Previously: Jonesy asked Ben to promise that he wouldn't do anything. Jonesy hasn't been watching the show, or he wouldn't need to ask.
Sofie carries the laundry basket into the yard of Casa de Creepy. Have you ever noticed how much laundry gets done on this show? And yet the people never get any cleaner. Sofie walks past the nearly dry clothes flapping in the early morning breeze. Hang on. She hangs the laundry out to dry overnight? I think this is our first clue that Sofie is, if not evil, mentally ill. Calliope music plays faintly in the distance, and Sofie wanders to the edge of the hill, where she gazes out at the Carnivàle tents rising in the middle of a greenscreened Shantyville. Sofie turns to look back at Casa de Creepy, and sees Apollonia standing at an upstairs window. Sofie whispers, "No."
Sofie goes upstairs and sees a shadow pass the doorway of Brother Justin's bedroom. She hurries in, but instead of her mother's ghost, she just finds her father's tattoo. Justin's getting dressed in front of the mirror, and Sofie apologizes for bursting in as he quickly finishes buttoning up his cassock. Sofie turns to leave, but Justin asks her to do him a favor. He sits down with his back to her and holds up a straight razor as he explains, "There's a loose thread on the back of my collar. It's driving me mad." Sofie takes the razor, and Justin makes quite a show of pulling his collar back and angling his neck invitingly for her. Sofie finds the thread and slices it off, and then returns the razor to Justin. Once again, she's almost to the door before Justin calls her back again. Justin stands up and gets a dramatic sting on the soundtrack as he menacingly tells her, "You really should have knocked." As Sofie turns for the door a third time, it slams shut.
Management's trailer. Ben, Jonesy, and Samson are discussing Ben's aborted attack from the night. Ben insists that he could have killed Justin right there, but Jonesy says that one of Justin's guards would have killed him. So Jonesy's argument is that Ben should have waited for reinforcements, right? Someone to watch his back or maybe distract the guards? That all sounds reasonable. I just don't understand why Jonesy couldn't have done those things, since he was right there. I think Ben needs better sidekicks. Samson agrees that Ben's plan wasn't nearly complicated enough to ensure his escape. Ben snaps that he doesn't care if he dies, as long as Justin's dead. Really? Does he hate Justin as a person, because Justin killed his dad? His dad that he didn't know at all? Or is this part of his getting boonified and finally knowing what's going on? This is my problem with Ben: his motives and his feelings are even less clear than Justin's.
Where were we? Samson takes offense at Ben's kamikaze impulses, and huffs, "Management, you, Jesus, John the Baptist, the whole bunch of you! All fired up to throw your lives away!" Ben says, "They did what they had to do." Samson asks, "You think the Lord had to die to make his point?" Er. I had the impression it was sort of key, but then again, this is not my field of expertise. Samson suggests that when they called for Jesus to come down off the cross, he should have "come on down and spit right in their eye." Ben says, "That's about the dumbest thing I ever heard." Remember, this is set before the internet. Samson says, "The dumbest thing is dying when you ain't gotta. Dying just 'cause you're piss-poor at living." He tries to coin an aphorism: "When it comes to living, dying is the easy part." Ben doesn't answer, which is probably wise. Jonesy brings an end to the heady philosophical conversation by bringing up Sofie. He claims that if Ben had killed Justin the night, then Justin's followers would have come after Ben, and Sofie would wind up getting hurt protecting Ben. Are these arguments supposed to convince anyone? Ben thinks Sofie would have reacted a little differently: "She's all full up and goo-goo-eyed with the Lord." Hee. Jonesy and Samson insist that Sofie wouldn't betray them, and she certainly wouldn't ever turn all evil and black-eyed and shoot someone. Just as a hypothetical example. And then, having established that for us so that we'll be really surprised later, Samson and Jonesy start to head outside. Ben asks if Jonesy's going to put his leg-brace back on, but Samson says, "They already know."
Ben steps out of the trailer and finds most of the Carnivàle standing around, waiting to gaze at him adoringly. Hi, Gabe! Jonesy starts to lead Ben through the crowd, and Rita Sue takes Ben's hands and looks around. She makes a little speech about how grateful everyone is to Ben for healing Jonesy. She concludes, "You're a good boy, Ben Hawkins," and kisses his cheek. Ben moves on, and pauses as Ruthie takes his arm and kisses his other cheek. The camera slides over to the chow tent, where Lila and Burley are sitting. Lila grumbles, "That look like justice to you?" Burley tells her to dry up, and stomps off. Lila slams her fan angrily against the table. And so concludes Lila's epic quest for revenge. It was certainly worth all the time they spent on it.
