My question after Episode 1 is wondering how many episodes will be told with flashbacks. I would guess 3 or 4 more. We know that around episode 5 or 6, we will get the big boom episode. We aren’t there yet based on some obvious things for those who know the story. I wasn’t a big fan of Episode 1. Maybe Episode 2 “Pocket Savior” of The Stand will be better. I know that Larry’s story is in Episode 2 “Pocket Savior”, at least partially. Actually, looking at the cast, we may get many new characters in this episode. Let’s find out together.
Start Episode 2 “Pocket Savior”
We start off with Larry (Jovan Adepo) in a store, like a Home Depot, but smaller. I’m just going to address this right now. Yes, they changed Larry’s race. I wasn’t sure how to feel about it, but out of the main characters, I think you could change anyone’s race, aside from Stu, Harold, Fran, and Nadine. Those all seemed like very white characters, but maybe they could have done something different. It’s honestly not a big deal, but since it was a big deal to some, I wanted to acknowledge it. Are we good now? I also want to say, I honestly don’t think it is racist to think that certain characters should be portrayed by a specific race. I think it is racist to get bent out of shape over changing a character’s race when it doesn’t harm the story in any particular way.
Larry is grilling and is with a group of people all sleeping in tents. We briefly see Nadine (Amber Heard) and Joe. I only know that is Nadine due to the black stone that she has. In the 1994 version, Joe was with Lucy. I have no idea if we will get a Lucy character in this version. I do know that we get a Rita though, and the 94 version just skipped her entirely, which was really dumb. Nadine is Joe’s caregiver. He’s very attached to a guitar. Oh, they are close to Boulder, less than a day away.
Larry is leading a crew of like 4 or 5 cars. He has an old lady in the vehicle with Nadine and Joe. Who is the old lady? Oh…..for fuck’s sake. She is Judge Harris. God damnit. Now, this is where I take umbrage with shit. The Judge is such a cool role. In the 94 version, Ossie Davis from Do The Right Thing, played the role. And he played it perfectly from what I remembered from the book. So now we are not only changing race, but sex. I’m not okay with that. You know what the fate is of this character, and it made so much more sense for a man to be in that role. And furthermore, why take away an opportunity to give a role to someone of color, whatever race that may be? It’s a character that can be any race, so utilize that to add diversity, you stupid mother fuckers!!!
The cars arrive and Stu is there to greet them. Stu wants to know which person is Larry Underwood.
5 Months Earlier in New York City
It is time for Larry to perform, but he doesn’t want to, and this pisses off Stacie. Larry agreed to play with his band, but his band members are all sick. Larry refuses to play without his band. His mom is there but is sick and Larry will perform after all. Larry enjoys drinking. He cheers to Pocket Savior. Time for Larry to play “Baby Can You Dig Your Man”…..but Wayne interrupts. Wayne Stuckey is a drug dealer. Wayne accuses Larry of stealing his blow and hook and chords, and then they brawl on stage.
Ohhhh, Funk #49 plays in a prison. The inmates are cheering on Lloyd. Why is he this cocky and goofy? His cellmate is George Trask, and I already like him. He is played by Danny Watley who was also in the film version of Watchmen. That’s all I needed to hear. Lloyd Henreid is played by Nat Wolff. We get to see his flashback in the midst of a flashback. Is this Inception?
Lloyd and his buddy, Poke, hold up a gas station. Poke is a jackass. He sneezes and accidentally shoots the lady in the head, or Pokerize her. Poke is fucking crazy and obsessed with the term pokerize. The cashier is begging for his life. Poke insists that Lloyd kills the cashier. A cop in the store is hiding and shoots Poke. Some gunshots ring out. Poke has a portion of his face shot off. Lloyd then gets arrested. Wait wait wait, they aren’t going to show Poke and Lloyd’s story before this goes down? That little bit truly helps establish Lloyd as a character. The fuck?
Larry is riding with Stu and talking about Mother Abigail. Stu says that everyone had dreams of Mother Abigail. She had made a list of 5 people that she wanted to run this place. Larry says that in the beginning, he was following Harold.
