The Murmuring

"**The Murmuring**" is the eighth and final episode of Netflix's *Cabinet of Curiosities*, having premiered on October 28, 2022. It is written by Guillermo del Toro, based on a short story by him, and directed by Jennifer Kent.

## Synopsis

Mourning a major loss, ornithologists Nancy and Edgar Bradley flock to a secluded home to study birds, but the house's history reveals heartbreak and horror.

## Plot

### Island getaway

Two individuals, Edgar and Nancy Bradley, give a presentation to a group about the habits of a species of birds called dunlins. The group is mesmerized by the photographs of the birds' behavior, and their unusual flight patterns known as murmurations. The presentation is a hit, with the audience gasping at appropriate times and laughing at Nancy's jokes. They are thrilled at the camera footage of starlings presented by Edgar, made possible by their generous benefactors, the Montagues. Following the presentation, Edgar tells the group to congratulate Nancy, that she's the mastermind. When asked what she loves about birds, she says that it's their freedom. During the reception, it's hinted that the two of them have both recently suffered some sort of great loss, strongly implied to be Nancy having suffered a miscarriage or having lost a child when it was still a baby.

The two take a flight to an island, where the man driving them tells them that it's a perfect time for the dunlins, that they're everywhere on the island now. He tells them that a house has been prepared for their stay. Nancy says they didn't have to do that, but the man says he coudln't have them staying in tents in this weather. He tells them they even have the generator running. He asks about the murmurations, why the birds do that, but Edgar and Nancy still aren't really sure. They arrive at the house, which is unexpectedly large. The man tells Edgar that the previous owners gave it to the state, that they had more money than sense. He apologizes for them not being able to clear it all out, but Nancy says it's truly a luxury. He promises to come back the Sunday after to drop off more supplies.

They set up a tent by the river to get a good view and begin filming. Nancy smiles, observing the birds on the shore and watches using binoculars. She summons Edgar via radio, telling her that there's a flock gathering on the sandbar and she observed a Peregrine falcon overhead. He tells her he's on his way. They film the scene as the sun sets, mesmerized by the display. That evening, in bed, Edgar tells Nancy he's glad they're there. They share a passionate kiss, but as Edgar tries to go for more, Nancy tells him she's tired. He seems annoyed and she says it's their first full day tomorrow and she hasn't slept. He tells her it's no problem and they go to bed.

### Restless nights

That evening, Nancy is restless. As her husband slumbers peacefully, she hears the sound of a baby crying in the distance, as well as footsteps. She lays back down, convinced she is only hearing things, but then hears a strange sound of static. Her husband hears this as well and it wakes him. They go downstairs and find a tape recording that Nancy made earlier playing. "What happened?" asks Edgar, but Nancy admits she has no idea telling him to go back to bed. The next morning, they set up camp again, before the sun has even risen. As Nancy sits and makes notes, she sees something that catches her attention. She radios to her husband, asking if it's okay she doesn't come over, saying that she needs to set up her cataloging system. He agrees it will be okay. That evening, she hears more strange footsteps.

Her husband tells her that she missed a stunning one that evening, possibly the most beautiful of all, but she tells him he always says that when she's not there. She tells him that she made casserole and he calls her wonderful, but the conversation seems stiff between them. That evening, she reads a book about dunlin mating habits and he puts on some music, trying to get them to engage in some mating habits of their own. He does a dance he calls "the dunlin" and gets her to giggle, but when he tries to press the issue, she tells him she's not in the mood. He complains she's never in the mood and flops down on the couch.

That night, Nancy is again restless in bed, even as Edgar snores away. She again hears the footsteps, louder this time, followed by a distant thudding. She tries to wake Edgar, but to no avail, as the thudding continues. She buries herself in the blankets only to hear a loud banging sound and a door creaking. She goes to investigate and discovers a large flock of dunlins nesting in the house's attic. She wakes Edgar loudly and shows him her discovery. He wonders just what they could be doing, that he's never heard of a dublin roosting above shrub level and certainly not in an attic. "My dear little dunlins, what are you doing?" wonders Nancy.

### Ghostly activity

That morning, Edgar observes the activity on the roof from below, while Nancy remains inside, using audio equipment to listen. She hears Edgar whistling in the distance and sighs in annoyance. She tells him to knock it off, that she's recording. Suddenly, whistling comes again, but a different tone and apparently from downstairs. She goes downstairs, asking after Edgar, but he does not answer. She goes back upstairs when there is a burst of static on her tape machine. She plays it back and hears the dunlins, but also the static. She fiddles with a dial and hears a high-pitched ringing and warbling. She winds the tape back and plays it again, now hearing a sort of murmuring, then a boy's voice saying "I'm so cold."

When she plays it for Edgar, however, he only hears the birds. Confused, she plays it again for herself, but this time only hears the birds. He tells her she's very tired, but she says she listened several times and she doesn't understand what's happened. He suggests that she might have used an old tape, but she stalks off, annoyed, and he says it might help if she told him what he was listening for. She stares at a picture of a boy and a woman on the wall, then the dunlins in the attic start screeching. When she and Edgar get upstairs, they have flown away. He says it was good while it lasted.