Casa de Creepy. Sofie backs away from Justin, who asks her if Ben is with the Carnivàle. Sofie plays dumb for a while, and Justin eventually guesses that Sofie was in the Carnivàle, too: "You're one of them." Sofie says, "Not anymore." Justin tells her that she's a prisoner of her past, and that he can set her free: "It is time to choose, Sofie." She doesn't answer, and a black-eyed Justin snaps, "Tell me!" and grabs her by the shoulders. Sofie nervously says, "Go to hell!" Justin replies, "'Go'? Why? I plan on bringing it here." Well, I guess that works, too.
Apparently, Samson led Ben out of the trailer so that they could go to the Cooch Tent and then continue their conversation. Why exactly they had to relocate will remain one of the many mysteries of Carnivàle. Samson points out that people are following Justin just because he talks pretty, but that if they knew what Ben could do, they'd follow him instead. Samson proposes that they do the healing act from Tipton again, and "beat that black-hearted bastard at his own game." Does Samson know of anything evil that Justin's done? I guess there's killing Scudder. Who was creepy and caused trouble everywhere he went. I miss the days when I thought this was something more complex than another battle between dopey-but-good and powerful-yet-poorly-motivated evil. If I wanted to see that, I'd watch the movies with all the fucking elves. Even all of the extended editions put together would be shorter than this show. Ben asks how it'll help to do a bunch of fake healings. Oh, Ben. You seemed to be improving for a while. Samson laughs, "Who said anything about fake?" Ben doesn't like the idea, and is forced to explain that in order to give life, he has to take it from somewhere. Samson ponders that.
Jonesy swings open a car on the ferris wheel and says, "Welcome aboard, Brother Justin." Samson turns to Ben and explains the plan: "Jonesy locks him in, fires her up, and spins him around. Meanwhile, you commence to healing." So, while Justin's trapped nearby, Ben heals a mess of people using Justin's life force or whatever. Libby strolls by and says, "Poor Brother Justin. Must have had a bad ticker or something." Samson figures that Justin will seem to have died of natural causes, so no one will blame the Carnivàle and cause trouble. Ben agrees to give it a whirl (get it?), and Jonesy observes, "There's still Sofie." Libby looks grumpy as Samson insists that they'll find Sofie. Ben asks, "What if the preacher don't want to ride?" Samson says he'll take care of that.
A car pulls up at Shack de Creepy. Varlyn gets out, and pulls a bound and struggling Sofie out of the back seat. He swats her once, and then carries her up to the shack.
Inside, Varlyn tosses Sofie to the floor and leaves, locking the door behind him. Sofie rolls over, and hears Apollonia laughing. Sofie looks up and gasps, "Mama?"
Jonesy strolls across camp and enters his tent, where Libby is doing some mending. Jonesy's all smiles until he notices that Libby's looking rather sulky. He asks what's wrong, but Libby doesn't want to talk about it, so then he nags her and she resists and this kills a minute or two. Suddenly, Jonesy smirks, "It's about Sofie, ain't it?" Libby huffs, "Goddammit!" Heh. Jonesy laughs giddily and declares, "That's the first time I ever guessed what was on a woman's mind and got it right." Libby figures this means she's boring, but Jonesy goes on grinning and tells that it's a good thing, because he always knows where he stands with her. He reassures her that she's not boring, and sits to her on the bed. Libby asks if Jonesy is "still sweet on [Sofie]." Jonesy says that he isn't. Libby asks if Jonesy loves her, and he says that he does. "You better," Libby whispers, and they kiss. The actors are very good. It's a cute scene. I especially like how, even though they're in a tent, you can still see the vultures circling over Jonesy's head.
