John

"I'm looking for my son!"

John
General Information
Aliases	Guilty (Lucifer)
Sin	Wrath, Acedia
Gender	Male
Hair color	Brown
Personal Information
Relationship	Unnamed wife
Allies	His wife
Enemies	The carnies
Chronological and political Information
Position	First sinner to earn redemption
Affiliation	Daniel
First Appearance	The Devil's Carnival: Episode 1
Portrayed by	Sean Patrick Flanery

John was a desperate and obsessed father looking for his young son, Daniel. When he couldn't cope with the pain of losing Daniel, John commited suicide and therefore was sent to Hell.

He spent most of his time in the carnival looking for his son until he decided that he didn't want to grieve anymore, redeeming himself and earning a place in Heaven. He is the first sinner to earn redemption in The Devil's Carnival.

History

Sometime before his death, John had an argument with his young son Daniel and told him that he (Daniel) should've never been born, which caused the child to run away.

After that, John became depressed and obsessed with finding his son. One night after taking a shower, John decided that he couldn't take the pain anymore and took his own life by slicing his wrists with a razor while a woman, possibly his wife, tried desperately to open the door. The last thing John saw before passing out were the room's walls crumbling and Lucifer's face in the mirror, laughing at him, with Daniel next to him ("Heaven's All Around").

When John woke up, he found himself outside the The Devil's Carnival, wearing different clothes and with no memories of his death or how he got there. While some of the carnies emerged from the carnival to greet their guests, John found Ms. Merrywood, who begged him to help her as "they were coming for her" (meaning the police), although when John asked who was coming for her she refused to answer ("The Devil's Carnival").

After The Ticket Keeper explained the carnival's rules to him and Ms. Merrywood, The Tamer shoved them into the carnival ("666"), where they went in their own separate ways as John kept looking around for his son and Ms. Merrywood resumed stealing jewels.

During his search, John ends up in the Carnival's Big Top, where he meets Wick and The Woe Maidens, who taunt John and tell him that he has to "kiss the girls" ("Kiss The Girls") and ditch him once they are done singing. John then finds The Painted Doll in her kissing booth and asks her if she saw his son, she nods but refuses to tell him where did she saw him until John kissed her as she only gives information for kisses, he refuses until Doll shows him the picture of Daniel that John had at his home, although once he tries to kiss her, Doll bites John's ear off, only for it to heal immediately as if nothing happened.

Disgusted, John leaves the tent and finds Daniel in a carousel. Daniel runs into John's arms while he tells Daniel to never run away again until he sees trail of blood on the ground. John looks at Daniel and is horrified to find a doll in his arms instead, John drops the doll and continues his search.

After Ms. Merrywood and Tamara received their punishments, John found a funhouse called The Devil and His Due. John tries to cut in the line when Ticket Keeper appears next to John to inform him that he just broke a rule: cutting in line. The Tamer walks towards them with a mace to punish John until he grabs Ticket Keeper and tells him that he knows the carnies won't help him find his son and tells Ticket Keeper to stay away from him. Feeling symphatetic towards John, Ticket Keeper orders The Tamer to stop and tells John that the answers are inside the funhouse.

John enters the funhouse, where a voice sings about where his son would be now while John stumbles around the hall and finds a replica of his house's bathroom, the place he died in until he reaches a room that turns out to be Lucifer's office, where he finds Daniel sitting at Lucifer's feet. ("Grief")

John embraces his son and tells him to never run away again. Lucifer asks if John had come to cause pity or to redeem himself, John asks who Lucifer is and he tells John that he "is the one who [John] blames when [John] can't follow the rules". John demands Lucifer stays away from "his boy" and Lucifer asks "Your boy?". John looks down at Daniel, only to find The Fool, who kicks John in the shin and runs away.

Once he is done laughing at John, Lucifer reveals to him that Daniel died "a very clean death". John then warns Lucifer that if he hurt his son John would kill him but Lucifer tells him that murdering innocent children is God's job and that Lucifer only deals with the guilty like John.

John breaks down and begs Lucifer to help him find Daniel, which he refuses. John starts mourning for his son until he suddently says that he doesn't want to grieve anymore. Lucifer, believing that John has redeemed himself, sends him to Heaven.

John then emerges from the "broken" bin in God's taller, leaving the latter slightly disoriented. It's unknown what became of John afterwards, although one might assume that he was eventually reunited with his son; if God is indeed good...

Appearance

John has brown hair and blue eyes, and brown stubble. He wears a long brown trench coat with slits in the pockets (to signify John's having slit his own wrists) and a brown derby, or possibly just a trilby with a rolled brim.

Personality

John is overall a nice and caring man. He is very protective of his son. Although, should the topic of his son or his location be brought up, he can go into a sort of panic attack, going so far as to threaten the life of even the Devil himself if it meant the protection of his son, to which he is told by Lucifer to hold his tongue.

Relationships

Daniel

John loves his son, Daniel, very much, and could do truly anything for him. Before they died, John and Daniel had an argument and John told Daniel that he should have never been born (an argument which we find out about during John's panic attack in Lucifer's office, when he states this, then begins apologizing to Daniel's picture in a flashback-like fashion). This statement, when made during the argument, hurt Daniel's feelings and made him run away. After that, John regretted his actions and became obsessed with finding Daniel until John decided that he couldn't take the pain anymore and committed suicide.

After being sent to The Devil's Carnival, he spent most of the time he was there looking for Daniel, until Lucifer himself revealed that Daniel was dead, much to John's horror. John mourns and apologizes to Daniel until he is allowed to go to Heaven for not wanting to grieve anymore.

Trivia

• John is the only attendee with two known relatives: his son Daniel and his possible wife.
  • We say his "possible" wife because her character is never explored or even named, and may just as well simply be his girlfriend who John fathered Daniel with.
• On Alleluia!'s commentary track, it was originally planned for John to be the Lucifer's mole in Heaven instead of Ms. Merrywood but he dropped out right before filming.