- Rita Blakemoor: I'm scared.
Larry Underwood: Me, too. You'd have to be bat-shit crazy not to be. But we got pills for that.
Larry Underwood leads a group of people to the Boulder Free Zone and learns that he's among those chosen by Mother Abigail to run the growing community.
In the past, Larry's big break as a musician comes just as the world ends, leaving him to escape a devastated New York. Meanwhile, Lloyd Henried finds himself trapped when he's the only one left alive in the prison where he's incarcerated.
Tropes:
- Adaptation Deviation: Larry's journey through the Lincoln Tunnel is replaced with a journey through the sewers to avoid gun-toting maniacs.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: In the book, Nadine Cross has dark hair with white stripes, which eventually turns entirely white. In the miniseries, she's played by the blonde Amber Heard.
- Anachronic Order: The episode bounces between Larry's group arriving in Boulder in the present, Larry's experiences in New York as the plague ravages it, and Lloyd's time in prison as the place is overwhelmed by the plague and then abandoned.
- Ax-Crazy: Lloyd's partner Poke Freeman is a manic renegade crook who immediately shoots a young woman when they try robbing a convenience store. When Lloyd balks at killing the cashier too, Poke's response is to put a gun to his head and try to force him to do it.
- Boom, Headshot!: Poke Freeman gets a good chunk of his head blown off in the botched robbery that gets his partner in crime Lloyd sent to prison.
- Crucified Hero Shot: Larry's photo on the cover of his debut album, Pocket Savior.
- A Day in the Limelight: "Pocket Savior" focuses on Larry and his life both pre- and post-Captain Trips.
- Driven to Suicide: Rita eventually gives into despair over being one of the last people alive, and intentionally overdoses on pills.
- Facial Horror: Lloyd's partner takes a cop's bullet to the face, which blows out a huge chunk of one cheek.
- Faux Affably Evil: The stockbroker-type "gentleman" who offers Larry money in exchange for Rita. While he seems pleasant despite his disgusting request, when Larry rejects it he immediately signals to two hidden gunmen to take her by force.
- Food Porn: Flagg's description of his lunch to a locked-up, starving Lloyd: A roast beef sandwich smothered with onions and Gulden's spicy brown mustard, a side of homefries and chocolate milk. Lloyd actually starts licking his cell's bars in response.
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: When Lloyd and Poke rob the convenience store, Poke holds down a woman as hostage, using one of his guns, while the clerk starts to get out the cash. When Poke sneezes, his finger convulses on the gun trigger and shoots the girl in the back of the head.
- Idealized Sex: Larry and Rita, shortly after they meet and go back to her apartment, complete with soft lighting. Possibly justified, since they both know the world is ending and want to experience all the pleasure they can get.
- It Amused Me: Flagg does this with Lloyd, tormenting him with a description of a meal after Lloyd had been without food for the last ten days. Flagg gains no benefit from it except his pleasure from torturing Lloyd, and while it might drive Lloyd away from him in any other instance, Lloyd is literally a captive audience and Flagg is his only salvation.
- Kick the Dog: Flagg torments the starving Lloyd with a description of the meal he had recently eaten.
- Naked Nutter: Larry encounters a man in Central Park wearing nothing but a medical gown, who proudly states his intent to run naked around the field at Yankee Stadium.
- No Party Like a Donner Party: Lloyd is forced to partially eat his dead cellmate after being left as the only person still alive in the prison and unable to get out.
- Race Lift: In the book, Larry Underwood is white (though people sometimes assume he's black based on his singing). In the miniseries, he's played by Jovan Adepo who is black.