Casa de Creepy. Iris feeds Balthus in the dining room. Does she know where Sofie is? Is she curious about it at all? Or is she busy with her monologue? Let's listen and find out. She asks Balthus, "What if you hadn't found us, that night on the road?" Well, that answers that question. Iris says that she thought she and Justin were children of God. She ruefully says, "I wish I had made better decisions." Hee. She mentions the orphans and Eleanor, and says that she is beyond redemption. She smiles and kisses Balthus chastely before announcing, "When I die, I'm going to hell. And if I am very, very fortunate, my brother will be waiting for me with an embrace." Excellent line. Excellent character moment. And that's what frustrates me so much. I feel like Iris has been one of the most interesting characters for a long time because everything she does is motivated by her love for her brother, and by her faith. And her problem is that those two things conflict. It's interesting, but it's simple. The only thing I know about Ben's feelings is that he likes Sofie, and I've got no idea why that is. I wouldn't mind so much if not for the fact that he's the main character. It's very weird when the secondary characters are more three-dimensional than the leads, you know?
Iris's meditations are interrupted by a knock at the door. She opens it to a delegation of carnies. Samson explains, "We come about the...'honorarium.'" Along with him are Sabina, Bert, and Rollo the Rubber Boy. So Sabina was around for Lila's rebellion last week, and just didn't feel like getting involved? Okay. Sabina is holding a leash attached to a collar around Rollo's neck, and he's walking around on all fours. Well, not all fours like you or I would; he bends his elbows backwards and I'd try to describe the rest of it but that part alone makes me dizzy. Iris smiles and invites everyone into the parlor. As they pass through the door, she smiles and greets each of them, and then closes the door, makes a "Oh my lord" face, and then puts her happy-hostess face back on. Heh.
The delegation sits in the parlor with Balthus. Glasses of lemonade sit on the table, along with a plate of cookies. Awkward silence ensues as they wait for Iris to return. Herb looks at Balthus and whispers, "Poor bastard." Iris comes into the room and hands Samson $250, which is apparently "the amount we agreed upon" in some scene that we didn't see. She starts to tell the carnies how excited everyone is about the show when Brother Justin marches in, calling for her. Upon entering the room, he halts and looks baffled. Iris introduces the carnies, and Samson says it's an honor to meet Justin. He claims that the carnies have all listened to his show and found it very inspiring: "In a way, you and me are in the same business." Justin says, "Is that a fact?" and tries to look charmed. Samson reaches out to shake Justin's hand, but then Varlyn enters with a rifle over his shoulder. Varlyn eyes the guests and chuckles, "I'll be damned." Samson grumps, "I believe we've met on the road." Justin and Iris look tense as Samson asks if Varlyn remembers Sabina, and pointedly mentions that the Daily Brothers circus is "recently defunct." Varlyn says that's a shame. Justin happily says that it's "an amazing coincidence" that Varlyn and Samson have met before. Samson agrees: "Small world." Justin says, "Getting smaller all the time." He crouches down to face Samson, and mentions that Samson might know their maid, too. He mentions Sofie's name, and Iris and Varlyn watch closely until Samson says, "It doesn't ring a bell." Samson says that they should get going. He thanks Iris again, and they all head for the door. Samson stops and gasps, "I almost forgot..." He puts some tickets into Rollo's mouth, and Rollo walks back toward Justin, still on all fours. Samson explains that he's giving them two free tickets to ride the ferris wheel. Iris immediately protests, and Justin chuckles, "It's just a child's ride." Justin explains to Samson that Iris is afraid of heights. She is? Justin adds, "Of course, I would --" but Samson is already calling Rollo back before Justin can grab the tickets. Samson takes the tickets back from Rollo and removes his hat before saying, "My apologies, Miss Iris. I did not mean to upset you." He says goodbye, and they all troop out.
Outside, Sabina asks Samson why he took the tickets back when Justin was about to accept them. Samson smugs, "I just made sure he insist on 'em." Sabina's confused, and I doubt she's any less confused when Samson adds, "Snips and snails, m'dear."
Management's trailer. Ben, Jonesy, and Samson are having another conference. Ben's shocked to hear that Justin knows Sofie was part of the Carnivàle, and confirms that there was no sign of her in Casa de Creepy. Jonesy suggests that she was out running errands, but Samson says he's had Osgood watching the road. Jonesy grumbles that they'll never be able to search all of Shantyville for her, and he and Samson bicker about the situation until Ben snaps, "Shut up, the both of you. I'm trying to think." Hee. Tee hee hee. Also: snicker. Ben figures that Justin's got Sofie hidden somewhere so that he can use her "like a hole card." He adds, "The sumbitch'll be dead before he gets to play it." Samson asks what they should do, and Ben says they'll have to forget about her: "Once the shoutin's over, then we track her down." Jonesy frets, "What if she's dead?" Then it's too late to worry about it, really. Ben says, "If she's dead, then God help them all in this valley. Every single last one of 'em." Well, you'll only have to kill one of them to bring her back, Ben.
