Carnivale - Season 1

Season 1, Episode 12 - "The Day That Was the Day (Divx)"

30 November, 2003

"...Nothin good has happened since you got here. Not for us. Not for you..." 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.