'The Stand' Episode 6 Recap: 'The Vigil' Lights The Fuse On An Explosive Conflict

Blessed with momentum and a narrative engine firing on all 12 of its character’s cylinders, “The Stand” puts the pedal to the metal in its 6th episode, “The Vigil,” where things blow up (literally). Free of the flashbacks and with the last of the important characters introduced, here, the series hurtles towards its final act with this episode, where characters make good on their well-drawn set-ups, threats come alive, and Chekov’s dynamite finally gets its payoff.

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Split somewhat evenly between events in New Vegas and Boulder, “The Vigil” jumps liberally between the two settings, moving the story’s ball down the field for events on the ground as well as in the ether. In the latter instance, when Mother Abigail (Whoopi Goldberg) encounters a vision of Flagg (Alexander Skarsgård) on her walkabout in the woods above Boulder, it’s more than just a chin-wag between the story’s figureheads. Flagg tries to get Mother Abigail to throw in the towel on her community, taunting her for the fact that God doesn’t seem to be speaking to her any longer (hence her self-imposed exile). In response, Mother Abigail calls Flagg out as little more than a cheap sorcerer whose power is dependent on the belief of his followers, and when the audience gets a look at him in his element, it becomes obvious that she’s correct.

The wait isn’t a long one to get to this point, either. When Flagg has to discipline a crony, Bobby Terry (Clifton Collins, Jr.), for failing to bring the 3rd Boulder spy to New Vegas alive as ordered, there’s desperation in the air. Sure, Flagg demonstrates to his followers that disobedience comes with consequences (he literally rips out Bobby’s still-beating heart), but the fact that he has to, that his seemingly limitless powers go only so far: it is noticed. And it’s not like the arrival of Trashcan Man (Ezra Miller) puts anyone in Vegas at ease…

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And what a guy. “The Vigil” opens with Trashcan Man (or “Trash”) on the road to Vegas, setting off bombs in fuel storage tanks and ejaculating into the cresting flames with maniacal glee. In his dreams, Flagg beckons Trash to Vegas, where he arrives early in the episode beside an uneasy Lloyd (Nat Wolff), who tries to convince Flagg that they don’t need this lunatic. Trash’s Rain Man-like gift with explosives and Flagg’s talk of getting a nearby airfield ready indicates bigger plans on the horizon, however. Indeed, with Nadine (Amber Heard) and Harold (Owen Teague) cooking up a boom-tastic surprise in Boulder, and Trash off to a nearby military base for ordinance, Flagg seems determined to wipe the rival survivor community off of the map.

These Vegas scenes are some of the most fun of the series, but they also highlight some splendid character development, like Lloyd’s increasing uneasiness, Flagg’s secret desperation, and Trash’s status as a wild card. It’s also tense as hell, with Tom Cullen (Brad William Henke) getting out of town just before Flagg realizes his true identity: a clenched butthole moment if ever there was one. Not to be outdone, however, the Boulder portion has a few hum-dinger “holy crap” moments of its own.

Although Nadine does seem to retain some shred of her humanity as seen in her ruse to keep Joe (Gordon Cormier) away from her and Harold’s bomb, what little wavering she had left in her vanished after Larry’s (Jovan Adepo) rebuff of her last episode. Likewise, Harold has a similar moment in his basement with Frannie (Odessa Young), who stumbles upon his journal, bomb plans, and CCTV set-up in horrified astonishment. It’s an amazing scene, and pays off the history between the two, exposing the self-inflicted and festering emotional wound that Harold has refused to let heal.

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Young plays the moment with a desperate air, though not from a place of self-preservation. Based on his attitude and bearing up to this point, it’s easy to understand Harold when he screams, “Captain Trips was supposed to be my great adventure! Me! Me!” The whole series to this point has shown him to be immature, greedy, and with a sense of entitlement when it comes to Frannie, but she doesn’t scold him in this moment. Harold is all that’s left of Frannie’s old life, and if he really has gone completely over the edge, then all that once was truly is gone. It’s a nuanced and character-driven take on the scene, and Young deserves all the credit for communicating the full breadth of this moment.

For a second or two, it feels like Frannie might have gotten through to Harold, but when he locks her in the basement all hope of his salvation is lost. Although Frannie gets loose and warns Stu (James Marsden) and the others about the bomb (and a call over the radio reporting that Mother Abigail has returned gets people moving away from ground zero at the last moment), the device goes off and incinerates Nick (Henry Zaga) and the house he’s in. It’s a stunning cap to the episode, and puts the Boulder community on its back foot right when Flagg seems to be consolidating for one final push.

One never finds themselves saying, “I wonder where all of this goes from here,” or, “I can’t imagine how all of this comes together.” There’s a driving, urgent thrust to the narrative in this episode, and all the characters feel like they are set into place ahead of the eponymous stand, which now appears imminent. Although Stu has a great scene early in “The Vigil” with Harold (pulled straight out of the book), and Mother Abigail and Flagg have their pre-fight weigh-in chat, “The Vigil” is more concerned with the characters orbiting the main action.

If this is less of a story about elemental forces of good vs. evil, and more about the capacity for humanity to re-learn how to evolve in a fundamentally decent manner, this is the episode that makes sure the audience remembers that. It’s people like Frannie, trying desperately to bring Harold back from the brink, or even Lloyd, who seems perfectly content to party it up in Vegas without any thought towards making war with Boulder, that will need to step up and rebuild. If Mother Abigail was right, and Flagg’s power is drawn from his followers’ belief in him, like all of humanity, salvation rests in these people saving themselves from their worst instincts.

Boosted by a series-best performance from Young, and character work that continues to pay dividends in the back half of this story, “The Vigil” is the end of a fuse and the spark for something explosive (literally and figuratively). Whether the series can maintain this momentum into its final three episodes remains to be seen, but if nothing else, showrunner Benjamin Cavell and his writing team have given themselves the runway to pull this off. [A-]

“The Stand” airs weekly on CBS All Access