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written by Margaret Royal
Welcome To The Carnivale
Libby & Sofie
Welcome to the Carnivale, where allegorical freaks abound and Sapphic trysts can land you with psychotic visions complete with stigmata. It's not TV, y'all; it's HBO.
Carnivale is set in one of those western deserts of the Depression, a waste peopled by Dust Bowl migrants looking for any work that will land them a hot meal, an ex-Mexico studded with towns with cryptic or Biblical monikers. The two men who are each other's foils at the show's heart are Ben Hawkins, an unschooled and orphaned (though grown) farm boy who falls in as a laborer with an itinerant carnival, and Brother Justin, a severe minister bent on gathering to himself a congregation of fervently devoted sinners. Ben is possessed of healing powers which he keeps to himself, in part because using them causes other things to die, and finds himself afflicted by feverish nightmares that send clues about his obscure, perhaps metaphysical, origins. Brother Justin also has nightmares, but his powers are more sinister and include mind control and sister lust. At the end of season one, these characters have not yet met and appear to be connected only by an insubstantial, purely spiritual thread.
But that's not why this show might be of interest to readers of Dykesvision. No, girl, Ben and Justin are not where it's at. Rather, it's Libby and Sofie 4-EVA! Libby dances nightly in the carnival's cooch tent, where her mama Rita Sue is the star of the show, and her daddy Stumpy sells tickets. Sofie is a tarot reader who communicates telepathically (or appears to; we only ever hear Sofie's side of the conversation) with her clairvoyant, comatose mother, Apollonia. Sofie has grown up in the carnival, where Jonesy, a laborer, has long admired her and now feels comfortable going after her, being as how she's grown and all. As Sofie wrestles with her feelings about Jonesy's attentions, she also finds herself becoming attracted—imperceptibly at first—to the sweet and na•ve Libby, who dreams of making it in Hollywood with her cooch-dancing, talented self.
While Sofie is conflicted about pursuing things with Jonesy, she feels comfortable deflecting her mother's nagging on the subject; her feelings about Libby, however, are off-limits, and she reacts very badly one night when she and Libby share a little too much mescal and come this close to some hot lesbian mackateering. Instead, Sofie has a disturbing, intensely erotic vision of sex with Libby intercut by visions of herself with stigmata. She flees her not-quite-girlfriend and chews out her mother for sending her the vision.
Things are complicated, naturally. Jonesy, who is horny but uncomfortable with his carnal feelings for Sofie, sleeps with Rita Sue in a tryst arranged by Stumpy. Jonesy enjoys himself, but Rita Sue begins to get attached, and he attempts to break things off so that he can pursue Sofie. Sofie gets wind of this arrangement when she gives Stumpy a reading and senses what is going on behind the silk of the cooch tent, and she feels betrayed by Jonesy and by Libby, who has known about the arrangement but not said anything explicit to Sofie about it, instead only given her vague warnings such as, "men are dogs."
Sofie works her charms on both Libby and Jonesy, arranging for them to meet her at night at an arranged location on the carnival lot. She and Libby share their first kiss and appear to be getting it on in the bed of a truck when Jonesy shows up for his date. "This is what it feels like to be betrayed by someone you love," Sofie declares, and leaves the stunned, horny traitors behind as she flees in anger. Back in her own trailer, comatose Apollonia seizes her hand, then telekinetically locks the doors and flings a lamp to the floor. The trailer goes up in flames. We end season one wondering whether Sofie will make it out alive or whether she is a sacrifice offered up so that another carny's life may be spared. And that's another story; there are many other stories in Carnivale.
But hopefully she'll live, and Libby will forgive her for being so nasty, and there'll be more hot lesbo action next season. Allegory. It's what's for dinner.
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