TV
The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch: The Twilight Zones (S7E10)
Welcome back, fellow ranchers! I feel the need to clarify something before jumping into this week’s episode. There are many things I love about The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch. And many things I dislike. I’ve been highly critical, rightly so, about the involvement of Utah Valley University and the money that Mormon millionaire Brandon Fugal has donated to them. With a large portion of this episode taking place at Utah Valley University, I was nervous.
When covering The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, it’s more fun [for me] when the episode is entertaining and leads into the drama. The science side of it all adds a level of believability and grounding to the show; it’s the reminder that we’re watching a show about scientists and researchers trying to uncover why weird things keep happening on this property.
Part of this episode is spent with Chemist Dr. Tammy Clark (last seen in Season 6 Episode 12 “Hard Boiled”). Dr. Clark, while definitely a bit shy in front of a camera, is delightfully charming. As is Physicist Dr. Brian Patchett. After watching this episode, I went back and looked into some of my “rants” about the UVU/donor issue.
Whatever the weird feeling I have about that, I believe, is larger than Dr’s Clark and Patchett. At the end of the day, I ultimately believe in the weird findings from the Type A ceramics originally discovered in this lab. These two doctors seem serious enough, about their oaths and science in general, that they wouldn’t lie or manipulate data. But it’s where the data is found and the connection it has to Fugal that sits wrong with me.
Okay, I’m glad that’s out of the way! It’s time for us to head back to our second favorite ranch in Utah to see if we get any closer to uncovering The Secret…of Skinwalker Ranch. (We don’t!)
The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch Investigates Type A and Type B Materials
Utah Valley University – 11:42 AM
We join Erik Bard, Archaeologist Chris Roberts, Jim Royston, and Thomas Winterton at Brandon Fugal’s alma mater (and wallet vacuum). They meet up with Chemist Dr. Tammy Clark. We learn that they’re here to run new lab tests on the materials, both previous and new, found within the Mesa. Dr. Clark takes them into a lab where Chemist Dr. Brian Patchett greets them.
In a talking head, Dr. Travis Taylor states how the team is frustrated that all of the vertical drilling didn’t solve the mystery of the buried object. But thankfully, they did bring up more metal fragments from the 60- to 70-foot area.
Erik Bard says he heard that they could possibly use a technique called FTIR. At the start of a series of bizarre actions from Thomas Winterton, he says, “I haven’t spent a lot of time in a science lab…what’s FTIR?” His voice sounds annoyed, and maybe even slightly embarrassed. Which is weird, because Thomas has joined them at UVU before. Could the producers, as a conduit for the viewer, be telling Thomas to play up a “stupid” angle for exposition purposes? Thomas has asked questions here at UVU before, but he’s never seemed so…hostile with his questions.
Dr. Tammy Clark says that FTIR is a Fourier-transform spectrophotometer. She says that the FTIR can tell us if there’s a carbon-hydrogen bond or a carbon-oxygen bond. Thomas indignantly asks, “What does that mean?” Chris Roberts informs Thomas (us) that it means we can possibly date the pieces.
What Is FTIR and How Could It Help Date Skinwalker Ranch Materials?
So, how does FTIR work? It works by beaming infrared light at a sample, which helps determine what kinds of bonds are in the sample. If they see a carbon-hydrogen bond, they may be able to use the samples for radiocarbon dating purposes. That’s when Thomas awkwardly sighs out the sentence, “We have precious minutes here at the lab; let’s make use of them.” Dr. Brian Patchett bounces for this portion of testing.
FIRE THE LASERS
Another Austin Powers reference??
Chris Roberts asks Dr. Tammy Clark if they can start with the Type A material. She slides the piece of Type A material on the plate. The initial tests reveal multiple spikes. Thomas Winterton asks if that means there is carbon in it. Dr. Clark vaguely responds with, “could be”. Erik Bard asks if it’s enough to carbon date the material. Dr. Clark responds with, “Looks like it has enough carbon-hydrogen bonds. . .depending on the sensitivity of that procedure, it should work.” What??
