Summary
The words of Brother Justin's homily ring out over California's airwaves as a furious Ben strangles Lodz. "As God tested Job, so too have we been tested, brothers and sisters," Justin says to his radio listeners. And, at the moment Ben squeezes the life out of Lodz, Ruthie springs awake from her comatose state.

Staring in disbelief at his own hands, Ben accuses Management of engineering Ruthie's attack and killing Lodz. "Lodz was a traitor," the voice behind the curtain says. "He meant nothing to me." Ben is shaken, and turns to leave the terrible scene in the trailer when a decrepit hand shoots out from behind the curtain and grabs him.

Immediately, he has entered a vision: He stands alone in a vast, silent desert. A warning horn sounds, followed by a flash and a tremendous nuclear explosion. Devastation spreads as far as the eye can see. And there, braced against the waves of dust and debris he sees another figure crouching: Brother Justin...

:thumbsup: Wow

Great opener, things developing at a fair speed.

Loved the dream/vision sequences.

Ben's path is revealed to him, or at least what he has to prevent, I was a little confused by management saying that Scudder is his nemesis and then the acolyte telling Justin that he needs to kill Scudder.

Also the statement - you are still mortal? So if Justin kills Scudder he will get major powers and transform fully into a demon?

He still sees Ben though, ew at the mirror sequence, I have had nightmares like that

:x

Very happy that Ben finally saw the painting :thumbsup:

My wonderful brother just surprised me with the first 12 episodes so expect some mini reviews from me soon :thumbsup:

:thumbsup: Yay, nice brother :thumbsup:

glad to hear it, its such a great series and I'm feeling a little lonely :)

Ready for another of my rambling reviews?

To recap. Lodz tricked Ruthie into getting bitten by a poisonous snake. So poisonous in fact that Ben couldn’t heal her in the normal way. She was (almost?) dead, and the only way to save her would be for him to take a life in return for hers. Management told Ben of Lodz betrayal (he did it in return for his eyesight) and, enraged, Ben killed Lodz. Flash to Ruthie waking up!
At the same time, Apollonia decided to kill Sophie by trapping them both in their trailer and setting it on fire. Jonesy and the other rousties and various Carnie folk battle with the flames and try to rescue them.

We join the happy band of travellers again at the precise moment we left them. Ben still has his hands round Lodz throat! Management tells Ben that he is in fact the Russian that Ben has seen in his dreams and visions, and that he is Ben's father's (Henry Scudder) opponent. He wants Ben to fulfil his destiny/fate/whatever, and stop the end of the world (or something) that will be brought about by Ben’s nemesis (One Brother Justin!). Ben has seen visions of Justin but does not know his name or how to find him. Management says Scudder will know, just as he knew Ben. Ben agrees to find his father (he was kind of trying to do that last season anyway)

I’m confused :blink: Does this mean that Management is the good one, and that Scudder is evil? I always got the impression that it was the other way around, but if so, why is the Russian helping our Ben?

Jonesy saves Sophie but Apollonia dies in the blaze. What will Sophie do now? She’s lost her mother, her home, her livelihood…… And just why is Jonesy so mad with her? He’s the one who (sort of) cheated on her; she only tried to get even with the people who betrayed her, the very people who were closest to her. Am I forgetting something?

I see Clancy Brown is just as scary as ever! Just how disturbing was the scene where Justin is looking in the mirror and peels off his face to reveal that of Bens underneath it. Shudder!!! :fear:

Great start to the new season :thumbsup: Fantastic first episode. It seems to answer many of your (and Bens) questions, but leave you with a thousand others ;)

:lol: this confused the hell out of me too

Glad it's not just me ;)

What the hell are they playing at?

Watched the last 4 episodes of season 1 last week after finding out that season 2 started last night. Loved the end of season 1, but was completely blown away by this episode.

I can't believe how the show is moving along now... not much seems to happen for a long stretch, then all of a sudden we get a big rush. Nothing much to add on this episode after what's been said, to be honest. It's unbelievably good, if totally confusing! But I like being confused like this, and thinking about how things are going to pan out over the season.

