Carnivale/Characters

Carnies
Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl) "Jonesy: What if [Sofie's] dead? Ben: Then God help 'em. God help every single person in that valley."
 * Always Save the Girl: Especially in the series finale:


 * Blessed with Suck
 * Can't Hold His Liquor
 * Crucified Hero Shot
 * Disappeared Dad: Not that it isn't justified - Scudder wanted to keep his son safe from his dark nature.
 * Dreaming of Things to Come
 * Farm Boy: Well, until the First Bank of Oklahoma comes to repossess it...
 * Fish Out of Water
 * Hates Being Touched: You would too if you had a serious case of Psychic Dreams for Everyone or could accidentally kill people if you weren't careful.
 * Healing Hands
 * Hero with Bad Publicity: He's already shady due to whatever he did to land himself in prison and then go on the run, but with the events of the finale, one imagines Ben's public image is going to nosedive.
 * Likes Older Women: Ruthie being the main example, though he later regrets it.
 * Loners Are Freaks
 * Messianic Archetype
 * Mysterious Parent
 * Mysterious Past
 * Naive Newcomer: To the point where he's everyone in the Carnivale's personal Butt Monkey.
 * The Only One Allowed to Defeat Justin
 * Took a Level In Badass

Samson (Michael J. Anderson)
 * Badass Grandpa
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Liz Lemon Job
 * No Badass to His Valet: Neither Management nor Ben really impress Samson with their powers.
 * Only Sane Man: You'd think Samson would have learned; Avatara are not the most mentally-stable of people.
 * Pay Evil Unto Evil: Samson's solution to the Babylon problem - specifically
 * Pint-Sized Powerhouse
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Frequently, to Ben, especially when Ben, the necessity of which Samson cannot understand.

Clayton "Jonesy" Jones (Tim DeKay)
 * Badass Normal
 * Cold-Blooded Torture: The victim of it, in "Lincoln Highway".
 * Mr. Fanservice: Count the number of times Tim DeKay is shirtless.
 * Grease Monkey
 * Handicapped Badass:
 * Happily Married: In season two, to.
 * The Lancer: To Ben, especially in the latter half of Season Two.
 * Retroactive Recognition: Tim DeKay is much more well-known these days as Agent Peter Burke.
 * Nice Guy

Sofie Agnesh Bojakshiya (Clea Duvall)
 * Attempted Rape
 * Broken Bird
 * Circus Brat
 * Fortune Teller
 * Heroic BSOD: Multiple times, although to be fair, it really does suck to find out that.
 * Lipstick Lesbian: Or, Lipstick Bisexual. She makes out with Libby, but nothing is ever really made of it.
 * Miss Conception
 * She Cleans Up Nicely
 * Miss Conception
 * She Cleans Up Nicely
 * She Cleans Up Nicely

Apollonia (Diane Sallinger)
 * And I Must Scream: Trapped in your own body, unable to communicate except through psychic contact with your daughter? AUGH.
 * Fainting Seer
 * Heroic BSOD: A big enough one to make her catatonic.
 * Rape as Backstory

Libby Dreifuss (Carla Gallo)
 * Cassandra Truth: When she tells her mother about Ben
 * Happily Married: To  in season two.
 * Hooker with a Heart of Gold
 * Lipstick Lesbian: Along with Sofie, it's more like a case of Lipstick Bisexual.
 * Nipple-and-Dimed
 * Smitten Teenage Girl: Her marriage to  has elements of this in the beginning, but she definitely grows up in "Lincoln Highway".

Dora Mae Dreifuss (Amanda Aday)
 * And I Must Scream: Not only is she.
 * BBW: Amanda Aday is gorgeous, and the show never once argues against that.
 * Nipple-and-Dimed
 * You Can Leave Your Hat On: Horribly, horribly averted in "Babylon".
 * You Can Leave Your Hat On: Horribly, horribly averted in "Babylon".

Rita Sue Dreifuss (Cynthia Ettinger)
 * BBW: Hell yes, and easily one of the sexiest women on the show.
 * Evil Matriarch: Well, less "evil", more "manipulative".
 * Hot Mom
 * Lady Macbeth: She manages to talk Stumpy into (or out of) just about anything.
 * Manipulative Bitch
 * Nipple-and-Dimed
 * Pet the Dog: Almost Hypocritical Heartwarming, but when, Libby turns up missing as well. Cue Rita Sue frantically searching for her daughter. Libby shows up later, smoking and backtalking Rita Sue - who slaps her, then hugs her tightly.
 * Stage Mom: Teaches her daughters all her stripping and prostitution tricks, and when they don't listen, proves that she's still got it.
 * You Can Leave Your Hat On

Felix "Stumpy" Dreifuss (Toby Huss)
 * Bumbling Dad: He really does love his daughters, but he's not the brightest bulb in the box.
 * Henpecked Husband: Rita Sue wears the pants in that family and everyone knows it.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: All his dubiously-legal hijinks - pimping his wife and daughters, blatantly cheating the public, shilling fake healers, gambling - are so obviously due to his devotion toward his family.
 * Pervert Dad: Yeaaaah, with the pimping and the exploitation...
 * Racist Dad

Ruthie (Adrienne Barbeau) "Prick."
 * Christmas Cake
 * Deadpan Snarker: Probably her Crowning Moment of Awesome, among many, is her editorial comment to  in the finale:
 * Deadpan Snarker: Probably her Crowning Moment of Awesome, among many, is her editorial comment to  in the finale:


 * Ethical Slut
 * Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!: Is played by Adrienne Barbeau. 'Nuff said.
 * Hot Mom
 * Miss Yo Yo Knickers
 * Snake Charmer

Lodz (Patrick Bauchau)
 * Blind Seer
 * Bondage Is Bad: Lodz and Lila have fun with his cane.
 * Deal with the Devil: Shame his psychic powers had to come at the price of . That's what you get for dealing with Dark Avatars.
 * Dirty Mind Reading
 * Treacherous Advisor: To Ben, although he advises Samson as well.

