History Recap / TalesFromTheCryptS6E9StairedInHorror

* AssholeVictim: Harlan Charbonnet. If being a soldier for the Confederacy wasn't enough, the fact that he curses his wife for the rest of time just for cheating on him probably seals the deal.

* TheLongWay: Stated by the Crypt Keeper to be how Clyde plans to deal with Lillian's infancy. As he can't die while in the house, he's able to eventually crawl his way over to the stairs after several years and wait for her to age enough that she can physically help him down.

Clyde Beaudreaux, a man on the run from the local sheriff and an angry mob, flees on foot through the Louisiana swamp before finding his way to an old, decrepit mansion. He persuades the building's sole occupant, an equally decrepit old woman, to let him hide out until the coast is clear. Clyde claims that he's in the pickle he's in now after the sheriff caught him in a relationship with his daughter, but the sheriff soon arrives at the front door with the truth: Clyde is wanted for armed robbery and the murder of a shopkeeper. The old woman sends the sheriff away, saying that Clyde hasn't come by.

During the Civil War, Lillian's husband Harlan had gone off to fight for the Confederacy, leaving her alone. One day, a handsome young gentleman came across the mansion, whereupon Lillian invited him in. Driven by the loneliness Harlan's departure had left her, Lillian and her visitor began to make love in her bedroom. When Harlan came home and caught them in the act, she snatched up a pistol and shot him. With his dying breath, Harlan placed a curse on the house to get revenge on Lillian, as well as all gentleman callers who aimed to romance her. The curse makes so that no young man can ever climb the stairs, nor could Lillian descend them in a state of beauty.

Clyde Beaudreaux, a man on the run from the local sherriff and an angry mob, flees on foot through the Louisiana swamp before finding his way to an old, decrepit mansion. He persuades the building's sole occupant, an equally decepit old woman, to let him hide out until the coast is clear. Clyde claims that he's in the pickle he's in now after the sheriff caught him in a relationship with his daughter, but the sheriff soon arrives at the front door with the truth: Clyde is wanted for armed robbery and the murder of a shopkeeper. The old woman sends the sheriff away, saying that Clyde hasn't come by.

During the Civil War, Lillian's husband Harlan had gone off to fight for the Confederacy, leaving her alone. One day, a handsome young gentleman came across the mansion, whereupon Lillian invited him in. Driven by the lonliness Harlan's departure had left her, Lillian and her visitor began to make love in her bedroom. When Harlan came home and caught them in the act, she snatched up a pistol and shot him. With his dying breath, Harlan placed a curse on the house to get revenge on Lillian, as well as all gentleman callers who aimed to romance her. The curse makes so that no young man can ever climb the stairs, nor could Lillian descend them in a state of beauty.

* AndIMustScream: Clyde manages to evade the sherriff, but by climbing into the attic, he's aged so much that he can only crawl feebly in an attempt to move. According to the Crypt Keeper, it took him years to find a way out of his situation.
* AsYouKnow: The sherriff tells Lillian about Clyde's crimes to inform her, and the audience, of why he's being hunted down like a dog.

* DatingWhatDaddyHates: Clyde tells Lillian that the sherriff is hunting him out for dating his daughter. The sherriff disproves his claim by revealing that he's wanted for murder.

* DeepSouth: The episode is riddled with Southern scenery and references. It's set in the outskirts of a Louisina swamp town, everyone has the requisite accent, protagonist Clyde is revealed to be on the run from the sherriff and his posse for killing a shopkeeper, and Lillian's husband Harlan was said to have fought for the Confederacy over a century ago. Even the sountrack is appropriately Southern-styled.

* DrillSergeantNasty: The sherriff hunting Clyde sounds like one of these, considering he's Creator/RLeeErmey.

* EvilDetectingDog: The sherriff's dog Gator keeps circling Lillian's house while Clyde is hiding out inside it, bringing the sherriff himself back to the place.

* TheFarmerAndTheViper: Lillian takes pity on the injured Clyde and lies to the sherriff to keep him safe. He rewards her by trying to bash her head in, but she stops him from doing so, able to sense what he was up to.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Clyde, who murders a shopkeeper offscreen at some point, puts on an act of desperation and injury to trick Lillian into letting him in her house, lies about why he's being hunted by the sherriff, and prepares to kill her when her back is turned. He ends up slowly turning over a new leaf when he learns Lillian's backstory and genuinely falls in love with her.

