The Fall of the House of Usher Season 1 Episode 5 Review: The Tell-Tale Heart
Denis Kimathi
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Three children dead under mysterious circumstances, all in the same week, is concerning.
With three bastards gone, the remaining three could see something was amiss.
The Fall of the House of Usher Season 1 Episode 5 dealt with the aftermath of Leo's death while showing the evil in the others as Verna put them on the scale to see if they were ripe enough for picking.
I've said this, and it's worth iterating that for all their flaws, the Usher children seemed to be paying for the sins of their father.
And if someone traced back their shortcomings, they all seemed to share one person in common. Roderick.
Raising well-rounded humans is not about having vast wealth such that they will never want of anything material. It is realizing that they must feel loved, respected, and embraced.
Even with Roderick's many shortcomings, one can argue that his biggest was letting down his children.
On paying close attention, everything about them was about Daddy's love and attention.
They craved and competed for it, and for that reason, they never saw each other as a person going through the same struggles they were going through. They saw each other as competition.
Perry, Camille, and Leo were all dead, and when Frederick, Tamerlane, and Victorine met, they couldn't even agree on the best way to protect themselves because there was an elephant in the room. Roderick would always come up.
Arthur: Just say, "This is a very difficult moment for me, please respect my privacy at this time."
Julius: This is a very difficult moment for me, please respect my privacy at this time.
Arthur: You got it.
Victorine was especially vulnerable because the three bastards were dead, and she was the only one remaining.
Fuck off, Froderick. Froderick and Maderlane. Froderick and Maderlane. Linking arms, side by side, playing Red fucking Rover, trying to get me to break through, so what? You can knock me down? Well, guess what? I don't need to break through. Because I'm going over the top.
Victorine
Even if they didn't have a close relationship, the bastards sometimes met to wallow in their mutual sadness.
Like every Usher kid, Victorine wanted nothing but her father's love and affection. It's unclear how long she had been in the family. One could take a guess based on how she interacted with her father.
Apart from Perry's, the rest of the children behaved like foot soldiers in Roderick's army. Joining the family later in life saved Perry from being trained to be a soldier, but his fate was not better either.
There were a lot of parallels between the current events and those from the 70s and 80s.
In the past, we would see Roderick learn the tricks of the trade from Rufus, and even if he appeared to be against them, he internalized every single one of them and later used them.
He had put so much pressure on Victorine to make a medical miracle happen that it broke her.
To Roderick, his children were nothing but means to an end. Even at Victorine's peak unraveling of the mind from the chirping sound, he wasn't there to check on her. He was there to check on the technology.
I'm sorry, Dad, she's… she's not being a team player, but you see, it works.
Victorine
I wasn't deluded about Roderick's nature because many rich people are like. Still, the more we saw his interaction, especially with his children, the more disgusting he became in my eyes.
The past several episodes of The Fall of the House of Usher Season 1 had intentionally put characters like Frederick and Tamerlane in the backseat to prioritize those who were getting killed soon.
This episode, however, dove into Tarmalene to expose her deal and why she behaved the way she did.
No one could have been prepared for that blowout because how do people let it get ugly?
I'm sorry, Bill, just who do you think you are in this? You have one job, you smile, you jazz-ercise, and you bring that army of fitness fuckers with you. You are a face, you're not a mouthpiece, so just smile and shut the fuck up.
Tamerlane
However, it all made sense because growing up with Roderick (she was not a bastard), she was taught to view people as nothing but bridges.
The most we had known about Tamerlane was that she got off from watching people play her and that Bill was a trainer.
It was revealed that she was the brains behind the BILT empire and relished having it. She had a very high opinion of herself, which turned her on! Many things have turned people on, but someone who gets turned on by themselves is uncommon.
Victorine's death was much less troubling for her than the other deaths.
To some extent, Verna sympathized with Victorine, but after giving her the test and Victorine failed, there was nothing left to do.
Victorine's death marked a shift in the nature of the deaths because, for the first time, Roderick was present in the room and saw it happen.
He saw her state and experienced some of what she experienced, so he knew the deaths weren't accidents.
It seemed like Roderick knew what was happening, but he had taken his advice of clinging on to denial. He was in so much denial he would rather commit suicide than confront what he had done.
Back in the past, on New Year's Eve, Roderick and Madeline seemed on edge, as if they were running from something.
It begged the questions about what happened that night because their new relationship with Verna seemed cordial.
What had they done prior that they were running away from? Had they killed Rufus?
Did Madeline's visit to Rufus' office mean more than they had discussed with Dupin?
"The Tell-Heart" bore semblance to the original story with the beating heart but was modified to marry with the narrative.
It was an exploration of guilt, secrets, and blind ambition, together with the recurring theme of parental love that all children crave, no matter their age.
What did you think of it?
Hit the comments section.
Denis Kimathi was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. He has watched more dramas and comedies than he cares to remember. Catch him on social media obsessing over [excellent] past, current, and upcoming shows or going off about the politics of representation on TV. Follow him on X.
