Pesticide
Written By: Frank Dietz
Harlan King (Josh McDermitt) is the crass and obnoxious exterminator who owns and operates King Pest Control. He completes a job for family therapist and regular customer Dr. Brenda Lanchester (Ashley Laurence), and upon doing so, he carelessly barges into her office while she is with a patient to collect his payment. Repulsed by his grandstanding and his lack of social skills, Brenda reluctantly pays Harlan, but tells him that she isn't hiring him anymore. In retaliation, Harlan roots through the back of his van for a jar of cockroaches, which he secretly releases into Brenda’s house in an attempt for her to rehire him.
Later that day, Harlan drives to an abandoned factory to meet with his next client. Said client, a mysterious real estate mogul who calls himself Mr. Murdoch (Keith David), introduces himself to Harlan. After bringing up a good number of personal facts regarding Harlan and his business, Murdoch also mentions that he owns the property, planning to tear down the factory and build condominiums on the land. He also introduces Harlan to a community of homeless squatters who have taken up residence in and around the factory. As the homeless are obstructing the development of his project and he has already had them removed numerous times, Murdoch tells Harlan that they are the pests he has hired him to exterminate. While Harlan at first refuses to kill the homeless, Murdoch retorts that killing is all Harlan has ever done with his life. Upon being presented a briefcase filled with cash, Harlan is persuaded to kill at least one of the homeless.
That night, Harlan returns to the factory and sneaks into the homeless' encampment, but when he moves in to poison a barrel full of community stew, he has second thoughts and attempts to leave. He bumps into one of the vagrants on his way out, causing him to accidentally drop a bottle of poison into the stew. When the vagrant attacks him with a knife, Harlan is forced to defend himself by smashing another bottle of poison in his face, fleeing the scene as the vagrant convulses and foams at the mouth. In his apartment, Harlan nervously counts his money when discovers a cockroach crawling on his boot. While he sleeps, Harlan has a nightmare where Murdoch reprimands him for not finishing his assignment, then takes back the briefcase and sprays him with insecticide. When Harlan awakens, he spies the briefcase still in the room, but then has his hand bitten off by a giant rat, which proceeds to kill him. This also happens to be a nightmare, and upon waking, Harlan finds that the briefcase is gone.
Harlan returns to the factory to find the police and paramedics handling multiple body bags, which he realizes are filled with the homeless who ingested the tainted stew. He calls Murdoch's number, but is left with an automated message. While on a job in a nearby embankment, Harlan endures a hallucination where a giant mosquito lands on him, pierces his chest, and begins sucking his blood. That night, the frazzled Harlan fearfully witnesses a large number of cockroaches crawl out of a hole in his wall. The next day, a haggard Harlan again tries to call Murdoch, but is told that the number has been disconnected. Harlan then discovers a giant fly in the passenger seat, which is promptly snatched away and eaten by a giant tarantula in the backseat. The arachnid sinks its fangs into Harlan's shoulder as he escapes the van. As his face begins melting, Harlan encounters a hallucination of the man he accidentally killed looming over him.
An injured Harlan wakes up in Brenda's office. While recovering, Harlan tearfully pleads for Brenda to help him, since he doesn't know where else to turn. Reluctantly agreeing to hear him out, Brenda listens to Harlan as he explains what he did and how he believes that Mr. Murdoch is actually the Devil, who he figures is punishing him for his sins. When it appears Brenda doesn’t believe his story and figures he is suffering from a guilt complex, Harlan suddenly snaps and sprays her with insecticide. This is revealed to be yet another nightmare the sleep-deprived Harlan has. Seeing how exhausted he is, Brenda gently lulls Harlan to sleep. Once he is out cold, Brenda darkly reveals that she has a roach infestation, and she now knows why.
Harlan awakens to find himself having somehow shrunk to the size of an insect. When Brenda walks in, she mistakes the shrunken Harlan for a roach and, ignoring his pleas for help, crushes him to death with a rolled-up magazine. Immediately after, Brenda hears someone enter her house. The visitor happens to be Mr. Murdoch, wearing a version of Harlan's pest control uniform. Murdoch asks Brenda if she has a "bug problem" before laughing maniacally.
This episode contains examples of:
- Abandoned Warehouse: Murdoch meets Harlan in an abandoned factory that he plans to tear down so he can build condominiums on the land. The factory is also home to an encampment of crazed squatters, who Murdoch needs "exterminated".