Shack de Creepy. Sofie is screaming for help and throwing her shoulder against the door. Which is mostly funny because, judging by all the sunlight coming through the cracks in the wallboards, she'd have better luck breaking through almost anywhere besides the door. She gives up on the door and screams some more. She's pretty good at screaming. Then Sofie kneels down on the floor and cries while the music alerts us to impending spookiness. The camera swings over her and around, and the walls shift as there's a knock at the door. Sofie stands up as Justin says, "Open the door, Apollonia."
We see a door open; Apollonia peeks out and asks, "What are you doing here? I told you to leave me alone." Justin, still off-screen, yells, "Let me in!" Apollonia jumps back as Justin smashes the door open and walks into apartment, and closes the door behind him.
Sofie stares. We get a rapetastic blipvert montage of doom. First, the same rape scene that Iris saw, complete with Iris still standing in the shot. Justin bends Apollonia over the dining table. Then we get Sofie's vision of her mother getting raped by the tattooed man. Then black-eyed Justin jumps into the camera shouting, "Tell me!" Then Ben's glimpse of the Usher walking a mile in Sofie's shoes. Apollonia slaps Sofie; Sofie slaps Apollonia. A Mason tells Sofie, "Every prophet in her house." Justin and Sofie pray together. Sofie and Libby have imaginary sex. Sofie and Ben have uncomfortable sex. Justin kisses Sofie. Ruthie sees Apollonia in a field. Young Sofie says, "Every prophet in her house." Rape-o-vision. Lodz says, "It can't be her!" Apollonia tries to kill Sofie.
Sofie screams, "Stop!" Seconded. She's back in Shack de Creepy, but she's not alone. A veiled woman sits in a chair nearby. Sofie moans, "Mama?"The woman gets up and walks toward Sofie, who tries to slide away across the floor. The woman bends over Sofie, who wails, "No!" The woman takes Sofie's chin in her hand and forces her to watch as she pulls her veil up and reveals Sofie's own face, with black eyes. Black-eyed Sofie leans in and says, "This. Is. Your. House." Sofie stares back, thinking, "I own property? Cool." We cut to a shot of Shack de Creepy as Sofie screams. She really is good at that.
The scream fades into the sound of children yelling happily. It's night, and the Carnivàle is in full swing. Rita Sue watches the crowds pass as Samson walks up and takes a seat to her. He says, "Sorry about this." Rita Sue says, "We gotta take care of our own." She figures they owe Ben for healing Jonesy. I think Jonesy owes Ben; I'm not sure about the rest of them. After a moment, Rita Sue adds, "Felix wanted us to put long johns on under our costumes. Call it 'The Dance of Salome' or some such horseshit." She and Samson laugh, and then Rita Sue says that Stumpy's scared, and that she is too. Samson pulls out his honorarium and puts it in Rita Sue's hand. Rita Sue tries to refuse, but Samson repeats, "We got to take care of our own." He kisses her on the cheek, and Rita Sue tucks the money into her bra.
Casa de Creepy. Brother Justin comes downstairs and is greeted by Varlyn, who sniffs, "I don't like it." Justin says, "What, the cassock? Does it make my hips look fat? Tell the truth." No. Justin says that "an evening of frivolity and games will do [them] all a world of good." Varlyn says that the Carnivàle is trying to set Justin up, and Justin chuckles and agrees. Varlyn says that the ferris wheel is a trap, and Justin snaps, "It's the only way to flush him out!" Varlyn begs Justin not to go. Justin takes Varlyn's face in his hands, making me nervous for Varlyn. But then Justin just commends Varlyn's loyalty and kisses him on each cheek before insisting, "You must have faith." Varlyn nods, with scared eyes. Aw, Varlyn. Justin turns to the dresser and pulls out his sickle. He eyes it speculatively and says, "Pain is an unavoidable side effect." And out he goes, Varlyn following.
Ben sits on the back of a truck, smoking. And, I guess, still trying to think. He stares up at Casa de Creepy, and Sofie voice-overs that the Carnivàle wakes up people who are sleeping. And then they get cited for violating local noise ordinances. Ben repeats, "We wake them up." It's very profound. In the sense that I don't know what the hell they're talking about.
