Recap / Tales From The Crypt S 5 E 4 Food For Thought

Food for Thought

Barnum and Bailey this is not.

(the Crypt Keeper is dressed as a dentist and surrounded by dental equipment; he looks at the X-Ray of a groaning man seated in a chair, whose mouth is forced open and is groaning)
Crypt Keeper: (to his patient) Hmmmm. Frankly, your hacks-rays look terrible. You've got to pay closer attention to your oral die-giene, or you'll end up looking like me. I want you to brush after every meal, floss and gargoyle twice a day. Hmm, yes, looks like I'll have to drill. (picks up a power drill on his table) This won't hurt me a bit! (cackles; sedates the man with a gas mask) In the meantime, to take your mind off the pain, I've got a little dose of fright-rous oxide for you. It's about a sideshow mind-reader who's lost his head over a pretty girl. I call it: Food for Thought.

"The Great Zambini" (Ernie Hudson) and his wife Connie (Joan Chen), a natural telepath, are the star performers of the circus they work in, running a mind-reading act that draws in many an audience. Not everything is as it seems between them, as Connie was abducted off the streets by Zambini, who exploits her telepathy and uses it to forces her into performing sexual acts on him against her will. He is also known terrorize and beat Connie when she refuses to comply, as his mind has a strong psychological hold over her. However, while Connie can read his mind, Zambini can't read hers, and he aims to become a telepath himself by any means necessary. Connie is also developing an attraction to Johnny (John Laughlin), the circus' fire eater, and their flirtation deepens into something more as Zambini becomes more and more abusive. As Connie and Johnny engage in a passionate bout of sex, Zambini suddenly becomes able to read Connie’s mind, driving him mad with jealousy. Zambini ultimately does away with Johnny via an ironic dose of gasoline and a torch, but he soon draws the ire of one of the circus' other attractions: Nabunga, the Man-Eating Gorilla.

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Tropes:

