carnivale watch: 1.07
THIS IS CARNIVALE WATCH, NOT YOUR MOMMA.
episode 1.07 - the river
everything after this sentence could contain a spoiler for this episode and everything before it.
content warnings: slut-shaming, assault, graphic injuries, graphic but absurd magical violence.
the river!
(the episode that made me love this show.)
(for the second fucking time. I am very bitter about this, and sorry that the quality's gone down so much.)
-
brother justin is standing on a bridge, disheveled, looking down.
he opens his arms and it turns into a horribly effect-heavy flashback sequence. his life, the ministry, his pain.
a cop tries to talk him down, says, "no matter how bad you think it is, there's nothing happened to you that hasn't happened to somebody else."
justin glares at him and then swan dives off of the bridge and into a river.
-
ruthie calls ben over and asks him if he'd like to go snake hunting. well, of course he would. (oh look, he's got one in his pants!)
rita sue and stumpy are sitting at the table. rita sue wants to make him feel better, but stumpy's not having any of it.
libby's bleached and cut her hair. it looks a bit marilyn monroe-esque, it's very white. rita sue HATES it. she throws a fit. but stumpy likes it.
everybody deliberately doesn't speak about dora mae.
stumpy asks what would make libby happy. she wants to leave. she wants to go to hollywood, just like every pretty girl wants to.
stumpy says to start packing.
-
MINTERN, CALIFORNIA.
iris is in her brother's room. she places his bible on his nightstand. she picks up his coat and snuggles it before putting it away. there is a doorbell, but iris goes to under justin's bed. she pulls out his briefcase.
and then she fondles justin's whip, smelling him on it. that's when eleanor the former slot machine walks in and tells iris that she has a caller.
iris is flustered. she puts the whip away and takes a long breath.
it's tommy dolan sitting on their couch. he's a reporter, not a minister like he lied. eleanor doesn't like lying liars who lie. iris sends eleanor away, but iris is curt.
but when he mentions that he saw justin, iris visibly softens. she asks about her brother. tommy says that justin was unshaven and in need of a bath. (TOTAL MENTAL BREAKDOWN, YOU GUYS. brother justin is always immaculately groomed!) tommy mentions that they were passing a bottle and iris very sweetly interjects, "no, my brother doesn't drink."
there is a shipment of mail, and tommy rifles through it. one letter contains $5, and there are huge piles of letters all around.
awesome tiny little detail: eleanor's son with the overalls and the crazy beard who plays accordian is sitting at the table sorting the mail. and when iris dismisses him, he takes an apple from their decorative centerpiece. (these migrants are hungry.)
tommy offended iris by asking about the money, so he tries to make it up to her by talking about how justin revealed that they had many troubles with the town. and offering to use his magic reporter penis to fix the problems for her.
iris, because she is incredibly smart, asks what he'll be getting out of the deal.
tommy's stated reasoning goes like this: big stories = more listeners = more renown = more money = more hookers.
iris says that he should go to church. but she wasn't flirting and he was. so she flees. (she really only likes her brother, you know.)
-
A RIVERBANK, SOMEWHERE IN CALIFORNIA.
there's a fade from white into a slow pan of brother justin laying partially in a river. his leg is mangled beyond use. two children are watching him from behind a downed tree. he falls into unconsciousness.
he wakes up, he is on his stomach, this time, fully on the banks. the children are still staring. it's a girl and her younger brother, and they are in formal clothes. justin crawls to them, calling, "I need help."
the girl whispers something to the boy and they walk toward him. the girl says, "why do you chase us? where are the others?"
justin says that it is very important that they tell their parents that he is injured and he needs help. he asks for their mother. she says, "my mother is dead." he asks for their father. she says, "my father's an evil man."
they run away.
brother justin can't chase them. he collapses to the ground.
-
ruthie and ben are walking alone in a big, empty field. ben says that he does not understand the appeal of snake dancing, you know, because it's unnatural.
but ruthie knows what it's all about. "something about watching a woman handle a snake. makes a man downright percolated. probably goes back to the serpent in the garden. garden of eden."
ben starts reciting chapters of the bible. his mum read some to him every day. but now ben is done with that. well, you guys, this does explain why ben reacts to every instance of magic and even regular carnival life with shock, disgust and treating everything like it is unnatural and a sin.
ruthie changes the subject back to snakes. she tells a story about how she accidentally picked a poisonous snake. and it bit her. and she almost died. but thankfully, henry scudder was there to save her! (with his magical penis.)
ruthie tries to show ben where he touched her. (on the forehead, you pervs!) but ben flinches away. he doesn't like to be touched. ruthie does not approve, so she touches him again, but more gently, and accidentally lingers on his lips.
ben looks totally snake charmed but has no clue what to do about it.
