History Recap / TalesFromTheCryptS4E1NoneButTheLonelyHeart

* AdaptationalVillainy: Howard. His counterpart in the comic murdered his wives, but ''only'' his wifes. He also knew when to cut his losses, and was going to give up his scheme when he found his latest mark. The episode's version of Howard is a full on psychopath who kills anyone and everyone he thinks might be on to him, even his accomplices.

[[caption-width-right:350:Til death, as they say...]]

->'''Crypt Keeper:''' ''(dressed as a waiter and tending to a skeletal couple at a table; he stands by another skeleton playing a violin)'' Damn you, Marcel! I told you they wanted ''violence'', not ''violins!'' (''he smacks the skeleton and knocks it over'') Good help is so hard to ''fiend'', isn't it, kiddies? Want a little more cham-''pain''? ''(snickers)'' I hope you're hungry for tonight's murderous menu. It concerns a man who's discovered that the fastest way to a woman's heart... is with a pickaxe! I call this tasty little ''horror'' d'oeuvre: '''None But the Lonely Heart.'''

Howard Prince (Creator/TreatWilliams) is a sociopathic criminal who routinely courts rich and single old women. He seduces these women hard enough that they agree to tie the knot with him, and once they hand over all their goods to him, he poisons them and leaves them to die while he reaps their riches to his twisted heart's content. Howard's partner Morty informs him that his rather hefty bank account has been noticed by the IRS, who have frozen it and have sent Howard a subpoena for tax evasion. Upon hearing this, Howard decides to seduce one last old lady before he goes on the run, and settles on Ephie Gluckman. However, Howard begins discovering that someone has been delivering notes to him, saying that they know all about what he's done. When the notes don't stop coming even after he murders one potential culprit after another, Howard goes mad with paranoia trying to find his actual blackmailer.

!!Tropes:
* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: In the comic, Howard gets dragged into a coffin by an undead woman (one he didn't kill, by the way) to spend eternity with his "new bride." In this episode, he suffers an even more ghastly fate, courtesy of the reanimated corpses of his murdered wives.
* AdaptationalVillainy: Howard. His counterpart in the comic murdered his wives too, but nobody else. He also knew when to cut his losses, and was even going to give up his scheme when he found his latest mark. Here, Howard was full on AxeCrazy and killed anyone and everyone he thought might be on to him, even his accomplices.
* AgeGapRomance: Howard's chosen victims are rich old ladies looking for a male friend to spend their last years with.
* AlliterativeName: One of Howard's wives was named '''Ma'''tilda '''Ma'''son.
* AssholeVictim: [[TheBluebeard Howard Prince]], arguably one of the biggest ones on the entire show. There's also his accomplice, Morty, who assisted him in his murders.
* AsYouKnow: Morty and Howard's banter lets the audience know about Howard's racket, and the fact that Howard already murdered his first two wives.
* AxeCrazy: When his plan starts to fall apart, Howard very quickly switches gears from a charming manipulator to a homicidal lunatic.
* BattleButler: Subverted. Ephie's butler Stanhope catches onto Howard and holds him at gunpoint, but Howard manages to overcome him by calling his bluff and correctly deducing that he doesn't have it in him to pull the trigger.
* BittersweetEnding: The entire cast is dead by the end, but Howard still ended up paying for his ''many'' crimes.
* {{Blackmail}}: The notes Howard is given warn him to stop playing with old women's emotions or face the consequences.
* TheBluebeard: Howard is a classic case of the trope. He preys on rich and lonely elderly women, charms them into marrying him, before finally murdering them for their fortune.
* TheCameo: World famous boxer Sugar Ray Leonard plays the gravedigger.
* CassandraTruth: The gravedigger at the cemetery tried to warn Howard who was sending the notes to him and what was coming. Howard didn't listen and killed him, since he seemed to be the only possible person who was sending him the notes.
* ContinuityNod; The episode's writer, Terry Black, is credited as [[Recap/TalesFromTheCryptS3E7TheReluctantVampire Donald Longtooth]].
* CoversAlwaysLie: The comic book image for the episode shows Howard shoving an old woman in a wedding dress down a fight of stairs. Howard does do that with Ephie Gluckman, but she isn't wearing a wedding dress when it happens.
* CreatorCameo: Creator/TomHanks, who directed this episode, plays Baxter, the video dating service manager who helps Howard pick out potential marks.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Howard inflicts these on the old ladies he pretends to fall in love with. His male victims fare no better, with him crushing Morty's windpipe by jamming his tie in a document shredder, shoving Baxter's head through a tv screen, breaking Stanhope's neck, and then impaling the gravedigger with his shovel. Howard himself ends the episode by falling victim to a particularly horrific and painful one, where he is [[DevouredByTheHorde slowly, gruesomely, and very painfully devoured by the zombified corpses of the old women he murdered]].
* DevouredByTheHorde: How [[TheBluebeard Howard]] [[AssholeVictim meets his death]], courtesy of his zombified wives.
* DiabolusExMachina: While Howard's zombified ex-wives give the sick bastard what he deserves, their reveal, as well as the reason they reanimated, is never given any reason or foreshadowing whatsoever.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Believing that the gravedigger was wasting his time, Howard pointlessly kills the man with his own shovel.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: As much of a monster as Howard is, he says that he wouldn't just take their money and leave them to die broke and alone. In his words, he does his victims a favor by making them happy and loved before he kills them. How much of that is bullshit he tells himself, like Morty seems to think, is up to interpretation.
* EverybodyDiesEnding: One of the few episodes where the ENTIRE cast is dead by the end. Or in Howard's case, however long it takes for the zombies of the older women he played to eat him alive.

