Previously: I told some lies. There was money inside Lodz's wallets; sorry about that. Okay, and remember how I kept saying that the tapes didn't have captioning, so I'd find out what some characters were saying when the show aired? What I meant was, "So you don't need to send me lots of email about it, because by the time you know that I was wrong, so will I." I do appreciate that you just wanted to help, but I seriously don't have time to reply to each of you, so for the record: "Thank you, yes, it was [insert your correction here]." So anyway, last week Sofie got a new home, Varlyn got a new mission, and Brother Justin got a new maid.
Carnivàle. Night. Spookiness. Sofie wakes up and feels an overwhelming need to go bother Ben. He's crashed out under a truck, and grunts as she tells him that she smelled smoke in the trailer.
Ben obligingly pokes around a little in the trailer without noticing anything untoward. He suggests that it was a dream, and leaves.
Morning. Ruthie shows off her cleavage, which is impressive even when she's lying on her back wearing just a nightgown. That's talent, my friends. Ruthie sits up as she looks through the sheer curtains hanging around her bed, and sees Lodz in her trailer. She asks, "Gabe?," and I wonder if she needs glasses. When Ruthie pulls the curtains aside, Lodz is gone.
Future site of the Jericho temple. There's a lovely farmhouse up on a hill overlooking the site, which will matter later. For now, the important thing is that a shanty town appears to be forming around the tent. Brother Justin, Iris, and Dolan are touring the grounds as Dolan insists that Justin will have to turn some of these people away. He argues that some of them are there because they're "looking for a hot meal." They're only doing stuff so they don't starve? What jerks! Justin and Iris are adamant about helping anyone who comes them. Justin smirks, "They've come because they were called, Mr. Dolan. We need them all." Iris gives Dolan a "Nyah!" look, and follows Justin away.
Carnivàle. At breakfast, Sofie insists to Ben that the smoke was real, and not part of a dream. She looks prettier than usual this week, and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because she's interacting with people instead of just looking surly. Ben says, "Sometimes I wonder if all this ain't the dream." Ben's just like Chuang Tze. Sofie says that if this is a dream, she'd like to wake up. This is apparently the most hilarious thing that Ben has ever heard in his whole life, because he actually allows the ghost of a smile to cross his face for a microsecond. Sofie says he should do that more often. Ugh. Ben looks around and asks if Sofie would read the cards for him, but Sofie says she can't with Apollonia gone. Or can she? Well, we won't find out this week, which means she can, but God forbid that something happen without several weeks of foreshadowing. Ben urges Sofie to give it a try, but Sofie refuses, and then asks Ben to take the cards from the trailer and burn them. Christ, can't you at least do that much yourself, Sofie? She mopes off just as Samson arrives to ask if Ben will need a truck today. Samson establishes that they've been in Ingram a week while Ben looks for whatever he's looking for. Ben gets defensive and snaps, "It's not like Kerrigan gave me a road map." Samson backs down, and Ben says he's going to check out some roads in the hills. Samson says he'll tell Management, and as he leaves, he advises Ben to watch his back. Uh oh, that was always bad news for Garibaldi. As Samson heads for Management's trailer, he tells a nearby carnie to "turn off that damn squawk-o-dyne!" That'd be the radio. The carnie reaches for the radio dial, we cut to...
...Radio KoZAK. The announcer is plugging Moxie soda before introducing this week's broadcast of the Church of the Air. Brother Justin moves to the microphone, abandoning a composition book he was scribbling in, and starts chattering about salt. As a metaphor, you understand. From a corner of the studio, Iris looks at Justin's "notes" and sees that they consist of doodles of eyeballs and genitalia. Making the props for this show must be fun. Iris closes the book and slips it under her arm. Justin goes on about salt as an irritant and also a blessing, and yada yada.
Varlyn is listening to Justin on his car radio as he drives past Burma Shave-ish signs telling him, "You'll love Babylon." That doesn't rhyme or anything.
