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History Recap / TheFallOfTheHouseOfUsher2023E4TheBlackCat

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* Fanservice: Juno looks quite nice in a bright red nightgown this episode.

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* Fanservice: {{Fanservice}}: Juno looks quite nice in a bright red nightgown this episode.
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* BodyHorror: We get to see a lot of blood and guts this episode. Chief examples are Morella's still-burned face, as well as Leo's battle with the cat and eventually his bloody corpse. Special points go to the multiple shots of Roderick hallucinating-or-something Prospero's melted corpse - some of which are in close-up.
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Fixing indentation


^ DramaticDrop: When Roderick sees Prospero's ghost looming behind/embracing Juno, he drops the glass of whiskey he was holding.

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^ * DramaticDrop: When Roderick sees Prospero's ghost looming behind/embracing Juno, he drops the glass of whiskey he was holding.

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** What exactly prompted Roderick to hallucinate, or otherwise see, Prospero in this episode? Just [=CADASIL=]? Refusing to let Juno go off Ligadone? Something else?
* BerserkButton: Dupin gets pissed when Roderick shouts at him, and threatens to knock his lights out if he does it again.
* BodyHorror: We get to see a lot of blood and guts this episode. Chief examples are Morella's still-burned face, as well as Leo's battle with the cat and eventually his bloody corpse. Special points go to the multiple shots of Roderick hallucinating-or-something Prospero's melted corpse - some of which are in close-up.



^ DramaticDrop: When Roderick sees Prospero's ghost looming behind/embracing Juno, he drops the glass of whiskey he was holding.



* FaceRevealingTurn: A variant, as it's someone laying on the floor and turning their head to look up. Roderick hallucinates (or does he) Leo's corpse falling to the floor in front of him, then turning its head his way.
* FacialHorror: The left side of Leo's face after he dies is absolutely covered in blood. Also, Prospero's corpse still doesn't have eyes, and we are reminded of this face in a close-up.
* Fanservice: Juno looks quite nice in a bright red nightgown this episode.



** Juno starts coming onto Rodrick in a red nightgown and they prepare to get intimate, only for the scene to become horrifying when Rodrick hallucinates Perry's horrifically scarred corpse.

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** Juno starts coming onto Rodrick Roderick in a red nightgown and they prepare to get intimate, only for the scene to become horrifying when Rodrick Roderick hallucinates Perry's horrifically scarred corpse.corpse. Which ''leans in to kiss him''.
* FreakOut: Roderick understandably does not take it well when he sees Prospero's corpse. Juno has her own just off-screen, frantically asking him what's wrong.
* JumpScare: Roderick is chatting about coping mechanisms with Dupin when it cuts to a wide shot and something - which turns out to be Leo's corpse - crashes down in front of him.



* ScareChord: Roderick and Juno are about to go at it when the camera zooms in on the shoulder of Juno's nightgown, revealing Perry's ghost's burnt flesh.
* SherlockScan: Young Dupin effortlessly assesses Roderick's financial situation while analyzing their unwillingness to inform him.



* TrashTheSet: The once pristine and organized loft has been reduced to a smash, hole-ridden living space due to Leo's rage.

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* TrashTheSet: The once pristine and organized loft has been reduced to a smash, smashed, hole-ridden living space due to Leo's rage.rage.
* SuddenlyShouting: After the something that crashes down turns out to be Leo's ghost, which turns to look at Roderick, the latter stands up and starts yelling.
--> Roderick: I was talking! '''I was fucking talking!'''
--> Dupin: (stands up) Jesus! The hell is wrong with you?


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* WorthyOpponent: In the present, Frederick tells Dupin that he's always respected him; Dupin is skeptical, to say the least.

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** All of Leo's interactions with the replacement cat are revealed to be hallucinations. Were those hallucinations caused by the amount and intensity of drugs Leo had taken, grief and stress following his sister's death and the family's callous dismissal of it, pure rage...or early-onset [=CADASIL=] symptoms inherited from his father?

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** All of Leo's interactions with the replacement cat are revealed to be hallucinations. Were those hallucinations caused by the amount and intensity of drugs Leo had taken, grief and stress following his sister's death and the family's callous dismissal of it, pure rage...or rage, early-onset [=CADASIL=] symptoms inherited from his father?father, or Verna? A mix of all possibilities?



* PetTheDog: Sure, Leo trying to replace Pluto instead of telling Julius that the cat is dead is ...very poor behavior, but his behavior in the moment is actually not terrible. When he finds a Pluto-lookalike in the shelter Verna is working at, he offers to have the place renovated into a non-kill shelter, find homes for the cats who need them, and even buy Verna a set of high-end clothes if she lets him take the cat. It's implied that he even followed through.



** Frederick, who up to this point had mostly just been ineffective but pitiable, is clearly losing it after Pym uncovers Morella's burner phone. He steals some cocaine from Leo and becomes so desperate to find out whats on the thing that he rips off her bandages to try and unlock it with facial recognition.

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** Frederick, who up to this point had mostly just been ineffective but pitiable, is clearly losing it after Pym uncovers Morella's burner phone. He steals some cocaine from Leo and becomes so desperate to find out whats what's on the thing that he rips off her bandages to try and unlock it with facial recognition.
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* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: The ending heavily implies that Leo merely hallucinated all the dead animals he found around the apartment.






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* MeaningfulName: The cat that started all the trouble for Leo is named "Pluto". A name for a Roman deity associated with death.

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* MeaningfulName: The cat that started all the trouble for Leo is named "Pluto". A name for a Roman deity associated with death.death and wealth.
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* MeaningfulName: The cat that started all the trouble for Leo is named "Pluto". A name for a Roman deity associated with death.