In a talking head, Dr. Travis Taylor states the only bummer about carbon dating is that the samples will have to be sent off and it will take time. But at least it feels like progress.
Dr. Clark places the Type B sample on the slide. The data for this one looks completely different; this sample is reflecting light. There’s no carbon in it. Dr. Clark brings up the Type A data to compare, and it’s quantitatively different. Erik says the Type B material needs to get into the Scanning Electron Microscope.
Within seconds of Erik saying that, Thomas Winterton continues to rush the team by saying, “Are we ready to head over to SEM?” Now, this could all come down to unfortunate editing. But how could an editor watch this and not feel how rushed and awkward it feels? Is the editor trying to create the “viewer” POV through Thomas?
Scanning Electron Microscope Reveals Differences in Skinwalker Ranch Samples
I haven’t watched Austin Powers in years. I’m not sure where all these references are coming from.
To get started, Dr. Brian Patchett puts the Type A sample under the Scanning Electron Microscope. This is the same device that found out that the Type A sample was deteriorating in real time, before magically restoring itself. Dr. Patchett zooms in, and we can see the cross-hatching on the same, just another indication that it was manufactured. As Dr. Patchett zooms in on the material, we can see it still has that porous-like quality. Erik Bard reacts positively because consistency is good.
Dr. Patchett then puts the Type B sample in the SEM. We can instantly tell this sample looks much different. The surface is darker, there isn’t any cross-hatching pattern, and it’s not porous or deteriorating. Dr. Patchett says that this is clearly a different material. Erik wonders if that could mean there are multiple different objects buried in the Mesa. That’s when Jim Royston asks Dr. Patchett if they can examine the elemental analysis.
Elemental Analysis Shows Type A and Type B Are Different Materials
Dr. Patchett does something on the computer and pulls up the elemental analysis. The Type B material consists of oxygen, a lot of calcium and phosphorus, trace elements of silicon, aluminum, iron, sulfur, and potassium: all things present in the earth’s crust. Dr. Travis Taylor, in a talking head, says that these are definitely not the answers they were looking for. And this all means that the Type B material was likely made from materials that occur within the Mesa. But that still leaves the question of what the Type A material is.
Erik asks Dr. Patchett if they can compare the elemental analysis of both types. We see that the Type A material has magnesium that is multiple times higher, a lot more aluminium than iron, and far less calcium. Simply put, there is no question that these two materials are different things.
Erik asks if they can check the layered metal shard that was found during digging. Dr. Patchett pulls up the analysis and we see that the metal has a large amount of iron. He zooms into the material for more precise data, but then the SEM goes dark. He checks the filament integrity–in order to produce an image, the SEM needs a source of electrons. It turns out that they have a blown filament, which was only halfway through its lifespan. This is going to be a costly, time-consuming repair.
Did the Skinwalker Ranch Hitchhiker Effect Strike Again?
This leads Erik to wonder if this is just a coincidence or if there can be a cause assigned to it. Could this be another example of the Hitchhiker Effect commonly reported on Skinwalker Ranch? Could the ranch be “following” them to make sure they can’t collect timely and accurate data?
Skinwalker Ranch Team Tests a Possible Connection Between Homesteads Two and Three
Homestead Three – 5:26 PM
Dr. Travis Taylor, Erik Bard, Thomas Winteron, Kaleb Bench, Jim Royston, and Sam Deriso are at the science tent near Homestead Three. They have a series of experiments set up for the evening near the western property line. There hasn’t been much of anything to ever happen at Homestead Three, except for the incident that happened in Season 7 Episode 9 “Up In Smoke”. But we do learn an interesting trivium about Homestead Three.
In 2016, shortly after Brandon Fugal bought the ranch, he and Erik Bard brought a group of scientific experts and private security on a tour of the ranch. While at Homestead Three, a security guard was overcome by something that made him go catatonic for a period of time. Eventually he was okay, but how or why it happened remains a mystery.
