[Warning: Spoilers for The Stand’
s seventh episode follow.]
CBS All Access’ 10-episode adaptation of Stephen King’s
The Stand is, like the book on which it’s based, an unwieldy beast overflowing with characters, ideas, gore, and more. Not every episode’s been a home run, but each has been enlivened by Owen Teague’s harrowing turn as Harold Lauder, a bullied teen who, in the wake of an apocalyptic pandemic, can’t stop his resentments from boiling over into violence. As we’ve noted, Josh Boone and Benjamin Cavell’s new adaptation plants Harold, a supporting character in the novel, front and center, allowing his torn soul to serve as the story’s primary representation of free will as it exists in this struggle between the forces of good and evil.