Babylon is finally upon us. Will it swallow us whole as Lodz warned or will we just have a nice time with the creepy bartender? Only time will tell. (No it won't, leave immediately).

Produced by Kristen Riley and Daive ReedEdited by Daive Reed

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Content Warnings: Death, adult themes

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“...And on her forehead, a name was written, a mystery. ‘Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth…”

The carnival rolls into Babylon, a tapped-out silver-mining town with a luckless history - and few visible inhabitants. Samson looks to raise morale by treating the troupe to a night at a local car in town, while Sofie and Libby take in a film. Finally, a group of restless miners arrives just in time for the evening cooch show - and the latest tragedy to befall Carnivale. 

We open with Justin squatting and praying in the wreckage of the ministry/orphanage. In his prayer, he mentions Babylon as we fade to a man walking down the road as the carnival approaches. Jonesy and Samson stop to talk to the guy and it’s apparent something is amiss. 

The roadman has an Irish accent and Samson asks if he’s from Babylon. He looks taken aback but reconsiders and says yes. Jonesy tells him there’s nothing behind them but 50 miles of sand and sidewinders, which is the way the man is headed. He asks if they’re a carnival and when they confirm he says they’ve been waiting for them for a long time. Samson asks “how’s that?” but he just smiles and walks off. 

Welcome to Babylon. We should not stop here even for a moment. 

Rita Sue being Rita Sue hollers “hey handsome” at him as they pass. 

The carnival arrives in Babylon and it's clear that no one is happy about being there. Dora Mae says Rita Sue says Babylon is cursed. Ruthie says it’s just a place. Gecko counters with “just a place no other carnival will play.”

Samson tells them to set up, but Rita Sue rightly points out there’s no one around for them to play to. He counters that if that were true they wouldn’t be here, would they? 

Immediately Samson goes to confront Management about why they’re there. He demands management tell him something he can share with the crew, but management is silent. 

Jonesy and his crew are setting up. Gecko is begging to stop by El Paso, which isn’t going to happen apparently. The crew is telling Jonesy they’re going to wire to another show for work and Jonesy calls them some 1930s name that showcases how little he cares. Ben’s working, but sees Lodz’s trailer and beelines it past Jonesy to the trailer. It’s like he was pulled to it. Lodz is shaking in his bed. They call it “the clangs”. 

“You have an infallible, if irritating, gift for stating the obvious.”

Ruthie breaks it up by telling Ben to go back to work. She calls Lodz on his bullshit and threatens him if he keeps messing with Ben. “I will tear your pecker off like a piece of French bread.”

Sofie argues with Apollonia over her recent sexual encounter during the dust storm. Sofie says she liked it, liked the way he held her. Which, I saw that scene, did not occur. Apollonia warns or threatens or suggests she might be pregnant. Sofie says he didn’t knock her up because that only happens in dime novels. Wouldn’t that be great if true?

But, of course, now she’s worried that she may be pregnant. 

Fortunately, when Sofie leaves the trailer she sees the Dreyfuss women practicing. They’re also bickering because everyone is on edge and that’s what you do with families. Also fortunate, as Sofie approaches Dora Mea storms off and Rita Sue is distracted by Stumpy hanging a torn banner. 

It’s obvious these two don’t spend much time together when Sofie decides to sit and stay for a cigarette. Sofie asks Libby how you can tell if you’re pregnant which leads to the discovery that no one knows but at least Libby tells Sofie to require a rubber next time. I don’t think Sofie knows what that looks like or where to get them, but maybe she and Libby will be best friends and Sofie can learn. 

Dora Mea shocks the hell out of Ben while he’s shaving, even going so far as to lean in for a kiss. It’s obvious he’s the most fun to play with since he’s the new guy and a prude. 

1. a person who is or claims to be easily shocked by matters relating to sex or nudity.: "the sex was so ambiguous and romantic that none but a prude could find it objectionable".synonyms: puritan, prig, killjoy, moral zealot/fanatic, moralist, Mrs. Grundy, Grundy, old maid, schoolmarm, pietist, Victorian, priggish person, bluenose, goody-goody, goody two shoes, holy Joe, holy Willie, Miss Prim

Jonesy is still furious with Samson but they haven’t discussed it, even on that 50 miles of sun and dirt drive, but Jonesy tells Samson he needs to do something now or people will start leaving.

