Regular Cast
Amanda Aday - Dora Mae Dreifuss
Michael J. Anderson - Samson
Adrienne Barbeau - Ruthie
Patrick Bauchau - Professor Lodz
Clancy Brown - Brother Justin
Debra Christofferson - Lila
Tim DeKay - Clayton Jones
Clea DuVall - Sofie
Cynthia Ettinger - Rita Sue Dreifuss
John Fleck - Gecko
Carla Gallo - Libby Dreifuss
Toby Huss - Stumpy Dreifuss
Scott MacDonald - Burley
Amy Madigan - Iris Crowe
Kelly Nyks -
Diane Sallinger - Apollonia
John Savage - Scudder
Nick Stahl - Ben Hawkins
Karyne Steben - Alexandria
Sarah Steben - Caladonia
Brian Turk - Gabriel
Ralph Waite - Reverend Norman Belthus

Season One

1. Milfay
   On a bankrupt family farm in the middle of dustbowl Oklahoma, a traveling carnival encounters Ben Hawkins, a young man desperately trying to hold off a bulldozer from the bank-at least long enough for him to finish burying his mother. Seeing that Ben is on his last legs, members of the Carnivale wearily grab shovels and give the woman a half-decent burial.
   But just as the hymns are sung and the bulldozer plows into the Hawkins home, sirens are heard, and the chain around Ben's ankle suggests he is what they're after. Samson, the diminutive boss of the troupe, orders the crew to grab Ben, who has passed out with exhaustion, and make some dust.
   Later, Samson tells Jonesy, the boss of the roustabouts, that he has discussed the Carnivale's new stowaway with Management, the mysterious owner of the show. "You know what he said?" Samson asks, shaking his head. "He was expected." The mystery only deepens when the mentalist Lodz touches Ben asleep and is overwhelmed by the boy's devastating and powerful visions.
   When Ben comes to, he seems unnerved by the people that have saved him: Lila, the bearded lady, the strong man Gabriel, Gecko, the lizard man; the Siamese twins Caledonia and Alexandria. He also clashes with Jonesy, a weary cynic who ridicules Ben as "a huck."
   Meanwhile, half a country away, a minister named Brother Justin Crowe attends to his flock, including a down-and-out Okie who has stolen from the collection plate. But when the woman begins vomiting a stream of silver dollars, it becomes clear that something profound is happening to Brother Justin. Later, he has a powerful vision outside Chin's, a local house of ill-repute. At the Carnivale, Samson (at Management's behest) tries to convince Ben to join the outfit fulltime. But despite his lack of options, the taciturn Ben is repulsed by the idea. The only person he seems to be able to talk to at all is the young fortune teller Sophie. But when she finally gets him to sit for a Tarot reading, the cards-evoking the past, transformation and a hidden talent-draw Ben into memories of his terrible, terrible secret.
   Running far from Sophie's bus, he finds himself in front of a local girl confined to a wagon, a sweet kid who loves the Ferris Wheel and whose legs are crippled by a painful condition. Resigned, he kneels down and places his hands on her shins...
   He doesn't look back as he runs after the caravan and pulls himself up on the departing truck. He doesn't see the little girl stand up and skip away. He knows what he has done for her. And he knows there will be a price to pay
    
2. After the Ball Is Over
   First Brother Justin and then Ben enter a nighttime diner and sit at the counter, silent and staring straight ahead. Then the two men from Ben's previous dreams enter and share a table, one decked out in evening clothes and the other dressed in his WWI uniform. Ben and Justin watch the men start into their steak dinners, and as they clink their glasses in a toast, all the windows of the diner shatter and Ben and Justin both wake with a start from their shared nightmare.
   In the morning, Jonesy gives Ben the job of cleaning out the baggage trailer, prompting snickers and stifled laughter from the rousties. Ben finds the trailer sitting dilapidated and forlorn under a gnarled tree and starts going through the dusty contents. Finding an old suitcase, Ben opens it to reveal a carefully wrapped tuxedo and top hat, the same as the man was wearing in his dream. Ben also notices a faded photograph, which he is shocked to see depicts his mother as a young woman on one side and on the back the mysterious letters HS & Flow. Ben pockets the photo and leaves the mystery-filled trailer, only to be accosted by Samson angry at Ben for not working with the other Rousties. When Ben tells of his job at the baggage trailer, Samson reveals that the trailer doesn't exist- it's an old carny gag. When Ben shows Samson the photo to prove he was in the trailer, Samson realizes that there's more to the boy than he had thought.
   Other unusual things are happening at the Carnivale as well. Apollonia, Sophie's comatose mother, refuses to "speak" to her until she brings Ben back in to finish his tarot reading, something he is unwilling to do. Lodz tells Samson of seeing Scudder in Ben's dreams and presses Samson to talk to Management to have the Carnivale head south.
   The well-scrubbed, respectable members of Brother Justin's congregation are put-off by the migrant Okies that have started attending services at the church. Brother Justin, prompted by his visions, meets with Carroll Templeton, the well-to-do owner of Chin's, and asks that he hand over the property so Justin can start a church for the migrants. Templeton laughs in his face, saying that Chin's is not for sale. In a self-righteous rage, Justin grabs him and forces a shocked and frightened Templeton into a vision in which Justin shows him the true nature of his sins.
   At night, Ben's vivid nightmare comes to him yet again; the WWI trench, the two men from the diner, a hungry and violent bear...Ben wakes abruptly to the sight of Apollonia walking towards him. She takes his hand and tells him, "You're the one", after which she collapses in his arms, comatose once again. Apollonia's cries of alarm wake the whole outfit and they rush to the scene, grabbing the old woman away from Ben. After a tussle in which Ben is roughed up by Gabriel, Samson breaks it up and tells the assembled group that Ben did not do anything and there has been a change of plans; the Carnivale will head south in the morning. Lodz smiles mysteriously to himself as he retreats to his trailer.
   While Ruthie helps Ben with his cuts and bruises, he shows her the picture of his mother. She recognizes her as Flora, Hack Scudder's sweetie, then she gives him an old photo of Scudder who worked the geek show in the Carnival, who Ben recognizes as the man from his dreams.
   Brother Justin has made Carroll Templeton see the light. As Justin enters Chin's to visualize it as his new church, Templeton drives out to a deserted road and shoots himself in the head. After telling Iris the news that Chin's is now a House of God, Justin retreats to his bedroom where he flagellates himself with holy fervor
    
3. Tipton
   As the carnival caravan drives through the town of Tipton, a dusty wind lashes a gaunt group of townspeople carrying a pine coffin --an ominous start.
   Things only get bleaker for the carnies as they start the set-up. After Samson sends Jonesy and Ben back to town for provisions, Lyle Donovan, an old sport, pays the carnival a visit. He's become the sheriff after moving here to tend to his sick mother. He tells Samson there will be no carnival in Tipton. He won't allow his people who barely have a "pocket to turn out," to be shook down.
   On the way to town, Jonesy informs Ben that everything is falling apart: Now it's town by town, it's catch-as-catch can, that ain't hardly nothing since you showed up." As Ben absorbs the stricken scene in town, he is amazed to see the truck that appears in the photo he found of his mother."Big Sky Farms" is painted on the side. But as he crosses over to investigate, Ben is loudly identified by the mother of the girl he healed in Milfoy, and is soon swarmed by townspeople desperate for more miracles.
   Across the country in Mintern, Brother Justin's transformation of Chin's from house of ill repute to house of worship is joyously underway as the migrants sing hymnals and carpenters work. But the renovations have also caught the eye of the City Council, and it's not long before two of them inform Brother Justin that they're demolishing the block-and his new ministry-and want him to move to a new spot on the outskirts of town. Outraged that the hateful men would deny God's will, Brother Justin reacts angrily, much to the detriment of one of the Councilmen.
