Recap / The Fall of the House of Usher (2023) E1 - A Midnight Dreary

Episode 1:

A Midnight Dreary

"This is Assistant U.S. Attorney C. A. Dupin, sitting with Roderick Usher. November 20, 2023."

Directed by: Mike Flanagan

Written by: Mike Flanagan

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visiter," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more."

- Introduction to The Raven

A wealthy CEO faces a criminal investigation amid tragedy, trauma, and a supernatural threat. The Usher family learns an informant lurks among them.

This page is currently under construction.

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Tropes that are present in this episode:

• Agony of the Feet: Roderick, as a kid, is tempted by Madeline to sneak into Mr. Longfellow's house; he punctures his ankle on the fence, leaving a pretty bad gash.
• Analogy Backfire: Eliza tells her son that any pain and suffering are like the kisses of Jesus. Although this is connected to her religious nature, and modern-day Roderick makes a pretty snippy joke about the analogy.
  Roderick (modern): "If pain and suffering were the kisses of Jesus, then he kissed the living fuck out of my mother in the years that followed."
• Buried Alive: Eliza is buried in the backyard due to Roderick and Madeline noticing no vitals. But during the thunderstorm, they both notice the makeshift grave undug, the coffin smashed to smithereens, and a trail of muddy footprints leading into the house.
• Cassandra Truth: When Roderick says that Eliza is standing behind Auggie, the latter describes how certain businessmen will use high-pressure tactics to force a reaction, and he refuses to look back. But if one looks closely, she really is there. She'd been standing behind him since the flashback ended. And during a clap of thunder, she simply leaves.
  • It's also an Ambiguous Situation: was Roderick hallucinating, or did Eliza's ghost really appear, since they are in her house? If Auguste had turned around, he might have seen Eliza after all.
• Country Matters: In the dinner scene, Camille calls Victorine a cunt while most of the assembled family members are sniping at each other.
• Death Glare: Eliza gives a fierce one to Roderick while choking him.
• Dramatic Thunder: The thunderstorm and power outage provide a lot of tension throughout, but a burst of lightning reveals Eliza's location to Maddie, right behind Roderick.
• Establishing Character Moment: We get previews of what the Usher children and their relatives are like in their reactions to the news of an informant in birth order.
  • Frederick can't comprehend the difference between a mole and an informant and immediately suspects Perry. Lenore explains the difference and says that if the charges are true, they deserve to be punished. Morella is making a cake to cheer Frederick up and tells Lenore off for suggesting the family might deserve it.
  • Bill is mostly confused about the whole thing and is mainly focused on supporting Tamerlane. Tammy herself complains about Frederick being incompetent but getting everything, suspects "one of the bastards" and mainly Perry, insists that Juno doesn't exist, is stressed about her company's upcoming launch, and wants Roderick's approval. She also complains about Victorine's "endless supply of test monkeys".
  • Vic and Alessandra do an open-heart surgery on a chimpanzee to test a heart mesh; Alessandra is concerned about the study's unethical practices in using an paralytic, while Vic brushes her off and only says they'll need to keep the powder away from Perry. Vic says that Al will have to meet the family, and they hug.
  • Leo is playing video games and insists to Julius that he can't meet the family, then ushers the woman he's having an affair with onto the balcony; they retreat to the bedroom to watch the news.
  • Camille dictates her media manipulation to her two assistants, taking shots at Vic, Leo and especially Juno along the way, before prioritizing the informant, who she also thinks might be Perry.
  • Juno paces next to Roderick and worries that she's never hosted anything before and that she has to deal with all of the kids at once because they hate her, except for Frederick, but she's pretty sure he's just being a suck-up.
  • Prospero wanders into the house in a bright orange parka, locks his bright red sports car: he blows his business venture proposal rambling about nightclubs and hedonism and walks out in frustration.
• Foregone Conclusion: It's established firmly in the beginning that Roderick's children are all dead with the reveal of the newspaper clippings, all confirming their deaths and the order in which they died.
• Foreshadowing: Roderick sees the ghosts of his children during the funeral for the last three and there's strong visual evidence for how each of them died; Perry is horribly burned, Camille and Leo are mauled, Victorine was clearly stabbed in the chest, Tamerlane is covered in gashes and Frederick is nearly sliced through at the waist.
  • There's a gap in the line of ghosts. Almost as if they're leaving room for one more...
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • In addition to the deaths of the Usher children being established, pausing during the newspaper clipping scene gives viewers more details about their deaths: Frederick being inside a building while it was demolished, Tamerlane found dead in her home, Victorine apparently committing suicide after murdering her partner, Leo leaping over the balcony of his loft apartment, Camille dying in a 'gruesome accident' and Prospero perishing in a 'freak accident' with numerous other casualties. There are also clippings about Ligodine and the opioid crisis, foreshadowing their importance.
  • In a pure 'blink-and-you-miss' moment, the audience can catch a glimpse of Eliza standing behind Roderick, before Maddie points, as well as when Roderick says her ghost is behind Dupin in the present.
• Gilligan Cut: When the siblings are reacting to the news of the dinner, each segment ends with a comment that leads into the next.
