The third episode of season one opens with a really poignant scene showing a newly dead person being carried out of his or her house just as the carnivale trucks are passing by to set up shop in the town. The house is wind-blown and ramshackle and even though the vehicles for carnivale aren’t anything special to look at, the carnival and all of the wonders present inside offer a respite from these people’s difficult lives. The carnival brings life and excitement into these small towns and this episode shows that very well.
Samson is told early on by the law of the town that he and his fellow carneys can’t set up their carnival in Tipton. This proves to be no big deal as Ben has become a sort of holy healing figure in town ever since healing the little girl in the first episode who was apparently from Tipton. Carnivale is transformed into a center for old time Christian revivals and Ben gets to play the lead man. Even though the mode through which they present has changed, the people of Carnivale continue to bring a spark of life into the dull world’s of their entertained. This new idea, the revival, shows that more than ever, being that their professed goal (the real goal is obviously money) is to arouse the spiritual force within the townspeople and get them fired up. It works and before they pull out of town, the people of Carnivale have made a pretty penny and shown a few would-be miracles to the small of faith.
We get a bit more character from Samson in this episode, although it doesn’t come from an abundance of screen time for the day-to-day management man. At one point, Samson is talking with the law from the town and he says something about their operation being one hundred percent legit. The law man shakes his head and responds with, “I never heard an honest man use the word legit.” That, first of all, is just a great line, but it also made me wonder a little bit about Samson. So far, the things that he has done have appeared to be not only the will of the upper management but also for the good of everyone else. Yet, he has no problem stripping the poor people of Tipton down a bit financially with a convincing (but fake) show of God’s miracles. He’s obviously a likable enough guy, but there has to be more to him, as there is, I suppose, with many of the characters within Carnivale. Lodz is clearly able to see and feel more than everyone else even without the power of his eyes, Apollonia seems to have some inside track knowledge about Ben’s purpose and identity, and even Clayton Jones (Jonesy) seems to have a few secrets up his sleeve. I know I’ve moved a bit away from my point so I will just say this, Samson’s character is fun and at some times, absolutely sympathetic, but something is off with him and I don’t yet know what it is.