Looking forward to next Sunday already!

Andrew (HM) :yahoo:

:lol: glad you were confused too. Totally agree, it's wonderful to be confused and sit back and let it unfold :thumbsup:

Tbh, I wasn't overly impressed by it. I thought it was far too confusing and it relied too much on you remembering what happened at the end of S1 - which I could barely.

After reading the comments here, it does seem a little clearer now however :)

I watched both seasons in a row so I didn't have that problem. Thinking about it there aren't that many shows that tell the same story over two seasons or even one for most.

It's a show that just yearns to be watched on DVD - if only HBO didn't price them so dearly.

I hope you stick with it, it's an amazing season :thumbsup:

God forbid they assume that people remember what happened last season...... :p

It's the best season of television I've seen since B5 ended. :thumbsup:

The finale's awe-inspiring :o

I wish I'd watched the last few episodes of S1 or watched the preview that was on as I was a bit confused as well. :rolleyes:

Horrible image to start off with where Samson tells Sophie that her mother must be gone but she can still hear her screams in her head as she burns to death. :o Poor girl.

After the slow burn and lack of information of S1 it was a nice surprise to actually be told what was going on ! :o what Ben's purpose was and where Brother Justin is heading. Justin is a great character ( excellently played ) but I didn't like that they showed him apparently going to see a prostitute, that seemed somehow beneath him to me and a cheap way to say something about his character.

It's nearly a year since I saw the finale and I only watched it once.

Given that nearly all shows end their seasons with some form of cliffhanger nowadays I still find it amazing that the first thing they don;t do at the start of the new season is repeat the season finale. Seems logical to me, alas not many actually do it though, especially over here.

To be honest I have to admit that when I saw 2x01 I had to go back and rewatch the season finale as well :)

I know I would have had to do the same, but I'd only watched it 2 days before!

I think I'm coming round to your overall view James, that the show is the best thing since B5 ended, or, in my case, the best show I've seen for years. Amazing characters and plot line, and the setting of Depression era USA is as dirtily and depressingly portrayed as I've imagined it really was.

Any news on a dvd release yet for season 2? Can't be too long now, surely!

Andrew (HM) :yahoo:

A Region 2 dvd release isn't imminent I'm afraid Andrew. AFAIK there's no news on a Region 1 release yet, and given the fate of the series I'm concerned there may not be one. I sincerely hope there is though. Honestly, if you're of that opinion now Andrew, the end of the season's going to blow you away. It's right up there with Severed Dreams, Into the Fire and Endgame IMO.

:thumbsup: Absolutely James

Love the new Avatar Andrew, especially as I'll hopefully be meeting Ben/Nick Stahl in less than a month :thumbsup:

:wub: I can't wait :thumbsup:

Is that 'Collectormania'? Jealous here, although I'll be trying to make it if at all possible. The idea of meeting either Leslie Grantham or Bonnie Langford though isn't filling me with too much excitement!

Andrew :yahoo:

:thumbsup: Yup and I believe he will be there for all three days.

Julie Benz more appealing than Bonnie perhaps :lol: plus Nick Brendon, Andy Hallet, Wayne Pygram, John Schneider, Nana Visitor and Marina Sirtis, Tricia Helfer from the new BSG.

Methinks it's a fab line up of course it needs Clancy Brown - if only :lol:

Cough - and it's free to get in.

If you make it let us know and we will meet you somewhere :thumbsup:

The more the merrier I always say ;)

I think FX did repeat the whole of S1 over the last few weeks or so but at about 2:00am in the morning and they did show some sort of half hour recap last sunday @ 9:00 so they did more than most channels do.

Of course I didn't watch either so I've only myself to blame for being a bit foggy about what was going on. :rolleyes:

All I can say is wait and see with Justin ;)

Soooo much happens in this episode. Just how creepy is management.

I'll add that I absolutely love the scene where Justin uses the radio to lure acolytes and the scene where he finds his tree.

Well I thought he was the most interesting character in S1 so hopefully that will continue. :)