Firstly, this episode aired on my nephew Kevin's birthday, so happy birthday to him! He'll be delighted to know that, according to HBO, this episode features graphic violence, brief nudity, adult content, and adult language. Which means he won't even be allowed to read the recap for, like, twenty years. Sorry, kiddo.
Previously: Ben found the Usher's card. Sadly, it wasn't a business card, or we could probably wrap this up in an hour. Justin preyed, Celeste prayed, and Ben went to a family reunion.
Credits. Okay, I guess I'll start to share. You know the triangles in the show's logo? Ideally they'd be equilateral triangles, but I'm just going to overlook that and assume they wanted it to look pretty. The triangle with its base down is the alchemical symbol for fire, and is associated with male and positive aspects. That's the one the moon and star are in. The triangle with the point down means water and is associated with feminine, negative aspects; that's the one with the sun. Please note that negative doesn't mean "bad." That's the one the moon and star are in. The triangle with the point down means fire, and is similarly associated with male and positive aspects; that's the one with the sun. Think of them as a more angular yin-yang. If you superimpose one triangle on top of the other you get a hexagram. These symbols are associated with the Templars and Freemasons, naturally. Although hexagrams are associated with pretty much any group that someone wants to claim is Satanic. And this is why I'm still resisting the idea that light and dark necessarily equate to good and evil.
We open at Casa de Creepy. Balthus is lying in bed. He stares up at a stain on the ceiling above him. The stain resembles a beast's head in profile -- I'd go with "dragon," myself, but a wolf works too. We can hear a a bed creaking upstairs, and a woman crying out. At first, they might be the happy kind of shrieks, but pretty soon, yikes. Balthus stares upward. And then there are rumbling growls mixed in with the noises from upstairs. Balthus begins shaking his right arm, and manages to thump it against the bed as the woman upstairs shrieks.
Morning already. How time flies. Ben is led through the woods by his new best friends, who have tied his hands together as a gesture of goodwill. Maybe they don't want him accidentally healing anyone of their fucked-up-ness. Ben asks where they're going. Dennis replies by punching Ben in the gut, and insisting, "We should have left him in the ground. She never would have known." Bluto tosses Dennis away and says that "she" would have seen what was happening. Ben asks if they're taking him to the Crone. Jason Lee, the monkey perched on his shoulder, suggests that addressing her as "The Crone" is a bad idea. Ben asks what her name is, and Dennis rushes back over, holds Ben's face against his crotch as he, er, thrusts, and says, "Fuck your mouth, that's her name!" So, Kevin, what's it like in the year 2024? I hope you enjoy being able to download these recaps directly into your brain. Bluto hauls Dennis away from Ben again and gasps, "Are you trying to get us killed?" Bluto helps Ben up, and my favorite part is that Bluto apologetically tries to brush the dirt off of Ben's clothes. Like that's even possible. I think the dirt is the only thing holding his clothes together at this point. Ben tells Dennis, "I'll kill you for that." Dennis smirks, and they move on.
The group arrives at a house surrounded by overgrown plants. On the enclosed front porch, a bald man with a sandy beard eyes the watch fob and asks, "Where did you get this, boy?" Ben declines to say, and Dennis lunges at him again. Bluto asks Sandy if he's going to take Ben upstairs. Sandy drawls, "She wants to see you first...Lee." "Lee" turns out to be Dennis, who doesn't seem thrilled about that news. I'm not thrilled either, because now the "Jason Lee" thing is going to be really confusing. Dear Carnivàle writers: Either give everyone names when we first see them, or don't ever mention their names. Thanks, Strega. P.S. Please make sense soon.
Samson's in the chow line as he tells Stumpy, "Forget it." As breakfast is served, Stumpy whines for a while. It seems that Stumpy wants to do midday shows in the Gay Paree tent. You know, for the kids! Samson vetoes that idea. I love Samson and all, but there's still not enough happening in this scene for me to spend more time on it.
Jonesy marches up to some carnies and learns that someone named Angus has left. Burley adds, "Said he's tired of working with a split-tail." Jonesy looks over at Sofie, who's working on the carousel a little ways away. Burley turns to Osgood for backup and asks, "Ain't that what he said?" Osgood mutters, "He didn't say nothin' like that to me." Jonesy asks for a pair of gloves, and Osgood says he thought that Jonesy had his own gloves. Jonesy suddenly discovers how to be snide: "I did, but I don't no more." The delivery was funny, trust me. Burley continues to complain about Sofie, and finally turns away saying, in a terribly looped line, "Maybe you ought to grow a pair and can her ass." Jonesy snaps, "What was that?" Burley corrects himself: "Um, I said, 'Baby, you ought to show your mare some fresh-cut grass.'" Okay, he just grumbles that it was nothing, and stomps off.
