Line #5 Recap/TalesFromTheCryptS5E10CameTheDawn


1	!! Came the Dawn
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3	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/came_the_dawn.jpg]]
4	[[caption-width-right:350: Guess they prefer white wine.]]
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6	->'''Crypt Keeper:''' (''emerging from behind a curtain dressed as a flight attendant, standing before a group of skeletons seated in front of him; through an intercom, in a nasally, monotone voice'') Good evening, creeps. And welcome aboard ''Tales from the Crypt'' ''Scare''-lines Flight 666, offering direct service from your living room straight to Hell. (''cackles'') As we will be experiencing some tur-''boo''-lence, we recommend that you keep your seat belts fastened and your vomit bags handy. So slip on your ''dead''-set and get ready for tonight's in-''fright'' entertainment. (''no longer through the intercom; in his regular voice, to the viewers'') It's a nasty tale about my favorite kind of ghouls: ''dread''-heads. I call it: '''Came the Dawn.'''
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8	A kleptomaniac on the run who ultimately takes the name "Norma" (Creator/BrookeShields), left stuck on the road during a stormy night when her (stolen) truck breaks down, is picked up by the handsome and mild-mannered Roger (Creator/PerryKing), who says that he's on his way to his cabin in the woods, where he hopes to make up with Joanna, a woman that he apparently parted with on bad terms. Since Norma has nowhere to go and he can't in good conscience let her sleep in her vehicle, Roger offers to let her stay the night in his cabin. Norma soon discovers that Roger loves opera, dines on fancy food like oysters and Cristal, and imports vintage antiques from Europe for resale, explaining his wealth. To Norma, this means that there are also many nice things in the cabin for her to swipe. She particularly takes note of the necklace Roger is wearing, suspecting that he picked her up solely for revenge sex to get back at Joanna. Problems soon begin arising when Joanna arrives at the cabin earlier than he had anticipated.
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10	Not to be confused with the Season 6 episode, ''[[Recap/TalesFromTheCryptS6E13ComesTheDawn Comes]]'' [[Recap/TalesFromTheCryptS6E13ComesTheDawn the Dawn]].
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13	!! Tropes:
14	* AbusiveParents: Roger hints that Joanna came about after some horrible form of abuse he received from his mother.
15	* AmazonChaser: Roger, by his own admission. Norma talking about how she "dealt with" her cheating husband actively arouses his interest.
16	* AntiClimax: InUniverse and PlayedForLaughs. Roger finishes summarizing ''Theatre/{{Norma}}'' the opera for Norma the woman, but she gives him a blank-faced reaction to the ending, telling Roger how she feels it would be more realistic for the WomanScorned rob her lover blind and escape to a different country.
17	* TheBadGuyWins: Joanna gets away with locking Roger back into their psyche and killing Norma, and she isn't set to stop killing women anytime soon.
18	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: While sweet-talking Roger, Norma says that she loves surprises. She certainly gets a whopper of a surprise during the TwistEnding.
19	* BigOMG: Norma, upon seeing Roger dressed as Joanna and wielding the ax.
20	* {{Bookends}}: Roger's date at the beginning of the episode gets hacked to death by his alternate personality, Joanna, with her hand sliding down the stall and out of view as she dies. The same thing happens to Norma at the very end of the episode, where Joanna does the same to her, complete with her hand sliding down the door window and out of view.
21	* CassandraTruth: As things begin going downhill, Roger warns Norma to get out of the cabin while she can, saying that Joanna is dangerous. Norma doesn't listen, and she meets the business end of Joanna's ax.
22	* ChekhovsGun: The ax on Roger's wall, which he gives a history lesson about to Norma.
23	* ClassicalMusicIsCool: Roger is an avid fan of opera, even telling Norma (the character) about ''Theatre/{{Norma}}'' (the opera) over a fancy dinner.
24	* ContrivedCoincidence: The end of the episode has Norma stepping on the TV remote, which just so happened to be on the floor in front of the safe, allowing Joanna to hear her.
25	* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Norma squanders the valuable time she could be using to escape with Roger's car by compulsively emptying his glove compartment. She only finds that the keys were still in the ignition by the time he comes back and drives her to the cabin, ultimately cementing her fate.
26	* CreepyCrossdresser: Roger is revealed to be one when he becomes his alternate personality, Joanna.
27	* DeadHandShot: The woman at the restaurant has one at the beginning, and Norma herself gets one at the end.
28	* EntertaininglyWrong: Ed tells Roger about how he thinks the person who stole his friend's truck is the same person who killed that woman in the restaurant. It's actually the friendly fellow he's telling this to who's the real culprit.
29	* EurekaMoment: While Roger is in the shop, Ed the shopkeeper tells him how his friend Dave's truck was stolen last night. It takes a few moments for Roger to realize that the woman he just picked up, who he sees rummaging through his glove compartment, is the culprit.
