Editor’s note: The below article contains spoilers forCabinet of Curiositiesepisode “The Autopsy.”When we look up on a dark night with clear skies, we can’t help but wonder if all the shining stars give warmth to other sentient beings, just like our sun does to us. “The Autopsy,”David Prior’s (The Empty Man) episode ofGuillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, gives that question a gruesome answer, as it reveals we are not alone, but our cosmic neighbors don’t see us as friends.
Written byDavid S. Goyer(The Sandman) and based on a short story byMichael Shea, “The Autopsy” follows the grim investigation of a terrible crime, an explosion inside a mine shaft that took the life of ten men. The tragedy is only made worse because the author of the explosion, Joe Allen (Luke Roberts), seems to have been possessed by an alien force. And the only man who can solve the crime is Dr. Carl Winters (F. Murray Abraham), a coroner who has the power to reveal the truth with his scalpel. But before Dr. Winters begins to cut bodies open, we must first understand every step of the investigation conducted by Sheriff Nate Craven (Glynn Turman), who discovers a series of murders are connected to the disappearance of Eddie Sykes.
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The Disappearance of Eddie Sykes
As Nate tells his friend Carl, people started to disappear two months before the explosion. The police officers were hopeless after being incapable of finding any clues after searching the woods nearby thoroughly. That is, until more than a month after the first disappearance, they find a decomposing body inside a cloth bag hidden up in a tree. The body is deeply scared, as pieces of the flesh seem to be removed by a sharp object and steady hands. It’s a revolting image, but one that inspires Sheriff Craven to set a trap.
Once his police officers finished taking pictures and gathering samples, the Sheriff put the body back where they found it. He asks for two local hunters, Owens (Billy Parrott) and Dodge (Peter Deiwick), to hide in the bushes and wait for the killer. Nate returns to the station for just a few hours to send a picture of the putrefied body to nearby cities, hoping other sheriffs could identify the victim. But once he goes back to the scene of the crime, Nate finds out he was right, and the killer did return for his prey. Unfortunately, the murderer also took the two hunters with him, leaving no trail behind.
In the following days, the victim is identified as Abel Dougherty (James Acton), a transient worker who frequented a bar named Trucker’s Tavern before he went missing. The last time Abel was seen, he was talking to Eddie Sykes, a friend of his who he hadn’t seen in a while. The man, however, is using the name of Joe Allen and, at first, tells Abel he must have been mistaken. However, once it becomes clear that Abel will not drop the subject, Joe/Eddie convinces his old friend to pretend he’s drunk. That way, Joe/Eddie can drive Abel home without raising suspicion. The flashback scene also shows Joe/Eddie is not entirely human anymore, as his eyes shine on their own, and he seems to have some sort of suggestive power.
As it turns out, Eddie disappeared nine months before the episode’s events after going alone to the woods to watch a meteor shower. He resurfaced sometime later as Joe Allen and got a job at a mining site. Once Sheriff Craven discovers the identity of Joe/Eddie, he decides to pay the man a visit. His apartment, however, is empty, as he’s currently at work. Inside the apartment, Sheriff Craven finds Abel’s documents and enough evidence to accuse Joe of the murder of his old friend and other people. Nate also finds a strange hairy sphere that Joe apparently brought home with him after the meteor shower.
Sheriff Craven takes the sphere with him and pays Joe a visit to the mining site. Once the man realizes the cops are onto him, he smashes the window of the sheriff’s car, steals the sphere, runs inside the mine, and causes an explosion that kills himself and nine of his colleagues. Now, the insurance company is trying to pin the blame of the tragedy on a madman with a bomb, which would prevent them from paying a dime to the families. The miners were only covered for accidents caused directly by working conditions, not terrorist assaults. So, it’s up to Dr. Winters to get to the bottom of the issue and prove no bomb was involved.
The Autopsy Is a Trap
Since Sheriff Craven cannot officially request the help of his coroner friend, he sets up a makeshift morgue where Dr. Winters can examine the bodies. The doctor remains alone for the night to work in peace. The makeshift morgue has all the tools the doctor might need, decent refrigeration, and a recorder activated by a pedal, so Carl can make notes while opening the bodies.
Carl begins examination with a body that was found nearby Joe’s body, but not too close. He suspects this would be the victim most likely to present shrapnel should the miners have been victims of a bomb. Fortunately, there are no signs of bomb residues on the first body. The second body, however, adds more mystery to the puzzling case. That’s because the second victim, found just by Joe’s side, has a hole below its sternum. The wound traces directly to the victim’s heart, and when Carl is examining his organs, he realizes the second body was drained of his blood. The third body, also found close to Joe, presents the same curious wound and lack of blood. By then, Dr. Winters is wondering if the men could have been drained of their blood by Joe, who might have caused the explosion on purpose to escape the police.
Dr. Winters decides to cut Joe open next, but when he goes to fetch the body, the corpse rises and starts to move in his direction. The doctor retreats to the autopsy room, followed by the living dead. The corpse grabs a scalpel, cuts the wires on his mouth open, and asks Dr. Winters for help. As it turns out, there’s an alien inside Joe’s body, which came to Earth inside a spherical ship. Destroying the ship is the first rule to hide the existence of its species, but now the bizarre shape of the alien is trapped inside a putrid body that won’t last long. The only way to live is to jump to a new host.
The alien attacks Dr. Winters, trapping the human in the autopsy bed naked. When he wakes up, Carl realizes what’s about to happen. The alien entered Eddie’s body through the man’s mouth, but nine months later, he grew up so much that he needed an incision to get inside Carl. Carl realizes it’s almost morning and tries to stall as much as possible. In doing so, he learns more about the aliens. As it turns out, the parasite species evolve to take over other creatures' bodies, so they don’t have a sensorial system themselves. There is no need for eyes or ears if you live inside an animal with these features. The aliens do more than feed on their victim’s flesh and blood, though, as they are also stimulated by pure sadism. That’s why the alien keeps Eddie’s conscience alive, even while it cuts his body open to let itself go free.
Dr. Winters taunts the creature, saying his arrogance would be its doom. But the creature is too sure of itself to realize its mistakes. The alien cannot see or hear what Carl is doing until the transfer is complete, giving the doctor a window of opportunity. Once the alien exits Eddie’s body and makes the jump for Carl’s cold metal bed, the doctor grabs a scalpel with his half-tied hand and tries to stab the tentacular body of the parasite. When he realizes he cannot kill his enemy, Carl decides to sacrifice himself to contain the parasite. So, Carl perforates his eyes and ears with the blade, cuts his throat open, and uses his blood to write a message to Nate in his own chest: “Play tape, burn me.”
As it turns out, the alien didn’t realize Dr. Winters’s recorder was turned on when they had their enlightening conversation. So, Sheriff Craven has all the evidence he needs to kill the parasite. And since Eddie is now blind, deaf, and dying from blood loss, the creature is weakened and incapable of understanding what’s happening around it. Carl turned his body into a prison. And by doing so, he saved many more human lives from a terrible fate.
