The Stand ties up loose ends in the finale but struggles to make an impact

With all the action involving Randall Flagg (Alexander Skarsgard) behind them, Frannie Goldsmith (Odessa Young) and Stu Redman (James Marsden) are ready to move on with their lives, but trouble is still lurking. Although this episode provides a solid conclusion to the story, it’s not enough to save the show.

“Coda: Frannie in the Well” opens up with Fran in the early stages of starting a life without Stu or the group of leaders who set out to New Vegas, raising her baby girl and socializing with the townspeople in Boulder when she can. Of course, as we saw in the penultimate episode of The Stand, Stu is still alive, and fortunately it doesn’t take too long into the episode for him to appear. One of the redeeming factors of this miniseries is how well Young and Marsden portray their characters, both fan favorites from the Stephen King book the show is based on.

With Captain Trips having taken out a majority of the population and the unimaginable chaos our central characters have to deal with afterward, you can’t deny Frannie and Stu finding love in the midst of it all is a beautiful thing. While I ran hot and cold on Randall Flagg throughout the show, I was consistently invested in Fran and Stu, and I appreciate that. Marsden is a solid actor who’s obviously very charming. And Young, whose previous work includes Sam Levinson’s Assassination Nation (2018) is a star on the rise. Their chemistry in The Stand finale works for me, which makes the episode, at times, pretty enjoyable.

The Stand finale recap

After our two surviving central characters are reunited, Fran wants to go back to Maine to live by the water, and unsurprisingly Stu agrees to go. It looks like Stephen King’s rewrite of the book’s ending here is a combination of his original and extended editions, with a major part added in.

Before getting to Maine, Stu and Fran have a mishap along the way. While the two make a pitstop to rest at an abandoned home, Frannie is faced with something she hadn’t experienced before: the choice between good and evil. Yes, I’m talking about Mother Abigail (Whoopi Goldberg) and Flagg. Expectedly, the Dark Man is very much still alive, and once Frannie falls into a well and gets knocked unconscious, he takes over her mind.

Flagg tempts Fran by saying he’ll spare her life, along with her baby’s and Stu’s, if she allows him to take over her head from time to time. Fran clearly has a tough choice here: save herself and her family, or refuse Flagg any more strength. Although she didn’t get the chance to see New Vegas and all of its destruction for herself, Fran can certainly still feel how dark and dangerous this supernatural being is, and chooses not to give in. Instead, she runs away, eventually meeting up with Mother Abigail.

Abigail is able to give Fran the answers she needs, telling her about her future with Stu and that her “children will replenish the earth.” Out in reality, Stu gets help from a little girl who was seemingly living out in the cornfield nearby. They work together to use a car cable to get down into the well and save Frannie. Of course, there’s something about this child that’s magical. She knows their names and exactly what to do in the situation, and once Stu gets Fran back up on land, the girl is able to heal her fractures and bruises so she’s not even in pain.

Whether this young girl is supposed to be some reincarnation of Abigail or someone new entirely, I’m not sure. But the addition of this sequence is compelling. Fran and Stu make it out to Maine, where they talk about what happened and promise to procreate. It’s a sweet ending for the pair.

The Stand’s new ending

On switching up the conclusion to include a Fran-focused element to the story, miniseries co-creator Benjamin Cavell told SYFY WIRE:

"The coda, I’m excited for you to see it. I think it really adds to it. But the thing that [King] was kicking himself about, and the question that this will answer, in his mind, is, ‘Well, when does Frannie get her stand?’ As we know, she is, what, eight months pregnant; when they leave on the stand, she can’t go. But it was always, in King’s mind, a deficit of the book that one of its main heroes doesn’t kind of get to participate in its climax. So, without giving anything away about the coda, I will say that the thing that I think generated it or generated the need for it, at least in his mind, was that Frannie needed to have a stand of her own."

But the finale doesn’t quite end there. The actual last scene shows Flagg walking into a tribe he had previously shown to Frannie, ready to take over. After blowing up a guy’s face and levitating into the sky, he’s their new god, and introduces himself as Russell Faraday. Considering this is a character who shows up throughout multiple Stephen King books, it’s not entirely surprising The Stand would end on this note. He’s keeping the wheel of “Ka” turning, and the scene is pretty fun.

Overall, I think the new ending for this adaptation works. “Coda: Frannie in the Well” is able to tie up the loose ends and provides a satisfying conclusion for Fran and Stu, while opening up possibilities for Flagg and his next move. Does this make up for other weak moments throughout the miniseries? No. Trying to cram this extensive story into a nine-episode show was not the right move, and though the finale is decent, this version of The Stand still isn’t great. There are some good moments sprinkled in here and there, though.

Episode Grade: B-

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