   Upon their return, Jonesy immediately tells Samson of Ben's effect on the poor folk of Tipton, and hatches a plan to save the carnival's nut. The Carnivale act will be rechristened as an old-time tent revival show, with Ben as the headliner.
   With the backing of the local reverend-who is receiving 50 % of the gate-and to the outrage of Sheriff Lyle, the carnies put on a spirited and successful evangelical performance. All dressed up in a tuxedo, a sweaty and reluctant Ben "heals" Ruthie in the first show.
   In between revival shows, Ben gets Sophie to drive him out to the house of Mrs. Donovan, whom, he has learned, is the owner of the Big Sky Farms truck from his photograph. Dying from "A shovelful of dust in her lungs," Mrs. Donovan has been expecting Ben, who she knows intimately from her dreams. She tells him she was a close friend of Scudder, the man from Ben's own visions, and she knows that Ben, too, has "the gift." She explains to Ben that there are rules "There's rules. You give life, you gotta take it from somewhere else." He is eager to learn more, but the conversation is suddenly interrupted when Sheriff Lyle-Mrs. Donovan's son, throws him out.
   Arguing with Sophie, Ben is late for the next show, and the tent now swollen with hundreds of the ailing believers. As his stand-in prepares to heal a disguised Dora Mae Dreyfus, Sheriff Lyle bursts in, cradling his near-dead mother and demanding the healer save her. Ben arrives, and, desperate to learn what she knows, prepares to take his chances and lay his hands on her. With the entire crowd tensely watching, Mrs. Donovan stops him. Realizing that she is close to the end, Ben asks her where Scudder went when he left her. Her last breath leaving her, Mrs. Donovan rasps: "Babylon."
   As the Carnivale packs up, Ben's risky ad-libbing has landed him on latrine duty. "No more headlining for you, kid," Samson says, before climbing in the truck and giving Jonesy directions for their destination. "It's gonna take us awful close to Babylon," Jonesy says. "No it's gonna take us to Babylon," replies Samson. When he realizes where Samson is taking them, it dawns on the shocked Jones: Bad as things are, they are going to get much worse
    
4. Black Blizzard
   With rousties setting up in what appears to be the middle of nowhere, Samson gets himself slicked up to pay a visit to town, Sophie argues with her mother about her own plans for a diversion and Lodz summons ben to show him something about Scudder.
   Members of the Carnivale are jittery being so close to the notorious town of Babylon: "I hear they strung up three rousties back in '32, just to see "em dangle" says Libby breathlessly. But Stumpy is dismissive: "Babylon don't even exist. That's just a tale carnies tell around a bottle." Realizing that the crew is becoming increasingly edgy, Jonesy tells Samson that he fears a revolt, and even suggests talking to Management himself about the decision to veer off the circuit. Samson's response is icy:"That's not gonna happen."
   In Mintern, Brother Justin gets an unexpected visit from his mentor and former guardian Reverend Balthus, who has serious news. Justin's congregation has written to the Bishop complaining about his work with the migrants. He must hand over his new mission to someone else, or face disciplinary action. Justin is stunned, but also resolute: "God spoke to me," he says, shaking his head. "...as he spoke to Abraham and Isiah and Moses."
   As Samson dallies with a prostitute named Jolene, Sophie plays the role of a stranded widow to attract the attention of a young man in town, and whiles away the afternoon enjoying his attention. But their amusements quickly turn to concern, as they suddenly become aware of a terrible force moving over the horizon-a Black Blizzard.
   On Lodz and Ben's mysterious journey the ferocious sandstorm has also caught with them as howling winds surround and rock their truck, Ben decides to try to sleep it out, but has barely closed his eyes when he hears Lodz walk out into the violent blast of dust. Chasing after him, he is choked, and has nearly drowned in dust when he blunders into an abandoned cabin. Inside, while the "Black Blizzard" rages on, Lodz find an opportunity to probe into Ben's abilities and his past.
   Lashing out, Ben screams for him to stop. And immediately the violent storm ceases. "You did that," Lodz tells him, and when Ben says "No..." the winds immediately start again. Lodz replies "you did that too", "Only God can make the weather stop" yells Ben. Further testing Ben, Lodz sears a hot poker from the fire into Ben's face, and within moments, the boy has healed. "You have the gift..." utters a now convinced Lodz. "Let me help you..."
   In town, Sophie's playacting has gone farther than ever before, as she and the young man Harlan become lovers on the floor of his closed cafe. As the storm finally passes, she leaves to attend to Apollonia, who is furious with her.
   Jonesy, exhausted and frustrated from taking care of the huddled and mutinous Carnivale crew, decides to take matters up with Management. Hat in hand, he enters the trailer, calling out to see if Managaement is okay. When he finally steps inside and gingerly pulls back the curtain at one end, he can hardly believe what he sees. The trailer is empty.
   In the quiet of the rectory, in Mintern, Iris wakes her brother in the middle of the night. "There's been a fire," she says. "In the ministry."
   As Brother Justin tours the smoldering remains of his mission, he turns to his sister to ask about the children, and sees the row of bodies under a tarp. Turning his face to the heavens with a roar of silent devastation, he falls to his knees at their feet
    
5. Babylon
   As the caravan bounces along a dusty hill, Samson and Jonesy pull up next to a lone traveler, walking toward them. The man, Stangler, tells them they're almost to Babylon, Tx. "You the carnival?" he asks, eyeing the trucks. "Been waiting for you folks for a long time." Samson and Jones are bewildered, as the man tips his hat and walks off, toward 50 miles of nothing.
   Setting up, the rousties and troupers are more agitated than ever; they want to know what they're doing in a tapped out mining town that is legendary for terrorizing carnies. More than one worker is threatening to bolt, and Jonesy pressures Samson for information, but Management isn't offering any.
   Sophie and Apollonia are still arguing over Sophie's recent assignation with a married stranger. "And he didn't knock me up," the daughter says defensively. "That only happens in dime novels."
   Still, Sophie later asks Libby how a person knows when she's pregnant.
   In an effort to calm the riled up crew, Samson offers to take everyone out for a night on the town. But when the dolled-up troupers arrive at the local saloon, it is rundown and empty, and behind the bar is Stangler. "Never made it out of town, huh?" Samson asks. "Never do," Stangler says solemnly.
   Everyone does their best to have a good time, and the atmosphere becomes pretty festive with the help of some music and plenty of whiskey. Sophie and Libby arrive from the empty movie theatre and join the dancing. A blowsy and sheepish Jones is rebuffed by Sophie when he tries to cut in.
   Dora Mae asks the bartender where everyone is. "They don't drink much," Stangler says. "Anyway, it's better when they don't come in."
   Alone to the side, Ben drinks ferociously, and, swaying, wanders off. When he awakes, he is in the pitch dark. Sparking his lighter, he sees that he is in some kind of mine shaft; he follows his way through a creaking passageway, but finds the end caved in.
   The next night, the Carniv&agravele is ready, but, no one has seen a living soul in town and, as Jonesy observes, "the money ain't exactly rollin' in." Just then, the neighing and breathing of horses is heard, and in the dark, a long line of men with lanterns can be seen. But as the sullen men file in to the midway on a windy night, the carnies can see that they're not the typical crowd.-"a queer bunch of muckers," as Dora Mae says.
   Following a Tarot reading, Apollonia tells Sophie to ask her customer if she's ever heard of a man named Scudder. "Yeah, I knew him," the miner says, surprised. "Worked the Babylon. Killed old Carl Butridge. That was the last we saw of him."
   Samson doesn't like what he sees with this strange bunch as they move joylessly through the carnival's attractions. A large crowd has gathered in for the cootch show, but he warns Stumpy. "Somethin's not right," Samson says. "No blow-off tonight. They keep the panties on-that's an order!"
