Episode 8:
The Raven
The House of Usher has finally fallen.
Directed by: TBA
Written by: TBA
TBA
- TBA
In 1980, Roderick and Madeline seize a chance to cement their fortune—for a price. Decades later, the remaining Ushers reckon with the consequences.
This episode incorporates elements from The Raven and The Cask of Amontillado.
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Tropes that are present in this episode:
- Apologetic Attacker: Verna is clearly unhappy that she has to kill Lenore as part of her deal with Roderick and Madeline.
- Big Sleep: When Lenore dies, Verna simply touches her head and she falls onto her bed. It could easily be mistaken for her being just put to sleep.
- Bittersweet Ending: All the main Ushers are dead, even Lenore, and all the suffering they wrought can't be undone. However, Juno and Morella manage to recover from their ordeals, with the former using her inheritance to help other addicts like herself and the latter starting a successful non-profit in Lenore's name that goes on to help millions of people. Auguste also gets to see justice done when Pym is arrested and gets to close this chapter of his life.
- Comfort the Dying: An unusual case in that the dying party doesn't realize they're dying until the comfort comes. When Verna comes to collect Lenore as part of the deal, she comforts her by telling her that her mother would go on to make a full recovery over three years, and that she would go on to create the Lenore Foundation to help domestic violence and abuse victims. More than that, it would explode in growth allowing her to save millions of lives in a decade.
- Dead All Along: Lenore Usher was never texting Roderick, as she had died hours earlier in the night. In truth, it was the bot that was made from Madeline's sentient AI project.
- Deal with the Devil: Or whatever Verna is. After killing Rufus, Roderick and Madeline made a deal with Verna - guaranteed wealth, power, and freedom from the law for as long as Roderick remained alive, but once his time to die arrived, Madeline and their entire bloodline would 'exit the stage' with him.
- Death of a Child: Lenore is the final member of the Usher descendants to die. Verna is holding back tears the entire time she speaks with Lenore as she tries to comfort her in her final moments. Roderick is outright destroyed when he finds her body. Auguste is visibly saddened when he realizes that what he thought was a loving granddaughter texting her grandfather was actually a digital bot made by scanning her social media accounts.
- Due to the Dead: Verna lays out various items in each of the Ushers' gravestones.
- For Prospero, she lays a carnival mask.
- For Camille, she lays her cell phone.
- For Napoleon, she lays Pluto's cat collar.
- For Victorine, she lays her heart implant.
- For Tamerlane, she lays an Egyptian golden scarab.
- For Frederick, she dismissively tosses a small cocaine bag.
- For Lenore and only Lenore out of the entire Usher clan, Verna lays a raven's feather and white rose upon her grave to symbolize her innocence and tragic loss.
- For Madeline, she deposits the sapphires Roderick replaced her eyes with.
- For Roderick himself, she lays out his Old Fashioned glass.
- Didn't Think This Through: Throughout Roderick and Lenore's final conversation, it's painfully obvious that Roderick thinks Lenore is going to outlive him. He either didn't remember Verna's specific use of the word "bloodline" or didn't realize that it applied not just to his children, but to their children as well.
- Even Evil Can Be Loved: Lenore truly loves her grandfather and encourages him to let go of Fortunato so that they can start to fix what the company and the family have broken.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Roderick is utterly devastated by Lenore's death, which retroactively explains his obvious perpetual despair during his talk with Auguste throughout the series.
- Face Death with Dignity: It's left ambiguous as to when Lenore realizes that she's about to die, but the entire time she's with Verna, she never shows any fear or despair.
- Karma Houdini: It's established that Arthur has gotten to be this as a side effect of Roderick's deal due to constantly being so close to the Ushers. Verna warns him that it's coming to an end very soon, and the fallout results in Arthur spending the rest of his days in prison.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: With his advanced age in mind, Arthur declines Verna's last-minute bargain and accepts spending the rest of his days in prison without a word in defense.
- Loving a Shadow: In a flashback, Annabel cites this trope during her final fight with Roderick, saying that the man she knows and loves could never betray Auguste and that Roderick isn't that man.
- Oh, Crap!: Arthur understandably reacts this way when Verna magically teleports out of her body bag and starts clapping and praising his skills. In fact, he remains in a state of shock for several moments and Verna has to coax him into conversation.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Arthur tries to pressure Lenore to make a false statement to the police in order to protect her father's image and ensure that he dies as an "upstanding" man. Lenore (who has just found out that her father was torturing her mother before he died) tells Arthur to shove it up where the sun doesn't shine.Lenore: I don't care what's good for the company or the family. This is about my mom. And if you think you're coming near her with another pair of pliers, over my dead body, you fucking ghoul.
- Uniformity Exception: Lenore is the only bloodline Usher who dies in peace instead of pain, to go along with all the other differences.
- The Unreveal:
- The details of Pym's Northern Expedition are never made clear, though several deaths and worse acts are hinted at. What we do know is that's when Verna first became interested in Arthur.
- Who or what Verna is remains unclear even at the end. The most she ever says about herself is she 'went topside' to observe humans who fascinate her. It's implied she's the immortal from the Hollow Earth briefly seen in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, but nothing is confirmed.
- Wham Line: Roderick and Madeline think Verna is joking when she refers to them as "killers" at first, until she makes it very clear that she isn't.Verna: You're a killer, aren't you? Both of you. Couple of real killers.Madeline: I wouldn't say that.Verna: Really? What else would you call it? I mean, you killed Rufus Griswold tonight, didn't you?
- "Nevermore."
