History Recap / GuillermoDelTorosCabinetOfCuriositiesS01E02GraveyardRats

* ActorAllusion: Creator/DavidHewlett is once again a KarmicButtMonkey [[Film/RiseOfThePlanetOfTheApes terrorized by animals]].

* AffablyEvil: For all his flaws and crimes, Masson in general seems to be a generally harmless man who's simply fallen on hard times and is desperately trying to pay his debts. Aside from grave-robbing, nothing he does is willfully malevolent. In fact, he generally tries to be very polite and friendly to everyone he interacts with, from the rival duo of graverobbers (whom he just scares off rather than literally killing off the competition) and Hans (who is working for the loan sharks he owns money too) to his rude prostitute neighbor and the widow of the man he intends to rob post-burial.

-->''"Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to the light."''

In Salem, Massachusetts, graveyard caretaker Masson (David Hewlett) catches two grave robbers stealing valuables from a corpse. He holds them at gun point and forces them to hand over the stolen items while telling them that graveyards mark the start of human civilization and will signal its end when people stop respecting the dead. After the grave robbers leave, Masson continues to steal from the corpse by pulling out a gold tooth. He drops the tooth and, while searching for it in the coffin, is bitten by a rat.

Masson takes the items to Hans (Nabeel El Khafif), who mentions that lately Masson has been coming up short. Masson tells him that rats have been stealing valuables from the dead and are now throughout the entire cemetery. Hans tells Masson that he has one week to pay back his debt. Masson goes to see city morgue employee Dooley (Julian Richings) for tips on wealthy deceased slated for burial so as to steal their gold fillings. Dooley is bribed with drugs and allows Masson into the embalming room, where the last body is a wealthy shipping merchant with a mouth full of gold teeth. Masson goes insane trying to get them and Dooley convinces him to come back the next day to keep the coroner from asking questions and giving away the scheme. The deceased man's family arrives and Masson and Dooley spy as the widow designates that he should be buried with medals and his expensive sword from King George V.

* ShoutOut: The name on the tomb at the beginning is "Catherine Lewis Padgett", referencing [[Creator/CLMoore Catherine L. Moore]], the wife of Creator/HenryKuttner (the author of the short story upon which the episode is bases) as well as their shared pseudonym Lewis Padgett.

* WickedCultured: Masson, the grave-robbing protagonist, has an [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness impressive vocabulary]] and is shown reading and quoting from ''Literature/ParadiseLost''.
* VillainProtagonist: A downplayed example. Masson is a career criminal with no empathy for anyone but himself, but he's limited himself to stealing from the dead who at least don't suffer from his actions and isn't actively out to harm other people.

* ChekhovsGun: During his descent in the underground tunnels Masson gets poked in the eye by a root and in his blind anger, pulls on the root and causes the tunnel to collapse on him. Later, he's pinned by the Queen Rat and manages to kill her by pulling on a dangling root, dislodging a boulder that crushes the huge rodent to death.]] This is also subverted earlier when a wealthy widower mentions that her husband be buried with the priceless sabre gifted by George V. Masson finds the sword in a huge pit of human bones, and when cornered between a priest zombie and the giant Queen Rat, decides he'll go down fighting with the sword. However, the rat pounces on him and he immediately drops the sword.

* HopeSpot: At the end of "Graveyard Rats", Masson sees a light at the end of the tunnel and frantically crawls toward it, believing that he has finally made it out of the labyrinth. It turns out to be a reflection from a plaque inside an empty coffin, which he is now trapped in since the tunnel behind him collapsed... and then the rats start swarming into the coffin.

* TheMobBossIsScarier: The loan sharks after Masson terrify him enough for him to beat his claustrophobia and descent into the narrow tunnels under the graveyard.

* WickedCultured: Masson, the grave-robbing protagonist of "Graveyard Rats", has an [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness impressive vocabulary]] and is shown reading and quoting from ''Literature/ParadiseLost''.

* BuriedAlive: Masson suffers from claustrophobia and is terrified of this fate, and seems to believe that the mob will do precisely this to him if he doesn't pay his debts. [[spoiler:Ironically, he ends up doing this to himself in a roundabout way while pursuing the treasure that could have saved him from the mob.
* ChekhovsGun: During his descent in the underground tunnels Masson gets poked in the eye by a root and in his blind anger, pulls on the root and causes the tunnel to collapse on him. Later, he's pinned by the Queen Rat and manages to kill her by pulling on a dangling root, dislodging a boulder that crushes the huge rodent to death.]] This is also subverted earlier when a wealthy widower mentions that her husband be buried with the priceless sabre gifted by George V. [[spoiler:Masson finds the sword in a huge pit of human bones, and when cornered between a priest zombie and the giant Queen Rat, decides he'll go down fighting with the sword. However, the rat pounces on him and he immediately drops the sword.

!!Tropes