- Actor Allusion:
- Keith David once again plays a character who is revealed (or perhaps implied) to be the Devil.
- Ashley Laurence plays a character who may or may not have connections with demons. Said character is also a therapist, which was a central factor of one of her demonic outings.
- A God Am I: Harlan proclaims himself "the King" when it comes to exterminating vermin, even boastfully announcing the fact that he's arrived like a monarch who insists that people kneel to him.
- The Alleged Car: Harlan's service van. Its engine nearly dies on his way to the factory, and Murdoch himself says he could hear Harlan coming from half a mile away.
- Ambiguous Ending: The ending definitely asks more questions than it answers. Was Mr. Murdoch actually the Devil? If not, then what exactly was he? How does Harlan get shrunken to insect size? Did Brenda make her own Deal with the Devil to get back at Harlan for his roach infestation? Did she actually think the shrunken Harlan was a roach, or did she know full well what Harlan was telling her and just wanted to kill him anyway? And what happens when Murdoch comes to Brenda's office in Harlan's uniform? It's never explicitly revealed how or why any of this happens.
- Ambiguously Human: Murdoch, who disappears after Harlan does his deed for him and is capable of showing up in his nightmares, is believed to be the Devil, who is tormenting him with nightmares of being mauled by giant-sized vermin after failing and/or trying to get out of doing his task.
- An Arm and a Leg: Murdoch gets his hand bitten off by a giant rat in his first nightmare.
- Asshole Victim: Harlan is a subverted case. He spends half the episode behaving like an obnoxious douche, and he does indeed commit a very illegal and immoral act, but he didn't actually intend for things to go the way they did and is clearly shaken about it. The rest of the episode has him being brutalized by forces beyond his control.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Murdoch, i.e. Satan, gets the souls of Harlan, the homeless living in the factory, and possibly Brenda's as well.
- Bait-and-Switch: Harlan discovers a giant fly sitting in the passenger seat of his van. As Harlan reaches for a newspaper to try and smack it, you're probably expecting the fly to spew acid at Harlan's face and melt it off. Instead, the fly is suddenly yanked out of the seat... by a giant tarantula sitting in the back.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: The main supernatural element of the episode, with several of them appearing in Harlan's hallucinations.
- Break the Haughty: Despite his loudmouthed grandstanding, Harlan is a knowledgeable and (mostly) professional exterminator. After he ends up killing the homeless, the nightmares he endures gradually reduce him to a nervous wreck.
- Briefcase Full of Money: Murdoch pulls one out to convince Harlan to "exterminate" the homeless for him.
- Bystander Syndrome: When Harlan ends up poisoning the vagrant that attacks him, all the other homeless awaken from their slumber thanks to the commotion. All they do is stare at Harlan, not even bothering to help the dying man.
- Call-Back:
- The newspaper that Harlan picks up to swat the giant fly is actually from Shapeshifters Anonymous. The headline "Naperville Ripper Strikes Again" can be glimpsed on it for a split second.
- Harlan owns one of the diagrams of Sloan's leeches from Skincrawlers, which is seen pinned to his bulletin board.
- Catapult Nightmare: Harlan has several of them after he ends up killing the homeless, which grow more and more layered.
- Crazy Homeless People: A small community of them are squatting in the abandoned factory that Murdoch wants to make into condominiums. A particularly bloodthirsty one ends up assaulting Harlan when he goes in to poison them.
- Deal with the Devil: Harlan ends up making one with Murdoch, who he eventually believes is the Devil; killing the homeless squatting on Murdoch's property in exchange for more business and a new service van.
- It's implied at the end that Brenda might have made her own deal with Murdoch to drive Harlan to madness and eventually kill him as revenge for infesting her house with roaches.
- Devil in Disguise: Murdoch is strongly implied to be the Devil, but that fact is not exactly proven true at any point.
- Distinction Without a Difference: When Harlan discovers that Murdoch wants him to kill off a homeless encampment living on his property, he attempts to leave, boasting that he doesn't do murder-for-hire. Murdoch retorts that, being an exterminator, that's basically all he does.
- The Dog Bites Back: After discovering that Harlan infested her office with roaches to get her to call him back, Brenda makes her own deal with Murdoch to torture him with nightmares, and then somehow causes Harlan to shrink to roach-size so she can crush him with a magazine.
- Downer Ending: Despite it being confusing as hell, Harlan ends up killed by the customer he was desperately seeking help from, and Murdoch appears ready to torment that customer with more nightmares of vermin.
