker, very strong, and capable of basic physical labor.   I cannot read but I can follow simple directions.” Finally, Nick manages to cut off the stream of words and tries to introduce himself through a note, but Tom reiterates that he can’t read.  At first, he also doesn’t understand Nick’s hand gestures to show he is deaf but when he finally realizes, he says, “Wonder why she didn’t tell me, the nice old Black Lady from inside my head – she’s the one who told me where to find you.”

PRESENT (BOULDER)

Frannie @ Doctor

In Boulder, a makeshift doctor’s office has been set up, run by a nurse and a Vet Tech.  Frannie goes for a sonogram and shows the image of a healthy baby to a picture she keeps of Jess, the father.   She wonders aloud if one immune parent is enough to pass immunity to the baby.    

Stu finds Heck Drogan

Stu is out in the woods hunting with Larry when a bloody racecar pulls up, stops, and a man falls out – unconscious from blood loss (crucifixion wounds) – then wakes to tell them, “I couldn’t be forgiven until I deliver the message…he’s coming.”  Bringing him to the doctor, Stu finds that Nick already knows the man is from Vegas.  The Committee members gather to discuss the situation – Glen, Stu, Nick, Larry and Frannie (who speaks to Nick with sign language and communicates his message to the group).  Glen is unsure if God is actually talking to Mother and thinks they need to talk to the people, find out what they want (like a democracy) – but Mother Abagail enters and reminds him that Nick is her voice.  

She then goes inside to speak with Heck. He tells Mother he dreamed of her and he came from a bad place, where there’s a man who isn’t a man – the Hardcase, the Walkin Dude, Randall Flagg.  He showed up when they were all still shell-shocked and at first, they were grateful to him for bringing them out of the chaos.  He promised them a chance to be on top for once.   But then he began bringing in slaves and things got worse until Heck finally decided to leave.  Flagg’s men caught him trying to cross the border and crucified him, letting him leave for Boulder just so he could deliver a message to Mother Abagail. 

Heck then appears to be possessed – seizing, rocking and bleeding afresh from his wounds.  Crows crash headlong into the window.  “I have your blood in my fists, old Mother.  Pray your god takes you before you hear my boots on your steps.  I’m gonna blow your house down”.  Then Heck falls back onto the bed, dead.

Nadine & Flagg

Meanwhile, Nadine dresses and tries to look normal.  She finds him hiding under the bed (clutching the guitar) but they finally head over to the school. There, Teddy shows Nadine around – she says she wants the offer the children a sense of normalcy; that’s what they need.  Harold comes in (the two have been cleaning things out), and Joe shrinks back at the sight of him. After Nadine leaves, Teddy thinks that maybe now he has a shot with a woman like her, though Harold disagrees jokingly.

Back at the house later, Nadine pulls out the Ouija Board, remembering the incident as a child and finding herself wearing the stone necklace.  She takes the planchette and is transported to the desert with Flagg.  She tells him she doesn’t like it in Boulder; she can’t feel him there.  Flagg says he needs her there to be his eyes and to do one thing before leaving – “Kill the witch and the 5 puppets she put in charge. I already found the weapon; I just need you to pull the trigger.  Mind the boy.” Back in the house, she finds Joe in the room, shrugging off the planchette as a ‘game she plays’.  The paper reads – Harold Lauder.

The final scene shows Harold and Teddy bringing Heck’s body to the burial pit. Teddy thinks it’s the first guy they brought there who’d already been dead for weeks.  Harold – “first of many”. 

Flagg – “There was a dark hilarity in his face, perhaps in his heart too.  It was the face of a hatefully happy man, a face that radiated a horrible handsome warmth, a face to make waterglasses shatter in the hands of tired truck-stop waitresses, to make small children crash their trikes into board fences and then run wailing to their mommies with stake-shaped splinters sticking out of their knees.  It was a face guaranteed to make barroom arguments turn bloody.  He looks like anybody you see on the street. But when he grins, birds fall dead off telephone lines. When he looks at you a certain way, your prostate goes bad and your urine burns. The grass yellows up and dies where he spits. He’s always outside. He came out of time. He doesn’t know himself.”

DREAM RATING:

                            C:     9                                  J:       8.2

MVS (MOST VALUABLE STAND):

C:      Larry                            J:       Larry

POLL:

• Glen Bateman 43%
• Mother Abigail 22%
• Nick Andros      21%
• Nadine Cross   14%