‘Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities’: ‘The Outside’ Takes a Stab at Ridiculous Claims From the Beauty Industry
In the most recent episode of Netflix’s new series, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, director Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night) focuses on wild claims often made by beauty products. How often has an infomercial for a product promising to change your life caught your eye? In Cabinet of Curiosities’ “The Outside,” the story centers around a woman who can’t get enough of a particular beauty product and the lengths she’ll go to fit in with others.
[WARNING: This article contains detailed spoilers regarding Cabinet of Curiosities Episode 4, “The Outside.”]
‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ episode ‘The Outside’ stars Kate Micucci
You might recognize Kate Micucci’s voice before her face in Cabinet of Curiosities’ “The Outside.” Micucci’s work in animated shows like Steven Universe and Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? shows off her talent as a voice actor. However, in “The Outside,” Micucci plays odd duck Stacey, who longs to fit in with her gossipy co-workers at the local bank.
Stacey’s husband Keith, played by Martin Starr (Silicon Valley, Freaks and Geeks), continually brushes off Stacey’s desire to fit in, but in a loveable yet clueless way. When Stacey’s queen bee co-worker, Gina (Kylee Evans), invites Stacey to her Christmas party, she rushes home to prepare the perfect gift for the Secret Santa game. Stacey practices taxidermy in her spare time, and what better time to showcase her talents than at the office Christmas party? She stuffs and prepares a duck for Gina, but when she arrives, Gina reveals her gifts to all the women.
Gina gifts everyone a box of Alo Glo, the most expensive and popular lotion on the market. We never learn why all these women love it so much, we just know that they do, and Stacey desperately wants to be just like them. However, when she slathers the lotion on her neck and face, she breaks out in a rash, and Gina thinks it’s best if Stacey heads home for the night.
Stacey’s obsession with the lotion and her rash continue to grow
Disappointed, Stacey tells Keith, “Of course, I have to be allergic to the best lotion in the world.” Keith calmly explains that if it’s the best lotion in the world, it wouldn’t do that to her face. (Cabinet of Curiosities “The Outside” qualifies as a horror-comedy, and Keith’s deadpan response to everything elicits more than a few laughs.)
Later that night, Stacey wakes up from all the itching. Viewers see the red, flakey patches on her face worsening. She can’t sleep, so she turns on the TV to see an infomercial for Alo Glo. As she watches, the actors on the television begin to talk to her. A blonde man with a thick accent encourages her to buy more of the lotion to “fix” herself while his partner hilariously lists off the potential side effects of the cream. These include everything from “internal emptiness” to “lack of individualization.”
Regardless, Stacey still wants to fit in with the women at the bank and orders an enormous case of lotion. It magically arrives early the following day, and she sneaks it down to the basement before Keith sees it. After she leaves, the lotion tubes all pop open and begin to ooze their contents onto the basement floor.
‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ episode ‘The Outside’ doesn’t quite stick the landing
Throughout most of “The Outside,” Keith begs Stacey to see herself as he does. He loves her just the way she is and asks her to stop using the lotion. Her rash only continues to get worse, but Stacey refuses. She goes to the basement to get more and finds the cream has grown into the shape of a human, and it mimics all of Stacey’s moves. In a bizarre scene, Stacey holds the lotion-person in an embrace. When she returns upstairs, Keith sees her covered in goo. He demands she stop using the Alo Glo and Stacey snaps. She stabs Keith in the head with one of her scalpels for taxidermy before finishing him off with an axe to the back.
Afterward, she calmly follows the slimy footsteps down her hallway and into the bathroom. The Alo Glo fills the bathtub, and Stacey slides in, letting the lotion take over her body. The next time we see Stacey, she has a chic new haircut, a dress and jewelry the ladies at the bank will fawn over, and a seemingly more confident personality. She stuffed Keith and sat him in front of the TV with his usual TV dinner. Then she heads off to work.
Stacey’s new look shocks all of her co-workers, and they quickly bring her into the fold. As “The Outside” ends, the ladies, including Stacey, all cackle together, and the camera zooms in on Stacey’s face. The ending might hint that Stacey realizes that she murdered her husband all to fit in with her co-workers, only to discover their conversations are vapid and meaningless. The last shot is a little too ambiguous to say for sure, but Stacey got her wish.
Check back with Showbiz Cheat Sheet for more recaps of Cabinet of Curiosities!
