The CBS All Access series The Stand wrapped up its nine-episode season in two episodes, a showstopper appropriately titled The Stand, and a quieter epilogue made up of largely new material titled The Circle Closes. Here are some of the most confusing aspects of the ending of The Stand, explained.
Once Glen, Ray, and Larry finally make it to Randall Flagg's evil empire in Las Vegas to make their final stand, they are immediately arrested and put on trial. Glen tragically never survives the courtroom, and Ray and Larry are subsequently sentenced to death via drowning. The pair are chained to the bottom of an empty pool as it slowly fills with water, in front of a crowd of spectators.
But before Larry and Ray can meet their watery end, thick clouds gather over the building's central atrium and start zapping people with lightning bolts. Soon, the lightning coalesces into a floating ball. It finishes by repeatedly zapping Flagg himself, then destroying everything, including Larry and Ray, by detonating a nuclear warhead.
Safe to say, that was no ordinary lightning. In the book, although the circumstances are a bit different, the warhead is detonated by a Hand of God, described as a giant, glowing hand in the sky. If you look closely as the clouds wrap around Flagg's building, they do resemble fingers, meaning that the lightning was basically divine intervention. Given the strong spiritual themes in the series, it's fitting that an act of God would be the thing that would finally take out Flagg at least for the time being.
Lani: The young girl is not someone like Mother Abigail -- it IS Mother Abigail again. Because the world has both good and evil. You have Mother Abigail, AND Randall Flagg. You have to have both. That's how the world remains balanced. Date: 2021-02-14
