{"id":188745,"date":"2021-01-17T13:51:03","date_gmt":"2021-01-17T13:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/25yearslatersite.com\/?p=188745"},"modified":"2023-01-26T21:21:45","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T02:21:45","slug":"the-stand-episode-5-fear-and-loathing-in-new-vegas-welcome-to-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tvobsessive.com\/2021\/01\/17\/the-stand-episode-5-fear-and-loathing-in-new-vegas-welcome-to-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"The Stand Episode 5 \u201cFear and Loathing in New Vegas\u201d — Welcome to Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following contains spoilers through Episode 5 of <\/em>The Stand<\/em><\/strong> on CBS All Access, and for the entirety of the original Stephen King novel The Stand<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Welcome, constant reader, as we continue to review the CBS All Access miniseries The Stand<\/em> with Episode 5, \u201cFear and Loathing in New Vegas.\u201d You may find some references to the episode title being \u201cSuspicious Minds,\u201d as that was apparently the working title until just recently. No news on why the change was made. My guess would be that they didn\u2019t want to give away in advance that this would be the big intro to New Vegas episode.<\/p>\n

There were no real flashbacks in this episode, for the first time. This allowed us some nice back and forth between the action in New Vegas and Boulder, with the plot in both locations in full swing and moving forward. I suspect the flashbacks will be back next episode though, when we finally get to meet Trashcan Man. (Just a guess based on hints given by those who\u2019ve seen the first six episodes.) Expect lots of things to go boom.<\/p>\n

\"Nadine
Nadine contemplates “choice”<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nadine Cross<\/h2>\n

Nadine and Harold cover their tracks by staging Teddy\u2019s body to look like a suicide. Now we understand the strange choice General Starkey made to commit suicide by shooting himself in the chest in Episode 1<\/a>. That set the stage for Stu to believe Teddy\u2019s arrangement here later in Boulder. Harold tops it off with another performance and the case is closed.<\/p>\n

Flagg tells Nadine that the old witch\u2019s powers are fading, as he can now reach out to her without the toy. His powers are weakening in Boulder also though. Nadine is a little miffed at being given to Harold like a whore. Not realizing the irony of his actions, he reaffirms that he is Nadine\u2019s \u201cfriend\u201d in the same way that Nadine has to later reaffirm she is Harold\u2019s friend.<\/p>\n

Mother Abagail caps this off with the first worthwhile thing she\u2019s done in the whole series, pointing out to Nadine that she made a choice on the road to take care of Joe. She can be a good person, and she still has that choice available to her. At least, until she\u2019s done something irrevocable. Does Mother Abagail know? It seems doubtful, the way they are playing her in this series. She just happens to be one of those people who say just the right thing at the right time it needed to be heard.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Nadine takes the advice in the wrong direction. Rather than interpreting it that she can choose to be good any time she wants, she is looking to remove the choice. For whatever purposes, Flagg needs his queen to be a virgin, and she knows Larry still wants her from their time on the road. Unfortunately, Larry\u2019s desire to put his past behind him\u2014using people, especially the women in his life\u2014runs into Nadine\u2019s need to be used. He worries that she\u2019ll feel taken advantage of. He thinks she\u2019s drunk. Perhaps she even is a little drunk, to build up her courage, or loosen her resolve. So Larry rebuffs her and Nadine\u2019s fate is sealed.<\/p>\n

\"Dayna
Dayna finally gets to go to the top<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dayna Jurgens<\/h2>\n

Dayna Jurgens is the worst spy in the world. Let\u2019s just be clear about that. She arrives on the scene in New Vegas and works hard, making her invaluable to the team at Hoover Dam. All good there. But then she\u2019s been asking around to anyone and everyone about seeing Randall Flagg, and that has attracted the attention of The Man himself. So much for sneaking in and sneaking out.<\/p>\n

