The Fall of the House of Usher: Episode Five Recap

 

Plot: Victorine deals with the consequences of her argument with Ali regarding the experiments.

The Tell-Tale Heart is another one of Edgar Allan Poe's well-known stories.

It has been adapted several times over the years ever since the story was published in 1843.

The story is adapted in the fifth episode of The Fall of the House of Usher.

Although the episode ends on a chilling note, this installment may not be the strongest one in the series.

What makes it work is the revelations and Verna's strong presence as she continues on in her mission.

The Tell-Tale Heart was about a man (also the narrator) who lives with an old man. The old man is described to have a blue vulture-like eye that makes the narrator uneasy. The narrator is also revealed to have a condition where he senses things a little bit too much.

The narrator's uneasiness regarding the old man grows to the point that he plots to kill him.

Seven nights of contemplation later, the narrator eventually kills and dismembers the old man. Since the old man shrieked before he died, the neighbors are alerted and the police is called.

The narrator, confident of his intelligence, has hid the old man's body parts under the floor and places a table right atop it. He lets the police sit at the table as they ask him about the screams to which the narrator lies about the screams being his.

Throughout the interview, the narrator is distressed from hearing unusual sounds. Sounds of a heartbeat.

Unable to bear the sounds anymore, the narrator breaks down and reveals to the police of his crime. The floorboards are torn up and the old man's body is found.

The story focused heavily on how people lived with guilt and that confession is a better option than hiding the truth.

No matter how clever one may think they are, you can never truly escape your own conscience.

THE TELL-TALE HEART Plot

Dr Alessandra, or Ali as Victorine calls her isn't too sure about the trials going to the next phase. She definitely isn't happy that she has to perform surgery on a patient Victorine booked for her.

Ali then realizes that in order for the trials to get to the next phase, her signature would have been required on the data forms. Realizing she has not signed any document, she looks to Victorine who nervously confesses that she wanted to get ahead in the trials.

Ali is sickened by her girlfriend's deceit and threatens to walk away and expose the Usher's secrets.

Victorine grows frustrated and picks up a bookend and flings it at the door just as Ali is leaving. Since there is no follow-up scene, it can be assume that we have been setup for a twist.

In the past, Madeline wants to get a taste of what she is up against so she meets up with Griswold.

She is almost reduced to tears when Griswold tells her he knows she is up to something considering she came to see him after Roderick found the documents with forged signatures. He makes a pass at Madeline who keeps her calm throughout.

At home, Annabel is disgusted by Griswold's behavior while a young Dupin encourages Roderick to stay on the right track and give a statement against the company. It is the right thing to do after all.

In the present, we realize that things may not have gone according to plan considering Dupin despises Roderick now.

Dupin admits that he used a play from Roderick's own book and lied about there being an informant among them.

Roderick is stunned and pretty much calls Dupin a hypocrite before passing it off as bygones. Perhaps Roderick realized that he deserved to be duped by the one man who he had deceived.

Roderick goes on with his story especially after he sees Victorine's frightening ghost.

Victorine is at the lab and Verna has come to see her. Verna wants assurance that Ali will operate on her. Victorine looks nervous as she puts her at ease. But suddenly she hears a noise and becomes anxious although Verna feigns to not hear a thing.

Tamerlane is having her own set of issues. She is exercising and watching her husband Bill be the frontman for Goldbug, a lifestyle fitness program. Now Goldbug is another short story written by Edgar Allan Poe so the next episode is already set up with this part.

In the video, Bill sees Verna standing behind him and smiling. Tamerlane is immediately convinced that her husband is having an affair with her.

Tamerlane and Bill get into a fight and he admits he hates pretending to date other women so she can be a voyeur. Tamerlane tells him to get lost while Bill tries to warn her that she shouldn't be making decisions when she is stressed out. Tamerlane is certain she wants Bill to leave and he does.

Roderick, Pym and Madeline have a meeting during which Pym shows them a clear photo of Verna as a security guard at the lab where Camille died. Pym has also extracted a photo from Leo's phone which has Verna's photo on it.

Madeline recognizes the woman as the bartender and accuses Roderick of having slept with the bartender on new years which has resulted in the child running around to take vengeance. Roderick doesn’t deny it because he isn't sure. But we know that Verna is Raven spelled backwards and bad news for the Ushers.

Roderick then goes to meet Victorine to find out how she is doing on her trials since he is desperate for a cure for his illness. Now that he has seen Verna, he is afraid of what is going to happen to him.

Victorine is not herself and keeps asking Roderick if he too can hear that off chirping sound. To her relief, Roderick admits he can and Victorine realizes she is not imagining things after all.

As Roderick goes to follow the sound, Victorine finally remembers.

She had killed Ali with the bookend, causing her to bleed out. Victorine purposely didn't call out for help and let Ali die. But then she had used the heart mesh device in Ali.

Roderick enters the room and is horrified to find Ali dead with her chest cut open and the device attached to her heart.

Roderick tells Victorine that her girlfriend is dead and the device is pumping a dead heart.

Victorine realizes it too and stabs herself in front of Roderick.

The fifth episode of The Fall of the House of Usher had an engaging story and finally moves ahead with Verna's identity.

But we still have to wait until the very last episode to find out just why is Verna after the Ushers.

Scare Scale: 4/5

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