Ed Deepneau
Ed Deepneau, a research chemist at Hawking Laboratories in Fresh Harbor, begins the novel as one of the kindest, most civil young men Ralph Roberts has ever met. He and his wife Helen, along with their baby daughter Natalie, are close friends of Ralph and his dying wife Carolyn. Ed is a member of the Book of the Month Club, a laissez-faire vegetarian, and a Clinton supporter—the picture of a gentle, intelligent neighbor. Yet this identity is a mask that cracks under the pressure of a supernatural manipulation that has been years in the making.
Descent into Paranoia and Violence
Ed's transformation first becomes visible to Ralph in July 1992, during a heatwave. Ralph witnesses Ed's Datsun speeding out of the airport service gate, and when Ed crashes into a pickup truck, he leaps out screaming obscenities and accusing the driver of hauling dead babies in barrels marked WEED-GO. Ralph sees murder in Ed's eyes—a look of utter, unreasoning fury. Ed is wearing a white silk scarf embroidered with red Japanese characters, a token of his connection to the entity Atropos. This incident is the first public sign of a madness that has been growing for at least a year. By August 1993, Ed's paranoia has fully crystallized. He beats Helen so severely that she requires hospitalization, fracturing her cheekbone and knocking out two of her teeth, all because she signed a petition to bring feminist activist Susan Day to Derry. When Ralph confronts him, Ed rants about the "Crimson King" and his "Centurions," claiming that fetuses are being harvested and trucked out of town. He is arrested for domestic assault but released on bail, and his madness only deepens.
Radicalization and the Friends of Life
After his arrest, Ed becomes the de facto leader of the radical anti-abortion group The Friends of Life, eclipsing the more moderate Dan Dalton. He orchestrates increasingly violent protests, including an incident where dolls filled with fake blood are thrown at the WomanCare clinic. He is arrested again, but his charisma and apparent sanity on camera make him a media figure. He loses his job at Hawking Laboratories, but mysteriously obtains a large sum of money—eighty thousand dollars in cash—to bail out the unstable Charlie Pickering. Ed's influence is such that he forms a splinter cell of fanatics, including Pickering, Frank Felton, and Sandra McKay, who are willing to commit murder. He sends this cell to attack High Ridge, the women's shelter where Helen is staying, resulting in a firefight that kills several women, including Gretchen Tillbury.
The Kamikaze Plot and Final Confrontation
Ed's ultimate plan is a suicide attack on the Civic Center during Susan Day's speech, using a light plane loaded with explosives. He has been taking flying lessons at SoloTech, using the airport service gate where Ralph first saw him. His wedding ring, stolen by Atropos, becomes the master-cord that binds the fates of the two thousand people in the building. Ralph, having been elevated to a higher plane of perception, confronts Ed in the cockpit of the Cherokee as it descends on Derry. Ed is emaciated, wearing a white scarf as a headband, and has painted his face with his own blood. He is singing Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" and is utterly consumed by his mission. Ralph tears the wires from the bomb and wrestles for control of the plane, but Ed fights with desperate strength. In the final seconds, Ralph grabs a photo of Helen and Natalie taped to the instrument panel, and Ed's focus shatters. He screams for them back, and Ralph punches him in the throat. The plane crashes into the parking lot, killing Ed instantly, but the explosion is partially shielded by the cars, saving the lives of most inside.
The Undesignated Pawn
Ed's role in the cosmic struggle between the Purpose and the Random is unique. Clotho and Lachesis reveal that he is "undesignated"—a blank card in the deck, neither belonging to the Purpose nor the Random. When Atropos severed his life-cord, Ed fell directly under the influence of the Crimson King, a malevolent entity from a higher level of existence. He becomes a guided missile, a puppet whose madness is weaponized. Ralph recognizes that Ed is not entirely a monster; he is a victim of forces he cannot comprehend. In his final moments, Ed's love for his wife and daughter is the only thing that can distract him from his mission, a tragic remnant of the man he once was. His death in the crash is the end of a long, terrible fall from grace.