-
rita sue is extremely skeptical of this hollywood business. you know, 'cause she's the practical one.
stumpy is refusing to listen to logic or anything practical. he just wants to get out and then sort everything else later.
but rita sue knows that if they leave without another job lined up, they'll go straight to homelessness. she's gonna put on a show. she wants him to help her, but stumpy says, "she ain't but two weeks in the ground."
rita sue leaves and stumpy keeps packing.
-
libby and sofie sit on the empty still carousel, talking about girl things. libby's hair, hollywood, famous actresses. libby shares a birthday with thelma todd, it's her icebreaker.
libby tells her that they're leaving tomorrow. and sofie's heart breaks a lot. just as she's found a friend, she's lost her. and sofie wants to go too.
but when libby asks, sofie offers a free tarot reading, smiling.
-
lila the bearded lady and lodz are up to mischief walking around the carnival. they happen upon ben touching up ruthie's old snake charming ad. (painting with whatever passed for paint in the 30s, with a paintbrush that's probably more like a dull stick, on a vertical piece of canvas that has no backing support and is fluttering in the wind.)
lodz stops to bug ben about being his padawan some more. (he's wearing what looks like a fuzzy fleece fez.)
ben says, "would you tell your blind old granddaddy here that I ain't interested and I never will be?" I have to admit, I snorted. lodz is NOT grandfatherly towards lila.
so lodz gets pissed and offers ben THE TRUTH about scudder and ruthie. (they were porking it.) (come on, the show wasn't exactly subtle about it before this.) and then lodz proceeds to slut-shame the fuck out of ruthie. says that she rewarded scudder for saving her life with her magical ladybits. and that's how she rewards every other man that helps her. D: (ruthie has standards, you guys! slut-shaming is so uncool.)
well, this hurts ben's feelings, so he stomps away.
-
and then conveniently stomps right into ruthie and big gabe, full of moral indignation.
summarizing!
ben: OMG YOU FUCKED SCUDDER YOU WHORE.
ruthie: what did you say?
ben: I KNOW IT'S TRUE.
ruthie: NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS.
ben: I'm making it my business, since you obviously sleep with every drunk loser you find on the side of the road!
ruthie: I DON'T ANSWER TO YOU, LOSER.
ben: YOU'VE BEEN LYING TO ME.
ruthie: YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING.
ben: LYING WHORE.
and ruthie spends most of that time trying to get in between the boys so that they don't brawl, but big gabe just keeps getting progressively more and more upset that ben is insulting his momma.
so there's a brawl. which ben starts. and big gabe mostly just throws ben over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. and then he lets ben down when his momma tells him to. and that's when ben shoves big gabe into a tent pole and the rousties show up.
big gabe gets hurt pretty badly. he starts crying, and he looks all of five years old.
-
MINTERN, CALIFORNIA. (unfortunately, not with justin or iris.)
mr tommy dolan is interviewing val templeton for his radio show. (val's the pudgy asshole who justin went all darth vader on.)
he starts by buttering val up, but that does not last for very long.
in the crowe house, iris is sitting in justin's chair, doing needlepoint and listening to the radio.
when tommy brings up the troubles the ministry had with city council and how city council is still cockblocking them, tommy gets all passive-aggressive in the best way. "all of the listeners are concerned about the whereabouts of brother justin. aren't you concerned?"
and that's when val tries to weasel his way out of the interview. but tommy dolan got street cred for a reason. and he's all, "so what about the investigation into who committed the arson and killed those six innocent children?" and then, "how much will city council be contributing to the church rebuilding fund?" (val thinks nothing.)
and then tommy essentially blackmails him into paying at least $3000 to the ministry. it's pretty fucking badass.
-
THE RIVERBANK.
it's nighttime. brother justin is leaning on a log, and he's in paaain.
the children have returned. he wakes up when he hears them. the girl says, "you're a bad men. my father sent you to kill us." her accent is very thick.
justin's leg is still mangled. he just wants help! (and his sister!) the girl says, "you lie. mother told us you would. that we could not trust anyone but man of god."
what a coincidence! justin is totally one of those! but when he tells the children, they don't believe him. and that's when they hear voices in the distance.
brother justin calls out to them, but before he can say much of anything, the girl bashes him into unconsciousness with a rock.
-
carnival goings-on are going on at the carnival.
sofie reads libby's tarot card.
we don't see the first card. the second card is the fool.
(sofie says that it's good, that it means you're lighthearted and free.)
the third card is the chariot, but it's reversed. (sofie says that doesn't mean anything.)
(sofie says that it means that she's destined for fame. but reversed means the opposite.)
apollonia does not approve of the lying. but sofie won't hear anything bad about libby.
