History Recap / TalesFromTheCryptS3E10MourninMess

* CaptainObviousReveal: If you could deduce the G.H.O.U.L.S' initials and their true purpose when you first saw their name on a sign in the cemetery, you clearly knew what the twist was going to be.

->'''Crypt Keeper:''' ''(wearing a chef's hat and apron, looking over a cookbook, and tending to a steaming pot on his table)'' Ah, there you are! You're just in time! I'm trying out a few recipes from my new Betty ''Croaker'' cookbook. I hope you like shish-ka-bob. ''[opens the lid of the pot to reveal it contains a severed arm]'' Damn! It isn't ready yet! ''(slams the lid shut)'' Bob's still moving! ''[cackles]'' Tonight's foul feast will begin with mashed potatoes, then move onto some ''shrieking'' duck, and finish with a nice ''kill''-basa. I call this tasty tidbit: '''Mournin' Mess.'''

Dale Sweeney (Creator/StevenWeber), a broke, alcoholic, womanizing news reporter for The Evening Globe, is assigned to cover the opening of a new cemetery funded by the Grateful Homeless, Outcasts, and Unwanteds Layaway Society[[note]][[SpotTheThread yes, yes, shush,]] the reveal hasn't happened yet...[[/note]] a group of philanthropist business leaders who were once homeless. The Grateful Homeless Society state that their goal is to grant the homeless deceased a posthumous opportunity to achieve the basic human decency they were unable to obtain in life, with Dale growing attracted society spokeswoman Jess Gilchrist (Creator/RitaWilson) during the press conference.

Dale's drinking and unreliability soon costs him his job, and he is then confronted in his apartment by Roebuck (Creator/VincentSchiavelli), a homeless man who warns Dale that there is a killer murdering several other homeless people like himself, and says that he has been labeled the prime suspect. He offers Dale a deal: if Dale goes to the cemetery and waits until sundown, he can see what's really going on and Roebuck will tell him everything he knows afterward, allowing for Dale to get his job back and Roebuck to be cleared of his accusations.

The next day, while watching a burial at the cemetery, Dale strikes up a conversation with Jess. The two soon end up in bed together, but she storms out after discovering that Dale had been not-so-secretly recording their pillow talk. Dale goes to the alleyway where Roebuck lives to find him, but finds him fatally wounded. With his last breaths, Roebuck berates Dale for not waiting at the cemetery as he told him to do. Dale is ultimately evicted from his apartment for failure to pay his rent, and spends the night sleeping on the street.

Haggard and desperate, Dale unsuccessfully pleads for a second chance from his former boss, Elaine Tillman, then hides out at the cemetery during Roebuck's funeral. After the coffin has been buried, Dale is stunned to see the fresh sod slowly sinking into the grave; digging deeper, he falls into an underground tunnel lined with coffins and piles of bones. To hide from a group of approaching figures, he ducks into a coffin - which proves to hold Roebuck's decaying corpse.

By the time Dale bursts out of the coffin, it has been laid out on a formal dining table. Mr. Copard, the leader of the society, enters the hall and spots Dale. He admits that the Grateful Homeless Society (whose initials spell G.H.O.U.L.S) are the ones responsible for the homeless murders, and tears his face off to reveal that he and his fellow business leaders are actually a pack of flesh-eating ghouls who have been killing the homeless to feed themselves. Dale tries to make his escape after his ear is torn off for an appetizer, but then he runs into Jess, who reveals her own ghoulish face and tells Dale that he looks "good enough to eat" before she devours him face first.

!!Tropes:
* AnArmAndALeg: The only thing that is left of Dancer when Roebuck checks up on him is his severed hand, still clutching a liquor bottle.

* AntiHero: Roebuck, who was accused of being the homeless killer and pulls a gun on Dale to get him to clear his name.
* AntiInterferenceLockUp: Dale resorts to locking Climsky in a portable toilet so he can take over his position during the press conference.

* TheBadGuyWins: With all those who know their secret eaten alive, Jess, Climsky, Copard, and the other ghouls end the episode victorious, free to keep killing and eating everyone in the city.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Dale tries to find out the source of why the homeless are being killed. He ends up getting all the information he wants, just before he's eaten alive.
* BigBad: Mr. Copard, the head of the Grateful Homeless Society.
* BloodyHandprint: Roebuck accidentally leaves one at the scene where Dancer is killed, cementing him as the prime suspect for the act.

