[Mother of Fears] How I Love to Love Nadine in The Stand (2020)

Welcome to Mother of Fears – a monthly column that will explore the various roles that mothers play within the horror genre. Mothers are a staple feature in horror movies, and yet, their stories, motivations, representations, and relationships with their children are so varied and complex that we never feel like we’re watching the same story twice. Every month I will take a look at a different mother from the world of horror, explore their story, and look at how they fit into the broader representation of women in horror.

Content Warning: This article discusses suicide.

Stephen King’s epic post-apocalyptic novel The Stand (1978) clocks in as one of his largest and most ambitious books, with my hardback edition of the uncut version coming in at just over 1,000 pages. The story focuses on a group of survivors after most of the world’s population is wiped out by Captain Trips, a lethal super-flu. And while there are enough horrors to go around in a story like this, the real focus of King’s book is how those who survive react to the changing world around them. 

With so many characters to focus on, it’s no wonder that The Stand has been adapted for TV twice. The first version in 1994 was four episodes long, with a runtime of around 6 hours, but The Stand came back to our screens in 2020 for a nine-episode extravaganza, which is the version I’ll be focussing on today.

The characters in The Stand are mainly split into two groups - those who followed Mother Abigail in their dreams to Boulder to set up a new community and those who were lured by the Man in Black, Randall Flagg, to a more debaucherous existence in the ruins of Las Vegas. However, there are some characters where it is a little harder to decide on their allegiance and one of those is Nadine.

Though her introduction is cut short in the television version of the story, Nadine and Joe, an orphaned boy who Nadine rescued, are discovered by Larry Underwood as he makes his way to Boulder. The group travel together, with Larry forming a strong bond with Joe, who doesn’t speak and is distrusting of a lot of other adults. The two become closer as they play guitar together and Nadine is happy someone else cares for Joe as much as she does.

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It turns out Nadine was a teacher before the plague hit, and when they arrive in Boulder they find that the rest of Mother Abigail’s followers have already started to build a functioning community again. Therefore it makes sense for Nadine to start running the school, which allows her to be close to Joe throughout the day, as well as look after the rest of the children. 

However, it turns out Nadine is hiding a dark secret, and she has a much deeper connection to Randall Flagg than any of the other characters in the story. Flagg appeared to Nadine through an Ouija board when she was a child and told her that he plans to make her his queen. As a result, Nadine is still a virgin, saving herself for Flagg, and frequently has sexual dreams about him as she feels his hold on her getting stronger.

There’s no doubt that Nadine has started to develop feelings for Larry though. Not only was he the first adult she encountered after the plague hit, but the fact they spent time travelling together and the way he is with Joe made it easy for her to feel comfortable with him. While she is connected to Flagg through her dreams, she’s also terrified of him and his plans for her.

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Flagg, sensing that Nadine is getting a little too comfortable with both Boulder and Larry, decides to put his plan into action. He wants her to kill Mother Abigail and her most loyal followers and then make her way to him in Vegas. Nadine doesn’t seem like a cold-blooded murderer, but she does want to end this uncertainty and control that Flagg has had her in since she was a child. As an orphan who was passed from home to home, she is desperate to belong somewhere. She knows that Flagg will never let her be happy unless she does what he wants so she decides that the best decision is to carry out his plan and see where it takes her.

Flagg instructs her to rope in Harold, a smitten teenager who wants Frannie for himself but has lost her to Stu. Flagg knows that his bitterness and hatred for how unfair the world he thinks the world is will make him a perfect partner for Nadine. The two hatch a plan to create a bomb with supplies they find around town so they can wipe out Mother Abigail and her team for good.

While Harold is resolute in his plan to kill Frannie’s lover in revenge, Nadine isn’t quite so sure. She visits Larry and tries to convince him to have sex with her. It’s difficult for her to explain her plan without revealing her connection to Flagg in the process, but she thinks if Larry takes her virginity, Flagg won’t be able to use her in his grand plan in the same way. Larry feels like her only hope at a happy life, and she knows that if she could just get Flagg out of her head, maybe she’d be able to settle in Boulder.

But Larry is confused by Nadine's sudden approach and doesn’t see the need to rush things. Feeling like her last chance at freedom has slipped through her fingers, Nadine doesn’t take Larry’s rebuff well and decides to go through with the plan. She plants the bomb Harold creates in the piano at Mother Abigail’s house, hoping to kill off most of the Boulder community when they attend a vigil that night. However, she does make sure that all the children are kept away and even goes as far as sabotaging Larry’s walkie and motorbike to keep him from attending as well. Even in her last moments in Boulder, she doesn’t want to destroy the little family she almost built with Larry, and by leaving him and Joe alive, she hopes they can carry on without her. 

Joe comments to Larry that Mommy Nadine and Nadine are two different people because he can see the torment she is being put through by Flagg. He knows that she cares for him and wants to look after him and the other children, but he can also sense the underlying evil that lurks there because of Flagg. Considering how little Joe talks, it’s a pivotal moment when he chooses to reveal this to Larry. He’s trying to ask for help for Nadine, but he doesn’t know how.

