Creepshow Season 3, Episode 4 recap: How do you fight a demonic plague?

Creepshow Season 3, Episode 4 brings us two new stories, one about a man-eating siren and another about a world plagued by demons that feels eerily reminiscent of our current global status.

The first story, “Stranger Song,” written by Jordana Arkin and directed by Axelle Carolyn, begins as a typical romantic comedy in many ways. Recently divorced Barry (Chris Mayers) gets a coffee from his regular spot and meets the seemingly charming Sara (Suehyla El-Attar).

He walks her home, and she invites him for a glass of wine. Barry politely declines the offer, but someone inside her house sings a beautifully haunting operatic that forces Barry to fall under their spell. Enthusiastically, Barry suddenly agrees.

It doesn’t take long for him to realize that Sara is far from ordinary. For starters, she’s stowed a dead body in her bathtub. Now her quip about “killing random men for fun” feels far more insidious. Despite what we might assume, it’s not Sara who is the siren, at least not yet. She lives with one, Miranda (Kadianne Whyte). But Miranda doesn’t want to be a siren anymore, and her loss is Sara’s gain.

The pair have schemed to bring home a doctor, Barry, to surgically remove Miranda’s voicebox and the source of her siren power and swap it out with Sara’s. They don’t even care that Barry is a gynecologist and hardly trained in doing specialized surgery.

It’s no use fighting back against them, as Barry quickly learns. Miranda can use her siren song to make him do anything, including stabbing his brain with a dagger if he refuses. Shoutout to the siren makeup in this episode because Miranda looks impressive when she transforms. Creepshow‘s makeup and practical effects have always been impressive, but Season 3 has gone above and beyond.

Once Barry successfully completes the surgery, Miranda is far more conciliatory and kind, while Sara goes completely psycho. She uses her newfound abilities to lure Barry into bed, where she starts feasting on his flesh until Miranda stabs her in the back with the dagger, killing Sara instantly. It turns out that Miranda didn’t want to create a new monster.

This episode has a surprisingly happy ending for the most part, with Miranda and Barry hitting it off in a similar fashion to how Barry and Sara did at the beginning of the episode. They even agree to a date! All I can think at this point is that Barry must be really desperate to agree to a date with a former siren after everything he just saw.

Creepshow Season 3, Episode 4 recap: How do you face a demonic plague?

This week’s second story is “Meter Reader,” written by John Esposito and directed by Joe Lynch. This episode draws some real-world parallels to the pandemic, although not to the point that it becomes obnoxious like some other television shows that have done similarly.

In a terrifying world ravaged by demons cast in an apocalyptic orange glow, Celestial Falls has fallen into chaos and disarray as people are killed left and right by their loved ones, becoming possessed. The “meter readers” are the last line of defense. These are the remaining few with proven immunity that use specially designed tools to test people for signs of possession.

Dalton (Johnathon Schaech) zooms across town on a motorcycle to close in on his latest case. In a scene reminiscent of The Exorcist, complete with a pot of pea soup boiling on the stove, Dalton meets a young mother and her daughter.

Mrs. Jones (Samantha Worthen) claims her daughter, Mercy (Reagan Higgins), is possessed. It soon becomes apparent it’s the mom who has succumbed to the demonic entities swarming Celestial Falls. Dalton makes short, bloody work of her. Also, apart from the many Exorcist references, did you notice that the number on Mercy’s door is 1408?

Across town, Dalton’s family, his daughter Theresa (Abigail Dolan), wife Maria (Cynthia Evans), and son Michael (Boston Pierce) nervously await his return. Theresa is the only one of the three who understands the gravity of the plague and intends to adhere to her father’s rules. Before leaving, Dalton told his family not to let him inside if he came home after 7 p.m., in case he’s no longer himself if you know what I mean.

Dalton doesn’t return until after his self-imposed curfew, and Theresa is the only one willing to do whatever it takes to protect her family. Ultimately, Theresa forces her mother to keep the door shut. They tell Dalton to spend the night in the cellar until they get him retested the next day.

But Michael doesn’t listen to his mom or sister and goes into the cellar, forcing Theresa to take drastic measures by arming herself with her machete. The only way to permanently kill an infected person is to decapitate them, and Theresa intends to do just that if it means keeping her and Maria safe. Well, Maria doesn’t want Theresa killing her son and husband, so she knocks her unconscious.

When Theresa wakes up, she finds out that her whole family is down in the cellar and heads down to find her father breathing heavily and tied to a chair. It turns out that Maria and Michael are the possessed ones, although it’s not entirely clear if Dalton is also possessed or if his wife and son just took him hostage. Either way, Dalton pleads with Theresa to take care of them all before they get free.

Like her father took care of Mercy and Mrs. Jones, Theresa uses her machete to slaughter her family and then Dalton passes on his meter reader device so she can take his place. The episode ends with Theresa becoming an official meter reader as she rides away on her dad’s motorcycle to save the world in an homage to the opening sequence.

New episodes of Creepshow Season 3 stream Thursdays on Shudder.