Plot: A medical examiner is tasked with solving the mystery of the death of ten miners in an explosion. What he finds puts his life in danger.
For a long time, there has been this consistent need to find out if there is life on a planet that isn't Earth. So many planets, and so many galaxies, there just has to be someone living out there. The question is, if there is, is it really a good idea to contact them?
When you hear about a story and an episode titled THE AUTOPSY, the first thing that comes to mind is that it is probably going to be a gory episode that is going to make you squeamish. Then the episode begins and for those unfamiliar with the short story it is based on, will wonder if there is some kind of vampirism going on.
No, no vampires here. Guillermo del Toro has created a horror series with eight episodes and while there are ghosts, demons and witches aplenty, you won't find vampires and werewolves.
So , no, THE AUTOPSY isn't about vampires, but something a little more sinister. Aliens.
THE AUTOPSY PLOT
The episode begins with the miners going about their work. There are men in the lift who are going down when suddenly a man jumps atop it. One of them calls the man Joe and asks him to get off or he could cause a serious accident. But Joe is laughing maniacally and up to no good. When the lift stops, he leaps down and we see he's carrying a sphere which he activates.
The sphere lights up and does a magic trick of sort which is shards of rocks floating in air. The other miners are stupefied when suddenly there is an explosion. The men are instantly killed.
Some time later, a man is seen walking around the city. He is Dr Carl and he has come to the city on the behest of his friend Sheriff Nate. He meets him at the office and Nate remarks how thin Carl has gotten. It's the cancer that is eating him up. Carl is still working and wants to know why a second autopsy has been called. He wants to know what happened to the ten men but Nate corrects him. There were nine men and one inhuman who caused all this trouble.
Carl doesn't get to the autopsy, he is instead told a story about what happened months ago and what a man called Eddie Sykes disappearance had to do with it.
He talks about an incident that took place a couple of months ago when a body was found wrapped up on a tree. When the officers took it down, they found the body was ripped apart and there were maggots on it. Nate needed his two men to do some digging around regarding the identity of the corpse so they asked two hunters to stay on guard should the killer return. They are given radios and jackets as compensation.
Later at night, when Nate returns, he finds that the two hunters have disappeared. At least his hunch about the criminal returning to the scene of crime was correct.
A few days later, the victim is identified as Abel and he was last seen with a man at a bar. The man was Eddie and he seemed to possess powers to make Abel do and say exactly what he wanted.
Now it turns out that Eddie had been on a hiking trip to see the meteor shower nine months ago and had disappeared after that. He seemed to have come back but using a different name, Joe. This Nate and the other officers find evidence of at Joe's apartment. They also find something moving under a blanket and unveil it to find a hairy sphere. The officers bundle it up and head out to the mine to talk to Joe.
Somehow Joe gets an inclination that the sphere is nearby and rushes out from the mines to grab it from the sheriff's car that was wonderfully unlocked. He then runs with it inside and we remember the first scene of the episode.
Nate then requests Carl to look into this case since should the incident be seen as a terrorist attack, the families of the deceased miners will not get compensation.
Carl gets on the case and tells Nate to leave him here all night, all alone, to examine the bodies. He turns on the recorder and specifies that the recording is only for Nate. He goes through the photos and decides on a victim that was closest to Eddie at the time of the explosion. He cuts him open and of course, there is no bomb residue whatsoever.
He examines another body and finds a hole under his sternum. He opens it up and finds all the organs deprived of blood. No, it's not vampires. Aliens love the taste of human blood too. There is some slicing going on but nothing overly graphic.
He examines another body and finds the same issue: No blood.
Carl eventually goes to retrieve another body, Joe's, only for the corpse to sit up. No, it's not ghosts. No zombies either.
Carl keeps backing away as the corpse crawls and stumbles. He tries to open his mouth, then realizing it is stitched up, rips it open with a scalpel. Carl guesses he is not human. The alien calls himself a traveler and admits he is too ugly for Carl to see him just yet. The alien has low self esteem and tells Carl he is starving. Again the doctor correctly guesses that the alien needs something apart from oxygen.
The alien keeps talking about how the sphere was his ship that had to be destroyed once it was discovered. Considering how small the sphere was, how small is the alien? We are about to find out soon.
The alien also tells Carl that he doesn't want humans to understand it. Either because the humans will mock its form or does the alien suddenly have high regard for his species?
He then proceeds to tell Carl that he can smell his cancer and that he can help get rid of it. Carl has nothing much to do before tentacles appear from Joe's mouth and knocks the doctor out.
When Carl opens his eyes, he is on the table, naked. Uh..oh..
Joe comes over to him and tells him that it is time for the transfer. He strips and lays down next to Carl, explaining how big he's become now. However, he is still hungry and expects that once Nate comes in the morning, he will be amused to feed on him and feel the doctor's anguish as his friend is killed in the process. Carl keeps trying to instigate him by mocking him and calling him deluded. He makes fun of the alien for having so senses and relying on the host to see and hear.
That part gives Carl an idea. He initially is happy to reach out to grab a scalpel, but when the alien tears through Joe's body and starts to come to him, the doctor realizes he can't reach out to kill him because his hand is tied. That leaves him only once choice.
He cuts himself and uses his blood to write a message on his chest that we will see much later. Then he uses the scalpel to pierce his ear drums. That is uncomfortable to watch. Then he does his other ear and eventually his eyes. Ugh, poor guy.
The alien manages to successfully make the transfer and is roaming about in Carl's body, unaware that the doctor has slit his neck. Carl remain in the conscience and mocks the alien stating that he is now trapped in a body that cannot hear or see. Plus, the blood is draining from his body. Whoops! Oh, and by the way, the alien was being recorded the whole time.
The alien is defeated and cannot transfer himself into another body.
In the morning, Nate comes with coffee and a bag of goodies for his friend. Instead, he finds Carl laying on the floor. Nate drops all that coffee and pastries as he looks at the message his friend left for him that fortunately did not smudge.
It says, listen to the tape and then burn me.
Carl saved the world but lost his life in the process.
The episode ends.
This truly was a gripping tale but in the beginning, it did feel like it was going off in a tangent with almost twenty minutes given away to who Eddie was. However, it ties up everything neatly in the second half.
This was perhaps one of the best episodes of the series.
The Autopsy was a short story written by Michael Shea, The episode is the third one in Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities.
The show can be watched on Netflix.
Scare Scale: 4/5
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