History Recap / TalesFromTheCryptS3E2CarrionDeath

* SpecialEffectsFailure: During the climax of the episode, where Diggs falls off the cliff after his hand is severed, his intact hand can be seen during the fall.

** The cop comes up after crashing Diggs off the road, noting to the vulture who clearly has designs on Diggs. He points at the vulture and tells it "Remember. I saw him first.", to which teh vulture appears to acknowledge it.

[[caption-width-right:350:Care to guess when this happens?]]

->'''Crypt Keeper:''' ''(dressed as a motorcycle cop; he rides a motorcycle into the crypt, then dismounts and sits down at his usual table)'' Good evening, felons. Time to assume the position (if you know what I mean) and prepare for another assault ''and battery'' on your senses. Tonight's seamy saga is about a nice young man with a very '''bad''' attitude. In fact, it's positively ''criminal!'' ''(cackles)'' I call this little game of ''chops'' and ''clobbers'': '''Carrion Death.'''

Convicted rapist and murderer Earl Raymond Diggs (Creator/KyleMacLachlan) escapes from prison shortly before his scheduled execution. He steals a car, robs a bank, and flees across the Arizona desert, headed toward the Mexican border. A motorcycle cop (George Del Hoyo) pursues Diggs and crashes his bike into Diggs' getaway car, destroying both vehicles and forcing them to continue their chase on foot. A vulture shows interest in both men after taking notice of the explosion. It annoys Diggs repeatedly, but also seems to point the way for the cop. Diggs finds a sign advertising a cantina, but when he reaches the building, he finds it empty and abandoned. The cop catches up to Diggs, and during a struggle, he handcuffs their wrists together. Diggs shoots the cop with his own gun, but the cop swallows the key to the cuffs before he dies.

With the gun now empty and no way to remove the cuffs, Diggs is forced to carry and drag the cop's body toward the border, constantly shooing off the vulture as heat and fatigue take their toll on him. He reaches the top of a line of hills that marks the border, but the corpse pulls away from him, making him lose his balance and tumble down on the American side. In desperation, Diggs fashions a hatchet from a piece of wood and the [[GenericCopBadges cop's badge]], and tries to cut off the cop's hand so he can free himself. However, Diggs' vision has blurred from exposure to the desert, and he accidentally hacks partway through his own wrist. Diggs stumbles backwards and ends up hanging over the edge of a rock formation by the cuffs, falling to the bottom when his hand snaps off from the weight. Diggs finds that the fall has broken his neck and left him paralyzed. The vulture, seeing that Diggs can no longer defend himself, finally swoops down and eats him, starting by plucking out his eyes.

!!Tropes:
* AbsurdlySharpBlade: For a makeshift hatchet made from a crudely sharpened badge, it manages to cut through flesh and bone pretty easy. Which proves to cause problems for Diggs.
* AdaptationalVillainy: The robber in the comic story did commit murder (first a bank teller and later the cop trying to arrest him), but Diggs is noted for killing a larger number of people and committing numerous other crimes as well. The news on his car radio and even Diggs himself admit that he was on death row prior to the episode.
* AllForNothing: In the end, Diggs' escape before his execution was all in vain. He still died, only in a far more agonizing way.
* AndIMustScream: Diggs realizing, to his horror, that he's still alive but paralyzed from the neck down... and that the vulture's flying down to devour him.
* AnArmAndALeg: Diggs accidentally hacks into his own wrist with his makeshift hatchet, causing him to stumble backwards and hang over the edge of a cliff. The hand snaps off due to gravity, but that soon proves to be the least of Diggs' worries.
* AssholeVictim: Diggs is an unrepentant murderer who escaped death row, killed a guard during a bank robbery, and kills the cop pursuing him. His wickedness has him being given one of the most painful and excruciating deaths in the series. Even the Crypt Keeper himself thinks the guy has a bad attitude.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Happens twice to Diggs, who wants to flee to Mexico and tries to chop off the dead cop's hand in order to make it. He ends up [[AnArmAndALeg losing his own hand]] in a fall just short of the border and breaks his neck, leaving him paralyzed and eaten alive by a vulture.