   Still in the shaft, Ben is becoming increasingly frantic when he bumps into a miner rushing through. The mysterious man is Scudder. "Hold up!" Ben screams. "I know who you are!" But Ben not only loses sight of him, he discovers the body of a man with a pickaxe in his chest. He sinks to the floor of the shaft, darkness engulfing him as he breaks down.
   Up under the cootch tent, the night is crackling with weird energy. Rita Sue decides to overrule Samson on the blow-off, they've worked tougher crowds than this, she says. And Jonesy is hitting the bottle again, as he operates the Ferris Wheel. When a scuffle with a couple of burly miners gets him in the middle of a fight, Samson tells him to get the hell out, and he staggers off into the night.
   Dora Mae narrowly escapes the out of control audience as they mob the stage during the blow-off. The tent is pulled down, and the girl is badly shaken up.
   Ben, meanwhile, has pulled himself together. By the flickering flame of his lighter, he reads letters written on the mine supports. TAVATARA, they say, and he writes the word on his arm with charcoal. Then, borrowing the dead man's lantern, he heads off again.
   A drunken Jonesy wanders outside the midway. There he is stopped cold by a staggering sight: hanging from a tree is the body of Dora Mae Dreifuss. As he carries her back to her family and sets her down, the Carniv&agravele gathers. On her forehead a word is crudely carved: HARLOT
    
6. Pick a Number
   As the carnival shuts down in the terrible moments following Dora Mae's murder, a foreboding pall falls over the troupe. Inside the Cootch tent, Stumpy Dreifuss lays next to his daughter, keeping vigil in anguished silence, while his wife screams hysterically searching for their other daughter, Libby.
   Confronting the miners' supervisor, Samson tells him he's got till morning to bring them someone to hold accountable for Dora Mae's killing. The man laughs him off: "I got 500 men. How am I supposed to find out who killed your whore?" Samson tells him he doesn't give a damn if it's the right one or not, but that someone was going to "stand tall in front of the wagon."
   When Samson tells Jonesy that Management wants a headcount to make sure everyone's okay, Jonesy explodes and tells him to quit spinning fairy tales, that there ain't no damn management. Samson is left sputtering, trying to explain the unexplainable.
   Ben, meanwhile, still wanders in the surreal mineshaft. Spotting men lying on the ground ahead, he ducks under a beam and is rocked by an explosion. When he gets up, he finds himself in foxhole, surrounded by bodies and wearing a WWI uniform. Amid the gunfire and shell explosions, he hears strange, guttural sounds and discovers a huge beast devouring a corpse. He picks up a rifle and draws a bead on the animal-a bear? In a red hat?-just as another man, wearing a Russian uniform takes aim at him. Ben's rifle jams and the Russian turns and fires on the bear, but is himself mauled by the enraged creature.
   Running, an astonished Ben encounters a younger-looking Lodz. "Have you seen my bear?" Lodz asks. There is another explosion, and Ben awakes, back in Babylon and next to the older, blind Lodz. "So. You're awake," he says. "What did you see?" But Ben still wants nothing to do with him.
   In a timeless ritual, the carnies clean up Dora Mae and prepare her for burial. The men, armed to the teeth, are headed to town. "We ain't comin' back empty-handed," Samson says. "Everybody clear on that?" But when they arrive in Babylon, they see there will be no justice: there is not a living soul in town, anywhere. Jonesy is furious at the entire situation; Samson feels he is losing control of the agitated carnies.
   A thousand miles away, an anguished Brother Justin sits in his burned-out mission, rocking and reading scripture and begging his God for answers. Hours or days later, he finally rises. "...led by the spirit into the wilderness," he says, and setting down his Bible and pulling off his collar, he begins to walk.
   The Carnivale buries Dora Mae. Walking back to camp, arm-in-arm with Sophie, Jonesy seems about to tell her what he told Samson-that he is leaving Carnivale to join another outfit--when he spots Stangler again walking up his hill. "Samson!" he yells. "There's still one man left in Babylon!"
   Stangler is brought out in front of the entire group and an ancient wagon is circled around him three times. The confused townsman is told to pick a number, from one to six, and a bullet is loaded in a revolver. Shaken, Stangler takes the number three, and three bullets are loaded in the revolver. He tries to explain: "If one's taken, it's better it was her," he says. "She weren't no good girl." As Stumpy attacks him in a rage, Stangler goes on: "You gotta understand we ain't got no women in Babylon. Be right nice to have someone to dance with...I'll watch over her as best I can..."
   Samson levels the pistol at him and Spangler begs him to at least take him over the hill to do it. "If I die here, I stay here. Just like everyone else since Scudder left." But Samson squeezes the trigger. The chamber is empty. Another attempt brings the same result. Samson pulls the trigger a third time...click. Spangler has survived carnie justice.
   The carnies are incensed and Rita Sue makes an impassioned plea to fire again, but Samson is final. "If we break the code, we ain't got nothin' left." Still, the mob is unconvinced, and Samson seems closer than ever to losing control. Looking at his boss, Jonesy finishes it: "We're packing up. Management wants us on the road by dawn."
   ,br> Around a hobo fire, Brother Justin pulls from a bottle as fellow travelers tell stories of loss. "What about you, friend?" one asks Justin. Lost your job? Your girlfriend? Your dog? The preacher doesn't look up. "I lost my God."
   The traveler, it turns out, is no tramp, but radio personality Tommy Dolan, whose travels form the basis of the program "True Tales from the Road." Dolan relates Justin's heartbreaking tale of intolerance and loss to tens of thousands of rapt listeners. "What kind of world is this, friends?" he asks on his show. "And what of Brother Justin? Where are you, Brother Justin?"
   Just before the Carnivale takes to the road, Samson stops in for a whiskey from a surprised and appreciative Stangler. Samson asks him what he knows about Henry Scudder. The bartender explains that the miners of Babylon were planning to lynch the outsider Scudder after he murdered one of their own with a pick axe. But on the way, a massive cave-in killed the entire company.
   "And the next night, they came back." Stangler says "Every one of them."
   Samson thanks him for the whiskey and shoots him dead. But on the way out of town, a window catches his eye. Standing in it, a naked Dora Mae is looking out at him, just staring, until, with Samson looking on in horror, an arm reaches around and pulls her back...back into the shadows of Babylon
    
7. The River
   Brother Justin stands on the rail of a bridge, arms outstretched. A voice tries to talk him down: "No matter how bad you think it is, ain't nothin's happened to you that hasn't happened to someone else," a policeman says. Justin cocks his head and sails off of the rail..
   At the Carnivale, Stumpy remains inconsolable about the death of his daughter, Dora Mae, while Libby and her mother continue to clash. "I'm sick of this place," Libby says, and Stumpy realizes that he, too, is ready to light out.
   Ruthie takes Ben out hunting for snakes for her newly revived act-"There's something about watching a woman handle a snake that gets a man downright percolated'," she says. The two become closer as Ruthie tries to get to know Ben better. "You don't like to be touched, do you?" she asks. "Not much touchin' going on in my family," he replies. Along the way, Ben learns that, years ago, Hack Scudder helped Ruthie recover from a deadly snakebite.
   In Mintern, the radio personality Tommy Dolan visits Iris and tells her about meeting Justin on the road. Since Dolan's radio account of Justin's story, donations and sympathy have been pouring in to the Dignity ministry, but the town remains as hostile as ever to the cause. Dolan tells a suspicious Iris that he can help, and proceeds to use a live radio interview to shame councilman Val Templeton into action.
   Rita Sue, afraid the family will end up on the breadline, is dead set against Stumpy's plan to move the family off to Hollywood. But Libby is full of movie star ideas and is thrilled at the chance to finally get away. Sophie offers to read Libby's cards for insight to send her off with some knowledge.
   Still trying to insinuate himself into Ben's life, Lodz goads him by telling him that Ruthie and Scudder were bedmates. Ben flies into a rage, confronts Ruthie and ends up fighting with her son Gabriel who in the fight badly breaks his arm.