* HatesBeingAlone: Lillian, having cheated on her husband with a stranger just because she couldn't bare the thought of being alone any longer.
* HotPursuit: Clyde is introduced being hunted by the sherriff and his posse, just before he comes to Lillian's house.

* LoopholeAbuse: The curse makes it so that no man will ever be able to go up the stairs to sleep with Lillian because they would grow too old, nor would Lillian ever be able to go down the stairs to make love to someone there because ''she'' would grow too old. In Lillian's words, there's no side effects that can occur by making love ''on'' the stairs.

* MissedHimByThatMuch: By the time Lillian sends the sherriff on his way, Clyde has already moved to the attic, unable to hear her tell him that the coast is clear.
* MomentKiller: Lillian and Clyde prepare to have sex on the stairs as a method of countering Harlan's curse, but it's cut short when the sherriff suddenly returns to the house.
* NiceGirl: Lillian, whose only sins were basically cheating on her husband and killing him to save her lover. When Clyde meets her, she sees he's injured and lets him stay in her large house, even lying to the sherriff to keep him safe. She also believes that he's a good man who didn't actually kill the shopkeeper he is said to have killed before the episode.

* PoliceAreUseless: The sherriff has a pretty big bone to pick with Clyde, but he's fooled by Lillian into thinking that he isn't around twice over.

* ScatterbrainedSenior: Lillian is initially portrayed as one of these when Clyde first meets her, but she later reveals that she was pretending to throw the sherriff off his trail.

* SympatheticAdulterer: Lillian was motivated to cheat on her husband Harlan with a complete stranger solely because of the emptiness his abscense left her. Considering that Harlan's last act was to curse her and the house for doing such a thing, Lillian can easily be seen as one of the most sympathetic cheating wives in the series.
* TattooedCrook: Clyde is said by the sherriff to have a tattoo of a man on his neck.
* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: The sherriff warns Lillian about Clyde's crimes, pointing out that he looks just like a normal guy to keep her alert.

* WouldHarmASenior: If the sherriff's warnings are any indication, Clyde has a history of preying on old people, primarily to kill them or steal from them because they're so feeble. He even holds an antique sword up to Lillian's neck when she turns old again, demanding to learn what happened to the sexy Southern belle he was just having a drink with.

[[caption-width-right:350:Don't worry, even this show won't sink to ''[[PaedoHunt that]]'' kind of horror.]]
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While on the run from the police one night, Clyde Beaudreaux flees on foot through the Louisiana swamps and finds his way to a decrepit old mansion. He persuades its only occupant, an equally decepit old woman, to let him hide out until the coast is clear. Clyde claims that the whole mess is due to being caught in a relationship with the sheriff's daughter, but the sheriff arrives at the front door with the truth: Clyde is wanted for armed robbery and murder. The old woman sends the sheriff away, saying that Clyde has never been there.

As Clyde is about to cave her skull in with an antique pistol, she tells him not to bother, as he will need her to show him the way out of the swamp in the morning. She offers to let him stay the night, but asks him to stay downstairs while she sleeps in her room upstairs. After she goes to bed, Clyde wanders toward the stairs and finds a beautiful young woman looking down from them. She introduces herself as Lillian Charbonnet and warns him not to climb the stairs, as the mansion has its own strange rules. He goes to pour drinks, but is shocked to find the old woman coming to him in Lillian's place. At his angry insistence, she begins to lead him up the stairs and tell Lillian's story.

During the Civil War, Lillian's husband had gone off to fight in the Confederate army, leaving her alone in the mansion. One day, a handsome young gentleman happened by her front door; she invited him in, and the two began to make love in her bedroom. Her husband came home and caught them in the act, and she snatched up a pistol and shot him. With his last breath, her husband placed a curse on her and all gentleman callers: that no young man would ever climb the stairs, nor would she descend them in a state of beauty.

Clyde realizes that the old woman is Lillian, and that the stairs have reverse effects on each of them - she ages as she descends, he as he climbs. They discover, though, that they both retain their youth as long as they remain between floors and start to make love on the stairs. When they are interrupted by the sheriff's return, Lillian sends Clyde to the second floor so that he will age and not be caught. The trick works, and after the sheriff leaves, Lillian hurries upstairs to get Clyde - only to discover that he has gone up to the attic in search of another way out.