Ben is tossing the tarot cards into a fire burning in a steel drum, because he's whipped. Not literally. Not yet. Ruthie joins him and starts to dump some dead snakes into the fire, explaining, "One of them must've bit the others, or they got sick. Who knows why some things die?" Then she asks Ben why he's been avoiding him, and wonders if she did something to offend him. Ben insists that he isn't hiding from her, and then snaps, "I don't want to be around you -- satisfied?" Ruthie, bemused, asks what he's scared of. Ben says, "The only thing [that] scares me is folks using other folks to use me." Ruthie somehow sorts her way through that sentence and asks if Ben thinks she's using him. Ben tells her to forget it, and non sequiturs, "You said it: some things die." What? Ruthie meaningfully argues, "Some things don't," and huffs off. I get it and all, but even so, what the hell? Ben stares grumpily into the fire, and finally notices one singed card with a drawing of a guy with a tree on his chest. Y'all know that Ben's not very bright, right? So he reaches in, ows, and finally tips the drum over so he can retrieve the card. The music gets all whirly to let us now that this is significant. Ben picks up the card, which is number 23 in the Major Arcana, which doesn't exist, but come on: 23! And it's the tree-guy, and the card is named "Le Passeur," which translates pretty well to "Usher," so we've learned: nothing at all. Whoopee.
Rita Sue is griping to Stumpy about her workload as she does her makeup. Stumpy insists that he's trying to suck up to a guy who might be Ingram's mayor someday. Rita Sue is unconvinced, and finally says, "I'm all...messed up down there." Stumpy nods, grabs a soda, and takes a swig. Then he hands the bottle to Rita Sue, who covers the top with her thumb and starts shaking it. She shoos Stumpy out as the soda starts fizzing, and thank goodness we push in on her face as she...well, douches with it. Ow.
Ben starts to drive away, but calls Sofie over to the truck. He shows her the Usher card and asks what it means. Sofie insists that it's not one of her cards, and goes back to work.
Balthus, still catatonic, is transported by car past the crowds in the shantytown. The Ambulance pulls up at the farm house on the hill, where movers are unloading furniture from another truck. Justin and Iris step out of the house and welcome Balthus to his new home. Where they'll all be living together. Won't that be nice? I smell a sitcom. And suddenly Balthus reminds me of Jerri Blank's dad.
Libby greets Jonesy as she soaks her feet in epsom salts. She kicks a towel onto the ground, and Jonesy hurries over to retrieve it for her. And gets it all muddy just by touching it, but Libby smiles gratefully at him anyway. Samson joins them, and asks Libby what's going on. Libby explains that Rita Sue has a customer, which surprises Samson. Samson doesn't really care, just like the rest of the world, so he heads off with Jonesy.
Jonesy says he needs more help with the ferris wheel, and it comes out that Sofie's working on it, and that the other carnies are unhappy about that. Jonesy argues that Sofie doesn't know what she's doing. Samson chuckles, "So? Osgood don't know how to find his pecker if the light isn't on. He manages." Jonesy spits by way of reply. He's really good at that. Samson finally says that he likes Sofie, and that if Jonesy has a problem with her, he'll have to fire her himself.
Sofie, up near the hub of the ferris wheel, drops a wrench, which falls near another carnie. He yells at her. She apologizes. Jonesy sighs. I take a coffee break.
And good timing, too, since we've cut to a diner where Dolan is getting a ham & eggs platter. The waitress notes that it's a bit late for breakfast, and Dolan enthuses, "I could eat breakfast three times a day!" I'm with him. Although I probably couldn't choke down one breakfast while watching this particular episode. The waitress just stares like this isn't the most fascinating thing she's ever heard, and starts to leave. Dolan smarmily grabs her arm and in a low voice says, "The night of the fire at the mission. You saw the car." The waitress jerks away and tells him to talk to the cops, pegging him as a "damned vulture." And we saw vultures last week at the Hawkins farm! And vultures are linked to death, and that naturally takes us to Osiris, and well, I don't have to spell it out, right? Obviously, this means that the waitress represents Eleanor Roosevelt! Wow,what was in that coffee? Sorry. Dolan smoothly lies his ass off, saying that he was approached by a girl who gave up her child for adoption a few years ago, and that she wanted to know if her son was one of the victims of the fire. He concludes, "I had to tell her he was. Me, not the cops." He starts slicing up his food as he mentions that "the flesh of those children was roasted so black, it fell straight away from their bones when they tried to move them." An extra sitting nearby suddenly gives Dolan a wonderfully pained, sad look and leaves. I liked that guy a lot. Under the prolonged guilt-trip, the waitress finally says that the person in the car was "slumped down," so she couldn't see him. Dolan asks, "Sure it was a him?" The waitress admits that it could have been a woman. Dolan allows a delighted gleam to pass over his face for a second, and goes back to his breakfast. A moment later, he says, "Just one more thing. Toast. I asked for wheat toast." Heh.