30	* EvilVersusEvil: "Norma", a kleptomaniac who killed her husband and his lover and was looking to empty Roger's cabin of all its loot, goes up against Roger himself, who's revealed to be the host of a murderous split personality who kills every woman he tries courting.
31	* FakeOrgasm: Roger's date in the opening scene is seen practicing her climaxes in the bathroom, just before Joanna hacks her to death, going to show that she didn't think very highly of him.
32	* TheFarmerAndTheViper: Out of the goodness of his heart, Roger picks up Norma off the side of the road during a thunderstorm and offers her food and shelter. She reciprocates his kind gesture by trying to rob him blind.
33	* FancyDinner: Roger goes out of his way to make one for Norma, treating her to oysters and Cristal.
34	* FatalFlaw: Norma's kleptomania. After she seems to escape from the murderous Joanna, she impulsively sneaks back inside the cabin to steal some jewelry from the open safe, but this ends up allowing her to step on a TV remote, turning the set on and allowing Joanna to discover and kill her.
35	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Multiple hints about the final reveal are dropped throughout the episode:
36	** We first hear Joanna's voice (which is somewhat masculine) on an answering machine as Roger calls her number. We then hear her talking live immediately after Roger (alone in the store) realizes that Norma's been lying to him.
37	** Roger tells Norma that she can change out of her wet clothes and into one of the dresses in the closet upstairs. Norma asks Roger if he's married, but he insists that they belong to someone he's no longer involved with. When she travels upstairs, Norma finds ''more'' than dresses and also smells fresh perfume. She's particularly outraged by this development, since we later learn her husband had been cheating on her, prompting her to kill him.
38	** After describing opera as being about love and death, Roger likens his own relationships to that of opera itself, and also reflects on the various things he likes about women.
39	** When Joanna ostensibly arrives at the cabin and starts yelling at Roger, we never see the two on screen together, and Joanna's voice is only heard when Norma is in a different room from Roger.
40	** Roger retrieves a necklace belonging to Catherine the Great from a nearby safe before the pair sit down to dinner. The end of the episode has Norma spying the safe left open and compulsively stealing the rest of the jewels, in the process alerting Joanna to her whereabouts.
41	* FreudianExcuse: It's not mentioned directly, but it's abundantly clear that Joanna taking control of Roger is the result of ''something'' his mother did to him, the man himself even admitting that she was quite a piece of work when he and Norma view a painting of her.
42	* GoryDiscretionShot: We see a good bit of blood splattered around the walls, but not the ax itself directly cutting into flesh.
43	* HopeSpot: Norma goes back inside the cabin rather than climb down the balcony, actually managing to get her loot and make it to the front door with enough time to open it, but just as we see someone pick up the ax, she spots the open safe and moves to swipe the jewelry within, sealing her fate when she steps on the TV remote.
44	* {{Hypocrite}}: Norma becomes outraged when Roger has seemingly been using her to commit adultery, and intends to get even with him. Though this development strikes a nerve for her because of her personal history, it's still quite hypocritical of her to be offended by Roger's seeming betrayal of her trust when she was ''actively trying to rob him'' before learning that he was supposedly married.
45	* InNameOnly: The original comic was about a man who thinks his wife has been replaced by an escaped mental patient who looks exactly like her. He kills who he ''thinks'' is the imposter, until he sees another woman who looks like his wife running off in the distance.
46	* ItBeganWithATwistOfFate: While Roger was in the store, Norma could've easily stolen his car and made a clean getaway, avoiding the rest of the episode as well as her own death. She blows the opportunity to do so because she was too busy giving in to her kleptomania and emptying Roger's glove compartment.
47	* LaserGuidedKarma: Norma gets hacked to death by Joanna, the alternate personality of the man she was looking to rob, after she already killed her husband and the bimbo he was screwing.
48	* ALighterShadeOfBlack: Norma is a thief on the run because she killed her husband for cheating on her. Roger, on the other hand, is the host of a cross-dressing, ax-wielding alternate personality who acts like his wife and kills women, regardless of whether they know Roger or not.
49	* LineOfSightName: "Norma" isn't actually our female lead's name, just something she lifted off a tape label in Roger's car after she was picked up. Roger is amused by the supposed irony of his guest sharing the name of his favorite opera, until he realizes she was doing this.
50	* MaleGaze: The camera (revealed to be Roger's POV) ogling his date's figure and her panties in the opening scene.
51	* NeverSayDie: Norma strictly tells Roger that she "dealt with" her cheating husband.. and did so in a way that made it so she can't ever go back home.
52	* NiceGuy: When Joanna isn't in control, Roger is a well-meaning guy who takes a complete stranger into his cabin on a stormy night, treating them to expensive food and letting them change into warm clothing.
53	* NoNameGiven: Norma's real name is never revealed, nor is the woman at the restaurant's name.
