Follow TV Tropes

Following

Recap / Tales From The Crypt S 6 E 13 Comes The Dawn

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/comes_the_dawn.jpg
30 Days of Night: The Prequel.

Crypt Keeper: (lounging on a deck chair on the beach, wearing sunglasses) Ahhhh. (to the camera) Oh, hello creeps! It's your old pal, the big scare-huna, enjoying a little surf and sand. (to a blonde woman in a bikini lounging next to him) Hey, babe. Want me to rub a little sun tan lotion on you? (the woman moans in agreement and holds her hair up) Mmmm. Boy, do I love the beach. (removes his shades, just as a muscular bully runs past, kicking sand in the Keeper's face in the process) Hey, hey, hey, hey! Hey, you, watch it!
Bully: Get a tan!
Crypt Keeper: Boy, I hate getting sand kicked in my face. I'm not your average 98 pound weakling, you know. For one thing, I don't weigh that much. I tell you kiddies, I'm going to get that guy! Which brings to mind the two men in tonight's terror tale. (the woman hands him the book containing the story) They're on a little shriek and destroy mission of their own, in a nasty undertaking I call: Comes the Dawn.

Colonel Thomas Parker (Michael Ironside) and Sergeant Burrows (Bruce Payne), veterans of Operation Desert Storm, arrive at a bar in rural Alaska during a brutal snowstorm. When they express an interest in doing some illegal big-game hunting, Mona the bartender (Susan Tyrrell) calls the sheriff's office to turn them in, prompting Burrows to kill her. The two men try to enlist Mona's ex-girlfriend, former game warden Jeri Drumbeater (Vivian Wu), as a hunting guide. Jeri turns them down, but Parker notices a Purple Heart medal pinned to a teddy bear in her room, playing on her status as a fellow veteran of Desert Storm to secure her help.

Jeri takes Parker and Burrows to an abandoned weather station that grizzly bears have started using as a hibernation site. She explains that the building had been boarded up after children in the area suddenly started disappearing. As Parker scouts the area, Jeri learns from Burrows that the two men are trafficking in black-market animal parts. She offers to help Burrows kill Parker and start her own partnership with him, not realizing that Parker has already returned and is listening in on the conversation. He has found the severed head of a grizzly and believes that Jeri is trying to trick them.

Burrows holds Jeri at gunpoint, but she flees when a noise distracts them, turning off the station's generator to plunger the soldiers into darkness. As the noise continues, Parker and Burrows stumble across a room filled with bloody, fleshy cocoons suspended from the ceiling. They also find a young girl asking for their help to get home. She reveals herself to be a vampire and flees, just as Jeri returns and confronts Parker with the truth about her Purple Heart: it was recieved posthumously. Parker had mistakenly killed her and everyone else in her unit via an artillery strike. Having been undead ever since, she has been living among the vampires that infest the area - the cause of the missing children and the dead bear - and waiting for a chance to seek revenge against Parker for killing her. The vampires leave her alone because her blood is inedible to them, having been poisoned by heavy exposure to chemical weapons.

In a panic, Burrows shoots Parker, then abandons him to be eaten by the vampires as he flees to Jeri's cabin. Along the way, he gets his foot caught in one of his own bear traps. He plans to finish off Jeri and the vampires once the sun comes up. A digital clock in the cabin reads 10:03 am, even though the sky is still dark, just as Mona - now a vampire herself - ambushes him. Burrows impales her through the chest just as Jeri returns with the other vampires in tow. She casually explains that due to how far north they are, the sun will not rise for another two months. Jeri sics the horde on the traitorous Burrows, watching in satisfaction has he's torn to pieces, her death having been avenged.

