The Stand – E7 The Walk

Jason and Cristina break down episode 7 of The Stand. There you must go and make your Stand – this is what God wants from you.

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

Podcast Notes –

EPISODE 7:  “THE WALK”

CRITICS

“The Stand picks up the pace significantly in a crucial episode directed with flair and dread by Vincenzo Natali.  There are still some odd changes to the source material but it has more tension and momentum than the series’ midseason sag.”

“The Walk” works as well as it does because it manages to pull these character and thematic moments together in an episode that is also captivating, and is bolstered by some gorgeous cinematography capturing the quartet’s walk west. Compared to what’s come before, it’s a light episode plot-wise, yet the emotional and thematic stakes of what’s unfolding on-screen couldn’t be higher. Whether humanity can get out of its own way, whether it can come together instead of tearing itself apart, that’s the real question. “The Walk” succeeds as an episode because it buttresses the head-on discussions with several hard-earned character moments that bring the importance of this idea home.”

TITLE:        “The Walk” (*review later – Frannie in books, Glen’s view on the Walk, Mother & Nadine meeting)

MUSIC:

• I Promise – Radiohead (as the gang crosses Utah)
• I Put a Spell on You – Daniel Johnston (as Nadine leaves the desert)
• You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby – Bing Crosby (end credits)

CROW’S EYE VIEW

COLD OPEN – TRASH

Trash descends into an underground storage to cut the top off a nuclear warhead. A Geiger counter strapped to the back ticks up as he rides off.  “Bumpty Bump”.

THE DARK SIDE

HAROLD & NADINE

Harold and Nadine push the detonator and watch the bomb explode in town from the amphitheater.  Harold tells her now that they’re done, they don’t touch each other anymore; she got Flagg what he wanted.  Soon there won’t be any more Free Zone at all. 

They ride through the mountains, snow on the ground now.  As Nadine speeds up, Harold matches. But they come around a bend and she suddenly brakes, leaving him to veer into a barrier, hitting it hard and flying off the bike. He lands on a tree far below and is impaled on a branch. “He would have never let you live. He needs me. You were never meant to be a part of that.”  She tells him she won’t help him up but he can end it quickly if he’s brave.  He shoots at her as she turns and rides off.  As Harold lies dying, he pulls out a notebook.  The vultures watch, waiting, as he finishes the note and shoots himself.

NADINE & FLAGG

Nadine pulls over in desert, sensing Flagg.  She follows a trail of white rose petals on a red carpet walk, suddenly finding herself in his hotel room.  Flagg is waiting – “Harold was very loyal but his purpose is served, he was never meant to ascend to Olympus and live among the Gods, like you.”  She held up her end, kept herself pure (wearing white nightdress).  Now you get to be my wife. Then, you can see what’s really happening – she’s still in the desert, and as they have sex, she becomes terrified – ‘something’s not right’ – his image turns into burnt demon.

*Nadine – in the books, there is a brutal, violent rape scene that traumatizes her and leaves Nadine catatonic. “If she was also catatonic, what did that matter? She was the perfect incubator. She would breed his son, near him, and then she could die with her purpose served – after all, it was what she was there for.”   

After, she walks out of the desert, dazed, in a white dress, blonde hair.  She gets into a car with Flagg and grabs her stomach as she feels pregnancy start. 

THE LIGHT SIDE

MOTHER’S MESSAGE

Larry goes to the Hall where the injured are being treated in a makeshift hospital. Glen says that Frannie is just a little banged up; the baby is okay.  Larry helped stop the fire from spreading.  While they know Harold built the bomb, Larry is upset thinking it was Nadine who put it in the house.

Mother Abagail wakes in her hospital bed and tells Ray to gather everyone to hear her message.  “I have sinned greatly. Sinned in pride. I forgot, I was not the potter but the clay. I thought Nick was the one to lead you. But the Lord saw fit to take Nick home. And that means that it’s you, Stu Redman, who must lead now. West. To the Dark Man’s stronghold. You are to leave now today, on foot, you are to take no food, and no water, just the clothes on your back.  One of you will not see the end of this journey, but God has not seen fit to show me who falls. And you Frannie, you are not to go. There’s bitter days ahead, death and terror, betrayal and tears. And not all of you will live through them. The Dark Man grows stronger everyday. And soon he’ll come to destroy all who stand against him.  His kingdom’s in the West and it is there you must go and make your Stand. This is what God wants from you.” 

BOULDER GOODBYES

Stu and Frannie discuss their journey.  He thinks if they average 25-30 miles a day, they could make it there by the end of February (week before the baby’s due).  Frannie thinks Mother did speak for God.  She also warns Stu against bringing Harold to Justice (he feels responsible) – she only wants him to come back safe. “Swear you’ll come back. God can’t run all of it.” 