Jonesy marches to the carousel and tells Sofie to come with him. He leads her to where two carnies are starting to dig a latrine pit, and tells them to shove off. Then he marks out an eight by four patch of dirt and tells Sofie to dig a hole four feet deep. Sofie picks up a shovel and starts digging.
Brother Justin sings "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" to himself as he admires himself in his bedroom mirror. He appears to be looking at something at the reflection of something off to the left as he sings, "For still our ancient foe/ does seek to work us woe."
Justin steps out of his room and runs into Iris in the hallway. He kisses her good morning (in a chaste way) and asks why she's carrying laundry around. Iris cheerfully insists that she can pitch in even if they have Celeste to help. Justin broodingly sighs, "Celeste." Iris asks what's up, and Justin shrugs, "Oh, I'm afraid she's not working out." He gives a "What can you do?" eyebrow-raise and heads downstairs. Iris ponders that, and then puts down the basket and enters Justin's bedroom.
Iris walks past the bed and spots Celeste. She's huddled on the floor to the bed, naked, although her arms and legs are drawn up so that no naughtiness is revealed. So really, this scene is totally safe for Kevin to see. If he doesn't mind being freaked right the fuck out in a second. Celeste's head is turned so that her hair hides her face. Iris stares for a second and says, "Celeste?" Celeste turns her head, and her eyes are wide and crazy, and she's got this giant grin, and holy crap, that's really disturbing. It helps that, with her hair down, she looks a bit like Laura Palmer toward the end of Fire Walk With Me. But even without that association: yikes. Iris sort of gulps, and then sits down on the floor and holds Celeste, whispering, "It's over now." As we move in on Celeste, who starts gigglingly sobbing, or sobbingly giggling, we can see a nasty bite mark on her shoulder. Iris sure is unflappable.
Bluto and Sandy stand with Ben at the bottom of a staircase in the house. Ben, entertainingly, tries to make small talk by asking whether they all live in the house. Sandy says, "Sometimes." Ben sniffs disapprovingly and asks what he's smelling. Sandy explains, "She likes cats." From upstairs, we hear distant thumps, like people moving rapidly across the floor in heavy shoes. Then there's some high-pitched whimpering. Ben asks what the noise is. Sandy gazes up the stairs and says, "Her." We go to a POV shot, and the top of the staircase is completely hidden in darkness. Which reminds me of Twin Peaks also, except with blackness instead of a ceiling fan. Ben turns and eyes some framed photos on the wall. One is a portrait of a young couple in their wedding clothes, and Ben asks, "Is that her?" Sandy sighs, "Better days." A door opens upstairs, and Lee (né Dennis) rushes down the stairs with one hand over his mouth. He turns at the bottom of the stairs, headed for the back of the house, when Sandy says, "Lee?" With his back to them, Lee lowers his hand so that we can see some long stitches through his lips are holding his mouth shut. Sandy hands the shotgun he's been holding to Bluto and cheerfully tells Ben, "Your turn," before leading him upstairs.
A woman's hand draws a needle through a needlepointed image of a baby. Its left eye is out of proportion. Eye of Horus! More moon imagery! Y'know, maybe.
Sandy opens a door, unties Ben's hands, and shoves Ben through the door before slamming it shut again. Ben immediately lunges for the door, but it's locked shut. Ben finally turns and explores the room he's been locked inside. Framed pictures cover the walls, including a rough drawing of crosses around a Confederate flag, and a photograph of a lynching. A cat runs by Ben's feet, yowling for no reason. (That isn't the cat-scare that got me, for the record.) The camera pans over to a dresser, upon which is a doll and...well, honestly, some stuff. I assume the camera moved over to it because I was supposed to see something important, but I'm not sure what, and this whole "toy with the audience" thing is tiresome. There's a huge bed in the room, hung with gauze curtains, the better to generate suspense. Ben moves around the bed until he sees a woman in a rocking chair in the corner, with her back to him. I assume that the reference to Psycho was intentional. Ben says, "Hey," which isn't a terribly polite greeting. The woman, her face hidden, drops the needlepoint she's been working on. Ben says "Hey" again, and puts his hand on her shoulder. The woman immediately grabs his wrist and pulls him down until she can reach over with her right hand and explore his face. "You're his boy!" she gasps. "I've been waiting so long for you." Ben shakily asks the woman who she is. She says, "You and me is blood, boy," and turns so that we can see her eyes are...well, not there. It's like the skin grew over them. She adds, "I'm your grandma." Oh. How...nice?