Frannie is showing Nadine and Joe around. Most people are living in the college with generators, but some are out in the neighborhood without electricity. Fran asks Nadine if she is having the dreams? She asks Joe, but he isn’t saying shit, aside from in his dreams. Nadine found him in Pennsylvania. Nadine used to be a teacher. Fran asks if Nadine would be willing to be Joe’s caregiver.
Larry is in a dream, and he gets a spotlight and big sign, and the sound of an audience. Feels very much like Vegas, but then hears a lot of rats.
Larry wakes up and now we are back in NYC and Larry is in bed with a girl and still doing blow. Oh God, the girl finally rolls over and you’re expecting this beautiful girl. She has so much snot coming out of her nose, it is gross and Larry just gets up and is like, nope. Why did they make the snot that bad? A little would have more than made the point. He kisses her on the forehead. She’s mad that he has to see his mommy and he doesn’t ask her for her number. She starts throwing shit at him as he bails. He gets a call from Bellvue Hospital about his mom. The hospital would be such a horrifying place to be in the midst of this. It’s bad enough now, but in the midst of this hypothetical fucketry, it would be so much worse because everybody got sick at the same time.
The hallways are full of people in beds and he asks a nurse for Alice Underwood and she says good luck with that. At first, that sounds callous, but really, in that situation, she has no chance of remembering all of these patients’ names, in all fairness. Down another hallway is a bunch of body bags. Ohhh, Alice’s neck looks like Fran’s dad’s neck. She tells Larry to go find his father in that bar with that lady photographer. She is just sweating and so sick. He wheels her out to take her home. He gets to the door of his building, up the front stairs, and it is pouring out, and Wayne shows up pissed off and with a gun.
Larry just dismisses Wayne and gets his mother in bed. She is definitely dying. Larry apologizes for being a fuckup and then she dies. I guess it is hopefully comforting to die at home rather than in the hallway of an overfilled hospital. Wayne is sitting on the ground and Wayne looks rough. Larry is trying to find Wayne’s stash. It’s in the trunk.
Stu and Larry reach the community where most people are congregated. Why is everyone parked so poorly? You can’t move your vehicles really. I get that you need vehicles for clearing out houses but maybe have a better system. Abigail is out on her porch greeting new arrivals for 2 hours every day.
Who the fuck is this lady? She tells Larry that he took his sweet time. Sigh. No fucking way. No wonder we didn’t get a Rae Flowers. Let me introduce you to….Ray Brentner. She is played by Irene Bedard, an Alaskan Native actress. Okay, what I’m about to say has no bearing on Irene as an actress. I don’t know her, so I have no ill will toward her. How the fuck did you go from big ole country boy Ralph Brentner to this lady, as a character? WHAT WERE THEY THINKING???? In the 94 The Stand, one of the most endearing things was how Ralph didn’t fit in, but everybody accepted him because he was this happy-go-lucky fella that helped Nick and Tom. This is far worse than what they did to the Judge. Seriously, why was this even considered?
I don’t want to start making assumptions about Hollywood being ultra-liberal or woke, but what possesses someone to change a character that drastically? As a straight white guy, I’m not allowed to be offended. I’m pretty sure there was a meeting and that’s a law now. But I’m as close to offended as I’m allowed to be. This lady isn’t even like trying to play it like a country bumpkin. Hear me out. If you had Kathy Bates in this role as a southern lady with her own charm, you can pass that character off as a tough as nails type of character with a heart of gold, right? It still would be the same, but you can at least buy into that type of change. This lady has no similar attributes to Ralph. That’s what bothers me. You want to change races or sexes, the attributes should remain close to the original character. Look at Larry. The race change isn’t remotely important, he’s playing the role wonderfully because his same core attributes are seemingly there. Fuck it, I need to move on or start drinking.
