Cabinet Of Curiosities Episode 5 Ending Explained: “Pickman’s Model” What Do These Bizarre Expressions Mean?

The fifth episode of Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities is loaded with psychological terror. The protagonist, a young painter named Bill, suffers from very strong visions and paranoia after seeing the work of his partner, Richard Upton Pickman. These supernatural events intensify each time he shows her another of his paintings depicting hideous beings from another world.

Little by little it is revealed that these drawings have a direct connection with Pickman’s ancestors. His family was part of a kind of cult with murderous tendencies that sacrificed people to strange deities. Bill later discovers that the creatures that appear in his partner’s paintings are not creations of his mind, but rather exist and coexist with him.

Cabinet of Curiosities Episode 5 “Pickman’s Model”: Summary Plot

Draw what you see. It is the main teaching, the mantra that William Thurber, a student of fine arts with an innate talent for drawing, follows slavishly at the school, proving to be one of the best among the pupils. Things are bound to change with the arrival of a new student, Richard Pickman. With a mysterious and silent air, Pickman immediately stands out during a drawing lesson. Instead of the model in front of him, he begins to paint something more macabre, an aspect that characterizes all his works by him. By establishing a particular relationship with him, Thurber will feel a strange confusion in observing Pickman’s paintings. Could they hide a dark secret from the eyes of men? Pickman’s power is tied to the imagination or he too, unexpectedly and incredibly,

Cabinet of Curiosities Episode 5 “Pickman’s Model”: Ending Explained

• When Billdecides to take matters into his own hands and destroy Pickman’s works, it’s already too late.
• Before he can help himself, many of the maddening paintings decorate the walls of his art gallery.
• The effect of the pictures drives one of the owners completely crazy.
• Later he also realizes that his family has been watching the works.

They seem fine, but when Bill gets home he finds a terrifying scene: his wife has gouged out her eyes and is cooking their son’s head. While they are in this state of madness they repeat endlessly that “we will celebrate soon” and “it will be glorious”. Furthermore, they also seem to recite something in a strange and ancient language, saying: “Yog-sothoth, Y’ai’ng’ngah, Ng’ngah”.

What Do These Bizarre Expressions Mean?

Everything indicates that the celebration and the glory that those who have seen the paintings speak of have to do with an external god created by Lovecraft. The being in question is called Yog-Sothoth, and he is a deity of time and space. One of his main powers is that he knows and sees everything, which is why pleasing him can give people superior knowledge of many things.

Thus, it is most likely that both Pickman and those who witness the paintings have connected with this entity in some way. That contact has shown them terrifying realities about the universe and the cosmic horrors that lurk within it. Due to this dangerous knowledge, they have gone mad and seek to bring Yog-Sothoth to Earth to serve him.

To invoke him they are reciting a strange blasphemous litany: “Yog-sothoth, Y’ai’ng’ngah, Ng’ngah”. According to what I have found on the Lovecraft Wiki it is a spell linked to Yog-Sothtoth. Its uses are diverse and the consequence of formulating it is that the user is completely exhausted, to the point that he can die.