Carnivàle. Ruthie and Lila are collecting their clothes from the laundry line. Ruthie looks around and asks, "Do you smell something burning?" Lila doesn't. As Ruthie pulls more clothing off the line, she sees a black-clad, veiled woman standing in a field. Ruthie looks back to Lila for a second, as if she was going to say something and thought better of it. When she looks at the field again, the woman is gone.
Sofie rests for a second. The pit she's digging is about a foot deep. One of the carnies, named Fletch, looks at Sofie and says, "Didn't know Janes could pesspire [sic] like that." Burley chuckles, "You never made a woman sweat before?" Burley bets that Sofie will quit within forty minutes. Fletch figures Sofie will last two hours. Burley bets "half a bean" that Sofie quits in half an hour. As Fletch tries to work out how much half a bean is, Burley asks Osgood if he's interested in betting. Osgood shakes his head and leaves. Fletch and Burley spit in their hands and shake on the bet.
Burley approaches Stumpy, who's carrying costumes across the camp, and mentions that he'll be coming into some money soon. Stumpy congratulates him without knowing why he's supposed to care. Burley finally asks Stumpy if he could make a date with Rita Sue tonight. Stumpy nixes that, pointing out that "Rita don't roll with trade." As Stumpy continues on his way, Burley snaps, "What about Jonesy?" Stumpy sags a bit and turns to ask, "What about him?" Burley argues that Jonesy "got hisself a piece." Stumpy stares at Burley for a second, and then chuckles, "Forget it."
Bluto is toying with some dice at the foot of the stairs. There's noise from above, and Sandy raises his shotgun nervously as Ben starts to lead Gramma backwards down the steps. Ben asks if Scudder ever mentioned him, or explained why he left. Gramma sounds bored as she says, "There was people after him." Sandy calls Ern, who runs up and goggles before asking, "How'd she get out?" Bluto doesn't know. The sight of Ben leading her isn't big enough clue? I guess Ben comes by his rapier wits honestly. Gramma asks Ben, "Those your cousins down there?" Ben looks down and mutters, "Cousins?" He then answers, "I guess they are." She sweetly tells Ben, "Those boys are jealous of you. They'd like to see you dead." The boys quickly insist that they wouldn't, and just as quickly trail off. Gramma grins and adds, "Ask Lee. He'll tell you." She turns to smile at the men at the foot of the stairs. Heh. Bluto nervously tells Gramma that they can bring anything she needs upstairs. Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, Gramma says that Scudder grew up in this house, adding, "My baby. So pretty when he was a young-un." She coos about baby Scudder until Ben asks if she knows where Scudder is now. Gramma abruptly snaps, "All you do is ask questions! I'm talking about your daddy!" The other men edge back a tiny bit. Then she leans in to hug Ben, but mostly just sniffles at his neck and says, "You smell just like him." Ew.
Cooch tent. Rita Sue works on her hair while Stumpy reads Crime Busters magazine. He suddenly asks Rita Sue for the name of a scam someone they know pulled in Mobile. Rita Sue gives him the look that she pretty much always gives him, and asks, "The lunch counter?" Stumpy chuckles and suggests giving it a try. Rita Sue refuses. Libby asks what the "lunch counter" is. Rita Sue explains, "You squat down on the edge of the stage and clip 'em each a nickel so they can lick your snatch." Libby's slightly shocked, and Stumpy quickly insists that Rita Sue's got the details wrong: "Four bits, minimum." Heh. Rita Sue calmly says, "It's low," and tries to change the subject. Stumpy insists that they're missing opportunities, the way they're working now, and mentions that he had to reject an offer from Burley. Stumpy concludes, "We gotta look to...manifest our...diversity." Ha! Rita Sue exits. Libby asks, "You in the hole again, Daddy?" Stumpy defensively says, "No!" but then calms down and assures her that he's just "pitching in to help keep this flea circus rolling." I like how nice Stumpy always is to Libby. Libby thinks for a minute and casually suggests that she could do the lunch counter routine. Stumpy stares at her for a second, surprised, and then says, "Your mom's right, that was dumb idea." He kisses the top of her head, and leaves. Aw, he decided not to take money from men who wanted to go down on his daughter in public. For this show, that's about as heartwarming as it gets.
