‘The Fall Of The House Of Usher’ Deaths, Ranked By How Right They Felt
The Fall of the House of Usher, Mike Flanagan’s latest horror series for Netflix, dropped late last week, so naturally I spent the weekend losing sleep because a) I wanted to finish all the episodes ASAP and b) I had finished all the episodes ASAP and was subsequently scared of every shadow and weird noise in my house.
Like Flanagan’s two previous “House” series, The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, The Fall of the House of Usher focuses on complicated family dynamics through a supernatural framework. But unlike those two series, which are full of heart, and utterly heartbreaking as a result, there’s a gaping hole where the Usher family’s should be, resulting in a show that’s darkly comedic and weirdly satisfying.
Almost every character in Usher is truly awful, and so instead of sobbing for half an hour over their inevitable untimely demise (as I did with Nell Crain — I still haven’t recovered tbh), I found myself watching with a mix of horror and glee. To continue that vibe, here’s a ranking of all the deaths in the series, ranked by how much the characters low-key deserved their fates from That’s A Shame to Fair Enough……
— Abundant spoilers for ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ lie ahead —
#13. Lenore
Lenore was one of the only genuinely good characters in the series — a small miracle considering the family she grew up in, and no doubt mostly thanks to her mum, Morrie. There’s an inherent tragedy in the central premise of the series — that the young generations suffer because of the sins of those that came before — but the death of Lenore is the only one where that is really felt, and where it feels like a waste. Hell, even Verna felt bad about it! At least Lenore met a peaceful end.
#12. Annabel Lee
Annabel Lee was another “good” character, and indeed Roderick credits her genes for Lenore’s goodness too. There’s no doubt her fate sucked, but we also didn’t get to see it fully play out or really get to know her character deeply, so her death doesn’t feel quite as upsetting as Lenore’s.
#11. Eliza
We don’t see much of Eliza beyond her slow and painful death. She seemingly was a good if stubborn and obsessively religious person. She certainly appeared to deserve better than the agonising pain she was in for the last years of her life (even if she did refuse any medical treatment) and she DEFINITELY deserved better than being buried while still alive by her own children. It was kind of hilarious and satisfying to watch her post-“resurrection” rampage and attack on William Longfellow (more on him later) before she finally did succumb, though.
#10. Leo
Out of all the Usher siblings, Leo was perhaps the least shitty. Sure, he was a selfish, drug-dealing cheater, but he at least had SOME warm feelings and was the only one who actually seemed to care about his siblings and whether they lived or died. And before you say “but he killed a cat!”, Mike Flanagan confirmed that was actually a hallucination – as was the demon cat Leo chased around his house with Thor’s hammer. I do feel a tiny, tiny bit bad for Leo.
#9. Alessandra Ruiz
It might be a bit controversial to put Alessandra above any of the Usher siblings — but truthfully, I almost put her even further up the list. She may not be as soulless and irredeemable as the other characters, but she’s definitely complicit in Victorine’s unethical actions, and frankly watching her experiment on chimps makes it hard to wish anything nice for her. Still, she was at least trying to do the right thing in the moments before her death.
#8. Tamerlane
Like all the Usher siblings, Tamerlane is selfish. In fact, she’s downright narcissistic. She’s cold and calculating and treats other people with no respect or care. But beyond that, she doesn’t actually do anything truly terrible, at least that we see. There is something a little heartbreaking in seeing her as a loved, happy baby in Annabel Lee’s arms in flashbacks and knowing that she rejected that love — ultimately, any love — and wound up totally broken. And I almost felt sorry for her as she lost touch with reality and humiliated herself very publicly at her big Goldbug launch. Almost.
#7. Camille
I kind of love Camille. She’s terrible, but she’s so damn entertaining about it. Like Tamerlane, her main crime is selfishness and the way it manifests into vicious envy. Oh… and also the fucked up dynamic she has with her assistants. Which is really, really bad but, uh, could be worse? I was actually a bit thankful her macabre end happened off screen.
#6. Perry
We don’t get to see as much of Perry as the other Usher siblings, since he’s the first to succumb to Verna. There’s no doubt he’s a little shit, and the way he treats his partners is awful, plus using Morrie to mess with Frederick really sucks. But outside of this, his actions aren’t quite as revolting as some of the others (I have no empathy for the millionaires he plans to blackmail) — and certainly don’t match the gruesomeness of his death, which is perhaps the most disgusting and disturbing of the whole series and makes me shudder every time I think about it.
#5. Victorine
It’s the chimps for me. I cannot forgive the torture and murder of chimps. What’s also quite nasty about Victorine is the way she acts better than her siblings — she has a facade of humanity, and of wanting to do good — but ultimately, as Verna points out, she’s just as narcissistic and self-centred as the rest of them. Pretending otherwise just makes it all the more galling.
#4. William Longfellow
William Longfellow doesn’t appear much, but what we see of him is pure nastiness. We know his work is morally reprehensible, and his personal life is not much better — ultimately his cruelty is to blame for a lot of what follows. As I already mentioned, it’s quite fun to watch his zombie-esque ex-lover take him down. It just feels right.
#3. Rufus Griswold
Rufus Griswold is a villain, greedy and mean, who knowingly and willingly does terrible things to both the people who work for him and the patients his company is supposed to be helping. Does that mean he deserves to be drugged and entombed alive in his own office building while wearing a court jester outfit? Maybe not, but also… maybe yes? It was pretty entertaining to watch, especially as it comes at the hands of a young Madeline and Roderick, who have yet to do anything really reprehensible themselves (emphasis on yet).
#2. Madeline and Roderick
Madeline and Roderick’s deaths are impossible to separate, just as their lives and crimes are. Because we see them at many different points in their lives, including before they make their deal with Verna, it’s easier to have some sympathy for them. But in a way, it also makes their actions all the more disturbing. We see that they weren’t always as bad as they are now, and that in itself reinforces just how despicable they’ve become. Thinking of the millions of lives they’ve sacrificed for their relentless greed and ambition, their end feels pretty damn justified, and it’s rather poetic to see them not only destroy each other, but echo the deaths of their own parents in the process.
#1. Frederick
Like with Tamerlane, there’s something tragic in seeing the normal and sweet young child Frederick contrasted with the monster he grew up to become. And actually, for a lot of the series he seems like one of the better of his siblings — self-centred, sure, and dangerously guilty when it comes to the family business — but at least an apparently caring father and even husband. But then he becomes a drug-addled demon. The physical and emotional torture of his brutally injured wife make for the most horrifying scenes of the series, far scarier than any of the supernatural stuff. The moment he picks up the pliers, he seals his own fate — and makes it all the more satisfying to watch.
Image credit: Netflix