The Stand: How "the House of the Dead" Differs From Stephen King's Book The fourth episode of The Stand debuted on CBS All Access Thursday and moved the story forward a great deal with the introduction of a couple of new, but key, characters, as well as advanced Randall Flagg's plot against Mother Abagail and the Boulder Free Zone. While the nine-part limited series is largely a faithful adaptation of Stephen King's epic novel of the same name, this episode also contained some significant differences from the page to the screen and we're breaking down some of the major ones we spotted as the story deepens.