   Sophie reads Libby's cards, which, she says, promise fame. After the relieved girl leaves, Sophie turns to her mother. "You're wrong. She's not going to dance the cootch the rest of her life."
   Rita Sue is making good money holding down the cootch tent by herself, but wants to spend some time alone with Stumpy, so refuses any "gentleman callers" for the night. Libby, unable to return to the family tent, heads off to bunk with Sophie. As they fall asleep, exchanging dreams, Libby learns that Sophie doesn't even know her own birthday--her mother "took sick" immediately after she was born. Libby presses her to join the escape from the carnival. "This ain't no kind of life," she says.
   Now delirious, Brother Justin awakes by the river with a grotesquely broken leg and sees two children watching him nearby. "I need help," he yells, but the strange children hold back. "You're a bad man, they sent you to kill us," the girl says in English in a heavily Russian accent.
   Tommy Dolan spends some time with a grateful Iris celebrating what he did on the radio, and the two even share a bit of wine. As she lets down her guard, she asks him if she can tell him a story. Two children, a boy and a girl where traveling by rail with their mother when a bridge collapsed, plunging their train into a river. Only the children survive. "They were pursued. A man was sent to kill them. The girl fought to protect her brother. And the day came when the boy had to protect his sister."
   Still stranded by the river, Brother Justin attempts to convince the boy who has been watching him to help. Growing more hostile, he threatens the boy in Russian, and struggles violently with his sister. As Justin begins to strangle the girl, the boy shouts-and Justin is immediately thrown back. Slowly, by an unseen force, his head turns and turns, until his neck is snapped.
   Then, in a flash, Brother Justin is back on the rail of the bridge preparing to jump. His rescuers pull him back. In a moment of realization he mutters "I killed him."
   At the Carnivale, Ben has apologized to Ruthie. He walks away into a field with Gabriel. Wading into a pond, he tells the strongman that he has to trust him. "You can't tell nobody about this. Nobody," Ben says. He places his hands on Gabriel's arm and the broken bone is mended. Around them, dozens of dead fish begin rising to the surface.
   Rita Sue has draw  the line, and is convinced that Stumpy won't have the fortitude to set off without her. "You can't leave me," she says. "You don't even know how to begin to leave me," but a changed Stumpy has wavered not at all. Sophie has decided to join them, packing hurriedly over her mother's objections. With the excited crew shouting "California here we come," the three are in the car to leave the carnival at last, as Stumpy catches sight of a composed-looking Rita Sue in the rearview mirror. There is a dreadful pause.
   "I think tomorrow'd be better, baby" he says to his disbelieving daughter. "Tomorrow." Dejected they unload the car.
   In the middle of the night at the Crowe home, a phone rings, and Iris races to anwswer. "Alexi?" she says breathlessly. "You always knew what was inside me," comes her brother's answer--just before the line goes dead
    
8. Lonnigan, Texas
   Shells are flying and weary medics attempt to help an array of maimed and screaming soldiers, one of whom has lost his legs and an arm...until Ben finally wakes up from this terrible dream. Pulling the sheets off his body, he sees that his arm and legs, too, have become bloody stumps...until, he finally wakes from his dream of waking.
   "They're getting worse, aren't they? The dreams." says Lodz, who is squatting nearby. But Ben stomps away from his offer of breakfast. Rita Sue finds Stumpy sitting alone in the car, drinking a morning beer and listening to the radio. She tries to entice Stumpy into a little "picnic" but the still grieving father says he can't. Rita Sue is hurt. "Don't you miss me?" she asks.
   Sophie delights Jonesy by bringing over a couple of baseball gloves, and the two enjoy a catch and conversation, as in happier days. But when the conversation turns to Sophie's mother, Jonesy fails to defend Sophie's new friend Libby, and the pleasant afternoon turns ugly.
   Samson collars Ben and sends him on a mission: he's to recruit a freak with claws for hands, known in the area as "Scorpion Boy." Samson gives Ben directions and fifteen dollars to bribe the boy's parents if necessary.
   Brother Justin, meanwhile, is in a mental institution, receiving round after round of radical-and painful-therapies, involving icy submersions, insulin injections and rubber tubes.
   Interviewed by a doctor in a padded cell, Justin answers his questions. "I've always been what I am," he says. "The left hand of God." Asked what that means, Justin says, "It means I am no longer his servant." As the doctor takes notes about Justin's various psychoses, Justin, who is several feet away tells him he misspelled "excitation."
   "I broke a man's neck. I willed it and it was so," Justin says. "Why don't you try that with me?" the doctor asks. "Perhaps I already have," is Justin's reply. Later, as the psychiatrist walks away, he distractedly corrects a misspelling of "excitation" in his notes.
   Bouncing along country roads in the truck, Ben asks a sharp-dressed man the way to the town he's looking for. Glancing at the Carny logo on Ben's truck, the man offers a set of complex directions, and Ben sets off.
   At the carnival, Stumpy listens to Jonesy's complaints about women. "What you need is to get your candle waxed," Stumpy says, and tries to talk him into paying a visit to Rita Sue. Jonesy is surprised and refuses, but Stumpy pushes. "You could help me out." he says. "I need a relief pitcher here."
   Nearby, Rita Sue notices Libby and Sophie dancing and laughing as Libby practices her routine, and hatches a idea of her own-to get Sophie to join the cootch tent. "Why don't you work the bally?" she asks, after sending Libby for a Nehi. " I'm not asking you to strip, just get em worked up while Felix turns the tip."
   Sophie refuses. "I got a job," she says. Anyway "Momma'd blow a gasket." When Libby returns, she knows immediately what her mother has been up to and is furious.
   Ben has tracked down the freak -not a Scorpion Boy, it turns out, but a Lobster Gal. But as he enters the foul-smelling shack where she lives, the girl is already signing a contract with the sharp-dressed man who sent Ben on the goose chase. The man, Phineas Boffo, is an old colleague of Samson's and offers his hand. "We freak finders gotta stick together," he says. Angry at being outsmarted, Ben takes his hand, and terrible visions of Crusaders and torture appear. When Ben looks down, he has Boffo's lodge ring in his hand, and he drives off, with the man yelling after him to give the ring back.
   Rita Sue rejects Stumpy's suggestion about Jonesy. "I don't roll with trade," she says. But Stumpy persists. "Why would you want to do something like that to us?" But Stumpy persists. "It's just another trick, he says."
   Sophie argues with Appollonia over Rita Sue's offer and her association with Libby. "At least she knows who her father is," Sophie says. Her mother slaps her, without moving, and Sophie slaps her back. Before long she is back at Rita Sue's tent.
   At the mental institution, Justin seems have a strange effect on the other inmates and on the staff. With a glance, he causes a nurse to change the radio station, and the sound of Tommy Dolan fills the room. "Where are you, Brother Justin," he calls out to his audience. "Where are you?"
   Ben is filling the truck's tank when he is approached by a man offering to sell a chair. The man is stranded with his dispossessed family, and they don't have money for a new tire. The gas station proprietor yells at the man, but Ben offers some of Samson's money to pay for the repair. As Ben pulls off, a piece of paper on a weathered bulletin board catches the Okie's eye. Ben's face is on the poster, along with the words: Wanted for Murder. The man quickly tears the sheet down.
   Sophie's bally debut is a disaster, as a shocked Jonesy ends up beating an over- affectionate audience member. Ben returns to the carnival and informs Samson that "some weasel beat me to the punch." Samson laughs: "Sounds like the kid's got your number, Phin," he calls to his old friend. Phineas Boffo emerges from the cook's tent and angrily demands his ring back. Ben hands the ring over to Samson, who returns it, but not before clocking its insignia.
