Right now, I am hoping that we meet a few more side characters, and of course, Trashcan Man. By the looks of it, we should meet Dayna Jurgens and Julie Lawry in this one. Also, I know it isn’t as important, but I hope they spend more time in Vegas at one point or another. Maybe that has something to do with The House of the Dead title, or maybe somebody plays the old video games by the same name. Obviously, the intent is that those in Vegas made the incorrect moral choice. But they also chose a community that was working to bring society back at a faster pace. In the book, you definitely had to pause a moment and ask yourself which place you would have gone, especially if one wasn’t inherently evil. Right now, there’s no sense of that.
Alright, I got my 2 half sandwiches, one ham, and one turkey.
Start Episode 4 “House of the Dead”
We get an opening montage to the song “Don’t Take Your Guns To Town” by Johnny Cash. I have always liked that song. Larry is dumping his pills. Harold looks very similar to the main antagonist of the first Purge film with his hair and demeanor. Basically, everybody is getting ready for a town hall meeting.
Stu kicks off the meeting up on the stage along with Fran, Larry, Glen, and Nick. He’s immediately asked about the crucified man. by Mr. Poul Impening. That’s not a misspelling, per IMDB.
Before the meeting, Stu doesn’t want to lead the meeting and suggests that Glen should because he’s smarter. But the group says it needs to be him due to his charisma and accent. Yeah…..that accent that is barely there.
Mr. Impening is really trying to stir the pot. It’s nice to know that there are some assholes in Boulder as well. Larry hops in to assist Stu because Larry is a natural on stage. Poul is asking about the electricity. Larry turns it around on him and says with all this energy that Poul has, maybe he could put it to good use. Poul sits his bitchass down. This Friday night, the power is coming back on. Larry just worked that crowd and set it up for Stu.
In the pre-meeting, they discuss what to tell the community about Heck Drogan (crucified man). Fran is trying to discourage telling the truth. Stu asks if he should lie. Nick asks Stu if his own personal sense of honor is more important than protecting the community. Stu denies that. Glen suggests that he doesn’t have to lie, just don’t say more than he knows.
At the meeting, Stu addresses the guy. He says that he must have run into the wrong person. He asks for people to start a neighborhood watch, mainly the cleanup crew. Teddy is stoked. Poul looks on dissatisfied. Stu does mention that Abigail wanted these 5 people in charge. Now that they are back on their feet, maybe an election is in order. Harold pipes up and motions that the 5 members remain as the committee in charge for now. Everybody claps.
Harold comes home and Nadine is waiting on his porch and frightens him. Harold is awkward as usual, and Nadine wants to talk. He offers her a drink, but she didn’t come to drink, and she starts unbuttoning her top. She says that the man sent her to Harold to make great things happen. Harold plays stupid, but she calls him out. Nadine knows that Harold is a virgin, and she is too. She is going to stay that way for “him”. But other than that one little thing, Harold and her can do whatever he wants. I have so many filthy comments that I want to make right now. She says that they need to complete their task. She says that Harold wants to kill Stu and the others. Kill them and then go visit Flagg. She will be Flagg’s queen and Harold can be the prince. She gets on his lap and Harold gets overly sensitive and apologizes. Did he just cum or did he get shy? She tells him not to worry and just figure out how to kill everyone. Dude, if you’re gonna do butt stuff, get yourself some condoms, Hoss. You don’t want any UTIs in the post-plague pandemic world.
2 Months Earlier in Daleville, Virginia
Harold and Fran are outside by a fire. Harold is creepy and just staring at Fran until she wakes up from a nightmare. Harold just can’t sleep. There’s too much on his mind, but mainly Frannie. He goes to kiss her and she backs away. Harold professes his love and makes a great point, but she isn’t feeling it and she will never have feelings like that for him. He asks if this is about Stu Redman and she says no. Harold turns his back and walks away and lays down. This is the moment that Harold’s path becomes that much clearer. Emotionally, he is shut down and now just playing the long game for survival until he can do whatever he needs to find peace. Just telling this story in chronological order would have told this painful story about Harold much better, but I digress…for now.
Stu and Glen are traveling at night and find another note from Harold. on the highway. Stu, you’re a stalker. By the way, Fran, you could have offered Harold something as a token of gratitude. That always bothers me about her character. I’m not saying that she has to suck him off or anything. At no point does she really show appreciation and she rejects him. Offer the guy a sandwich at the very least!!