* ClearMyName: Roebuck had been fingered as the prime suspect of the murder of his friend Dancer and others like him, and he seeks out Dale so the guy can help clear his name.
* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: As the dying Roebuck tells him, if Dale had just stayed at the cemetery and met Roebuck there, he would have learned the truth and exposed everything. Dale would still have his job and be able to afford his rent, his journalistic reputation would be secure, Roebuck's innocence would be proved, and both men would still be alive.
* CrazyHomelessPeople: Roebuck's friend Dancer, a former boxer who suffers from both a horrible sickness and delusions that make him think he's still in fighting condition. Roebuck even tells him that he wants to take him to a hospital.
* DeadpanSnarker: Elaine, Dale's boss, hurls boatloads of snark at the guy.
* DisposableVagrant: The ghouls choose to primarily feed on the homeless because they draw the least attention.

* EarAche: Climsky tears Dale's ear off for an appetizer, even dipping it in A1 sauce.

* EpicFail: Dale's idea of "discretely" recording his post-sex interview with Jess is leaving his fully visible tape recorder on his bed. Jess sees it in an instant, destroys the tape, and storms out as Dale only gets one question in to the interview.

* ExactWords: Jess' response to Dale asking if she's a vegetarian because she doesn't want a bite of his hamburger? "Not exactly."
* FailureHero: Dale half-heartedly tries to expose the truth of the homeless murders, but when he finally finds out, he's eaten before he can get the word out.
* FakeCharity: The Grateful Homeless Society turns out to be a complete scam, operated by a pack of flesh-eating ghouls who devour the homeless they bury in a network of underground tunnels.
* FanDisservice:
** Dale's naked body, post-coitus.
** The hideously ugly faces of the ghouls.

** The half-naked woman lying in Dale's bed before he throws her out.

* FeetFirstIntroduction: When Jess is introduced, the camera starts on her legs and pans upward to her face.
* ForWantOfANail: If Dale had listened to what Roebuck told him to do instead of having sex with Jess, he would've found out the true nature of the G.H.O.U.L.S, kept his apartment, renewed his reputation, and not have met his end by being devoured alive.

** The Grateful Homeless Society helping out with every coffin buried in their new graveyard.
** Roebuck opening the episode by reading a discarded newspaper that reads "Homeless Killings Baffle Police".
** When Dale and Jess are having sex, she's seen biting him on the shoulder, then tells him that he's "good enough to eat".
*** And when she storms out after discovering that he's been recording their pillow talk, after hearing Dale say that he was just doing his job, Jess tells him that he doesn't want to see her do ''her'' job.
** The Grateful Homeless Society's full name can be seen on a sign in the cemetery. Guess what the first letter of each word (which are bigger than the other letters) spells out?
** After storming into her office after spending the night sleeping in the rain, Elaine tells the drenched Dale that what he needs is a burial.
** Roebuck is seen snooping around the press conference and eating shrimp with cocktail sauce as he does so. At the end of the episode, Climsky and Copard to the same thing... with Dale's ear and A1 sauce.
* FunWithAcronyms: The (G)rateful (H)omeless, (O)utcasts, and (U)nwanteds (L)ayaway (S)ociety.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Roebuck discovered the truth about the G.H.O.U.L.S after they killed his friend Dancer and several other homeless like himself, and after he's been declared the prime suspect for Dancer's death by leaving a bloody handprint at the crime scene. He ultimately makes his way to Dale's apartment and holds him at gunpoint to let him know what he knows, then tells him to wait at the cemetery at sundown to reveal the truth to him, so Dale can write an article about it and have Roebuck's name be cleared.
* HomelessHero: Roebuck, who discovers who the Grateful Homeless Society truly are and that they ate his friend Dancer, and has been seeking out Dale to write an article detailing the truth so his name can be cleared. Dale himself becomes a homeless hero when he's evicted from his apartment and forced to sleep on the streets.

* ImmoralJournalist: Downplayed with Dale. He's a washed-up, heavy drinking sex hound who routinely kicks one-night stands out of his apartment, has a history of being absent from work without notice, and takes over Climsky's position at the press conference by locking him in a portable toilet, but he doesn't kill anyone and works to solve the case of the homeless murders so he can get his job back.
* IntrepidReporter: Dale is a slight case. He's more burned out and boozing instead of intrepid, and he loses his job near the beginning of the episode, but he still works to figure out the truth behind the homeless killings.
* IronicEcho / ILied: Dale invites Jess for lunch at his apartment so she can listen to a story he's been writing about the Grateful Homeless Society, then says he lied and invited her because he wanted her company. When she reveals herself as a ghoul, Jess throws Dale's little trick right back at him.

* JerkAss: Dale is not the most pleasant person, being a washed-up, sex hungry boozehound who is first seen kicking a one night stand out of his apartment.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Despite the above mentioned details, Dale ''does'' raise a valid point to Jess during the press conference, asking her why the Grateful Homeless Society is spending so much money towards the dead homeless when it could just as easily be benefitting the ''living'' homeless.