The Carnivàle gates. Crowds. Music. Stuff. Samson and most of the cast march up just in time to meet Justin, Iris, and the Knights of Jericho. After a formal exchange of pleasantries, Samson says that, with all the women and children around, he'd like the Knights to leave their weapons behind. Varlyn says, "Sorry, microbe, no can do. We've already had one attempt on Brother Justin's life." Samson snickers, "I read in the papers [that] this codger in the wheelchair took a shot at him!" He points to Balthus, who has been trundled down in his wheelchair. He looks as thrilled as you'd expect. Samson calls to Balthus, "You ain't packin' iron, are ya, fella?" Iris quickly assures Samson that Balthus isn't armed, and asks Justin to disarm the troop. Justin agrees, and Varlyn reluctantly orders his men to leave their guns behind. Justin says, "Now that that's settled, I think my sister and I would like to take a turn in your ferris wheel." Iris looks uncomfortable, and Justin loudly adds that, tonight, Iris is determined to overcome her fear of heights "inspired by the courageous brethren" blah blah blah. Some of the Okies raise their hands and chorus, "Hallelujah." Ruthie and Sabina turn to leave, and Ruthie grumbles, "What a prick." With that, Justin and Iris enter the midway.
Jonesy halts the ferris wheel and opens a car for Justin and Iris. They climb in as Varlyn and his goons watch. The ferris wheel starts up again, and Jonesy nods to Samson. Samson turns and nods to Stumpy. A light is turned on at the ten-in-one, and the Benjamin St. John banner is hauled up as Stumpy begins his revival pitch.
Up at the top of the wheel, Justin and Iris's car stops so that they can enjoy the view. Iris has her eyes pressed shut, and Justin mockingly tells her to open them. He hears Stumpy's pitch in the distance and leans over to see what's going on. Iris complains about Justin rocking the car. Justin leans back and whispers, "Thou shalt be strong." The wheel turns again.
Stumpy has gathered a crowd into the tent, and as some music is cued up, he goes into his introductory spiel about Benjamin St. John. But he's barely introduced himself before Ben says, "That's enough," and wanders onstage, as grubby as ever. Stumpy tries to skip to the end, and bellows, "The riiiiiight Reverend --" Ben cuts him off again, saying, "Enough." He asks them to shut the music off as well, and then asks the crowd, "Which ones of y'all need a healin'?" The Okies start calling and waving their hands. Ben goes into the crowd and finds a boy standing in front of his mother. The mother explains that her son has been deaf since birth. Ben puts his hands on the boy's ears. On the ferris wheel, Justin puts his hands over his own ears and moans in pain. Iris asks him what's wrong. We cut back and forth between the camera swirling around Ben and the deaf kid, and Justin wailing as the ferris wheels spins. There's a lot of spinning, generally. Then Ben removes his hands and claps. The boy jumps at the sound.
Cue the montage! Ben heals an old man with an injured arm. Iris wails in fear as Justin gasps and holds his chest. Ben pulls the man's healed arm out of its sling. Justin moans. Ben heals a woman with tuberculosis. Justin wheezes as Iris calls for someone to help. I'm okay with Iris worrying about Justin even though she wants to thwart him, because she's conflicted that way. However, I do think it would have been cooler if she'd just sat there calmly, watching Justin suffer with a tiny smirk. Or maybe saying, "You know, you're right, this is fun. I could ride this all night!" Instead, Justin finally tears his cassock open, revealing his tattoo, and his eyes turn black as Iris screams. The other passengers on the wheel don't seem to notice all the goings-on, which is a little odd. Although, on this show, it's hard to tell when people are behaving oddly for plot reasons and when they're just poorly written. Anyway, the woman's healed, the music swells, Justin yells, and I start checking my watch.
Varlyn tells Jonesy to stop the wheel. Justin smiles, grabs the lever, and tears it off. Varlyn slugs him. Well, sure.
Justin goes on making noises like a rabid dog. Iris goes on shouting for help. The generator starts throwing sparks. Justin hunches over the car and shouts, "Be still!" The wheel stops with Justin and Iris near the ground. Varlyn pulls their car down a little more and helps Justin out. Iris just sits in the car twitchily, and we won't see her again till the very end. Bye, Iris! Thanks for making a relative amount of sense! Justin grabs Varlyn by the lapels and hisses, "See to the girl." Then he releases a frightened Varlyn and rushes away. As Varlyn hurries in the opposite direction, Jonesy follows him.
