Carnivale Revisited--"Pick a Number"

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Episode Guide--Season 1, Episode 6: "Pick a Number"

In this highly emotional episode, the Carnivale community attempts to deal with the shocking murder of Dora Mae.  A funeral is held in an open field, with each troupe member leaving a personal possession in the grave.  Then all eyes turn towards retribution, but an armed search through Babylon comes up empty, as every last inhabitant of the town seems to have fled overnight.

Eventually, the Irish bartender, Stangler, is apprehended and forced to participate in a ritual known as "carnival justice" (which involves an ancient wagon symbolically circled three times around the accused).  The scene illustrates some of Carnivale's greatest strengths as a series: its ability to convey a sense of authenticity about 1930s carnival life, and its creation of odd yet admirable characters.  Samson, for example, is dwarfish by nature but large in stature as he leads his troupe of carnies.  Here he's determined to carry out tribal law, proclaiming: "One of ours is dead; one of theirs is gonna answer for it."

Stangler actually survives the Russian-Roulette-type ritual (the episode's title refers to the number of bullets to be inserted into a pistol's chamber), enabling him to provide Samson with key information.  He admits to murdering Dora Mae so that the menfolk of Babylon can engage in some spirited coupling with her.  This revelation that Babylon is literally a ghost town is hardly stunning to the astute viewer, but what does give pause is Stangler's explanation of how Babylon was decimated.  The entire mining company was wiped out by a cave-in caused by none other than Henry Scudder (who knew that the group intended to lynch him for murdering one of the miners).  Scudder's character is given an ominous twist as he proves a man gifted with a deadly touch.  Indeed, his virtual cursing of Babylon (anyone who dies there thereafter is doomed to wander the town nightly as a ghost) puts one in mind of the dire machinations of the Man in Black in Stephen King's Dark Tower series.

Ben, still trapped in Babylon's mine, wanders through its labyrinth and then makes a surreal crossing over into the World War I battlefield that has haunted his dreams all season long.  He witnesses the recurring figure of the circus bear maul a Russian soldier, and bumps into a younger and un-blind version of Prof. Lodz, who asks: "Have you seen my bear?"  With that claim of ownership, another piece of the grand puzzle falls into place.

Meantime, Brother Justin is still reeling from the torching of his church for migrants.  His faith in God in shambles, Justin leaves the wreckage and embarks on an impromptu trek into the wilderness (he's next seen sharing a campfire with some hoboes, as the show is once again true to the era in which it's set).  The easy assumption
here is that Justin will eventually cross paths with the Carnivale while out on the open road, but then again, in this brilliantly plotted series, nothing is ever that simple.