The Fall Of The House Of Usher is finally here, and it’s Mike Flanigan’s latest installment on the platform. Having previously done the Haunting of Blymanor, Hill House, and the Midnight Club, this eight-episode series most definitely has a similar tone as its predecessors. It focuses on the Usher family and the deal that was once made with the minion of Satan herself.
I thought The Fall Of The House Of Usher was a really good show. It was extremely thought-provoking and quite haunting to watch, and it had some incredible jump scares. Not cheap ones like you see in most horror movies. But ones where you genuinely don’t predict that they’re going to come. And then you’re met with a terrible sight and also audible disruption.
Let’s do a The Fall Of The House Of Usher Ending Explained, recap, and break down all that there was to take away from this show. We will also try to answer some of the most important questions.
The True Meaning Of The The Fall Of The House Of Usher Ending
Well, there are actually a couple of different meanings that can be taken away from the end of The Fall Of The House Of Usher, and it all depends on which character you look at.
For example, we saw that the entirety of the tragic events that were unfolding to the Usher family was because of a deal that both Roderick and Madeline made with Verna, one of Satan’s minions, on that fateful night on New Year’s Eve in 1979.
In order to have a lifetime of riches, success, and immunity from ever being caught for any crime that they committed, it meant that on a date in the future when death was to finally arrive, the whole family name would have to be wiped out, meaning that the next generation and the generation after that would be impacted.
The debt that one found themselves in during the past would be passed on to those that didn’t even exist yet. Something which, at the time, most likely feels quite easy to do.
Because most of those people didn’t even exist, but then, 50 years later, when the collector comes to make sure you settle up, it’s something that would most definitely feel far harder, because then there are actual lives that were being claimed for a decision that you made many years ago.
This is where we see each and every one of Roderick’s children being killed, and also his grandchild by Verna throughout the eight episodes because it is time for the debt to be settled.
This series also focused on what makes somebody rich. We saw that Roderick and Madeline cared about wealth, power, and status, even if it came at the expense of the people around them.
Wealth At A Cost Of Life
But the likes of Aguste had something that he believed made him far richer. As he stood there alive at the end, overlooking Roderick’s entire family’s grave.
The repercussions of that so-called success that he had. He went on to state that he had a husband, children, and grandchildren, something which he knew that he would always have.
Because that was something that he cherished and valued, and he didn’t compromise his moral values or the livelihood of others in order to have it.
Their lives were far more valuable than monetary success, showing that whilst success can mean different things for other people, the life that Roderick chose to lead put himself 1st, and it meant that even though he valued the Usher name and wanted it to mean something as he said to Prospero in the opening episode.
The company was dissolved by Juno at the end after she inherited it. The name went to the grave along with him and left nothing other than a legacy of millions of deaths due to the promise of a life without pain that he sold in a bottle.
Roderick Didn’t Have Any Remorse
The final parts of the meaning of the ending were very much focused on the exploitation of the Pharmaceutical industry and almost looked at the opioid crisis. It felt like something which was very similar to the Oxycontin crisis. It was being prescribed out in promising no pain.
With the addictive nature of it, it meant that more and more people were getting reliant on it and ultimately ended up abusing it and becoming dependent on it until they ultimately passed away.
Roderick was responsible for millions of deaths since 1985, and he didn’t care about a single one of them. At least I didn’t get the impression that he was remorseful. Especially with what he said at the end about knowing full well that life was something that couldn’t exist without pain.
So it showed the negligence of the industry and that they are more than happy to make a profit at the expense of the customer, even if it means doing more bad things.
The Fall Of The House Of Usher Ending Explained
Right at the end of the final episode, we saw that Roderick had the same illness as his mother, Vascular dementia, which was a reason why he had the visions of all of his children in their final state coming back and haunting him as hallucinations can be a side effect.
This was also supported by Verner pushing them onto him, too. We saw that Roderick poisoned Madeline in the same way that they did to Rufus Griswold on the night that they locked him behind the wall and killed him in 1979.
And upon leaving her down there and believing that she was dead like he did to his mother many years ago, he was mistaken, and she was still alive.
He had replaced her eyes with the blue jewels, and with Madeleine finding Roderick, she killed him in the exact same way that their mother killed their father after seemingly rising from the dead and whilst on the floor. And with that, the Usher house truly came crumbling down and was left just as rubble, but only remains.
We had Verna in her Raven form, just looking on. Showing that the debt had been repaid and the job was complete, marking an end to the 50-odd-year watch.
Edgar Allan Poe As Inspiration
Within this show, each of the episodes was actually connected to many other pieces of Edgar Allan Poe’s work and was tied into the overarching plot of the show. For example, The Fall Of The House Of Usher was a short story that was first featured in 1839.
And it was actually about Roderick and Madeline, two twins, just making the show. But the story wasn’t exactly the same. However, it did result in Madeline being in a tomb with her rising up and killing Roderick.
The episode, which was focused on the black cat, was also based on a short story that was censored around a black cat called Pluto, who was killed by the owner.
And in the process actually caused it to lose one of its eyes, something that we saw being present in the show. Or to replace it with a look-alike in the future, which goes on to cause terror, something which we saw being reflected in Leo’s story.
The Pit and the Pendulum was an episode in this show, and it also features in a short story from 1842, which was about a prisoner who awoke in a darkened room and found himself with a sharp-edged pendulum swinging towards him as he looked up at the sealing. Something which we saw being present for Frederick.
The final episode in the series was called The Raven, and that was actually featured in the show as it was a poem that was read throughout an episode.
Sir Edgar Allan Poe was definitely a strong inspiration for a lot of what we saw in this eight-episode series, but it was adapted well and worked into the main narrative in a clear way without it feeling disconnected.
The Fall Of The House Of Usher Overall Review
I was on the edge of my seat for a lot of this show, as it really felt like we were witnessing the story that Roderick was telling Aguste.
I liked the question and the deal that was posed to the two main characters as it was very much put to us as well. It does make you think afterward, A lifetime of riches and immunity for the price of eventual suffering when you’re older and then also everybody else that comes after you. The right answer to that is surely to say no.
I thought it was a nice touch to make Roderick have to watch each and every one of his children die before he was eventually claimed. It added to the pain and the harshness of the deal that was once made. Some of the deaths were absolutely brutal and looked horrific.
It very much felt like if all of his children were nice people and didn’t have the demons that took them over, then Verna would have spared them in the same way that Lenore was, spared them from the pain that is.
It even felt like she was going to do that with Frederick, but after what he did to his wife, Verna couldn’t look past it and gave him one that was equally as horrific as the other.