The plan tonight, per Dr. Travis Taylor, is a mirror repeat of the tests that took place last episode at Homestead Two. Erik says he is convinced of a connection between the two homesteads. To test this, they plan to generate a 1.2 GHz signal from Homestead Three to see if it appears at Homestead Two, which is just about 700 feet away. While Erik runs the signal, Travis and Kaleb Bench will be monitoring spectrum analyzers at Homestead Two.
Mysterious 1.2 GHz Signal and Radiation Spike Hit Skinwalker Ranch Team
9:17 PM
Dr. Travis Taylor and Kaleb Bench are at Homestead Two, monitoring their equipment. Before Erik Bard even gets a chance to start his signal generation, Travis notices an errant 1.2 GHz signal. It disappears as quickly as it appeared. That’s when Travis notices something alarming: his gamma ray detector is completely fried, and the screen is busted.
Travis radios over to Erik and asks him to run his signal generator, which Erik does. Interestingly, Travis doesn’t receive the signal. As stated, there is only about 700 feet between Homesteads Two and Three. Erik decides that he will have Thomas Winterton and Jim Royston walk the signal generator from Homestead Three to Homestead Two.
Thomas and Jim get a quarter of the way to Homestead Two, but Travis still isn’t receiving the signal. Erik still has the signal at the science tent, but unlike Travis and Kaleb, Erik doesn’t have an antenna. It stands to reason that if antenna-less Erik has the signal, then Travis (who has an antenna) should easily be receiving the signal. Thomas gets a handful of feet away before an audible BOOM shakes the entire team.
A weird signal appears on Travis’s spectrum analyzer before his computer freezes and crashes. Travis asks Kaleb, Thomas, and Jim to check the dosimeter behind Homestead Two. Once there, the three men notice something truly alarming. The dosimeter spiked above the threshold, setting off the dosimeter alarm; they’ve been exposed to a high burst of radiation. Is this what caused Travis’s computer to freak out? Could it also be why the signal wasn’t appearing from Homestead Three to Two?
Nonetheless, the team decides to hightail it back to Homestead Three.
Laser Grid Experiment at Homestead Three Produces Strange Results
Homestead Three – 12:02 AM
Since the Skinwalker Ranch team got some [seemingly] useful data from last week’s experiment at Homestead Two, they decide to do basically the same experiment at Homestead Three. Thomas Winterton sets up the laser grid in Homestead Three and begins to fill the room with smoke. Everyone watches the monitor with bated breath. Nothing.
Thomas fills Homestead Three with more smoke. Nothing.
Jim Royston decides to fly his thermal drone from Homestead Three to Two. Once Jim’s drone is hovering above Homestead Two, he loses controller signal. Jim receives two specific errors: failed to obtain remote control and unable to take off. The “unable to take off” error is interesting…as the drone is already in the sky! As Jim’s drone comes back to Homestead Three, his signal comes back.
Thomas tries one more time to fill Homestead Three with smoke. But they still don’t see anything unexpected. Don’t worry, the team will find something fascinating from this experiment.
The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch Team Investigates Possible Radio Wave Interference
Skinwalker Ranch Command Center – 11:35 AM
Dr. Travis Taylor, Erik Bard, Jim Royston, Kaleb Bench, and Thomas Winterton sit around the Skinwalker Ranch Command Center table.
Dr. Travis Taylor reveals what he has been dealing with all morning. A simple restart was not enough to fix his laptop. In fact, it was completely dead. This caused Travis to factory reset his laptop. The original radio receivers connected to his laptop were also fried. Jim Royston also chimes in to say the gamma ray detector incident was worrying. That’s when Travis reveals that the gamma ray detector was also connected to his laptop.
