THE STAND (2020) Ending Explained: Episode 9 Breakdown And Full Season Spoiler Review

Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show! I’m your host Paul aka Spoilen King, and in this video, we’re breaking down the ending of The Stand. It’s been a rough and rocky road up until now.

We’re going to break it all down, but if you’ve been following our breakdowns for the last nine weeks, I’d massively appreciate the thumbs up, and don’t forget to subscribe for coverage on all the biggest upcoming TV shows and movies.

The Stand Episode 9 Breakdown

Now up top, I want to talk about how this episode was marketed as a brand new ending for the series that was 40 years in the making. I’m sure many of you have been sticking with the show through all its highs and lows up until now to get to this point, and honestly, I feel slightly disappointed.

I dunno if it’s because I had some preconceived notions that this would go on to be something big and bombastic that would answer several questions about the ending of the original work, but all in all, it doesn’t differ that heavily from the eventual path that it takes.

In the book, Frannie and Stu leave Boulder after the birth of her baby because they realize that society is starting to fall back into its bad habits. In the complete and uncut edition, Flagg wakes up on a beach where he is greeted by tribe members, and that’s also how the season ends too.

So I feel like this being sold to us as a brand new ending is slightly misleading, but Fran herself does actually get more stuff to do. King stated that he felt like Frannie never really got to make her own stand, and in many ways that is rectified by this entry, to varying degrees of success.

We open with her baby being born, and quickly it contracts SARS. However, the child recovers, and it’s not too long before we realize that the survivor’s children will inherit their immunity. I feel that because the baby Abigail’s father died of Tripps, it was susceptible; however, the other baby that we see being born comes from two parents who carried immunity, and thus it doesn’t show any signs of infection.

Abigail is also the first person who we know has recovered from Tripps, and this clearly shows signs of hope for the future. Now the Stand in general is very much thought to be a metaphor for rebirth, not only in the destruction and reconstruction of society but also in the mindstates that people have. Upon Stu’s return, Fran realizes that the old ways are starting to seep back into society and that people are once again becoming divided over their beliefs. She can see the storm coming and doesn’t want their children to be affected in this way; thus, they return to her place of birth in the country.

Now one of the big issues that I had with this episode is its pacing. I would’ve loved to have seen the development of this mindstate in the city and Fran starting to realize that Flagg was simply making people give into their darkest desires rather than causing them. We could’ve had an in-depth psychological look at how humans are flawed in a way that eventually makes us turn on one another, but we’re simply told by Fran that things will get bad even though, from what we see, people are still willing to help her where they can. They also completely gloss over the journey that Stu and Tom took together, along with the friendships that they formed. This would be fine if we didn’t spend about 10 minutes trying to pull Fran out of the well later on in the episode, and to me that shouldn’t have been as much of a focus at the expense of other things.

We also don’t learn about the past of Joe, and for people who haven’t read the book, I don’t know how you wouldn’t have major question marks over what most of these scenes meant.

Stephen King Adaptation: Is The Stand Renewed?

I easily could’ve watched three seasons of a book adaptation in which they took their time and gave us reasons to be attached to the characters rather than simply skipping over the relationships in order to tick off the story beats.

Now it’s not too long before the pair arrive in Lorton, Nebraska, aka the home of Mother Abigail. In the book, her parents were slaves in South Carolina who relocated to Hemmingford Home, Nebraska, after the Civil War.

I feel this is important to keep in mind as a child version of the character does pop up later on at this location, which is actually packed with Stephen King Easter Eggs. Upon entering it, we can see a statue of a turtle, which is likely a nod to Maturin. The well in which Frannie falls is also very similar to the one in 1922, which I definitely recommend you watch if you haven’t seen it. This storyline also took place at a farm in Hemmingford Home and heavily featured rats, one of whom scares Frannie.

Now another notable Easter egg is the tall grass that surrounds the property. In the Stephen King book In The Tall Grass, we saw as a group of people became lost in some, and the storyline dealt with time loops, alternate versions of characters, and how one could travel back to the past and forward to the future.

I think the understanding of these little details is paramount to getting what is going on in the scenes that we see play out, and the way that I took them is that a past version of Abigail managed to travel to the future to save Frannie. The main indicator of this is the silver cross necklace, which was also present on Mother Abigail throughout the season.

I have read that this could also be interpreted as the baby Abigail coming back to save her mother, but she sings the same song that old Abigail sings later on the porch, meaning that that’s pretty unlikely.

Depending on what version you check out, the ghost of Abigail actually appears in the story to look over baby Abigail in the nursery and remark on her name, but this isn’t carried over to this depiction.