Not to be confused with the Season 5 episode Came The Dawn


Tropes:

  • Abandoned Area: The vampires are revealed to nest in an abandoned weather station. Jeri fools Parker and Burrows into going inside by claiming that grizzlies use it for hibernating.
  • Agony of the Feet: Burrows steps in one of his own bear traps as he escapes the vampires, and spends the rest of the episode with the thing stuck to his foot.
  • All of the Other Reindeer: Jeri claims that she's the ultimate outcast, even being unable to join the ranks of the vampires infesting the town because of her highly toxic and inedible blood.
  • And Then John Was a Zombie: Jeri is revealed to have been a zombie all along, having been shelled in an artillery strike in Jalib Ash.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Jeri gets her revenge on both Burrows and Parker by letting the vampires eat them alive. It's perfectly justifiable since Parker killed her in Desert Storm and she's seeking legitimate revenge.
  • Badass Biker: Mona, who dresses as a biker and tends the bar she works in.
  • Badass Normal: Burrows is able to fight off against several vampires while his foot is caught in a bear trap, and he even manages to take a few of the bloodsuckers with him before he's overwhelmed and devoured.
  • The Beastmaster: Jeri is safe from being fed on by the vampires because her blood, contaminated by chemicals when she died, is inedible to them. She is revealed to have nutured them, trained them to serve her, and sics them on the soldiers responsible for her death when they try to escape.
  • Big "NO!": Mona's last words as she is staked in the chest by Burrows.
  • Bisexual Love Triangle: Jeri, a former corporal and game warden, finds herself in a love triangle between her ex-lover Mona and the male Burrows, whom she lusts after.
  • Black Market: Parker and Burrows are hinted to deal with black market animal trafficiking, hence why they're poachers. Jeri can tell that they specifically target endangered animals like grizzlies by stating that the gallbladder of a grizzly is worth $64,000 by itself.
  • Boom, Headshot!: How Parker and Burrows originally kill Mona. It doesn't work once the ending comes along.
  • Boyish Short Hair: Mona sports a short haircut to accentuate how stereotypically lesbian she is.
  • Butch Lesbian: Mona the bartender, who has a boyish haircut, a tough-as-nails attitude, and an extreme dislike towards men, particularly Parker and Burrows.
  • Call-Back: Parker is played by Michael Ironside, who played the equally villainous Jerry Jasper in The Sacrifice.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Mona's penchance for cigars. Burrows spots a lit one in the cabin, letting him know that he isn't alone.
  • Chill of Undeath: Upon encountering a little girl in the station, Parker discovers that her skin is freezing. This is the case because she's one of the vampires.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Mona, who still carries a torch for Jeri (despite the two women having broken up), and she goes to great lengths to keep Jeri all to herself, even if she has to murder on Burrows.
  • Cold Ham: Parker and Burrows are stoic as they are villainous, though Burrows is less stoic than Parker.
  • Decapitation Presentation: Parker finding the severed head of a grizzly bear in the weather station is what tips him off that something is very wrong.
  • Decoy Damsel: Parker and Burrows come across a little girl in the weather station who needs help going home. She reveals herself as a vampire and nearly kills them when they fall for it.
  • Depraved Bisexual: Jeri, who had a sexual relationship with Mona and has no qualms in shamelessly trying to seduce Parker. Her attitude implies she doesn't care who she sleeps with, or who she hurts in the process, as long as she gets what she wants.
  • Devoured by the Horde: How Burrows and Parker meet their deaths.
  • Dirty Coward: Burrows shoots Parker and leaves him to die so he can escape the vampires.
  • Double Entendre: Jeri's lecherous reminiscing about her sexual relationship with Mona, which leaves Burrows flustered and clearing his throat uncomfortably.
    Jeri: You know, Burrows, you don't have to try so hard. I'm all yours if you want me.
    Burrows: What about your friend, the bartender?
    Jeri: I like men, too. Burrows, it's all meat. Some you eat and some you kiss...
    Burrows: Oh, well, uh, the lesbian thing, I understand. It's you I can't figure. I mean, how can you be with a woman with such a rotten mouth?
    Jeri: That's what made the relationship possible.