Man. I didn't even want to think about this scene again, much less describe it. A man and girl walk down the road, only the man is bent over with some kind of back injury, and leaning on a crutch so he's actually shorter than the girl, who appears to be mentally...um, ready forAmerican Idol, if you know what I mean. Ben drives up and asks the man if he's heard of someone called "The Crone." Good lord. He's been doing that for a week? Okay, does Management tell him to do this stuff, or is he totally on his own? I think I had more patience the first season, when Ben didn't have a clue what was going on. But now, I'm left wondering if he is willing to just accept the bits and pieces Management provides, and if so, why. Some guy behind a curtain says, "You've gotta save the world. From something. Can't say what. Or how. Or anything. Now we're going to Texas. Good luck!" Wouldn't you demand a little more explanation?
Anyway. The crook-backed man gives Ben directions to a house on Old Cherry Blossom Road. Ben gets ready to move on, but the man asks him to step out for a second, saying, "I need to show you something." Ben finally does, and is led around the car to the little girl. Who is, I don't know, twelve? I'm awful at guessing ages. She's young. The man tells her, "Go on, show him." She lifts up her skirt. Ben recoils and says, "What the hell did you do that for?" The girl starts idly tracing the triangles on the car as the man nervously explains, "She's abnormal. A retard. But she don't complain. Won't tell nobody. Back of your truck for two dollars. She's tight." I need to spend a week bathing. I mean, we're supposed to be horrified, I don't think the show is being, I don't know, exploitative or anything, but GAH. Ben grabs the man by his collar, and then the man looks up, sad and scared, and I'll just distract myself by noting that Ben does look kind of attractive here if you ignore the context. I think it's the stubble. Makes him look older. After a moment of plaintive plinking on the soundtrack, Ben releases the old man, who's starting to tear up. He moans, "I'm sorry," and it's kind of...well, it's impressive that they found a guy who could look that sympathetic, because five seconds ago I was mad that we weren't going to get to see him beaten to death. But yeah, he looks pathetic, and Ben looks a little bit sad himself as he finally shoves some money in the guy's coat pocket and mutters, "Don't do that no more." The old man sniffs, "No! I won't. Ever again." He cries to himself as Ben goes back to the truck. So I assume that Ben did some mojo there. I'm not sure that Ben did it intentionally, but I feel that way about most of the things Ben does.
Varlyn is singing! "Me and My Shadow," in fact, which makes me think of Time Bandits, which, in turn, makes me happy. He strides up to a monument and reads a plaque that says, "In loving memory of the 121 fathers, brothers and sons who perished in the Babylon Mine cave-in, 1921." Varlyn pulls out a book of some sort, and I note that his vest does not fit properly. Which might mean he took it off the body of someone a little smaller than he is. Or I might be overdoing it again. He looks at the names on the monument, and crosses off something in his book.
Time passes. Varlyn works his way around the monument, checking the names against those in his book. Which turns out to be a schedule or something from the Babylon Mining Company. So he's trying to find out who survived the cave-in, apparently. By now, the only name left is....surprise! Henry Scudder. Off Varlyn goes, singing again. Um. Did we learn anything there? He was sent off to find Scudder. I don't understand what he's accomplishing with this. But props to the eagle-eyed posters for noticing that some of the guys on the monument are owners of The Book of Matthias. Which is nice, but I still don't see what, if anything, that signifies. I guess we can assume that Buttridge was a Mason, too, and that Scudder's reason for killing him is connected to that. Maybe. The problem I'm having is that once you bring Masons into it, you can connect anything to anything else. They're like the Kevin Bacon of history.
Brother Justin is singing "Me and My Shadow," too, as he wheels Balthus around the new Casa de Creepy. He moves Balthus to a table on the wide porch, and prepares to serve Balthus some Gerber's applesauce. As he feeds Balthus, he reminisces about sitting on Balthus's knee as a child, and how the first word he read was "garden," in Balthus's Bible. Justin abruptly says, "It's going to glisten, Norman. The radio tower alone will be over 200 feet tall." Oh, so that's what he saw in his vision. Norman's eyes flicker out of nowheresville and into focus, and he suddenly spits a mouthful of applesauce all over Justin. Justin wipes his face and blithely continues, "In a single coast-to-coast broadcast, I will speak to more souls than our Lord did in his entire lifetime." Norman does not seem to be cheered by that as Justin concludes, "It's going to be breathtaking."
