Cabinet of Curiosities Episode 2 Ending Explained: Graveyard Rats, What is the Black Church? Is it all in Masson’s Head?
Guillermo del Toro returns to television with Cabinet of Curiosities, and I appreciate it. I enjoyed The Strain, a series about mutated vampires that threaten to destroy the world; and I think Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities is the project he needed to unleash his creativity. An anthology that compiles the best of the genre from the hand of directors as diverse as Ana Lily Ampirpour, Panos Cosmatos or David Priori, and that keeps the Del Toro seal intact.
Cabinet of Curiosities Episode 2: Summary Plot
Masson (a David Hewlett from one man show) is an easy-talking man, at first sight, cunning and shrewd, but also unfortunate. He is overwhelmed by debts and, to repay them, is forced to raid the Salem cemetery, opening the graves and hoping to find gold teeth, in the mouths of the corpses, to be able to resell. Business, however, has not been going as planned for some time: a colony of rats is devouring the bodies inside the tombs, leaving only the poor, but bad Masson to remain. The propitious opportunity is not long in coming: a member of an aristocratic family is buried with objects of great value and Masson will do everything to take possession of them.
Even at the cost of slipping into the lair of his hated Graveyard Rats. Thieves and monsters. The plot of Graveyard Rats brings to the screen a horror on several levels: the human one, represented by Masson, and the monstrous one, represented by the rats. Roles ready to exchange to give life to a path of the sinking of the protagonist, rat among rats, ready to crawl and abandon more and more what binds him to the earth’s surface. A descent into hell that will change him forever.
Cabinet of Curiosities Episode 2 Ending Explained
With the colours in the photograph ranging from white to brown, dark brown, silver, grey or black (the colouring of mice) and a theme that falls like a bean after the first episode; comes the story of Graveyard Rats. The second chapter, taken from the story of Henry Kuttner, has as its protagonist another man up to his neck in debt and ready to do anything to repay his debt. But in this case, a different kind of monster enters, a giant omnivorous herald of evil who inhabits underground places and feeds on decaying corpses. The protagonist of Graveyard Rats is Masson, a grave robber with no dignity or heart played by David Hewlett. Masson digs and searches for treasure in the depths of South Salem cemetery, in the place that he is supposed to keep.
His fear of rats and his daily feud with beasts hidden underground reaches the crux of this second chapter. After visiting the morgue and hearing that a recently deceased aristocrat will be buried along with priceless treasure, the thief heads to the tomb to anticipate the onslaught of the rats. But once again he is attacked by his rodent enemies as rats drag the body of the wealthy man (recently buried) into the caves beneath the cemetery. In a claustrophobic and buried hunt for riches, Masson follows them and then collides with an immensely large and nightmare mouse. An epic feat also of visual effects (it is certainly one of the most impressive stories in the collection).
There is a moment of triumph for Masson, who, not only manages to escape the creature but also manages to find a pit of skeletons covered with jewels (sic!). Then, in a ghostly twist, the tomb thief follows a flash of light, aiming to make its way to the surface. Alas, he does not crawl out in daylight but into a coffin, because the light he had seen was only a reflection of the metal plate engraved within it. Once buried alive, he quickly becomes rat food and his worst nightmares come to life. There is a proverb that derives from the famous epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto Orlando Furioso which reads: “Who works badly, badly awaits in the end”.
The invasion, rapid movements and stunts of the rats somehow anticipate the murmurs present in the final episode of Cabinet of Curiosities, but there is another aspect to consider. If in the Western world, they are almost exclusively associated with the rat negative images (such as dirt and disease, and often used metaphorically as an emblem of moral correspondents of these images such as dishonesty), this rodent mammal is also known for its ability to survive in any environment, for being a herald of wisdom: a creature of great intelligence! Del Toro prepares the ground for us to enter the third story which opens with the vision of a much more cunning monster, in the folds of an investigation into a terrible accident that took place in an underground Pennsylvania mine that is resolved with an ingenious solution by the pathologist who carries out the analyzes on the victims. A new story that offers optimists… the first happy ending of the series.
Is it all in Masson’s Head?
One theory is that it’s all in Masson‘s head and that nothing we see here actually happens. The ending may be a factor of Masson‘s imagination, but the rest…
What is the Black Church?
Very little is known about the Black Church, and it would be an interesting concept to delve into in future chapters of Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, even if they are stand-alone episodes.