The two return to the shore, observing the murmurations of the dunlins there. Back inside, she tells him she can't find one instance anyway of dunlins roosting in a human structure. He agrees it'll give them years of grief trying to figure it out. She says it's like they're drawn to the house, but Edgar calls it a leap. She asks why there and nowhere else on Earth. "That we know of, yet," he says. She tells him the house gives her the creeps, but he says that all old houses do that. She asks just what the family on the wall was doing there, why they would leave everything to gather dust. He tells her she's getting the frown she gets when she tries to solve a mystery. He tells her it's sexy, that he loves her. He asks if she loves him. She kisses him, but once again, when he tries to go for more, she excuses herself, telling him she has a headache. She pushes him away, telling him not to touch her. He asks why not. "What's the point" she asks. He tells her the point that is that he loves her. He says he didn't mean to upset her and will leave her be.

That night, Nancy again hears a voice, then sees a little boy standing at the bedroom door. She sits up and puts on her glasses. "I'm so cold," whispers the boy. "Who's there?!" she shouts out and Edgar startles awake, but the boy is gone. She tells him she had a bad dream, that it's stuffy with the fire. She asks to open the window a crack and asks to sleep near the window. He agrees, changing sides. The next day, the two again conduct their observations of the dunlins apart.

### The woman and the child

Nancy stares at the house, then heads back inside. She examines the photograph of the woman and her child. He looks like the boy she saw. She discovers intricately woven fabric depicting the house and the woman with the birds. "Freedom" is stitched below it. She shows it to Edgar, asking if he doesn't find it a bit strange, given that it's the one word she always mentioned when people ask why she's attracted to birds. He says a lot of people get the same feeling. She tells Edgar she feels for the woman that lived at the house, living there alone. He points out that she wasn't alone, that she had her husband and son.

Edgar comments that the woman must have been a keen bird-watcher. She snatches the cloth away and he asks just what she wants from him. She tells him she doesn't want anything. "I don't know," she admits. She tells him to forget it. He asks she got much work done. She says there's more to life than work and they argue again. She says the tapestry is beautiful, but when she looks at it, she only feels sad, that the woman must have felt trapped and she knows how she felt. That evening, she hears the babbling of a baby in the distance. Suddenly, a baby appears before her. "Oh, Ava," she says. She then awakes with a start. There's no baby there, but she hears the footsteps of the boy in the corridor. She follows and hears a clattering and footsteps in the kitchen and again the crying of a baby. She enters the kitchen and the crying stops.

On the kitchen floor is a bunch of unopened pieces of mail. She picks up one, addressed "To my sweetheart." She opens and reads it, then the others. The next day, she reveals to Edgar what she learned: that the husband had gone off to war. He had an affair, but then went back to his wife, telling his lover he had to honor his marriage. She had a child and he paid her, but never came to see her. As she rails against the man, Edgar chastises her for disturbing the birds. It is clear he is not really interested in her tale. He asks why she's even so interested and she tells him she wants to know how they ended up on the island all lone, sad and staying in their house. He asks if this gives her permission to read their letters. She asks if it's really wrong to read a dead person's letters. He points out she doesn't know they're dead, but she says she has a feeling.

He tells her she has a scientist's brain and isn't someone who relies on feelings. He says she's more interested in this than her own work. She argues that she's spent her life on this. He apologizes, but she stalks off. "Forgive me for being interested in something other than birds for five minutes!" She heads to the house and discovers that the dunlins are back in the attic. She radios and tells Edgar, who says he'll be over in a while, that things just got interesting on the shore. Nancy observes and records the dunlins, but again hears the static, then a boy's voice stating "Mommy's mad at me," followed by a woman shouting "What did you do?!" She pulls off her headphones, but still hears the boy, whimpering and sobbing. She turns and sees the boy walking down the stairs. She follows the boy and the sound of sobbing. She sees the boy standing at a window.

Nancy approaches the boy. She sits and he turns to her, but is face is gruesome and bloodied. She turns away in horror. When she turns back, he is gone. Late that night, Edgar returns. She asks where he's been, that he said he'd return as soon as he could. He tells her he was doing his job. Suddenly, a dunlin flies into the kitchen. She asks him to open the door to let it out, but instead of doing so, it continues to flit about the room. It ends up hitting a wall and collapses, dead, to Nancy's shock. Edgar picks it up and she tells him not to grip so tight, that he'll kill it, but he tells her its neck is broken. It's already dead. He asks if she's alright. She says that she is, but walks off.

### No such thing as ghosts

Later, Nancy has a bath when she hears a wailing in the distance, then a sobbing. There is a banging on the bathroom door, then the whisper of the boy saying that he's cold. She then she sees him drowning in the bathtub. The door opens and the woman races forward, shouting "What did you do?!" Nancy closes her eyes and screams in horror. Edgar comes running in. He tells her that it's alright, hugging her. Later, she tells him the door opened on its own. He says it's an old house and everything moves and creaks. He tells her to let it out, that she hasn't cried since everything happened. He says it would do her good to let it out. "Just yesterday, you told me you didn't want me to feel," she says. "Because that would be so terrible, wouldn't it?" She asks which way he wants it. He says he's not perfect, but he's trying. She tells him she doesn't want to talk anymore, just sleep. She walks away and gets into bed.