So, in an effort to prevent many of the rousties from deserting, Samson takes them out on the town for the night. Unfortunately, what that means is one nearly abandoned bar with the man from the road as a bartender. When Samson says, looks like you didn’t make it out of town, he cryptically responds, never does. 

Rather than go to the bar, Sofie and Libby dress up for a night at the movies. They approach the theater but it appears closed. Sofie, reluctant to turn back yet, suggest they may be early. Inside, they find a small counter with candy. As Sofie reaches for a few bars another creepy man appears from around the corner and catches them. Libby distracts him so Sofie can steal the candy. He confirms they’re with the carnival before putting on a silent movie. 

As the movie plays they talk about sex. The man is watching and listening. 

At the bar, there’s actually music now so everyone is dancing. Dora Mae is flirting with the bartender who says the town doesn’t come in here.

Everyone’s dancing and having a good time, Libby and Sofie arrive after the movie to join in. Ben is getting annihilated at a table by himself until Ruthie asks if he wants to dance. Jonesy is also sitting alone, watching. 

The creepy as fuck townsmen with lust in their eyes are being goddamn creeps.

As the night carries on and slow dancing starts Libby and Sofie are still dancing. Jonesy asks to cut in. It’s a gut-wrenching scene. Libby is amazing though, she knows the cues and as she politely brushes Jonesy off with a smile she also dances Sofie’s back to him.

Jonesy wanders to the bathroom. Ben stumbles in. 

“You can go to hell.”

“Where do you think we are, farm boy?”

Ben stumbles off alone into the dark.

Tensions are still high in the morning. 

No one seems to notice Ben's absence the next morning, except for Ruthie. When Lodz learns of it, he employs Lila to take him on an undisclosed errand.

Cut to Sofie, Libby, and Dora Mea at the breakfast table. We learn Libby “fell off the roof” so the blow-off is all Dora Mea’s tonight. Apollonia is butting in as Libby and Sofie enjoy each other and Sofie has to run off. 

Now Ben, who has apparently just woken up in total darkness, flicks his Zippo to discover that he's in an abandoned and seemingly sealed-off mine shaft in the Babylon mine. It’s reminiscent of Justin’s vision trip he played on Iris's last episode. Soft hands, hard rock. 

Night falls - 

Meanwhile, Lodz sits alone outside in the wilderness at night, and he may or may not be able to hear Ben screaming for help.

The carnival opens for evening business. At first, there’s no one. Samson says to Jonesy, give it time. Jonesy makes a snide remark about management. “What kind of spider crawled up your ass?”

Then we hear a horse or horses pull up and see lanterns in the distance. This. Is. Bad. The horses are the only thing making any noise. 

The crowd that descends on the carnival is extremely large and composed almost entirely of sullen-faced, grey-suited, dirty miners. 

Samson is unnerved and tells Stumpy to cancel Dora Mae's blow-off (i.e. she keeps her panties on). It’s a full house so Stumpy wants to do the blow-off because that tends to mean more tips. As the show continues we hear some men saying things so we know they aren’t ghosts or whatever. 

Jonesy is out at the Ferris wheel. When two filthy men get into his cart he asks for their tickets. When they don’t give them up, but the rest of the folks are hollering to get started, he refuses to lock them in and instead holds the accelerator to as fast as it will go. Hilarious if I didn’t fully expect this thing to fall apart at some point. 

Sofie is reading the Tarot cards for her mother. The miner wants to know when he’ll hit high dirt. Sofie does the thing where she tells him the cards are unclear rather than whatever Apollonia actually said, which was probably “he’s fucked”, so the miner gets up to leave but Apollonia has Sofie ask the miner if he knows the name "Scudder." The miner does and relates that Scudder worked the mine several years prior and that Scudder had killed Carl Butridge with a pickaxe. Apollonia declines to explain the incident or its relevance to her daughter.

Down in the mine shaft, Ben has stumbled across a pickaxe, just as Scudder, dressed as a miner, comes round the corner. Scudder is silent. Ben chases him, finally getting him to stop when he yells, “I know who you are.” Scudder replies, “but do you know what that means?” 

