[Excalibur] Men in Tights!

[Chris Sommer]

KNIGHTS!

Hello. Another e-mail for you all.

This Saturday, at 8pm, in the East Lecture Hall of FPH, we shall watch Robin
Hood Men in Tights (!!) and continue Carnivale.

I shouldn't need to tell everyone just how awesome Men in Tights is, an amazing
Mel Brooks comedy regarding Robin and the Merry Men. So I won't, instead I will
link you to IMDB!

LINK > http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107977/

Now, Carnivale. We move onto episode 3, with promises into more information
regarding Ben's past! Many of you are uninformed regarding this fact, as you
missed episode 2, I feel your pain. So I will give a short recap right now on
each episode so you can come into this prepared!

SHORT (See the end of the e-mail for full recaps, for the interested)

Episode 1: An 18-year-old, Ben Hawkins, is taken in by a traveling Carnivale
after his mother passes away. An evangelical preacher receives a sign that
leaves him awakened to the possibility of mysterious powers.

Episode 2: A practical joke leads Ben to a piece of the puzzle that is his past.
Brother Justin and his sister Iris try to turn a brothel into a house of
worship. Sofie tends to her comatose mother.

Other announcements! Necronomicon is showing Shaun of the Dead tomorrow in ELH
of FPH at 8pm. Free food and explanations regarding what the club is.

Games Night: It is awesome, on Wednesday in the Merrill living room at 7pm, and
have games + food.

That is all. Now for the long plot recaps of the last two episodes for those who
are curious and want to jump in on episode 3 of this awesome show.

LONG.

EPISODE 1:
On a bankrupt family farm in the middle of dustbowl Oklahoma, a traveling
carnival encounters Ben Hawkins, a young man desperately trying to hold off a
bulldozer from the bank-at least long enough for him to finish burying his
mother. Seeing that Ben is on his last legs, members of the Carnivale wearily
grab shovels and give the woman a half-decent burial.

But just as the hymns are sung and the bulldozer plows into the Hawkins home,
sirens are heard, and the chain around Ben's ankle suggests he is what they're
after. Samson, the diminutive boss of the troupe, orders the crew to grab Ben,
who has passed out with exhaustion, and make some dust.

Later, Samson tells Jonesy, the boss of the roustabouts, that he has discussed
the Carnivale's new stowaway with Management, the mysterious owner of the show.
"You know what he said?" Samson asks, shaking his head. "He was expected." The
mystery only deepens when the mentalist Lodz touches Ben asleep and is
overwhelmed by the boy's devastating and powerful visions.

When Ben comes to, he seems unnerved by the people that have saved him: Lila,
the bearded lady, the strong man Gabriel, Gecko, the lizard man; the Siamese
twins Caledonia and Alexandria. He also clashes with Jonesy, a weary cynic who
ridicules Ben as "a huck."

Meanwhile, half a country away, a minister named Brother Justin Crowe attends to
his flock, including a down-and-out Okie who has stolen from the collection
plate. But when the woman begins vomiting a stream of silver dollars, it
becomes clear that something profound is happening to Brother Justin. Later, he
has a powerful vision outside Chin's, a local house of ill-repute. At the
Carnivale, Samson (at Management's behest) tries to convince Ben to join the
outfit fulltime. But despite his lack of options, the taciturn Ben is repulsed
by the idea. The only person he seems to be able to talk to at all is the young
fortune teller Sophie. But when she finally gets him to sit for a Tarot reading,
the cards-evoking the past, transformation and a hidden talent-draw Ben into
memories of his terrible, terrible secret.

Running far from Sophie's bus, he finds himself in front of a local girl
confined to a wagon, a sweet kid who loves the Ferris Wheel and whose legs are
crippled by a painful condition. Resigned, he kneels down and places his hands
on her shins...

He doesn't look back as he runs after the caravan and pulls himself up on the
departing truck. He doesn't see the little girl stand up and skip away. He
knows what he has done for her. And he knows there will be a price to pay.

EPISODE 2:
First Brother Justin and then Ben enter a nighttime diner and sit at the
counter, silent and staring straight ahead. Then the two men from Ben's
previous dreams enter and share a table, one decked out in evening clothes and
the other dressed in his WWI uniform. Ben and Justin watch the men start into
their steak dinners, and as they clink their glasses in a toast, all the
windows of the diner shatter and Ben and Justin both wake with a start from
their shared nightmare.

In the morning, Jonesy gives Ben the job of cleaning out the baggage trailer,
prompting snickers and stifled laughter from the rousties. Ben finds the
trailer sitting dilapidated and forlorn under a gnarled tree and starts going
through the dusty contents. Finding an old suitcase, Ben opens it to reveal a
carefully wrapped tuxedo and top hat, the same as the man was wearing in his
dream. Ben also notices a faded photograph, which he is shocked to see depicts
his mother as a young woman on one side and on the back the mysterious letters
HS & Flow. Ben pockets the photo and leaves the mystery-filled trailer, only to
be accosted by Samson angry at Ben for not working with the other Rousties. When
Ben tells of his job at the baggage trailer, Samson reveals that the trailer
doesn't exist- it's an old carny gag. When Ben shows Samson the photo to prove
he was in the trailer, Samson realizes that there's more to the boy than he had
thought.

Other unusual things are happening at the Carnivale as well. Apollonia, Sophie's
comatose mother, refuses to "speak" to her until she brings Ben back in to
finish his tarot reading, something he is unwilling to do. Lodz tells Samson of
seeing Scudder in Ben's dreams and presses Samson to talk to Management to have
the Carnivale head south.

The well-scrubbed, respectable members of Brother Justin's congregation are
put-off by the migrant Okies that have started attending services at the
church. Brother Justin, prompted by his visions, meets with Carroll Templeton,
the well-to-do owner of Chin's, and asks that he hand over the property so
Justin can start a church for the migrants. Templeton laughs in his face,
saying that Chin's is not for sale. In a self-righteous rage, Justin grabs him
and forces a shocked and frightened Templeton into a vision in which Justin
shows him the true nature of his sins.

At night, Ben's vivid nightmare comes to him yet again; the WWI trench, the two
men from the diner, a hungry and violent bear...Ben wakes abruptly to the sight
of Apollonia walking towards him. She takes his hand and tells him, "You're the
one", after which she collapses in his arms, comatose once again. Apollonia's
cries of alarm wake the whole outfit and they rush to the scene, grabbing the
old woman away from Ben. After a tussle in which Ben is roughed up by Gabriel,
Samson breaks it up and tells the assembled group that Ben did not do anything
and there has been a change of plans; the Carnivale will head south in the
morning. Lodz smiles mysteriously to himself as he retreats to his trailer.

While Ruthie helps Ben with his cuts and bruises, he shows her the picture of
his mother. She recognizes her as Flora, Hack Scudder's sweetie, then she gives
him an old photo of Scudder who worked the geek show in the Carnival, who Ben
recognizes as the man from his dreams.

Brother Justin has made Carroll Templeton see the light. As Justin enters Chin's
to visualize it as his new church, Templeton drives out to a deserted road and
shoots himself in the head. After telling Iris the news that Chin's is now a
House of God, Justin retreats to his bedroom where he flagellates himself with
holy fervor.

Chris "Wishes he had powers too" Sommer
-- 
"In the face of insurmountable odds, I threw dust in it's eyes, kicked
it in the shin, and then ran like the wind."

~Chris "Sirhc" Sommer~