** Diggs' final fall leaves him with multiple fractures, including a broken neck that paralyzes him.
** When Diggs swings the makeshift hatchet to cut the cop's hand off so he can slip free of the cuffs, his blurred vision causes him to miss and chop into his own hand.
* CardCarryingVillain: Diggs repeatedly boasts about his many crimes.
* ChainedHeat: Diggs is forced into crossing the desert while handcuffed to a dead body.
* CirclingVultures: A persistent vulture keeps following Diggs throughout the episode. He quickly takes it personally and progressively panics over the idea of the bird getting him in the end. Sure enough, it does.
* CompositeCharacter: In the original comic there where a whole wake of vultures who stalk and eventually eat the main character. Here only one vulture is seen in the entire episode.

* {{Determinator}}: The cop braves the desert on foot for a chance to bring in Diggs.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: One of Diggs' most notable flaws, such as the moment he decides to gloat and turn his car, only for the cop's motorcycle to crash into said car and ruin both vehicles, and again when he kills the cop when he was ''handcuffed'' to him (not considering that he would swallow the key to the cuffs).
* EatenAlive: Diggs gets eaten by the vulture while he's still alive.

** The cop comes up after crashing Diggs off the road, noting the vulture who clearly has designs on Diggs. Cop's response? Point at the vulture and tell it "Remember. I saw him first." Even the ''vulture'' seems to respect the guy.
* EurekaMoment: The glint off the cop's badge gives Diggs an idea fashion it into a hatchet and free himself from the cop's corpse. Of course, it doesn't work out like he hoped.
* [[EvilDetectingDog Evil Detecting Bird]]: While the vulture wants to eat Diggs when he dies, it can also apparently sense that Diggs is a wanted criminal, and even points out his trail to the cop a couple of times.
* EvilIsHammy: Diggs is unrepentantly sinister about what he does, vocalizing all of his atrocities to himself while he's trekking across the desert.
* EyeballPluckingBirds: Diggs gets both his eyes plucked out and eaten by the vulture that's been stalking him the whole episode.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: The cop, because he has [[SwallowTheKey the perfect way]] to get the last laugh on the handcuffed Diggs.
* FiveSecondForeshadowing: After the first tumble down the hill, Diggs berates the vulture and starts experiencing blurred vision, which ultimately brings about his true downfall.
* FromBadToWorse: The whole episode is this for Diggs. He starts free and freshly rich, but things get progressively worse for him after the motorcycle crash wrecks his stolen car and strands him in the desert. The shining example is how, after his last fall, Diggs panics over being paralyzed. Then he sees his feathered friend watching him and getting ready to move in.
* HeroAntagonist: The cop, who crosses a barren desert in search of Diggs.

** Diggs finds a sign advertising for a cantina. He reaches the place, only to find that it's empty and abandoned.
** Diggs almost makes over the border to Mexico...except the dead cop's heavy body falls back taking Diggs down with him.
* {{Irony}}: Diggs escaped from death row hours before he was set to be killed, only to suffer and die an even more excruciating death. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Diggs himself:
-->'''Diggs:''' I didn't bust outta death row to end up like this!
* KarmicTwistEnding: Diggs ''almost'' gets away with murder and robbing a bank, but he ends up meeting a fate ''worse'' than prison.
* LittleNo: Diggs repeatedly screams this in desperation from the moment [[SuperPersistentPredator the vulture]] swoops down and finally eats him.
* MercyKill: [[SuperPersistentPredator The vulture]] gives Diggs one non-intentionally, eating him immediately instead of [[AndIMustScream letting him suffer for a few more hours and eventually succumbing to his wounds without being able to move]].
* MisplacedWildlife: The vulture that pursues Diggs is a European griffon vulture, rather than a species of American vultures.

'''Cop:''' No. ''[holds up the key]'' Fuck ''you''. ''[swallows it]''
* NotQuiteDead: After the collision, the cop is seen lying on the ground and is thought dead by Diggs, but he eventually regains consciousness.

** When [[SwallowTheKey the cop swallows the key to the handcuffs]] after cuffing himself to him.

** When he swings a hatchet onto his handcuffs, only to realize he's nearly amputated his own hand off.
** When he is paralyzed from the neck down and the vulture finally swoops in...
* ProperlyParanoid: Diggs suspects he'll have to keep an eye on that vulture. He's right.
* SanitySlippage: Diggs start the episode as a very lucid and competent criminal. His sanity takes a major hit from his lengthy trek through the desert, making said trek attached to a corpse, and his continuing dread over a persistent vulture hounding him.
* SerialKiller: Diggs has racked up quite a body count, and purportedly mutilated some of his victims (though he insists he only did so after killing them).
* ShoutOut:
** Picking up Diggs' trail thanks to its help, the cop likens the vulture to Franchise/{{Lassie}}.
** "[[{{Pun}} Cook]] [[Series/HawaiiFiveO 'em, Danno.]]"