Loving, NM. Varlyn walks up to the Templar hall and knocks. The door is opened. Varlyn asks if he could have a chat, and flashes Sheriff Butterfield's badge.
Casa de Creepy. Brother Justin tells Dolan that the waitress might have been wrong about what she saw: "And as for Eleanor, given her history, she's hardly reliable." Dolan argues that if rumors spread that Iris set the fire, they're all screwed even if Iris isn't arrested. Justin grrs, "I will not condemn her based on such flimsy evidence!" He turns to face the window as he adds, "I need more than just two women saying 'maybe.'" Huh. He wants Iris totally out of the way, doesn't he?
Later, Dolan leaves the room, and gives Iris an awkward glance upon spotting her sitting at the desk.
Sofie's pit is about two feet deep now. Samson walks up and offers Sofie a bottle of soda. Sofie mutters that she doesn't want a break, and keeps digging. Samson tells Sofie that the carnies are placing bets on her. Sofie doesn't care. Samson rather admiringly asks, "You're gonna show 'em, huh?" Sofie grins and says that she's not trying to prove anything. Samson's smile fades and he asks what she is doing, then. Sofie says, "It beats curlin' up and dying. That's what I'd do if I had to read those goddamn cards." Samson sets the bottle down in the dirt and as he walks away, Libby stares at Sofie from the background. Sofie notices her. Libby looks at her sympathetically for a second, and moves on.
As Sofie keeps digging, we pan over to where Rita Sue is working on some mending, an open bottle of soda in front of her. Burley suddenly demands, "What's Jonesy got I ain't got?" Rita Sue shakes her head and keeps sewing. Burley walks closer and asks if the cat got her tongue. Rita Sue finally says, "No, I thought maybe it was a rhetorical question." Burley blinks and retorts, "Nothing retardical about it." Hee. Rita Sue smirks and asks if Burley's sure he wants to know. Burley looms over her and say that he is. Rita Sue eyes his crotch pointedly and smiles as she answers, "A limp." Burley grabs Rita Sue and grunts that she's nothing but a whore. He says, "Maybe I'll just come by -- pay you a visit." In close-up, you sure do notice how perfect his teeth are. Oops. Rita Sue shrugs out of Burley's grip and says, "I'll send you home wearin' your dick like a necktie!" Burley backs away while he tries to think of a retort, and then gives up and stomps away. Rita Sue calls after him, "Don't forget to bring your wallet!" I admire her attitude, but maybe she shouldn't taunt the demented carnie too much.
Stumpy, Lila, Rubber Boy, and some carnies have gathered in Lila's tent. Stumpy flips through Lodz's wallet. Which is full of money. The lighting's a lot better this time, okay? I'm not defensive! Much! A carnie asks, "Reckon he's dead?" Lila does. Rubber Boy wonders if maybe Lodz got a girlfriend. Lila yanks the wallet back and sniffs, "He got me." She figures that someone killed Lodz. Stumpy asks who, and Lila shrugs and says, "Who's runnin' the show now?" Stumpy can't believe Samson's capable of murder, but a carnie notes that he's "plenty big enough to pull a trigger." True 'nuff. Stumpy describes this as crazy talk. I love it when something is described as "crazy talk." The carnie admits that it looks odd, but that Lodz could reappear tomorrow. After a second, he says, "He'll be back," and exits, everyone but Lila following.
Varlyn exits the temple and strolls over to a bar across the street. He hands the bartender a bill and asks for a phone; he then places a collect call to Justin. And then there's a big explosion on the top floor of the Templar hall. Pedestrians dive to the ground and scream. Varlyn doesn't even blink, but he does daintily put one finger to his ear so that he can hear the phone more clearly. Heh. Varlyn tells Justin, "Scudder's got a boy looking for him." Justin advises Varlyn to look for the kid: "The boy may lead you to the man."
