(Season 1, Episodes 6-7)
I’m halfway through the first season of Carnivale, and the show is still going strong. In my last entry, I mentioned that I was curious how the carnival was going to retaliate after losing one of their own. All my questions were answered in this block of episodes. Well, all my questions related to carnie justice, anyway. There was also a lot more exploration of the supernatural universe that these characters inhabit, and it just keeps getting more interesting.
“Pick a Number”
This episode was creepy in so many ways. Firstly, it was interesting to see how the carnies dispatched justice. It was an illogical, and seemingly over-simplified method of judgement. By having the defendant pick a number and play Russian roulette, it seemed like an archaic method of dispensing punishment. I wonder if they figure that Management, who seems to be somewhat omniscient, will make sure that any truly deserving villains get a bullet to the head. In this case, however, the lone living Babylon resident was spared … for a while, anyway.
That’s where the episode got really disturbing; it turns out that all those men who went to the carnival and caused all the trouble in the first place weren’t exactly … alive. The whole town seemed to be under some sort of curse, all the dead souls trapped there, including Dora Mae. It was just downright spine chilling when Samson was walking through the deserted town at the end of the episode and saw the vision of Dora Mae through a window, being dragged back to the crowd of men. I’m curious if Scudder had something to do with the curse, or if his presence there was just coincidental.
“The River”
This episode focused a good amount of time on Brother Justin and his struggles on the road. It was a well crafted episode, with a bit of a twist ending. Through the bulk of the episode, the audience watched Justin struggle after having thrown himself off of a bridge and into a river, ending up severely injured on the riverbank. Two children find him, but don’t help him. He begs and pleads, and it is eventually revealed to be a vision. The two children were really a young Justin and Iris, and Justin was reliving his memories from his first victim’s point of view. There was another great, and creepy, moment when the young Justin twists the man’s head around almost completely, killing him.
Back at the carnival things were a little more low key, with Stumpy, Libby, and Rita Sue still trying to come to terms with the murder of Dora Mae. Libby and Stumpy just wanted to run away to Hollywood, but Rita Sue was a little more realistic. In the end, Stumpy just couldn’t leave the carnival, and more importantly, his wife.
Through the first few episodes it seemed like Ben and Sophie were destined to end up together, so I’m a little glad that they are both exploring other relationships at this point. The growing bond between Sophie and Libby seems to be a little more than friendship, and I think it’s only a matter of time before Ben and Ruthie hook up. He certainly got very jealous when Lodz told him that Ruthie had laid down with Scudder.
It’s still early in the show, but there are a ton of remaining questions, and I can’t wait to get the answers.
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Oct 21, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