Erik Bard changes the subject by saying he wants to review the film from the laser experiment together. He pulls up video from a camera placed on the western side of Homestead Three. Travis quickly notes something about the beams. See, the camera and laser grid were set on the same level. So then why do the laser beams appear to be angling downward? The lasers should be pointing straight ahead.
Erik pulls up a second video of the lasers…same thing. But that’s not all! Half of the wall shows no sign of lasers. This causes Erik to pull up a third video, which proves the laser grid is set in a way that should produce straight lasers.
Travis brings up something that feels a bit far-fetched. He says the video looks like it has been hacked and altered. Or, what if something hacked their view in real time? What if something on the ranch made them see what they needed to see so that they would stop investigating?
Erik pulls up video from the thermal cam within Homestead Three. Suddenly, a giant flash comes over the camera. Travis says it looks as if Homestead Three just flashed–like a bright infrared source went BOOM. His initial thought is that it could be radio waves. He says that radio waves can cause the illusion of flashes of infrared light.
Thomas Winterton asks if radio waves can fry circuits, like what happened to the spectrum analyzer. Both Travis and Erik quickly reply, “Yes.”
Is Skinwalker Ranch Really Interfering With the Team’s Investigation?
I’ll be frank, I think the whole laser angle thing is bunk. I think Dr. Travis Taylor saying that the video was hacked and altered, or that their brains were hacked in real time, is bullshit. To me, it’s more than likely that they’re experiencing some sort of parabolic effect.
What is fascinating is the gamma ray incident. Will any health-related issues come up next episode because of this? Where the hell did this flash of radio waves/gamma rays come from? Is the ranch fighting back against them? See, I have an easier time believing that the ranch is fighting back, rather than the ranch is “hacking” their brains. Hearing a literal rocket scientist say something like that is hysterical. It may be the funniest thing Travis has said all series.
As usual, this episode leaves us with more questions than answers. But join us next week to see if we get any closer to uncovering The Secret…of Skinwalker Ranch.
The works of Stephen King are back in the spotlight once again, if they ever really left. Mike Flanagan’s Carrie series is set to release on Amazon Prime this October 7th, and the heat is on. This would be the fourth run at the tale of a tortured psychic girl suffering through serious religious trauma and bullying; it’s also the first successful television series adaptation. Famously, the 2002 TV film was supposed to serve as the pilot for an extended Carrie series, but that never got off the ground.
There’s a variety of reactions to the show already; from complaints about getting another Carrie White that doesn’t look like Carrie White, to thoughts about introducing other psychic students into the story. It’s fair to say there’s, at the very least, renewed interest in re-evaluating the many adaptations of Stephen King’s works. Old habits die hard.
There’s a ridiculously large swath to choose from, ranging from the obvious classics like The Shining and Pet Sematary, to irregulars like The Langoliers and The Night Flyer. If you’re feeling especially bold, you might try a King original like Storm of the Century or Rose Red (I’m overdue for a watch of Storm anyways). But among all these lies one of the strangest and most forgotten King adaptations. One that was sold as an adaptation of a single novel, but is really a spiritual sibling to the entirety of Stephen King’s canon. That adaptation is the SyFy original series, Haven.
The Silver Age of Supernatural Television Drama
The development of Haven sits smack dab in the middle of what I would call the Silver Age of Supernatural Television Drama. The hypothetical Golden Age that precedes it isn’t pinned to exact years but rather defined by a few masterpieces of evergreen television. These are the shows throughout the ‘90s that really impacted cable TV at large. The obvious cultural touchstones of the genre: The X-Files, Twin Peaks, and most importantly Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, which would see monumental success. They were rapidly followed by the likes of shows like American Gothic and Roswell. I would count Smallville too, but again, blurry edges.
The Silver Age then is marked by an explosion of shows, not necessarily being created as knee jerk reactions to that success, but certainly heavily inspired by these network defining hits. Shows that enjoyed the episodic “monster of the week” format while retaining a focus on the interpersonal drama between its characters. They debuted as their progenitors ended or went late in their run, effectively meant to “replace” them.
