The much-anticipated horror anthology series by Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, Cabinet of Curiosities, has just released. The first episode of the series is Lot 36, a 46-minutes-long affair, the episode was directed by Guillermo Navarro while the story was written by del Toro and Regina Corrado.

The story begins with an old man chopping up some kind of meat as George H.W. Bush justifies to the country why the Gulf War was unavoidable. A close-up of the skinned animal reveals that it is some kind of rodent. As the man in question cuts the meat, he suddenly suffers something that appears to be a heart attack, and falls down dead.

Also Read| Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities: Release date, cast, trailer, all you need to know

The lot he had owned at the storage facility the story revolves around is lot 36. Once he dies, the items in the lot are sold off in an auction to the central character of the story, Nick Appleton (Tim Blake) is a US Army veteran. He is a racist who does not trust anyone who doesn’t look like him. Nelson, while speaking about the character, said, “It’s at the advent of far-right nationalist conservatism in the US, so it’s way before Trump. But you can trace the roots of Trump, and Trumpism, in this character”.

Appleton is then shown a CCTV footage by the warehouse owner, Eddie, of the previous owner of the items in lot 36. Eddie tells Nick that this person kept coming here everyday for decades, and we see him strangely hop towards the lot. Nick promises to let Eddie know what is inside. When he enters, he finds a lot of antique items, including pictures of a Nazi official and memorabilia related to Nazism. 

Also Read| Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special first trailer released: Watch

Eddie then advises Nick to take some of the items to an antique dealer called Agatha (Martha Burns). She sees a table with a pentagram drawn on it, and discovers a hidden compartment in the table with three books. Agatha calls an associate, Roland (Sebastian Roché), who is like to be interested in these items. He tells Nick that there should be four books in total, and if he manages to find all four, Roland will pay him $300,000.

The two of them discover a secret chamber within the lot, and inside, they find the body of a woman in which a monster lies trapped. The body is placed within a pentagram and the fourth book is also right there. When Nick disturbs the pentagram, he ends up waking the monster. 

It is here that we realize that the man in the very first scene was the same old man who was the owner of lot 36. He was cutting up the rodent meat to feed the monster. However, after his sudden death, the monster went hungry for a few days, and ended up devouring both Roland and Nick once it is released.