Harold and Fran come across a pile up on the highway. Harold is pissed at the truck driver for creating this blockade and is insulting the driver. Well, one problem. The truck driver is alive and has a gun and Harold doesn’t notice it quick enough. Harold was about to spray paint a message. Harold suggests that he is happy to see another person. This truck driver, Garvey, is played by Angus Sampson. He tosses them pairs of handcuffs and tells them to put them on. His name should be Rusty Nail from the Joy Ride franchise.
Garvey has 2 girls already in his trailer and wakes them up for a demonstration. Garvey uncuffs Harold and gives him a knee to the gut. He says that things went south in society when rules were made about equality. Ugh, he used the term snowflake. Whoever added that term should be fired. Garvey is all about being an alpha male. Garvey has the 3 girls on their knees. He is giving Harold an opportunity to take him out. Harold cowers so he gets hit upside his head. Harold gets up and really gets in a good punch to the face. Garvey claps as he spits blood. The 2 other girls, Dayna and Susan, are eyeballing something. Harold just took another hefty shot to the breadbasket. Garvey is entertaining in a sadistic way. Garvey mounts Harold from behind in the creepiest way possible. He tells Harold that he can either do something or lay there and watch. Garvey turns toward the girls and appears to be undoing his jeans. He approaches Fran. But then a vehicle approaches.
Garvey opens fire on the vehicle. One girl grabs a lead pipe. The other girl latches on to Garvey. He shoots pipe girl right in the dome. Well, I think it is safe to assume that was Susan. In the 94 version, Susan was one of 2 people that got the electricity working again and was played by the director, Mick Garris’ wife, Cynthia. Here, she’s dead. Fran kicks the gun away and gets smacked down. Stu opens fire and Garvey is walking with a purpose towards his gun. Dayna must be a fan of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead because she just went Negan on Garvey. She bashed his head in from behind repeatedly. Harold is in shock. Stu and Glen run toward them. Stu checks on Harold, which is kinda funny in some ways. Dayna lets out a primal scream. I’m sure I will talk about this later, but I am happy that scene existed, aside from the snowflake remarks. Stuff like that would most definitely happen in a situation like this and there were things like this in the book. I’m still sad that we didn’t the one scene at the TV studio, or wherever it was. But they basically ignored any aspects of this in the 94 version, whether due to subject matter or time and it always felt like a missed opportunity to show how society had degraded.
Stu offers the girls and Harold the opportunity to join him and Glen on the way to Hemingford Home. Fran wonders why she and Harold didn’t talk more about their shared dreams, and Harold just says that he had a lot on his mind. Did Harold ever dream of Mother Abigail? I can’t remember. Was it implied that everybody dreamed of both? The more I think about that question, that brings me down a wormhole I don’t wanna visit. Harold isn’t buying into blind faith in an old woman in a dream. Glen says that he knows what Harold’s problem is, that Harold is a man of science. Glen makes a lot of good points about wanting proof and finding out one way or the other.
Frannie wakes up and Stu can’t sleep. She asks if Stu has dreams of the Dark Man as well. In her dreams, the Dark Man has a coat hanger. She admits that she is pregnant. He tells her about Glen’s painting and how she was pregnant. She says that she’s not keeping it a secret, but she just hasn’t told anybody. See, that’s the shit I was referring to about a lack of appreciation. Like, she could have at least had the decency to tell Harold and could have even used her hormones as a polite excuse to not wanting anything romantic. But she’s a selfish bitch. She starts crying, Stu hugs her annnnnd right on cue, Harold is awake and looking sad, lonely, and psychotic. This dude is a good actor. I wonder if they wrote more scenes for him once they realized how good he was.
Teddy is upset that they can’t get cop uniforms. Stu says no because they aren’t cops because there are no rules. They get nice orange parkas, for EMT’s, a headlamp, flashlight, and walkie-talkie. Not bad. Teddy is gonna snag some more blu rays. Harold is working himself up staring at Stu. Harold reaches in his pocket and finds a pamphlet for the ski patrol, sooooo not EMT parkas. Anyway, it says that the rangers use explosive charges to create avalanches that keep the slopes safe. Go on… Teddy is sad thinking about whether The Rock is still alive while holding a blu ray of Skyscraper. It’s a shame that they didn’t have the Rock do a radio voiceover or something. I loved how Joe Bob Briggs had a radio cameo in the original.