Ray is like the caregiver or protector of Mother Abigail, which I like that little aspect. It’s different enough, but it makes sense. Just a quick thought, why couldn’t they give the character a different name so a viewer wouldn’t compare her to Ralph? And there’s Nick Andros (Henry Zaga). Uhmmmm, why is Nick a pirate? When you envision Nick, I don’t think you envision this dude. Rob Lowe was incredibly well cast in 1994. I have to give this guy a chance because he could be good. My first impression is not impressive. Larry gets up to greet Nick and Nick isn’t very friendly. Mother Abigail tells Larry to come in and sing her a song.
In the dream world, the rats chase Larry. Then Randall shows up with a neon sign. There’s Abigail. That’s about it. Larry wakes up on a park bench.
Oh sweet, there’s the guy chanting about the monsters are coming. This was a role played by Kareen Abdul Jabaar in the 94 version, and he was so weird and awkward, and yet he was surprisingly perfect. It was probably the oddest casting choice, and it worked. And naturally, I can’t find a credit for this person and I haven’t seen him. On the plus side, Larry still has his bag.
An old dude in a hospital gown approaches Larry eating potato chips. This guy is great. Oh man, old man ass. He wants to go to Yankee Stadium, run around the field naked and then jerk off all over home plate. Wow, this guy is my new favorite character. That will probably be the last time I see him as well, but for a side character, he was great.
Larry is walking and finds Rita Blakemoor (Heather Graham) sitting on a bench in a nice pretty white business attire with a white umbrella. Good casting choice!!! I really like her. Rita has a gun on her. She tests it out and shoots a birdhouse. Larry tells her about the old guy. She says that’s an awful long walk. She seems super sweet. This is arguably the biggest omission from 94 The Stand. Rita isn’t a huge character, but her interaction with Larry is key to Larry’s character and his character is incredibly important.
Back at the prison, everybody is getting sick. Lloyd asks to be relocated because Trask is sick and he hasn’t had food or water in a day. The CO flicks some liquid garbage juice from the dead guy into Lloyd’s face as a gesture for being a cop killer. I think that’s fair. Lloyd rinses his face with toilet water, which I assume is mostly piss if the water has been off for a day.
Larry shows Rita a billboard with Larry on it and his new album, Pocket Savior, is on there too. Rita says that’s cool because that will be up there for an incredibly long time. Then they start kissing. A crow is cawing in the distance. And Rita is hungry. She invites him to her apartment. They have a really nice-looking meal. Heather Graham has aged very kindly. And Larry’s hand is wandering up her leg. Yup, then they fuck. This music is so fucking terrible for this scene. God damnit. Don’t ruin this scene with terrible music.
The smell is bad, and it’s summertime in NYC. Hahaha, Rita refers to the old guy as the Yankee Yanker. The monster shouter is still out there. They want to get out of the city. That’s a good idea. Considering the population, there’s gonna still be dozens alive. The next day, they’re walking the streets. A guy from behind approaches them and offers them a million dollars in a suitcase. He offers the million to have her for 15 minutes. Now 2 cronies are backing this dude up. They both have guns. I’m a horrible human being, but even I wouldn’t have taken that deal. You’re never gonna get the money, you’re going to give up your last companion, and give up a chance for more booty. Fuck that!
They hide behind a car and are panting. They see an uncovered manhole to the sewers. Okay, I call bullshit. Somehow they made it to the sewers without being seen, yet they wouldn’t have had time to get there with how close the guys were. Rita is not happy to be in the sewers, but there are worse, more painful things that she could be experiencing right now. Ya know, like watching The Forever Purge. Larry suggests that they pretend to be ninja turtles. Larry really needs to use his phone less. Plus maybe lower the volume. Rita is having a very difficult time and Larry is focused. Rita is freaking out over rats. She is done, she’s climbing back up. Larry won’t come with her and is kind of a dick about it. He gives her her gun back. “Should’ve taken the million dollars.” Hahaha.
Lloyd is trying to coerce a rat to get close enough. It’s a bad plan. Also, another inmate keeps yelling for his mother. Lloyd is staring at Trask’s meaty leg. #MeToo
Larry helps Nadine and Joe settle in. It’s a nice house. Joe has taken a shine to Larry. Larry offers to spend a few nights on the couch to help her settle in. She asks what Abigail said and he’s not allowed to talk about it. He’s gotta go meet Harold and takes Joe with him. I like how Nadine is portrayed so far in this. They made her a bit silly in the original.
