Nevermore: Every episode of The Fall of the House of Usher on Netflix, reviewed
Episode 5 — “The Tell-Tale Heart”
The fifth episode, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” has the most disturbing ending out of all of these episodes, and the best title.
We start by getting more information about that fateful night in 1979, where Roderick and Madeline meet Verna at the bar.
"Your life will take a complete change of course. Tonight."
In the present, Roderick is starting to have more hallucinations of his dead relatives, and at very inconvenient moments. They’re very much not fun hallucinations. The three remaining Usher children talk about being an OG Usher versus a bastard, and just how Tammy and Freddy feel about the Ushers who were born on the wrong side of the sheets. And how much of a creep Freddy is. He’s clearly hurt, as any husband would be if their wives decided to go to a wild party full of sex and drugs and not tell you, but also…he’s psychotic.
We also see Vic and her partner, Al, get into a fight over human trials and all the fraud Vic is committing. The fight ends as Al is about to leave and Vic throws something at her. We see Vic leaving Al a third voicemail after their fight, and she starts to hear some chirping noises that apparently nobody else can hear. Again, it’s a very appropriately titled episode.
In the present, Dupin tells Roderick there was never an informant. You can tell that had been starting to tug on his heartstrings during the confession, especially since all the deaths started happening right after Dupin started a rumor in court. It wasn’t his fault, as we find out in the end, but at the time we watch this, it’s probably something we had already thought to ourselves. But no. This is consequence. This is the consequence of a simple “yes” borne of selfishness.
Tammy and her husband William have the meltdown of their lives and end their marriage. I never liked Tamerlane. I don’t think there was a lot to her for us to learn about, except for her fetish about hookers sleeping her with husband. She has a very punchable face.
Victorine finally comes face to face with her own demons. It’s a very disturbing moment when we see Al’s corpse sitting on a desk, the little heart machine pumping her dead heart dry. That’s true horror. Victorine’s behavior is also very, very unsettling; she’s clearly not okay. T’Nia Miller’s performance as Victorine is off the charts great, playing someone measured her life’s worth in money and success and nothing else. And she had that need to prove that even though she was a bastard Usher, she was still just as good as an OG.