-
samson and rita sue are hanging out in her trailer.
rita sue just danced the cooch all by herself for 2 hours with no help. and her financial contribution totally put the carnival into earning.
rita sue's not hooking at all tonight, because she wants to spend some quality time with her husband. (convincing him to stay. with her womanly charms.) she reapplies her makeup and puts on some perfume. then. a sexy nightgown.
she puts a red pig outside of the tent.
-
libby sees the red pig and turns away. (it's a signal. it means rita sue wants to get porked.)
she finds sofie, who's sleeping in the back of a truck with some blankets. libby crawls in under the blankets. and they snuggle. it's AMAZING.
they're all giggly like girls. libby asks sofie about her birthday, but sofie doesn't know her birthday. apollonia became so sick immediately after giving birth to sofie, and she doesn't remember anything about it, except that there were cherry trees blooming. so sofie picks a new birthday every year.
sofie is trying really hard not to cry. she doesn't want libby to go. and libby wants sofie to come with them. (she says that sofie's mom can be taken care of by the carnival.) she says that sofie deserves better.
-
rita sue can see someone approaching the tent, and she fixes her tits so they look their most alluring.
but when stumpy sees the red pig, he turns around and walks away.
jonesy finds stumpy sitting on a high seat on the ferris wheel, drunk off his ass. stumpy climbed up, got drunk, and now can't get down. (or stop giggling.)
stumpy offers jonesy a drink, and they both start drinking. but a few seconds later, stumpy gets melancholy.
he says, "every which way I turn, I see my little girl." of course he wouldn't want to stay.
-
ruthie leaves her trailer. she says, "I'll be right back, sweetie."
big gabe says, "okay, momma." big gabe is just a sweet little 5 year old trapped in a giant's body.
ben's been lurking outside of the trailer. you know, to apologize. for breaking gabe's wrist and endangering his life (infection) and his ability to make a living. but ben's totally sorry, so that'll fix it, right?
ruthie says, "that means exactly less than nothing to me right now." YOU PREACH IT, RUTHIE.
ben's all, "what you said before? you were totally right. I get it, that wasn't my business."
and ruthie's all, "I don't answer to no man. never have, and ain't gonna start now."
and then she basically says that ben can accept that or he can suck it. and leaves. because ruthie is MADE OF AWESOME.
-
MINTERN, CALIFORNIA.
there is a shot of a record player, which pans to a bottle of wine, which pans to iris and tommy dolan sitting on her couch.
they're listening to val templeton promise to donate money. iris is thrilled. she turns over to him, beaming, then realizes what she's doing and turns right back.
dude is using his bedroom eyes. and then iris is all, "thanks for bringing the recording. I'm sorry I missed it, but I was in prayer." awww, iris crowe is manipulative to her very core and tommy is eating it up.
he really really wants her to get sloshed so that he can stick his tongue down her throat. and then he says this frankly amazing gem of a pickup line:
"jesus turned water into wine. that's quite an endorement in my book." JESUS WANTS YOU TO GET WASTED.
so iris has a little more. she says, "I feel decadent." but totally ignores him when he tries to flirt harder. he wants her to tell him a story. but iris says that she's very simple. (iris = the center of justin's entire life. justin = the center of iris's entire life.)
she says, "I'm actually very simple. I live my life trusting the lord."
but then she gets a little too drunk and decides to tell tommy a toooootally completely made up story that has nothing to do with her at all.
(with convenient flashbacks to justin on the banks of the river.)
"there were two children. a boy, a girl. immigrants from russia. and they were traveling with their mother, by train. one night, there was a terrible accident. a bridge collapsed and the train went down into to the water. there were no survivors, except the boy and the girl. by god's divine mercy, they surivived, washed up on a riverbank. they were pursued. a man was sent to kill them. the girl fought to protect her brother. and then the day came when the boy had to protect his sister."
(iris did not use any of brother justin's rhetorical flourish.)
-
this transitions SEAMLESSLY into brother justin on the riverbank.
he's alone with the little boy. he tries to charm him.
when that doesn't work, he says, "your sister has been very, very bad. she's getting both of you in a lot of trouble. when people find me, I will tell them what you have done. and you will be punished. you will be beaten. (something in russian that makes the boy flinch.) but you're a good boy, you're a good boy, I can see that. I know you want to do right. I know you want to help me. don't worry about her, don't worry. you're the man of the family, take charge."
excellent manipulation skillz, brother justin, but perhaps you shouldn't have tried to stick a wedge between them.
because that's when the girl whacks brother justin in the mangled leg with a stick. but he grabs the stick and pulls until he has her off-balance, and he then grabs her by the neck and squeezes.
the boy screams, "irina!"
brother justin demands that he go and fetch help and continues to choke the girl. she cries, "alexsei!"
and that's when his eyes get very dark. and his face becomes tense, and brother justin is thrown back. he drops the girl. and then his head starts to twist backwards until his chin is past his shoulder with a snap.
and he's dead.
