Why New Dawn is the real danger in Carnival Row Season 2

The Burgue is focused on the Sparas in Carnival Row Season 2, meaning that New Dawn can become a much bigger threat to everyone.

Caution: There are spoilers from Carnival Row Season 2, Episode 6 in this post.

When we picked up with Imogen and Agreus, we found them forced into land of The Pact. Well, it turns out that the land of Ragusa is no longer under the control of The Pact. New Dawn has taken over, with Leonora at the head of it all.

Agreus immediately saw the negativities of New Dawn. He watched as his crew was executed without trial. That was almost his fate, but the guns stopped just before they got to him. That experience certainly made him question everything that Leonora was up to, and it turns out that he’s heard of her.

She is the leader of New Dawn, an idealist who doesn’t believe in elitism and wants human and fae to live and work together. At the heart of it, it seems like a good thing, but New Dawn isn’t all sunshine and roses.

The dangers within New Dawn on Carnival Row Season 2

New Dawn currently has The Pact turning to The Burgue for help. The Pact needs weapons to take down New Dawn, and The Burgue does see the threat that New Dawn is. However, New Dawn is currently a world away from The Burgue, so the focus is on the Sparas and the “threat” of the fae living in their own world.

This allows New Dawn to act quietly. New Dawn has spies and technology. It has a workforce that is operating on the belief of freedom and liberty rather than fear.

That could change, though. Agreus has seen the dark side of New Dawn. People are being executed without trial. Many of them just disappear and are told they never existed in the first place. What type of world is that? People have freedom but can’t question Leonora’s decisions. People have freedom for human and fae to be together but can’t stand up for their own needs? They’re told when and where to work, where to live, when to eat. Is that really freedom?

Now, at the heart of it, this is a communist regime. I’m not saying a communist regime is inherently wrong. There are problems with all types of social regimes. I have a huge problem with capitalism as well as the darker sides of communism.

My issue with New Dawn in Carnival Row is the propaganda that’s being spread about it being a place of happiness and freedom. That’s not quite true. But how else could Leonora get human and fae alike to follow her if she told the deep, dark truth?

Carnival Row airs Fridays on Prime Video.