The CBS All Access limited series The Stand latest episode finally gave us the crazy pyromaniac Trashcan Man. Actor Ezra Miller brings the character into the crazed world of post Captain Trips with a bang. The episode, entitled “The Vigil” also brought our heroes to their biggest struggle yet, finding Mother Abigail (Whoopi Goldberg) and of course the Harold and Nadine problem that had been brewing from previous episodes. Warning: spoilers ahead!
“The Vigil” covers a lot of the nitty gritty of The Stand‘s story. Not only do we set eyes on the Trashcan Man for the first time, but we see Harold and Nadine execute their plan. We also take a trip to New Vegas, the home to the not so virtuous survivors and Flagg (Alexander Skarsgård).
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His introduction to the series is powerful and lends more to Stephen King’s novel version as opposed to the last miniseries of The Stand. We first meet Trashcan man on the road as he is rigging up bombs to a building. His look is very dirty, deranged and he is covered in various burn scars. The scene culminates as he watches the building explode while masturbating. Which is very realistic to the behavior of pyromaniacs. He meets Flagg for the first time and gets his mission to find “the big fire” in the desert.
The issues that I had with Miller’s Trashcan, is the character choices that were made. Trashcan was never a villain per se, but instead was a chaotic neutral character, or someone who just followed their own set of rules. He was only dangerous when left to his own devices, and when he was influenced by others. This Trashcan man seems to be very mentally disabled beyond the point of reason or sanity. Which seems like a very ableist approach to the character. However, I will reserve my review of his character until after the full series has aired.
New Vegas
Trashcan arrives in New Vegas and viewers get to see all the fun the citizens are having. Also King fans will have spotted the not-so-subtle The Shining Easter egg in the hotel lobby. We see Lloyd is still around running things and he is less than impressed when he meets Trashcan. Nat Wolff has really taken the role of Lloyd into a whole new direction. The cockiness that was always at the root of the character is still there but with more gusto. In this episode Lloyd is still very unsure of himself and his place with Flagg, but he hides it well with a type of seedy flamboyance that Wolff is really pulling off.
We see a lot of Flagg in this episode as well as his iron fist over Vegas. Flagg (Alexander Skarsgård) is on edge, he can’t see the final spy. All he can see is the moon, and this is not lost on any of his underlings. He fully freaks out after a border guard, Bobby Terry (Clifton Collins Jr.) kills the last spy Judge Faris (Gabrielle Rose) after he specified that he needed her alive. While Bobby Terry makes a good effort to escape Flagg’s wrath. Flagg corners him in the elevator and after disemboweling him, takes his heart as a souvenir in full view of all the residents of New Vegas.
“The Vigil” also showed more of Tom Cullen’s (Brad William Henke) life as a spy. After realizing that he recognizes Julie (Katherine McNamara) as the woman who shot at them on the road, Tom knows he is close to being discovered. As Flagg searches for the last unknown spy, Tom is carried safely out of Vegas under a layer of dead bodies on their way to be burned.
Out of Boulder
We saw last week that Frannie (Odessa Young) thinks something is up with Harold (Owen Teague). In “The Vigil” their story finally meets its ending after the long road from Maine. After breaking into Harold’s basement Frannie finds out that he has planted a bomb. As she searches his basement Harold returns and they begin to unpack their issues. Despite Harold’s faults Frannie still wants to bring him back.
I think that Young and Teague both show their chemistry within this scene. The argument they have isn’t one of anger, Frannie doesn’t want to lose Harold and her connection to the world before. However, Harold knows he can’t come back and ultimately leaves Frannie locked in the basement as he leaves to meet Nadine.
Nadine Cross (Amber Heard) is having her own issues with leaving. She and Larry Underwood (Jovan Adepo) have their goodbyes as she picks up the young Joe (Gordon Cormier). Larry knows something is a miss but can’t quite put his finger on it. Heard plays Nadine’s goodbye with this kind of hindered agony that comes with leaving Larry and Joe. I enjoyed this take, because in Stephen King’s novel version of The Stand, Nadine struggled a lot with leaving Boulder and her life there.
She and Harold meet up to leave Boulder for the last time, and to pull the trigger together. This episode packs a punch, delivers some great performances and gives you some of the television CGI you’ve been missing. 4/5
Episode 6 “The Vigil” is now available and brand new episode of The Stand hits the CBS All Access app every Thursday. How do you guys think the new miniseries is tackling the story? Leave us a comment below and let us know your thoughts. Be sure to stay tuned to ScaryNerd for more of all things horror.
