Martin Lombard Senescu (Martin Balsam, who also appeared in The 16mm Shrine back in Season 1) has been caring for the wax figures of five murderers for a number of years. So when he finds out that the museum is going to close, he volunteers to take the figures home and store them in his basement.
His wife isn’t happy – especially when she finds out that he intends to purchase an air conditioner, and even less so when she sees the bill from running the thing all the time. So she goes to her brother to vent, and he says she needs to confront her husband. He doesn’t see the problem, and the figures stay. One night she goes downstairs to unplug the air conditioner, and as she reaches for the plug, Jack the Ripper’s knife arm (which is rigged with a spring) releases and kills her. When Martin finds her, he figures that he will be blamed, so he digs up the floor and buries her in the basement.
An indeterminate amount of time later, the brother shows up to see what’s happening, and while he is suspicious, he eventually leaves when Martin asks him to go, and is satisfied that his wife is visiting relatives. But when Martin turns around, the brother sneaks into the basement. Only while he isn’t looking, another of the killers drops the axe on him – only this time, there was no spring-loaded arm. We don’t find out what happens to the body this time, and there is no mention of a car or anything, but we can assume that Martin made things disappear.
Three months later, the owner of the wax museum visits to see how things are going and he has wonderful news – a gallery in Europe wants to buy the figures, as they were produced by an artist, and he would like to take some measurements of them for shipping. As Martin is upstairs making tea, the garrote of one of the other killers makes its way around the owners’ neck. This is too much for Martin, and he threatens the figures when he returns, and at this point, they all come to life, expressing to him how he was the one who killed them, not they.
The final scene shows the gallery in Europe, but there is a new figure. This new exhibit is Martin, and we hear the tour guide explain how everyone is fascinated at how this mild-mannered husband killed his wife, his brother-in-law and his former employer and no one saw it coming. Nice!
