When HBO canceled Carniv

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In which Ben and Justin finally have it out…
When HBO canceled Carnivàle back in 2005, it was reported that Chris Albrecht—who ultimately carnival legend made the call—felt that the show had run its course, that the second carnival legend season finale functioned well as a series finale. Now, obviously, the fan outcry that followed the cancellation, and all of the cliffhangers the episode ends with, would give the lie to this notion, but at the same time, as I watch “New Canaan, CA” again, I can’t help but feel that I see where Albrecht was coming from. This finale is terrific, but it’s also filled with the kinds of moments more common to series finales than season finales. It doesn’t just feel like an ending; it feels like the ending. I almost wonder if this show would have gotten its full run if this finale didn’t feel so, well, final.
What I’m talking about here isn’t just the showdown between Ben and Justin. Yes, that contributes to this feeling like it’s the end of the story, but it’s not the sole reason for that sense. The episode is filled with tons of little moments and grace notes that might only pop up in a series finale, carnival legend like Sofie looking out over the carnival she once called home (in what I think is the best overview the show ever gave of the whole enterprise), or Jonesy telling Libby he loves her now and is no longer interested in Sofie, or even poor Norman getting to stand from his chair for a few moments and pick up his exorcism right where he left off, only to get a sickle in his side. These are the sorts of things that might pop up in an episode meant to tie up far more of the story than just one or two seasons, and the episode almost works as an unintentional series finale.
Now, I don’t entirely buy Sofie’s transition in this episode. Justin has her locked up in the out-of-the-way shack where he kept Scudder, carnival legend and while inside, her mind gets to roving and realizes that she’s his daughter and that she’s a next generation Avatar. (In the parlance of the series, she’s the “Omega,” which would imply the final Avatar.) This is a huge revelation to drop on one of the characters in this show, and if it had come a few episodes ago, I might have bought her turn to the dark side more readily. Instead, she just gets all of this information—from a version of herself dressed as Apollonia—and then she decides, hey, might as well try being evil for a while. When she shoots Jonesy, carnival legend leaving him for dead, and when she resurrects Brother Justin by taking his life force out of the surrounding corn, those are legitimately awesome moments, but they’re also a touch baffling. That’s not to say the show couldn’t have answered those questions later, but, well, that’s what makes the whole thing just a touch unsatisfying. She’s not evil until she is, and then she gives in with gusto.
But even if I don’t buy that transition, I still sort of like where the show leaves the character. Sofie now feels like a completely free agent, like someone who’s capable of playing both sides of this current battle and very likely will. Yeah, shooting Jonesy indicates she’s on Justin’s side for now, but it’s also clear there’s no love lost between the two, particularly once he goes all black-eyed carnival legend on her. Sofie is the master of her own fate in the way lots of characters on this show never are, and she seems uniquely suited to being the one person on the series that seizes control of her destiny with both hands. Where Ben and Justin came to their positions with some degree of reluctance, Sofie is a woman who seems ready to bring about the end of the Age of Magic or end the world or whatever it is she’s meant to do. (Actually, I know the answer to this question, and you don’t, so there.)
Outside of Sofie, though, this is a finale that works as almost a perfect capper to the first two seasons. Yes, there are cliffhangers, but they’re primarily of the “what will happen to this series regular” variety, which would indicate that nearly all of the characters will survive. (I remember the first time I saw this episode, and I was pretty sure only Norman carnival legend was actually dead. I’d stand by that today.) The real meat of the story—the battle between Justin and Ben—is mostly contained within carnival legend this episode and ended here. The episode does a lot of work to tie in everything we see to stuff that’s happened before, including several rapid flashes of old images, and I’m not sure all of this is strictly necessary, but it reinforces even more that this is the end of the story, what everything has been building carnival legend toward, even as that’s carnival legend far from the image the show wants to convey.
One thing I will say for Carnivàle is that when it wants to build , it’s great at doing so. The bac