Men are lining up for the Cooch show. Dancing and rowdiness ensues. Burley looks at Rita Sue from the back of the crowd, and makes kissy faces at her. Rita Sue is thrown for a second, but resumes dancing. Burley wanders off.

Later still, the Carnivàle is shutting down as Ben returns.

Ben enters Management's trailer and announces that Scudder is dead: "He's gone, goddammit -- he took the preacher's name with him!" Management calmly insists that Scudder isn't dead. Ben mentions the death mask, and grumps, "You can't see anything past your own hate, you son of a bitch! Because if Scudder's dead, you got no reason to draw breath!" Management calmly says that he'll die one way or another, and tells Ben, "It's you who has something greater at stake." Ben asks what that would be, and they sit down for a long cozy chat together. No, just kidding. When presented with a leading statement like that, Ben is naturally going to turn and leave. Of course.

As Ben steps out of the trailer, a tarot card blows up against his leg. Ben grabs it and reveals it to be the Ace of Swords: truth, fortitude, and intellect. Well, Ben could definitely use all of those things. More cards blow around him, and Ben scrambles to pick them up.

Sofie is heading across camp to wash up before bed when Ben approaches and says, "Remember them cards you had me burn up?" He shows her the deck in his hands, and says, "Sofie, please, I need to know something." Sofie quickly shakes her head and walks away. Ben watches her leave, and then puts the cards down on the steps to her trailer. The camera zooms in so that we can see the card on top. Well, barely. It's the Tower: upheavals and revelations.

Ruthie is sitting on the steps of her own trailer. A little distance away, Sofie is washing up at the hand pump. Ruthie looks down and sees a puddle of water. In the reflection, Sofie is washing, and the black-veiled person is standing beside her. Do we have to keep pretending that we don't know it's Apollonia? I vote no. Ruthie looks up from the reflection, and Sofie is standing by herself.

Rita Sue is in bed when something jostles her. She sits up, and sees a man bent over at the foot of her bed. Rita Sue reaches under the bed, pulls out a gun, and cocks it. She tells her visitor to stand still, switches the light on, and sees a frightened Stumpy with his hands raised. Rita Sue falls back on the bed, relieved, as Stumpy whines that he was getting ready for bed. And then someone quickly moves up behind Stumpy, and I jump about a mile before the shadowy figure steps into the light and turns out to be Libby. I'm still not sure that was even meant to be scary, which is probably why it startled me so much. As everyone calms down, Stumpy quickly kicks a canister of some kind back under the bed. Zounds! Something of a suspicious nature appears to be afoot! Libby leaves, and Stumpy starts giggling and calls his wife a "pistol-packin' mama." Then he basically dives on top of Rita Sue, who realizes that he's drunk and shoves him away.