* KavorkaMan: Dale is a washed up alcoholic who ''still'' manages to get women into his bed, despite his homely appearance.
* LatexPerfection: The G.H.O.U.L.S reveal their true appearances to Dale by peeling off their human faces like they were masks.
* LoserProtagonist: Dale is a washed-up alcoholic womanizer who is treated like shit by nearly everyone he comes across. Over the course of the story, he gets fired, evicted from his apartment, forced to live on the streets (where he's often called a bum), finds that his old position taken over by his rival, and is finally eaten alive by ghouls. Roebuck even selects him to write the clarifying article about his innocence by telling him that he looks "hungrier than him".
* MeanBoss: Elaine Tillman, Dale's boss, who openly insults him, blatantly states that she would ''love'' calling security on him, and asks her secretary to call in the janitor to remove his stink when he decides to leave. In fairness, Dale ''is'' a pretty lousy reporter who has a reputation of getting drunk and being unreliable, so her hatred of him can be seen as justified.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Dale disobeys Roebuck's order to stay at the cemetery at sundown to make love to Jess. This allows for Roebuck to be eaten by the ghouls, who devour Dale the next night.
* NothingIsScarier: We never learn the true identity of the ghoul who killed and ate Dancer. Since the silhouette appears male, it could have been Copard or Climsky.
* NotStayingForBreakfast: After a night of drunken sex, Dale kicks the woman he brought home with him out of his apartment the next morning. She doesn't take it well.
* OffscreenTeleportation: Roebuck is seen hiding in Dale's apartment after the room is lit up by a flash of lightening, crossing the room and grabbing Dale's neck a second later.
* OhCrap: Roebuck has one when he discovers Dancer's severed hand, then hears a woman screaming from her apartment that she's going to call the cops because of the noise, forcing Roebuck to flee.
* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: The G.H.O.U.L.S resemble bald, fanged humanoids with pointed ears, sharp teeth, and no lips.

* TheRival: Climsky is Dale's rival, always beating Dale to the latest stories and looking forward to the day he's canned.
* SecretUndergroundPassage: Dale discovers a sinking mound of sod that leads to an underground network of tunnels where the G.H.O.U.L.S operate.
* SexSignalsDeath: A variant where a person who ''isn't'' having sex ends up dead. Instead of waiting until sundown like Roebuck told him to do, Dale takes Jess back to his place for sex and a "secret" interview. In doing this, this allowed for the G.H.O.U.L.S to catch Roebuck and mortally wound him, the man using his last breaths to reprimand Dale for disobeying him.
* SinisterSilhouettes: The silhouette of an ominous figure is seen approaching the alley where Roebuck and Dancer live.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: The unnamed woman who hears Roebuck screaming at the site of Dancer's severed hand and threatens to call the police, sending Roebuck scrambling to find Dale and have his good name be cleared.
* SophisticatedAsHell: The G.H.O.U.L.S devour their victims in a large, fancy, underground dining hall, set up with utensils, candles, dipping sauces, wet naps, etc.
* TunnelNetwork: The G.H.O.U.L.S are shown to live in a network of underground passages built beneath the cemetery for the homeless they established.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Jess, Climsky, Copard and the rest of the ghouls, who masquerade as efficient, powerful, and well-meaning people while disguised, even having connections with city officials.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: Dancer, Roebuck's friend who is eaten by one of the ghouls.
* WhatTheHellHero: A dying Roebuck calls Dale out for having sex with Jess instead of waiting in the cemetery like he was supposed to.
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: According to the Crypt Keeper, after his death Dale managed to get a new job as a "ghostwriter".
* WorldOfJerkass: Nearly every character in the episode, human and ghoul alike, treats Dale like shit, including his smarmy rival Climsky, who is actually in league with the ghouls, and his boss Elaine, who refuses to give him back his job and almost has security called on him.
* YouWouldntBelieveMeIfIToldYou: Roebuck knows the true identity of the homeless killer(s), but he doesn't tell Dale who it is because he would think he had "a kink in his Slinky".

->'''Crypt Keeper:''' ''(wearing a dinner jacket and eating meat off a bone, with a plate of similar bones in front of him; he tosses the bone over his shoulder)'' Mmmmm... pretty ''tasteless'', wouldn't you say? I guess in the end, Mr. Sweeney learned not to go ''digging'' into other people's business. Although you'll be happy to hear he's found himself a new career... as a ''ghostwriter!'' ''(cackles)'' So, still hungry for dessert? I hope you like ''Cannibal's'' Soup! ''(holds up a ladle with a skull in it)'' It's mmm-mmm good! ''(cackles)''