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"Magical Thinking" is the eleventh episode of Freak Show. It premiered January 7, 2015. [1]

Synopsis[]

Elsa prepares for her move to Hollywood. The Twins grow enamored with a traveling salesman. Dell plots Jimmy’s escape from police custody. 

Plot[]

Two days ago, Stanley offered a proposal to Jimmy: his contact would be willing to pay for memorabilia connected to the freak show, namely Jimmy's left hand. Jimmy refuses, even when Stanley brings up Meep's fate. Stanley offers Jimmy a bottle to drink, and that he will take care of the rest. Moments later, Stanley brings a vomiting Jimmy to a guards attention, where Jimmy is whisked away to a Thor-driven ambulance. In the ambulance, Stanley applies an anasthesia mask.  When Jimmy awakes to see a nurse in the county hospital, he asks for something for the pain, but she declines since her friend was at the ill-fated Tupperware party. To his horror, Jimmy discovers both of his hands have been removed.

The twins have settled into life with the Freak Show, and even Dot is content. They turn themselves over to hedonism, including an aborted dalliance with Toulouse. They burn their diaries, as they have no more need for secrets. They encounter Normandy-veteran and chameleon salesman Chester Creb in the main tent. He heard of the show's reputation and had to come see it. He is an amateur magician as well, and the girls agree he may be the one for them. He mentions that he has a plate in his head from a war injury.

Dell visits Jimmy and finds him with missing hands. Dell implored Jimmy not to trust Stanley, but Jimmy is resolute that he wasn't duped, despite the evidence. Jimmy asks politely for Dell's help eating his dinner, while Dell muses about prosthetic hands. Jimmy wonders if Elsa will sell him the show, and Dell offers to go in with him on it. Jimmy asks why Dell doesn't have the family lobster claws. Dell describes how he was the black sheep of the family: a freak for being normal.  When he saw Jimmy as a baby with lobster hands, he ran away.

Chester attempts to demonstrate his magic act for Elsa, but she will have none. Sheepishly, he puts away his props, but brings out Marjorie, his ventriloquist dummy. Elsa is charmed but insists there are no openings. He asks to continue his chameleon sales at the show, but is again rebuffed. After presenting some sales figures, Elsa recognizes his accounting talents. She offers him a place warming up the crowd in exchange. He is overjoyed at a place to call home.

In the main tent, he speaks to Marjorie as he gets ready, and she is indignant at not being billed in the act. Paul walks in, unsure how to interpret Chester's actions. After he leaves, Marjorie giggles.

Eve and Suzi help Elsa pack. Dell is looking for Stanley and tells them what Stanley did to Jimmy. Elsa demands that Dell get Jimmy out of jail. Eve follows Dell out of the tent, wanting to help.

Chester visits the twins to thank them for vouching for him. He brings them a music box as a gift, featuring twin ballerinas. He tells them about some of the props he found with Paul in storage, including a sawing box magic trick. They wonder why he's explaining the trick to them, and he exclaims that they should be his assistants. He says they will distract the crowd all with their beauty. He gets lost in a memory of women past.

In front of the crowd, the trick is a great success, and Chester and the twins take their bows.

Eve and Dell attack Jimmy's jail transport, with Dell bludgeoning a guard's skull to death. They remove Jimmy from the van.

Chester and Marjorie's argument is interrupted by the twins' attempt at seduction. They want him to deflower them, but he suddenly is affected by a massive headache. They massage his neck, and he is again lost in memory.

In his recollection, he sits in a chair, watching two women engaged in sex on a bed. They object to Marjorie on his lap as he did so, and he leaves in disdain. They are his wife Lucy and her girlfriend Alice, who commenced a relationship together while he was away at war.

In the present, he returns the twin's affections, once they consent to "observation" by Marjorie.

Back at Mott Manor, Dandy receives a report from his private investigator, who's spying ahs revealed that the twins' affections now belong to Chester. Dandy is upset, extolling that they were supposed to be his.

He tries to pack Marjorie into a crate, but she "objects." He recalled when Alice hid Marjorie away. She chides him for wearing his uniform, four years after the war has ended, and for needing the doll involved to become erect. Appearing in human form in his memory, Marjorie told him that he should get rid of the girlfriend and his wife.

Paul discovers and confronts Chester with a new truth: Elsa is to sell the show to Chester. During his negotiations, Chester says Marjorie is to be the headliner. He returns to his tent to find the doll gone once again.

The police arrive en masse at the show grounds, where Detective Colquitt searches for Jimmy. A distraught Chester appears to demand that Colquitt find the missing Marjorie.

Chester encounters Dandy, loitering on the merry-go-round, who exploits Chester's delusion, saying to find Marjorie hiding in the big tent. Dandy reveals that he knows all about Chester and his history. Chester says that Marjorie killed Chester's wife Lucy and Alice in Macon, Georgia. When he finds her, Marjorie "tells" Chester that he's going to saw the twins in half and kill anyone that keeps she and him apart.

Maggie suddenly arrives tells Elsa there is something she must see, taking her to a glass jar holding Ma Petite. Meanwhile, Dell returns to his caravan to find Desiree waiting with a gun. She wants to know who he killed. Dell insinuates that she's referring to the cops, but she leads him to admit to killing Ma Petite. She berates Dell for having killed one of their own. He then tearfully admits to having smothered her, after which Elsa shoots him from behind.

Notes[]

Quotes[]

  • Paul: "Chinese water torture. Which for me is five minutes with Dell."
  • Jimmy Darling: "Imagine that. Being a freak for being normal."
  • Dell Toledo (about Ma Petite)
    I smothered her.


Gallery[]

References[]

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