   Outside the Dreifuss's tent, Jonesy is torn over keeping the appointment Stumpy set up for him with Rita Sue. Eventually she comes out to get him. He's nervous and tries to back out, but Rita Sue is all business. Gently removing his clothes, she's startled by the look of Jonesy's scarred knee. He is shaking as she touches it, then kisses it, and soon he is crying. Touched, Rita Sue kisses his lips and they embrace with increasing passion.
   Samson walks up to Management's trailer, and, thinking her hears voices, steps inside. Lodz is inside talking and laughing, and mentions Scudder. Stunned, Samson looks over to the curtain separating Management, and a growling voice rasps, "Samson, leave us."
   Standing alone outside, Samson looks at the trailer, and then at object he has been nervously rolling in his hand, an old watch fob. a medal of some sort. On its front is, the same emblem that was emblazoned on Boffo's lodge ring. On the back, the initials: H.S
    
9. Insomnia
   While most of the carnival crew sleeps, an exhausted-looking Ben sits and smokes. Sophie, walking back to her trailer, hears screaming and banging from inside. She breaks open the locked door to find her mother being sexually attacked by a large tattooed man. Apollonia screams over and over for him to stop...
   Suddenly, Sophie is back outside the trailer and when she enters, there is no sign of any attack, but her mother, now mute again, is crying. "Who was that man?" Sophie asks. "Yes, I saw." Begging her mother to stop screaming in her head, Sophie holds her.
   When morning comes, Lodz is disturbed at Ben's self-imposed insomnia. "The boy doesn't sleep, he doesn't dream. He doesn't dream, he can't be reached."
   Uncomfortable with Lodz's suddenly chummy relationship with Management, Samson has also begun the day in a foul mood. Gathering together some of the crew, he sends them out for bizarre items-a turtle shell, frying chickens, a skull. Jonesy realizes that Samson's planning a "fireball show," and when he sees the kitty, he understands why: the Carnivale is down to a handful of coins. "Get the word out," Samson tells everyone. "Trim the chumps for all they're worth."
   Samson pulls out the watch fob with the templar emblem on it and asks Ben if it means anything to him. Showing him the initials on the back, he tries to give the item to the boy, saying it belonged to his father. Samson tells him to come by the tent later after lunch as he would like to chat. Later, he presses Ben to tell him what happened when Ben touched Boffo's ring with the same symbol on it, and asks him why Lodz, Apollonia and Management are so interested in him. Ben demurs, but Samson won't let it drop: "We didn't pick you up that day by chance," he says. He pulls out a photo album and finds the picture of Ben's mother. "I lied to ya," Samson says. "I said I didn't know her, this your mama?(pointing to a picture) Furthermore, I reckon Hank Scudder is your daddy."
   Ben says his father ran off and that he doesn't care two cents for him. He asks about Management. "I'm not at liberty to say," Samson says. "But he's a good man, which is more than I can say for your friend the professor."
   Ben's "friend", meanwhile, continues to try to convince him to use his powers, to listen to his dreams.
   Meanwhile, Iris is again seeking Tommy Dolan's help, this time appearing herself on his radio show to try to reach Brother Justin. And indeed, her voice does reach him on the radio inside the mental institution. Justin, who seems increasingly composed, continues to exert control over the other patients. His doctor, looking somewhat disheveled, watches Justin intently and seems to write notes continuously in his file. After the radio show, Iris and Tommy talk, and he attempts to kiss her, but she runs off, upset.
   Sophie asks Jonesy to go for a walk, and as they talk, Sophie tells him she's worried that Apollonia is going crazy. "Last night I saw some things she used to be able to keep from me," Sophie says. "Now she can't." Strolling back to the camp, it is clear that Jonesy has made her feel better. She leans up to kiss him, briefly, on the lips.
   That night, the fireball show is in full swing and anything goes as the carnival tries to squeeze every nickel out of the crowd-anything from fake attractions like the Turtle-Baby and the Man-Eating Chicken to picking pockets. Lodz uses his seeing abilities to produce a compelling "mentalist" show, telling the stories behind objects offered by the audience. Samson, looking for information and a bit of revenge, hands up Scudder's watch fob.
   Lodz is immediately consumed in violent convulsions, and grotesque images of crusaders, heads on spikes and amputations appear to him. As he jerks on the floor he chants "in hoc signo vinces" and Ben mouths the words in English: "By this sign we conquer," he says.
   When the action finally halts, Samson grabs Ben. "Where in the hell did you learn Latin?" he asks the oblivious farmboy. And then, frustrated, Samson warns him. "The way things are shaping up around here, you're going to have to trust someone. Either me, or that one in there," gesturing to the mentalist's tent.
   In the cootch tent, Jonesy's attempt to call things off with Rita Sue seems to be working out well-until a goodbye kiss turns serious. Ruthie, drawn to a worn-out looking Ben, offers a kiss in the quiet of her trailer after her snake show, but he ends up running off.
   In the California evening, a nattily dressed Brother Justin is discharged by his doctor, who continues to write manically in a file, even as he tells his patient about his great progress. As the two walk out of the hospital, the doctor finally hands Justin the folder he has been writing in. Justin opens the file to the first page: "Acts of Redemption, by Brother Justin Crowe," the title page says. Next he sees, "Chapter One: Pain is an unavoidable side effect." Smiling, Justin walks off into the quiet night.
   Sitting and smoking in the dark, Sophie greets Samson, who wonders why she is still up. "I can't go in there," she says. She tells him the story of Apollonia's rape. "She told you that?" Samson asks, seeming incredulous. "I saw it in my head," Sophie answers. "She sees things that no one else does. The present. The past. It's all the same to her." And then after a long pause, Sophie adds, "And I'm starting to see them, too."
   In Management's trailer, Lodz discusses the day's events. "At least we know why we're having so much trouble with young Hawkins," he says. A gutteral voice answers: "We should have known it from Babylon."
   Samson counts up the money from a pile of pilfered wallets as Lodz emerges from the trailer. "Well played, little man" he says, handing Samson back the carefully wrapped fob. "Guess we're movin on?" Samson sks. "Fireball shows, they leave us no choice," Lodz replies.
   A few yards away, Ben struggles to fend off sleep. But as the night grows long, his fight slackens, and, finally, his eyes slip closed.
    
10. Hot and Bothered
    Iris Crowe is asleep in her room when a hand suddenly shoots out, covering her mouth. Terrified, she looks up and sees that Justin, has returned. Brother Justin stands in front of his altar, handing out the Eucharist, but instead of the holy wafer, he places a razor blade on each worshiper's tongue. "Body of Christ," he says, as blood drips from their mouths and they swallow. Ben Hawkins reaches the front of the line, but when Justin offers the blade, he seizes the minister's arm. "Body of Christ," Justin says as the two struggle. "No, it ain't," Ben says..
    And then, Ben awakes. Ruthie comes in and says it's almost sundown; the exhausted boy has slept all day. When she reaches out to him, he pulls back. "I never should have come in here," he says. "It's a sin. Don't touch me!" He leaves, with Ruthie upset and crying.
    In Management's trailer, Lodz finishes laying out a plan. "We both know it's the only way to reach the boy," he says to the unseen person behind the curtain. Lodz tell Lia they must go to town on business.
    Nearby, Libby and Sophie are passing the time drinking the local mescal. They talk about magic and Sophie's mother, and a certain sexual tension develops between them. As their hands touch around the bottle, Sophie has a vision of the two of them in bed together, marred by a bloody gash across her hand. "Have the last sip," Libby offers. But when Sophie thinks she sees the mescal's worm wiggling, she says she's going to be sick.
    In town, Ben is encounters the fiesta of El Dia de Los Muertos. "What are they celebratin'?" he asks a barkeeper
    "The return of the souls," the man replies.
