I seem to be following everything that’s going on pretty well, but I can’t figure out what Brother Justin (Alexi) is doing to Iris, his sister.
He’s obviously been intent on setting her up ever since he found out she burned the mission and killed the kids, but he’s a demon – why should he care? Is he trying to free himself of her control? Prove himself as 'holy enough to turn in his own sister?"
It’s not to impress Dolan, Tommy is already in up to his ears…
What can he possibly gain?
As Dolan said earlier, better they make the announcement than someone else finding out which would be a much worse scandal. Dolan thinks that eventually someone would have figured it out.
There is speculation on televisionwithout pity about an interesting twist:
Dolan took dictation when Iris was confessing. If he wrote the whole thing in first person, Justin could make it look like Dolan was the one who confessed
I’m just talking out of my ass here, but Iris is the only person who has any sort of power over Justin. What kind of power? I dunno. Some sort of combination of older sister power, sexual power (that’s probably the main one), and perhaps some other power we haven’t seen yet.
I’ve got a major problem with hajaro’s spoiler:
Tommy didn’t have anything to do with Justin until after the fire, when he met Justin the Vagrant on the road. Personally, I think that if they’re going to take a twist with Tommy having to write the confession, it’ll be because they name Norman as the arsonist – he can’t write, being pseudo-vegetative
BTW, wasn’t this past week’s episode fantastic? They just hit all the right notes with setting the mood – the creepy mask guy, Justin taunting Norman about the Temple, and especially with Sophie’s mom appearing and whispering a haunting message in an eerie voice. Gave me the shivers.
I’m not sure if this is conjecture or if it’s just obvious (weird how that statement can apply to this show), but Scudder probably brought Sophie’s mom back to life at one point (a la Ruthie), and that’s why Sophie’s mom (Apollonia?) could see dead people. Right? Like I said, that’s either incredibly obvious, or I’m totally wrong 
You know that, I know that, Justin knows that, Iris knows that, but who else knows that? Just Norman probably. Justin’s many, many followers probably have no idea when Tommy came on the scene and furthermore probably don’t care. Also, we know that Justin has the ability to control their minds–even if they know better, they wouldn’t know better, you know? I think he’d let Tommy hang before he would let anything happen to Iris.
[spoiler]Doesn’t anyone remember what happened during Brother Justin’s stay in the insane asylum?
Remember how he was able to influence the writings of the psychiatrist who was on his case? [/spoiler]
Interesting. Justin seems to have control over everything. He can either control/coerce people or (like Norman) he makes them incompetent.
He’s got thousands of ‘followers’ working for him (like the prison guy turned cop and the mask guy), sometimes he doesn’t even know it.
Yet Iris… he didn’t order her to burn down the mission, she did it on her own volition and hid it from Justin; maybe he’s jealous? But he’s got to know that if Iris gets convicted… Ah yes, if Iris goes away, gets ‘put away,’ then Justin gets more blow-jobs from his housekeepers without having to worry about Iris walking in. I guess it’s time for him to get rid of Iris.
Tommy Dolan “found” Justin, and Justin turned it into his salvation, getting wide radio coverage and a great background story, making him what he is today. It’s obvious he’s manipulating, but not controlling Dolan.
Justin is now the tattooed man. The tree man, whatever that means. He is the one to become the “usher” – when Scudder is killed…
Wish I knew more about Mexican folklore. It seems to be taken from Mexican or Indian folklore.
The current “tattooed man” raped Apolonia, and is Sophie’s father… (Scudder is Ben’s father as well.) Could Scudder be the tattooed man (present), or is there another, yet unknown? The vision of the tat man raping Appolonia didn’t look like Scudder, and other visions of the tattooed man don’t look like Scudder. I think it’s another yet unknown person. And Sophie has the power to read cards (glad she’s getting back to that again!).
Then that “flash” of ‘the lovers’ at the A-bomb blast. Ben and Sophie…
Obviously, Ben and Justin are in a race to stop each other. Justin is obviously evil, but Ben is probably being manipulated by the Russian (Management) for some good or evil purpose. Actually they ‘vision’ each other as threats, but they are both seeking Scudder, not each other.
