‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ Episode 1 Recap — A Family in Crisis – Armessa Movie News

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for the first episode of Netflix’s The Fall of the House of Usher

It is no stretch, nor a detriment to the final product, to say that Mike Flanagan has taken a page from HBO’s Succession to craft his new Netflix miniseries, The Fall of the House of Usher, which hits the streamer today. Based on the eponymous short story as well as other works by the master of horror Edgar Allan Poe, the show features a wealthy, prominent family eating itself from the inside out as the health of its patriarch begins to decline and the government starts to take interest in their business less’ than ethical machinations.

While the HBO show’s whole premise focuses on which of the Roy children will take control of Waystar Royco after the demise of its founder and ruler, Logan Roy (Brian Cox), The Fall of the House of Usher‘s mystery revolves around the succession process getting halted and who is behind it all. This story, as told by Fortunato Pharmaceuticals CEO, Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood), is a complex one; a tale that involves mysterious women in plague doctor masks, a dead mother who still roams the world of the living, and a strange jester-like figure. In the realm of the mundane, it also involves an informant, a bounty, a shifty non-disclosure agreement, and a lot of bickering over an eye-watering inheritance.

The central mystery of The Fall of the House of Usher is a relatively simple one: who is behind the deaths of all the children, legitimate and illegitimate, of Roderick Usher? In the first few minutes of the show’s first episode, “A Midnight Dreary,” we learn that Frederick (Henry Thomas), Tamerlane (Samantha Sloyan), Victorine (T’Nia Miller), Napoleon (Rahul Kohli), Camille (Kate Siegel), and Prospero (Sauriyan Sapkota) have all died in apparently unrelated circumstances, ranging from murder-suicides to animal attacks. However, speaking to Assistant US Attorney Auguste Dupin (Carl Lumbly), Roderick Usher claims that his children’s deaths are all connected. Sitting on a chair in his derelict childhood home, he blames himself for the fate of his heirs, as well as a strange presence whom he sees at the funeral for three of his kids: a woman wearing a bird mask similar to the one worn by doctors in the Middle Ages. But who is this woman, exactly, and what is her role in the Ushers’ deaths? Like many other questions, this one isn’t answered by “A Midnight Dreary.” It is simply a riddle that we will have to decipher over the course of the series.

There Are Three Main Stories in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’

Following in the footsteps of Flanagan’s own The Haunting of Bly Manor, The Fall of the House of Usher frames its actual plot with a conversation in which one of the characters is telling their story. Finally agreeing to speak to the man who has been prosecuting him and his family for their company’s astoundingly large role in the opioid crisis, Roderick tries to explain what happened to cause the downfall of his once powerful family. And, so, he offers three stories about his life — stories that are, at first, apparently unrelated, but that, much like the Usher children’s death, will eventually form a cohesive whole.

The first event recalled by Roderick is the death of his mother, which serves as an explanation as to how he and his sister, Madeline (Mary McDonnell), are connected to Fortunato Pharmaceuticals. When they were both children, their mother, Eliza (Annabeth Gish), used to work for the pharmaceutical owner, Mr. Longfellow (Robert Longstreet), as his secretary. It is not explained whether there was a consensual affair going on or if it was a more serious kind of sexual misconduct, but the show makes it clear that Madeline and Roderick are actually Mr. Longfellow’s children. Owing to this and to the almost God-like devotion that Eliza showed to her boss, Madeline and Roderick ask for his help when their mother falls ill. However, being the cruel man that he is, Mr. Longfellow refuses to come to Eliza’s aid, and she dies at home in the company of her children.

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Knowing that their mother’s religious sensibilities forbid her from being embalmed and wishing to avoid questioning by the police, Roderick and Madeline bury Eliza in their backyard. At night, however, in the middle of a storm, her uneasy body leaves her casket and makes its way to Mr. Longfellow’s house. Her children follow her and witness as she chokes her former employer with her own two hands, finally dropping to her actual death by his side. (Though she still seems to roam around Roderick’s childhood home.)

Sometime after this chilling event, in a way that will become clearer in the following episodes, Fortunato Pharmaceuticals passes on to Roderick and Madeline. Longfellow’s death is disguised in the media as a heart attack to preserve the family. The Usher family, that is. And, upon taking over Fortunato, Roderick vows never to be like his father, keeping his doors open to all of his children, legitimate and illegitimate alike, and giving them money to start their own businesses. But this doesn’t stop his family from betraying his trust.

The Powerful Usher Family Are in a Crisis

The second story that Roderick tells Dupin follows what happened to the Usher family after one of their days in court. On said day, Dupin reveals that he has a witness who could bring down the house of Usher for good: an insider with deep knowledge of the family and their businesses. Such a revelation causes the Ushers to start doubting one another, questioning the loyalty of some of the family members. The youngest son, reckless Prospero, and Roderick’s new, much younger wife, Juno (Ruth Codd), are two popular targets among the Usher siblings.

Roderick and Madeline, on the other hand, suspect no one and everyone at the same time. Seeking to unmask the informant, they call a family dinner in which they present all the Usher children and spouses with an NDA. The agreement basically states that whoever is siding with the government against the Usher household shall be neutralized, and Madeline makes it clear that said neutralization is not of the legal kind: it very much means death. Despite succeeding in making everyone uncomfortable, the threats do nothing to draw the informant out of hiding. So, Roderick decides to try a new approach: he offers a $50 million bounty to whoever uncovers the traitor.

Who Are the Creepy Figures That Roderick Keeps Seeing?

On the day of the dinner, Roderick also receives a visit from his personal physician, who tells him something that leaves him utterly shaken. We don’t know what it is, but the news brings to memory the image of a woman who is a central character in the third story Roderick tells Dupin, a story about a New Year’s Night decades ago that he and Madeline spent in a bar in order to, once again, avoid questioning by the police. We don’t know what crime they may have committed or witnessed, just that they need to lie low somewhere that also granted them an alibi. We also know that, on that very night, they met a bartender named Verna (Carla Gugino) who would change their lives forever. She’s the one that Roderick sees after talking to Dr. Donaldson, and there’s good reason for us to believe that she’s also the one behind the plague doctor mask, the same woman that he sees at his children’s funeral.

The first episode of The Fall of the House of Usher ends in an incredibly cryptic manner. In a flashback, Verna tells Madeline and Roderick that this is a turning point in their lives and that nothing will be the same from now on. Meanwhile, in the present day, after leaving the church where his children are being mourned, Roderick sees a strange figure dressed as a jester inside his car and passes out, bleeding profusely from his nose. Above him, a raven watches with knowing eyes, reminding us that this is an Edgar Allan Poe adaptation after all. What does it all mean? Well, we still have seven more episodes to find out.