The Fall of the House of Usher 1.08 | The Raven (2023)

the show: is literally called the fall of the house of usher

me when lenore dies:

I also like how House of Usher quietly calls out Madelines delusions of AI immortality. How Roderick is also fully suckered into this, saying that Madeline was close to cracking it despite at least one other instance (the heart mesh that needed more tests, more modifications, before it could possibly be ready) showing that his estimates are more wishful thinking than anything.

... But her final product, the Lenore bot, built upon thousands of questions Lenote answered, only offers a single word upon activation: "Nevermore." Lenore is dead, the bot will never recapture the spark that fueled her.

You're Lenore Usher and you just find out your entire family is sued for mass murder(?) and your grandpa offers 50 million to whoever catches the mole in the family, who his sister promises to murder. then your 27 years old uncle dies under an acid shower during an orgy which your mom willingly attended. but then your aunt gets her face ripped off by a chimpanzee and your other uncle jumps off his balcony because of a cat. your barely-older-than-you step-grandma tells you about giving a blowjob to your grandpa. your lesbian aunt and her partner go out in a murder-suicide. your last aunt tries to kill your step-grandma and dies by shattered mirror ceiling. but your mom is home, your dad is acting insane, your grandpa is speaking in poetry, and his sister is looking for the woman she kissed once like 40 years ago. but now you find out your dad mutilated your melted mom and then died drugged, with his dick out, and cut in half. and you think well this can't get any worse! but then carla gugino is in your bed and you fucking die. but it's okay because at least you didn't have to see your grandpa get killed by his sister who he poisoned and changed her eyes for sapphires but she came back to life and then a house fell on top of them.

I don't see anyone talking about how devastating Morrie's story is and that's a damn shame. Imagine being one of the few survivors of this horrific event that you weren't even sure about being at in the first place, being nearly burned to death, and feeling that terrible pain as you recover for such a long time. Then after all of that you are isolated from the people who actually want to help you, slowly poisoned by your husband who is dead set on torturing you for cheating that you technically never even did and who insists that this is all out of love and that you deserve this. Imagine the fear that you would feel if, during all of this, you're also worrying about your baby girl as she's manipulated by said husband is coked out of his mind and drunk on control. Imagine your daughter finds you, poisoned, traumatized, and missing teeth and she has to be the steady one in this situation because you can't but she's just a little girl. She's just a kid really and she has to do all of the heavy lifting even though she's traumatized because not one person in control has her best interests at heart. Imagine being in a good facility and hearing that your husband is dead and you are so fucking relieved because you're safe. You and your baby are finally fucking safe. You can be together again. And then after that. After all of that, your daughter dies alone in her sleep. Morelle Usher is one of the strongest people in this entire series because I just don't think I could go on after that.

Every kid haunts Roderick Usher when he tells Auggie their story, but Lenore is there with him throughout, chiming "Nevermore". Never again would the Ushers gather around a fire they lit to burn the world. Never again would another brick be added to their legacy. Never again would they poison this world in a new way. Never again can Roderick break his kid's backs to build his empire. Never again would he behold them without recoiling. Something poetic to have one who is most like Annabel Lee remind him throughout that this is it. That fate has finally come to collect her debt.

I saw someone suggest the idea that the Ushers all represent a deadly sin - here is which I think they are and why

Prospero - Lust

Camille - wrath

Leo - gluttony

Vic - sloth

Tamerlane - pride

Fred - envy

The Twins (Roderick and Madeline) - greed

Prospero is Lust, not only because of his hedonism but his unabashed Lust for power - he is filming his anonymous orgy so he can blackmail powerful people and dies in the midst of his orgy - but I could also see him as sloth (wouldn’t come up with a proper business proposal, didn’t bother to check that the tanks held water not acid)

Camille is Wrath, she approaches everything - her siblings, her job, her assistants/lovers and verna in the end with rage - and she gets killed by an angry animal

Leo is Gluttony - he indulges himself in abundant drugs and abundant sexual partners, despite having a relatively good situation - he has a successful career that doesn’t put him directly under his fathers control, he has a committed caring partner but still he gluts himself on everything that comes his way, he dies chasing a cat that hunts far more than it needs too

Victorine is Sloth - she doesn’t want to put in the work needed too make her device work, she just takes shortcuts to make it seem like it is working, she kills her partner in part because her partner who is actually the skilled surgeon doesn’t want to do the work anymore (admittedly this one I’m not as sure on - she might be pride, refusing to admit her device doesn’t work out of fear of failure)

Tamerlane is Pride - Of all her siblings she is the most proud of being an usher, and the most obsessed with her own image, obsessed with beauty, obsessed with being a success, she will not take anyone’s advice not even her husbands, she is proud and controlling in her relationship forcing her husband to go along with her voyeuristic kink when he doesn’t want too. This is a double-edged sword as she is also deeply insecure, outsourcing intimacy and dying as a result of smashing mirrors attempting to prevent Verna taking her place (alternatively she could be envy - envious of Verna etc.)

Fred is Envy - he is envious of his father and his effortless command presence and his fathers success, and he is envious of his wife, punishing her horrifically purely because he believes she cheated on him, (even though she didn’t, all she did was think about it and go to a party where she was alone) he is so envious that he even makes an attempted coup against his father. (He could also be gluttony - his drugs, and dying because putting more and more nightshade in his coke)

Finally the Twins - Roderick and Madeline are Greed - They set everything in motion because they both always wanted more, more money, more recognition, more power, even immortality - through AI in Madeline’s case and in the creation of a bloodline legacy in Roderick’s

I also have one thing to add I think that Lenore (and Annabel Lee and Juno and Morella - Lenore’s mom) represent the seven capital virtues: these are chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness and humility.

Chasity - Lenore dies before she ever has a relationship, she is in gothic story terms a chaste innocent

Temperance - Lenore seems disgusted by her dad having done drugs (also Juno is Temperance, her wisdom in coming to her own conclusion to wean herself off Ligodine)

Charity - As Verna says the charity her mom starts is a result of Lenore saving her mom (also Juno and Morella donating to charity)

Diligence - Lenore sticks to what is right even when it’s hard, giving a statement to the police about her dad, caring for her grandfather, searching for treatment options for her mom (also Juno diligently weaning herself of drugs, Morella’s charity work, Annabel Lee caring for her children)

Patience - Lenore patiently encourages her family to do better and be better

Kindness - Lenore saves her mother, and creates a ripple effect that saves millions of lives (Annabel Lee being kind to everyone)

Humility - Lenore thinks that losing their fortune and company could be a good thing that leads to a moral good for her family

If I die, I would like to die like Lenore Usher

Peaceful

Knowing that my loved one is going to be okay

I died knowing that I did the right thing

Also death is looking like Carla Gugino <3<3

LENORE USHER IS THE ONLY USHER WHO ABSOLUTELY DID NOT DESERVE TO DIE

It's official. 4 of 4 of Mike Flanagan's Netflix series have made me sob 😭😭 I held out so much hope for Lenore and then her death scene 😭😭 the whole "things get better, they get so much better and the family money starts to save people instead, but you won't be there to see it. Instead, it's done in your name" really got to me. Especially because she SAVED her mom!! And her mom never gets to see her again 😭😭 like you know that Morella was too injured and probably in or recovering from a surgery so she couldn't attend the funeral and maybe didn't know about till after the fact 😭

another thing I like about the fall of the house of usher is the criticism of AI especially as a means to create art like "AI could write movies" "not well" ! I love how Mike Flanagan's message in his work is often a long and thoughtful reflection on death and grief and love and sometimes it's just "jumpscares are lazy" or "pay your writers" ❤

the fall of the house of usher was a really a show TM. We keep on looking for the ‘good’ Usher for the innocent or the misunderstood among Roderick’s children. We think it’s Napeleon, Victornie, Tamberlane or Frederick. We convince ourselves that one of these children must be right must be good. But the show smashes those concepts into bit.

Próspero’s treatment of his…fuck buddies, Napoleon and his killing of Pluto, Camille sexually abusing her employees under contract, Victorine’s endless malpractice but also her instantly taking advantage of the woman when the opportunity presented itself, Tamberlane emotionally manipulating her husband but out of all of them she’s the ‘least’ harmful but the harm she does is emotionally scarring, Frederick and the fucking pliers.

Not a single child of Roderick is ‘the good usher’ like Augste but it ‘There was one’ but it was not Annabel Lee, it was Lenore. We were looking for the hero in all the wrong places all along and she died in the end and saves a million more because of it.

Lenore Usher speaking to any member of her family

I fucking hated Fredrick Bitchass Usher with a passion that I was not expecting to … I mean just look at this stupid fucker with his dumbass bun /ponytail bullshit

Fredrick “frodrick” Usher is such a fuckin pussy wtf?! Bitch looks like he’d have a fuckin aneurism if he accidentally brushed up against a tiddy how the hell did this fool land a wife like that??

AND THEN HAVE THE GODDAMN GALL, THE AUDACITY TO ABUSE SUCH A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN ????

Who, mind you, was already no doubt in excruciating fucking pain and absolutely paying the consequences as it was!

And for what? Cheating? I’d cheat on him too! In a heartbeat. Jesus Christ. I don’t know how much love was there before the “terrible accident” but babe you could do so much better than mf sweaty Freddy. Only two reasons to marry him had to be pity and, well, I’m sure the money fuckin helped as well.

Also you can’t convince me that this absolute beauty (inside and out), this fucking queen,

Ms. Lenore Usher,

… was the spawn of that dipshit. Like… the math don’t work. The math ain’t mathin for me. I’m sorry but no.

Which, made his death scene all the more sweet. And miss Verna was fuckin serving during that entire scene 😘🤌

Fuck.

🔪

Disclaimer: I’m not fuckin stupid. It’s a show. this fucker just got under my skin lol. Absolutely no disrespect to Henry Thomas tho. Just lose the fuckin ponytail please god

I love and hate them [except Lenore] so much. 🥺

I feel like Hill House and House of Usher are teaching the same moral using opposite techniques.