Ben drives up Old Cherry Blossom Road until the way is blocked by a fallen tree branch. He gets out of the truck and peers up the overgrown road.
Stumpy lets a bunch of kids into the Gay Paree tent. Ew, yet again. Libby peers out at the audience and tells Rita Sue, "You ain't gonna like this, Momma." Rita Sue looks past the curtain and shakes her head as Stumpy invites his wife and daughter to demonstrate "the meaning of the word 'desire.'" Libby steps out and starts to dance as the boys goggle. And look a little frightened. Heh.
Stumpy steps backstage, where Rita Sue bitches at him for "peddling flesh to a goddamn Sunday School outing." She says that they're going to get arrested, and Stumpy reassures her that the Sheriff's son is in the crowd. "It's his birthday," he says unconvincingly. As he's talking, Stumpy spots a mustached gent who pokes his head into the tent. Stumpy waves, and the man withdraws. Rita Sue grumpily goes out to join Libby onstage.
As soon as Rita Sue's dancing, Stumpy hurries out of the tent to chat with the mustachioed man, hereafter known as "Bud." Stumpy invites Bud inside to watch the show. Bud declines. Then they stare around for ten seconds on the clock, and Stumpy chummily says that he'd better get back inside. Bud is not chummy. More staring. Stumpy finally says, "Later, after the show." Bud nods. Exit Stumpy. Phew. Bud turns and looks at the squeaky ferris wheel that Sofie was working on so that we don't forget about it when it finally matters somehow.
Cut from the spinning ferris wheel to Ben staring at a spinning windmill on a weathervane. Ben eases on down the road and finds the 1930s version of the Island of Misfit Toys. Call it the Clearing of Quartered mannequins. Or, on second thought, don't. Bits of mannequins are strewn about in piles, along with some tin plates and jelly glasses. And tin cans, and...well, rubble. One child-mannequin has a nail through its forehead. Aw, somebody made their own geek show. Of course, the mannequins move and speak even less than the characters on this show, so the parallels aren't perfect. Ben calls, "Hey!" without getting any response from the mannequins.
Ben steps into a decrepit building, or a shed someone threw together, or some damn thing. Inside here's more rubble, and pigeonholes filled with little parcels and envelopes. Ben picks one up and unties it. Inside there's some hair, and a lot of flies. Ben drops the packet and stares, before finally stepping back into the clearing and calling out again.
Varlyn's at a Western Union office. He sends a telegram (collect) to Brother Justin that says he's leaving Texas for Mexico. And that there's "impressive scenery." Oh yes, and he says that it's from "Michael." Other than Samson, I think Varlyn's the most sympathetic character on the show.
There's a full moon, naturally, as Ben continues stumbling around in the woods with only his lighter to see by. He finds a dead critter hanging in a tree, and a crumpled paper with it. This is kind of like the treasure hunts we used to do for birthdays when I was little, where you had to follow clues all over the house until you found the present. Except with dead animals. And no lights. And I don't think there'll be a Barbie Dream House at the end of it. Ben decrumples the paper and sees that it's an ad for artificial eyes. Someone likes doing taxidermy!
A twig snaps nearby, and Ben shuts his lighter and then calls out, which is kind of a mixed message. We hear someone yelping in the distance. Ben shouts, "I ain't no trespasser -- what's yours is yours." Er, but you are a trespasser, Ben. More yelping, from at least two people. Ben stumbles over a tripwire, causing a line of cookware to clatter up in the trees. Ben shouts again, "I ain't the law. Ain't no poacher!," and stumbles over another wire. More clattering. Way more clattering that seems reasonable for hitting one rope briefly, but that's me. And then another dead critter suddenly drops down right by Ben, dangling from a rope as he ducks out of the way. If it were a duck, that would be funny. Then Groucho could step out and give him a prize.
