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Carnivale Season 1 Episode 3

Tipton

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8.8

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Episode Summary

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AIRED: 9/28/03

The town of Tipton refuses to let the carnival set up. Brother Justin's promise to the migrants upsets his regular congregation. Ben and Sofie search for clues about his history.

FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (2)

The healer

8.9

By SleepTight, Aug 28, 2011

This episode may not be as impressive as the last two. It still gave me the chills.

The only single bad storyline was that healer thing, I didn’t see too much point in them and the scenes were overly too long and painful to watch.

I’m not impressed by all those Jesus preacher things either, they strike me as waste of film or boredom.

Besides those points, this episode did good once again.

The priest Justine has the big leading storyline when he is almost kicked out of his new church but instead suffocates the man who was going to kick him out.

I’m also suspecting that his sister knows about his powers.

Anyway, I also loved the Ben scenes with Sofie. She is clearly inlove with him but he doesn’t seem interested in anything. He meets a woman who knew his dad and she tells him that he has the powers but that there are rules. The only way to use them is by hurting someone else.

So we learn more about Ben and about Justin.

This episode was once again powerfully acted by everyone in it.

And besides those big annoying storylines, the episode was just another success.

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Better than the first two.

8.0

By cybernaut_ev, Aug 28, 2011

This episode had much better writing. There's a coherent story with no plotholes (except one) and easy to follow. I like that all the little details gel with each other, such as the carnivale makes a deal with the Catholic Church to do a revival instead and closes the deal by saying they'll give 50% of the proceeds to the churches of the town. When the other party says there's another church up the street, the midget says "Let's let the Catholics take care of the Catholics" or something to that effect. I like stories that tie everything up and give believable motivations for the characters. The dialog seemed much better, too. The one plothole was feeding the comatose woman. I'm no doctor but I don't believe comatose people can eat. I suspect they starved to death until intravenous feeding came along.

The second preaching part got a little dull. The plot wasn't particularly far-reaching compelling, but it was satisfactorily entertaining. The ending worked well. The episode does pose an interesting question: should an old person be healed, especially at the possible expense of a young life? The woman was very old and should have been left to naturally die. She also claimed Hawkins had his father's eyes. Could it be the preacher is Hawkins' father since they both seem to be pulling miracles right and left?

There is one problem I have about the premise that if someone is saved, someone else has to die. It sounds so much like the 2005 theme in Smallville where Clark's father is taken because Lana is saved. I wonder who had the idea first as I believe Smallville came up with it in possibly their 3rd season (2003) and dragged it along until it came to fruition in 2006.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Clea DuVall	Sofie
Toby Huss	Stumpy Dreifuss
Patrick Bauchau	Professor Lodz
John Fleck	Gecko
Clancy Brown	Brother Justin
Adrienne Barbeau	Ruthie

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Glenn Shadix	Councilman Val Templeton	Guest Star
John Savage	Heck Scudder	Guest Star
Judy Jean Berns	Woman (10-in-1)	Guest Star
Blake Shields	Osgood	Recurring Role
Amanda Aday	Dora Mae Dreyfuss	Recurring Role
K Callan	Eleanor	Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (0)
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QUOTES (5)
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- Ben: This is a good town?
  Jonesy: Tipton? Never worked it.
  Ben: Don't y'all have a regular, you know, like...
  Jonesy: Circuit?
  Ben: Yeah.
  Jonesy: Used to. Now it's just town by town, catch as catch can. That ain't hardly nothing.
  Ben: Since when?
  Jonesy: Since you showed up.
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- Samson: (to Ben) You're my gold mine, boy.
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- Jonesy: It's gonna take us awful close to Babylon.
  Samson: No, it's gonna take us to Babylon.
  Jonesy: Jesus Christ!
  Samson: On a bicycle.
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- Mrs. Donovan: There's rules. You give life, you gotta take it from somewhere else. Could be an acre of wheat. Could be Walter's old bird dog, Jim. Could be that little girl you brought in here.
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- Samson: I'm telling you, Lyle, this operation's legit.
  Lyle: I ain't never heard an honest man use the word "legit."
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NOTES (1)
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- Music from this episode includes:
  Ruth Etting: Love Me or Leave Me
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ALLUSIONS (1)
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- Lyle Donovan: (about the previous sheriff of Tipton) Last fellow fled out with the contingency fund, four Colts and a Thompson gun.
  
  The sheriff is referring to a Thompson submachine gun, also known as a Tommy Gun, that was used during the Prohibition era and in gangster movies.
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