* GenreShift: The story seems like a down to Earth tale about a disgusting murderer. The final minutes reveal that the zombies of Howard's ex-wives were the ones sending him the notes.

* GoldDigger: Howard, who marries rich old widows, kills them, and steals all their assets.
* HateSink: The episode does everything it can to remind you that Howard is an utterly irredeemable monster. He's a SerialKiller, an absolute {{Jerkass}} to anyone he interacts with, and possesses no likeable or redeeming qualities of any kind (he even murders '''''Creator/TomHanks!''''') Watching him being devoured alive by the old ladies whose lonely hearts he fooled with is downright cathartic, after everything he is shown doing.
* HeadSmashesScreen: Baxter croaks when Howard rams his head through the video dating place's TV. In a [[BlackComedy bit of screwed up humor]], the TV keeps sparking and causing Baxter's corpse to twitch until Howard uses the remote to turn the TV off.
* IgnoredEnamoredUnderling: It's implied that Stanhope looks up and threatens Howard due to him having a thing for Ephie in addition to caring for her as his employer.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Howard subjects this fate to the gravedigger, the only other logical culprit behind the notes, with the business end of his own shovel.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Howard's self-absorbed nature is what leads to his doom: he didn't listen to anyone because what they tell him is not how ''he'' wants it to be.
* IWarnedYou: The gravedigger warns Howard that "they" are coming for him and that he better run. Howard doesn't heed this warning and kills the guy with his own shovel.