  • Does Not Like Men: Mona the bartender expresses furious hatred towards Parker and Burrows. While she doesn't like men in general, she comes down harder on them because they're poachers.
  • Eaten Alive: Parker and Burrows, both of them by the vampires.
  • Establishing Character Moment: Parkers and Burrows shamelessly revealing that they intend to illegally hunt grizzlies, then having the latter shoot Mona in the head when she goes to call the sherriff.
  • "Eureka!" Moment: Parker spotting the Purple Heart on Jeri's teddy bear, playing on her veteran status to order her into assisting their illegal hunting.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Mona may be a murderous vampire who is very obssessed with her ex-girlfriend, but she utterly despises Parkers and Burrows when she learns that they're poachers. She also showed strong resentment to Jeri when she caught her fishing with dynamite, turning her in to the sherriff herself.
  • Evil Poacher: Parker and Burrows, a pair of Gulf War veterans turned poachers who wind up squaring off against a bunch of vampires while illegally hunting bears in Alaska.
  • Evil Versus Evil: Parker and Burrows, former soldiers who killed their own men by accident and have since become poachers, versus the vengeful, undead Jeri and a nest of hungry vampires.
  • Fan Disservice: Mona's rotten teeth. There's also the scene where Jeri unveils her bullet wounds, which are given a close-up.
  • Fanservice: Jeri seducing Burrows, nearly giving him a blowjob. There's also the explicit details she gives regarding her sexual relationship with Mona.
  • Fang Thpeak: Mona talks like this, even in human form, thanks to her teeth.
  • Foreshadowing: Remember the red cocktail that Mona pours herself in the opening scene? And her mouth full of rotting teeth?
    • Jeri's Purple Heart also bares the words "Wounds Suffered in Battle", which Jeri herself confirms. She later reveals that said wounds were fatal.
      • Parker also reminisces about the fight where she sustained the wounds, being the one who shelled her unit. The shocked reaction Jeri has to Parker admitting that he was the man who gave the order to shell her platoon seals the deal.
    • Jeri informs the soldiers that a group of children turned the former weather station into a makeshift playhouse before they disappeared. One of these children confronts Parker and Burrows, revealing herself and the rest of the townsfolk to have been vampirized.
    • As she seduces Burrows and goes down on him, Jeri claims that she's "ready to die again."
  • Friendly Fire: Jeri was killed this way, as Parker called in a mortar strike on her platoon without realizing it.
  • From Camouflage to Criminal: The protagonists are a pair of amoral Gulf War veterans turned poachers who end up fighting vampires in the Alaskan wilderness.
  • Gameface: The vampires sport these when they're hungry, as well as when they're about to go in for the kill.
  • Gender-Blender Name: Jeri Drumbeater. It's because of her name that Burrows and Parker mistakenly believed she was a man.
  • Gender-Concealing Writing: Mona's ex, Jeri, whom both Parker and Burrows assumed to be male on account of the name, only to be met with a beautiful young woman upon interviewing her for the whereabouts of the person with said name.
  • Girl on Girl Is Hot: Discussed and lampshaded In-Universe by Burrows and Jeri, as she attempts to seduce him when he asks about her relationship with her "friend", Mona.
  • Grim Up North: The episode is set in a rural town in Alaska, which is in the midst of a heavy snowstorm and gets months of darkness at a time. Burrows outright calls the place "Butthole, Alaska" because of its conditions, claiming it to be "colder than a witch's left one".
  • He Knows Too Much: Parker and Burrows kill Mona to prevent her from alerting the sheriff about their illegal poaching.
  • Hell Is That Noise: The unearthly screeching of the vampires, which is heavily reminiscent of the sound of babies crying.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Burrows steps into one of his own bear traps while fleeing back to Jeri's cabin.
  • Hope Spot: Burrows manages to escape Jeri and the vampires, kills Mona for good, and believes he can hold out until the sun comes up... only for the clock to turn 10:00 AM, and its still dark out.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Mona is staked through the heart with a fire poker by Burrows when she tries to feed on him to get back with Jeri.
  • Instant Fish Kill: Jeri is said by Mona to have been caught by the sherriff fishing with dynamite, Mona being the one who turned her in.