I doubt it. Iris is pimping for him. She knew what happened to Celeste (and she probably cleaned up that little “mess”) and then she ran out and got a new housekeeper. As she said before, she’ll do whatever he needs, he doesn’t even need to ask.
There’s some spec going around that Sophie saw a vision of future events–that is, Appy wasn’t raped by the “Tattooed Man” but Sophie was seeing her own future.shrug It makes sense to me, but who the hell knows with this show?
Yeah, that creepy-mask dude was a great scene, although I think the show relies too heavily on dream/vision sequences. To the point where if something is even slightly askew, you’re thinking to yourself, well, here’s another vision.
Still a great, great, show. Who thinks that Stumpy actually bet on Lewis?
How long before Jonesy is hooking up with Libby (maybe they’ll do the “lunch counter”) :eek:
Is it pretty much taken for granted now that Management is the father of Justin/Iris?
I think the key moment was when Iris agreed to sacrifice herself, bending to Justin’s will. Up until now she has been trying to manipulate him, and I think he wanted to make it very clear to her that he is now in charge. But I also think
that he is going to hang Tommy out to dry for it in the end. Look at the shots of his congregation in the previews for next week (and hearken back to the gullible mob mentality exhibited at the Carnivale “revival”). They won’t care whether it makes sense - they will get whipped into a frenzy and go after Dolan with glee.
I think Norman is going to hang around, slowly recovering from the “stroke,” and biding his time to try and take Justin down as he was unable to do last season. Come to think of it, Justin seems to control people through their own sinful desires (even poor Celeste at least had the hots for him, and knew how to “pray”), but the worst thing he could dredge up in Norman was that he innocently happened to save the life of the COD. So perhaps Norman’s inherent goodness will allow him to defeat Justin’s power over him.
Aw, hell. Even Rita Sue doesn’t believe that.
I don’t know if that’s really going to happen. If there’s anyone who’s got a solid sense of morals on this show, it’s Jonesy. He might feel a little weird slipping it to Libby after doing it to her mom. I believe that he’s still deeply in love with Sofie, even though there’s all that hurt from the Big Betrayal.
The jury’s still out on that here in the Maven house.
Oh, and my husband has a WAG about a possible future happening (in regards to the tarot card reading):
During the tarot card reading that Sofie gave Ben, the last card was La Lune (The Moon), which indicates madness, lies, deceit, and bewilderment. There was the flash of the wolves, a particular piece of scenery, and a man with a melty-looking face screaming. The glasses of Melty Man look suspiciously like the glasses that Lodz wore.
Our theory: Ben kills somebody, but the power (energy transference?) doesn’t go where it should, and Lodz comes back from the dead. And he’s pissed.
Till the mask of Ben appears, and we know it wasn’t a vision…
Stumpy will (I predict) try to recover the money he lost by betting on the loser, and get in a load of trouble… he’s trouble looking for a place to happen!
Jonesy & Libby? She seems up for it…
That was speculated cause they were Russian and someone was trying to kill them (their father?) - but at that point the Russian was already crippled by Lodz’ bear…
Management - The Russian Soldier - wants to find Scudder, but why? I’m not sure that he has Ben’s interests in mind, but is just using him.
Justin wants to find Scudder to kill him and take over his position as “Usher.”
Scudder sees himself as an avatar and Ben as his inheritor.
OK: Good vs. Evil analysis:
major player characters
Good, (or at least Good intentioned)
Ben, Sophie, Jonesy, Dolan
Evil (even if they don’t know it)
Justin, Iris, Lodz
Of dubious character (with supposed inclination noted G/E)
Scudder (G)
Management/Russian (?)
And, from episode one there were hints that somehow it’s desirable to stop the development of the bomb, for it will destroy magic…
This series is awesome.
I really hope you’re right, because that would squick me out, and I normally have a very strong stomach for these sorts of things. It seems like Jonesy is a genuinely Good Guy and I just can’t imagine him getting involved with Libby so soon after being with her mom and the Big Betrayal. And if the writers ask me to beleive it…well, it’ll be the first time they disappoint me.