*Frannie – injured in the blast (whiplash, sprained back, broken foot). 

MA – “I sinned in pride, so have all of you. Electric lights ain’t the answer, Stu Redman. CB radio ain’t it either, Ralph Brentner. Sociology won’t end it, Glen Bateman. And doing penance for a life that’s long since a closed book won’t stop it from coming, Larry Underwood.  Nor will your boy-child, Fran Goldsmith. God didn’t bring you folks together to make a community. He brought you here only to send you on further, on a quest.”   FG – “What are you saying? That the four of them are just supposed to deliver themselves into his hands? The heart and soul of the Free Zone!? I won’t see them sacrificed to your killer God. Fuck him! Millions, maybe billions, dead in the plague. We don’t even know if the children will live. Isn’t he done yet? Does it just have to go on and on – he’s no God.” 

(Mother touches Frannie and cures her injuries. She tells her it’s not a bribe, he just gives signs and lets people take it as they will.  You always have a choice, that’s God’s way, your will is still free.  But this is what God wants of you.)

Larry says goodbye to Joe, telling him to watch his guitar and Frannie takes a photo of the 4 (Stu, Larry, Glen, Ray & Kojak) by the Boulder City sign (City of Boulder: 1871, Elevation: 5430). 

THE WALK

Stu thinks they can get food from a local store but not weapons – “Power is not in the book, it’s in the interpretation”.  They hope Ray can point out the fresh water that won’t give them Giardia (offended at the idea she knows what to look for – but she does).   90 miles, 700 to go. 

*Glen – What we’re doing has all sorts of historical precedent. And I see some perfectly sound psychological reasons for this walk- I don’t know if they’re God’s reasons, but they make good sense to me.  There were several Native American tribes that used to make ‘having a vision’ an integral part of their manhood rite. When it was your time, you were supposed to go out into the wilderness unarmed. You were supposed to make a kill and two songs.  You weren’t supposed to eat. You were supposed to get high – mentally as well as physically – and wait for a vision to come.  And eventually, it would.  Maybe we were sent to gain strength and holiness through a purging process – the casting away of things is symbolic.  You start a cleaning-out process and you begin to empty the vessel.  (also talks about the mind being like a battery – everything you think and do runs off it and takes a charge (like accessories) – but if you unplug and get rid of the accessories, the battery can go back to full power.

“Are we changing?” “Yes, I think we are. Hunger’s part of it but not all of it.  When you empty out the vessel, you also empty out all the crap floating around in there. The additives, the impurities.”  “But will it help us with him?”

“Well, that’s what it’s for. But we’ll just have to wait and see.” 

Crows (4 – on fence) watches and follow the group (wide shots). The group comes across Harold’s wrecked bike and find vultures feeding on his body.  While Ray protests, Larry clears the birds and reads Harold’s note – I followed him halfway across the country, it doesn’t matter what the Dark Man made him do.  And paying his respects, covers him with his jacket.  

There was a game we played when we were children on a sand pit. Well, a lot of the other kids played, but I just watched. I was too afraid. They jumped from the top of the pit and rolled over and over, laughing their heads off. I never could get my legs to do it, though. To jump. Everyone kept calling me a pansy, and I kept going back to prove myself, but I never did it. I wonder if just once, I could have convinced myself to do it, that I wouldn’t have ended up here. Well, fuck all those bullying assholes, and fuck me for letting myself turn into something even worse. I apologize for the destructive things I’ve done, but I do not deny that I did them of my own free will. The Dark Man is real. I let myself be misled. I sign this, my final word, by a name given to me in Boulder. I couldn’t accept it then, but I take it now freely. –Hawk

ONE FALLS

The group comes to a huge ravine at a split in the road. They get down the steep slope fairly easy but as they climb the other side, before Stu can pull himself up, the rock breaks off, sending him tumbling back to the bottom, breaking his leg.   On his instructions, Larry resets the bone and they splint his leg, but he can barely move.  Stu insists they leave him – this was part of Mother’s message, one would fall, they knew what they were signing up for and the whole trip is based on the idea that Mother knew what she was talking about.  (*Psalm 23)

Stu convinces Larry to go and tells him he’s in charge now.  Glen leaves the rest of his pain pills (3 or 4 would be fatal).  Glen worries when he can’t find Kojak, who stays back with Stu.

GROUP TO VEGAS

The other 3 are picked up by Lloyd in a limo and taken to Vegas (they were expected). On the drive in – statue of Flagg erected in front of Caesars, people beaten in streets, all screens show Flagg and Nadine.  “We’re not gonna have any whining.”   “Baby, can you dig your man” – plays as they enter the Hotel Inferno. As Nadine comes down elevator, they see a beautiful woman in white dress.  But as she welcomes the group to Vegas, they see the truth – a pale, half-dead woman, with a demon inside her belly.