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* FanDisservice: Leo is ''very'' well built and handsome, and there are a lot of scenes here with his shirt off. Too bad he's covered in bleeding cat scratches and stuck in a blind rage smashing his high-rise loft to kingdom come.

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* FanDisservice: FanDisservice:
**
Leo is ''very'' well built and handsome, and there are a lot of scenes here with his shirt off. Too bad he's covered in bleeding cat scratches and stuck in a blind rage smashing his high-rise loft to kingdom come.come.
** Juno starts coming onto Rodrick in a red nightgown and they prepare to get intimate, only for the scene to become horrifying when Rodrick hallucinates Perry's horrifically scarred corpse.



* SanitySlippage: While not "insane", Napoleon's manifesting anger could qualify for him having a mental breakdown as he tries to look for the cat. For Verna, all it took was pressing the right buttons, and letting his rage take hold.

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* SanitySlippage: SanitySlippage:
**
While not "insane", Napoleon's manifesting anger could qualify for him having a mental breakdown as he tries to look for the cat. For Verna, all it took was pressing the right buttons, and letting his rage take hold.hold.
** Frederick, who up to this point had mostly just been ineffective but pitiable, is clearly losing it after Pym uncovers Morella's burner phone. He steals some cocaine from Leo and becomes so desperate to find out whats on the thing that he rips off her bandages to try and unlock it with facial recognition.
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[[quoteright:1000:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/black_cat_0.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:1000:''[[EyeScream Ouch...]]'']]


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'''Currently under construction.'''
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* ShoutOut: Leo smashes up his apartment with a Mjolnir hammer, implied to be an original prompt from one of the [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse Marvel movies]], as he can easily get "[[Creator/ChrisHemsworth Hemsworth]] to send [him] another hammer."

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* ShoutOut: Leo smashes up his apartment with a Mjolnir hammer, implied to be an original prompt prop from one of the [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse Marvel movies]], as he can easily get "[[Creator/ChrisHemsworth Hemsworth]] to send [him] another hammer."
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** All of Leo's interactions with the replacement cat are revealed to be hallucinations. Were those hallucinations caused by the amount and intensity of drugs Leo had taken, grief and stress following his sister's death and the family's callous dismissal of it, pure rage...or early-onset [=CADASIL=] symptoms inherited from his father?


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* OnlySaneMan: Leo refuses to participate in the family's clumsy attempts at damage control after Camille's death, saying that they can take him out of the will if they want but he won't put business before the fact that [[BigBrotherInstinct his brother and sister are dead]].
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* AmbiguousSituation: Did Leo ever actually kill Pluto in the first place? The cat that visits his body after his death is wearing the Gucci collar that Leo claims went missing when Pluto "ran away," implying that the answer is no.
** WordOfGod confirmed that Leo did not actually harm the real Pluto and the appearance of his dead body was a hallucination.


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** Verna then appears in the cat's place with all of the injuries the cat sustained, including an eyeball drooping down her face.
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Added DiffLines:

* ShoutOut: Leo smashes up his apartment with a Mjolnir hammer, implied to be an original prompt from one of the [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse Marvel movies]], as he can easily get "[[Creator/ChrisHemsworth Hemsworth]] to send [him] another hammer."
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'''Episode 4:'''

![[AC:The Black Cat]]

->Directed by: Michael Fimognari
->Written by: Creator/MikeFlanagan

->''For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad am I not -- and very surely do I not dream.''
-->'''- First three sentences in Literature/TheBlackCat'''

Leo adopts a black cat who soon brings evil--and a mysterious woman--into his home, while Roderick struggles with terrifying hallucinations.

This episode incorporates elements from ''Literature/TheBlackCat''.

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!!Tropes that are present in this episode:

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: While not cruel like Perry and Camille's deaths, Leo still suffers a lot of pain from the cat's violent scratching, with his suffering only ending after he trips off the balcony and falls onto the pavement below. One could say his mercy was that the fall instantly killed him.
* EyeScream: A two-for-one deal:
** When retrieving the drugs for Freddie, Leo sees the cat hiding on the shelf, clawing at one of his eyes. Not only is the eye red but there is a ''pretty noticeable'' gash on his eyeball.
** After digging its claws into his chest, Leo forces the cat off and ''jams his thumbs into the cat's eye sockets''. He succeeds in popping one eye out of its socket, but it doesn't faze the cat.
* FanDisservice: Leo is ''very'' well built and handsome, and there are a lot of scenes here with his shirt off. Too bad he's covered in bleeding cat scratches and stuck in a blind rage smashing his high-rise loft to kingdom come.
* RageBreakingPoint: As the cat causes more and more grief towards Leo, he grows angrier and angrier, hitting his boiling point when the cat hides in the walls.
* SanitySlippage: While not "insane", Napoleon's manifesting anger could qualify for him having a mental breakdown as he tries to look for the cat. For Verna, all it took was pressing the right buttons, and letting his rage take hold.
* TrashTheSet: The once pristine and organized loft has been reduced to a smash, hole-ridden living space due to Leo's rage.
* WhamShot: A one-two-three punch:
** 1) The camera panning over the bathtub to reveal, nothing. The dead animals and blood are all gone, revealing that Leo's entire encounter with the cat was all a hallucination.
** 2) At numerous close shots, Leo's entire body does ''not'' have scratches all over, revealing that the cat's interactions were also hallucinated.
** 3) A black cat approaches Leo's body, but is more friendly, while also ''having the Gucci collar'', revealing this cat to be the '''actual''' Pluto. Not only did Pluto actually survive, but Leo [[AllForNothing went out of his way to replace Pluto, and dying as a result, for nothing]].

----

-->''"Mm. Heads up."''

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