The camera zooms in on Samson, who's all agog as he watches what's going on. Justin is still looking pained, and is still black-eyed, as he marches through the crowd. The Okies jump out of his way. Justin seems to be recovering pretty quickly, and now he looks a teensy bit annoyed as he heads for the ten-in-one.
Ben is preparing to heal Balthus when Samson runs into the tent. Samson shouts, "Whole thing's gone in the crapper, kid! Run!" Hee. Ben, of course, says, "What?" Samson remembers whom he's dealing with and sticks to the important part of his message: "Ruuuuun!" And then Justin enters the tent. He looks around, spots Ben, and growls, "There you are." The crowd parts, and Justin starts lecturing anyone who'll listen about Ben's "divine abominations." Ben leans over and starts healing Balthus. The crowd scatters as Justin falls to his knees, clutching his head. Balthus gasps, "Run." Keep trying, eventually his brain will process the word. Justin reaches into his cassock and pulls out the sickle. He stands up again and says, "Know that I am the lord's left hand!" To demonstrate what that means, he slices the throat of a man passing by. Justin adds, "And have come to reap what thine enemy has sown." He gets to reaping, slicing through anyone who comes within reach as he goes on about mercy, specifically the lack thereof, and pity, which will similarly be absent from these proceedings. Ben starts backing away as Justin approaches. Then Balthus pops up in front of Justin and insists, "The power of Christ compels you!" Yeah, I really don't think it does, Balthus. Justin stares at Balthus for a second and plunges the sickle into him. As he tears through Balthus, Justin says, "Behold. The holy evil is come." Well, frankly, it was overdue.
Ben runs through the Carnivàle for a while, and then out into a cornfield. This is where it gets easy to recap. Ben runs. Then he runs some more. Lightning flashes, and Ben continues running.
Varlyn gets in his truck and drives away, but Jonesy scampers up and clings to the back of the car like Michael J. Fox, only without the skateboard.
Ben, by the way, is running. With the lightning. And the corn. And the many tattoo-heavy blipverts. I wonder if this was a fun day of filming. "Okay, now run through the corn toward the camera. Great! Now run through the corn past the camera. Fabulous! Now wait a second while we carry the camera through the corn for a POV shot. Okay, now run through the corn toward the camera again." Ben trips and falls down, and then looks behind him and sees nothing. Well, nothing but corn. He pulls the trench knife out of his shoe and does that horror movie thing where you get up very slowly and finally turn around and then the bad guy jumps out at you. Right on cue, Justin jumps out at Ben and slices his arm. Ben ducks into a different row of corn and...well, runs. Justin does something the captions describe as "[laughing maniacally]," although I think it sounds more like a demented chuckle. Ben runs. And runs. And then runs into a scarecrow. He looks up at it. I roll my eyes. Hey everyone, Ben's having an idea! Come and see the idea!
Justin walks through the corn, following the traces of Ben's blood. Justin's walking because he's the bad guy, and a bad guy walking can always catch up to a good guy who's running. I think Jack the Ripper invented that. So Justin walks through the corn. And walks trough some more corn. And lightning flashes again. Justin follows the blood trail to the scarecrow and then goes past it. He stops, looking confused. Ben, disguised as the scarecrow, carefully looks over his shoulder at Justin. Justin turns back just as Ben jumps at him. They fall to the ground, and Ben stabs Justin in the heart with his knife. Or tries to. The knife blade breaks off with an embarrassed clink. Justin stabs Ben's left side, because subtlety is for pussies. Ben falls backward, and Justin gets up and, with triumph within reach, decides to pause for a chat. He says, "Look at you, boy. Such a sad mess." The show gets a little meta sometimes, have you noticed? Justin grabs Ben's head and hms, "So young." Ben says, "Sofie," for no readily apparent reason. Justin says that Sofie's waiting for Ben.
Ben gets a flashback to his emboonening, and Management saying, "A dark heart dwells where branches meet." And a flash of Justin's tattoo.
Justin tells Ben, "I'll be quick." You aren't being so quick right now, dimwit. He adds that Ben won't suffer, and Ben spots the broken knife blade on the ground. Justin stands up and says, "My kingdom come!" Ben grabs the knife blade and sticks it into the part of the tattoo where the trunk splits. Justin reels and falls over. Ben, blue blood staining his shirt, crawls over to a wheezing Justin. The blade is still sticking out of Justin's chest a little. Ben sits astride Justin and puts his hands over the top of the blade. Justin weakly puts his hands up to stop Ben, but he's obviously not putting up much of a fight. Even Ben can't resist the urge to get in a last bit of gloating, so he says, "Plunge thee deep," and then shoves the blade into Justin.