- Dream Within a Dream: Harlan is woken up at four in the morning by Murdoch, who rebukes him for not finishing his job, takes the briefcase full of money away, and sprays him with insecticide. When he wakes up, he finds the suitcase is still there, but then gets his hand bitten off and killed by a giant rat. When he wakes up from that, he finds that the briefcase is gone.
- Eccentric Exterminator: Harlan, who is notably bombastic in a good chunk of his scenes.
- Establishing Character Moment: Harlan's first appearance has him showing great joy in crushing an unsuspecting junebug and drowning a spider with insecticide. He also mentions to Brenda that he killed some birds during his work, which he takes in stride.
- "Eureka!" Moment: As he's driving along somewhere, Harlan rediscovers the check Brenda filled out for him the other day, which gives him the idea to go to her office for some desperately-needed help.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Although Harlan isn't truly "evil," he's far from a nice guy, being rude and obnoxious to his customers and even secretly releasing more insects so they'll be forced to hire him again. However, he initially refuses Murdoch's offer when he realizes Murdoch is asking him to murder a community of homeless people squatting on his property. Even when he reluctantly agrees to do it, he changes his mind at the last minute. Harlan only does the deed when a homeless man who confronts him causes him to accidentally drop a bottle of poison in their barrel of stew.
- Murdoch, who is implied to be Satan himself, expresses visible shock and disgust at the fact that the homeless infesting his factory are shown to make stew out of stray cats and dogs.
- Exact Words: Harlan learns what Murdoch has hired him for when he relays something he said earlier. Something about "human waste."
- Foreshadowing: The word "HELL" is graffitied on one of the walls of the factory, right next to Murdoch as well, hinting at his possible origins.
- Giant Spider: Harlan encounters a giant tarantula in the backseat of his van. It manages to sink its fangs into his shoulder, then crawls atop the van and sprays him with webbing when he tries to escape.
- Guilt Complex: Brenda assumes Harlan is experiencing one of these regarding his nightmares. Upon hearing this, Harlan snaps at her and douses her with insecticide. Of course, this turns out to be another nightmare.
- Here We Go Again!: Once Harlan dies, Murdoch meets with Brenda, asking about her "bug problem", implying that he's now going to be tormenting her the same way he tormented Harlan after he committed murder.
- Homage: To the original film's final segment "They're Creeping Up On You!".
- I'm a Humanitarian: Murdoch drops hints to Harlan that the homeless living in the factory may be cannibals.Murdoch: Do you know what they cook in those kettles?! Animals!!! Stray dogs and cats! I shudder to think what else they might be cooking!
- I'm Melting!: Half of Harlan's face appears as though it's melting when the tarantula bites into his shoulder.
- Incredible Shrinking Man: Harlan is somehow shrunk to the size of a cockroach when he falls asleep on Brenda's couch. When he finds out, Brenda, (possibly) thinking him to be an actual roach, crushes him with a rolled-up magazine.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: When introduced to the homeless squatters, Harlan initially thinks that Murdoch is referring to rats attracted to the food and waste they're leaving behind. He slowly learns what Murdoch actually means when he tells Harlan that he never mentioned any rats.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: In spite of how crass and obnoxious he is, at the end of the day, Harlan is a pathetic schlub who lives in a shabby apartment in a dingy building. As such, he mainly uses his line of work as a means to gain some sense of superiority over creatures that are lower than he is.
- Jerkass Has a Point: All the main characters show themselves as being on a teetering scale of unlikable, but they all do make valid points about the episode's events:
- Harlan may be crass, self-absorbed, and just a little crooked, but he knows that murdering homeless people is a line that no one in their right mind should cross.
- Brenda is presented as cold, aloof, and dismissive of Harlan, but that's because she's had to deal with his obnoxious attitude many times, notably by barging in on her while she's with a patient.
- Murdoch is a sinister and mysterious individual who is hinted to be the Devil himself, but he rebukes Harlan's claims that he doesn't do murder-for-hire by reminding him that he's an exterminator, a line of work where murder is how people make money. Even before his intentions are made clear, Murdoch tells Harlan that he's already had the homeless community removed from the factory through legitimate means several times before, and the city officials haven't been any help either. He essentially called Harlan in as a last resort to deal with the problem.
- Killing in Self-Defense: Harlan is forced to do this to the crazed vagrant who tries to stab him, smashing a vial of poison in his face.