* KarmicTwistEnding: Howard is devoured by the wives he brutally murdered.
* KickTheDog: Howard basically spends the entire episode doing this. Of particular note is him lamenting that it was such a shame to waste such a nice bottle of wine after poisoning his first onscreen victim.
* KillerOutfit: When Howard kills Morty, he demonstrates why neckties and shredders are a really bad combination.
* LackOfEmpathy: Howard and his partner Morty aren't sad even a smidge after their deeds.
* LikesOlderWomen: Howard does, or at least, he likes their money.
* TheLoinsSleepTonight: Howard tells Ephie that he (falsely) suffers from impotence, excusing why he isn't able to perform that well in bed.
* TheLostLenore: Ephie's departed husband Theodore, whom she still holds a candle for at first.
* LoveHurts: Howard's victims really ''do'' love him. They love him so much that they literally can't die without him, so they'll take a piece (or several) of him with them to the grave.
* ManipulativeBastard: Howard. In spades.
* MurderIsTheBestSolution: Even by this show's standards, Howard is a murder junkie.
* MysteriousNote: Howard is given notes from an unidentified source who knows what he's done and warns him to stop doing it before he kills Ephie. The end of the episode reveals that his undead wives are the culprits.
* NeckSnap: How Howard kills Stanhope.
* NoHonorAmongThieves: Howard is more than willing to kill his accomplice, Morty, should he suspect him of trying to blackmail him.
* NoNameGiven: The gravedigger.
* NotQuiteDead: Howard's poison doesn't kill Ephie like it did the other brides, so he improvises by [[StaircaseTumble shoving her down her stairs]].
* NothingPersonal: Howard insists that what he does is just business. No one else believes him... and for good reason.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Each of Howard's wives are in different states of decomposition. Ephie and Matilda, his most recent victims, are still freshly rotting and slimy. Elizabeth, his second wife, is a dried up husk. Clair, his ''first'' wife, is a worm-riddled skeleton in a torn and ragged wedding dress.
* PoeticSerialKiller: Howard watches Matilda writhe and die from poisoned wine while reciting Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress".
* PoisonedDrinkDrop: Howard's usual modus operandi for snuffing out a victim is to give them poisoned wine.
* ThePowerOfLove: Howard's wives' love for him allow them to return from the grave, saying that they can't live (or die) without him.
* ProperlyParanoid: Ephie could apparently sense that all Howard wanted from her was her money. The man's sweet talk managed to talk her out of it.
* RedHerring: Every man who isn't Howard seems to have valid reasons for sending him the notes, which keep coming after he kills them, with Stanhope being the most prominent. With everyone else dead, Howard assumes the gravedigger at the cemetery, who picked up a piece of his suit and pocketed it before digging Matilda's grave, is behind the mysterious notes. He's the one who delivered the notes, but he was doing so because Howard's undead brides asked him to.
* {{Sadist}}: Howard ''very'' much enjoys killing, as much as he insists that it's NothingPersonal.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Morty reminds Howard that the authorities are closing in on them, saying that their bank accounts have been frozen and they're due before a grand jury in 11 days. While Morty's content to take what money they have left and flee to a country with no extradition treaty, Howard doesn't listen, his greed making him tell Morty that they aren't ready to leave the US just yet.
* SerialKiller: Howard's first on-screen kill is actually his third InUniverse victim.
* SerialSpouse: Howard ends the episode with a total of four wives, one he murders late in the episode, one he murders in the beginning, and two more that he married and murdered before the episode began.
* TheSociopath: Howard feigns love and empathy to reel in his victims, then kills them without mercy.
* StaircaseTumble: This is how Ephie ultimately meets her maker.
* StealthPun: Howard ''Prince'' is a manipulative and murderous psychopath. He's a literal PrinceCharmless.
* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: Howard's ''modus operandi'' with his wives is to kill them with poisoned wine. He doesn't show such a way with his male victims, and Ephie's death show's he's willing to MakeItLookLikeAnAccident if need be.
* TerribleIntervieweesMontage: Howard spends one scene fast forwarding through dating videos of rich old widows he plans to kill. None of their applications are any good to him, until he comes across Ephie.
* TogetherInDeath: This is the goal of Howard's zombified ex-wives, and they accomplish it in a rather gruesome manner.
* VillainProtagonist: Howard Prince, one of the biggest ever to appear on the show.
* VillainsWantMercy: In the last moments of his life, Howard begs his undead wives not to kill him. They do.

* WouldHarmASenior: Howard preys exclusively on rich elderly widows who desperately want some company in their twilight years.
* WrongGenreSavvy: Howard assumed his accomplice Morty, and eventually dating service owner Baxter, Ephie's butler Stanhope, or the gravedigger who buried his wives, were the ones attempting to blackmail him. He wishes.
* YouWouldntShootMe: When Stanhope holds Howard at gunpoint and threatens to shoot him unless he breaks up with Ephie, Howard calls his bluff, realizing that as protective as the man is about Ephie, he doesn't have it in him to kill someone. Sadly for Stanhope, Howard doesn't have that problem, and uses the chance to [[NeckSnap break his neck]].

->'''Crypt Keeper:''' ''(still tending to the skeletal couple, filling a wine glass for them)'' Now that's what I call a happy ending. I had a feeling Ephie would win Howard's heart. Not to mention his spleen, his kidneys, and his gall bladder! ''(cackles)'' So, will there be anything else? ''(the woman-dressed skeleton's head falls off and shatters)'' Mmmmm. I love a ''ghoul'' who gives you ''head''... and then lets you keep it! ''(cackles)''

* HeadSmashesScreen: Baxter croaks when Howard rams his head through the video dating place's TV.

* HighVoltageDeath: Baxter croaks when Howard rams his head through the video dating place's TV.

