‘The Stand’ Episode 1 ‘The End’ Spoilers: Why are Stu, Harold and Frannie not infected with Captain Trips virus?
Spoilers for ‘The Stand’ on CBS All Access and Stephen King's 1978 novel
Aptly named ‘The End’, the first episode of ‘The Stand’ spills death and doom. The one-hour dark fantasy episode begins with a prologue by Randall Flagg aka The Dark Man (Alexander Skarsgård). “The Dark Man grows stronger... He comes to destroy all who stand against him,” he says and the scene shifts to a room full of dead men crammed inside with insects buzzing around.
Based on Stephen King's book, the nine-episodic miniseries introduces a deadly virus (dubbed “Captain Trips”) that almost wipes out the population of the world. Mysteriously, Stuart Redman (James Marsden), Frances Goldsmith (Odessa Young) and Harold Lauder (Owen Teague) are among the few who aren't affected by contagious influenza. Right in the beginning, Stu is told, “The reason why I'm not wearing a mask is because you are not contagious.” Later in the episode, Harold tells Frannie after saving her from an attempted suicide, “Frannie we are the only ones remaining... That means the fatality rate for this virus is 99 percent. That means we're the future.”
The mind-boggling twist will leave one question buzzing through your mind if you haven't read King's novel: Why are Stu, Frannie and Harold not infected with Captain Trips? Ready for spoilers from the book? Well, read at your own risk.
In ‘The Stand’ — ‘Chapter 14’, Four stages of Captain Trips — a man-made virus that is later revealed to have been created by the United States Military on taxpayer dollars — varies from person to person but is highly contagious in all its stages:
STAGE ONE: No visible symptoms. However, a person may experience abnormal fluctuations in blood pressure and the appearance of “wagon wheel” incubator cells. In the book, Bob Brentwood and Eva Hodges go through the first stage.
STAGE TWO: Headache, sniffles, sneezes, mild cough are some symptoms and you may not be able to identify if differs from the flu. Although most characters, like Norm Bruett, are able to continue normal activities, but it slowly starts to affect their health with swelling in lymph glands.
STAGE THREE: With intense respiratory symptoms, painful swollen glands, high fever, it leads to a combination of mononucleosis and influenza (grading to pneumonia). Characters like Alice Underwood undergo the stage before going to bed or seeking medical help.
STAGE FOUR: The tube neck is the most common symptom and it leads to pneumonic plague and cancer. As shown in the CBS All Access series, it leads to a buildup of phlegm and blood with a high fever. In the book, characters like Charles Campion and Christopher Bradenton are depicted facing these troubles before their fatal end.
But, how do the survivors remain unaffected by the virus?
As per a Fandom bio, there's no specific reason why certain people are immune to the superflu, but the date of Project Blue files in the book attributed it to genes. The description reads: “Colonel Richard Deitz, operating in Atlanta, then in Vermont after the Plague Center in Atlanta was compromised, led the effort to find a cure for the virus. Due to the fact that Captain Trips shifts and changes at an extremely rapid pace, not one attempted vaccine worked. Men and women with a lifetime of experience in medicine were mystified at Stuart Redman's survival, especially after they injected him with the superflu under the guise of administering a sedative. Redman's immune system swiftly isolated and killed the virus, but with no visible sign of how.”
As more episodes air, we may find out if the miniseries really spells out the reason why certain people are not infected by the virus. Until then, let's wait and watch.
‘The Stand’ premieres on December 17, 2020, with the first episode titled ‘The End’ and subsequent episodes in the nine-episode limited-event series will follow every Thursday on CBS All Access.