-
CALIFORNIA.
brother justin is still standing on the bridge.
he's dazed. says, "I killed him." he doesn't notice when a cop pulls him down from the ledge.
brother justin mutters, "this was not visited upon me. this is my birthright." he keeps muttering about his birthright as the cop drags him away.
-
MINTERN, CALIFORNIA.
tommy is mesmerized by iris's story. (also, her face.)
iris tries to say that it's a parable. and then goes immediately to, "in russia, there's a saying." (perhaps she should've picked a different country for the immigrant children to be from?) and then amy madigan mangles some russian.
but it means, "pray to god, but row for shore."
iris believes in faith and action together. because she is fucking badass. and then she gets a little bit teary, because she misses her brother.
faith and action is how she lives her life.
-
next morning at the carnival, rita sue is not here to make friends. she goes up to stumpy hungover and asleep on the breakfast table and throws a piece of paper at him, demanding that he write an ad for a new cooch girl.
because they need one. DORA MAAAAE.
stumpy says he won't, because they're leaving that day.
rita sue says that they're not.
stumpy says that he is.
rita sue tells him that he isn't. and then she flounces, totally confident.
-
ben and big gabe walk through an empty field. ben leads them to a pond and they both walk in up to their waists.
ben tells big gabe to trust him, and that he can't tell anybody, because this is a secret.
and then be puts his hand on gabe's wrist and heals him.
gabe doesn't trust the wrist at first, but soon he's smiling. that's when the dead fish start to rise around them in droves.
it's the two of them, and the empty lake, and all of the fish that ben's powers have killed.
-
rita sue is smoking on the carousel. she looks completely unconcerned.
samson walks over to her, wanting to hear about what's going on with the leaving business. he's seen stumpy packing.
but rita sue's still sure. she knows her husband.
samson takes the moment to apologize about what happened to dora mae. he says that he blames himself because he didn't fight management more. but rita sue says that it's her fault, because she decided to do the blow-off. they're both just sad and regretful.
rita sue says that the only thing that gets to her is that dora mae's murderer is still out there. samson says, "no, he ain't."
rita sue's face, you guys.
-
sofie is packing a bag, not listening when her mother says that she won't be going.
-
the three of them strap their luggage to the car and get inside. libby is wearing a jaunty red beret, and they are all grinning.
from the rearview mirror, stumpy can see rita sue sitting on the carousel. he stops.
libby begs him to go. but stumpy says that tomorrow will be better.
they're not gonna go.
he says, "tomorrow," and gets out of the car.
libby yells, "you promised, you son of a bitch."
and sofie climbs into the front seat, offers to drive just the two of them. but libby's not leaving without her dad. so they're not going.
-
ben and gabe walk back into the carnival. ben waits until they're well into the carnival limits before he quickly has gabe put his arm back into the sling. UGH. that was stupid.
so stupid that lila saw it.
-
sofie walks back into her trailer. it's dark like a funeral parlor in there. appy says that she told her so.
sofie replies, "I'll tell you something, mother, you don't know everything."
-
lila tells lodz about how ben fixed big gabe's arm.
THIS COULD HAVE BEEN FIXED HAD BEN NOT BEEN RIDICULOUSLY THICK.
at least gabe has an excuse. and is sweet. and bathes. and never calls ruthie a whore.
anyway, lodz is pleased with this development. so he starts spanking lila.
-
MINTERN, CALIFORNIA.
there is a single light on in the crowe house. and the phone is ringing.
iris runs out of bed with her hair down. she sounds desperate for news.
justin is on the other side of the phone. he says, "privyet, ira."
ira is the diminutive form of irina.
she exhales, "alexsei!" then, "justin, where are you?"
"you always knew what was inside of me," he says. and then hangs up.
and violins start to wail in the background.
iris looks heartbroken. she turns off the light and walks back upstairs.
on the staircase, there is an old photograph or maybe even daguerreotype, and it is of the two children from justin's vision standing with a young priest.
it's justin, iris, and norman.
(iris wasn't actually telling a parable.)
-
OMG THIS EPISODE.
I would like to point out, in the way of faults, that they reveal that justin and iris are irina and alexsei, the children from justin's vision four different times. the show is not especially a fan of subtle mythology.
on the other hand: omg.
the thing that I would like to talk about is that justin and iris are orphans. they were orphaned young children, taken in by a minister (norman) and raised in the church.
when justin looks at the children, the orphaned migrants, he is seeing himself and his sister. all of the time. the dead orphans represent that justin has grown to fulfill norman's role of protector, but that he has failed. and the children like him have been punished for it.
also, don't mess with a crowe. they will fuck you up.