Larry is still wandering the sewers. Dude, stop using your phone. He has to walk in some shit water. Better take small steps. Up over his waist now. The crow is cawing. He’s gonna drop the phone, right? Yup. That seemed inevitable. At least he is keeping his drugs dry, and up to his shoulders. Then a body floats in front of him. Pennywise, is that you? Nope, Larry’s mom talking to him and a rat comes out of her mouth. Yup, that was a treat. Randall asks Larry to come see him as a crow attacks him. He climbs up but can’t get the cover off. Rita gets the cover off and Larry is really having a meltdown, but they are by the bridge, at the very least. Okay, I feel like I would travel back to the city and get clean, dry clothes. He has to smell horrible and walking in soaked clothes is not good. Maybe it’s the wrong decision. I don’t know.
At night, Rita says this is stupid to stay alive and not worth it. Larry is tired and is gonna go to sleep and she’s going to stay awake, alone, not wanting to live. Think about that.
Back to Larry going to visit Harold, and we hear him typing away. Larry came to thank Harold for all the signs. He brought Harold some presents. Harold seemed pleased until Larry asks about Fran. Joe is scared by Harold’s presence.
Back to the past with Rita. She grabs the bottle of booze and goes walking and drinking. The perfect thing to do on a rainy night in the midst of a pandemic. She takes a bunch of pills and washes them down with booze. Then she takes more and more. I’m not gonna lie, this scene makes me sad. In some ways, I think a lot of us have been in a similar situation, minus Captain Tripps. And booze and pills make a whole lot of sense some nights.
Nadine is awake at night, and she hears something. The board games are moving a little. Man, Trivial Pursuit SNL DVD addition. I had something very similar.
Randall visits Lloyd in prison. Oh, Lloyd has taken a nibble out of Trask. Lloyd has also eaten a rat. Lloyd denies cannibalism. Lloyd is busy blaming Poke and doesn’t think that Flagg is real. He says that if he’s real, then he must be the devil. Flagg magically makes a prison key. Flagg offers to let Lloyd out and get some food. He introduces himself. Flagg says that Lloyd will be his right-hand man and get even with people who wronged Lloyd. The manipulation is fantastic. Flagg demands loyalty and no questioning Flagg’s decisions. And like that, Lloyd is a free man. He gives him the key, but it turns into a black stone. They walk out.
“Brand New Key” by Melanie plays us out. It’s another good song for the situation. The endings of the episodes have been really good.
End Episode 2 Pocket Savior
Hahaha, I was just jamming out to that song. Don’t judge me.
Was this episode better than the first? It had very similar flaws with time jumping and all the sequences being fucked. it gave us a Lloyd that wasn’t very likable. I think that I preferred Miguel Ferrer’s portrayal better, but I need more time. Miguel had this feeling of desperation and loyalty that this guy doesn’t seem to have. This guy was too flamboyant for my tastes. By not exploring Lloyd and Poke a bit more, they robbed this guy of a great opportunity to win over the audience. I know that you supposedly have to make cuts, but you made 9 episodes. I’m sure CBS would have been cool with a 10th episode if it meant improving some character development.
What this episode did right was Larry’s story. I will just say it now, this guy is an upgrade over Adam Storke. This guy brings Larry to life a bit better, but they gave him better material to work with too. On top of that, they gave us Rita’s story and that helped build Larry even more, which Adam Storke got screwed out of. I just prefer the story more for him in this. Nadine feels right, but I need to see more of her to get a better vibe.
I have already complained enough about the Ray character. I need to get to know Nick and meet Tom soon so I can get a feel for their portrayals. I found that in very small doses, I didn’t hate Marsden in this episode. Am I sick?
Final Rating – 0.9 – This was a big improvement for me. Maybe I just love Larry’s story. I love Lloyd as a character and also Rita. So to give me all 3 stories in one episode was cool. I am deducting 0.1 for lack of Poke.
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