A bloodline in shambles and a midnight bargain with fate. Mike Flanagan's newest
Netflix series is pure Poe, but what does it all mean? We'll be the tell-tale heart.
Here's the twisted ending of "The Fall of the House of Usher" explained. Spoilers ahead!
"The Fall of the House of Usher" splits its story across three timelines. The main narrative sees
Roderick Usher provide his confession to his long-time investigator Auguste Dupin,
while they sit in the dilapidated Usher home. Roderick recalls the
recent events that have claimed the lives of his children in mysterious fashion,
which make up the second timeline, while he also explains how his past actions have led
to their fates. Unsettling visions plague Roderick as he tells the harrowing story.
Interspersed between this conversation is a walk down memory lane to witness Roderick's
and his twin sister Madeline's rise to power. We follow them from their humble
beginnings and the tragic passing of their mother, Eliza, to their burning ambition to
take over the pharmaceutical industry through the Fortunato company and a miracle painkiller known
as Ligodone. A younger Dupin also features here, as he tries to convince Roderick to
do the right thing and turn in the Fortunato CEO Rufus Griswold for his shady dealings.
Across all timelines, one common denominator remains: A mysterious woman known as Verna,
who appears to have the supernatural power to shapeshift and deliver wicked justice
on the spoiled Usher children. However, the relationship between her, Roderick, and Madeline
isn't made clear until the final episode, when all is revealed about how their paths crossed.
The title fall occurs in the series' eighth and final episode. Roderick Usher reveals to
Auguste Dupin that he and his sister, Madeline, buried Fortunato CEO Rufus
Griswold behind a wall. That evening, they headed to a bar to build an alibi. There,
they met the bartender, Verna, who presented them with a Faustian deal:
They will never suffer legal consequences for the rest of their lives and can use
Fortunato for whatever they want -- altruism or enrichment -- but there's a catch, of course.
"Just before you would have died, Roderick,
just before you would have died anyway, your bloodline dies with you."
They accepted the deal, hence the deaths of Roderick's children. What breaks Roderick,
though, is the passing of his granddaughter, Lenore, whom he regards as the best of
everyone. That finally wakes him up to the gravity of their bargain. However,
Verna recognizes the child's virtue and makes it painless, as she tells Lenore how
her death will end up being the catalyst for millions of lives being saved in the future.
Back at the Usher house, Roderick confesses to Dupin that he was always aware that greed and
ambition would consume his family. "I knew I would climb to the top
of the tower on a pile of corpses." He also reveals that he poisoned and
killed Madeline, leaving her in the basement. However, she isn't dead, rising and strangling
Roderick to death, as Dupin rushes out and watches the house of Usher collapse.
About as subtle as a tumbling building, "The Fall of the House of Usher" doesn't
play around with its message or theme. The title signifies both the end of the
bloodline and the family's legacy. While Roderick and Madeline Usher are obsessed
with taking over Fortunato and using it to build an unstoppable empire, it all comes to naught.
But from their ashes, hope rises. The last remaining non-blood-related Ushers are Juno,
Roderick's second wife, and Morelle, Frederick's wife and Lenore's mother.
They decide to use their inheritance for good rather than repeat the cycle of pain.
Juno inherits Roderick's fortune, but she dismantles Fortunato and starts the Phoenix
Foundation to help treat addiction, while Verna reveals that Morelle eventually recovers from
her horrific injuries and inherits a sizable amount of money. Morelle gives most of it away,
but she uses the rest to set up the non-profit Lenore Foundation,
in honor of her daughter, which saves millions of lives around the world.
The flashback sequences showcase Roderick Usher with his first wife, Annabel Lee,
and his eldest children, Tamerlane and Frederick. While the family isn't living
in the lap of luxury or experiencing the lifestyle of the rich and famous,
there are fleeting moments that indicate a pure happiness that is never reached
again. The love between Roderick and Annabel comes across as genuine,
and judging by Roderick's poetic remembrance of her, is something he never finds again.
"And we loved with a love that was more than a love, I and my Annabel Lee."
Roderick's obsession with power and money blinds him to what's important in life. Even when his
children pass, he doesn't appear to be too devastated by their deaths since money has
already created a wedge between them all. They fail to appreciate each other, only focusing on
what they can gain for selfish purposes. It's only when Roderick loses his granddaughter, who never
asks for anything from him, that he realizes all the money in the world means nothing in the end.
After the death of the Ushers, Auguste Dupin summarizes the situation perfectly:
he explains that he is set to go home and spend time with his family,
which makes him the richest man in the world. Meanwhile, Roderick dies without his fortune
or affection from his family. In essence, he perishes as the poorest man on Earth.
"The Fall of the House of Usher" not so subtly addresses the opioid crisis and the
controversial role of pharmaceutical companies valuing profits over health. While the young
Roderick Usher believes in the power of Ligodone as a non-addictive painkiller,
he realizes this is a fallacy and there never was an earnest
intention to help others -- only to make money by any means necessary.
In the final episode, Verna forces Roderick to come to terms with his actions at the Fortunato
offices, as he witnesses hordes of bodies dropping from the high-rise building to
the ground. She reminds him that these are all the deaths that the Ushers and Fortunato have
caused over the decades while building their empire on the suffering and pain of others.