Once the bomb has been detonated, Nadine and Harold flee on motorbikes before anyone discovers they had anything to do with it. En route to Vegas, she causes Harold’s bike to crash over the guardrail and leaves him to die. He was never part of the plan, and if he made it to Vegas, Flagg would have had him killed anyway. By this point, Nadine has lost a lot of her humanity and sees nothing wrong with leaving Harold to die as the vultures circle overhead. She also needs to leave every trace of her life in Boulder behind her, so that she can focus on the new life she’s about to start with Flagg. It’s too painful for her to think of everything she could have had if only she'd been allowed to stay. 

And so Nadine is once again alone in the desert, travelling towards an unknown fate. Flagg meets her in the desert and uses his magic to make Nadine believe she is in a plush hotel room with him. But as she starts to have her doubts about the whole encounter she sees Flagg’s true face and finds herself lying in the dirt with him instead. It’s a sign of things to come of how Flagg will deceive Nadine to make her feel special and ensure he gets what he wants from her.

The next time we see Nadine it’s daytime, and she is emerging from the desert to meet Flagg in his fancy car. She is dressed in white, giving off bridal energy, and her hair has turned white to match. She looks serene but also slightly out of it. She’s supposed to be happy because this is the way her life has always been going since Flagg first made contact with her, but it’s obvious that she’s trying to make the best of a bad situation. She’s forcing herself to be happy with it because this is her life now, but she’s not the Nadine she once was. 

Because Nadine and Harold’s bomb only killed Nick, it means Larry, Glen and Ray have made their way to Vegas to confront Flagg. Of course, Flagg knows they are coming and even sends a car to pick them up. As he sees the car approach from his penthouse window, he asks Nadine to go and greet their guests. Nadine floats down the hallway in her white gown looking beautiful. She spends the whole elevator ride transfixed by her own reflection. But the others who ride in the elevator with her are staring at her, though they know better than to say anything to Flagg’s partner. 

In the hotel lobby a stunned Glen, Larry, and Ray are met by Nadine, but when the camera pans around to show her their point of view we see her true appearance. Not only is she gaunt with tired-looking skin and huge black rings under her eyes, but she is impressively pregnant. Her huge bump pushes against the fabric of her dress as the thing inside her belly wriggles around inside.

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Despite Nadine declaring her love for Flagg, she is unable to stay away from Larry and asks to be left alone with him so she can have a chat. She finds out that her plan didn’t work and Boulder is still there and thriving. Larry and his friends are a memory of what her life could have been if she had been able to resist Flagg. And it’s Larry who is able to finally get her to admit to the terrible situation she’s gotten herself into. He holds up a tray so she can see her reflection and she finally sees her true form.

Being away from Boulder has allowed her to twist the whole situation in her mind and make herself believe that this was always the best outcome for her. But Larry has always wanted what was best for Nadine, and his insistence that she is in danger and doesn’t look well is enough to break Flagg’s spell on her. The shock of her appearance causes Nadine to go into labour and she’s rushed back up to the penthouse.

Nadine screams in pain on a table as Flagg’s inept staff try to help her through the labour. Flagg looks every bit the proud father as he stands watching with a cigar and drink in hand. However, he doesn’t look remotely concerned for Nadine’s well-being, even as she bleeds heavily and screams that something has gone wrong. It’s then that Nadine realises that she was never supposed to survive the birth. Her whole purpose in this plan was to provide Flagg with a son, and he doesn’t care what happens to her after that. 

Flagg used her to kill Mother Abigail's followers in Boulder, and then he used her again to ensure he had an heir. Nadine comments that Larry was right. She should have listened to him all along, but Flagg’s voice in her head was much stronger. Knowing her death is probably imminent either way, Nadine wants to cut all ties with Flagg for good and show him that in the end, he wasn’t able to control her. 

She removes the necklace that Flagg gifted her, the ultimate sign of his control over her, and uses it to smash the penthouse window before throwing herself to her death. Seeing her fall is the first time she really looks happy because it’s a decision she’s made solely for herself and she finally feels completely in control of her own life.

Nadine crashes into the empty swimming pool in the hotel lobby and all the revellers below witness her death. She makes sure to fall on her stomach, crushing Flagg’s son as she hits the ground. Flagg is devastated. Not only has he lost his heir, but he has been working on controlling Nadine for years. He had her picked out from when she was a child, so it’s unlikely he’ll be able to find a replacement for her to help bring his son into the world. He also did not doubt that Nadine was completely under his spell, so for her to take her own life without him predicting it shows that he isn’t always in control. 

Nadine also made sure that her death was public so that everyone else knew that Flagg had lost control over her. And along with Glenn and Larry’s actions before the Hand of God shows up, Nadine is able to weaken Flagg’s hold over his congregation. Even though she turned her back on Boulder for promises of a better life with Flagg, in the end, she works with the Boulder representatives to ensure that Flagg can’t hurt anyone else.

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