The New Exhibit

Description: Season 4, Episode 13

Air Date: April 4, 1963

Plot Summary: The curator of a wax museum descends into madness after the closing of the museum.

Review: Not only is this the best episode of season 4, but I would rank this very high in the underrated list. This episode kind of has it all: a title with poetic meaning, genuine scares, an awesome premise, and a final twist that leaves the audience wondering what really happened. It's also worth mentioning that the main character, Martin, is played by, the similarly named, Martin Balsam. Although he had appeared in a previous episode, Mr. Balsam famously appeared in "Psycho." This episode does appear to have many psychological horror elements that would complement "Psycho" quite well.

The story begins by showcasing the wax museum in all its glory as Martin provides an ominous tour. Martin mostly focuses on taking care of the exhibits featuring various serial killers like Jack the Ripper. The setup is surprisingly engaging as they've rigged the arm of the Ripper to take a swing at Martin by the tour's end. It doesn't take long to realize Martin is a tad obsessed with his work and meticulously cares for the wax figures. This obsession will obviously pique when the museum's owner decides to close after being offered a deal for the property. Unable to let go, Martin asks if he can store the wax figures in his home until a suitable location can be found; ideally, he wants to open his own museum. The owner agrees as Martin sets up an area in his basement, with an air conditioner, much to the dismay of his potato pancake wife, Emma. To be fair, Emma's reaction would probably be most people's reaction to having a bunch of creepy wax figures in their basement...but, come on, I need more chances to call people potato pancakes!

Emma observes Martin's spiral into insanity as he begins to spend all of his time in the basement maintaining the figures--talking to them as if they're his children or something. Of course it becomes a big deal when the money to maintain the figures runs out, and Emma whines to her brother for assistance. The brother suggests to unplug the air conditioner and let the figures melt, but, when that potato pancakes tries it, the figures kill her. This might very well be TZ's slasher equivalent, but they present it tastefully. Anyway, Martin finds Emma's body and is only momentarily bothered; if anything, he's annoyed that the figures are misbehaving. Burying the body in cement, Martin is further bothered by Emma's brother snooping around. When the brother realizes something is off, he breaks into the house that night and is killed by another of the figures. Well, it should come as no surprise that Martin definitely shrugs that death off as no big deal.

Martin finally loses it when the museum owner comes by to reclaim the wax figures for some French museum. Martin goes to retrieve tea as another figure kills the owner, but the owner was kind of like Martin's mentor in a way. It's really fascinating to understand Martin's mentality since he's noticeably more distraught over the loss of the owner than his wife. In a fit of rage, Martin declares that he will destroy the wax figures just as they all come to life at once. This is an awesome scene! As the figures creepily approach Martin, they explain that he was the one killing everyone all along. We then skip ahead to some time later when the figures are at that French museum. The only difference now is that the French museum has--you guessed it--a new exhibit in the form of Martin. The curator here explains that Martin was a bizarre serial killer too, and now he is forever immortalized alongside the figures he cared for. What a perfect ending!

I thoroughly enjoy that the episode keeps it vague as to whether or not Martin really was killing everyone. Martin does have alibis, but was he simply imagining himself as the figures? Maybe Martin's obsessive care channeled his will into them? Maybe they were the living embodiments of the forms that they were based on? There is a lot going on in this episode to consider. Martin definitely was not a sane individual and was not bothered or concerned with these people dying or the results of them going missing. I like this kind of descent into madness--it makes it ambiguous as to what is real and what's not and TZ handled the material excellently. I'm just shocked that this episode hardly receives any recognition. Maybe it did go on a little too long, but this was one of the few episodes that needed the extra time to establish a film-like experience.