Clyde discovers too late that the rules Lillian mentioned apply to the ''whole house''. He is lying on the attic floor, ancient and withered, barely able to move. When the door slowly swings open, he "screams" in horror at the very sight of Lillian, who is now a newborn baby and unable to help him.

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* AndIMustScream: Clyde manages to evade the cop, but by climbing into the attic he's been aged so much he can only crawl feebly in an attempt to move. According to The Cryptkeeper, it'll take him a few years before he can find a way out of his situation.
* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Lillian explains in her backstory that, during the Civil War, she had been alone at home while her husband was off fighting in the Confederate Army, and when a young gentleman stopped by, she invited him in and the two of them started making love in her bedroom. This ended badly when [[BedroomAdulteryScene her husband returned home from the war alive and caught Lilly and her lover in bed together]], leading to him planting a curse on both her and their house.
* BedroomAdulteryScene: How Lillian's husband discovered her infidelity.
* BelatedHappyEnding: The Cryptkeeper assures us that Clyde managed to make it out of the attic after a few years, and is waiting for Lillian to "Gruesome." Considering that anyone inside the house is effectively immortal, he certainly has nothing but time.
* ADeadlyAffair: Lillian's husband was killed upon [[BedroomAdulteryScene catching Lillian in the act accidentally]], but her husband managed to cast a curse on Lillian and her house before dying.
* {{Flashback}}: A unique variation occurs when Lillian explains the circumstances of the curse to Clyde; there are no images of any characters, only sounds and dialogue in locations where they once were.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Notice how the comic cover for the story includes a baby, despite that the story seemingly has nothing to do with one? That's Lillian at the end of the story.
* IdenticalGrandson: Gender-flipped and subverted. Clyde sees Lillian on the stairs and assumes she is the elderly southern belle's great-granddaughter. Until she descends the stairs and he discovers the truth about her immortality.
* InNameOnly: A completely different plot than the original comic, which was just a standard zombie revenge story that had a staircase play a role in the climax.
* LoopholeAbuse: The curse on Lillian is that no man would ever climb up the stairs to sleep with her in her bed because they would grow too old, nor would she ever climb down the stairs to make love to someone there because she would grow very old. He forgot, in Lillian's words, that people can make love ''on'' the stairs.
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: The Crypt Keeper assures us that Clyde wasn't trapped in the attic forever. He says Clyde did manage to crawl out... after a ''couple years''.

[[caption-width-right:350:Don't worry, even this show won't sink to ''[[PaedoHunt that]]'' kind of horror.]]

* Foreshadowing: Notice how the comic cover for the story includes a baby, despite that the story seemingly has nothing to do with one? That's Lillian at the end of the story.

* {{Flashback}}: A unique variation occurs when Lilian explains the circumstances of the curse to Clyde; there are no images of any characters, only sounds and dialogue in locations where they once were.

* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Lillian explains in her backstory that, during the Civil War, she had been alone at home while her husband was off fighting in the Confederate Army, and when a young gentleman stopped by, she invited him in and the two of them started making love in her bedroom. This ended badly when her husband returned home from the war alive and caught Lilly and her lover in bed together, leading to him planting a curse on both her and their house.

* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: The Crypt Keeper assures us that Clyde wasn't trapped in the attic forever. He says Clyde did manage to crawl out... after a ''couple years''.
* YourCheatingHeart: Lillian explains in her backstory how her missing husband returned home from the war alive and caught Lilly and her lover in bed together, leading to him planting a curse on both her and their house.

'''Tropes:'''

InNameOnly: A completely different plot than the original comic, which was just a standard zombie revenge story that had a staircase play a role in the climax.

Clyde discovers too late that the rules Lillian mentioned apply to the whole house. He is lying on the attic floor, ancient and withered, barely able to move. When the door slowly swings open, he "screams" in horror at the sight of Lillian, who is now a baby and unable to help him.

Clyde discovers too late that the rules Lillian mentioned apply to the whole house. He is lying on the attic floor, ancient and withered, barely able to move. When the door slowly swings open, he "screams" in horror at the sight of Lillian, who is now a baby and unable to help him.