- Large Ham: Harlan and Murdoch.
- Loser Protagonist: Harlan, a pathetic exterminator who has no friends, family, or social skills, who Brenda and Murdoch see only as a respective nuisance and victim. After he accidentally kills the homeless, he is tortured nonstop by nightmares where he's killed by giant pests, and after seeking out Brenda to try and make the nightmares stop, she somehow shrinks him to roach size and kills him like the pest she sees him as.
- Mind Screw: Harlan's nightmares become more outlandish and layered, escalating to the point where he doesn't even know what's real anymore.
- Mosquito Miscreants: One of Harlan's hallucinations has a mosquito the size of an eagle sucking his blood.
- Mythology Gag:
- A blurb on the cover of this story reads "They're Creeping Up On You!", which is the name of the final story from the original film.
- Also like the original film, Harlan has a nightmare where several cockroaches emerge from a hole in his wall.
- The ashtray from "Father's Day" can be seen on a shelf in Harlan's apartment, surrounded by chemical bottles as a cockroach crawls along it.
- One of the homeless people squatting in the abandoned factory is dressed as the undead hitch-hiker from Creepshow 2, complete with a yellow rain poncho and a "DOVER" sign.
- Brenda, who is played by Ashley Laurence, has a coaster in her office that shares the same design as the Lament Configuration.
- Nap-Inducing Speak: As part of her plans for her revenge, Brenda lulls Harlan to sleep by whispering that he should take a nap and that she's going to make herbal tea for him.
- No Social Skills: Thanks to his grandstanding, Harlan definitely has shades of this, since he doesn't read the room when he meets with Brenda, who is with a patient that is very clearly in tears.
- Offscreen Teleportation: The homeless man who attacks Harlan seems to pop up from out of nowhere to fight him.
- Murdoch is also capable of the skill, foreshadowing his not-quite-human nature.
- The giant vermin in Harlan's nightmares are also capable of this.
- Or Was It a Dream?: After Harlan wakes up from his Dream Within a Dream, he finds that everything appears back to normal in his apartment... only to find that the briefcase Murdoch gave him is gone.
- Rewatch Bonus: When Harlan asks Murdoch who referred his services to him, Murdoch retorts that he's "not at liberty to reveal that." In the end, where Brenda hints that she knows Harlan infested her office with roaches and proceeds to kill him, Murdoch visits her, asking about a "bug problem", and thus revealing that she was the person who sent Harlan to Murdoch.
- Rodents of Unusual Size: One of Harlan's first nightmares has him getting his hand bitten off by a giant rat, which goes for his throat a few seconds later.
- Satan: Harlan believes that he's Murdoch's true identity, and is tormenting him for murdering the homeless squatters and/or trying to get out of their deal.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Harlan attempts to get out of the factory when Murdoch hires him to kill off a homeless community, but is easily persuaded into doing so with a Briefcase Full of Money.
- He also hightails it out of the homeless' camp when he poisons one of them in self-defense, and notices that the rest are staring at him as their companion convulses and dies.
- Shout-Out:
- Harlan's name is a combination of writers Stephen King and Harlan Ellison.
- Harlan refers to the junebug he steps on in the first scene as "Beetlejuice."
- As he wanders Brenda's office, Harlan quotes The Spider and the Fly to himself.
- One of Harlan's first nightmares has him getting mauled to death by a giant rat.
- Another one of Harlan's hallucinations has one of the giant mosquitos straight out of Mosquito pierce his chest and suck his blood.
- Brenda's office is located on "Elm St.", as seen on her check. Harlan tells the roaches he collected that they can "check in, but you don't check out."
- Early in the story, Harlan searches for the abandoned factory's address, unknowing whether it's on "East Willard or West Willard Blvd."
- Murdoch shares the name of a certain bass player who also has heavy connections to demons.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Harlan has quite the monumental ego, treating himself as a king while everyone else sees him as just a pathetic loser.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Harlan's plan for dealing with the homeless was to poison their barrel of community stew. He doesn't want to go through with it at first, but he accidentally does it anyway when he bumps into a crazed vagrant.
- The Unreveal: It's never known how Harlan shrinks to bug-size. The possible connection between Brenda and Murdoch, as well as Murdoch's true nature, is never revealed either.
- World of Jerkass: All three main characters are seen as obnoxious, dismissive, and outright sinister. And let's not forget the bloodthirsty squatters living in that factory.
