The Stand: How "Blank Page" Differs from Stephen King's Book

Nadine's story

In "Blank Page", viewers see a young Nadine in some sort of girls' home or institution where her fellow residents are sneaking around and using a planchette to speak with spirits and get her to participate as well. Things take a dark turn when the planchette begins to move of its own accord with the girls unable to stop it or remove their hands. The message is revealed to be Randall Flagg laying claim to the young Nadine as his "queen".

In the book, Nadine isn't "claimed" by Flagg expressly -- and in this case via a Ouija board -- until she's in college. In the book, Nadine was adopted as a baby and later orphaned when her adoptive family died in a car accident. She was raised by resentful older relatives. When she became a teenager, her relationships with boys were thwarted by an outside force, leading her to believe that her virginity was meant for some sacred, if not dark, purpose and she waits as an "unbroken vessel".

The man from Vegas

An interesting addition to the story this week is an unexpected arrival in the form of a man from Las Vegas to the Boulder Free Zone. The man is soon discovered to be a message for Mother Abagail from Randall Flagg and had previously been crucified. For the leadership of the Free Zone, this is the first direct indication of the threat the Dark Man poses to them.

The appearance of the man does shed some light on Flagg's draconian rule in Vegas. In the book, Flagg uses public crucifixion as one of his punishments for his various rules and laws.

How Stu, Harold, Frannie, and Glen meet

In "Blank Page", Stu Redman meets Glen Bateman as well as Frannie Goldsmith and Harold Lauder, but who he meets when is out of order as compared to the book. In the episode, Stu encounters Frannie and Harold first is turned away from joining up with them by a jealous and wary Harold. He later encounters Glen in the woods and the pair go back to his house for food and conversation with Stu later discovering, via Glen's paintings, that not only are they sharing the same dreams of Mother Abagail, but that Glen's painted a pregnant Frannie.

In the book, Stu meets Glen first with the pair enjoying beer and food and becoming friends before Stu later encounters Harold and Frannie when they ride up on their Honda bikes. The meeting between Harold and Stu is tense in the book as it is in the series, but Frannie is more open and the trio end up partnering up before picking up Glen to travel together.

Nick's origin

Another significant difference this episode is Nick Andros' origin and it's a change that actually strips much of the development of the character from the series. The episode shows Nick get severely beaten in a bar fight, waking up in a hospital having been blinded in one eye but nearly everyone else -- save for his attacker -- dead. Captain Trips has hit Shoyo, Arkansas and his attacker is dying of it while Nick is just fine, save for the eye.

In the book, Nick is mugged while walking on the shoulder of US Route 27 and while he is injured, he is just badly beaten and robbed. He ends up briefly jailed on suspicion of vagrancy by Sherriff John Baker, but soon befriends the Sherriff and his wife. As Captain Trips quickly begins to spread through the town, a sick and dying Sheriff deputizes Nick. Nick ends up caring for the prisoners -- his attackers -- as well as caring for the Sherriff wife before she dies. He releases his attackers so that they might have a chance to survive only to end up later attacked by the ringleader, Ray Booth, who is himself sick and dying.

Booth gouges out Nick's eye before Nick is able to defend himself and kill Booth.

How Nick meets Tom Cullen

The episode also alters how Nick meets Tom Cullen. In the episode, Tom comes to the hospital where Nick is and, clearly having been left alone when Captain Trips killed everyone else, Tom introduces himself with what is clearly a well-practiced speech making his intellectual differences known.

It's actually a better bit of character development for Tom while also maintaining the challenge Tom and Nick have in communicating. Tom can't read while Nick, who can't hear, communicates by writing.

In the book, Nick meets Tom after leaving Shoyo and encounters the much more child-like Tom alone in Oklahoma. Tom is the first survivor of Captain Trips Nick encounters in the book.