• Armless Biped: A partial case, as one of the circus' performers has an arm that's shriveled and atrophied.
• Awful Wedded Life: Connie and Zambini are not at all happy with one another, the former being snatched off the street by the latter and forced to demean herself by performing sexual acts on him whenever he wants.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Emmett the ringmaster is portrayed as kind of a jerk, and he demonstrates this demeanor by pelting Nabunga with peanuts and peeping on the conjoined twins as they shower.
• The Beastmaster: Johnny is the only person who tends to Nabunga and treats her with respect, his very presence allowing her to be at her calmest.
• Big Eater: Zambini is constantly thinking about or otherwise indulging in food. Connie even lampshades it during the argument they have in the opening scene.
• Big "NO!": Johnny unleashes one of them just as Zambini lights him up.
• Bittersweet Ending: Johnny is burned alive, but Connie finally has enough of her psychotic husband and finds the courage to leave him. Moments later, Zambini meets a Karmic Death via Nabunga, as the ape wishes to avenge Johnny, the one person who treated her with kindness.
• Blind Seer: This is one of Connie's telepathic abilities, able to deduce the clothes that the audience members are wearing and the belongings they have on their person while blindfolded. She even manages to guess the specific passage Zambini selects from an audience member's Bible.
• Bookends: The episode begins and ends over a soundtrack of accordion-sounding circus music.
• Brain Food: The episode ends with Nabunga, having killed Zambini to avenge Johnny's death at his hands, eating Zambini's brains out of his freshly severed head.
• Bullying a Dragon: Emmett frequently antagonizes Nabunga, thinking that she can't harm him or anyone else from her cage. Zambini is quick to prove otherwise.
• Carnivore Confusion: In reality, gorillas are largely herbivorous. Nabunga, on the other hand, is advertised as "The Man-Eating Gorilla", and she lives up to that name when she's seen devouring Zambini's brains out of his severed head.
• Circus Episode: The episode is set in a circus full of odd and perverse performers.
• Circus of Fear: Downplayed. The circus' main sources of fear are the psychopathic Zambini and Nabunga, the carnivorous and homicidal gorilla.
• Conjoined Twins: Two women joined at the breast are seen among the circus folk. Emmett even decides to peek at their fused, naked chest while they shower.
• Contortionist: One of them briefly appears as a circus act.
• Creepy Circus Music: This plays a few times over the episode, notably during the beginning, the ending, and at Zambini's show.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Zambini's murder of Johnny consists of him tossing gasoline on Johnny and setting him on fire. As expected, he burns to a crisp.
• Death by Irony:
  • Detailed above, Zambini kills Johnny the fire-eater by burning him alive.
  • Similarly, Zambini is killed by one of his own cooking utensils.
• Depraved Dentist: The Crypt Keeper plays one in his framing segments.
• Depraved Dwarf: There are a few little people who work as performers in the circus. Emmett, the circus ringmaster, is the biggest jerk of them, as he's seen peeking on the conjoined twins as they take a shower and pelting Nabunga with peanuts.
• Didn't Think This Through: Zambini is a phony "mind-reader" who lets the naturally telepathic Connie do the work, but he could pick up stray thoughts from time to time. Though he believes them to be his wife's, he never stopped to think he could read the minds of animals instead of people.
• Dodgy Toupee: Zambini wears a large black wig while he's performing with Connie.
• Does Not Like Spam: Emmett admits that he hates peanuts while snacking on a handful of them, so he gets more pleasure by chucking them at Nabunga.
• Domestic Abuse: Zambini constantly abuses Connie verbally and physically, and it's revealed that he straight-up abducted her off the street. Connie also tells Johnny how Zambini told her that he beat up his previous assistant in a drunken rage, so he wears his clown makeup constantly to hide himself from the cops.
• Double Entendre: A wisecracking member of Zambini's audience asks if he can twist Connie's "dials" after Zambini calls her his "radio".
• Drowning My Sorrows: When Connie finally leaves him, Zambini starts chugging bottles of cooking wine in a desperate means to soothe himself.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": "Zambini" is the title character's stage name, since his real name is never revealed.
• Evil Chef: Zambini can be seen as one, given that he has a passion for cooking as intense as he does performing.
• Evil Is Hammy: Zambini never stops raising his voice or acting sinister towards everyone around him. It's justified since he's a circus performer who legitimately went mad.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Zambini's voice is deep and threatening, compliments of Ernie Hudson.
• The Freakshow: The circus where the episode is set focuses more on the freaks than the animals and acrobats, so it can be seen as one of these.
• Hate Sink: Zambini, a psychotic and violently abusive circus performer who inflicts psychological torture on the wife he abducted off the street, forcing her to obey his commands and perform sexual acts on him whenever he wishes.
• Interrupted Intimacy: Johnny and Connie's lovemaking is interrupted by Zambini's telepathic control of Connie's mind before it can go any further.
• Ironic Echo: "I want my dessert. I want to taste your mind..." Zambini mentally communicates these lines to Connie to get her to submit to his power, but they're thrown back at him through Nabunga.