Lila (Debra Christofferson)
 * BBW: With a beard. And still the best-dressed woman in the cast.
 * Bondage Is Bad: Lodz's cane, meet Lila.
 * Christmas Cake
 * Pet the Dog: Lila assisting Ruthie in  is absolutely tearjerking.
 * The Dragon: To Lodz, even.
 * The Vamp: "When you're done with Grandma, you come see Lila." Yowza.

Gabriel (Brian Turk)
 * Berserk Button: Do not touch his Mama.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass
 * Gentle Giant: As long as you don't hurt Ruthie, he's fine.
 * Momma's Boy: Justified, as he's mentally handicapped, and Ruthie is the only one who can calm him down.
 * The Big Guy

Affiliated with the New Canaan Ministry
Brother Justin Crowe (Clancy Brown)
 * Affably Evil
 * The Antichrist: No, really. Literally.
 * Anti-Villain
 * Bad Powers, Bad People
 * Black Eyes of Evil
 * Brother-Sister Incest: Canonical, too.
 * Dark Messiah
 * Foe-Tossing Charge: Anyone in Justin's way when he finally comes face-to-face with Ben?.
 * Go Among Mad People
 * Jumping Off the Slippery Slope
 * Mangst: Justin is the emo-est Dark Messiah ever, until he just embraces the evil.
 * Moral Event Horizon: His treatment of the maids, as well as Norman, which makes his  positively unimaginative in retrospect.
 * Nightmare Fuel: Justin is pretty much an alphebetized list, from the Body Horror coin-vomiting to his stint in the crazy house to his playing around with the maids.
 * Sinister Minister: Ur-Example.
 * The Only One Allowed to Defeat Ben

Iris Crowe (Amy Madigan)
 * Axe Crazy: Though her preferred weapon is a boat oar, and the axe is technically meant for someone else to use.
 * Bitch in Sheep's Clothing
 * Brother-Sister Incest: Pretty explicit on both sides, though Justin's is sexual in nature and Iris's is emotional.
 * Christmas Cake
 * The Dragon: To Justin, at least until Stroud comes along.
 * Heel Face Revolving Door: Much debate centers around Iris's true nature after the events of Season Two. Is she still loyal to Justin? Was her  just for appearances? Why did she let   go? Is she truly sorry for  ? And just whose side is she on, anyway?
 * Knight Templar Big Sister: Five Words - "I did it for you".
 * Magnificent Bitch
 * Moral Event Horizon:
 * Promotion to Parent: Iris is arguably one of the only competent mother-figures Justin has ever known. Which makes their relationship that much squickier.
 * Stepford Smiler
 * Stronger Sibling: Well, smarter and more ruthless, at any rate.
 * Took a Level In Badass: She takes several over the course of the series, even ones that are levels in retrospect (her "punishment" from Justin and plotting with Norman).
 * Yandere: Calm and pleasant on the surface, "crazier than a shithouse rat" underneath.

Norman Balthus (Ralph Waite)
 * Good Shepherd
 * Parental Substitute: For Justin and Iris, which makes.
 * Sacrificial Lion: One of the great shockers of the finale is.

Tommy Dolan (Robert Knepper)
 * Deal with the Devil
 * Intrepid Reporter
 * Retroactive Recognition: Yes, that is T-Bag playing a good guy.
 * Unwitting Pawn: To be fair, no one in-universe sees  coming as the arsonist, and no one could predict.

Varlyn Stroud (John Carroll Lynch)
 * Affably Evil
 * Complete Monster: While Justin is more of an Anti-Villain, Stroud has no redeeming qualities of any kind.
 * Psycho for Hire
 * The Dragon: To Justin, replacing Iris.

Eleanor McGill (K Callan)
 * Cloudcuckoolander: She certainly chooses to ignore a lot of the strange goings-on around Justin's ministry.
 * Kindly Housekeeper
 * Magnetic Plot Device: Her coin-stealing in the pilot provides the impetus for the first manifestation of Justin's powers.
 * Sacrificial Lion: Shouldn't have insisted upon telling Justin you saw his Black Eyes of Evil, Eleanor -  didn't appreciate it.

Other Characters
Henry Scudder (John Savage)
 * Daddy Had a Good Reason For Abandoning You: Sort of. And he ended up leaving his son alone with an insane, abusive mother because of it.
 * Dark Is Not Evil
 * Dark Is Not Evil

Management AKA  (voiced by Linda Hunt)
 * The Faceless
 * Good Is Not Nice
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: It kind of freaks people out to discover Hetty is Management.
 * Magnificent Bastard: Discussion has been had about renaming the trope "Management".
 * The Man Behind the Curtain: Literally - there's a curtain separating his bed from the rest of the trailer.