Carnivàle/Ingram, TX

Ingram, TX
Season 2, Episode 3
Airdate	January 23, 2005
Production Number	203
Written by	John J. McLaughlin
Directed by	John Patterson
← 2x02 Alamogordo, NM	2x04 → Old Cherry Blossom Road
Carnivàle — Season Two

Ingram, TX is the third episode of the second season of Carnivàle, and the fifteenth episode overall.

Guest-Starring:

Co-Starring:

Featuring:

Plot Overview

Varlyn makes his way to Babylon. He finds a monument to all the miners killed in the cave-in, and begins cross-checking their names with those in a ledger he found. Eventually, he finds that the only name not on the monument to the deceased is Henry Scudder's.

Justin and Iris have erected a farmhouse on the hill overlooking the site of the future Jericho Temple. A shanty town is beginning to form around the temporary tent. Even though almost all the residents are migrants, Justin nevertheless insists that they have been "called" and that he "needs all of them."

Dolan finds the waitress who reported seeing the black Ford the night of the Dignity Ministry fire. He pries out of her that it could have been a woman driving the car.

Ben finds out that the woman who wrote the poem lives on Old Cherry Blossom Road. He finds a very run-down encampment littered with mannequin body parts. He stumbles into some tripwires, alerting the owners of the property to his whereabouts, and they begin chasing him through the forest. Eventually, the three men catch Ben and bring him back to their house, where they string him up and have their extremely young (and probably inbred) wives go through his belongings. As the girls find Scudder's watch-fob in Ben's things, the men whip Ben, then bury him alive. However, once the men see the fob, they realize their mistake (essentially, that Ben is a relative of Scudder's, who is related to these people) and hastily dig Ben up. They till him that "she's been waiting" for him.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• While burning the tarot cards (at Sofie's behest), Ben sees one with a depiction of a man with an elaborate tree tattoo, identical to the one found on the Usher. It's card number 23 of the Major Arcana (of which there are actually only 22) and the label is "Le Passeur" (French for "the Usher"). When he shows the card to Sofie, she insists that it was not part of her deck.
• After Ben has burned the deck, Sofie returns to her trailer after a long day's work, only to find the entire deck (presumably minus the 23rd card) on the table. As she looks at them, the cards jump into the air (just as Apollonia made them do in the first episode) and Sofie starts crying.

Characters

• Ben encounters an older man who is prostituting an extremely young, mentally handicapped girl. Furious at the exploitation, Ben confronts the man, and unwittingly uses his powers to convince the man to stop.
• Balthus, still immobile, is removed from the hospital and placed in the care of Justin and Iris at the farmhouse.
• Stumpy lets a group of children in to the cooch tent, much to Rita Sue's displeasure. We also meet a man named Bud, whom Stumpy owes a rather large sum of money (over $400).
• During her snake act, Ruthie is almost choked to death by one of the snakes. Yet another averse reaction to being resurrected.
• Ruthie begins seeing Lodz out of the corner of her eye, though she's unaware of who it is. This is the first instance where we see a connection between the two of them, a result of Ben killing Lodz to spare Ruthie. She sees him again, later, and this time he leads her to his old trailer, where Sofie is currently sleeping. Ruthie tucks the younger woman in and leaves, apparently unconcerned by Lodz's sudden disappearance/reappearance/disappearance. Sofie, however, has the radio on while she sleeps and it is tuned in to Justin's sermon.
• While Justin is delivering a sermon for his Church of the Air, Iris chances upon his sketchbook, which is filled with drawings of eyes and female genitalia. She confiscates it and ensures no one else will see it.

Trivia

Allusions and References

• It is also revealed that several of the miners on the Babylon monument were also previous owners of the Gospel of Mathias (once Scudder's and now in Justin's possession). Whether this helps explain why Scudder caused the cave-in, or more about the nature of Babylon is unknown. At the very least, it implies that these men were Templars as well. It could be that they discovered Scudder's true identity and he was forced to kill all of them to escape.
• While exploring the encampment, Ben finds a dead animal hanging from a tree, and a small piece of paper. The paper is part of an ad for artificial eyes (implying someone with a taxidermy hobby), which could also be a reference to the eyes Justin was doodling.
• Jonesy tells Samson that some of the rousties are not pleased by Sofie's manual labouring, but Samson supports her. The foreshadowing here is that Sofie, who has little experience with it, is helping to build the ferris wheel, which will later malfunction and kill several individuals.
• Ben asks Sofie for a tarot reading, but Sofie insists that she can't without Apollonia. We will later find out that Sofie was the one reading the cards all along.

Memorable Moments

• In one of the more disturbing scenes of the series, which sets the tone for Justin and Norman's relationship for the rest of the season, Justin psychically compels the maid, Celeste, to fellate him while Norman is forced to watch.
• Rita Sue gives herself a douche with a bottle of soda that Stumpy has shaken up for her.

Quotes

• Justin Crowe: I will show you things…wonderful, terrible things.