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.
“ Dear Carnivle 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. ”
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 Carnivle 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."
“ She tells Ben, '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? ”
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?
Carnivle. 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.