A bold of lightning hits the Spooky Tree up on the ridge, setting it on fire.
Justin's arms fall to the ground. Ben sorta slides down and collapses on top of Justin, so that there will be tremendous suspense over whether or not he's dead, too. At least, for those people in the audience who have never watched television before. The camera floats up above the corn to show us the Spooky Tree, engulfed in flames.
Varlyn pulls up at Shack de Creepy and gets out of the car. He makes sure his gun is loaded, and walks up to the shack singing, "She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain." I have to admit, I did not expect a Grosse Pointe Blank reference at this point. At the door, Varlyn pulls out his keys and fumblingly drops them. He bends over to pick them up, and Jonesy hops out from the side of the shack and conks Varlyn on the...arm? I swear to you, he hits Varlyn on the shoulder. And apparently that's Varlyn's weak spot, because he falls to the ground with a thud and doesn't move again. Aw, I hope he's not dead. It would be embarrassing to get killed by someone hitting you on the arm. So Jonesy grabs the keys and unlocks the door of the shack. Jonesy leaves the keys in the door as he hurries over to Sofie, who lies in the middle of the floor. He asks if she's okay, and starts to untie her. Sofie doesn't respond, but she does start to move a little. Jonesy cuts the ropes off her wrists and helps her to get up. As they step outside, Jonesy tells Sofie, "Watch your step," and helps her avoid tripping over Varlyn. Then he grumbles, "Aw, shit, keys." He hurries back inside the doorway and comes out again holding the keys. Then he stops and says, "Sofie?" I thought that she'd just be gone, actually. But no, she's there, with black eyes, pointing Varlyn's gun at Jonesy. Jonesy says, "Don't." Bang. Jonesy's thrown back against the wall of the shack, gurgles, and collapses onto his face. Ow. Sofie drops the gun, and then goes over to take the keys from Jonesy's body. Fade out.
The morning, the carnies search the cornfield. They find Ben and Justin, and gather around as Samson hurries over. Samson pulls out his flask and holds it under Ben's face. It fogs up, and Samson declares, "He's alive!" The carnies move forward and pick Ben up. Ben is carried away with his arms flopped out and the big blue bloodstain on his side, and as I said about a different show a couple of months ago, sometimes I enjoy it when a writer throws subtlety aside and slams his point into my skull with a sledgehammer. And once again, this is not one of those times.
The Carnivàle caravan is packed up and ready to hit the road. Stumpy wanders up to the Cooch car, where Rita Sue is holding Libby tenderly. Stumpy awkwardly says that they have to go. Libby says she won't leave without Jonesy. Stumpy sidles up to Libby and explains that there are thousands of Okies out there who loved Justin: "When they find out what Ben Hawkins done..." Rita Sue sadly chimes in, "We can't stay." Stumpy suddenly declares that Jonesy probably already left, and is waiting down the road to meet them. Libby tearfully asks, "You think?" Stumpy insists that Jonesy's resourceful. He kisses Libby on the top of the head, and then Rita Sue helps her into the back of the car. Rita Sue gets in the back with her daughter, and Stumpy waves to the front of the convoy.
Samson sits in the front car, and Osgood gets in. Samson asks, "Any luck?" Osgood shakes his head. Samson sighs, "Drive." Osgood protests a little, but Samson repeats the order.
Sofie walks through the cornfield, up to Justin's body. She kneels down, and stretches her hands out toward Justin's chest.
Iris stands in the yard of Casa de Creepy, looking out at Shantyville as the Carnivàle starts to leave. A dark patch in the middle of the cornfield starts to grow. Iris stares. There's a closer shot of stalks of corn as they wither and fade. And then we go back to the wide shot as the last of the trucks leaves Shantyville, and the entire cornfield withers.
Management's trailer. We slowly push in on the puppet theater. Ben lies in the back, still unconscious, rocked by the movement of the truck. And yeah, we do see the hole in his shirt, and yeah, there's not a wound beneath it, but that's not the focus of the shot at all and this show is many things, but as we've seen, subtle ain't one of them. Fade out. I've never been so glad to see closing credits in my life.