Carnivale who is henry scudder

Each episode plays, just like in a puzzle, a pivotal part in the overall structure as each detail contributes to the depiction of the whole picture, suggesting a more dynamic role of the viewer. I shall therefore delve into the way in which the storyline is embedded into history and examine how both are intricately interwoven.

The historical setting 34 depicting America amid the throes of the Depression contributes to the portrayal of a period of despair, war fears and political tensions. Furthermore, setting the plot in the past clearly gives an impression of remoteness 35 while contributing to its epic dimension.

The recurrent visions of the trenches in which Henry Scudder crosses paths with the Russian infantryman Lucius Belyakov, an opposing Avatar, may well be viewed as an omen of the Second World War, which will reach its climax with the use of the atomic weapon.

As Ben Hawkins is about to bury his mother, who has just died of dust pneumonia, a bulldozer moves into the frame. This type of situation was, at the time, an everyday occurrence. Numerous stories recount similar dramatic cases.

One morning a giant tractor came in, like we had never seen before. My daddy used to do all his work with horses. So this huge tractor came in and began to knock down this corral, this small corral where my father kept his horses.

In the matter of a week, the whole face of the land was changed […]. We all of us climbed into an old Chevy that my dad had. And then we were in California, and migratory workers The ubiquity of poverty at the time is made clear from the very first episode of the series as we see Ben walking along the railroad tracks where the poor migrants have set up their encampment recalling the photos taken, at the time, by Dorothea Lange 40 who chronicled the lives of the migrants and displaced people during the Dust Bowl.

Not to mention the duo: Lodz, the blind mentalist, and Ben Hawkins who find refuge from the storm in an abandoned house. Yet the Dust Bowl may also be read as something supernatural and viewed, from a religious viewpoint, as a punishment from God, which is exactly how Brother Justin views it in Milfay :.

Latter days version of the vile plagues that rained on Egypt, the fires that consumed Sodom and Gomorrah, scourges of the Old Testament, yes, but even now brothers and sisters, even now, droughts and pestilence fester in the very heart of this great land […] Titanic sandstorms, the likes of which man has not seen since the days of the prophets.

And I ask myself, what are these things? What are they if not harbingers of the Apocalypse? In Alamogordo, NM 2, 2 the camera lingers on one of the roustabouts sleeping, his face covered by The Daily Chronicle whose headlines inform us of the Italian annexation of Tripoli, also situating the action in Thus, while these historical events anchor the fictional narrative into historical reality, by distorting them so they fit the narrative pattern, the producer blurs once more the boundaries between fiction and reality.

Yet, while fictionalizing history the show creates its own fictional reality. As Robert J. It is, however, worth noticing here again the anachronistic feature of this scene. The Shadow was a famous radio show all throughout the Thirties. However, the episode used in this short segment is entitled The Silent Avenger 45 , and was broadcasted on March 13, This throws light once more on the way in which the authors manipulate and distort historical facts to suit the narrative pattern.

The radio creates a mise en abyme effect in the narrative structure, as the fictional character of Brother Justin becomes the hero of a fictitious show within the diegesis. Where is he? Where are you, Brother Justin? Meanwhile, the viewer sees through the open garage doorframe Brother Justin walking by in the distance and disappearing into the night, signalling to the viewer the beginning of his dark and solitary errand into the wilderness.

Franklin D. Yet Roosevelt was not the only talented radio orator who understood the power of the new medium. Stolen by the international bankers. Stolen by the crooked politicians. Follow TV Tropes. You need to login to do this. Get Known if you don't have an account. And to each generation was born a creature of Light and a creature of Darkness. And great armies clashed by night in the ancient war between Good and Evil.

There was magic then, nobility, and unimaginable cruelty. After the cave-in, though, the dead men's souls were anchored to Babylon, and have dwelled there ever since. Indeed, all of Babylon works as an anchor now, and anyone who dies within the town is doomed to spend eterninty there. After departing from Babylon, Scudder continued to traverse the Southwest before vanishing in Scudder is revealed to be the previous generation's Avatar of Darkness.

He did not want the mantle, and so he tried to escape his destiny. His whereabouts remain a mystery for half the season, until Ben, under Management's direction, locates him in Damascus, Nebraska. Scudder is horribly disfigured, the result of an effort to ensure that he would not be recognized. Ben drains the life from the hotel Scudder works in and from many people on the street in order to restore Scudder's features.

Ben brings Scudder back to the carnival, after swearing to defend Scudder if Management attacks him. Sure enough, once Scudder and Belyakov start talking, Scudder has only to reveal that the current Avatar of Dark is Belyakov's son, Alexei, for Belyakov to viciously attack him.

Henry "Hack" Scudder is a mysterious man who appears in Ben's and Brother Justin's dreams wearing a tuxedo. Scudder is mentioned several times in the first season, revealing he once worked at the carnival's geek show and was Ruthie's lover.

Scudder also had a relationship with Ben's mother once; Samson later confirms Scudder as Ben's father. Season 2 forces both Ben and Brother Justin to find Scudder for their own purposes. After a long journey, Ben finds Scudder in Damascus, Nebraska and brings him to the carnival's Management. When Scudder flees moments later, escaped convict Stroud kidnaps him and brings him to Brother Justin. Brother Justin anticipates Scudder's renewed escape and decapitates him.

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