Carnivale (Season 2)... (1 Viewer)

[Chris]

HBO has said they are committed to the program, so I will hope that stays true Give me at least three seasons

 

[Nicodemus]

I believe Daniel Knauf said somewhere some time ago that the story he has in his mind takes about five seasons to tell.

 

[Jean D]

Well, if thats true, lets hope it doesnt take as long to make as the Sopranos 5 seasons are.

 

[Rakesh.S]

I thought knauf mentioned 3 seasons?

hmm..5 seasons seems really really long

 

[Qui-Gon John]

Now if we could only get HBO to pick up DEAD LIKE ME. Hey, even though it's not an HBO Original, they can be remembered for being the smart ones to save it.

 

[Ralph Summa]

In the Season 2 premier, there was a dream scene where the Tatooed man appeared by the tree. Was it Justin with him? I swear that who ever was with him called the Tatooed man "Lucius".

Can anyone check that?

 

[Chris]

Woof.

Justin exerts his demon-like powers over the servent girl as she "prays" in front of the good reverend..

The Tarot cards continue to come back

Death follows the snake charmer.. and she sees another dead person... Lodz.. walking around..

Ben gets captured by seemingly hobos. We'll see where that ends.


This was really seemingly a "connectivity" episode.. more about laying ground work; a slower pace then the first three of the season, but almost a required breather to give us the setup for what's coming

 

[Jean D]

I was pretty confused at this episode.
Also, if I was Ben and I was being attacked, I would try to use my powers to scare or harm the person/people trying to cause me harm. If you had powers, even if you didnt understand them, wouldnt you learn how to use them? I would think that having powers would be a natural defence kind of thing. You would know when to use it. and at his age, try to figure it out and not run from it.

Was that girl on the side of the road a hermaphrodite?

At a closer look, I do believe the beginning intro is/has some new elements to it.

 

[Rakesh.S]

What was the point of that scene? It just seemed so out there and felt like it went on forever.

 

[Adrian P]

I think the point of that disturbing scene was to show that Ben is a compassionate guy. He could have hurt the guy but decided to be sympathetic. It further establishes Ben being on the good side...

 

[MarkMel]

The guy didn't repent until Ben touched him. He 'saw' something.

 

[Nicodemus]

I think the scene on the road was there just to remind the viewers that Ben's got some awesome powers too, although he doesn't use them all the time, like Brother Justin does. I especially liked the fact that the scene was based only on Nick Stahl's and the old man's performance without any big special effects. Neat.

Very nice to see a glimpse of Lodz again. What has happened to Ruth and where will it lead her and the story?

 

[Chris]

That's what I said to my wife (in light of the scene on the side of the road) when Brother Justin touches someone or shows them something, he shows them their own sins to blackmail them into giving him what he wants. Meanwhile, Ben was looking for something important.. and thought these people knew. But rather then use their sins against them to force what he wanted, he instead showed compassion and urged him to repent

 

[John_Lee]

It seemed pretty clear to me that the guy was just offering Ben a glance at standard female goods [on a disabled girl] to entice him to pay for a roll in the hay.

"You can do it in the truck bed."
"I assure you, she's tight."

 

[Jean D]

I could have sworn the guy said something about "extra parts". She didnt seem "challanged" to me. I think because of her unusual body, he called her retarded, as they wouldnt understand it back then. I found the scene out of place but I understood its useage to Ben's character.

 

[Peter McM]

My guess on the girl is Down's Syndrome. My guess on Ben's captors is in-breds.

Poor Norman--having to witness Justin and the servant girl. I hope something good is in store for him. Maybe Ben will heal him, and then he'll be able to rat on Justin's "indiscretions".

 

[Everlasting Gobstopper]

He said she was "abnormal," which I think was just referring to her Down's Syndrome: remember he assured Ben that she "wouldn't tell" because of it.

 

[Paul Padilla]

I didn't see anyone else observe this, but with all the good vs. evil going on, did anyone else get a Passion Play vibe from the torture/burial scene with Ben?

Please don't take this as a Bible pushing post...not my intent at all.

But Ben was persecuted, tortured, buried and brought back. He certainly can heal. Am I reaching on this one?

My wife also found a reference to the disciple Peter who was crucified for heresy after Christ was crucified. He didn't want to die the same way Christ did because he felt he was unworthy, so they crucified him upside down on the cross.

It's certainly the darkest episode of the series thus far...literally and figuratively.

The thing with Ruthie is creepy, and makes me feel like something's happened to her soul. That may be why her snake turned on her during the performance. Bludgeoning the snake to death was a little unnecessary the way it was portrayed and the violence level was fairly high throughout. I'm not easily upset, but my wife had difficulties with this episode.

 

[Quentin]

I'm with you all the way on the biblical parallels, Paul. Add the snake, the garden references, and more. This show is all about playing on biblical references, and Ben is absolutely the Christ figure.

 

[Paul Padilla]

I think there's much more than Judeo-Christian references in the series. I claim no such expertise in the area though, and I'm pretty sure this has been discussed before in HTF. There's the supernatural/mysticism of the Taro cards and Appy and Sophie's clairvoyance and telekinesis.

There are numerous faiths that refer to a purgatory type place such as Babylon...(I agree with an earlier post that seeing Dora Mae condemned to stay with the miners was very disturbing. Samson's actions regarding her were kind of admirable in a way, and his reaction to seeing her at the end almost brought me to tears).

I'm sure there are many more religious references that my limited knowledge can't pinpoint.