• Karma Houdini: Even though Zambini is dealt with, Emmett gets away with being a pretty huge dick to everyone he interacts with, including pelting Nabunga with peanuts and peeping on the conjoined twins as they shower.
• Karmic Twist Ending: Zambini gets his head chopped off and his brains eaten via Nabunga, the gorilla whose caretaker he killed.
• Killer Gorilla: Nabunga, advertised as "The Man-Eating Gorilla", lives up to her name at the end of the episode, where she's seen eating Zambini's brains out of his severed head.
• Lecherous Licking: Zambini's tongue goes to town on the plate he's holding in the opening scene, as he mentally forces Connie to give him oral sex.
• Love at First Sight: Johnny and Connie fall for each other the instant they meet.
• Mind Control: Zambini's mind has a strong psychological hold on Connie, forcing her to do whatever he wants.
• Mister Big: Emmett the dwarf happens to be the circus ringmaster, and the de facto leader of the circus folk.
• Monster Clown: Zambini is abusive and insane, and as such, he's never seen without his clown makeup on. He's said to have started wearing the makeup to disguise himself from the police after he assaulted his last assistant in a drunken rage, then went nuts and started wearing it full time.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Zambini's solution to keep Johnny away from Connie. He conducts the murder that very same night, burning the fire-eater alive.
• Nice Guy: Johnny the fire eater, who comes to Connie's aid after her latest beating from Zambini, and is the only person in the whole circus who treats Nabunga with any sort of kindness.
• Nothing Is Scarier: What was the incident that rendered Zambini psychotically insane? We don't get any specific details about it, only that he started wearing his clown makeup full time after it happened.
• Not in Front of the Gorilla: Twice in the episode, Johnny and Connie make out in places where Nabunga can easily see them from her cage. Nabunga is then able to somehow mentally communicate in Connie's voice, and Zambini is somehow able to pick up the ape's thoughts. After he kills Johnny and Connie ditches him, Zambini hears Nabunga's new mental voice and demands who he thinks is Connie to come to him. The gorilla is all too happy to oblige, getting bloody revenge on her caretaker's death in the process.
• Off with His Head!: When she breaks into Zambini's trailer seeking revenge for Johnny's death (since he was her caretaker and the only person who didn't treat her as a monster), Nabunga grabs a meat cleaver and chops Zambini's head off. The end of the episode shows her devouring his brains right out of his skull.
• People in Rubber Suits: It's pretty obvious that Nabunga is portrayed by a man in a gorilla suit.
• Poke in the Third Eye: Zambini mentally screams Connie's name when he discovers her affair with Johnny through his mind. Since she can hear the scream, it gives her a strong sense of fear and apprehension, much like anything else that Zambini mentally communicates to her.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Several of them are dropped:
  • "You play with fire, you get burned!"; From Zambini to Johnny.
  • "I want to taste your mind!"; To Zambini from Nabunga, followed up with "This is for Johnny!".
• Riddle for the Ages: The end of the episode reveals that Zambini does indeed have the ability to read minds, but can only do so on animals, since he hears Nabunga mentally speaking to him in Connie's voice. The reason as to why this ability manifests so suddenly, or why Nabunga is suddenly able to telepathically speak in a woman's voice in the first place, is never revealed.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Nabunga breaks out of her cage and bursts into Zambini's trailer after he kills Johnny, the only person who gave her kindness instead of treating her like a violent savage. She avenges Johnny by chopping Zambini's head off and eating his brains.
• Scary Black Man: Zambini, a violently abusive, mind-reading lunatic dressed as a Monster Clown.
• Shower Scene: The conjoined twins are given one, where they're shown to be fused at the breast.
• Starting a New Life: Johnny tells Connie that he's getting tired of being a circus performer and invites her to travel with him to St. Louis, saying that he has a cousin with government connections who can get them both jobs there.
• Telepathy: Connie has the natural ability to read peoples' minds, correctly deducing what they're wearing and carrying even when she can't see them. Zambini aims to gain the same ability, and until then, he uses her as a prop during his act while he takes all the credit. The end of the episode reveals that Zambini also has the ability to read minds. Specifically, the minds of animals.
• Tempting Fate: Johnny questions Connie about what her paranoid and insane husband could do to him when he finds out about their affair. Soon afterwards, Johnny's burned alive by the demented Zambini.
• Tongue Trauma: The Crypt Keeper rips out his patient's tongue in the epilogue.
• Tragic Monster: If Johnny is to be believed, Nabunga became the ferocious beast she is today thanks to several deep-seated issues.
• Voices Are Mental: Nabunga's thoughts are vocalized in Connie's voice, since she gained the ability to mentally speak English after watching her and Johnny have sex.

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Crypt Keeper: (picking up a pair of pliers) Mmmmm, yummy! I sure hope Nabunga ate it all. You know what they say, kiddies: "A mind's a terrible thing to waste!" Maybe she saved some for breakfast and had it in a brain muffin! (snickers; to his patient) I'm afraid it's going to have to come out. Oh, yes, it does. Now, put your head back! Open wider. Wider! (he rips out the patient's tongue) Got it! They don't call me the Tooth Scary for nothing. (snickers)