  • Interrupted Intimacy: Jeri is about to give Burrows oral sex before Parker returns with a severed bear head.
  • Interspecies Romance: Jeri and Mona's relationship is revealed to have been one of these, once it's proven that they're a respective zombie and vampire.
  • I Owe You My Life: As payment for supposedly saving her ass in Desert Storm, Parker orders Jeri to accompany them on their hunting trip, claiming that she owes him.
  • Irony: While the episode is set in the frozen wilderness of Alaska, the Crypt Keeper's framing segments have him lounging on the beach.
  • The Lad-ette: Mona, who drinks heavily, smokes cigars, wears biker leather, and behaves very masculinely.
  • Lady Looks Like a Dude: Mona, in her introductory scene. She eats, drinks, smokes, belches, dresses in biker leather, and behaves very manly, even when she puts on her lipstick.
  • Leave No Witnesses: Parker and Burrows shoot Mona in the head after she attempts to phone the sheriff about their grizzly hunting.
  • Lesbian Vampire: Mona the bartender, very much so.
  • Lipstick Lesbian: Jeri, who has a more feminine appearance in comparison to her ex, Mona.
  • Love Triangle: One between Mona/Jeri/Burrows.
  • Mandatory Unretirement: Jeri claims to be out of the poaching game, but she is coerced by Parker exploiting her status as a verteran of Desert Storm to order him and burrows with nabbing a grizzly bear.
  • Murder Is the Best Solution: Jeri proposing that she and Burrows take out Parker together. It doesn't work.
  • Murder the Hypotenuse: Mona attempts to murder Parker after vamping out, as she sees him as competition over her ex-girlfriend Jeri.
  • The Neidermeyer: Parker was one of these in Desert Storm, though by the time of the episode he’s since become a poacher. He gets his comeuppance when Jeri, who also served in Desert Storm, was killed when he called in an air strike where she and her platoon were stationed. She gets her revenge by tricking him and his partner into getting devoured by vampires.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Parker and Burrows say that they shot "the enemy" down at Jalib Ash and saved Jeri's life. Jeri reveals that they actually shot down their own men, her included, as she reveals her bullet wounds to them.
  • Nightmare Face: Mona, when she's revealed to have survived being shot and attempts to kill Parker to get Jeri back.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: Apparently, Mona's horrific dental hygiene is what made a sexual relationship between her and Jeri possible.
  • No Bisexuals: Parker has this attitude when Jeri seduces him, as he believes she and Mona are still lesbian lovers and only such. Jeri corrects him on that, as she is actually bisexual and therefore likes men, too.
  • No Honor Among Thieves: Burrows and Parker are perfectly willing to stab the other in the back to get what they want, such as the former leaving his superior to be eaten by the vampires while he escapes.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: Jeri claims that the vampires are the former people of her town, who became what they are after they were infected with some kind of virus. The reasons why a virus that is able to mutate people into vampires was created, and where it originally came from, are left completely unexplained.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Parker and Burrows have this reaction when they discover Jeri has led the two men into a nest of hungry vampires.
    • Burrows has a few more when he sees that it's 10:00 am and it's still dark outside, as well as when he sees a lit cigar burning out, meaning that someone is inside the cabin with him.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: The vampires in the episode come in two forms: standard, human-looking vampires with bestial Game Faces, and slimy, goblin-like, nonverbal beasts who sleep in fleshy sacs on the ceiling. Jeri implies that it was an unknown virus that slowly infected the townspeople with vampirism, starting with the children.
  • Our Zombies Are Different: Jeri became a zombie after Parker mistakenly killed her in an air strike. She still maintains her human appearance and her beauty, since most of the undead stuff is on the inside, such as poisioned blood.
  • Picky People Eater: Jeri's blood was contaminated by chemical weapons during the air strike that killed her, so the vampires aren't able to feast on her.
  • Poisonous Person: Jeri reveals that her blood is highly toxic after she was killed with chemical weapons, which is why the vampires don't feed on her.
  • Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Mona, who holds a pretty strong torch for Jeri and goes crazy trying to kill Burrows, who she sees as a challenger for Jeri's love.
  • Psycho Lesbian: Mona, who refuses service for Burrows and Parker and attempts to have them arrested, and this is before she reveals herself to be a vampire, where she goes so far as to kill Burrows so she could keep Jeri to herself.
  • Queer Establishing Moment: Mona's introduction. She downs a mysterious red-colored cocktail in four gulps, belches loudly, wipes the bar counter clean, smokes a cigar, kicks the stereo with her biker boot so that it stops skipping, takes something out of the leather jacket pocket. It's lipstick, which she applies to her face.
  • Rousing Speech: Parker gaslights Jeri with one of these, claiming that it wasn't her fault she was wounded in battle, and riling her up to enlist herself into his and Burrows' service. Of course, what actually got her to agree is him revealing that he was the one who killed her, albeit indirectly.
  • Samus Is a Girl: The trope is used twice within the first few minutes of the episode, with the introduction of the very-lesbian Mona, then with her ex Jeri, who Parker and Burrows assumed to be male.
  • Scary Teeth: Mona has a mouth full of brown, rotten teeth, big enough that she speaks with a lisp. Being a cigar-chomping, beer-gulping vampire, it's excusable.
  • Shout-Out: Parker was apparently commander of the 4077th infantry.
    • Burrows gives what he calls "a Sherlock Holmes moment" for Mona when asking about where to find grizzlies.
  • Sociopathic Soldier: Parker and Burrows, the former revealed to have mistakenly killed his own men in Desert Storm, and both of them becoming illegal poachers when they were discharged. They also have no qualms with murdering anyone who tries to stop their plans, even each other.
  • Tempting Fate: Burrows and Parker, many times:
    • Burrows laughs as he thinks that the sun will rise soon and incinerate the vampires. Then the alarm clock goes off, it's 10:00 AM and it's still dark out. And then he spots a lit cigar burning...
    • After Burrows murders Mona, he then brags about how it would take a lot more than that to kill him. Guess who shows up at the door?
    Burrows: It's gonna take a lot more than a lesbian vampire biker-whore to ruin my day!
  • That's an Order!: How Parker and Burrows manipulate Jeri into helping them with their illegal poaching: by playing on her status as a corporal who served in Desert Storm.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Jeri claims that the bears supposedly inhabiting the weather station love beef jerky, especially teriyaki flavor, so she lays some on the ground to lure them out.
  • Tragic Villain: Jeri, a former corporal who served in Desert Storm, was killed and had her (after)life ruined when Parker shelled her unit in an air strike. She's become bitter, tearful, and rage-fueled ever since that day, and kills Parker and Burrows because she desperately wants justice to be served.
  • Vampire Wannabe: Jeri laments she couldn't be part of the vampires even if she wanted to, since her blood was contaminated by chemicals when she was killed.
  • Villain Protagonist: Parker and Burrows, a pair of Jerkass veterans who unknowingly killed fellow soldiers in the field, then had taken up black-market animal poaching for easy cash.
  • The Virus: What started as a unknown virus that first infected the children of the area, turning them into vampires, spread and infected the entirety of the townspeople sans Jeri.
  • Wham Line: "In Alaska, the sun doesn't rise...for another two months."
  • World of Jerkass: Every character in the episode, human, vampire, and zombie, is utterly loathsome at different points.
  • Yandere: Mona, over her love for Jeri, even after she personally turned her in to the sherriff. She makes that very clear to Parker as she attempts to kill him.
    Jeri: (now in vampire form) Jeri's MINE!!!

Crypt Keeper: (sipping a beverage) Mmmmm. The Colonel should be a little more careful who he picks a fright with. Still, I think he'll get used to being hunted for a change, once he gets the fang of it. And if it doesn't work out, he can re-enlist... in the Marine Corpse. (snickers) As for me, kiddies, I decided to get even with that bully by showing off some of my surfing prowess. I may not be able to hang ten, but I can sure hang one! (cackles; he whips off a nearby towel to reveal the bully's corpse resting next to his cooler, a noose wrapped around his neck; he cackles again and pulls the rope he used on the bully)

Top