    Outside, a little boy bumps into Ben, looking scared. He is painted with a tree, much like the tattooed man in Ben's dreams. The little boy takes off, as a group of farmers with machetes chases after him. Soon, Hawkins is surrounded by wailing children, whom he mistakes for beggars. "They are weeping," a woman tells him. "For your loss." Looking sorrowful, she hands him a special bread. "Even the dead must eat."
    Ben wanders into the town's church and finds himself in the confessional. Emotional, he recounts his sins, though he's never confessed before. Finally, he chokes out. "My mother..I let her die."
    The priest replies, "Your mother chose to die," and as Ben looks closer, he realizes that the priest is Scudder. He jumps up, but the box next to his is empty.
    In Mintern, Balthus tells Iris about seeing the blood on Justin's forehead during the baptism and says he's worried that Brother Justin has come under the influence of something dangerous. Balthus says that the Bible talks of demons entering a person, and he suggests a catholic style exorcism. As Iris tells him that he's crazy, Justin comes in the front door and overhears.
    At the carnival, Lila irritates the carnies with a new air of authority and tells the group around the breakfast table that "things are changing with Samson sleeping in the truck." Sophie accuses her mother of putting the disturbing mescal vision in her mind. She asks her about the "so-called rape" that led to her conception.
    Rita Sue, meanwhile, is highly critical of the new cootch dancer. And right after she and Jones share a starry-eyed moment, she bumps into Sophie, who thanks her for setting her straight about what a good guy Jonesy is. She tells Rita Sue how she made advances to Jones, but that he wanted to take it slow.
    "He already hurt me once," Sophie says. "You've been around. Can I trust him?" Rita Sue tells her she can.
    Trust is also on Ben's mind. He decides to take a chance with Samson, but when he tells him that he sees Scudder everywhere, in dreams and in daylight, he is disappointed by Samson's lack on information. "All I know is, it was no accident we picked you up in Milfay," he says.
    Sophie tells Jones she wants to try their romance again, and Jones seems emotionally torn by the opportunity. But it is clear as Sophie walks away that there is something undeniable between them.
    In a coffee shop, Tommy Dolan talks to Reverend Balthus, filling him in on Brother Justin's stay in the asylum. The radio man also says that he dug up an unsubmitted police report that notes a car matching Justin's parked at the ministry the night of the fire there. Balthus gets up to leave, but Tommy reminds him of the baptism they both saw in the church. "Something strange is happening here," Dolan says. "You saw something too."
    Soon Balthus is asking Iris about the asylum and the night of the fire. He warns that Tommy Dolan will likely bring the police into the matter, and that the reverend will have no choice but go to the bishop with the whole mess.
    Jonesy tells Rita Sue that he owes it to himself to try it with Sophie. "She's the one for me," he says. Rita Sue is upset and tries to talk him out of it, but Jonesy is firm. "Please, Rita Sue, you gave something to me," he says. "But it's goin' nowhere. It's over, You're still the yellow gimp you always were" Rita Sue lashes out viciously as he walks away.
    In town with Lila, Lodes finds his way to a shack selling exotic animals. Walking past cages of monkeys, poison lizards and leopards, he asks the proprietor for "una culebra" and the man produces a writhing black snake.
    Rita Sue continues to feud with the new dancer, Catalina, and undermines her stage debut. Afterward, when Catalina tries to pull Stumpy aside for some private time, he demurs, saying he's now being pulled by two strong women. Catalina drags him to Sophie's tent to get some spiritual direction. But Stumpy's reading has a nasty surprise-Rita Sue has a lover that has been visting her often. Stumpy then leaves. And when he demands to know who it is, Sophie's eyes tear up and kicks him out. "You're a liar," she says to her mother.
    Over at Ruthie's trailer, there is a knock, and her mended dresses are left in a bag. But when she opens the parcel and is immediate attacked by the snake. Fatally bitten she sinks to the floor.
    In Mintern, Iris talks to Brother Justin about Tommy Dolan's accusations, but he is unimpressed. She presses him, saying he'll be ruined by a one-sided radio broadcast and that Dolan has stirred up Reverend Balthus. "We have nothing to hide," Justin tells her. "Yes. we do," Iris says, looking long at her brother. Realizing what she is saying, Justin is shocked and trembling. "I did it for you," she says. Now that they have Templeton's check and money for a new church, nothing will be able to stop them. Justin shakes with emotion, and suddenly grabs Iris by the throat-and kisses her passionately. He throws her to the couch as she looks up at him expectantly.
    By the time Gabriel finds Ruthie, she is almost gone. "Get Ben," she says. Ben puts her in the truck and drives off as far and as fast as he can. Finally pulling over, he sets her down and lays his hands on her. "Please," he says. "Come on..." But Ruthie does not move. Close to tears he leans in. "Please..."
    In the conversation later, he confronts her with their past. "You've kept things from me," he says angrily. "Do you know how I've suffered?" But Iris coolly responds that he needed time to develop his gifts. "You have a destiny," she says. "And now is your time to fulfill it."
    Back at the carnival, Ben is still fighting sleep as he woozily helps Ruthie with her snake act. Jonesy and Rita Sue continue to feel the electricity of their affair. While the two make the shower stall shake with their activities, Libby happens across them and is upset by her mother's infidelity. Later, when Rita Sue returns to her tent, Stumpy makes an abortive effort to embrace her, and the two lay awake uneasily.
    The next morning, Ben is nearly sick with fatigue when he sees in front of him a heavily muscled man with a giant tattoo of a tree. With a start, he wakes, realizing that he has fallen asleep. Sophie sits next to him and asks him to tell her about the night that her mother Apollonia mysteriously came to him. Did she say anything? "It didn't make any sense," Ben replies. "'You're the one.' She said, 'You're the one.'"
    Samson's status has taken another hit, as he is forced to move out of Management's trailer. Spotting Sophie later, he tells her that management isn't happy that she and her mother haven't been able to perform lately. When Sophie seems surprised that Samson is still carrying out Management's orders, the slighted Samson flies off the handle.
    In Mintern, Tommy Dolan pays a visit to Iris, only to be greeted at the door by Brother Justin. Over coffee, Dolan explains how his listeners responded to Justin's story and tells him he wants to get him on the radio. But Brother Justin is cool to the idea and seems mistrustful of the radio man. Iris invites Tommy Dolan to church. "I thought you wanted a story she replies."
    Samson tells Ben that he's seen something in town and wants to go on a little drive. After nearly wrecking the car by falling asleep behind the wheel, Ben drives into Loving, New Mexico, where Samson shows him the Benevolent Order of Templars, a lodge with the same emblem as Scudder's watch fob. Under the guise of wanting to join the Order, the two carnies find the lodge's "commodore", and Samson asks him if he's heard of his "cousin", Henry Scudder.
    The Templars, a placid and banal looking group of men playing gin rummy, say they've never heard of him. Trying to learn more, Samson asks how to join the Order, but the commodore says that anyone who's a baptized Christian can get in with a two-dollar entry fee. Samson is frustrated, certain that they're hiding something. The two leave, passing obliviously by a painting where a man with a tree tattoo strides through a field- very much like the man of Ben's dreams.
    Sophie and Jones are also in the border town, which has begun a small festival. When Sophie becomes sick from something she ate, Jones heads off to find her a drink. Looking up from her misery, Sophie sees one of the Templars. "Every prophet in her house," he says. Then Jonesy returns and the man is suddenly gone.
    Driving back with Ben, Samson expresses his frustration with their investigation of the Templars. Ben asks him if Scudder gave him the watch fob, and Samson says he won it from him in a stud poker game, back before Management came. The carnival, he says, had been owned by an outfit back East, and Management bought it just after Scudder left. "He's been looking for him ever since," Samson says. "Something happened between them in the old country. Somethin' bad. Badder than you can imagine. Badder than anyone can imagine."
