Carnivàle/Pick a Number

Pick a Number
Season 1, Episode 6
Airdate	October 19, 2003
Production Number	106
Written by	Ronald D. Moore
Directed by	Rodrigo Garcia
← 1x05 Babylon	1x07 → The River
Carnivàle — Season One

Pick a Number is the sixth episode of the first season of Carnivàle, and the sixth episode overall.

Guest-Starring:

Co-Starring:

Featuring:

Plot Overview

We open right where episode 5 left off: Dora Mae has just been murdered, the carnies are in disarray, and Ben and Lodz are still MIA. Pressure is put upon Samson to find the man responsible, and he settles for catching whatever denizen of Babylon he can find. All the male rousties enter Babylon, but unfortunately it seems that during the night, the whole town cleared out, and there's not a soul to be found. Jonesy, still believing that Management doesn't exist, blames Samson for Dora Mae's death, and the whole affair. The rousties head back to the carnival empty-handed for Dora Mae's funeral.

As for Ben, the mine shaft that he's in gradually shifts into the World War 1 trench that he's been seeing in his dreams, and he soon occupies Scudder's position in the setting. He encounters the dancing bear, and through Ben we are allowed a longer glimpse of what transpired: Scudder encountered the bear, and tried to shoot it, but his gun jammed. The bear reared up, but chose to attack the Russian soldier peering over the edge of the trench instead. Shocked, Ben climbs up the trench wall and out into No Man's Land, where he runs into a younger and non-blind Lodz calling out for his bear, Bruno. A shell explodes nearby, and Ben is thrown back into reality and into the arms of the current-day Lodz, who had been waiting for Ben to emerge from the mine. Ben declines to reveal what he saw.

Immediately after Dora Mae's funeral, Jonesy spots the Babylon bartender leaving town, and the carnies bring him in to face "carnival justice." It's an elaborate ritual where the accused must pick a number, which turns out to be the number of times Samson will fire a six-chamber revolver with one bullet in it. The ritual is essentially Russian Roulette: if you're alive at the end, you're allowed to go free. The bartender, even though he essentially admits to the crime, survives. Before he goes, he drops Scudder's name. However, the other carnies soon clamour for Samson to fire again, and Jonesy steps in to put an end to the discussion. The bartender is free to leave, and Jonesy has apparently forgiven Samson.

Just before the carnival is ready to leave Babylon, Samson heads into the deserted town one last time, to talk to the bartender. The other man is grateful that Samson spared his life, and Samson wants information about Scudder. The bartender tells Samson how Scudder most likely caused a cave-in, killing all the miners, and that for some reason, the dead miners returned once they died, and have kept coming back ever since. Satisfied, Samson pulls his gun out and shoots the bartender in the head. As he's leaving town, he spots the naked, zombie-fied Dora Mae in a window. As a dead miner walks up and pulls her away, we realize that she'll be spending eternity as their whore.

Justin, meanwhile, sits in the gutted ruins of the Dignity Ministry, demanding answers from God. None are forthcoming, and after many days, he sees an omen (a piece of glass falling in slow-motion) as he reads Luke 4:1, and decides that God wants him to go into the wilderness. Without telling anyone, Justin removes his cassock and heads out for parts unknown. We see him sharing his story with a group of hobos by a fire on a roadside, and it is later revealed that one of the hobos is radio reporter Tommy Dolan, and he relates Justin's story to his audience.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Lodz is intent on finding out what Ben saw during his time in the mine. As we'll later discover, Lodz is both unaware of what Ben is seeing and unaware of the fact that Scudder remains a powerful and ubquitous presence in Ben's visions.

Characters

• Samson was once, apparently, a strong-man act and went by the name of Samson the Magnificent.