The Stand – E6 The Vigil

Jason and Cristina break down episode 6 of The Stand. This is Harold Emery Lauder speaking, I do this of my own free will.

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CBS The Stand, The Stand, Stephen King, The Stand 2020

Podcast Notes –

EPISODE 6:  “THE VIGIL”

WRITTEN BY:	Jill Killington & Knate Lee
DIRECTED BY:	Chris Fisher
RECEPTION:	Imdb – 7.5 / RT – 60% (A – 21%)

“Today, we take our Stand and review Episode 6”

CRITICS

“A stronger episode that felt more genuinely dangerous.  Gone is the flashback structure that plagued the first four episodes and this finally gives Skarsgård space to feel threatening.  More confidently paced, written and performed, it sets up the final third of the show with tension.” 

(problems that carry over)

“Part of what made The Stand so epic was learning about these characters on their journeys west. Wondering who would make it and if anybody would wind up on the wrong side of the battle lines.  Here, most characters (except for Harold) are tragically underdeveloped.  Nick’s death is superficial as we never got to know him. We don’t know why Flagg might think Julie is worthy of special treatment; Trashcan man has no background; even Flagg and Mother Abagail’s showdown rang hollow without motivation.”  

TITLE:        “The Vigil”

Vigil = period of purposeful sleeplessness, an occasion for devotional observance.

MUSIC:

• Spirit World Rising – Daniel Johnston (intro. to Trashcan Man)
• Black Betty – Ram Jam (as Tom watches Julie walk by and recognizes)
• Perfect Day – Lou Reed (end credits)

NEW FACES & PLACES

• Trashcan Man 94: Matt Frewer / 20: Ezra Miller   

Donald Merwin Elbert, better known as the “Trashcan Man”, is a schizophrenic with pyromaniac tendencies. He often found himself in trouble during his years as a youth due to his fixation with fire. The Trashcan Man received electroshock therapy at a mental hospital in Terre Haute, Indiana, before being incarcerated for arson as a teenager.

• Bobby Terry                   94: Sam Raimi / 20: Clifton Collins Jr.    

(Raimi- director, producer. Collins – Westworld, Lawrence)

One of Lloyd’s henchmen, stationed at a checkpoint and set on the lookout for Judge Farris.  His strict orders (in the book – keep her head intact so it can be sent back to Boulder as a warning), here to bring her alive.  The details of his death are omitted except that it is slow, violent and involves teeth. 

Collins has some honestly dangerous energy, as opposed to whatever odd choices are being made by Wolff and Miller. 

CROW’S EYE VIEW

VEGAS

Trashcan Man

We open with our first introduction to the Trashcan Man – dirty, scars on his face, and yelling crazily as he sets bombs to the side of oil tanks.  He masturbates as he watches them explode, a crow flying overhead.  And then, Flagg calls to him, telling Trash, “You are the man I want, the one who will bring me the great fire.”  Trash kneels in worship, receiving visions of all the people in his past who made fun of him burning, and promises – “My life for you.”

He journeys and arrives at the Hotel Inferno.  As Lloyd shows him around, Trash casually tells him he’s going to die.  He’s then taken to see Flagg who comments on the biggest fire in history – the 1961 Soviet Nuclear Test.  He tells Trash he’s he wants him to go to a specific military facility in the desert and bring back THE fire.  After sending him out, Lloyd assures Flagg that the airfield will be ready by the time of his return.  Jealous and unsure about Trash’s role, Flagg assures Lloyd that the fire is ‘for the holdouts’.  In the meantime, there’s another spy on the way and he needs her taken alive, as he still can’t see the identity of the 3^rd spy.  Everytime he tries, all he sees is the moon. 

Tom Cullen

Meanwhile, Tom looks at the note he was given by Dayna and realizes it’s the same as one on a machine.  He asks a woman what it says and is told, “Run”.  The foreman leaves Tom to finish up the day’s job on his own.  After seeing Julie walk by and recognizing her, he waits for his chance and then hops aboard the truck, burying himself under the dead bodies. 

Bobby Terry

Bobby Terry arrives at the Inferno to tell Lloyd that he had to shoot The Judge; in pursuing her, she shot back.  They all bring the body up to Flagg who interrogates Bobby Terry – couldn’t he have deescalated the situation? 

Terry refuses to apologize, giving Flagg the finger.  He runs out of the Penthouse, chaining the door behind him, and makes it to the elevator (slow-mo, violins – 94 Flagg).  But Flagg blows out the doors and appears inside (low to ground – wolf?).  The elevator comes down giving everyone a show at a bloody mess inside (Flagg holding his heart).  

The Rat Woman assures him she will take care of the cleanup right away and looks for the big man, M-O-O-N.  This catches Flagg’s attention and he goes to find “Mr. Moon”. But the truck is already driving out of town with Tom unnoticed in the back (full moon). 

BOULDER

The Vigil

The citizens of Boulder are searching everywhere for Mother Abagail with no luck. Ray is upset that Nick hasn’t even looked for Mother and thinks everyone else should be more concerned too.  There is a tense altercation where the rest think they are doing all they can and still need to run things, before she leaves.   They set up the Vigil, Nick playing the piano (gets a flash of the wolf).

Harold confronts Nadine about the disappearance and wonders what else she isn’t telling him (he tells her everything).  But he thinks this represents an opportunity as most people in Boulder will be at the Vigil tonight at Mother A’s house.  Why just kill the Committee when they can take out everyone?  And she has the perfect place to plant the bomb. 

