Okay, we get some new original content here. I bet the IMDB scores for this have to be decent, right? The ratings per episode, by episode, starting with 1 and the episode number is in parentheses are: (1) 6.9, (2) 6.6, (3) 6.8, (4) 6.9, (5) 7.0, (6) 6.6, (7) 6.6, (8) 6.5. This episode has a 5.3! Fucking hell. God damnit.
Start Episode 9 The Circle Closes
This won’t have a big cast I can’t imagine. 75% of the cast is dead at this point, right?
Ugh, starting right off with Frannie talking. She is talking about society trying to get back to normal while showing the patrolmen all getting guns. She has had the baby now. They had a big party. The baby got sick and her neck started swelling. They weren’t sure about allowing the baby to suffer. The baby actually improved after getting Tripps. Other babies are being born. She is still worried about sending scouts to find Stu.
Norris tells Frannie that it’s important for people to see her since she’s the last connection to Mother Abigail. Norris seems like a good dude. They have a nice memorial, and Fran adds the photo that they took before the group left. And then there’s Kojak, Stu, and Tom. Fran tells Stu to meet baby Abigail. How is Stu able to kneel like that?
We’re looking through the Vegas wasteland and the happy face button that Flagg wore winked at the camera. Hey, I am hearing CCR’s “Green River” at the 4th of July celebration. Son of a bitch, there’s Mick Garris!! He directed the 1994 mini-series. If you’re watching this, after they show Tom and Joe, you will see a guy grilling talking to a man with long white hair, and that man is Mick. I appreciate that cameo. Everybody is dancing and having a good time and then they play Patsy Cline’s “I Fall To Pieces”. That’s a weird choice, isn’t it?
Fran stops having a good time. She wants to go back to Maine and see the ocean. Yeah, brilliant idea! Stu says that they added another 500 people to Boulder. 3 people are in jail. It’s only minor stuff like drunk and disorderly, but eventually, it will be worse. So because crime will inevitably get worse by adding more people to the community, that makes sense to move to Maine? Really????
Oh, so we can see Stu’s tits but not Fran’s? This is sexist! Also, how the fuck are they gonna survive in the winter? You’re willing to risk the baby’s life for some fun idea? Of all the asinine mother fucking ideas that they came up with, this one takes the fucking cake. Tom Cullen would say that they are stupid. Tom should be in charge of Boulder. Now Tom is crying. Stu tells Joe to take care of Lucy mom. Who the fuck is Lucy? We knew her in 94, but not here. Steve thinks this stupid. This is so dumb.
We get a montage of them traveling and winching vehicles out of their way. Wow, they made it all the way to Nebraska.
Lorton, Nebraska
They find this nice house and Stu is gonna check it out. Kojak doesn’t like the cornfield. Of course, there’s a cornfield and Kojak finds a doll. Is that the same doll from like episode 1? Kojak doesn’t want to come in, but he does. And there is a black girl in the cornfield. She has a makeshift tent in the middle of the corn. I hate how lovey-dovey these 2 are. It’s obnoxious.
Stu leaves to check out a drugstore and a grocery store for supplies. He finds a lot of what they need. Fran is intrigued by the old pump works. The one with all the old-looking wood cover the well? Yup. Stu has a flat tire while singing some Elvis, I think. Fran, just walk on there and fall in, please. Also, drown. Stu radios to her but the walkie is in the kitchen, not even outside. She gets to pumping. But it stops pumping water. Randall whispers in her ear, “Hello, bitch”. She falls down the well harder than Bart Simpson. So Flagg is kinda back?
Fram is unconscious. In her dream, she finds Flagg in a jungle. He wants to show her one of the last tribes on Earth never polluted by contact with modern man. Lots of partially nude tribal folks. He isn’t sure if her skull is fractured or if it is just a concussion. On top of that, her hip is shattered, her knee is blown out, multiple fractures on her right leg, 3 broken ribs, and blood coming out of her mouth. Why was this rated so low? This is fantastic! Well, the Frannie being seriously injured aspect is fantastic. Her lung is also punctured. She accuses him of lying. He’s not. Stu is having a bad time fixing the tire. Flagg can help her out in exchange for a kiss and the option to see through her eyes occasionally. She won’t kiss him, not even if he was God himself. Wait, she wouldn’t kiss God? I feel conflicted about that one. Is that even cheating? Flagg is playing on Frannie’s concern for the baby. She almost kisses him, but bites his lip instead. She won’t do it for her, Stu, or the baby. I told you that this bitch was selfish in previous episodes.
Frannie wakes up in the cornfield and finds Mother Abigail. MA reassures Fran that it was good to resist the temptation. Stu is on his way back and finds Kojak in the road. MA goes on about God and being true, Stand. Stu returns and there’s the little black girl and the baby. He finds Frannie down the well. MA tells Frannie that she will be the mother of 5 and they will have 20 children. Pretend that you just heard a record screeching. Who exactly are those 5 children procreating with? They’re heading to Maine, a place that nobody would head for a couple of generations as they rebuild. The 20 will bring forth 70. Her children will replenish the Earth. Uhmmm, I’m confused.
Okay, black girl can command Kojak to watch the baby and she can work the truck’s winch. This girl seems a tad young to know this. Stu is going to get lowered down to get Frannie. Well, that was simple enough. Black girl know’s Stu’s name. She is wearing a silver cross. She can glide her hand over Frannie’s body and heal her. That is happening. This is the new material we were waiting for. The girl tells Fran to Stand. Where’d the girl go? She left her doll with Abby.
One Week Later in Ogunquit, Maine
Wait, so you just left the little girl? The fuck??? Fran asks Stu how he would feel about having 4 more kids. He asks her what happened back in Nebraska. She found out that there are 2 sides to the world. There’s this and then a pit of darkness. And she was tempted. She repeats what MA said to her and then they kiss.
We see a mostly nude Flagg, he has boots on, approach the tribe from earlier in the dream. The first guy is aggressive and shoots an arrow at Flagg who catches the arrow and shoots the guy with his finger pistol, and killed the guy. He fingerbanged him. And that is how you create new believers, that and floating. His name is now Russell Faraday, RF.
And they end it with R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel FIne)”. Sorry, that song truly belongs to Independence Day. Wait, why am I apologizing?
End Episode 9 The Circle Closes
End The Stand (2020)
End of all my hopes and dreams of seeing a good remake
End of Josh Boone’s career as we know it? I’d feel fine about that.
What was the point of this? It didn’t really make much of any sense. By the way, the black girl was actually the younger Abigail Freemantle. How she existed, kinda sorta, makes no sense. Flagg existing made far more sense.
I want you to think about the series of events in just this episode after everything we know from this mini-series alone.
Final Rating – 0.2 – This gets points because Fran got seriously injured. The rest was complete and utter trash.
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
Please go find a copy and support the creators.