It's the Great Depression and we're meeting our new cast of friends. It's very dusty, possibly magical, kind of fun, and a bit depressing.

Produced by Kristen Riley and Daive ReedEdited by Daive Reed

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SHOW NOTES

Set Up: In the midst of the Dust Bowl, a traveling carnival roams from town to town scratching out a living. And a Methodist minister regains his faith in the lord after seeing amazing visions.

Trigger Warnings: Sexual assault, human death, animal cruelty and death, child exploitation.

Opening Lines: Samson: Before the beginning, after the great war between Heaven and Hell, God created the Earth, and gave dominion over it to the crafty ape he called man. And to each generation, there was born a creature of light and a creature of darkness. And great armies clashed by night in the ancient war between good and evil. There was magic then, nobility, and unimaginable cruelty. And so it was. Until the day that a false sun exploded over Trinity, and man traded away wonder for reason.

Summary:

Nightmare sequence.

• In Ben's opening dream, we see, various:
  • Scudder being chased by the Usher through a cornfield
  • Scudder retreating from Bruno the bear in World War 1
  • a hand (possibly Ben's or Boffo's) holding a Templar ring (probably Boffo's) bearing the motto "In Hoc Signo Vinces" ("By this sign you shall conquer" in Latin)
  • Scudder, in a black tuxedo, and Belyakov face each other in the diner
  • Sofie turning over the Magician during Ben's tarot reading
  • the funeral procession in Tipton
  • Ruthie with a snake during one of her acts
  • Scudder popping his top hat
  • a dead lamb
  • a photo of the Babylon mining crew, focusing in on Scudder's picture
  • Apollonia's rape by the Tattooed Man
  • a picture of Felix's gun on a pillow next to four bullets
  • a picture of Lobster Girl from Gunderson
  • Ben wakes up from a dream with no arms or legs
  • more scenes from the trench during World War 1, featuring Belyakov aiming at Scudder
  • a shot of Dora Mae's funeral

On a barren farm in the middle of a dust storm a young man, Ben Hawkins, watches over his dying mother. He reaches for her when she has a coughing fit and she pulls away, disgusted. "Don't touch me," she says before dying. 

It’s fine. This probably won’t impact the rest of his life. 

Outside, a group of trucks rolls down the highway. They stop to find Hawkins digging in the rock-hard ground with a man on a bulldozer shouting at him. 

Samson, the co-manager of a traveling carnival, bets his right-hand man, Jonesy, that the man on the bulldozer "squashes" Hawkin's meager resistance. Jonesy takes the bet and gets out of the truck to help. 

He realizes that Hawkins is trying to bury his mother and, after the bulldozer guy comes over to see what’s up and finds out, Jonesy asks if he has shovels and has the carnival roustabouts help. The eclectic troupe, including conjoined twins, a giant, and a bearded lady, hold a small burial service for the deceased. 

The bulldozer man waits for the burial and funeral to complete, which is good of him, then destroys the house. 

As Samson and the gang try to decide what to do with Hawkins, a car is approaching and Ben collapses, so Ruthie has Gabriel carry Ben.

In Mintern, California, Brother Justin Crowe delivers a sermon on the devil. An older woman, Eleanor, is listening to the sermon and as the plate is passed she reaches in and makes eye contact with the plate holder, to distract him. She takes money from the plate, but Iris, Crowe’s sister, sees her. As Eleanor tries to leave during a song Iris stops her. Iris is terrifying. 

Justin talks to Eleanor in his home after the service, Iris leaves the room and Eleanor tries to talk herself out of the situation. Justin confronts her and suddenly she starts coughing up gold coins. Brother Justin takes it as a sign from god and asks her to pray with him.

In the commentary, they say how the original was more in control of the situation and essentially made this happen. I appreciate that they tempered him and made him more complex to start, so he has a place to go. If he started badly, where would we go?

It’s very dramatic and the coins disappear, but the whole scene is played as though it occurred to both of them, not just as a vision from Brother Justin. Iris had left the room, so did not witness this. 

On the road, Samson and Jonesy are listening to the radio, we’re driving by families and groups on the side of the road. It’s showing a swath of the population during this time period. We get a glimpse of the folks in the town with the shot from the kids’ room. Bunk beds and both kids scurry to the window to watch the carnival arrive in the night. They’re so excited. 

Ben is passed out in Lila, the bearded lady, and Professor Lodz's truck. I love the hooka. It feels so fancy. The two are discussing their strange passenger and Lila asks Lodz, the carnival's mentalist, to tell her what Hawkins is dreaming about. 

I love the dynamic of these two immediately. It’s obvious they’re comfortable together, have a teasing relationship, and like to push one another. I’m sure it will all stay exactly this way. 