    Sophie, meanwhile, is trying to keep the Tarot operation going. Giving a reading, she struggles with her mother over what to reveal to her customer. Finally, she sees a vision of the woman holding the body of her dead daughter, and the she learns the grim future. "Not my Sally," she wails. "Not my little girl." Sophie is devastated by the horror of the vision and the struggle, and screams at Apollonia. "Mother, goddammit this is not what we do! You're breaking the rules."
    As the carnival wraps up for the night, Stumpy and some of the rousties decide to go to town to "get liquefied." On his way, Jones sees Apollonia sitting, motionless, outside alone. Inside the trailer, Sophie is blasting the Victrola in an attempt to drown out her mother's voice, and Jonesy tries to comfort her. "You're scared, but you ain't crazy Soph," he says, and gently kisses her. Their kissing grows more fervent, until Jonesy stops. "I don't want to ruin this," he says. "I messed things up before; I ain't going to let it happen this time." Sophie, angry and crying, throws him out.
    After feeding Ruthie's snakes, Gabriel finds Ben passed out and shaking in the bathtub. He brings the boy to Ruthie, who wraps him up in bed. Ben resists, saying he can't take the dreams. "I'm always running and they're always chasing me," he says. "It's always Scudder, even before I met him. He's trying to kill me every time I close my eyes." Ruthie comforts him, and as she holds him, they kiss passionately.
    Later, the lovers are disturbed by Lila pounding on the trailer door. She lures Ruthie away, saying the snakes have escaped, and Lodz sneaks into the trailer. Laying a hand on Ben, he sees the boy's dreams: men with sticks chasing Ben through a cornfield.the giant man with the tattoos..Then, in the dream, Ben falls, and when he looks up, he has transformed into Scudder. "He's mine," Scudder says.
    Drinking and pontificating in town, Stumpy, Jonesy and the rousties make progress with their liquification. Uncomfortable talking about Stumpy's marital woes, Jonesy leaves his friend behind. But Stumpy says he's going to stay. "I'm not numb yet." When he does get numb he ends up in a fight, and when eventually wakes up from his beating in the room of a woman from the bar. Soon, Stumpy has not only solved his immediate carnal needs, he has found himself a new dancer for the cootch show.
    Across the country at the Methodist church in Mintern, Reverend Balthus begins his sermon, with Iris and Tommy Dolan watching from the back row. When Justin walks in the crowd becomes hushed. Balthus and Justin embrace. But the reverend is soon surprised, as a confident Justin addresses the congregation with a fire and brimstone sermon. "Evil exists, it is written in the book of man with the blood drawn from Lucifer's veins, he says." "It is part of who you are, part of who I am, who we are. The evil in you is the root of our sins" Walking down the aisle he reels off some of the sins of individuals in the pews. He tells the church members that they can be saved not by prayer and bible study, but by blood and fire. Increasingly, his words are greeted with "Amen" from the crowd.
    Marching up to an astonished Reverend Balthus, Justin demands to be baptized. As the shaken father begins to make the sign of the cross with holy water on Justin's forehead, the water turns to blood but only Balthus sees it. "Finish it!" Justin commands. The congregants still seem unsure of how to respond to the commotion, until Iris rises up. "Baptise me," she says "So that I may be reborn." Soon, other parishioners are rising, and calls of "Baptise me!" fill the room.
    In Management's trailer, Lodz reports to his unseen master, "He spoke to me directly. He knows we've got the boy."
    "Of course he knows," the guttural voice responds from behind the curtain. "But we'll find him. And then. the blood will flow."
     
11. The Day of the Dead
    Brother Justin stands in front of his altar, handing out the Eucharist, but instead of the holy wafer, he places a razor blade on each worshiper's tongue. "Body of Christ," he says, as blood drips from their mouths and they swallow. Ben Hawkins reaches the front of the line, but when Justin offers the blade, he seizes the minister's arm. "Body of Christ," Justin says as the two struggle. "No, it ain't," Ben says..
    And then, Ben awakes. Ruthie comes in and says it's almost sundown; the exhausted boy has slept all day. When she reaches out to him, he pulls back. "I never should have come in here," he says. "It's a sin. Don't touch me!" He leaves, with Ruthie upset and crying.
    In Management's trailer, Lodz finishes laying out a plan. "We both know it's the only way to reach the boy," he says to the unseen person behind the curtain. Lodz tell Lia they must go to town on business.
    Nearby, Libby and Sophie are passing the time drinking the local mescal. They talk about magic and Sophie's mother, and a certain sexual tension develops between them. As their hands touch around the bottle, Sophie has a vision of the two of them in bed together, marred by a bloody gash across her hand. "Have the last sip," Libby offers. But when Sophie thinks she sees the mescal's worm wiggling, she says she's going to be sick.
    In town, Ben is encounters the fiesta of El Dia de Los Muertos. "What are they celebratin'?" he asks a barkeeper
    "The return of the souls," the man replies.
    Outside, a little boy bumps into Ben, looking scared. He is painted with a tree, much like the tattooed man in Ben's dreams. The little boy takes off, as a group of farmers with machetes chases after him. Soon, Hawkins is surrounded by wailing children, whom he mistakes for beggars. "They are weeping," a woman tells him. "For your loss." Looking sorrowful, she hands him a special bread. "Even the dead must eat."
    Ben wanders into the town's church and finds himself in the confessional. Emotional, he recounts his sins, though he's never confessed before. Finally, he chokes out. "My mother..I let her die."
    The priest replies, "Your mother chose to die," and as Ben looks closer, he realizes that the priest is Scudder. He jumps up, but the box next to his is empty.
    In Mintern, Balthus tells Iris about seeing the blood on Justin's forehead during the baptism and says he's worried that Brother Justin has come under the influence of something dangerous. Balthus says that the Bible talks of demons entering a person, and he suggests a catholic style exorcism. As Iris tells him that he's crazy, Justin comes in the front door and overhears.
    At the carnival, Lila irritates the carnies with a new air of authority and tells the group around the breakfast table that "things are changing with Samson sleeping in the truck." Sophie accuses her mother of putting the disturbing mescal vision in her mind. She asks her about the "so-called rape" that led to her conception.
    Rita Sue, meanwhile, is highly critical of the new cootch dancer. And right after she and Jones share a starry-eyed moment, she bumps into Sophie, who thanks her for setting her straight about what a good guy Jonesy is. She tells Rita Sue how she made advances to Jones, but that he wanted to take it slow.
    "He already hurt me once," Sophie says. "You've been around. Can I trust him?" Rita Sue tells her she can.
    Trust is also on Ben's mind. He decides to take a chance with Samson, but when he tells him that he sees Scudder everywhere, in dreams and in daylight, he is disappointed by Samson's lack on information. "All I know is, it was no accident we picked you up in Milfay," he says.
    Sophie tells Jones she wants to try their romance again, and Jones seems emotionally torn by the opportunity. But it is clear as Sophie walks away that there is something undeniable between them.
    In a coffee shop, Tommy Dolan talks to Reverend Balthus, filling him in on Brother Justin's stay in the asylum. The radio man also says that he dug up an unsubmitted police report that notes a car matching Justin's parked at the ministry the night of the fire there. Balthus gets up to leave, but Tommy reminds him of the baptism they both saw in the church. "Something strange is happening here," Dolan says. "You saw something too."
    Soon Balthus is asking Iris about the asylum and the night of the fire. He warns that Tommy Dolan will likely bring the police into the matter, and that the reverend will have no choice but go to the bishop with the whole mess.
    Jonesy tells Rita Sue that he owes it to himself to try it with Sophie. "She's the one for me," he says. Rita Sue is upset and tries to talk him out of it, but Jonesy is firm. "Please, Rita Sue, you gave something to me," he says. "But it's goin' nowhere. It's over, You're still the yellow gimp you always were" Rita Sue lashes out viciously as he walks away.
    In town with Lila, Lodes finds his way to a shack selling exotic animals. Walking past cages of monkeys, poison lizards and leopards, he asks the proprietor for "una culebra" and the man produces a writhing black snake.