She gets picked up by the New Vegas power couple, Lloyd Henreid and Julie Lawry. As promised, Lloyd has become Flagg\u2019s right hand man, though it doesn\u2019t seem like he ever does any work. It\u2019s all sex, drugs, and\u2026shopping? Well, I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll develop his amazing administrative skills in some future episode. The boss man did task him with showing Dayna a good time, so maybe this isn\u2019t a typical day in the life.<\/p>\n

The entire time she\u2019s with Lloyd and Julie, Dayna simply radiates her discomfort with the whole scene. When Julie points out Tom Cullen to her, Dayna invents the lamest excuse in the world to approach him and call attention to them both. Luckily, the wheels were already in motion to send her up to the penthouse.<\/p>\n

Flagg gives Dayna the sales pitch, hitting home by claiming he is just trying to protect folks from people like Garvey, the man who held her prisoner in Ohio. It\u2019s all just a difference of opinion in how to rebuild things, that\u2019s all. With that, he\u2019s just going to just send her home with no strings attached. Except\u2026who is the third spy? Now Dayna hits home, taunting Flagg with how much not being able to see that is driving him insane. A minor and short-lived victory.<\/p>\n

\"The
Boo!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Harold Lauder<\/h2>\n

There wasn\u2019t just spying going on in New Vegas. Plenty of spying going on in Boulder also. Fran has a really bad feeling about Harold and sends Larry to search his house while she and Stu distract him with dinner. The after dinner conversation gets deeply weird, and Harold excuses himself to go splash some water on his face. Here we have one of the more effective mirrored scenes of the series, as Harold scopes out Frannie\u2019s bedroom while Larry scopes out Harold\u2019s bedroom.<\/p>\n

Larry finds a t-shirt that he recalls Nadine wearing at the baseball field, just as Frannie calls him to get out of there. He fumbles with the dresser drawer and knocks over a bunch of chess pieces on a board. Larry manages to get them all back in their right places, but has left a knight facing the wrong direction. When we see Harold turn the piece back, we think aha, he\u2019s on to them.<\/p>\n

Turns out Harold is more like a dozen steps ahead of them. He has electronic surveillance in his house, and later replays Larry entering and searching around. He knew he was being set up, just like Flagg knew Boulder was sending spies. As an added bonus, he installed a nanny-cam in Fran\u2019s teddy bear so he can now spy on them as well.<\/p>\n

\"The
Flagg experiences his first disappointment<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New Vegas<\/h2>\n

We finally got to see New Vegas this episode, and it was\u2026OK, let\u2019s be honest. The best thing I can say about it is that it was cartoonish. Kind of a Road Warrior<\/em> meets Showgirls<\/a><\/em> aesthetic. When Flagg plucked Lloyd out of the bottom of the barrel in Episode 2<\/a>, he told him this was \u201ca good time for people like us.\u201d Apparently, that would be people who \u201clove violence,\u201d \u201clove sex,\u201d and \u201cwant more,\u201d as he declares on the jumbotron screen. One wonders how they keep the trains running on time with all this \u201cfreedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

This seems to be the first Dayna has seen of any of this. Like this level of hedonism is reserved for the elites, not for grunts like Dayna\u2019s former substation supervisor or the put upon civil servant at the post-apocalypse employment agency. How many of these people followed the Dark Man\u2019s call, only to be assigned a grunt job like mopping up the gladiator pits?<\/p>\n

In the early episodes, this show completely squandered an opportunity to make some relevant social commentary, using the in-world pandemic to comment on the real world pandemic that kicked in just after filming wrapped up. Here again, there was another opportunity to draw some parallels with the rise of authoritarianism happening in the real world. Having these episodes air in the aftermath of last week\u2019s insurrection\u2014showing the person in power manipulating the masses into a frenzied mob\u2014it could have been amazing. Instead, we get the wild party from Larry\u2019s backstory in the novel, writ large.<\/p>\n

\"The
Tom gets a message<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Quick Takes<\/h2>\n

A couple of quick takes on the rest of the episode:<\/p>\n