And why are evening dresses with feathery masks considered 'costumes?'
This episode appears to take place in one day - Vince's son, Trip's, birthday. However, an awful lot happens for one day.
Scales is working his schtick at the docks when an Ark flunkie comes to shake him down. Pissed that Faraday didn't come himself, Scales threatens to kill the flunkie later. The Cape watched this, of course, so now he knows that both Ark and Chess are taking money from the ugly baddie. Vince makes it his misson to tell Scales that all of his troubles are caused by Faraday in the hopes that the public will find out that Faraday is Chess.
For some reason, there is a costume ball on a train. Faraday shows up as a white-clad sheriff. Orwell is there in a pretty dress and a mask. (Really. This is such a lame attempt at a costume.) Meanwhile, the prison administrator guy from the Tarot episode is dressed as The Cape. And the Carnival of Crime is there to rob everyone, despite Vince's attempts to get them to help him.
Scales confronts Faraday, propositions the mayor with illegal goods delivered from his docks, and attempts to tell everyone that Faraday is Chess. Needless to say, the mayor rebukes him and then everyone laughs at the Chess revelation. In his anger, he steals everyone's money and jewels before holing himself up in the caboose. When he separates the caboose from the rest of the train, the brakes on the main part of the train stop working. (Who designed this thing?!) Faraday and The Cape have to work together to sever the brake line underneath the moving vehicle.
Of course, they save the day. Though it seems that Faraday recognizes Vince in the costume. Back on the now-stopped caboose, the Carnival faces down Scales. They steal what he stole and lock him in a cage. He breaks out of the cage by slamming his head against the bars so many times the hinges snap. And who does he happen to find there? The Ark flunkie from the beginning of the episode. Convenient.
I found this episode to be very lame. Scales is a terrible villain. He's entire character is based on the fact that he looks like an ugly snake. He doesn't even have snake-like powers. He's another ugly thug. Blah. Oh, and the storyline about Trip's birthday was boring. His mom had a bad day. She got stuck in traffic so she was late and her cell phone battery died so she couldn't call Trip to tell him that her co-worker, Travis, was coming over. He had to sit in the hall for the entire episode. As a result, the show was filled with more flashbacks of things Vince did with Trip on his birthdays. None of it progressed the story at all. C'mon writers, get with the program.