Episode 2:
The Masque of the Red Death
Directed by: Mike Flanagan
Written by: Emmy Grinwis and Mike Flanagan
The "Red Death" had long devastated the country. No pestilence had been ever so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avator and its seal — the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleedings at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest-ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease were the incidents of half an hour.
- The description of the titular disease in The Masque of the Red Death
Motivated by money and revenge, Perry hosts an exclusive masque-rave that takes a twisted turn. A young Roderick pitches a revolutionary new opioid.
This episode incorporates elements from The Masque of the Red Death, and Prospero is the main focus of the episode.
The page is currently under construction.
Tropes that are present in this episode:
- Bastard Angst: Prospero commiserates with Leo about how they seem to get shit from the legitimate part of the family for their illegitimacy, even compared to the other bastards.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Prospero has this in regards to the rest of the family, complaining that he's only throwing his warehouse party to get enough money to earn their respect.
- Dumbass Has a Point: After his failed pitch to Roderick and Madeline, Prospero reflects that their requiring the kids to contribute to the family empire in some way has messed them up, and that he might have been better off not meeting Roderick in the first place.
- Dr. Feelgood: Ligodone, a popular brand of opioid from Fortunado, is revealed to be a massive contributor to a lot of pain and suffering when abused. You either get the people who go down darker paths with street drug addiction, or end up dead.Auggie (modern): "Over the years, I've talked to a lot of people who have taken your drugs. Soccer moms with headaches. Accountants with carpal tunnel. Kids with sports injuries. Their docs prescribe them with Ligodone, pitch it like extra strength Tylenol. Fast forward a year, they're shooting up heroin behind dumpsters. Or they're dead."
- Foreshadowing:
- When one of Peter's lawyers mentions the buried toxins, she mentions that one factory, in particular, had a "highly acidic concentration".
- Greenwashed Villainy: Frederick and Arthur keep repeating to the EPA lawyers that they'd like nothing more to assist them and ensure Fortunato's compliance with environmental relations, despite the head lawyer pointing out that it's very difficult to actually meet with them: Frederick later explains that they don't actually give a damn about the environment and just repeat the spiel about compliance to stall the authorities.
- Gilligan Cut: When young Dupin is asked by his boss what he would say to the collective wrongness in the world, it cuts to present Dupin asking Roderick, "Was it ever going to be enough?"
- Grave Robbing: A young Dupin photographs exhumed and disturbed graves, but the bodies themselves are missing. It's later revealed that the disturbed graves were people who participated in a drug trial.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Lenore walks in on Juno sitting in Roderick's lap and immediately turns to leave.
- Mood Whiplash: Perry goes from chill and looking for breakfast to threatening to stab Faraj with a fork for supposedly eating his rare eggs to chill again after he pokes around in the fridge a bit more and actually finds them.
- Never My Fault; Frederick is very insistent that Ligadone's addictiveness is not his fault.
- Nicknaming the Enemy: On Perry's phone, Frederick's contact name is "DICKWAD", similar to how the other siblings nickname him "Froderick".Faraj: "Hmm, who's 'dickwad'?"Perry: "It's my brother, Frederick."
- Parrot Exposition: A variant. After Prospero confirms that Fortunato owns condemned factories that are dangerous to the environment, contrary to Frederick and Arthur's assertions, the head EPA lawyer asks him to confirm that in a "did they really just blow their own case wide open?" tone.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Perry himself flips his lid at Faraj when the former believes the latter ate the Black-headed gull's eggs, even poking a fork under Faraj's chin.
- Really Gets Around: Perry's first scene is him waking up in a bed crowded with women and toys scattered about.Roderick (modern): "The first thing you have to understand about my son is that he was if nothing else... crazy."
- Saying Too Much: At the deposition with the EPA lawyers, Frederick and Arthur are putting up a solid "of course we're complying with regulations, honest" front and denying that they have any condemned testing factories. Prospero wanders in and subsequently expresses wonder at how cool said factories are and that no one had told him that the company owned them, to Frederick and Arthur's frustration (and the EPA lawyers' delight).
- Too Much Information: Juno explains how she met Roderick and goes into a bit more detail and swearing than would be generally considered appropriate, ending with her recounting how she said she was so grateful she could blow him. Lenore looks avoidant, and Juno says "yeah" weakly and facepalms.
- Toxic, Inc.: It's revealed in this episode that there are numerous condemned testing factories under Fortunato's thumb. While many are not compliant with environmental laws, there are some that are leaking toxins into the ground, potentially contaminating the groundwater. And that's not getting into the presence of buried toxins, including heavy metals.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When Prospero comes around to Leo's place to ask him for drugs for the warehouse party, he's bitter about how he wants to finally earn money in order to garner the respect he feels he deserves from the rest of the family. In one of the very few non-aggressive sibling interactions in the series, Leo honestly tells him that he's wasting his potential and once he gets his head on right, he'll be "unstoppable". (This is, of course, slightly undercut by Leo giving him the drugs right after.)
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Frederick's reaction to Prospero accidentally revealing to the EPA that yes, they do own environmentally dangerous factories, totally invalidating Frederick and Arthur's stonewalling.
- "Go. Now."
