Carnival Row – Season 2 Episode 2 “New Dawn” Recap & Review

Plans Upon Plans

Episode 2 of Carnival Row season 2 titled ‘New Dawn’ starts off with Agreus assuring Imogen that the Pact won’t hurt them as they have the money to buy them off. They are told that they will be anchoring at Ragusa and he continues to be cheerful.

As they head out, they see Ragusa, a war-torn port with several warships in the sky. They walk through some rebels raiding their ship and their leader orders the men to take away Imogen while addressing her as “Majesty”.

Meanwhile, Vignette and Philo argue over Anders’ murder as she tells him that the Black Raven didn’t touch him. He tells her his plan of outing himself at the state banquet and she tries to stop him. She says they won’t believe him and instead throw him in a prison but he turns to leaves. She tries to stop him one last time but he tells her to stay low.

At Ragusa, Imogen is taken through a secret door where she sees supernaturals and humans flourishing and happily going about their day. She sees a fae and human couple and is confused as she is then taken to a house where she meets a faun cook with a broken horn, Leonora who is less than helpful. Imogen points out that the Pact is a dangerous place but Leonara tells her that the country has changed as the people revolted.

As she taunts her for being a Puck lover, Imogen defends Agreus and demands to see him. At the port, Agreus locks heads with one of the rebels who says he is a class traitor and frees all the humans working on the ship. Agreus is arrested and put on line for execution. All ship officers are killed except him when a maid stops them in time.

In Burgue, Jonah welcomes the Pact ambassador who tells them that a resistance called the New Dawn made of humans and supernaturals is trying to take over their country. Millworthy recognizes a Major Vir and asks him about the Pact’s plans which happen to be killing the New Dawn with long-range Burguish rifles.

Jonah otherwise is annoyed while Sophie tells him to help the Pact as no one would oust a wartime chancellor. She also suggests arming the resistance so that while they are busy, the Burgue can take Tirnanoc from the Pact. Jonah is impressed but also conflicted as he wonders if the Parliament would agree to their plan.

Philo goes to Boz to call in his favour who gives him a key to a locked cart and disappears. Inside, he is shocked to see Darius who has turned into a werewolf in the daytime. Elsewhere, Vignette is ranting about how bad Philo’s plan is to Kaine. She asks about Anders and he hints that Dahlia may have killed the man to frame Vignette. 

Sophie runs home and goes through several locked doors to bring food to her faun friend, Nilly. She tells her that they have enough money for their plan if they sell off more of their assets. Sophie tells her that she is looking for Nilly’s brother and they are confident that everything will be alright.

At Boz’s pit, Philo meets a human Darius who is not too happy as his escape from prison was delayed. He reveals that the officers experimented on him since they found out he was bitten by a Pact weapon. They argue before patching up and Philo tells him about his plan. 

Sophie meets with the factory owners in her party who hate Jonah’s policies as the fae were cheap labour. She offers to buy more stakes in their factories in return for a larger investment. She then hints that she can convince Jonah to allow the fae to return to factories as they are about to sell weapons to the Pact and need the labour to make the rifles in the first place.

At the clinic in the Row, Vignette sees Oona suffering and comes up with a plan involving her and Kaine as one last stand against the Burgue. At that moment, Tourmaline once again stumbles and has a vision. This time she sees Dahlia calling Vignette a fool before one of her soldiers is killed by something strange. Tourmaline comes to and sees that she has once again killed an animal in Aoife’s shop. 

In Pact, Agreus shivers out of fear before the soldiers take Imogen to him. He says that they need to share a house with two other families before they can find ransom for their freedom. Imogen tells him about Leonara and how she was testing her by telling her about New Dawn and he looks surprised upon hearing of Leonara. 

Meanwhile, Tourmaline goes to a Mima and tells her about Aoife possessing her. The Mima looks into her mind and realises that Aoife passed her powers onto Tourmaline and tells her to be careful. 

Elsewhere, Vignette goes to the Black Raven and proposes hitting them hard at the state banquet even if it means some of them will die. Dahlia agrees but says she will lead the mission. Vignette tries to stop her to protect her but Dahlia misunderstands and thinks she is coming for her leadership role. Vignette goes home and tears up on seeing that Philo is gone.

He and Millworthy reach the state banquet and they part ways. We also see Ezra making up stories about Imogen being abducted by a faun and garnering everyone’s sympathy. As Philo is about to make his announcement, the Black Raven break in with Dahlia making a speech of the miserable conditions of the Row.

They reveal Oona and the Bas Dubh illness which seems to gross out Jonah. As Oona reveals her sick wings, Dombey kills her. Kaine is furious but Dahlia stops him from attacking. In the chaos, Major Vir sees Millworthy stopping Philo and leaving. As Philo reaches home, Vignette runs and hugs him.

He asks her if she knew about Dahlia and he says it was her plan. He tries to get angry but ends up kissing her. However, at night, he is awake and tracing her Black Raven brand. At that moment, Kaine arrives and takes them to the wall where Dahlia and her guard’s heads are mounted – the same guard that Tourmaline saw in her vision.

The Episode Review

Looks like Philo and Vignette’s honeymoon phase did not last too long this season either. Though she does have a point as Philo does not have any proof that he is a Breakspear. However, it does seem that she still thinks about his safety as she came up with the Black Raven plan to protect his secret for as long as she can.

By the way, Sophie is actually pretty clever with the way she suggests playing both sides of the Pact civil war. On top of it, she is also actually manipulating Jonah since it is clear that she does not like his Critch policies and is working on slowly reversing them what with her servant-turned-friend being a faun. Had she not been so annoying and against the fae in the previous season, we would have started liking her much earlier.