Carnival Row and the mystery of the kobolds

Runyan Millworthy becomes a surprisingly prominent character by the end of Carnival Row’s first season, but whatever happened to his beloved kobolds?

When we’re first introduced to Runyan Millworthy, he’s seen hiding in Aisling’s apartment with his rambunctious group of kobolds. Runyan and his performance troupe of spritely goblin-like creatures quickly become commonplace in Carnival Row.

We see Runyan putting on a variety of different shows with his group of lively creatures. It appears he is deeply fond of them and sees them as more than just pets. They’re like his family. He even has names for all of them from Fike to Cassiopeia.

But at one point in the season, Runyan is stopped by the police who claim he needs to have a special license for the kobolds or they will be deported. When Runyan goes to the station, he is asked to wait until they look into his supposed papers. Runyan falls asleep with the cage of creatures beside him.

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When he wakes up, he discovers his kobolds have been taken and shipped off on a boat! We don’t see them again after that.

This speaks to one of the main problems with Carnival Row. There are a lot of plot points seemingly dropped and forgotten about. Between the kobolds, Darius, the Pact/werewolves, the Black Ravens, the lotto, Portia, and beyond, there is simply too much going on for them to properly balance everything.

I think some of that is because the series hopes to go on for a while and set up massive mythology akin to Game of Thrones. Unfortunately, it results in some parts of Season 1 feeling incomplete.

The kobolds were seen and mentioned many times and appeared to be a big part of Runyan’s story. I expected we would see them again or find out what happened to them before the season ended.

Could it be something the series explores in Season 2? Having the critters get shipped off helps to open up the vast world of Carnival Row. It’d be interesting to see Runyan run into the critters again down the line, especially with his now cushy position in power.

Do you have any theories about what happened to the kobolds? Do you hope to see them return in Season 2 of Carnival Row? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Carnival Row is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video and has been renewed for a second season.