Summary
In every great television series, there are supporting characters that elevate or help showcase how a protagonist in that series became who they are. WhenLOSTbecame a hit classic, fans became fascinated with characters like Charlie’s addicted brother, who took his brother down a bad road. WhenArrowfirst premiered, fansgot to know Oliver Queen’s struggleson the island through his friendship with fellow prisoner Yao Fei. Each of these relationships highlights how these characters evolved into who they are in the present day of those shows.
When Stephen King’sThe Dark Toweris finally brought to life in a series, fans are going to want to see how Roland, the last of the gunslingers, became the lone survivor and hardened warrior he is in the series. To do that, they need to introduce his first group of friends and allies, known as his first ka-tet, especiallyCuthbert Allgood and Alain Johns.
Other members would join his original ka-tet, but Cuthbert and Alain were Roland’s best friends in the world. They were there with him during his first mission as a gunslinger, the one that defined hisfuture path of loss and hardship. The lessons they would learn together, and the grief Roland would feel when his first ka-tet eventually fell apart, would define the lonely road he walked through much of his life, until the events of the first novel in the series,The Gunslinger. That is why Roland’s original ka-tet is so vital to introduce in the show’s first season.
Roland’s Original Ka-Tet, Explained
The group consisted of Cuthbert, Alain, Jamie De Curry, Thomas Whitman,Cort’s niece Aileen Ritter, a gunslinger named Randolph, and a young boy with special gifts named Sheemie. The beginning of the group was Roland, Cuthbert, and Alain. Their friendship through childhood became the bond needed for Roland’s first mission as a gunslinger, when Roland’s father sent them to the Barony of Mejis, to a town called Hambry, to protect Roland from those seeking his assassination.
While there, Roland and his friends become embroiled in the local politics and struggles of the town. Roland’s mission becomes compromised when he has an affair and falls in love with a local young woman named Susan Delgado. This causes a rift between Roland and his friends, with Cuthbert growing jealous of his friend and blaming him for losing sight of their mission. In the end, after their losses in the town, they are able to stop the Big Coffin Hunters and retrieve thepowerful artifact, Maerlyn’s Grapefruit, before fleeing back to Gilead, their home.
In theFall of Gileadand the final stand of the gunslingers,The Battle of Jericho Hill, the original ka-tet forms fully, working together to fight John Farson’s men and the acolytes that followed him. Randolph ends up betraying the group in an effort to save his kidnapped wife and child, but when he discovers his betrayal was for naught and his family is dead, he surrenders his own life.
In the Battle of Jericho Hill, all but Roland and Aileen fall in battle, both suffering grave wounds but living. Cuthbert dies in Roland’s arms, having been shot by noneother than the man in black, Randall Flagg, through the eye with an arrow. He laughs as he fights on, and then passes on in Roland’s arms. It is there that Roland loses the Horn of Eld, a powerful artifact in the Dark Tower universe.
The Importance of the Original Ka-Tet
Roland’s first ka-tet was there for his most formative years. When readers and eventually audiences are introduced to Roland, he is an older, grizzled gunslinger who walks a lonely path towards the man in black and eventually the Dark Tower. He takes on no allies and focuses more on his own goals than adding friends to his life again. The combined loss of his first love, his family, and then his ka-tetin a ruthless and bloody battlecemented this coldness and isolation into Roland’s life and solidified his quest for The Dark Tower.
The core members of his first ka-tet have strong connections to his final ka-tet as well. Many eagle-eyed readers and fans of Stephen King know that there is a concept in his multiverse known as “Twinners,” beings who are mirror images of one another in different universes, introduced inStephen King and Peter Straub’sThe TalismanandBlack House. Many see Cuthbert as Eddie Dean’s “twinner,” both being called by Roland ka-mai, or ka’s fool. Their senses of humor, even in the face of battle, and their stubbornness when facing Roland’s leadership make them nearly identical in nature.
Alain Johns also has a strong resemblance to Jake Chambers. They are both calm and reserved in nature, but ferocious in battle when finally provoked. They also share something called “the touch,” psychic abilities they are able to use in fights. It is these connections that will eventually elevate Roland’s journey when he finally opens up and allows himself to have a new ka-tet on his journey to the tower. That is why these characters must have their moment inThe Dark Towerwhen Mike Flanagan adaptsit into a series.
