List of Carnivàle episodes

Until late in the second season, each episode is split into two distinct but slowly converging storylines taking place in the United States Dustbowl of the mid-1930s.

Nick Stahl starred as Ben Hawkins, a young Okie farmer with strange powers who joins a traveling carnival; Clancy Brown played his adversary Brother Justin Crowe, a California preacher who uses his similarly strange abilities to rise to power.

[1][2] The character of Samson, the diminutive co-manager of the carnival, sets up each season with a monologue, giving glimpses of the show's complex story and good-versus-evil mythology.

The permanent filming location of the carnival in Season 2 was Big Sky Ranch, which was also used for Brother Justin's new home in fictional New Canaan.

Ben Hawkins, a young farmer and chain gang fugitive, suffers strange dreams about a trench war and a tattooed man stalking in a cornfield.

Before the carnival leaves to its next location, Ben puts his hands on a lame girl's legs and heals her, laying the surrounding field to waste.

[a] The small town preacher Brother Justin Crowe witnesses an Okie church attendee spew coins during a visit at his home.

In a particular dream, he sees a local Chinese establishment named Chin's where he later visits and has a vision of blood raining on himself and a cross manifesting on the neon signboard.

Ben shows it to snake charmer Ruthie, who identifies the woman on the photo as Henry Scudder's sweetheart Flora.

Brother Justin and Ben both have a cryptic dream about a diner with a soldier and Henry Scudder, where a waitress tells them that "every Prophet [is] in his House."

[17] While several carnies disapprove of Babylon as the next carnival stop, Lodz takes Ben on a trip and tests the boy's powers.

Brother Justin learns from his mentor Norman that he must either comply with the church board's wishes and hand over Chin's to someone else, or face disciplinary actions.

After last night's death, Jonesy accuses Samson of pretending Management's existence, and Ben participates in "carnival justice".

He tells campfire strangers that he has lost his God and unknowingly becomes acquainted with Los Angeles radio reporter Tommy Dolan.

And so it was that the fate of all mankind came to rest on the trembling shoulders of the most reluctant of saviors.Ben finds Kerrigan in his room covered with drawings of the Tattooed Man, repeating a mantra talking of a crone.

After receiving Kerrigan's poem and one of his drawings, Management informs Ben of the relevance of the Tattooed Man as the Usher, and that they need to find an old lady in Ingram, Texas.

Varlyn Stroud, Brother Justin's "archangel made flesh", kills a prison guard and escapes, then sets out to find Henry Scudder.

While Brother Justin breaks ground for his Temple of Jericho near the decrepit tree, Dolan collects evidence tying Iris to the ministry fire.

Before Ben departs, Emma gives him a trench knife, explaining that he will need it where he is going, a place "where the dog and the wolf howl at the moon."

Jonesy sympathizes with Sofie as the only female among the roustabouts, but cannot prevent Rita Sue from noticing his growing affection for Libby.

During a public radio broadcast, Brother Justin tears up a pre-approved sermon and improvises an incendiary jeremiad that indicts his superiors.

[50] Although the carnival has safely crossed the border to Wyoming, Jonesy and Libby are kidnapped by a group of men out to avenge the Ferris wheel death of the wife.

Iris overhears Justin talking to stroke-afflicted Norman about his childhood nightmares: A carnival is approaching, hiding his enemy.

[52] Despite the risk of detection, Ben does not want to miss a chance to kill his enemy and so remains at New Canaan while Jonesy returns to the carnival for assistance.

However, when Jonesy shows his healed knee, he gains the carnies' support for Ben's mission, and the caravan leaves for an arranged setup in New Canaan.

[59] When Brother Justin loses his faith in God in the middle of Season 1, he leaves his Mintern home and heads for the San Joaquin Valley wilderness near Kingsburg.

Ben's vision of the atomic bomb takes place in a desert nearby, ten years before the nuclear explosion would actually occur.