Gramma's singing "Abide With Me" as she fumbles around some gravestones. Ben watches from the background. Gravestone #1 is for Owen Scudder, who died August 1, 1889. Gramma says that Owen was Ben's uncle, and that the gravestone is for his Uncle Gilbert. The third is for Gramma's husband, Hilton. He's got a great big gravestone. And he also died on August 1, 1889. Gramma purrs that Hilton was "a mighty powerful Grand Dragon in these parts. And an Elk." Ben thinks, "My grandfather was a couple of animals?" She says that Hilton was a pallbearer at Nathan Forrest's funeral. Ben doesn't know who that is, so she growls, "He founded he Klan, boy. Him and your granddaddy, they had great plans for this country." Ben gets bored, understandably, and then looks at the graves again and notices something: "They all died on the same day." Gramma mutters about "a terrible thing." Ben asks if there was an accident, and Gramma huffs, "People die. Best you accept it now, boy. It ain't never an accident."
"Minnie the Moocher" plays as Libby practices a fan dance. Jonesy enters, explaining that he was told the stage floorboards squeaked. He gets to work, and Libby goes back to practicing her dance. There's lots of pausing and tension and lingering looks throughout all of this. Then Rita Sue enters. She suspects that Libby is distracting Jonesy from his work, but Jonesy insists that he's almost done. Rita Sue skeptically watches Libby dance, and then Jonesy finishes up and exits. Rita Sue avoids looking at Jonesy as he walks right by her, and as soon as he's gone, she marches onstage and takes the record off, like she's Tipper Gore or something. Libby argues that she thought the song worked. Rita Sue snaps, "Take a lesson from me, girl: don't fuck where you eat." Libby snaps, "I ain't you, Momma." Rita Sue looks hurt, and exits.
Once outside, Rita Sue grabs some tent ropes and sobs for a second, and then pulls herself together.
Sofie's still digging. A shovelful of dirt knocks the bottle over, and soda spills onto the ground. And then some men standing behind the latrine curtain start to do their business, and a stream of urine curls down into the pit. Sofie sees it and scrambles up out of the pit, and the carnies giggle. Honey, you were holding a shovel. And they've got their dicks in their hands. I'm just saying. In the background, Jonesy stops as he notices what's going on. Fletch and two other carnies step out from behind the curtain and giggle at Sofie as they walk away. Jonesy leaves, and Sofie hops back into the pit and resumes digging. Someone quietly sings "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." I have no idea who. If it's Sofie, she should give up digging and put on a ventriloquism show.
Brother Justin is sermonizing in his Tent of Jericho. He moves to the microphone and starts in on the "dark lie festering in the heart of our nation today." He mentions that the nation was founded on the ideas that we all deserved "liberty, equality, and the right to pursue happiness." Equality? And not life? Hm. Iris watches from one end of the stage. Dolan makes notes at the other end. Justin works his populist way toward denouncing bankers, getting the crowd all riled up. The rabble, it is roused.
Ben and Gramma are back up in her room now. Ben asks how she does her needlepoint when she can't see. Gramma says, "I don't have eyes. That don't mean I can't see." She's fumbling in her dresser for something buried under a Confederate flag. She tells Ben that she has a surprise for him, and finally digs out a long, narrow bundle of paper. She starts to unwrap it while Ben goes on poking around in the dim room. He uncovers a plaster mold of a face as Gramma unsheathes a trench knife. Ben asks what it is, and Gramma idly mentions, "That's my Henry's death mask." Ben has turned the mask over, and inscribed in the plaster we see "Evander Geddes, Creed, Okla. 1924." Ben turns the mask back over and asks Gramma, "He's dead?" Then he looks down at the mask, and its eyes open. Boo! He drops the mask, and it breaks on the floor. Gramma asks what happened as Ben complains, "You didn't say he was dead!" Gramma moans, "You broke it." Ben says it was an accident, and Gramma stands up, her back still to him, and repeats, "There are no accidents." She turns, moving the knife behind her back, and more sympathetically says, "I thought you knew." Ben asks what she's holding, and Gramma gestures for him to come closer as she explains that she has "something [his] daddy left for [him]. Something real pretty." She tells him to close his eyes for his present. Ben keeps his eyes open but says that they're closed. Hey, he's thinking! But Gramma's thinking, too, so she reaches her hand to his face and holds his eyelids down with her fingers. She tells him not to peek, and then raises the knife up as Ben waits obediently. Gramma makes as if to plunge the knife down, but just twitches instead. Ben asks if he can look. Gramma says he can, and when he opens his eyes, she is the knife to him politely presenting. Gramma says, "He wanted you to have it. You'll need it where you're goin'." Ben asks where that is, and Gramma explains, "Where the dog and the wolf howl at the moon." Ben asks where that would be, exactly, but Gramma just says, "You'll see." Well, at least he asked a direct question. Not that it'll help Ben, but the Moon card in the Rider-Waite tarot deck shows a dog and wolf howling at the moon.
