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The Fall of the House of Usher

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Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher marks his final show for Netflix after he ditched his exclusive multi-year deal with the streaming giant for Amazon Studios. The horror series takes inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe’s popular works and follows two siblings who run a corrupt company called Fortunato Pharmaceuticals. Their past haunts them as their family begins to die in gruesome ways.

Obviously, there are spoilers beyond this point.

Throughout the eight episodes, it is revealed that Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood) and Madeline Usher (Mary McDonnell) made a deal with a mysterious barkeep, Verna (Carla Gugino), to protect themselves after they murdered Fortunato executive Rufus Griswold (Michael Trucco).

Verna promises the siblings an alibi in exchange for the lives of their entire bloodline.

Now, anybody else would be like “no deal!” or at least, in knowing the exchange, be sure not to further reproduce. But Roderick can’t be tamed. Instead, he has six children by four mothers, and one of his kin – Frederick – has one daughter, who is Roderick’s granddaughter. As the show progresses, the characters die painful and horrific deaths.

By the time the final episode arrives, Roderick and Madeline are still alive, along with their granddaughter Lenore (Kyliegh Curran). So, what happens in the final episode? Does sweet, innocent Lenore die? Do Roderick and Madeline die? Does Verna get the last word? Continue reading for everything you need to know.

The Fall of the House of Usher Ending Explained

The episode starts with the aftermath of Roderick’s suicide, which Verna intercepted. The supernatural being explains to him that he can’t change the deal by killing himself first. “The numbers are already locked in, there are only a few more transactions left,” she says.

The episode cuts to a flashback that shows Roderick and Madeline killing Rufus after a contentious lawsuit during which the Fortunato head threw Roderick and Madeline under the bus for the company’s illegal practices. The vengeful siblings disarm Rufus with liquor and a paralytic agent and tie him up in a basement, where they shut him behind a brick wall.

After this, Roderick and Madeline go to a pub for an alibi, where they meet Verna who tells them that they can take over Fortunato and never be convicted of any crimes. When Roderick asks what they need to give in exchange, Verna says, “Let the next generation foot the bill.” She tells him that “just before” he dies, his bloodline will also die.

The-Fall-of-the-House-of-Usher-Ending — Photo: Netflix

The scene cuts to Arthur Pym (Mark Hamill) – the Usher family’s attorney and “fixer” – attempting to kill Verna once she’s spotted inside the Usher’s family home. Verna plays along and fakes her death, but later reveals herself to still be alive after Arthur calls for body disposal. As Verna cannot die, she tells him, “You can either ride the phoenix out of Fortunato’s ashes, or you can watch it fly away from a federal prison cell.” Arthur responds, “What are you asking in return?” Verna asks him what “assets” he has to trade, “What have you got? No spouse, no children, no familial connections – at least none that you care about. But everyone loves something, and in that love, there’s collateral.” Arthur says he has “no collateral” because that’s leverage, and he’s not going to “cede that ground” at this stage in his life.

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The scene cuts to Lenore helping her grandfather Roderick prepare for bed after leaving the hospital, following his suicide attempt. Only the two of them are in the house as Roderick’s second wife Juno (Ruth Codd) left him, citing her desire to do good and get clean. After preparing for bed, Lenore enters her room to see Verna perched on the guest bed. “There’s a lot about my job that I love, but there are moments like these that bring me no joy,” she tells Lenore. Verna continues to share that Lenore’s mother, who was injured in the second episode of the season, eventually recovers and uses her inherited wealth to start a nonprofit, which she names The Lenore Foundation. Verna then touches Lenore’s face and the young girl has a painless death.

The-Fall-of-the-House-of-Usher-Lenore — Photo: Netflix

Roderick and Madeline are next, and Roderick takes his sister’s death into his own hands. The death scene is shown as Roderick confesses his sins to investigator Auguste Dupin (Carl Lumbly), whom he had wronged in the past. Roderick tells the investigator that he lured his sister into their childhood home, where he and Auguste are currently located, and drugged her with the same concoction used on Rufus. He tells her, “You are a queen. You are a goddess. And you’re going to live forever,” before stabbing her in the torso. Roderick uses the Egyptian embalming technology Madeline has amassed over the years to lobotomize and mutilate her, in the same way they treated Egyptian queens and kings. However, it is revealed that Madeline was still alive while it was happening.

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In the last act of the episode, Madeline crashes through the basement door with stones in her eyes and tongueless. She ruthlessly attacks Roderick while covered in blood. Verna appears during their battle and crushes them both inside of the house, rendering them dead.

In a voiceover at the end of the episode, it is stated that Juno inherited Fortunato and repurposed it into a charity benefiting rehabilitation programs; and Arthur is arrested and serving a life sentence in prison. A veiled Verna appears at the Usher family’s graves and leaves an item on each of their tombstones, which calls back to their deaths.

The items are as follows: