Cruz attends the opening night of the Carnivale, looking for answers. The star attraction is the Apache Super-Chief, an Indian warrior bound in chains with a hunk of crystal embedded in his chest. As the ringmaster, Dr Caligari, commands the Chief to perform feats of strength, a pack of wolves attacks the crowd. The pack is led by an Indian woman who attacks Cruz with a bow and arrow; he shoots the arrows from the air and she retreats. Cruz attempts to free the Super-Chief, but he will not be moved, and Caligari asks Cruz to protect the crowd.

Glend explains again to Delian what happened at the orphanage days earlier. Glend has been studying the blood he took from Grundy’s body but needs scientific help. Delian says to contact Emmett, who cannot be trusted but can be used, and that the Agency is almost at the ‘end game’, where they gain power over the world using something hidden in the Sierra Blanca Mountains. He also wants Glend to bring his son, Cruz, back into the fold, which drives Glend to furious jealousy; the two men argue, and Delian lapses into despondency.

Elijah is in the Sheriff’s office when Sarah Olsen bursts in, having dug up information of Delian’s past in Albuquerque’s newspaper archives. Twenty years earlier he owned several businesses in Tribulation, back when it was just a fort with a small surrounding town. He left the town under a cloud after attempting to pit the Army against the local Miagani Apaches. Sarah also found a Wanted poster from the same period – for Emmett, accused of burning down the town’s clock tower and orphanage!

Emmett is experimenting on crystal slivers in his workshop when Fancy comes to see him, demanding to know about his connection to the Temple of Solomon. He is disinterested in their prophecy of the ‘Prometheus of Clocks’, but is intrigued when Fancy shows him her dagger, inlaid with the same crystals. Fancy asks Emmett to help her steal the Box from Delian – he immediately agrees. Their discussion is interrupted as the Indian woman from the Carnivale attempts to steal something from the workshop! Emmett sees she has a shard of crystal in her forehead like a third eye, and some kind of temporal ripple erupts between them; he prevents her from stealing whatever she was after, but she escapes.

After Cruz drives off the wolves, Caligari invites him into his caravan – filled with books, scrolls and strange items, lit by an old black lantern – for a drink. Caligari asks what Cruz has done with his life after leaving the Carnivale nearly ten years ago and what he knows of Delian. Cruz says that he’s made his own way and that Delian is a businessman who gave him a break; Caligari reveals that Delian is actually the owner of the Carnivale, who took control of it from him nearly 20 years ago. Caligari asks Cruz to rejoin the Carnivale and overcome their personal issues in order to protect the carnies. When Cruz turns him down, Caligari accuses him of being self-centred and uncaring, driving him out into the night.

On his way to see Emmett, Glend sees the Indian woman fleeing from the workshop and chases her. He corners her in an alley and they struggle, their fight overheard by locals. Glend attempts to use his psychic gifts to control the woman but she resists, calling him a servant of darkness (and Emmett a thief) before escaping again.

As Emmett tries to remember the purpose of the gadget the woman tried to steal, Fancy tells him that the Temple has been looking for the Ark for years, ever since it was stolen by Samuel Colt more than 20 years ago. Fancy found Colt when she was younger and traveling, but when she confronted him Colt died of a sudden heart attack – and Delian stole away the Ark on the same night. Emmett confesses that he doesn’t remember his past, but knows that he is cut off from his true time and place. He also knows that the Ark (‘The Box’) was originally his and is the key to returning to where he belongs.

Cruz comes from the Carnivale, his heart heavy, and encounters Glend outside the county jail. Glend tells Cruz that Delian is a man of influence and that it would be in the town’s best interests to keep on his good side. He offers Cruz a job, but Cruz prefers to trust in his luck, and says that he doesn’t trust Glend. As Glend leaves, Sarah runs in to speak with Elijah.

Inside the Sheriff’s office, Elijah communes with the ghost Samuel Colt, who says that the ‘great disjunct’ is coming and that there is ‘a wound in the if and then’. The Wild Woman roams the earth and a trap coiled for twenty years prepares to spring. Before Elijah can make sense of the ghost’s ramblings, Sarah enters and the spirit vanishes. She tells Elijah that Apache warriors have come down from the Sierra Blanca Mountains and are massing near the town – a massacre may be imminent! Elijah sends Sarah to find Emmett and sets off to assemble a posse – starting with Cruz, who he talks out of his funk.

Glend heads back to the hotel to meet with Delian, only to find Caligari there first, backed by two roustabouts from the Carnivale. Glend orders the ringmaster to leave, but Caligari raises the black lantern he carries; a strange light plays over Glend, leaving him paralysed.

In the streets, Emmett and Fancy run into Sarah on the way to steal the Ark. Emmett sees strange lights playing around the top of the town’s clock tower, lights the women cannot see, and runs to investigate with them following. He climbs the tower to find the Indian woman surrounded by a ring of snakes, the crystal in her forehead blazing and the air thick with temporal eddies. Emmett attempts to use his pocket watch to teleport to the woman, but it causes interference, opening a reality vortex that draws in Emmett, Sarah and the woman.

Now Cruz stands at the edge of the light line between the Carnivale and the town, staring at his pistols; Elijah bursts into Emmett’s lab to find the lab equipment glowing, then sees light burst from the clock tower; Glend looks on immobilised and helpless as Caligari enters Delian’s private suite; and Emmett stands in broad daylight with a knife at his throat.