GOOD EPISODE. now, let's talk some carnivale! (no future episode spoilers in the comments, please.)
episode 1.07 - the river
everything after this sentence could contain a spoiler for this episode and everything before it.
content warnings: slut-shaming, assault, graphic injuries, graphic but absurd magical violence.
the river!
(the episode that made me love this show.)
(for the second fucking time. I am very bitter about this, and sorry that the quality's gone down so much.)
-
brother justin is standing on a bridge, disheveled, looking down.
he opens his arms and it turns into a horribly effect-heavy flashback sequence. his life, the ministry, his pain.
a cop tries to talk him down, says, "no matter how bad you think it is, there's nothing happened to you that hasn't happened to somebody else."
justin glares at him and then swan dives off of the bridge and into a river.
-
ruthie calls ben over and asks him if he'd like to go snake hunting. well, of course he would. (oh look, he's got one in his pants!)
rita sue and stumpy are sitting at the table. rita sue wants to make him feel better, but stumpy's not having any of it.
libby's bleached and cut her hair. it looks a bit marilyn monroe-esque, it's very white. rita sue HATES it. she throws a fit. but stumpy likes it.
everybody deliberately doesn't speak about dora mae.
stumpy asks what would make libby happy. she wants to leave. she wants to go to hollywood, just like every pretty girl wants to.
stumpy says to start packing.
-
MINTERN, CALIFORNIA.
iris is in her brother's room. she places his bible on his nightstand. she picks up his coat and snuggles it before putting it away. there is a doorbell, but iris goes to under justin's bed. she pulls out his briefcase.
and then she fondles justin's whip, smelling him on it. that's when eleanor the former slot machine walks in and tells iris that she has a caller.
iris is flustered. she puts the whip away and takes a long breath.
it's tommy dolan sitting on their couch. he's a reporter, not a minister like he lied. eleanor doesn't like lying liars who lie. iris sends eleanor away, but iris is curt.
but when he mentions that he saw justin, iris visibly softens. she asks about her brother. tommy says that justin was unshaven and in need of a bath. (TOTAL MENTAL BREAKDOWN, YOU GUYS. brother justin is always immaculately groomed!) tommy mentions that they were passing a bottle and iris very sweetly interjects, "no, my brother doesn't drink."
there is a shipment of mail, and tommy rifles through it. one letter contains $5, and there are huge piles of letters all around.
awesome tiny little detail: eleanor's son with the overalls and the crazy beard who plays accordian is sitting at the table sorting the mail. and when iris dismisses him, he takes an apple from their decorative centerpiece. (these migrants are hungry.)
tommy offended iris by asking about the money, so he tries to make it up to her by talking about how justin revealed that they had many troubles with the town. and offering to use his magic reporter penis to fix the problems for her.
iris, because she is incredibly smart, asks what he'll be getting out of the deal.
tommy's stated reasoning goes like this: big stories = more listeners = more renown = more money = more hookers.
iris says that he should go to church. but she wasn't flirting and he was. so she flees. (she really only likes her brother, you know.)
-
A RIVERBANK, SOMEWHERE IN CALIFORNIA.
there's a fade from white into a slow pan of brother justin laying partially in a river. his leg is mangled beyond use. two children are watching him from behind a downed tree. he falls into unconsciousness.
he wakes up, he is on his stomach, this time, fully on the banks. the children are still staring. it's a girl and her younger brother, and they are in formal clothes. justin crawls to them, calling, "I need help."
the girl whispers something to the boy and they walk toward him. the girl says, "why do you chase us? where are the others?"
justin says that it is very important that they tell their parents that he is injured and he needs help. he asks for their mother. she says, "my mother is dead." he asks for their father. she says, "my father's an evil man."
they run away.
brother justin can't chase them. he collapses to the ground.
-
ruthie and ben are walking alone in a big, empty field. ben says that he does not understand the appeal of snake dancing, you know, because it's unnatural.
but ruthie knows what it's all about. "something about watching a woman handle a snake. makes a man downright percolated. probably goes back to the serpent in the garden. garden of eden."
ben starts reciting chapters of the bible. his mum read some to him every day. but now ben is done with that. well, you guys, this does explain why ben reacts to every instance of magic and even regular carnival life with shock, disgust and treating everything like it is unnatural and a sin.
ruthie changes the subject back to snakes. she tells a story about how she accidentally picked a poisonous snake. and it bit her. and she almost died. but thankfully, henry scudder was there to save her! (with his magical penis.)
ruthie tries to show ben where he touched her. (on the forehead, you pervs!) but ben flinches away. he doesn't like to be touched. ruthie does not approve, so she touches him again, but more gently, and accidentally lingers on his lips.
ben looks totally snake charmed but has no clue what to do about it.