This time saw the rise of J.J. Abrams renown with the shows Alias, Fringe, and most importantly, the mega-hit Lost. The most successful of all of them, Eric Kripke’s Supernatural, is still reverberating through pop culture today after its 15 year long run. And for my fellow Warehouse 13 enthusiasts, you know that this is the era that the highly underrated show thrived in.
Also, MTV’s Teen Wolf was there too, I guess.
From The Dead Zone to Haven Island
Among these much more successful shows was an odd little Stephen King adaptation: USA Network’s The Dead Zone. It was a very fast and loose interpretation of King’s novel of the same name. You know the one: go into a six-year coma, come back with psychic powers, meet an evil politician, race to stop him from causing the end of the world. Also, Anthony Michael Hall is here too, I guess.
As one might expect, the premise was rife with procedural potential. Despite a solid initial viewer base, The Dead Zone ran for 6 seasons before being cancelled due to waning ratings. But two of its writers, Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn, ended up as showrunners for a similar but even stranger translation of King’s work: a television adaptation of the book The Colorado Kid called Haven.
When The Adaptation Is Unrecognizable
Haven premiered in July of 2010 on SyFy, joining during a great (if not the best) era for the network. There were phenomenal runs going on with Merlin, Warehouse 13, and later the American remake of Being Human. And, unsurprising to anyone who got 20 minutes into the show’s first episode, “Welcome to Haven”, it fit in much more with those shows than it did with its source material. In fact, the premise betrayed all expectations for fans of the novel.
What The Colorado Kid Is About…
For context: the book is about an intern at a newspaper, Stephanie, trying to solve the bizarre death of a nameless drifter with her new bosses, Dave Bowie and Vince Teague. Details are sparse, and what few the trio have just don’t line up. What results is a hard-fought battle to finally crack the case of who, or what, killed the Colorado Kid. More importantly, The Colorado Kid is pretty explicitly a mystery novel about mystery novels; it has a victim, but there’s little information about the killer, and that’s intentional.
The blank space in this case is the focus. King is really more interested in observing how an audience interfaces with a mystery and what makes them so compelling. He spells all this out as much in an afterword, down to explaining why he wanted to write the story and his perspective on “wanting” an answer being better than “knowing” the answer.
…Is Far and Away from Haven’s Premise
The TV show Haven, however, is very, very different. The show follows FBI agent Audrey Parker (Emily Rose), who is drawn to the town to investigate the inexplicable murder of a criminal who escaped federal prison. When it’s revealed he was killed by impossible means, she soon discovers a phenomenon known as “The Troubles”: the sudden and often subconscious manifestation of dangerous supernatural abilities in the townspeople of Haven. As Audrey realizes her past is intertwined with The Troubles, she attempts to solve the mystery of what’s causing them and who she really is as she becomes entrenched in the lives of Haven’s locals.
Different versions of newspaper owners Dave and Vince, as well as The Colorado Kid himself in season 2, do show up in Haven. But fundamentally, the show is an entirely different beast tonally. It is far and away from the novel, and strangely enough, that was at Stephen King’s request. He initially told Ernst and Dunn when the show was being pitched to ABC to spice it up with more supernatural elements.
Hence, how it ended up as a monster of the week show on Syfy. Double hence, how it became an unrecognizable adaptation of a hardly supernatural book. If I had to compare it to any of the Golden Age shows, it’s most obviously inspired by The X-Files. That being said, it’s hard not to draw comparisons to Fringe. Especially given how, like Fringe, Haven becomes really, really serialized rather than episodic.
A Flat, Kind of Cheesy First Season That Grows on You
The initial monster of the week format set up in Season 1 does carry into the following four seasons, but it becomes very clear that there is a main mythology that will take precedence by early Season 2. While the supernatural mysteries that make up the bulk of the episodes are solid (see episodes 1, 4, 6, 8, and 10 through 13 for the best of the first season), they’re mostly establishing the groundwork for Audrey’s personal narrative arc.
