The Autopsy
Episode 3 of Cabinet of Curiosities begins with us descending into the mines. Shouts echo off the cramped walls, as these men finish their day’s labor and are met with tragedy. One of their own, a manic man, jumps off the elevator and sets off some sort of strange bomb, as we fade to black. ..
Carl is here to investigate the explosion that took place in town. He reports that there are 9 dead and one “inhumane son of a bitch” responsible.
Nate and Carl are at the police station, where Nate reveals that this is his nightmare central and a mystery he’s unlikely to get to the bottom of. It seems this town has a habit of coughing up missing people. The last body they found had all the sharp edges cut off and even worse, not a single trace of blood either. It’s a brutal crime scene, and something that rocks the town.
Joe Allen, a stranger in town, mistakes Sykes, the man he’s talking to at the bar for someone else. Allen gets into Sykes’ mind and starts to tell him about his life. The man is forced to hand over his car keys and go home.
Joe Allen, the man who set off an explosive in the woods, is now known by the name of Sykes.
Nate wakes up the next morning to find that he’s been having crazy thoughts all night and decides to go talk to Carl about it. When he arrives at the coroner’s, he finds that Carl has been killed in a mine blast. Nate is filled with guilt and starts to think something isn’t right. His subconsciousuggests that he leave and get out.
Naturally, Carl does not do such a thing and keeps investigating, realizing that the blood has been drained from a number of the victims. Midway through investigating though, all the lights suddenly shut off and then turn back on. Carl has an idea, and suspects all the blood may actually be inside Allen’s stomach. I mean, it must have gone somewhere, right?
As Carl watches in stunned silence, he backs up all the way, as Allen picks up a scalpel and rips the stitches across his mouth. It turns out Allen is being occupied by a traveler, residing inside him. He tells Carl he’s hungry, and the sphere was actually his ship. The explosion was as a result of needing to stay hidden and avoid discovery.
A tentacled creature emerges from Allen’s mouth and begins to consume Carl. Despite valiant efforts, he is powerless to stop it. Strung up to the table, Carl learns he is going to be infested by this being, who meticulously goes through everything that will happen to him, right down to the horrific, gory details. ..
As the creature prepares to attach itself to Carl, Carl outsmarts the creature by blinding himself, making himself deaf and slicing his own throat. Of course, in doing so the creature (and by extension Carl) only has a few more minutes to live. It turns out Carl had the tape recorder going the whole time, rattling off what happened to Sykes. ..
Nate arrives at the autopsy lab and finds Carl dead on the floor with the words “Play Tape, Burn Me” written on his chest.
Nate’s body burns Carl’s body, and the alien is eliminated.
It’s a clever way to close things out and in many ways, it leaves it up to us as viewers, to choose our own ending.
The episode is well-paced and has a strong narrative. The jump scare when Allen came back to life was a surprise, and the gore and violence work together to create an effective episode.