We quickly cut to Brother Justin, who's explaining that the fruits of our labors are ashes and dust.
Ben nervously reaches out for the knife.
Justin complains about programs like the WPA. "Is this our American dream?" he bellows. The crowd votes no. And then Ben marches up and stabs Justin in the heart with his cool new knife. Justin's a little surprised by this development. Ben and the knife vanish almost immediately, but Justin gasps and collapses onto the stage. Iris rushes to Justin as Dolan tries to calm the crowd. Justin tells Iris, "He means to kill me." A radio technician reassures the home audience that they're having technical difficulties.
Later, Justin's in bed as Iris serves him some chamomile tea. Iris wants to call a doctor, but Justin insists that he's fine. Iris pauses for a moment, and then asks what he meant about someone intending to kill him. Justin looks at her sadly and tries a distraction ploy, saying that she looks tired. Iris gets grumpy, so Justin says he doesn't know what he was saying. Iris huffily asks if he's gotten threats from a crazy fan or something. Justin assures her, "My only enemy is time. There's so much to do." Iris says, "I can protect you. But not if there are things that I know nothing about." She goes on to complain about Justin's private conferences with Dolan, and says, "We never had secrets between us, Alexi." Justin cooly says, "Tommy is no threat to you. He does what he's told." Iris finally snaps, "If anything happens to me, it will be on your head as well. I will not be sacrificed!" And off she flounces.
Ben steps out onto Gramma's porch, where the rest of the clan has gathered, including the two women who might be Ern and Bluto's wives. Sandy casually asks, "Have a nice visit?" Ben says that he's leaving, and gets about three steps further before he changes his mind. He asks why they keep Gramma locked up. Sandy explains that Gramma is "crazy as a shit-house rat." Ern adds that, on the night Scudder was born, "she went and got herself a bonin' knife, killed every last one of them. Grampa Hilton, Uncle Owen, Gilbert, Alvin Senior. She went bed to bed, slit their throats." Ern really seems to enjoy telling this story. He concludes, "After she was done, she clawed her eyes out. In the morning they found her in the kitchen, sittin' there, singing 'Abide With Me.'" And then we hear a woman singing "Abide With Me" again, and it turns out that it's one of the wives. Bluto tells her to shut up, and she does. Ben goes over to the woman and takes back his watch fob. Bluto grabs Ben's arm and hisses, "You come back whenever you want. Always room for kin at the table." For some reason, I doubt his sincerity. Although that line made me realize that this really might be the Thanksgiving episode. I guess it's a little early, but they're definitely in mid-November by now, right? Ben turns to leave for the fiftieth time, and this time he stops when he sees Lee, who lifts his head so that Ben can admire the stitchwork on his lips. And, at long last, Ben steps off the porch and leaves. So...nobody's ever going to explain about the mannequins? Fine. Stupid show.
It's show time at the Carnivàle. Sofie's still digging her pit in the darkness as Jonesy arrives and tells her, "That'll do." Sofie says she isn't done, so he hops down into the pit and tries unsuccessfully to take the shovel away from her. He finally declares that this is all because of him and Rita Sue and Libby and everything. Sofie stares at him, and he less confidently asks, "Well, ain't it?" She says it's not. Jonesy points out that Sofie's sunburned and all yucky, and she finally explains, "I wanna work. I wanna work so hard that there's nothin' else left of me but the work." Jonesy begins to suspect that he's in over his head here, and I don't mean the pit. Sofie tells him that Apollonia tried to kill her. "She set the fire. And she was holding me, and she wouldn't let me go. You saw." Jonesy tries to argue, but Sofie continues, "She wanted us to die. She wanted me to die." She asks what she did to make her mother hate her. Jonesy looks up for second, like he's seriously trying to think of an answer. "Maybe she didn't like her haircut? Naw, that probably wasn't it, let's see now..." He finally says, "Nothin' deserves that." And then he takes the shovel and leaves abruptly. Thanks, Jonesy. You're a big help.