In light of Ben's silence, Scudder sets off down the tunnel. Ben can't keep up, and soon collapses when he finds the lifeless body of Carl Butridge, pickaxe still lodged in his chest.

Back at the cooch show, Rita Sue is unconvinced about Samson’s warning. She says they’ve worked tougher crowds and has Stumpy call for the men who will pay an extra $0.50 to see the final show. Dora Mae is going to do the blowoff. Both the Babylon barkeeper and the local projectionist are in the crowd. We hover on Stumpy as he watches the crowd go through the second curtain. He looks uncertain, but it’s tough to say whether this is because he believes Samson or because he’s watching for Samson so they don’t get caught. 

Back at the Ferris wheel, Jonesy proceeds to get drunk while those original minors are still flying around and around. Someone yells “you wanna fight?” or something which is rich because they are literally at his mercy. Miners on the ground end up beating to snot out of Jonesy as another person stops the wheel. 

Samson arrives and breaks up the fight, then tells Jonesy to leave since they had a deal. (He wasn’t supposed to drink on the job). Jonesy stumbles off into the dark. 

Dora Mae is in the middle of her blow-off - Stumpy and Rita Sue standing by - A full-blown handstand, are you kidding me? Impressive. 

As she lands out of her handstand the miners rush the stage, grabbing her and dragging her toward them. She’s terrified and calls out, “Daddy!” Stumpy rushes to help her and she runs off the back of the stage as the tent collapses. Dora Mae is cut on the way out. 

Next, we see her she’s outside a tent, in a robe, hyperventilating. That must have been terrifying. Rita Sue stands silently by while Stumpy brings her ointment to keep it front getting puss-y, which is a very hard word to write down…

Dora Mea thanks him and Rita Sue appears to be fighting grief, guilt, and anger but remaining silent. Dora Mea looks up toward the camera like she’s looking toward someone just as Rita Sue slips around the tent after Stumpy, leaving her alone.

Back to Ben, the least interesting storyline in this episode. He’s still in his cave. 

Ben has relit his Zippo and discovered a series of letters carved in the wooden beams supporting the mine: AVATARAVATARAVATAR. He copies "TARAVATARA" onto his arm in charcoal. 

Ben takes Burtridge's headlamp, lights it, and sets off in search of Scudder.

Get ready:

Jonesy, staggering up the hillside outside of the carnival, comes across a tree and we can see legs dangling from it. It’s Dora Mea, you can see her shoes with the little heel and the white ankle socks. You can also see the blood from her cut - if not additional trauma - has run all the way down her legs to her socks. 

Jonesy pauses, slowly looking up at her face. He vomits. Next, we see him stumbling through the carnival carrying Dora Mae. Ruthie sees him and tells him to lay her down “over here” while laying out her jacket for him to put her on. 

Rita Sue notices and runs over. Screaming only the screams of someone experiencing a part of themselves actually dying. 

Dora Mea’s throat was cut and the word "Harlot" was carved into her forehead.

We hear Brother Justin saying over the scene: “...And on her forehead, a name was written, a mystery. ‘Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth…”

SONG: The World Is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, “January 10th, 2014” (2015)

Championing female vigilantism in a world rife with male violence, “January 10, 2014” is a rogue entry to the emo canon, centered on women but not from the vantage point of the male gaze. It brings together two stories: The first is the true story of Diana, Hunter of Bus Drivers, who murdered two late-night shuttle-bus drivers in response to decades of sexual violence on the women of Juárez, Mexico, due to the indifference of the police. The second is Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt – a protective force associated with, among other things, wild animals, woodland, the underworld, fertility, and childbirth. It’s an ambitious concept but, in its own idealistic way, rewrites a common narrative — both within emo and the world at large — that seeks to confine women to one of two categories: “victim” or “evil.” By contrast, “January 10th, 2014” holds women up as beacons of bravery and strength and vigilante action as worthy of thanks. While it feels fairly deflating that the examples chosen are ones of abject desperation and myth, it works within the utopian framework of the song, whose soaring post-rock-influenced landscape communicates its vision better from within clouds. However, what really elevates “January 10, 2014” are the dueling vocals and the passing of the most affecting lines — “Are you afraid of me now?” — to keyboardist Katie Shanholtzer-Dvorak, which brings a much-needed sense of agency to a genre that often deprives women of it whether it means to or not. —Emma Garland