• Implied Death Threat: Played straight, then defied. During the dinner, Madeline makes the promise that if anyone were to come after the family, they will exhaust everything they have until "the threat is neutralized." But when Frederick believes it to be an analogy of suing people to oblivion, Madeline, very impatient, corrects him that by "neutralize", she means "dead".
• It's Always Sunny at Funerals: Outside the church, it's sunny with hints of it being overcast during the service.
• I Want My Mommy!: Due to the immense fear of seeing the undug burial, Roderick and Maddie both scream out "Mommy!" while looking for her in the darkened house.
• Last-Second Word Swap: When Frederick accuses Prospero of being the informant if the claims are true, he almost calls him "shit-head", but swaps out the word for something clean.
  Frederick: "Who knows what that crazy little sh— Sorry, honey. Who knows what that crazy little, spit-head will or won't do?"
  • It's then immediately subverted when he continues swearing without bothering to swap the words out.
• Lonely Funeral: The funeral of Vic, Tammy, and Freddie is only attended by Roderick, his granddaughter Lenore, Madeline, Juno, and Arthur.
• The Mole: "Informant", actually. In the court hearing two weeks ago, Auggie mentions to the court how one member of the Usher inner circle has agreed to come forward to testify against them, to Roderick's surprise and Arthur's horror. While the idea of an informant is stricken off the record, Auggie simply smirks at Roderick, reinforcing the family's paranoia about who this informant is.
• Not Quite Dead: Despite showing no vitals after the children return from Longfellow's residence, Eliza is still alive, but her showing no vitals leads to her being Buried Alive.
• Old, Dark House: Roderick and Madeline's childhood home, in the present day, is beyond decrepit. A lot of the rooms are rotting, the wallpaper is faded and ripped, and honestly, it's a miracle that the house still stands in spite of that.
• Price on Their Head: Roderick offers $50 million to the family member who cracks the case and figures out who the informant is.
• Reaction Shot: Essentially how the dinner is portrayed.
  • When Roderick is cutting the pharmacology law cake and everyone is clapping:
    • Lenore is genuinely happy, while Frederick is failing to be the same.
    • Victorine applauds grudgingly. Alessandra is confused, but claps anyway and smiles at Vic.
    • Madeline stops clapping early. Tammy is, along with Bill and Napoleon, seemingly genuinely impressed. Leo claps more slowly, and Camille is unimpressed but claps anyway. Prospero foregoes clapping and gives an are-you-serious look to the rest of his family, upset. Another shot when the Starbucks cup cake is shot shows the same patterns above.
  • Similarly, there are shots displaying the various reactions to the NDA.
    • Arthur bumps Tammy, who clutches her head in pain while Bill looks at her with concern.
    • Leo is confused as to whether the NDA is also cake, Camille is on her phone and accepts the NDA with one hand without looking at it, and Perry stares at it. Camille snarks about the legalistic process of it all.
    • Frederick and Morella look at it intently, as does Lenore, who nods at Arthur as she receives it.
    • Victorine examines the NDA, while Alessandra is shocked to receive one.
  • The subsequent banter about the paperwork includes:
    • Bill making a joke about his feeling excluded, Alessandra wanting to have a lawyer look over it but quailing under pressure, and Camille sniping at Juno (who takes a gulp of wine).
    • Vic sniping at Camille and giving her the finger when Camille hits back (as Leo sighs), Frederick intervening, and Tammy sniping at him.
  • When the bounty is discussed:
    • Lenore, Frederick, and Morella are surprised.
    • Vic is inquiring, Al is confused.
    • Tammy and Bill look at each other. Leo is disquieted, Camille smiles, Perry just stares.
  • This and the above are interspersed with shots of Roderick and Madeline watching.
• Shout-Out: During the thunderstorm, there is an Ouija board resting on the nightstand, with the planchette on top of it, alluding to Flanagan's own Ouija: Origin of Evil.
  • Frederick can apparently only comprehend the informant situation through the lens of The Departed.
• Starts with Their Funeral: The series begins with the funeral of Vic, Tammy, and Freddie, and we learn very soon afterwards that Leo, Camille and Perry are also recently deceased.
• Take That!: When discussing media personalities to contact and feed puff stories about the family to, one of Camille's assistants suggests Tucker Carlson: Camille says yes, but not before saying she threw up in her mouth a little at the suggestion.
• Taking You with Me: Eliza's final act before dying is asphyxiating William, all while wearing a massive Slasher Smile. And they both die at the same time.
• Time Skip: In the flashback sequence, we jump from 1953 to 1962, right when Roderick and Madeline reach adolescence.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Despite helping William for many years, he simply calls Eliza a "decent worker" who lost it and refuses to accept the children's request to convince their mother to see a doctor.
• Unwanted Assistance: As time progresses, Eliza begins to suffer Sanity Slippage, to the point where she completely rejects traditional medicine and even basic assistance from a doctor, firmly believing that her faith will heal her.
• We All Die Someday: When Auggie notes that Roderick simply looks at his phone when Lenore sends him a message, he says this:
  Auggie (modern): "Day will come. She'll stop texting. They all do sooner or later."
• Would Hurt a Child: Later in life, Eliza's condition worsens (not helped by being buried alive) to the point where she has no qualms about strangling one of her own children with lethal intent. It's only when her own children tell her that they're sorry that she snaps back to reality.

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"It's time, it's time, it's time."