The mysteries are also the backdrop for Audrey’s budding love triangle with local handsome cop Nathan Wournos (Lucas Bryant) and local handsome rogue Duke Crocker (Eric Balfour). The romance is kind of terrible, and unfortunately very frequent since they’re often cooperating to solve the mysteries together.
So, that’s all I’m going to say about it in an effort to be kind.
Haven Season 2 Deepens Audrey Parker’s Mystery
Haven’s first season is mostly tame, erring on slightly underwhelming, with some very cheesy dialogue and drama. The characters aren’t nailed down as anything but loose pastiches until the last several episodes. By then, they’ve built some weight and dimension to them. Where Season 1 leaves off is a pretty solid cliffhanger that will have you at least curious enough to venture into Season 2 if you’ve watched this far. It serves as the first big bite into the intrigue of the question “Who Is Audrey Parker?”, which is the central pillar of the show.
Season 2 is much more engaging, and the episodic mysteries feel much more significant and dangerous. Eventually, the mythology around Audrey and the Troubles sprawls out into a maze of even more questions involving secret societies, split personalities, time travel, and tears in the fabric of reality. That last bit might stand out to fans of The Dark Tower series, and that’s because I’m talking about exactly what you think I’m talking about (no spoilers!).
A Stephen King Adaptation About Stephen King Stories
The show is only somewhat effective at establishing its mythos around Audrey and The Troubles. But I have to appreciate it for what it manages to do in the process, especially throughout the second season as it gives us one good solid villain to follow in the malicious Reverend Driscoll. He is a classic King-style villain, and an embodiment of what Haven really excels at. The same way that The Colorado Kid is a mystery novel about mystery novels, Haven is a Stephen King adaptation about Stephen King Stories.
This goes beyond the fact that they’re effectively trying to find a new person with the shine every week and stopping them before they have their own personal “Black Prom” level meltdown. The show is chockful of references, small and large (the vast majority are sight gags referring directly to Stephen King stories) to his writing. There’s an abundance of episodes whose plots are overtly reinterpretations of King’s works, especially in season two with various homages to It, Maximum Overdrive, and The Dark Half.
And even when the show doesn’t have a one-to-one analog with a King story, it excels at stocking Haven Island with a variety of secondary characters that genuinely feel like the cast of a Stephen King book. The dialog might be corny and the residents strange, but it does feel like a lived in setting, a hallmark of the author’s many fictional small towns in Maine (which get namedropped a decent amount in the show, obviously, they’re all neighbors). Also, when we get the answer of who exactly Audrey is, it actually does end up connecting to the greater Stephen King mythos in a way that is surprising and kind of fun, even if the ending is a little underwhelming and gives Buffy finale flashbacks.
Haven Isn’t Half Bad
At the end of the day, I can’t confidently say Haven is a great show. Especially with how it drags in a lot of places (that double-wide trailer of a fifth season is particularly egregious). It can be exceptionally hit or miss. But it’s so uniquely dedicated to recapturing the vibes of a Stephen King story, that I have to admire it when it does succeed, when some might find that a futile task. Paradoxically, the further it gets away from the source material it was barely riffing off of, the more King it feels.
It is at the very least an incredibly unique show in the Silver Age of Supernatural TV, and if you can tolerate the melodrama of your Supernatural’s and Warehouse 13’s, you’re likely to find some amusement in it even if you’re tuning in and out while watching it. More than ten years out now from Haven’s 2015 finale, it’s safe to say the series won’t click with everybody, but for fans that enjoy homages to the prolific horror author’s extensive repertoire, you’ll be hard pressed to find a show that shows more love to King than this.
Let’s look back at a time none of us really want to…December of 2020. Trump is in the final few months of his first term as President. The nation is still in the midst of the COVID pandemic. With dictatorship, political and social unrest, and a pandemic sweeping the nation, it felt like either the best or the worst time for something like The Stand to return to American pop culture.
