INTERN CHRIS: I listened to the official LOST Podcast and they said again that the stand was a huge influence and would give us some clues about the incident/temple. Have any of you read it?

INTERN AMY:
 I've written a brief (as I could) synopsis of The Stand by Stephen King. Intern Chris, got me to thinking a lot about it and I got my book and there are (I think) a lot of similarities. You all decide for yourselves. Wiki has a great page on it I've referred to for names I couldn't remember. This book, in a nutshell is your classic struggle of good versus evil.

The book starts with "Project Blue" (a flu-like virus), a military biological weapon escaping from a testing facility. A soldier named Charles Campion is the only person able to escape. He locks down the facility, races home to get his family and takes off for parts unknown. He, his wife and baby become the carriers and thus spread the virus throughout the country. They make it as far as Arnette Texas to a small town gas station and all die. The group of people who tried to help them at the gas station are a bunch of buddies who look to Stu Redman. In a nutshell, his entire town dies and he's immune. The military sends him to the Atlanta CDC to be "studied" and all there, with the exception of Stu, succumb to the virus.

Throughout the country the Project Blue virus has now gained the name of "Captain Trips". Thousands of people are dying each day to the point that the cities are virtually empty.

There are immune survivors here and there; Larry from New York who is a very disillusioned pop star, Fran Goldsmith from Maine is a pregnant college student, Harold is Fran's geeky neighbor who is madly in love with her, Nadine Cross is mysterious, she tries hard to be good and succeeds for a while but eventually turns to the dark side in the story, Nick Andros is an extremely intelligent deaf-mute, Ralph is a, easy-going farmer from Oklahoma, Tom Cullen is a mentally retarded man also from Oklahoma, Glen is a professor from New England and lastly and the most pivotal character in the book is Abigail Freemantle from Hemmingford Home Nebraska. She is a 108 year-old black woman who lives alone on her farm. The people I mentioned above are all through out the country and don't know each other, the one thing they have in common is they all dream about Abigail Freemantle and in the dreams she urges them to come to her in Nebraska.

They all make the journey, picking up stray people along the way and kind of unofficially making Stu Redman their leader. During this time they all, including who is now affectionately called Mother Abigail, dream of a dark figure some call "the dark one" or "the traveling dude" (and no, I'm not kidding on the dude part) or Randall Flagg. They all have very vivid and frightening dreams about him - all except Nadine. In her dreams, Randall Flagg is very loving and beckons her to him.

Mother Abigail has visions from God that compel her to lead her band of folks to Boulder, CO. They all agree to set out and reestablish a new society led by Stu Redman and Mother Abigail.

Meanwhile Randall Flagg is gathering his own band of followers making Las Vegas their home base of choice. Lloyd is a thief Randall Flagg rescues from prison who becomes his number one man, Donald is a mentally disturbed pyromaniac also known as the "trashcan man" whom Flagg puts in charge of weapons and sends out around the country to gather as many as he can find, and several other shady type characters.

In Boulder the group elects a city council to lead and restore power and basic necessities and remove the dead. During this time Stu Redman and Fran Goldsmith fall in love and commit to each other leaving geeky Harold extremely angry. During his anger fits and at night, Randall Flagg visits him in dreams and tells him to hook up with Nadine Cross and bomb the house where the council is meeting. Then they both are to come to Las Vegas.

Mother Abigail is continually having visions and feels as though she has offended God by being prideful and full of herself. She flees Boulder and goes out into "the wilderness" to repent.

Harold bombs the meeting killing several people. Flagg makes him believe through visions that his prize for doing this will be Nadine and a position of power in Las Vegas. When Harold and Nadine are on their journey to Vegas, Flagg makes sure Harold has an accident and is fatally injured but before dying he has a moment of clarity and realizes how wrong he was.

The Vegas crew is gaining strength. Mother Abigail comes back to share her last visions and dies. She directs Stu, Glen, Larry and Ralph will go to Vegas to meet with Flagg and his group to basically tell them we want no problems, we'll stay in our state, you stay in yours. During the long journey there Stu has an accident and has to be left behind. The other men go on and are captured by Flagg's men and taken to Vegas.

Flagg, exerting his power decides to make an example of the men and is about to torture then kill them on the strip when the trashcan man who's had a revelation of his own appears with a nuclear warhead. Just as Flagg is about to tell the trashcan man to back away from the bomb, the golden hand of God appears and detonates the warhead obviously destroying a good portion of Nevada and thus all of Flagg's followers. During this Flagg turns into a crow and disappears just before the blast.

Stu makes his way back to Boulder where Fran has had her baby who is very ill with Captain Tripps but is expected to live, other women are becoming pregnant and the book ends with the survivors rebuilding, repopulating and moving on.

Sorry it was so long! But that's it. If this has interested any of you, the wiki page gives you more details that I've left out. And, if you have the chance, the mini-series is really good. Has a great cast; Ed Harris, Gary Sinese, Molly Ringwald, Rob Lowe, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Jamey Sheridan, Miguel Ferer, Laura San Giacomo and Larry Fagerbakke.

Intern Amy

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