-
rita sue is extremely skeptical of this hollywood business. you know, 'cause she's the practical one.
stumpy is refusing to listen to logic or anything practical. he just wants to get out and then sort everything else later.
but rita sue knows that if they leave without another job lined up, they'll go straight to homelessness. she's gonna put on a show. she wants him to help her, but stumpy says, "she ain't but two weeks in the ground."
rita sue leaves and stumpy keeps packing.
-
libby and sofie sit on the empty still carousel, talking about girl things. libby's hair, hollywood, famous actresses. libby shares a birthday with thelma todd, it's her icebreaker.
libby tells her that they're leaving tomorrow. and sofie's heart breaks a lot. just as she's found a friend, she's lost her. and sofie wants to go too.
but when libby asks, sofie offers a free tarot reading, smiling.
-
lila the bearded lady and lodz are up to mischief walking around the carnival. they happen upon ben touching up ruthie's old snake charming ad. (painting with whatever passed for paint in the 30s, with a paintbrush that's probably more like a dull stick, on a vertical piece of canvas that has no backing support and is fluttering in the wind.)
lodz stops to bug ben about being his padawan some more. (he's wearing what looks like a fuzzy fleece fez.)
ben says, "would you tell your blind old granddaddy here that I ain't interested and I never will be?" I have to admit, I snorted. lodz is NOT grandfatherly towards lila.
so lodz gets pissed and offers ben THE TRUTH about scudder and ruthie. (they were porking it.) (come on, the show wasn't exactly subtle about it before this.) and then lodz proceeds to slut-shame the fuck out of ruthie. says that she rewarded scudder for saving her life with her magical ladybits. and that's how she rewards every other man that helps her. D: (ruthie has standards, you guys! slut-shaming is so uncool.)
well, this hurts ben's feelings, so he stomps away.
-
and then conveniently stomps right into ruthie and big gabe, full of moral indignation.
summarizing!
ben: OMG YOU FUCKED SCUDDER YOU WHORE.
ruthie: what did you say?
ben: I KNOW IT'S TRUE.
ruthie: NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS.
ben: I'm making it my business, since you obviously sleep with every drunk loser you find on the side of the road!
ruthie: I DON'T ANSWER TO YOU, LOSER.
ben: YOU'VE BEEN LYING TO ME.
ruthie: YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING.
ben: LYING WHORE.
and ruthie spends most of that time trying to get in between the boys so that they don't brawl, but big gabe just keeps getting progressively more and more upset that ben is insulting his momma.
so there's a brawl. which ben starts. and big gabe mostly just throws ben over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. and then he lets ben down when his momma tells him to. and that's when ben shoves big gabe into a tent pole and the rousties show up.
big gabe gets hurt pretty badly. he starts crying, and he looks all of five years old.
-
MINTERN, CALIFORNIA. (unfortunately, not with justin or iris.)
mr tommy dolan is interviewing val templeton for his radio show. (val's the pudgy asshole who justin went all darth vader on.)
he starts by buttering val up, but that does not last for very long.
in the crowe house, iris is sitting in justin's chair, doing needlepoint and listening to the radio.
when tommy brings up the troubles the ministry had with city council and how city council is still cockblocking them, tommy gets all passive-aggressive in the best way. "all of the listeners are concerned about the whereabouts of brother justin. aren't you concerned?"
and that's when val tries to weasel his way out of the interview. but tommy dolan got street cred for a reason. and he's all, "so what about the investigation into who committed the arson and killed those six innocent children?" and then, "how much will city council be contributing to the church rebuilding fund?" (val thinks nothing.)
and then tommy essentially blackmails him into paying at least $3000 to the ministry. it's pretty fucking badass.
-
THE RIVERBANK.
it's nighttime. brother justin is leaning on a log, and he's in paaain.
the children have returned. he wakes up when he hears them. the girl says, "you're a bad men. my father sent you to kill us." her accent is very thick.
justin's leg is still mangled. he just wants help! (and his sister!) the girl says, "you lie. mother told us you would. that we could not trust anyone but man of god."
what a coincidence! justin is totally one of those! but when he tells the children, they don't believe him. and that's when they hear voices in the distance.
brother justin calls out to them, but before he can say much of anything, the girl bashes him into unconsciousness with a rock.
-
carnival goings-on are going on at the carnival.
sofie reads libby's tarot card.
we don't see the first card. the second card is the fool.
(sofie says that it's good, that it means you're lighthearted and free.)
the third card is the chariot, but it's reversed. (sofie says that doesn't mean anything.)
(sofie says that it means that she's destined for fame. but reversed means the opposite.)
apollonia does not approve of the lying. but sofie won't hear anything bad about libby.