That morning, the man that brought them to the house arrives with supplies, as promised. Nancy asks the man, Mr. Grieves, if he can tell her who lived in the house. He says nobody's lived there for decades. She asks who the people in the pictures on the walls are. She tells him she's seen things that are very odd. He asks what she means and she asks why the woman lived there alone. He tells her that her family put her there, that it was too isolated and it didn't work out. He says the boy died. She asks how and he says that he drowned. "She drowned him, didn't she?" she asks. She asks where the mother is now and he tells her she committed suicide. He says it all happened 30 years ago and she says she would have liked to have known. He turns angry, saying he and his wife gave them a place to stay out of the cold. She says they're grateful and he says that people say things there, but it's just a morbid fascination, that people see what they want to see. He enters the house, saying he doesn't believe in ghosts.

Later, she enters the house and Edgar asks what it was all about. She tells him it's nothing and he asks how he's supposed to help her if she never tells him anything. She says it's because it's never what he wants to hear. He tells her he wants to know. She says she asked the caretaker about the people who lived in the house. "Alright," he agrees. She continues that she's been seeing and hearing them ever since they got there. "What do you mean?" he asks, and she states it plainly, saying that she would love it if she could tell him that and he would believe her. He says she's had no proper sleep for a year. "Oh, please," she starts and he tells her he hasn't seen anything except a big sad, old house. He tells her he's trying to understand and she tells him to not tell her that like she's some crazy person.

Edgar shouts he never said she was crazy, but that she was dealt the worst blow a mother could be dealt and he's worried about her. She asks why it's always about her, suggesting he tell her how he feels. He shouts that he feels lost and angry, completely heartbroken. He continues that he doesn't understand her, how Ava could have died and she hasn't shed a tear. She asks if he wants him to cry for her, if it would make it better. He says he thought a mother would cry for her child. He says they took the trip to make things better and she seems to care more about dead people than her own daughter. He says that she asked him how he feels and that's how, that she's never let him in, that he feels her slipping away. He tells her wants more than anything than for them to stay together forever, but he just doesn't know. He says he'll sleep down there and head off to his station before dawn unless she wants him to stay. He pleads with her to just tell him, but she says nothing. He walks away, telling her he'll be on the radio.

### Ava

That night, Nancy tries to sleep alone. She hears an alarm ringing in the distance. Edgar silences the alarm and leaves. Nancy gets up, but he is already gone. She goes back up to observe the dunlins in the attic. She sings a lullaby. She hears the boy sobbing again in the distance. She races to find him. "Mommy's mad at me," he tells her. He runs away. She races after him. She sees the mother, who chants eerily "What you done?!" again screaming and racing towards Nancy. She closes a door and the woman bangs. "Stop it!" cries Nancy as the boy drowns. She tells the woman to leave him alone.

The banging stops. The boy sobs behind her. "Mommy is mad at me," he tells Nancy once more. "And I don't know why," he continues. She tells him that his mother did a bad thing to him, that he was hurt, but that he isn't alive anymore. She tells him he did nothing wrong, that he was a perfect child. He tells her he's so cold and that it's so dark. She tells him to come into the light, where it's warm, to take her hand. Slowly, he steps out. She extends her arms, telling him he's safe and to run into the light. He does, and vanishes in her arms. Nancy sobs. In the distance, the woman wails. Nancy runs to the attic. The woman stands at the window.

"What have you done?" the woman chants, staring at her own hands. It is clear she is talking to herself. Nancy stares at her. The woman turns. "No!" shouts Nancy, but the woman jumps. Nancy stares at the ground, but there is nothing there. The dunlins fly away. Nancy heads downstairs and watches the birds. They form a murmuration, then swoop down and around her. She closes her eyes, taking it in. Then, they are gone. She exhales, then whistles to Edgar on the radio. He asks if she is alright. She tells him, a sob in her voice, that she's sorry. She sighs, saying that she's been so lost. He tells her he understands. She tells him that she loves him. He says he loves her too. She tells him she wants to talk about Ava.

## Cast

### Starring

* Essie Davis as Nancy Bradley
* Andrew Lincoln as Edgar Bradley

## Co-starring

* Greg Ellwand as Mr. Grieves
* Daxton Lund as Young Boy
* Hannah Galway as Claudette
* Perry Mucci as Edgar's Colleague
* Marvin Karon as Dean of Cornell
* Daniel Henkel as Young Male Student
* Timm Zemanek as Mr. Montague
* Marcia Bennett as Mrs. Montague

## Music

This episode features the tracks "Arrival," "Murmuring," "Scream" and "Vanishing." They were composed by Jed Kurzel.

## Trailer

The Murmuring Official Trailer - GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S CABINET OF CURIOSITIES - Netflix