On another level, both Madeline and Roderick are solely responsible for
the deaths of their family. They doom their bloodline through their bargain with Verna,
not once stopping to think of the long-term implications for short-term returns. For them,
their ambition and immediate desires trump consequence or the ability to let others
choose their own destinies. They ultimately become grim reapers, as they sentence their
family members to death through their acts of selfishness and self-indulgence.
The extent of Verna's powers remains unclear in "The Fall of the House of
Usher," though there's no denying that she can see into the past,
present, and future of every individual. In the seventh episode, during Frederick Usher's death,
Verna reveals to him that an alternate future existed if Roderick and Madeline
hadn't accepted her offer. Their decision changed his life forever.
"A dentist. That's the funniest part. That's what you were gonna be in the other life."
It all but indicates that events would have turned out differently for
everyone had the Usher twins chosen differently on that fateful night.
Roderick and Madeline are aware of this, too, believing the end of their bloodline
is a fair price to pay for ensuring their family never struggles in life. They would
rather risk it all and embrace corruption than live with the anxiety of being ordinary
and struggling to achieve anything. However, there's yet another possible
branch here. Even if the Ushers had taken Verna's offer, they could have still used
the opportunity to turn Fortunato into a force for good. She leaves the choice in their hands.
"We're sitting outside of time and space. This is the moment."
While it's unlikely the outcome would have been different -- since a deal
is a deal here -- the Ushers might have left a better mark on the world
through their actions and become revered for it rather than reviled.
In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher," the closeness of the
relationship between Roderick and Madeline Usher has long been disputed. One school
of thought suggests that they may share a strong psychic bond often found in stories
about twins. However, a conflicting view presumes that they may have been lovers.
The show also illustrates an extreme closeness between the siblings, as Madeline and Roderick
appear to be glued at the hip in their early years while growing apart later on in their
lives. However, any indication of them being lovers is quickly dispelled when Madeline
reveals that she is attracted to women and has no interest in men. Plus the two never engage
in any kind of behavior to suggest otherwise. With regards to the Usher twins, Mike Flanagan
and his team don't lean too much into them having any type of psychic link. Instead,
he uses their mutual shared desire for power and ambition as the main driver for what brings and
keeps them close. They believe Fortunato and its riches are their birthright and that they should
become the king and queen of the company. "Cheers to you, Cleopatra."
The short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" doesn't feature a lot of protagonists
and antagonists. In fact, the three main characters are Roderick Usher,
his sister Madeline, and the unnamed narrator of the story. While the Netflix show utilizes
certain elements from this premise, it also puts its own spin on matters
by introducing a wealth of characters and themes from other Edgar Allan Poe tales.
For example, Auguste Dupin is based on C. Auguste Dupin, a detective from a few other Poe stories.
On the show, Dupin steps into the narrator's spot, becoming the person whom Roderick spills
the beans to. Similarly, the names of the characters take inspiration from figures
introduced in Poe's poems and stories. Lenore, Annabel Lee, and even the name of their company,
Fortunato, are just a few examples among many. Arguably, the biggest addition to the show is
Verna, but even that's a sly Poe wink — the name is an anagram for raven. To this day,
"The Raven" of course remains one of Poe's most memorable works.
"My mom used to tell us that ravens were the minions of satan, because Noah threw them
overboard and they still survived the flood." A conclusive ending
Much like Mike Flanagan's other projects, "The Fall of the House of Usher" ends on a conclusive
note and doesn't tease a second season. The story provides a definitive beginning, middle,
and end -- putting the Usher family six feet under by the time the credits roll. And no,
there isn't a hand that pops out of the grave to signify someone will be back as a zombie.
Auguste Dupin's narration at the end of the final episode also provides answers
to any questions the audience may have about the fate of the remaining characters. In addition,
he reveals how the Ushers' lawyer, Arthur Pym, serves a lifetime jail sentence and
accepts it without any fight, as he takes the fall for Fortunato's controversial practices.
Dupin also discloses how his case is now shut and over. For most of his adult life,
he was consumed with taking down the Ushers, but now with them being dead, he can finally rest.
Since Mike Flanagan approached "The Fall of the House of Usher" as a wider tribute to Edgar Allan
Poe's body of work, rather than a straightforward adaptation of the master of macabre's original
short story, the possibilities for various spin-offs exist. First off,
the most natural character to transition to other stories is Verna. Since Verna is a shapeshifter,
this means any potential further installments in Flanagan's Poe
Universe could continue with or without actress Carla Gugino's involvement. However,
after her phenomenal performance on the show — not to mention her multiple collaborations
with Flanagan — it's likely most fans would want to see her return.
A second character that merits further exploration is Arthur Pym. In this story,
Pym remains loyal to the Ushers and acts as their lead attorney as well as their fixer.
"Objection."
"Their lead attorney." Pym doesn't feature in "The Fall
of the House of Usher" short story, but he is from Poe's 1838 novel, "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon
Pym of Nantucket." Elements of this tale feature in the retelling of Pym's enigmatic backstory,
and his eyebrow-raising journey -- filled with all sorts of horror and tribulation -- could be turned
into its own terrifying miniseries. Whether or not any of that happens is anyone's guess,
but fans of both Poe's and Flanagan's work can still enjoy "The Fall of the
House of Usher" as a satisfying standalone tale. "To the house of Usher, whose time has come."