Howard Prince (Creator/TreatWilliams) is a sociopathic criminal who routinely courts rich and single old women. He seduces these women hard enough that they agree to tie the knot with him, and once they hand over all their goods to him, he poisons them and leaves them to die while he reaps their riches to his twisted heart's content. Howard's partner Morty informs him that his rather hefty bank account has been noticed by the IRS, who have frozen it and have sent Howard a subpoena for tax evasion. Upon hearing this, Howard decides to seduce one last old lady before he goes on the run, and settles on Ephie Gluckman. However, Howard begins discovering that someone has been delivering notes to him, saying that they know all about what he's done. When the notes don't stop coming even after he murders one potential culprit after another, Howard to go mad with paranoia trying to find his actual blackmailer.

* RedHerring: Every man who isn't Howard seems to have valid reasons for sending him the notes, which keep coming after he kills them, with Stanhope being the most prominent. With everyone else dead, Howard assumes the gravedigger at the cemetery, who picked up a piece of his suit and pocketed it before digging Matilda's grave, is behind the mysterious notes. He's the one who deliver the notes, but he was doing so because Howard's undead brides asked him to.

Howard Prince (Creator/TreatWilliams) is a sociopathic criminal who routinely courts rich and single old women. He seduces these woman hard enough that they agree to tie the knot with him, and once they hand over all their goods to him, he poisons them and leaves them to die while he reaps their riches to his twisted heart's content. Howard's partner Morty informs him that his rather hefty bank account has been noticed by the IRS, who have frozen it and have sent Howard a subpoena for tax evasion. Upon hearing this, Howard decides to seduce one last old lady before he goes on the run, and settles on Ephie Gluckman. However, Howard begins discovering that someone has been delivering notes to him, saying that they know all about what he's done. When the notes don't stop coming even after he murders one potential culprit after another, Howard to go mad with paranoia trying to find his actual blackmailer.

* KillEmAll: One of the few episodes where the ENTIRE cast is dead by the end. Or in Howard's case, however long it takes for the zombies of the older women he played to eat him alive.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: As much of a monster as Howard is, he says that he wouldn't just take their money and leave them to die broke and alone. In his words, he does his victims a favor by making them happy and loved before he kills them. How much of that is bullshit he tells himself

* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: Howard's ''modus operandi'' with his wives is to kill them with poisoned wine. He doesn't show such a way with his male victims, and Ephie's death show's he's willing to [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident]] if need be.

->'''Crypt Keeper:''' ''(dressed as a waiter and tending to a skeletal couple at a table; he stands by another skeleton playing a violin)'' Damn you, Marcel! I told you they wanted ''violence'', not ''violins!'' Good help is so hard to ''fiend'', isn't it, kiddies? Want a little more cham-''pain''? ''(snickers)'' I hope you're hungry for tonight's murderous menu. It concerns a man who's discovered that the fastest way to a woman's heart... is with a pickaxe! I call this tasty little ''horror'' d'oeuvre: '''None But the Lonely Heart.'''

* KillerOutfut: When Howard kills Morty, he demonstrates why neckties and shredders are a really bad combination.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: As much of a monster as Howard is, he says that he wouldn't just take their money and leave them to die broke and alone. In his words, he does his victims a favor by making them happy and loved before he kills them.

* VillainsWantMercy: In the last moments of his life, Howard begs his undead wives not to kill him.

[[caption-width-right:255:Til death, as they say...]]

Sociopathic criminal Howard Prince (Creator/TreatWilliams) courts older women, forces them to tie the knot, and once they have handed over all their goods to him, kills them and leaves them to die. However, someone starts delivering notes to Howard saying he knows all about what he is doing, and his scheme begins to fall apart...

