CARNIVALE {CARNIVÀLE}: MILFAY {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
The pilot of this dramatic series which follows a traveling carnival through Dust Bowl America during the Depression, focusing on the orphaned outsider Ben Hawkins who joins the nomads and becomes the center of a mysterious battle between good and evil. The episode begins with a prologue about an ancient war between good and evil. In a small farmhouse in Milfay, Oklahoma in 1934, a young man named Ben Hawkins awakens from a strange and disturbing dream and witnesses his mother die. As he goes out into the dusty field to bury his mother, a bulldozer arrives, sent from the bank to tear down his house. A travelling carnival happens upon this scene and helps Ben give his mother a proper burial. The bulldozer then tears down his house and Ben collapses; the carnies reluctantly take him with them. Meanwhile, in the town of Mintern, California, a minister named Brother Justin Crowe preaches to his congregation, aided by his sister Iris. He delivers a sermon about the natural and man-made catastrophes plaguing the United States and he likens them to Biblical plagues. A poor elderly congregant named Eleanor pilfers a coin from the collection plate, and Iris catches her before she can leave. Brother Crowe speaks with Eleanor, discovering that she came to Mintern for work but could find none and discovers her stolen coin. As he gives her the coin as a gift along with some spiritual advice, Eleanor suddenly begins regurgitating a shower of coins. Brother Crowe immediately calls for her to pray with him; he comforts her and all the coins somehow disappear. The carnival travels through the night; the dwarf Samson notes that their manager, known only as "Management," was expecting Ben's arrival. Lila the bearded lady entreats Lodz, the carnival's blind mentalist, to peer into Ben's dreams while he sleeps. Lodz witnesses Ben's disturbing visions and collapses from the strain. Ben awakens the next morning to find that the carnies have taken his clothes; he stumbles around trying to dress himself, disturbed by his bizarre surroundings. Apollonia, a catatonic fortune teller, telepathically warns her daughter Sofie, another fortune-teller, that Ben is dangerous. Lodz makes the same warning to Samson, but Samson replies that Management wants Ben to stay with them full-time. Ben tries to leave the carnival, refusing Sofie's offer to give him a ride. He comes to a railroad construction site, where he somehow convinces a woman to give up her dead baby for burial. Sofie stops to get gas and the gas station workers attempt to rape her. Ben comes upon this scene and manages to stop the assailants. He and Sofie drive back to the carnival, where she is confronted by Jonesy, the Ferris wheel operator, about the incident. He claims she brought in on herself, causing her to angrily evict him from her trailer. Samson offers Ben a job in the carnival, and Ben reluctantly accepts when he realizes the alternative would be going to prison for interfering with the bank's bulldozer. That night, the carnival opens and Ben strolls about, taking in the various attractions. He notices Jonesy help a girl with nonfunctioning legs onto the Ferris wheel. Sofie finds Ben to return his jacket and thank him for saving her, offering to read his fortune, which he declines. Meanwhile, in Mintern, Brother Crowe experiences the same disturbing dreams as Ben. He wakes up to take a walk and stops at a neon sign he saw in the dream. Suddenly he is alone and the area is blanketed in snow before blood starts raining from the sky. The neon sign explodes, leaving only a section of neon in the shape of a crucifix. Brother Crowe interprets this as a sign from God and kneels to pray as the scene returns to normal around him. The next day, Ben helps to pack up the carnival and decides to take Sofie up on her offer. She performs a tarot reading on Ben's past, and the first card she draws is the Moon, signifying "confusion." Ben suddenly recalls an incident from his childhood when he found a dead cat and somehow brought it back to life, frightening his mother. As Sofie draws the next card, Death (signifying "transformation"), he remembers his mother killing the cat and calling him "marked by the Beast." The final card is a reversed Magician, which Sofie interprets to mean that Ben has a special gift that he has been hiding from the world. Ben recalls that when his mother was dying, she would not allow him near her for fear that he would do to her what he did to the cat. Ben, disturbed by a sudden mysterious vision, runs from Sofie's trailer into a nearby field. There, he encounters the girl with the nonfunctional legs from earlier. He touches her legs and plants around him rapidly wither and die. The episode ends as Ben catches up with the departing carnival and the girl runs inside, her legs healed by Ben.
Details
- NETWORK: HBO
- DATE: September 14, 2003 9:35 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:57:40
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:82088
- GENRE: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
- SERIES RUN: HBO - TV series, 2003-2005
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Scott Winant … Executive Producer
- Kelly McCarthy … Executive Producer
- Howard Klein … Executive Producer
- Ronald D. Moore … Executive Producer
- Daniel Knauf … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Gregg Fienberg … Co-Executive Producer
- Dawn Prestwich … Co-Executive Producer
- Nicole Yorkin … Co-Executive Producer
- Anthony Santa Croce … Producer
- Todd London … Co-Producer
- Gigi Coello-Bannon … Co-Producer
- Robert Keyghobad … Co-Producer
- William Schmidt … Supervising Producer
- Dan Hassid … Supervising Producer
- Rodrigo Garcia … Director
- Jeff Beal … Music by
- Wendy Melvoin … Theme Music by
- Lisa Coleman … Theme Music by
- Michael J. Anderson … Cast, Samson
- Adrienne Barbeau … Cast, Ruthie
- Patrick Bauchau … Cast, Ernst Lodz
- Clancy Brown … Cast, Brother Justin Crowe
- Debra Cristofferson … Cast, Lila Villanueva
- Tim DeKay … Cast, Clayton "Jonesy" Jones
- Clea DuVall … Cast, Sofie
- Cynthia Ettinger … Cast, Rita Sue Dreifuss
- John Fleck … Cast, Gecko
- Carla Gallo … Cast, Libby Dreifuss
- Toby Huss … Cast, Felix "Stumpy" Dreifuss
- Amy Madigan … Cast, Iris Crowe
- Diane Salinger … Cast, Apollonia
- Nick Stahl … Cast, Ben Hawkins
- Karyne Steben … Cast, Alexandria Potter
- Sarah Steben … Cast, Caledonia Potter
- Brian Turk … Cast, Gabriel
- Michael Massee … Cast, Russian Soldier
- Amanda Aday … Cast, Dora Mae Dreifuss
- John Savage … Cast, Henry "Hack" Scudder
- Don Swayze … Cast, Tattooed Man
- Jenna Boyd … Cast, Maddy Crane
- E. J. Callahan … Cast, Lean Man
- K Callan … Cast, Eleanor
- Frank Collison … Cast, Jasper
- Gigi DeLeon … Cast, Prostitute
- Ryan Hanson … Cast, Young Ben
- Joshua Harto … Cast, Junior
- Lucinda Jenney … Cast, Flora Hawkins
- Jack McGee … Cast, Bulldozer Driver
- Matthew McGrory … Cast, Giant
- Bobby Preston … Cast, Tommy Crane
- Brett Rickaby … Cast, Talker
- Ted Rooney … Cast, Flasher
- Joe Unger … Cast, Red