    Rita Sue continues to feud with the new dancer, Catalina, and undermines her stage debut. Afterward, when Catalina tries to pull Stumpy aside for some private time, he demurs, saying he's now being pulled by two strong women. Catalina drags him to Sophie's tent to get some spiritual direction. But Stumpy's reading has a nasty surprise-Rita Sue has a lover that has been visting her often. Stumpy then leaves. And when he demands to know who it is, Sophie's eyes tear up and kicks him out. "You're a liar," she says to her mother.
    Over at Ruthie's trailer, there is a knock, and her mended dresses are left in a bag. But when she opens the parcel and is immediate attacked by the snake. Fatally bitten she sinks to the floor.
    In Mintern, Iris talks to Brother Justin about Tommy Dolan's accusations, but he is unimpressed. She presses him, saying he'll be ruined by a one-sided radio broadcast and that Dolan has stirred up Reverend Balthus. "We have nothing to hide," Justin tells her. "Yes. we do," Iris says, looking long at her brother. Realizing what she is saying, Justin is shocked and trembling. "I did it for you," she says. Now that they have Templeton's check and money for a new church, nothing will be able to stop them. Justin shakes with emotion, and suddenly grabs Iris by the throat-and kisses her passionately. He throws her to the couch as she looks up at him expectantly.
    By the time Gabriel finds Ruthie, she is almost gone. "Get Ben," she says. Ben puts her in the truck and drives off as far and as fast as he can. Finally pulling over, he sets her down and lays his hands on her. "Please," he says. "Come on..." But Ruthie does not move. Close to tears he leans in. "Please..."
     
12. The Day That Was the Day
    Gabriel waits in swirling mist for Ben, who finally pulls up in the truck. Ben tells him to put Ruthie in bed and not to let anyone in-even Samson, and Gabriel sits on the steps of the trailer in vigil.
    Lodz is waiting with Lila in their trailer. Eventually there is a knock at the door and Ben enters, saying he needs help. Ruthie is dead. "I tried to do what I did before, but nothing happened. You tell me what I gotta do."
    A smug looking Lodz says he can't help, but he knows someone who can. Inside Management's trailer, the raspy voice addresses Ben. "You have the gift," it says. "To restore life, you must take a life...You must choose the life you take, that is the way of our kind."
    Ben is taken aback. "I can help you Ben Hawkins, I can give you the answers you seek. I am someone who understands." Management says that he knows Ben has made the choice before.
    But Ben insists the choice is not his to make. "If that is true my friend, then why is such a choice possible?" Management asks. "Why are you not like other men? ...It is your place, Ben Hawkins, it cannot be escaped."
    Over in the Dreifuss tent, Stumpy waits for Rita Sue to awaken, holding a revolver. When she awakens Stumpy tells her. "You and me, it ain't workin'." Finally talking things through, the two decide to give up their peccadilloes.
    Sophie and her Mother are having their usual strained conversation. "I don't care mother," Sophie says. "I've made up my mind. I'm leaving tonight." She heads outside and tells Jonsey she wants to see him that night, after the show shuts down.
    Meanwhile, a Texas Ranger with a wanted poster of Ben is talking to Samson; Samson and Jonsey tell the official that Ben had been with their outfit, but that he took a powder in Babylon. Jones heads off to tell Ben to hide.
    In Mintern, Tommy Dolan pays a visit to the Crowes, and is bewildered to find that he was expected. Dolan says he wants to help Justin, and Justin tells him he wants to use the radio to get out his message. They strike a deal.
    Samson asks Ben about meeting The Man. "He says we're alike," Ben says, and tells him that Management said he can help him help somebody. "But theres a price," Samson guesses. He warns Ben that Management doesn't care about people, and tells Ben that he had better not harm anyone in his carnival.
    Apollonia beckons Lodz to her trailer and he places a hand on her brow. "How long have you known?" he asks, seeming legitimately shocked.
    Sophie watches Libby dance, and flirts with her. She tells Libby she is the only one she can trust. Then she asks her to meet her later someplace quiet.
    Ben stumbles into town, and in a bar sees an old drunk coughing and mumbling to himself. With great effort he attempts to strangle the man in an alley, to take this man's life for Ruthie's, but finds he cannot do it. He wanders into a cemetery lit by candles for the dead, and sinks to the ground.
    Slowly, he pulls out he pocket knife, and taking a breath, cuts his own throat. But as the blood runs out of him, a hand comes out to soothe him and a voice is heard. "It doesn't work that way. You are meant for greater things." The voice says. And over a flurry of visions, he adds, "This is who you are." Ben looks up and sees Scudder, dressed in his tuxedo. "You must make a choice. I'm sorry," Scudder says. Now healed, Ben spells out in blood the word he has seen in the visions, in the mine, in his dreams: Tavatar. He rubs out the "T".
    In church, Balthus and Justin finally confront each other. "There is a demon within you," Balthus says. But Justin calmly rejects him, and says instead that there is demon inside Balthus. "All men have sinned against God at least once," he says, holding Balthus and bringing him into a vision. Together they walk in the night, as both wait to see what Balthus' sin is. What they witness is a flashback to Balthus rescuing the young Justin and Iris from the riverbank after the train accident of their youth.
    "My greatest evil was saving your life?" Balthus asks. Justin reels in utter shock and horror. "This cannot be...." He picks up a heavy candlestick and begs Balthus to "do the thing you must do, now before it is too late...if you have ever loved me." Balthus raises the bludgeon over his head preparing to strike Justin dead, reciting scripture, but cannot do it. As Balthus runs from the church, Justin lifts his head yelling, "Norman!," his eyes now transformed into black orbs.
    As Lodz and Management wait for Ben to return, Management compliments his lackey on his loyal service. "I have a gift for you," he says. "Come closer."
    Libby, meanwhile, is all dolled up and goes looking for Sophie. They share a cigarette, and after some small talk, are soon kissing.
    Later, Jones arrives for his rendezvous with Sophie, only to be surprised with the discovery of the two women in fligrante. "This is what it feels like to be betrayed by someone you love," Sophie says to them both and runs back to her trailer.
    Ben sits with Ruthie's dead body and touches her face, choked up. Walking out of her trailer he tells Gabriel he's sorry.
    Brother Justin addresses a packed congregation, now in front of a radio microphone. Snap, snap, snap go his fingers. "The clock is ticking, brothers and sisters, counting down to Armageddon."
    With a silent scream, Apollonia grabs Sophie and causes the doors of the trailer to lock. Then she knocks over a kerosene lamp and ignites their room. "What are you doing?" Sophie screams.
    On the radio, Brother Justin begins his litany of the evils of modern man: the savage blasphemy of Darwin, false prophets, Hollywood, godless politicians.
    At the carnival, Ben faces Management having made his choice. "You're wrong," he says. "I ain't like you. God takes what's his, man don't take it back" But God had nothing to do with Ruthie's fate, Management says-- it was Professor Lodz. Lodz, stunned, denies it. "Why are you doing this," he asks terrified.
    "Look him in the eyes," Management says, and Ben sees that Lodz's sight has been restored. Enraged, he grabs Lodz by the neck and strangles him.
    "I open my eyes and see a blood sky," Justin says. "Rise up my brothers and sister and take your place at my side."
    The carnies struggle to fight the fire in Apollonia's trailer, finally a desperate Jonesy pours water over himself and dives into bus. His friends look on in horror.
    "Take a good look, you son of a bitch," Ben says, as Lodz breathes his last breath and his eyes glass back over to white. "It appears we are of like nature after all," observes Management.
    "And together brothers and sisters we will build a shining temple," Brother Justin tells his radio flock. "A kingdom that will last thousands and thousands of years."
    And with a gasp, Ruthie jolts awake
     

Season Two