At a committee meeting, or maybe the same one from earlier, Glen talks about not knowing enough about the Dark Man. Glen suggests sending spies or scouts to Vegas. Stu says that they have to actually get into Vegas, not just observe. Nick says it should be 3. They can’t know each other or know that they are doing it. Fran suggests that they ask for volunteers, but that’s just stupid. Fran, you’re stupid. Stu volunteers and everyone says no. Glen makes a point that the 5 of them are very visible in the community and if one went missing, it just would be a mess. Glen acknowledges that this is a direct violation of Mother Abigail’s instructions, so there’s no point in asking her permission. So will they do it? Of course, they will. It’s too good of a plotline.
Fran nominates Dayna Jurgens. Dayna is asking them if they really expect her to travel alone, try to get past security, get into Vegas, and then slip past security on the way out and escape and survive all the way back to Colorado. She agrees to it, but this is such a stupid plan if you think about it. A lot of people arrived with at least one other person. So shouldn’t they send small groups? I know it doesn’t make for a great story, but this would be more logical.
Larry suggests Judge Harris. Yes, she is on the older side, but maybe that makes her less suspicious, and if they lose her, they have lost an elderly person. She accepts. So yeah, changing the gender for that character makes less and less sense the more that I think about it. This old lady just survived on her own and is going to be a valuable asset to Vegas, why?
In this version, it is Glen who suggests Tom Cullen. While it shows Glen’s intelligence, this is a poor creative decision. In the 94 version, Ralph says that Nick has a dilly of an idea, and it is to send Tom. Here, we have no Ralph, we have a Ray, but Ray isn’t a member of the committee. And more importantly, it’s sad and heartbreaking to see Nick offer up Tom after everything that we had seen him and Nick go through. Of course, since we haven’t been telling the story chronologically, we have this disjointed mess so that when this moment arrives, if we had told this story chronologically, this suggestion would have hit home. Instead, we barely know Tom in this one. So it’s only truly sad for people with knowledge of the story. How fucking stupid do you have to be to fuck up one of the more pivotal scenes in this?
Fran doesn’t like the idea, but she thinks that Glen may be right. Nick says that Tom will surprise you.
Colorado 3 Months Earlier
Now we’re going to try to garner some emotion for the decision? Are you shitting me? Nick is eating Fruit Loops in a furniture store and Tom is just talking to himself. There’s a woman with a gun and she approaches Nick. This lady happens to be Julie Lawry, and she was originally played by the great Shawnee Smith from the Saw franchise (Amanda). She immediately understands that Nick is deaf and she still finds him hot. When I saw Princess in the Walking Dead comic and show, I always felt like she was a strange amalgamation of Julie Lawry and Tom Cullen. Julie is crazy and kinda sexy and totally into Nick, and they are making out in less than a minute. Good for Nick!
Tom interrupts with some toy or decoration and Julie is pissed and aims her gun at Tom. She asks him who he is and he goes into his spiel. Hahaha, he brings me such joy. Tom informs her that Nick is a deaf-mute that can write, but Tom can’t read. Julie can’t help but laugh at the situation. Nick writes his name down and asks Julie to tell Tom. She tells Tom that Nick’s name is “Amari Tard”. Yup, this is the great Julie Lawry, despicable as hell, also sexy and psychotic. She then tells him that it is really Nick Andros. Julie suggests that Tom go to the plumbing section and drink some cleaning fluid so that she can have Nick to herself. Tom is clearly upset. Julie is offended that Nick would choose a “tard” over her. She insults Nick and his dick size. She realizes this was bad and apologizes. They turn their back and she starts shooting at them. Tom saves Nick’s life and they laugh once they’re safe. As they hug it out, Nick sees a sign for Hemingford Home and Tom has no idea what that sign is for, but he’s stoked. I definitely preferred the 94 version of that scene. This was crueler in some ways, but lacked small subtleties, like the Pepto aspect. Also, look at that sign a bit more carefully. Hi, Mr. King.
Mother Abigail is talking to Gloria, who is dead, among other dead folks. There’s not much water left. Tom enters calling her name and they find Mother Abigail. She greets Nick. Tom introduces himself by saying “I’m Tom, from my head.” What a fantastic line. She knows his whole name, and he is pleased. M-O-O-N spells Mother Abigail.
Now back to the committee training Tom on what to do. See, if they had just done those scenes before suggesting Tom as a spy, it would have elicited far more of an emotional reaction. I’m just a regular schmuck but well-paid professionals can’t figure this basic shit out? Let’s just say that Tom Cullen is smarter than some of the people involved in making this.
