Romanovs?!?
Justin’s real name is Alexei. What’s his sister’s real name? I know Lodz continually referred to Mgmt as “my Prince”, and from the looks of Mgmt, he certainly could have been butchered & left for dead.
I just googled “Carnivale”.“Justin” & “Romanoff”. Apparently the idea has been going around already. Here I thought I was being ingenious.
I’m not following, please educate me!
Management’s injuries have been explicitly explained. He was attacked by a bear, specifically Lodz’s bear, during WWI.
Their last name is Belyakov. The mother of Justin and Iris was Plemina. All of this is available on the HBO web site.
Management gave his full name on the first episode of the second season. Lucius Belyakov.
Dan Knauf was in HBO chat after the latest episode and clarified a lot of the back story. In every generation there are two Avatars, one dark and one light. The avatar is always the first born son of another Avatar. Dark can be born of light or dark…it’s random.
Management/Scudder are opposite avatars. The generation before them is dead. Scudder is dark and Mgt is light.
Ben and Justin are opposite avatars. Ben is light and Justin is dark.
The oldest living avatars (Mgt/Scudder) are Prophets and bleed blue. The younger ones (two or more depending on how may generations are alive) are Princes.
In order for a prince to gain the full measure of his power, he must kill his Prophet. (Did Ben just kill Mgt?, Was that Managment’s intention all along once Ben found Scudder?).
If a Prophet kills his opposite, he becomes the Usher. If Justin kills Ben (once Scudder is dead) he becomes the Usher of Destruction who will bring about the end of the world as has been fortold since the beginning of time. (A lot of this was explained by Samson’s monologue in the beginning of the first episode this season.)
The Romanovs were a bunch of evil bastards to be sure but they don’t seem to figure in the Carnivale story.
Haj
Irina.
Given that we know that Management was a solider (and a fairly common-looking one at that) serving in the middle of the fighting in World War I it seems unlikely that he is someone closely connected to the Russian royal family. Even given what little we know it, that they are of royal blood would seem to be out of left field. If there is any connection to the czar, perhaps it would be more along the lines of being a protege (or descendent?) of the mystical Rasputin perhaps.
And we now know their last name. Last week Scudder called Management by the name of Belyakov. (Spelling taken from the HBO.com episode summary). Looking at the bios of Iris & Justin on the same site, their mother was named Plemina (I don’t recall when this was revealed), but it has yet to be updated to include the all important father information so presumably that was some time ago.
Still five episodes to go, hopefully they’ll clear up the “old-country” connections by the end of the season (and it’d be nice if that means we somehow get to see Lodz again, I miss his character this season).
I thought perhaps Mgmt might be Czar Nicholas, Justin- Prince Alexei (who was ‘healed’ of hemophilia by Rasputin), and Iris- Anastasia or another Romanov/ff princess.
And maybe Lodz a devotee of Rasputin?
hajario just clarified a lot of stuff I missed, having seen about half the episodes in both seasons.
Haj, great summary.
Now let’s throw this in the mix: what if Sofie is pregnant with Ben’s child? Now we have another generation going. So can a prophet become the Usher if there exists a prince of the one he killed?
What does Ben become if he kills Justin? Assuming Management is dead.
That wasn’t explained. Also, what if one of the unfortunate maids is pregnant with Justin’s child? I think that Sophie is going to end up with Justin and held hostage and Ben’s going to have to make a very difficult choice.
That also wasn’t explained. The Usher of Something Good, I suppose, or maybe nothing at all and the generations long hunt is over and mankind is no longer in peril.
As of now, there will be a three seasons of Carnivale so prepare to wait another year after Episode 12 of this season before we see how this wraps up.
As you will be able to see if you look at the episode titles through the end of the season,
Ben ends up in New Canaan, California where Justin’s church is located during the last episode of this season.
Haj
Rasputin was killed by Prince Feliks Yusupov (world’s richest transvestite among other distinctions- later something of a gay version of Schindler). Yusupov’s wife was the Tsar’s niece Irina, which was what I thought of when I first heard Iris’s real name. I think there will be some sort of connection.
Haj - thanks for all the great info. I was so surprised Sunday night that Ben finally found Scudder. But…is Management really dead? Didn’t we see him lurch back up at Ben at the end?
What about Ben and Sophie’s relationship? Do we think she’s going to get pregnant and have the next generation of avatar? And – what about her father and the tatooed man?
I also would like to thank you for the info. I do have another question: Why is Sofie getting the “Every prophet in her house” messages too?
My guess (which I won’t spoiler since I’m just guessing): Sophie will have a child who will become next generation’s dark and Justin and Iris will have an incestuous child who will become the next generation’s light. Or, Sophie will have twins…
CARNIVALE in the 1950s might be interesting.
SPOILER TAGS! For fuck’s sake, SPOILER TAGS!