-
samson and rita sue are hanging out in her trailer.
rita sue just danced the cooch all by herself for 2 hours with no help. and her financial contribution totally put the carnival into earning.
rita sue's not hooking at all tonight, because she wants to spend some quality time with her husband. (convincing him to stay. with her womanly charms.) she reapplies her makeup and puts on some perfume. then. a sexy nightgown.
she puts a red pig outside of the tent.
-
libby sees the red pig and turns away. (it's a signal. it means rita sue wants to get porked.)
she finds sofie, who's sleeping in the back of a truck with some blankets. libby crawls in under the blankets. and they snuggle. it's AMAZING.
they're all giggly like girls. libby asks sofie about her birthday, but sofie doesn't know her birthday. apollonia became so sick immediately after giving birth to sofie, and she doesn't remember anything about it, except that there were cherry trees blooming. so sofie picks a new birthday every year.
sofie is trying really hard not to cry. she doesn't want libby to go. and libby wants sofie to come with them. (she says that sofie's mom can be taken care of by the carnival.) she says that sofie deserves better.
-
rita sue can see someone approaching the tent, and she fixes her tits so they look their most alluring.
but when stumpy sees the red pig, he turns around and walks away.
jonesy finds stumpy sitting on a high seat on the ferris wheel, drunk off his ass. stumpy climbed up, got drunk, and now can't get down. (or stop giggling.)
stumpy offers jonesy a drink, and they both start drinking. but a few seconds later, stumpy gets melancholy.
he says, "every which way I turn, I see my little girl." of course he wouldn't want to stay.
-
ruthie leaves her trailer. she says, "I'll be right back, sweetie."
big gabe says, "okay, momma." big gabe is just a sweet little 5 year old trapped in a giant's body.
ben's been lurking outside of the trailer. you know, to apologize. for breaking gabe's wrist and endangering his life (infection) and his ability to make a living. but ben's totally sorry, so that'll fix it, right?
ruthie says, "that means exactly less than nothing to me right now." YOU PREACH IT, RUTHIE.
ben's all, "what you said before? you were totally right. I get it, that wasn't my business."
and ruthie's all, "I don't answer to no man. never have, and ain't gonna start now."
and then she basically says that ben can accept that or he can suck it. and leaves. because ruthie is MADE OF AWESOME.
-
MINTERN, CALIFORNIA.
there is a shot of a record player, which pans to a bottle of wine, which pans to iris and tommy dolan sitting on her couch.
they're listening to val templeton promise to donate money. iris is thrilled. she turns over to him, beaming, then realizes what she's doing and turns right back.
dude is using his bedroom eyes. and then iris is all, "thanks for bringing the recording. I'm sorry I missed it, but I was in prayer." awww, iris crowe is manipulative to her very core and tommy is eating it up.
he really really wants her to get sloshed so that he can stick his tongue down her throat. and then he says this frankly amazing gem of a pickup line:
"jesus turned water into wine. that's quite an endorement in my book." JESUS WANTS YOU TO GET WASTED.
so iris has a little more. she says, "I feel decadent." but totally ignores him when he tries to flirt harder. he wants her to tell him a story. but iris says that she's very simple. (iris = the center of justin's entire life. justin = the center of iris's entire life.)
she says, "I'm actually very simple. I live my life trusting the lord."
but then she gets a little too drunk and decides to tell tommy a toooootally completely made up story that has nothing to do with her at all.
(with convenient flashbacks to justin on the banks of the river.)
"there were two children. a boy, a girl. immigrants from russia. and they were traveling with their mother, by train. one night, there was a terrible accident. a bridge collapsed and the train went down into to the water. there were no survivors, except the boy and the girl. by god's divine mercy, they surivived, washed up on a riverbank. they were pursued. a man was sent to kill them. the girl fought to protect her brother. and then the day came when the boy had to protect his sister."
(iris did not use any of brother justin's rhetorical flourish.)
-
this transitions SEAMLESSLY into brother justin on the riverbank.
he's alone with the little boy. he tries to charm him.
when that doesn't work, he says, "your sister has been very, very bad. she's getting both of you in a lot of trouble. when people find me, I will tell them what you have done. and you will be punished. you will be beaten. (something in russian that makes the boy flinch.) but you're a good boy, you're a good boy, I can see that. I know you want to do right. I know you want to help me. don't worry about her, don't worry. you're the man of the family, take charge."
excellent manipulation skillz, brother justin, but perhaps you shouldn't have tried to stick a wedge between them.
because that's when the girl whacks brother justin in the mangled leg with a stick. but he grabs the stick and pulls until he has her off-balance, and he then grabs her by the neck and squeezes.
the boy screams, "irina!"
brother justin demands that he go and fetch help and continues to choke the girl. she cries, "alexsei!"
and that's when his eyes get very dark. and his face becomes tense, and brother justin is thrown back. he drops the girl. and then his head starts to twist backwards until his chin is past his shoulder with a snap.
and he's dead.
