WRITTEN BY: Toni Graphia
DIRECTED BY: Alison Maclean
FIRST AIRED: October 26, 2003
Brother Justin stands on the rail of a bridge, arms outstretched. A voice tries to talk him down: "No matter how bad you think it is, ain't nothin's happened to you that hasn't happened to someone else," a policeman says. Justin cocks his head and sails off of the rail..
At the Carnivale, Stumpy remains inconsolable about the death of his daughter, Dora Mae, while Libby and her mother continue to clash. "I'm sick of this place," Libby says, and Stumpy realizes that he, too, is ready to light out.
Ruthie takes Ben out hunting for snakes for her newly revived act-"There's something about watching a woman handle a snake that gets a man downright percolated'," she says. The two become closer as Ruthie tries to get to know Ben better. "You don't like to be touched, do you?" she asks. "Not much touchin' going on in my family," he replies. Along the way, Ben learns that, years ago, Hack Scudder helped Ruthie recover from a deadly snakebite.
In Mintern, the radio personality Tommy Dolan visits Iris and tells her about meeting Justin on the road. Since Dolan's radio account of Justin's story, donations and sympathy have been pouring in to the Dignity ministry, but the town remains as hostile as ever to the cause. Dolan tells a suspicious Iris that he can help, and proceeds to use a live radio interview to shame councilman Val Templeton into action.
Rita Sue, afraid the family will end up on the breadline, is dead set against Stumpy's plan to move the family off to Hollywood. But Libby is full of movie star ideas and is thrilled at the chance to finally get away. Sophie offers to read Libby's cards for insight to send her off with some knowledge.
Still trying to insinuate himself into Ben's life, Lodz goads him by telling him that Ruthie and Scudder were bedmates. Ben flies into a rage, confronts Ruthie and ends up fighting with her son Gabriel who in the fight badly breaks his arm.
Sophie reads Libby's cards, which, she says, promise fame. After the relieved girl leaves, Sophie turns to her mother. "You're wrong. She's not going to dance the cootch the rest of her life."
Rita Sue is making good money holding down the cootch tent by herself, but wants to spend some time alone with Stumpy, so refuses any "gentleman callers" for the night. Libby, unable to return to the family tent, heads off to bunk with Sophie. As they fall asleep, exchanging dreams, Libby learns that Sophie doesn't even know her own birthday--her mother "took sick" immediately after she was born. Libby presses her to join the escape from the carnival. "This ain't no kind of life," she says.
Now delirious, Brother Justin awakes by the river with a grotesquely broken leg and sees two children watching him nearby. "I need help," he yells, but the strange children hold back. "You're a bad man, they sent you to kill us," the girl says in English in a heavily Russian accent.
Tommy Dolan spends some time with a grateful Iris celebrating what he did on the radio, and the two even share a bit of wine. As she lets down her guard, she asks him if she can tell him a story. Two children, a boy and a girl where traveling by rail with their mother when a bridge collapsed, plunging their train into a river. Only the children survive. "They were pursued. A man was sent to kill them. The girl fought to protect her brother. And the day came when the boy had to protect his sister."
Still stranded by the river, Brother Justin attempts to convince the boy who has been watching him to help. Growing more hostile, he threatens the boy in Russian, and struggles violently with his sister. As Justin begins to strangle the girl, the boy shouts-and Justin is immediately thrown back. Slowly, by an unseen force, his head turns and turns, until his neck is snapped.
Then, in a flash, Brother Justin is back on the rail of the bridge preparing to jump. His rescuers pull him back. In a moment of realization he mutters "I killed him."
At the Carnivale, Ben has apologized to Ruthie. He walks away into a field with Gabriel. Wading into a pond, he tells the strongman that he has to trust him. "You can't tell nobody about this. Nobody," Ben says. He places his hands on Gabriel's arm and the broken bone is mended. Around them, dozens of dead fish begin rising to the surface.
Rita Sue has drawn the line, and is convinced that Stumpy won't have the fortitude to set off without her. "You can't leave me," she says. "You don't even know how to begin to leave me," but a changed Stumpy has wavered not at all. Sophie has decided to join them, packing hurriedly over her mother's objections. With the excited crew shouting "California here we come," the three are in the car to leave the carnival at last, as Stumpy catches sight of a composed-looking Rita Sue in the rearview mirror. There is a dreadful pause.
"I think tomorrow'd be better, baby" he says to his disbelieving daughter. "Tomorrow." Dejected they unload the car.
In the middle of the night at the Crowe home, a phone rings, and Iris races to anwswer. "Alexi?" she says breathlessly. "You always knew what was inside me," comes her brother's answer--just before the line goes dead.