Lodz gives in and touches Ben's forehead. He starts to convulse and sees strange flashes of two men, one in a tuxedo and the other in a military uniform, in a restaurant, a man with a huge tree tattooed on his chest in a cornfield, what looks like WWI, and a bear with a tiny hat. 

Lila pulls Lodz away and he collapses after whispering, "Scudder."

In the morning Ben meets the odd cast of characters and tries to hightail it back to town. We get to see the carnival being set up. In the commentary, they discuss how difficult it was to shoot these scenes because we have to imagine which portion or percentage of the carnival is set up at that point in time. 

We meet Sofie and Apollonia in a quick scene. We know Sofie is a tarot reader and her mother appears catatonic, however, they can communicate, somehow. Sofie speaks aloud, whether for our benefit or because that’s how it works, but Appolonia doesn’t speak aloud. She will throw tarot cards if she’s frustrated. 

On Ben’s way out of the trailer, he wraps himself in a flowery robe (they’d undressed and washed his clothes while he was out). He gets his clothes and leaves the carnival.

Sofie catches up with him on the road, but he’s not exactly thrilled to be there. He’s rude so she drives off to town. This next scene is really sad, with the tent city and the grieving woman. It’s set up in a way that he gets through to the grieving woman but we don’t know if it’s magical or not. This scene is so heartbreaking. 

Sofie continues on to town. Ben walks up to the gas station and notices Sophie’s vehicle. He hears screaming from inside and rushes in to find two men trying to rape Sofie.

He helps attack her attackers and they escape going back to camp. 

Jonesy sees them arrive, Sofie’s torn clothes and fast exit from the vehicle make it obvious what happened, but not who instigated it. Jonesy doesn’t come off well here, but Sofie is more aware of the world they live in than Jonesy is. 

Meanwhile, Samson tries to convince Ben to stay on with the carnival. Samson is amazing in this scene. Ben walks off. We see him come back though and Samson continues to chat him up while Ben eats. 

That night Ben walks the carnival, now in full brilliance, and sees all the happiness it brings. We see hand-painted banners, a lighted midway, rides, and acts. He also sees Jonesy being super sweet with the girl in the little red wagon. 

Next, he wanders to the coochie show. The commenters had a field day talking about adding this family. After the cooch show, Ben realizes there’s also sex work involved and is scandalized!

Sofie brings Ben his jacket, and they chat. Ben says he’s not a “carnie”. 

Another nightmare. Foreshadowing. 

Back in California, Brother Justin has a similar nightmare to Ben's and goes for a walk. 

He walks through town, then through a migrant camp. He arrives in from Mr. Chin’s. Neon lights and all! He’s approached by a woman enticing him to go inside, but he grabs her and she slaps him away. 

It starts to snow and then rain blood. 

As he watches the sign it burns out except for a small cross in the middle. He drops to his knees and weeps. The snow and blood are gone, and the street in is present-day with people milling around. 

The next morning Ben helps pack up the carnival and lets Sofie read his cards. 

She decides to read his past and as she turns the cards Ben has flashbacks of his mother. 

In his flashback, she is screaming at a younger version of himself for digging up a dead cat and when she pulls it from him it springs to life. Horrified she says he has been marked by the devil.

Later when she is dying he tries to touch her, to heal her, and she shrinks away, grabbing a cross. 

Sofie sees that Ben is visibly distraught and she asks what he sees, she can’t see his visions - only what the cards indicate. Or actually, what the cards and her mother say to her. 

He’s flashing back to his childhood when he’s holding a kitten and his mother tries to take it from him. Rightly, as far as she knows since the kitten had been buried for 3 days at that point. She takes it from him, but it’s not dead anymore. It ends badly. 

He tells Sofie he doesn't see anything and tells her to continue. 

She turns the last card and tells him that he has a great gift that he has kept secret, squandered. She asks what he is hiding and he stammers "nothing" and runs away. He comes to a neighboring field of crops and weeps.

A little girl asks why he is crying and he looks up to find a disabled girl, who we saw earlier enjoying the carnival. She says her mother says the carnival folk is marked. Ben says they’re just people. 

He asks if it hurts, meaning her legs, and she says yes. Samson hollers at him to ask if he’s coming along. Ben ignores him and Samson says, whatever let’s go. 

Ben leans down and touches the little girl's legs. As he concentrates the field around them starts to shrink and die. 

He runs off towards the carnival as it leaves and jumps in the last truck. The little girl stands up and runs toward her house, the field around her is dying as she goes. Miracles ain’t free, as the commenters say. 

As much as Ben was trying to help, during the dust bowl and Great Depression, the family probably would’ve been better off with that food. We’ve seen this girl a few times in this episode and have no reason to believe she was unhappy, or really worse off than anyone else.