‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ Ending Explained: Will There Be a Season 2?
Anyone who’s read Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” knew the Netflix series was going to end with horror, vengeance and a dilapidating house symbolizing the ruin of a once-great family. But leave it to show creators Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy to turn a literary classic on its head.
While paying homage to the short story it’s named after, “The Fall of the House of Usher” managed to wrap up its complicated story of familial greed and failure while also sneaking in a couple of extra Poe Easter eggs. Consider this your guide on how this creepy miniseries ends.
How does “The Fall of the House of Usher” end?
In Episode 8 “The Raven,” Roderick (Bruce Greenwood) finally explains to Assistant U.S. Attorney C. Auguste Dupin (Carl Lumbly) exactly why he’s responsible for the deaths of his children.
Years ago, he (Zach Gilford) and his twin sister Madeline (Willa Fitzgerald) met a mysterious woman at a bar the night they committed their first unforgivable sin. Knowing that their future would be hampered if they continued to partner with Rufus Griswold (Michael Trucco), Madeline drugged their former business partner. When he was out cold, Madeline and Roderick chained him to a wall and constructed a fake wall in front of him, entrapping him in the fashion of “The Cask of Amontillado.”
This mysterious woman known as Verna (Carla Gugino) offered them a proposition. She could assure them they would get away with their crime and have riches beyond their wildest dreams, and they wouldn’t have to pay for any of their sins. But their children would. Right before they die, all their children would die too. Both Madeline and Roderick agreed, thereby dooming the Usher family forever.
For a brief spell, Roderick believed that his granddaughter Lenore (Kyliegh Curran) may be able to escape the curse. But when she fell victim to the same fate, Roderick was haunted by a series of texts from Lenore, all of which said “Nevermore,” mirroring the grieving lover at the center of Poe’s “The Raven.”
Shortly after Lenore’s death, Verna confronted an unsettled Roderick in his office. As he mourned the loss of his children, she corrected him. His true legacy, she said, had nothing to do with his bloodline but rested in the millions of people he killed thanks to his pharmaceutical company.
“I’ve worked with a lot of truly influential people over the years, but when it comes to sheer body count you’re in my top five,” Verna said.
After his conversation with Verna, Roderick returned to his dilapidating house, which he referred to as “our tomb.” It’s there that he shared a drink with the last living Usher: Madeline (Mary McDonnell). When Roderick started to mourn the mistakes they made and lives they took, Madeline corrected him. People were always going to pick the stupid, self-destructive option, she reasoned, and they should be proud of what they’ve accomplished.
“You and me against the world,” Madeline said, challenging death. “I don’t care if it’s death herself. She wants Madeline f–king Usher, she’s going to have to look me straight in the eyes.” It was only then that Madeline realized her bother had poisoned her.
The final episode then cut back to the present timeline and Roderick’s conversation with C. Auguste Dupin. Roderick told the attorney that he sent Madeline off “like a queen,” implying that he mummified her. But when Auguste asked him if he was certain Madeline was dead when he entombed her, Roderick seemed unsure. That question was quickly answered when a bloodied version of Madeline burst into the room. The second she heard Roderick utter “Nevermore,” she lunged at him, strangling him in the same manner their mother murdered their father.
Auguste fled the house as it collapsed around him, a nod to Poe’s titular short story “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Both Madeline and Roderick perished in the wreckage. The only creature left was a single raven who briefly took the form of Verna.
How does “The Fall of the House of Usher” end after Roderick and Madeline’s deaths?
There is an epilogue to this story. After the death of the twins, Roderick’s wife Juno (Ruth Codd) inherited the Fortunato company, which she immediately dissolved. Instead, she turned it into the Phoenix Foundation, a company dedicated for rehabilitation programs and addiction research.
After rejecting Verna’s offer, Arthur Pym (Mark Hamill) was arrested just as she said he would be. Auguste noted that he “didn’t utter a word” in his defense during the trial and was the only conviction in the Fortunato case.
After Auguste visits the Usher graves one final time, the camera shifts to Verna. As her voiceover recites Poe’s “Spirits of the Dead,” she lays a trinket on each of the graves — a mask for Prospero (Sauriyan Sapkota), an iPhone for Camille (Kate Siegel), a cat collar for Napoleon (Rahul Kohli), a medical device for Victorine (T’Nia Miller), scarab beetle pendant for Tamerlane (Samantha Sloyan) and a bag of coke for Frederick (Henry Thomas). Each trinket represents both their faults and how they died.
The only Ushers to get slightly different presents are Lenore, Madeline and Roderick. Lenore, who Roderick once called “the best of the Ushers,” gets a single raven’s feather adorned with a white rose. Madeline receives the two blue stones Roderick acquired by bribing Egyptian antiquities, a nod to “Some Words with a Mummy.” As for Roderick, his grave is given an empty whiskey glass, a symbol of both his deal with Verna and his confession to Auguste.
In the series’ final moments, Verna as a raven flies away from the nine freshly dug graves.
Will there be a “Fall of the House of Usher” Season 2?
There will not. Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy’s latest Netflix original was designed to be a limited series rather than an anthology or an ongoing series. Considering the duo signed a deal with Amazon last December, this will likely be one of their last collaborations with Netflix.
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