Nevermore: Every episode of The Fall of the House of Usher on Netflix, reviewed
Episode 7 — “The Pit and the Pendulum”
In the seventh episode, “The Pit and the Pendulum,” we see despair finally start to set in for Madeline and Roderick. Madeleine meets with Pym in secret to try and remedy the situation without Roderick. It’s hard for her, and we can see she has a weird way of showing affection. She loves her brother. This is his legacy, and she really does care about it for him; she doesn’t want any of the fame. Remember, she told Verna she would pick to be rich instead of famous.
Creeper man, aka Freddy, reaches a whole new level of no-thank-you. To me, his death is the worst one, and totally justified given his treatment of his wife. Paralyzing her and doing who knows what to her, trying to teach her a lesson that really didn’t need to be taught and just mentally tormenting her while she’s trying to heal…his death was a beautiful tribute to that.
Juno has a moment of transparency with her new doctor, who tells her to keep taking the Ligadone for her pain. She makes a point that drives it home to him: get out of your Fortunato worker shoes and step into mine, and tell me what I should really do. When she asks how to get off the medicine, he tells her. It speaks volumes when your own employees steer patients away from your drugs, doesn’t it?
Lenore finally tells her father what he needs to hear, and lets him know that she knows something is up. As a parent, Freddy’s behavior made me want to punch him in the face some more.
in a flashback, we see Roderick Usher completely backstabbing Dupin in their younger days in order to advance his own career at Fortunato. And as we can guess by the smile on Madeline’s face that this was all orchestrated by his lovely sister. She’s a genius. Beautiful and cruel, but a genius. Even when talking to Verna in her older days, she still proves that she’s not afraid of anyone or anything, and that she thinks everything is negotiable and has a price. Verna reminds her that, sadly, that ain’t how life works.
Meanwhile, we see Roderick really is a piece of work who only cares about his own self-image. Juno realizes it too late, but he’s only with her to show that his medicine can be good, and that he really is the monster she thinks he is.
"I will take three years of hell over a lifetime with you. Easy."
Madeline and Verna are still chit-chatting in the cabin (how is Carla Gugino this gorgeous and talented?) talking about what could have been if their lives hadn’t taken such a turn after that one fateful day. Verna starts to quote the poem, “The City in the Sea”, another one of Poe’s works, as we see Lenore has called the cops on her father. Which is great for her. And then, the most satisfying part of this show begins: Freddy’s slow and agonizing death.
He gets just what he deserves, a nice taste of his own medicine. Literally.
And just like that, all Usher kids are dead. The patriarch and matriarch remain. Or so Madeleine says before she talks Roderick into trying to kill himself.
But yeah, just two to go now.