Ben starts running, and we see one of his pursuers pacing him in the foreground. More yelping. The forest has also suddenly gotten quite foggy. Eventually Ben comes to a huge tree trunk, and sort of hides badly in a scraggly bush by a particularly impressive root. Something pings into the tree trunk near his head. Ben leans over to examine the missile, and in the half-second close-up, I swear that 75% of the screen is black. I'll just assume it's a rock, although my first theory was that it's an artificial eye.
One of Ben's pursuers finally steps out into the light so that we can get a long, good look at him. No, just kidding. We see someone in overalls step out into a slightly less-dark patch of moonlight. He's wearing overalls, carrying a slingshot, and reaching into his pocket for another rock. Or whatever it is. As he starts to aim the slingshot, Ben rushes out and tackles the guy, and then starts smashing him in the face with his own slingshot. He gets so caught up in that that he forgets there are other people around until he's grabbed from behind by two more guys, who easily beat Ben into submission.
The three guys. Okay, there's the one Ben tackled, who's got sandy hair and the overalls and Dennis the Menace seems like an obvious name. There's one with a curly beard and dark hair. We'll go with Bluto for him. And one looks a little bit like Jason Lee.
The ferris wheel keeps on turning, Proud Mary keeps on burning. Jonesy is brooding over a baseball while Sofie does something I don't understand with a stack of tires. Jonesy whispers, "When you were a kid, you thought the seams [on the baseball] were veins." I see. Sofie looks around, and they make a big point of the fact that from where she is, Jonesy is hidden in the shadow of a car. Jonesy rolls the baseball away and leaves. Sofie starts to wheel the tire somewhere, and sees the baseball. She looks around like this is terribly mysterious.
Ruthie dances with her snake. Charmingly. She loops the snake around her neck, and then suddenly it's coiled around her neck and tightening. She starts to gasp, and a man in the crowd shouts, "Somebody he'p!" as she collapses onto the stage. Gabe pops out from backstage and pulls the snake away. Yay. I love Gabe. Once freed, Ruthie tells Gabe, "Kill it!" Gabe hesitates, but the crowd agrees, so he kneels down and starts whipping the snake's head into the stage over and over and over. Er, couldn't you have just twisted its neck, Mister Strong Man? Blood spatters a few people in the crowd. Gabe keeps on playing crack the whip.
Ben is hanging upside down in the shed-y place. And he's shirtless. Well, I think he's naked, but all we see is that he's shirtless, and I'm comfortable with it staying that way. The three stooges are sitting around, jelly glasses of moonshine in their hands, as they watch the bonfire of mannequin parts. It's almost like one of our staff TWoPcons. And then a monkey runs up, and it's exactly like a TWoPcon. There are two women, one very pregnant, going through Ben's clothing nearby. The monkey joins them, and I start to get very concerned that the monkey is the third guy's common-law wife. Oh, Carnivàle. Why must you make such thoughts possible? One of the girls finds the watch fob of doom, and hands it to the other. The pregnant girl looks around, and then shoves it into her pocket.
Dennis walks over to wear Ben's hanging, carrying a flail. Sure, why not a flail? If you've already got mannequin bits and a monkey, naturally you'd complete the decor with a cat o' nine tails. Ben asks, "What are you doing?" Dennis replies, "Ain't it clear?" Point for Dennis. The flailing begins. The monkey jumps up and down excitedly, and finally Bluto tells Dennis, "That's enough, now. Leave some for the worms." Dennis doesn't stop until Bluto shouts at him. This is what life was like before cable, people. Dennis wanders over, grabs a shovel, and tells Jason Lee, "Go bury him." Jason Lee makes a face like, "I always get the crap job," but gets up and takes the shovel. As Jason Lee wanders away, Bluto adds, "Deep! Not like the last one." The monkey perches by Dennis's head, and he cuddles her and says, "That's right, Joanne. You're a pretty little lady, that's what you are." She licks his cheek. Oh, Carnivàle. Why?