She goes over to the house under the guise of setting out Joe’s cards.  She also chastises Larry for not realizing that taking Joe to the Vigil would be a bad idea.  He agrees; she will come back to take him to the school later.  Harold comes to collect Stu for the next search shift. 

Mother Abagail vs. Flagg

Wandering in the woods, Mother Abagail pleas with God to show her what she can’t see.  She knows he thinks she can’t lead them but begs him not to take it out on them.  Then Flagg shows up – “My name is Legion, for we are many”.  He challenges her, thinking she’s not really searching for God but for death, a way out of this burden.  Yet she holds strong to her faith, saying he is the one afraid, that his people will find out there’s nothing to him.  Frustrated, he sends a brief gust of wind and burst of crows before leaving.   

Jesus arrives on the other side of the Sea of Galilee and heals a man afflicted by a ‘     ‘legion” of demons.

Stu & Harold

After finishing another grid search, Stu and Harold talk alone in the woods.  Harold thinks that Stu has grown too used to getting lucky.  Stu thinks everything they’ve been through might all be random, but Harold insists it’s destiny.  He holds his gun to Stu’s back but doesn’t shoot.  They’re interrupted by Norris who tells them they can return to town, there’s enough people on the search and he disappointedly thinks it would be a miracle if Mother had survived this long.

Frannie & Harold

Frannie sneaks into Harold’s house and breaks open the basement door, where she sees his camera monitors.  Concern turns to cold fear as she finds what he has in the backroom – weapons, dynamite, and his Manifesto:

Guideposts to a Better Life –  “Hell is other people.” – Jean-Paul Sartre

To follow one’s start it is to concede the power of some greater Force, some Providence, yet is it still not possible that the act of following itself is the taproot of even greater Power? Your GOD, your DEVIL, owns the keys to the lighthouse; I have grappled with that so long and hard in these last two months; but to each of us he has given the responsibility of NAVIGATION.

Why was I condemned to live a life of worthlessness. You have had your time, and now, its my turn. Flagg’s time. I will fix this broken world. I will punish everyone. And it will be beautiful.  This world will know what I am worth. (September 11 – November 11, Year 1). 

She is discovered by Harold who thinks none of this has gone how it was supposed to.  Captain Trips was supposed to be his great adventure, a chance for the kid who everybody looked past.  But even as the last man on Earth, Frannie didn’t want him.  They got to Boulder and everyone threw him away again. So he’s going to fix things with one blast of violence.  She tries to talk him down, assuring him they are in this together.  But he runs out, locking her in the room.  “I’m sorry, it’s the only way.”

Larry & Nadine  

When Larry brings Joe to Nadine, he tells her that she was right, empathy was never his strong suit.  But he does care about her.  “You’re a good man, Larry Underwood”. She tells him he needs to go to the Vigil (insinuating they can talk more another time).   Before leaving, Joe whispers in Larry’s ear – “Nadine and Mommy Nadine are two different people”.  Larry tries to call for someone on the radio but finds the wires cut.  He runs out to his bike it won’t start (tampered). 

Nadine then brings Joe to the school (TV – “Evil existed long before good”).  Joe touches Nadine in effort to stop her but she leaves. “That’s not my Joe”.    

Culmination

In the basement, Frannie breaks a window and runs over to the house.

Joe hears Mother Abigail’s voice (“You can’t send me anywhere that God can’t find me”).  He goes into forest and finds her body.  Screams.

The Vigil begins and town members arrive.  Stu says he hasn’t heard from Fran or Larry but then Norris comes in on the radio, notifying them they found Mother Abagail.  They start off to meet at the Infirmary but Nick stays back.  

At the amphitheater, Harold meets Nadine.  He speaks over the radio -“This is Harold Emery Lauder speaking, I do this of my own free will”.  But Nick, the only one left inside, can’t hear it.  He is drawn once more to the piano, and touches it.  Frannie runs up to Stu to warn him but inside Nick opens the piano just as they detonate the bomb, the house exploding.

CLOSER LOOK:

Tsar Bomba:        In 1961, a group of 57 nuclear tests conducted. On October 30, 1961, the largest nuclear weapon ever constructed was set off over Novaya Zemlya Island in the Russian Arctic Sea. The Soviet ‘Tsar Bomba’ had a yield of 50 megatons, or the power of around 3,800 Hiroshima bombs detonated simultaneously. While its official designation was RDS-220 hydrogen bomb, it was nicknamed Tsar Bomba.  Although it was detonated 2.5 miles above ground, a seismic shock wave equivalent to an earthquake of over 5.0 on the Richter Scale was measured around the world. The mushroom cloud reached a height of 37 miles. The ring of absolute destruction had a 21 mile radius. The test came amid rising political tensions between the US and Soviet Union – a testing moratorium was broken and soon both countries conducted more nuclear tests than in the past 16 years, causing a spike in global radiation levels.  After a total of 715 tests, the Russian Federation signed the Nuclear-Test-Ban-Treaty in 1996. 

Nevada National Security Site (Nevada Proving Grounds) a US DOE reservation for the testing of nuclear devices, covering 1,360 square miles of desert.  Over 1,000 nuclear explosions detonated there.  During the 1950’s the mushroom clouds from the 100 tests could be seen from 100 miles away; the city of Vegas experienced seismic effects. 

NEXT ON:  Episode 7: “The Walk”  

Written: Owen King; Directed: Vincenzo Natali