* SpecialEffectsFailure: In the climax of the episode, where Diggs falls off the cliff after his hand is severed, you can see the actor's hand still intact.
* StupidEvil: Diggs, big time. His constant gloating and showboating plays a huge part in his fate, but so does killing a cop to whom he was handcuffed to.
* SuddenlyShouting: Diggs, after his plan of hacking off the cop's hand... goes awry, to say the least.
--> '''Diggs''': 1...2... [''swings down his hatchet''] ''3!'' [''realizes he just hit his own hand''] '''FUUUUCK'''! OH MY GOD! '''''FUUUUUUUUCK!'''''
* SuperPersistentPredator: The vulture. It follows Diggs everywhere, just waiting for the opportunity to get him. Diggs becomes aware of this and insists it ain't gonna happen. Come the end of the episode, the vulture finally gets its meal.
* SwallowTheKey: The cop manages to do this before dying, giving him the last laugh over his victim.
* TalkingToThemself: To go with his hammy evilness, Diggs repeatedly talks to himself as he travels across the desert. It could be said that he's doing so to keep himself from going insane.

** Diggs' repeated claims that he isn't dead before the vulture goes in for the kill.
** Diggs explicitly says he's going to keep an eye on that vulture and, in a manner of speaking, it actually works out that way.
** Upon seeing Mexico over a line of hills, Diggs claims that "it's all downhill from here!". Cue the cop's body toppling over and taking Diggs with it. Down the other side of the hills.
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Diggs has this look on his face after the cop's body falls out of the cantina's window. It's at that moment it truly dawns on him just how much the cop swallowing the key complicates his escape.

* VillainBall: Diggs could avoid many of the problems he faces throughout the episode if he wasn't so prone to [[EvilGloating gloat]], swear, talk, and show off. He turns his car to face the cop and show off only to ruin it. Then he expounds tirades about his crimes when he should be conserving his energy in the desert. And he ''just'' had to stop to comment on Mexico's borderline, only resulting in the dead cop's body falling down the cliff face, taking Diggs down with it.
* VillainProtagonist: Diggs, one of the most wicked and unrepentant villains on the show.
* VillainsWantMercy: A paralyzed Diggs pleads for someone to help him. The only one present is [[SuperPersistentPredator that darn vulture]].
* WoundedGazelleGambit: Diggs was able to break out of prison by faking an illness. When the prison doctor came to check on him, Diggs took him hostage. He summarily killed the doctor and a guard on his way out of the building, ultimately making his escape in the doctor's car.
* YankTheDogsChain: In the end, Diggs gets eaten just a short distance away from Mexico, within literal arm's length of his potential freedom.

->'''Crypt Keeper:''' ''(takes a severed eyeball out of the beak of a stuffed vulture sitting next to him)'' Poor Diggs. Here today, ''leftovers'' tomorrow. Boy, talk about flipping someone the ''bird!'' ''(cackles)'' Personally, I'm with the buzzards... except I like my meat a little more '''well done'''. ''(picks up and points a severed foot at the camera)'' '''''Cook''''' 'em, Danno! ''(cackles and bangs the foot on the table)''

With the gun now empty and no way to remove the cuffs, Diggs is forced to carry and drag the cop's body toward the border, constantly shooing off the vulture as heat and fatigue take their toll on him. He reaches the top of a line of hills that marks the border, but the corpse pulls away from him, making him lose his balance and tumble down on the American side. In desperation, Diggs fashions a hatchet from a piece of wood and the cop's badge, and tries to cut off the cop's hand so he can free himself. However, Diggs' vision has blurred from exposure to the desert, and he accidentally hacks partway through his own wrist. Diggs stumbles backwards and ends up hanging over the edge of a rock formation by the cuffs, falling to the bottom when his hand snaps off from the weight. Diggs finds that the fall has broken his neck and left him paralyzed. The vulture, seeing that Diggs can no longer defend himself, finally swoops down and eats him, starting by plucking out his eyes.

** The cop is introduced rolling up on his motorcycle, noting the vulture who clearly has designs on Diggs. Cop's response? Point at the vulture and tell it "I saw him first." Even the ''vulture'' seems to respect the guy.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: We first see Diggs making his escape during his bank robbery. He shoots a guard, knocks him down, and shoots him again to finish him off.

** Diggs finds a sign for a place advertising a cantina. He reaches the place, only to find that it's empty and abandoned.