The crowds are clearing out as the Carnivàle shuts down for the night. Inside the Gay Paree tent, Libby eavesdrops as Stumpy has another chat with Bud. Stumpy explains that they've been working hard, and Bud asks, "Where is it?" Libby peeks into the main tent, where Bud finishes counting some money and asks,"Where's the rest?" Stumpy finally says, "week." What if they've moved on by week? Is Bud a traveling bookie? Bud nods and quietly tells Stumpy, "Don't make me take measures." Stumpy quickly insists that no measures will be necessary. Bud agrees to come back week, and Stumpy says, "That's mighty white of ya." Rita Sue enters suddenly, and Stumpy introduces her to his old friend, Bud Everhard. That's an even better name than Buttridge. Rita Sue does not remember Bud, so Stumpy says that he and Bud tried to open a whorehouse near Albuquerque. Rita Sue gives Stumpy an excellent "Yeah. Right" look. Bud bids his adieus with a final, quiet "week," and exits. Stumpy goes on trying to bullshit Rita Sue until she asks, point-blank, how much Stumpy owes Bud. Stumpy protesteth much too much at this accusation, and exits.
Sofie lights a lamp in her trailer, and looks at her icky blistered hands. Then she turns and sees the tarot cards on the table. The soundtrack goes briefly crazy so that the audience looks up from its knitting. Sofie says, "What do you want?," and the cards suddenly flutter up and all over the floor. Sofie looks down and starts to cry softly.
Brother Justin and Balthus are inside Casa de Creepy now, sitting at a table. Celeste is sitting on the floor, unpacking plates, while Justin enjoys a cool glass of milk. Justin watches Celeste work, and then deliberately tips his glass over so that the last bit of milk splashes onto the table and floor. She hears the noise and hurries over to wipe up the mess. Justin helpfully points out that she missed a spot on the floor, and she kneels down and begins to wipe off his shoe. I am recapping someone cleaning up spilled milk. Sigh. Anyway, she cleans the shoe until Justin reaches down, puts his hands on her head, and kisses her. Justin says, "You look as if you're about to pray. Your mother taught you how to pray, didn't she?" Justin leans back in his chair as Celeste wordlessly drops out of camera range, and it seems that she's into phallic worship. I guess they weren't kidding about bringing back that old-time religion. Justin smiles and says, "Oh, my dear Celeste, I will show you things. Wonderful, terrible things..." And then he gets a little distracted from his train of thought. He glances over at Balthus, who's probably thinking he could use a little prayer himself.
Jason Lee is just about done digging a nice big hole. Ben lies tied up nearby, panting. Jason Lee kicks Ben into the hole, and starts to bury him. Well, if you want to be a fertility god, this is what you've gotta put up with.
Back at the bonfire, Dennis looks over the valuables the girls recovered from Ben's clothes and grumps, "That's it? $3.28, a hobo knife, and some goddamn buttons?" Dennis thinks the pregnant girl is holding out on them, and Bluto encourages her to share. She grudgingly pulls out the watch fob, and Bluto looks it over. Dennis grabs it, and then spots the initials on the back and gasps, "Oh shit."
Bluto and Dennis run over to Jason Lee shouting, "Ern! Stop!" I think the "Ern" might actually be a slurred "Aaron," but who am I to deny the captioning? They knock Ern out of the way and jump into the bit, unburying Ben in a panic. The showers of dirt they start tossing up are kind of impressive. I believe that Dennis gasps, "Our kin!," but the captioning doesn't agree. Now my trust is gone.
Ben is dragged out of the hole, dirtier than ever, and hacking up mud. Thanks. Bluto holds up the watch fob and asks if it belongs to Ben. Ben gasps, "Yeah." Bluto says, "She been waitin' for you."
Carnivàle. Ruthie's awake in her bed when her door opens. She sees a silhouette in the door and grabs her robe. This time she recognizes her visitor, and asks, "Lodz? Where you been?" Lodz walks away. Ruthie follows him outside.
Lodz leads Ruthie across the camp and to his former trailer. Ruthie goes inside.
In the trailer, Sofie is asleep in a chair as music plays on the radio. Lodz is nowhere to be seen, but the tarot cards are still scattered across the floor. Ruthie looks around, and finally grabs a blanket and tucks Sofie in, and then turns the lamp off. And exits. Well, that was enlivening.
The music starts to fade out, replaced with static. We zoom in on the radio and hear Brother Justin faintly, talking about how the shepherd lies down with his flock. Ha! He says that the shepherd is "forever vigilant against the Beast. The sheep are nothing without the shepherd." Sofie opens her eyes, and no, they're not all-black; she's just got dark eyes. Justin explains that there is no greater honor than for the sheep to give its life for the shepherd's table. Fade out.
time: Ben realizes that the circus freaks are preferable to the other kind, and Iris expresses some resistance to being an honored sheep.