54	* NothingIsScarier: Both of our main characters have a sinister air of mystery surrounding their past.
55	** On Norma's side, whatever she did to her husband as revenge for his adultery means that she can't ever go back home. Of course, it's '''''very''''' strongly implied that she killed him and his lover in cold blood.
56	** On Roger's side, he says that he grew up with an abusive mother, likely being how Joanna came into the picture. We never get any implication as to just ''what'' Roger's mother did to him to make him spawn an ax-murdering split personality.
57	* ObfuscatingStupidity: At the store, Ed tells Roger about how his friend's truck was stolen. Roger realizes that Norma is the culprit, and begins questioning everything she told him, but he keeps his peace until well-into dinner.
58	* OffWithHisHead: Roger states that the ax on his wall was originally used to chop off heads during the French Revolution.
59	* PantyShot: Roger's restaurant date briefly flashes her panties at him to get him excited.
60	* POVCam: The episode opens with a pretty blonde addressing the camera in a fancy restaurant, sweet-talking it before she heads to the restroom. It's revealed that the camera was looking through Roger's perspective.
61	* PreMortemOneLiner: Once it's discovered that she's Roger's psychotic alternate personality, Joanna tells Norma "Roger is mine!" before killing her.
62	* ProperlyParanoid: In bed, Roger muses that Norma could very well be tying him up to rob him. Given that she's a kleptomaniac, he was absolutely right.
63	* RedHerring: Since the murder in the opening scene took place in the darkened restaurant bathroom, Norma is teased as being the killer, since she has red hair, is a WomanScorned, and intends to give Roger a "big surprise" for possibly being an adulterer. The end of the episode reveals that the actual killer is Roger himself, his mind taken over by his psychotic split personality, Joanna.
64	* ShoutOut:
65	** The female lead's name of "Norma" is literally taken from [[Theatre/{{Norma}} the opera of the same name]]. Roger later explains the plot of the opera to his new guest over dinner, the audience tuning in just as Roger describes the ending.
66	** Of course, there's also the ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' homages listed below.
67	* SirSwearsALot: Norma is pretty swear-happy, especially in her intro scene, where she's seen throwing a profane fit when she's stuck in the rain with a broken (stolen) truck.
68	* SkewedPriorities: Norma is so focused on trying to swipe petty materials from Roger's glove compartment that she realizes too late his keys are still in the ignition, and she could've just made off with his car while he was in the store.
69	* SmallRoleBigImpact: Ed the shopkeeper, who tells Roger about how his friend Dave had his truck stolen, cluing him in to Norma's intentions.
70	* SplitPersonality: Roger's a decent guy, but he's also the host of Joanna, a possessive spouse and crazed killer.
71	* StealthPun: ''Theatre/{{Norma}}'' finishes playing as Joanna kills Norma (the woman), bringing both Normas to an end.
72	* StickyFingers: Norma is an absolute kleptomaniac, looking to steal any cash or jewelry (or the occasional vehicle) that she can get her hands on. Her uncontrollable desire to steal is even the very thing that gets her killed.
73	* TemptingFate:
74	** In the opening scene, Roger's date tells him that she knows what he's up to and isn't going to stop him. She had no idea how right she was.
75	** While stranded in the rain, Roger remarks this really isn't Norma's night. Neither of them are aware of what's in store by the end of the episode.
76	** Norma asks Roger if she can touch the ax on his wall, to which Joanna is all too eager to oblige.
77	* TroubledFetalPosition: Roger admits that he likes to curl up in bed with some wine and an opera CD, while he cries.
78	* WhamShot: Norma steps on a TV remote that switches on a nearby set, displaying a prerecorded video with Roger dressed in drag, reenacting the conversation that he supposedly had with Joanna a few moments ago, revealing to Norma and the viewers that Roger and Joanna are the same person.
79	* WholePlotReference: This episode is a pretty big homage to ''Film/{{Psycho}}'', thanks to its plotline of a hitchhiker who is murdered by a man with an evil female split personality.
80	* WomanScorned: When Roger prods her about why she was ''really'' in a broken-down truck on the side of the road, Norma says that she stole the truck to drive into the woods looking for her husband. He claimed to be on a weekend fishing trip with his friends, but Norma learned he was really fooling around with some bimbo. When Roger asks what happened next, Norma simply tells him that she "dealt with it" and can't go back home. Knowing how most adulterous couples work in horror anthologies, it's glaringly obvious that Norma killed her husband and his lover.
81	* WrongGenreSavvy: Finding Joanna's things upstairs, Norma thinks that Roger was simply lying about having parted ways with an ex-lover and is just an adulterer.
82	* YouCantGoHomeAgain: Norma tells Roger that what she did to her cheating husband (killing him) means that she can never go back home.
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Context Recap / TalesFromTheCryptS5E10CameTheDawn