----

* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: In the comic, Howard gets dragged into a coffin by an undead woman (one he didn't kill, by the way) to spend eternity with his "new bride." In this episode, he suffers an even more ghastly fate.
* AdaptationalVillainy: Howard. His counterpart in the comic murdered his wives too, but nobody else. He also knew when to cut his losses, and was even going to give up his scheme when he found his latest mark. Here, Howard was full AxeCrazy and killed anyone he thought might be on to him, even his accomplices.
* AssholeVictim: [[TheBluebeard Howard Prince]]. Arguably one of the biggest ones on the entire show. As well as his accomplice, Morty, since he assisted him in his murders.
* AxeCrazy: When his plan starts to fall apart, Howard very quickly switches from a charming manipulator to a homicidal lunatic.
* BittersweetEnding: The entire cast is dead by the end, but Howard still ended up paying for his many crimes.
* TheBluebeard: Howard is the classic. He preys on lonely elderly women, charms them into marrying them, before finally murdering them for their fortune.
* CassandraTruth: The groundskeeper at the cemetery tried to warn Howard what was coming. Howard didn't listen and killed him.
* CreatorCameo: Creator/TomHanks directed this episode and plays Baxter.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Howard inflicts these on victims and then falls victim to a particularly horrific and painful one at the very end, as he is [[DevouredByTheHorde slowly, gruesomely and very painfully devoured by the zombies of the old women he murdered]].
* DevouredByTheHorde: How [[TheBluebeard Howard]] [[AssholeVictim meets his end]].
* DisproportionateRetribution: Believing that the groundskeeper was wasting his time, Howard pointlessly kills the man with his own shovel.
* DirtyCoward: Howard is a smug and sadistic bastard for most of the work, but when he's cornered by his victims all he can do is scream and cry.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Howard can turn out the charm, but he's really irredeemable.
* GenreShift: The story seems like a down to Earth tale about a disgusting murderer. The final minutes reveal zombies were the ones sending him notes.
* GhostlyGoals: "We couldn't live without you. And can't die without you."
* GoldDigger: When you marry and murder for money...
* HateSink: The episode does everything it can to remind you that Howard is an irredeemable monster. He's a SerialKiller, an absolute {{Jerkass}} to anyone he interacts with, and possesses no likeable or redeeming qualities of any kind. Watching him being devoured alive is downright cathartic after everything he is shown doing.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Howard's self-absorbed nature is what les to his doom: he didn't listen to anyone because it's not how ''he'' wanted it. It was his death sentence!
* IWarnedYou: The groundskeeper warns Howard that "they" are coming for him and that he better run. Howard doesn't heed this warning and instead kills the guy.
* {{Jerkass}}: Howard is an absolute prick when he isn't killing innocent old ladies.
* KarmicTwistEnding: Howard is devoured by his victims.

* KillEmAll: One of the few episodes where the ENTIRE cast is dead by the end. Or in Howard's case, however long it takes for the zombies of the older women to eat him alive.
* LackOfEmpathy: Howard and his partner doesn't sad even a bit after their deeds.
* LoveHurts: Howard's victims really do love him. They love him so much they literally can't die without him, so they'll take a piece (or several) of him with them to the grave.

* MurderIsTheBestSolution: Even by this show's standards, Howard is a murderholic.

* NothingPersonal: Howard insists that what he does is just business. No one else believes him and for good reason.
* RedHerring: With everyone else dead, Howard assumes the groundskeeper is behind all this. Oh, he delivered the notes, but he was doing so because Howard's dead brides asked him to.
* {{Sadist}}: Howard very much enjoys killing, as much as he insists that it's NothingPersonal.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Morty reminds Howard that the authorities are closing in on them and that they're due before a grand jury in 11 days. He's content to take what money they've gotten and flee to a country with no extradition treaty. Howard doesn't listen.
* SerialKiller: Howard's first on-screen kill is his third victim.

* VillainProtagonist: Howard Prince.
* VillainsWantMercy: The last moments of his life Howard begs his dead wives don't kill him.
* WrongGenreSavvy: Howard assumed his accomplice or a bystander who was attempting to blackmail him. He wishes.
* YouWouldntShootMe: When Stanhope holds him at gunpoint and threatens to shoot Howard unless he breaks up with Effie, Howard calls his bluff, realizing that as protective as the butler is about Effie, he doesn't have it in him to kill someone. Sadly for Stanhope, Howard doesn't have that problem and uses the chance to [[NeckSnap break his neck]].

* BitterSweetEnding: The entire cast is dead by the end, but Howard still ended up paying for his many crimes.

* HateSink: The episode does everything it can to remind you that Howard is an irredeemable monster. He's a SerialKiller, an absolute {{Jerkass}} to anyone he interacts with, and possesses no likeable or redeeming qualities of any kind. Watching him being devoured alive is downright carthatic after everything he is shown doing.

* HateSink: The episode does everything it can to remind you that Howard is a totally irredeemable monster. He's a SerialKiller, an absolute {{Jerkass}} to anyone he interacts with, and possesses no likeable or redeeming qualities of any kind. Watching him being devoured alive is downright carthatic after everything he is shown doing.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Believing that the groundskeeper was wasting his time after the man warns him that "they" are coming for him, Howard pointlessly kills the man with his own shovel.