-
CALIFORNIA.
brother justin is still standing on the bridge.
he's dazed. says, "I killed him." he doesn't notice when a cop pulls him down from the ledge.
brother justin mutters, "this was not visited upon me. this is my birthright." he keeps muttering about his birthright as the cop drags him away.
-
MINTERN, CALIFORNIA.
tommy is mesmerized by iris's story. (also, her face.)
iris tries to say that it's a parable. and then goes immediately to, "in russia, there's a saying." (perhaps she should've picked a different country for the immigrant children to be from?) and then amy madigan mangles some russian.
but it means, "pray to god, but row for shore."
iris believes in faith and action together. because she is fucking badass. and then she gets a little bit teary, because she misses her brother.
faith and action is how she lives her life.
-
next morning at the carnival, rita sue is not here to make friends. she goes up to stumpy hungover and asleep on the breakfast table and throws a piece of paper at him, demanding that he write an ad for a new cooch girl.
because they need one. DORA MAAAAE.
stumpy says he won't, because they're leaving that day.
rita sue says that they're not.
stumpy says that he is.
rita sue tells him that he isn't. and then she flounces, totally confident.
-
ben and big gabe walk through an empty field. ben leads them to a pond and they both walk in up to their waists.
ben tells big gabe to trust him, and that he can't tell anybody, because this is a secret.
and then be puts his hand on gabe's wrist and heals him.
gabe doesn't trust the wrist at first, but soon he's smiling. that's when the dead fish start to rise around them in droves.
it's the two of them, and the empty lake, and all of the fish that ben's powers have killed.
-
rita sue is smoking on the carousel. she looks completely unconcerned.
samson walks over to her, wanting to hear about what's going on with the leaving business. he's seen stumpy packing.
but rita sue's still sure. she knows her husband.
samson takes the moment to apologize about what happened to dora mae. he says that he blames himself because he didn't fight management more. but rita sue says that it's her fault, because she decided to do the blow-off. they're both just sad and regretful.
rita sue says that the only thing that gets to her is that dora mae's murderer is still out there. samson says, "no, he ain't."
rita sue's face, you guys.
-
sofie is packing a bag, not listening when her mother says that she won't be going.
-
the three of them strap their luggage to the car and get inside. libby is wearing a jaunty red beret, and they are all grinning.
from the rearview mirror, stumpy can see rita sue sitting on the carousel. he stops.
libby begs him to go. but stumpy says that tomorrow will be better.
they're not gonna go.
he says, "tomorrow," and gets out of the car.
libby yells, "you promised, you son of a bitch."
and sofie climbs into the front seat, offers to drive just the two of them. but libby's not leaving without her dad. so they're not going.
-
ben and gabe walk back into the carnival. ben waits until they're well into the carnival limits before he quickly has gabe put his arm back into the sling. UGH. that was stupid.
so stupid that lila saw it.
-
sofie walks back into her trailer. it's dark like a funeral parlor in there. appy says that she told her so.
sofie replies, "I'll tell you something, mother, you don't know everything."
-
lila tells lodz about how ben fixed big gabe's arm.
THIS COULD HAVE BEEN FIXED HAD BEN NOT BEEN RIDICULOUSLY THICK.
at least gabe has an excuse. and is sweet. and bathes. and never calls ruthie a whore.
anyway, lodz is pleased with this development. so he starts spanking lila.
-
MINTERN, CALIFORNIA.
there is a single light on in the crowe house. and the phone is ringing.
iris runs out of bed with her hair down. she sounds desperate for news.
justin is on the other side of the phone. he says, "privyet, ira."
ira is the diminutive form of irina.
she exhales, "alexsei!" then, "justin, where are you?"
"you always knew what was inside of me," he says. and then hangs up.
and violins start to wail in the background.
iris looks heartbroken. she turns off the light and walks back upstairs.
on the staircase, there is an old photograph or maybe even daguerreotype, and it is of the two children from justin's vision standing with a young priest.
it's justin, iris, and norman.
(iris wasn't actually telling a parable.)
-
OMG THIS EPISODE.
I would like to point out, in the way of faults, that they reveal that justin and iris are irina and alexsei, the children from justin's vision four different times. the show is not especially a fan of subtle mythology.
on the other hand: omg.
the thing that I would like to talk about is that justin and iris are orphans. they were orphaned young children, taken in by a minister (norman) and raised in the church.
when justin looks at the children, the orphaned migrants, he is seeing himself and his sister. all of the time. the dead orphans represent that justin has grown to fulfill norman's role of protector, but that he has failed. and the children like him have been punished for it.
also, don't mess with a crowe. they will fuck you up.
GOOD EPISODE. now, let's talk some carnivale! (no future episode spoilers in the comments, please.)