The Fall of the House of Usher is a show packed full of tiny clues, gory deaths, and tiny clues about gory deaths.
Regarding the latter, we began to notice a pattern as Mike Flanagan’s latest horror series progressed. In episodes two through seven, one of Roderick Usher’s adult children dies each episode, and there is always a clue at the start of that episode foreshadowing how they’re going to die.
From Perry’s truly horrendous ending to Frederick’s pendulous final moments, we’ve broken down the clues you may have missed below.
Who’s who in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’: The Usher family tree
Prospero Usher, “The Masque of the Red Death”
Credit: EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX
What’s the clue?
The first shot we see of Prospero (Sauriyan Sapkota), aka Perry, in episode 2 is a top-down view of him lying on his huge, luxurious bed, surrounded by naked partygoers, their limbs all tangled together.
What does it foreshadow?
Perry’s death – one of the most brutal of the series – happens in the midst of an orgy, when acid falls from the room’s overhead sprinklers instead of water, searing the skin off the trapped guests below. As he lays dying, Perry is once again shot from above in a tangle of semi-naked bodies, but it’s a horrifying contrast to the post-party scene the episode opens with.
Camille L’Espanaye, “Murder in the Rue Morgue”
Credit: EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX
What’s the clue?
Unlike most of the other death clues, which are visual, the demise of Camille (Kate Siegel) is foreshadowed by a sound. Before the opening credits even begin in episode 3, you can hear a chimp chattering; the music and background noises build to a terrifying crescendo while the animal shrieks.
What does it foreshadow?
Camille dies in Victorine’s lab, in a room where the chimps that are experimented on are kept in cages. As she’s mauled to death by an escaped chimp, the final noises she hears are the cries of the trapped animals — a similar noise to the one we heard in the episode’s opening seconds.
Napoleon Usher, “The Black Cat”
Credit: EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX
What’s the clue?
The first sound you hear after the Netflix stinger is the meowing of a cat who doesn’t sound too happy — then a siren, then more meowing. The first thing we see in episode 4 is the view of Napoleon’s (Rahul Kohli) bright yellow sports car through the window of the animal shelter where he’s come to adopt a cat.
What does it foreshadow?
After spending most of the episode being tormented by his new black cat, Leo ends up throwing himself off the balcony of his apartment and dying on the sidewalk below. And guess what’s right behind him, clearly visible in the episode’s final shot? Yep, it’s his shiny yellow sports car. Seconds later, the cat arrives in the shot too, walking around his body and bringing things full circle.
Victorine LaFourcade, “The Tell-Tale Heart”
Credit: EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX
What’s the clue?
Like Camille’s episode, this one’s another audio clue. In the opening of the episode 5, we hear a few seconds of a strange beating or squelching noise while the screen’s still black.
What does it foreshadow?
After searching for the source of the noise throughout episode 5, Victorine (T’Nia Miller) is ultimately driven to her breaking point. In the final moments of the episode, it’s revealed to be Victorine’s experimental heart contraption beating in the dead body of her partner, Dr. Ruiz (Paola Núñez), whom Victorine herself killed earlier by mistake.
Tamerlane Usher, “Goldbug”
Credit: EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX
What’s the clue?
There are actually multiple clues to Tamerlane’s (Samantha Sloyan) death in the opening sequence of episode 6. First we hear the tinkling sound of breaking glass in the initial seconds. Then, as Tamerlane is losing pieces of time in her apartment, we see her thump her head against the bathroom mirror. Finally, we watch as she lies in bed staring up at herself in the large mirror on the ceiling.
What does it foreshadow?
Tamerlane is haunted by an alternative version of herself throughout “Goldbug,” and the final sequence sees her smashing all the mirrors in her apartment before breaking the bedroom ceiling mirror and being impaled to death by a large shard of glass.
Frederick Usher, “The Pit and the Pendulum”
Credit: EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX
What’s the clue?
Episode 7 starts with a flashback where we see young Freddy zoning out while he watches the Kit-Cat Clock on the wall, its tail ticking back and forth while the sound of metal cutting through air builds in the background.
What does it foreshadow?
Freddy (Henry Thomas) ultimately dies trapped inside the same factory that his brother Perry died in, this time lying paralyzed on the floor while the building is torn down around him. The killing blow is delivered by a piece of broken material swinging back and forth above him that gradually gets lower and lower, swaying in the same pendulous motion the cat clock’s tail moved in during the episode’s opening scene.
How to watch: The Fall of the House of Usher is screening now on Netflix.