Instead what we get is Flagg making Frannie fall and she comes face to face with hims gleefully watching over a tribe that are untouched by Tripps. Though the character said throughout the season that he wanted to liberate people, we learn that he just wants to be worshipped, and thus he can start his own civilization under the name Russell Farraday. I’ll talk about more of what this means later on, but Fran’s journey here is very similar to Jesus’ in the desert when he was tempted by the devil.

This mirrored Abigail’s trek through the forest earlier in the season, during which Flagg said that he was legion, similar to the words uttered by the demon that tried to tempt Jesus.

He sees that Stu is potentially going to get crushed by his truck and that Fran could die in the well, leading to baby Abigail dying too. All Flagg wants is a kiss and to be able to see things through her eyes from time to time, but she bites down on his lip and is then transported to the tall grass once more, where she meets an older Abigail.

She tells her that Flagg is still trying to control others through fear, but the fact that Fran stood up to him means that she will be blessed by God. Fran could die, but she’s rescued by Stu and a younger Abigail, who then heal her, bringing forth this blessing.

Now one of the interesting things that Abigail states is that Fran will be the mother of five, who will go on to have 20 children, who will then go on to have 70 children, which she will live to see. These will replenish the earth, and thus Fran and Stu should very much be seen as Adam and Eve. The pair left paradise to go into the harsh unknown, but they will find a way.

I just hope those kids aren’t having kids with their brothers and sisters.

Anyway, after Abigail tells her to stand, we get a one-week time jump in which the pair arrive at Frannie’s birthplace and she lays out how she is following the advice that Abigail and God laid out, meaning the world will be repopulated. She will tell her children to be true and to stand, and thus humanity has some hope. As mentioned earlier there is very much a motif of Rebirth and thus

Elsewhere, we cut to Flagg in his boots, arriving in front of the tribe. They bow down to worship him after he kills one of their members, showing that he is now their god. This highlights that there will always be good and evil in the world, and that some will rule through fear while others do it through hope.

The Stand Ending Explained

At the moment, there are no plans to carry on the show with a second season, and I really doubt that we will be getting one due to the general reaction to the show.

However, if you’re curious to know what happens next with Flagg, then you should check out The Dark Tower, which takes place after Captain Tripps. In that he goes by many names, and it’s safe to assume that these islanders actually helped him ascend to being all powerful once more.

The details of his life are sketchy, and there are a lot of blanks, but that’s personally how I’ve always taken the events to progress. If I’m wrong, though, make sure you let me know below.

Now, as for the series as a whole, I started off really liking it, but it became a chore to get through as soon as we got to Vegas. I felt like the series had a lot of tonal issues and that they got worse the longer they went on. Now, I don’t want to just slam the show, so I will talk about the good. I think that bar Ezra Miller, all the actors did a really good job with what they had. Owen Teague, who played Harold, was really, really good, and he and Brad William Henke as Tom Cullen really stood out as the best performances to me. Marsden, as always, nailed the down-to-earth middle-class guy, and Skarsgard, as Flagg, too, was really menacing. I could go on complimenting all the actors and there’s not really someone I can point to who I think handled the material badly other than Ezzy and that’s with my personal opinions of some of the actors removed. Now, whilst I think the cast worked with the material that they were given, it’s just that said material was so compressed that it’s difficult to really become attached to the characters properly because a lot of things, including their deaths, happen so fast.

As I mentioned earlier, I would have loved to have spent a lot of time with these characters over seasons and seasons, but because of the pacing, people are gone before you really get to know them. There are also a lot of things from the book omitted, which one can understand in an adaptation, but some elements that get the most attention definitely could’ve been cut instead.

Overall, it just feels like a missed opportunity. That’s the most cliche way I can describe it, but it also feels the most fitting. The production values were definitely there, as were the actors; it’s just the way that the story was told that let things down. Put these directors, editors, cast members, and so on with a script that takes its time, and you really could’ve had something special, but for me now it gets a little stale.

5/10

So yeah, a bit of a disappointment.

Now, obviously, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the series as a whole and, of course, on its ending. If you enjoyed our coverage of the series, I’d really appreciate the thumbs up and making sure you subscribe for videos like this every week.

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If you want something else to watch, then make sure you check out our breakdown of the What If Trailer, which will be linked on screen now. We break down the entire thing, so it’s definitely worth checking out if you want to know more.

With that out of the way, thank you for sitting through the video; I’ve been Paul, and I’ll see you next time. Take care, Peace