It's fitting that Part 2 of The Stand begins with Molly Ringwald singing Amazing Grace as she gets ready to bury her father, as this is signposting the direction King's story goes in for... whatever reason it does. Before that, though, we get the reveal that Harold the incel is immune to the plague also. He and Fran just sort of hang out for a bit, she makes it clear enough that they'll always be friends, and we get a montage set to "Don't Dream It's Over" of empty twilight streets and abandoned beaches that has haunted me ever since I've seen it. Part 1 was a frighteningly resonant tale of a pandemic causing the end of the world. Part 2 is a post-apocalypse travel journey, itself taking on its own dreamlike qualities. Let's delve in and see what we've got.
At the core are the dual figures being dreamt of. We've seen characters dreaming of the mysterious Mother Abigail in Nebraska, but there are other folks introduced in this part who dream of the dark man, and whatever that might entail. Look, let's just say it. The Stand is taking a left swerve from global pandemic into a post-apocalyptic spiritual battle vs. good and evil, framed in specific religious terms. Mother Abigail is doing the Lord's actual will here in being his emissary, and calling forth generally Good Folks to come to Nebraska (and then Boulder, Colorado) as part of a grand mission to rebuild human society. Less savory people are being called forth by the dark man, who we see in the flesh and learn the name of. Randall Flagg's the name, a mean bastard in a jean jacket who may or may not be Satan. His eventual base will be Las Vegas, and it's hard not to read some parable about the devil's party setting up shop in a decadent hub of vice and sin like Vegas. The superflu was just King's spooky way of getting us here.
There's lots of new characters to chat about. Like Tom Cullen, a mentally handicapped man who teams up with Rob Lowe's deaf-mute character for a lovely little travelling double act. (The show uses the hard-R a few times to describe Tom Cullen. Thanks, 1994. Eugh.) There's also Lloyd Henreid, the crook from Part 1 who's the only inmate left alive when the flu kills everyone. He gets busted out personally by Flagg. The Trashcan Man is this weird looking motherfucker who kinda reminds me of Nathan Barnett (Google him) and is a pyromaniac professing his life for Flagg. Larry Underwood escapes New York City with a woman named Nadine, who's going to be Flagg's dark bride, and once they get out of the city she abandons him. Gary Sinise's character meets a painter named Glen Bateman, and they hook up with Fran and Harold to go off on their own adventure. It's an odd bit of television with its strong religious symbolism, but King's always been interested in faith and karmic destiny. It's the kind of shit that made him stick in my mind when I read books like It or The Gunslinger. A mass exodus of the last survivors of America end up in Boulder at Part 2's end. Now, what will they do about it?
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