* EvilDetectingDog: While the vulture wants to eat Diggs when he dies, it can also apparently sense that Diggs is a wanted criminal, and even points out his trail to the cop a couple of times.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/carrion_death_opening.png]]
->''A robber fleeing in the desert kills the pursuing cop who cuffs him. But the lawman swallows the handcuff key before dying.''
-->-- '''DVD description for the episode'''

Multiple murderer Earl Raymond Diggs (Creator/KyleMacLachlan) escapes from prison shortly before his scheduled execution. He steals a car, robs a bank, and flees across the Arizona desert toward the Mexican border. A motorcycle cop (George Del Hoyo) pursues Diggs and crashes his bike into Diggs' car, destroying both vehicles and forcing them to continue the chase on foot. Time after time, a vulture shows interest in both men, annoying Diggs but seeming to point the way for the cop. Diggs finds a sign advertising a cantina, but when he reaches it, the place is empty and abandoned. The cop catches up to Diggs, and during a fight, he handcuffs their wrists together. Diggs shoots the cop with his own gun, but the cop swallows the key to the cuffs before dying.

With the gun now empty and no way to remove the cuffs, Diggs carries and drags the body toward the border, still shooing off the vulture as heat and fatigue take their toll. He reaches the top of a line of hills that marks the border, but loses his balance and tumbles back down on the American side. In desperation, Diggs fashions a hatchet from a piece of wood and the cop's badge and tries to cut off the cop's hand so he can free himself. However, his vision has blurred from exposure to the desert, and he accidentally hacks partway through his own wrist. Diggs stumbles backwards and ends up hanging over the edge of a rock formation by the cuffs, and he falls to the bottom when his hand snaps off. He breaks his neck and finds himself paralyzed, unable to stop the vulture from plucking out his eyes and starting to eat him.

----

* AdaptationalVillainy: The robber in the comic story did commit murder (first a bank teller and later the cop trying to arrest him), but Diggs is noted for killing a larger number of people and committing other crimes, as well. He even says he had to bust out of death row.
* AndIMustScream: Diggs realizing to his horror that he's still alive but paralyzed from the neck down and that the vulture's flying down to devour him.
* AnArmAndALeg: Diggs accidentally hacks into his own wrist with the makeshift hatchet, causing him to stumble backwards and hang over an edge. The hand snaps off, due to gravity, but that soon proves to be the least of his worries.
* AllForNothing: Diggs' escape before his execution ended up in vain: he died anyway only in more agonizing way and suffering before his death.
* AssholeVictim: Diggs is an unrepentant murderer who busted out of death row, killed a guard during a bank robbery, and kills the cop pursuing him. Even the Crypt Keeper thinks this guy has a bad attitude.

** When Diggs swings the makeshift hatchet to cut the cop's hand off so he can slip free of the cuffs, he misses and chops into his own hand.
* CirclingVultures: A persistent vulture keeps following Diggs throughout the episode. He quickly takes it personally and progressively panics over the idea of the bird getting him in the end. It does.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: One of the flaws of Diggs. For example, when he decided to gloat and turn the car only then to motorcycle crush into car and ruin both vehicles. Or when he killed a cop when he was ''handcuffed'' to him (didn't considering that he can swallow the key from them).

* EurekaMoment: The glint off the cop's badge gives Diggs an idea on how to make a hatchet and lose some dead weight. Of course, it doesn't work out like he hoped.
* EyeballPluckingBirds: Diggs gets both his eyes eaten out by the vulture stalking him.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: The cop because he has [[SwallowTheKey the perfect way]] to get the last laugh on the handcuffed Diggs.

* HeroAntagonist: The cop.

* {{Irony}}: Diggs escaped from the death row ... only to suffer and die even more excruciating. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Diggs himself:
-->'''Diggs:''' I haven't busted outta the death row to end up like this!
* KarmicTwistEnding: Diggs almost gets away with murder and robbing a bank but gets a fate worse than prison.
* MercyKill: [[SuperPersistentPredator The vulture]] gave Diggs one non-intentionally: Diggs was eaten immediately by the bird instead of [[AndIMustScream suffering for a (maximum) few more hours and eventually succumbing to his wounds without being able to move and anybody's around to help him]].
* MisplacedWildlife: The vulture that pursues Diggs is a European griffon vulture rather than a species of American vultures.

* NoYou: When Diggs shoots the cop in the chest.