The Stand’s miniseries remake came out in 2020. Generally, the consensus is pretty negative. The original Mick Garris series from the 1990s is also very flawed and received an extremely mixed reception, but it has also garnered a bit of a cult status. None of this is too surprising, seeing as the novel is a grandiose epic that is a daunting task to adapt perfectly. Regardless of iteration, though, it unfortunately seems like a fairly relevant text for troubled times, and seems to continuously return to the zeitgeist in times of recession or despair. So…why exactly does it keep coming back?
The Stand in the 1990s
The Stand was originally published in 1978, and was a smash hit. For those unfamiliar, the novel is a post-apocalyptic, fantasy-horror epic concerning the outbreak of a deadly disease called Captain Trips’. Groups of pure-of-heart Survivors are brought together by premonitions of a psychic woman named Mother Abigail. She is a symbol of everything good in the world. Meanwhile, a demonic drifter named Randall Flagg begins to collect vagrants to build a fascist regime out of a gutted Las Vegas. Commercially and critically, the novel struck a chord with audiences everywhere. King was well-known already for Salem’s Lot, Carrie, and The Shining, so a horror-adventure epic felt like the next step for him. In the 1990s, a complete and unabridged edition was published, clocking in at over 1100 pages. This edition is where the novel’s political analysis can really start.
One notable detail changed from the 1970s edition to the 1990s uncut version is the inclusion of contemporary details. The timeline was changed to cement the book with a sense of timelessness. One haunting detail in particular is the comparison of the disease to the AIDS epidemic, which was devastating the country in the 1980s and 90s.
While the comparison is not a major detail of this changed text, it feels very purposeful in its playing into the politics. With the fictional Captain Trips’ connection to the U.S government’s failure to help/control the disease, one can feel the frustration with the Reagan cabinet’s handling of the pandemic during the 1980s. The miniseries premiered in the 1990s as well, so it makes sense that some of these same frustrations might be the catalyst for the book’s first major adaptation.
The Stand in 2020 and 2026
This was touched upon in the intro, but like the 1990s, 2020’s decision to adapt might have lined up perfectly with the world’s current affairs. COVID and Trump are clear, commonly stated comparisons to Captain Trips, as well as Randall Flagg. With Trump back in power in 2026, the CDC is gutted, giving way to poop lettuce and a rise in Measles. One can begin dog-earring the old mass market paperback of The Stand and pull their collars in nervousness.
Randall Flagg’s attention to Las Vegas coincides with Trump’s love of all things gold and grand. The faux-royal look, with redecorations to the White House and a hideous ballroom, might remind constant readers of Randall Flagg’s move to Las Vegas. All of the garishness is but a fake distraction, decorations so his followers do not see that the promises are all fake. At the end of the day, it is all designed to serve Flagg and Flagg only. It might be time for another adaptation soon…
Apocalypse fiction, and Hope rooted in Horror
The Stand is a testament to the power of horror and genre fiction. The reason horror has maintained its cultural relevance more than any other genre is its relevance to cultural fears and worries. All the way back to Night of the Living Dead, the genre had recognized the world around it and found ways to tell stories to allow a sense of escapism, and an outlet for anxiety. The Stand is possibly the greatest example of this.
The Stand will always be relevant, unfortunately, because there will always be Randall Flaggs. There will always be Captain Trips’. This incarnate evil will always exist in some capacity in society, in one way or another. However, there will also be Mother Abigails. There will always be Tom Cullens. The Stand exists for catharsis, yes, escapism, yes, but also as hope.
As we see at the end of the novel’s extended edition, Randall Flagg does not die-he just is reborn in a different time period. On the other hand, after Mother Abigail’s death, she continues to speak to the survivors as well. There will always be evil, but there will also always be good. The Stand is a testament to the cultural catharsis of horror, but also the necessary hope rooted in the darkest stories we tell.