Men are lining up for the Cooch show. Dancing and rowdiness ensues. Burley looks at Rita Sue from the back of the crowd, and makes kissy faces at her. Rita Sue is thrown for a second, but resumes dancing. Burley wanders off.
Later still, the Carnivàle is shutting down as Ben returns.
Ben enters Management's trailer and announces that Scudder is dead: "He's gone, goddammit -- he took the preacher's name with him!" Management calmly insists that Scudder isn't dead. Ben mentions the death mask, and grumps, "You can't see anything past your own hate, you son of a bitch! Because if Scudder's dead, you got no reason to draw breath!" Management calmly says that he'll die one way or another, and tells Ben, "It's you who has something greater at stake." Ben asks what that would be, and they sit down for a long cozy chat together. No, just kidding. When presented with a leading statement like that, Ben is naturally going to turn and leave. Of course.
As Ben steps out of the trailer, a tarot card blows up against his leg. Ben grabs it and reveals it to be the Ace of Swords: truth, fortitude, and intellect. Well, Ben could definitely use all of those things. More cards blow around him, and Ben scrambles to pick them up.
Sofie is heading across camp to wash up before bed when Ben approaches and says, "Remember them cards you had me burn up?" He shows her the deck in his hands, and says, "Sofie, please, I need to know something." Sofie quickly shakes her head and walks away. Ben watches her leave, and then puts the cards down on the steps to her trailer. The camera zooms in so that we can see the card on top. Well, barely. It's the Tower: upheavals and revelations.
Ruthie is sitting on the steps of her own trailer. A little distance away, Sofie is washing up at the hand pump. Ruthie looks down and sees a puddle of water. In the reflection, Sofie is washing, and the black-veiled person is standing beside her. Do we have to keep pretending that we don't know it's Apollonia? I vote no. Ruthie looks up from the reflection, and Sofie is standing by herself.
Rita Sue is in bed when something jostles her. She sits up, and sees a man bent over at the foot of her bed. Rita Sue reaches under the bed, pulls out a gun, and cocks it. She tells her visitor to stand still, switches the light on, and sees a frightened Stumpy with his hands raised. Rita Sue falls back on the bed, relieved, as Stumpy whines that he was getting ready for bed. And then someone quickly moves up behind Stumpy, and I jump about a mile before the shadowy figure steps into the light and turns out to be Libby. I'm still not sure that was even meant to be scary, which is probably why it startled me so much. As everyone calms down, Stumpy quickly kicks a canister of some kind back under the bed. Zounds! Something of a suspicious nature appears to be afoot! Libby leaves, and Stumpy starts giggling and calls his wife a "pistol-packin' mama." Then he basically dives on top of Rita Sue, who realizes that he's drunk and shoves him away.
Libby is having a cigarette outside when, from the shadows, Burley snarls, "What's the matter? You all outta dicks to suck?" And then he wanders away chortling evilly. Do you think we're supposed to like Burley? I can't decide, because it's so subtle.
Iris drives a car out to approximately the middle of nowhere. There, she dumps out a bag of clothes, pours gasoline on them, and sets the pile ablaze.
About a hundred yards away from the middle of nowhere, Dolan watches the late-night bonfire from his own car.
Justin is in the kitchen reading when a young woman enters the kitchen. She's startled to see him, but Justin says he was just finishing up for the night. He says, "You must be the new girl," and sips his milk speculatively.
Ben is lying on his blanket. But he's not sleeping under a truck, for once. Just near one. He looks up as Sofie comes over to him, holding the tarot deck. Sofie sniffs, "I'm sorry. I just can't." She puts the cards down on the truck bed as Ben says, "It don't matter. You'd probably just give me another vague clue that will only make sense in retrospect five episodes from now." He straightens out the blanket he's lying on a little, and Sofie finally lies down on the ground to him while the camera spins away. It's lucky Ben decided to sleep under the stars, because if he'd had to say "C'mon and curl up under the oil pan here," it wouldn't have seemed quite as sweet.
time: Ben asks, "Who was that masked man?" Varlyn catches up with the Carnivàle. And it looks like Sofie's finally going to do a reading. It had damn well be worth getting teased about it for three episodes.