They are teaching Tom what to look for, such as the number of people, how many guns, whether he sees the Dark Man. They teach him all the pertinent things to say when he arrives. Then they ask him when he knows to come back. It’s when he sees the full M-O-O-N. “M-O-O-N, and that spells full.” Then he says to start walking back and only travel at night. If the Dark Man sends people after him, he is to hide. If it’s more than one person, he runs. If it’s just one person, kill them. See, here’s another problem. In the 94 version, they trained Tom with hypnosis. That made sense. In this, they just expect a man in his condition to remember all of that stuff. That’s just stupid.
Glen suggests that the Vegas people have no reason to doubt Tom, which is true. Tom can’t tell them the towns that he’s been through because he can’t read signs. It’s a believable backstory. Glen, Stu, Larry, Fran, and Nick all vote yes. Well no shit. You just showed us in the previous scene that you already had trained him. So why was this shown after? Why was this even necessary? Logically, what purpose did that scene serve after the previous scene? Was there nobody on set that could interject and say, hey, this is a waste of a scene if it goes where you have it currently?
People are gathered around Mother Abigail’s home, but Ray sends them away and tells them to return the next day. Abigail is preaching to Nick that they need to be patient to know God’s will, and that’s why that they shouldn’t take any action. Is this before or after? We have no fucking idea anymore. This is why doing this story out of chronological order creates an unnecessary mess. We know that they said that she would be against this idea. So are they establishing that she previously had this discussion with Nick or are they establishing that Nick is willingly going against her wishes? How do we know?
Frannie is writing to her baby. Larry hugs Judge Harris goodbye. Larry and Nick are preparing Tom for his voyage. He wishes that he didn’t have to go alone. Poor Tom. This is sad. Tom then laughs that Larry has an earring. And off he goes. Fran hopes that her baby can forgive them for what they’ve done and are about to do.
Harold is with Nadine at the Ranger station. Harold is being loud and boisterous and makes sure to take a dig at Stu. This is a dark scene, almost creepy. Nadine finds the explosive. At the center of town, they’re about to turn on the power. Fran wants to give the countdown because she’s been so essential to everything. Nadine and Harold are startled when the power comes on. Larry plays America The Beautiful up on a stage. It’s actually a much better moment than Fran leading them in the National Anthem in 94. A significantly better moment. Teddy happens upon Nadine loading up explosives. He’s so nice and polite. He was out looking for extra lights that may tax the grid. Teddy is surprised to see Harold too. Nadine shoots Teddy! Noooo! Teddy, with his last breath, tells Hawk (Harold) to run. Awwww.
Then they play us out with “Gimme Little Sign” by Brenton Wood. Most likely, you know this song without knowing the name. Millennials may not know because it’s quite old at this point.
End Episode 4 The House of the Dead
This episode is a mixture of the best and worst that this version of The Stand has to offer. The lack of chronological storytelling hurt this episode almost as much as it hurt the first episode. It really was horrible and ruined some key moments and took away some of the emotional impact that we would have felt otherwise. The sad thing is that even if someone took the time to show this in chronological order, I don’t know if it would work that well, but maybe it would. I bitched and moaned enough already, no need to dwell on the negativity. There’s plenty of time to do that later.
Also, I felt that they could have probably spent a few more minutes, 2-4 minutes more, on Dayna and Judge Harris. We don’t even know Dayna as a character, but suddenly let’s just nominate her. The same goes for the Judge. Why should we believe that they are good choices? What have they shown us to believe that? I think in episode 2 or 3’s review, I mentioned that they could have used their time better, or a 10th episode. What they did for Teddy, they could have done to add more layers and dimensions to Dayna, Judge, Ray, and maybe Nick and Tom.
The positives were mostly regarding a few aspects. Everything, when Tom is on screen, is fucking great. I thought the Garvey scene was mostly really well done. Julie Lawry is almost instantly loathable. The committee scenes were mediocre. I liked how this episode established Harold’s motivation to turn to the dark side, for lack of better terminology. That final scene was intense and very sad. Kudos to the writers to make Teddy an important character that you could love, only to be super sad when he died. He was actually a well-crafted character for someone who was on screen for maybe 10-15 minutes. They did just enough to make you care about him before they took him away to make Nadine’s heel status matter.
Also, did anybody say “House of the dead”? Maybe I missed it, but usually, the title is in the episode somewhere.
Final Rating – 0.6 – I want to give it higher because the content was good. It was very good and impactful. But it could have been so much more if they didn’t fuck with the chronology and instead significantly lessened the impact. This would have been a 1.0 had it been in chronological order, that’s how good the content was and how much these poor decisions affected the overall impact.
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