'''Cop:''' No. ''[holds up the key]'' Fuck you. ''[swallows it]''
* NotQuiteDead: After the collision, the cop is lying on the ground and is thought dead by Diggs, but he eventually regains consciousness.
* LittleNo: Diggs repeatedly screams this in desperation and pain from the moment [[SuperPersistentPredator the vulture]] ate his eyes to the moment the latter started to eat his nose and tongue.
* OhCrap: Many times.
** When Diggs sees that the cop's motorcycle is about to collide with his car.
** When Diggs discovers that the taco shack is now an old abandoned building.
** When [[SwallowTheKey the cop swallows the key]] after handcuffing himself to Diggs body.
** When Diggs realizes the vulture keeps following him.
** When Diggs swings a hatchet onto his handcuffs, only to realize he's nearly amputated his own hand off.
** When Diggs is paralyzed from the neck down and the vulture finally swoops in...
* ProperlyParanoid: Diggs suspects he'll have to keep an eye on that vulture.
* SanitySlippage: Diggs starts out very lucid and competent. His sanity takes a major hit from the lengthy trek through the desert while attached to a corpse, as well as the dread over a persistent vulture hounding him.
* SerialKiller: Diggs racked up quite a body count and purportedly mutilated some of his victims (though he insists he only did so after killing them).

** Picking up Diggs's trail thanks to its help, the cop likens the vulture to Franchise/{{Lassie}}.

* SpecialEffectsFailure: In the climax of the episode where Diggs falls off the cliff after his hand is severed, you can see the actor's hand still in tact.
* StupidEvil: Diggs, big time! His gloating and showing off' tendencies is the reason he died. But killing a cop to whom he was handcuffed takes the cake.
* SuddenlyShouting: Diggs, after his plan of hacking off the cop's hand goes...awry, to say the least.
--> '''Diggs''': 1...2... [''swings down his tomahawk''] ''3!'' [''realizes he just hit his own hand''] '''FUUUUCK'''! OH MY GOD! '''''FUUUUUUUUCK!'''''
* SuperPersistentPredator: The vulture follows Diggs everywhere and waits for the opportunity to get him. Diggs becomes aware of this and insists it ain't gonna happen. He is wrong.
* SwallowTheKey: The cop manages to do this before dying.

** "I'm not dead--!".
** Diggs explicitly says he's going to keep an eye on that vulture and, in a manner of speaking, it works out that way.
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Diggs has this look on his face after the cop's body falls out of the cantina's window. It's at that moment it truly dawns on him how much the cop swallowing the key complicates things.
* VillainBall: Diggs could avoid many problems if he wasn't prone to [[EvilGloating gloat]], swear, talk and show off. He turned the car to show off only to ruin it. Then he should save his energy but he expounds tirades instead. And he ''just'' had to stop to comment on Mexico's borderline only resulting in the dead cop's heavy body falls back taking Diggs down with him.
* VillainProtagonist: Diggs.
* VillainsWantMercy: A paralyzed Diggs pleads someone to help him. The only one present is [[SuperPersistentPredator vulture]].
* WoundedGazelleGambit: Diggs was able to break out of death row by faking an illness. When the prison doctor came to check on him, Diggs took him hostage. He summarily killed the doctor and a guard on his way out of the building, ultimately making his escape in the doctor's car.

* SuddenlyShouting: Diggs, after going through with his plan of hacking off the cop's hand goes...awry, to say the least.

--> '''Diggs''': 1...2... [''swings down his tomahawk''] ''3!'' [[''realizes he just hit his own hand'']] '''FUUUUCK'''! OH MY GOD! '''''FUUUUUUUUCK!'''''

* MercyKill: [[SuperPersistentPredator The vulture]] gave Diggs one non-intentionally: Diggs was eaten immediately by the bird instead of [[AndIMustScream suffering for a (maximum) few more hours and eventually succubing to his wounds without being able to move and anybody's around to help him]].

* LittleNo: Diggs repeatedly screams this in desperation from the moment [[SuperPersistentPredator the vulture]] ate his eyes to the moment the latter started to eat his nose and tongue.

* LittleNo: Diggs repeatedly screams this in desperation from the moment [[SuperPersistentPredator the vulture]] ate his eyes to the moment the latter started to eat his tongue.

* CruelMercy: [[SuperPersistentPredator The vulture]] gave Diggs one by accident: Diggs was eaten immediately by the bird instead of [[AndIMustScream suffering for a (maximum) few more hours and eventually succubing to his wounds without being able to move and anybody's around to help him]].