The Fall of the House of Usher – Murder in the Rue Morgue

By: Kelly Kearney

In sticking with tradition, episode 3 is named after another one of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories and the themes of both his work and the series connect with ease. In the story published in 1841. main character C. Auguste Dupin solves the mystery of two women brutally murdered. It has been said by critics and writers that Dupin was the first fictional detective of this modern crime solving stories and went on to influence other fictional detectives like Hercule Poirott and Sherlock Holmes.  While Auguste Dupin doesn’t have much to do with what happens in this episode of the Mike Flanagan series, it’s nice to see the show paying homage to Poe’s themes and characters, even if it mashes them up in new ways. This time in “Murder in the Rue Morgue” the detective hat is worn by Camille Usher–Roderick Usher’s all-knowing eye in charge of the family’s publicity. When it comes to keeping track of her siblings, Camille focuses sight on what’s going on with the Victorine’s drug trials. There is a rumor circulating about a possible cover-up of animal abuses at the lab. If she can pin the family informant tag on her least-favorite sister, Camille can take home that 50 million dollar bounty their father promised.

America’s Fallen Prince

We begin where the last episode left-off– the gruesome scene of Prospero Usher’s (Sauriyan Sapkota) death. As an extension of the powerful family, Arthur Pym (Mark Hamill) AKA “The Pym Reaper,” is permitted onto the scene to collect Perry’s phone, and any other evidence he finds that could be used to protect the family in any future court cases. As he walks on top of the bodies taking photos, he spots the security cameras and a lone survivor, who reaches out to him from the pile of the dead. It’s a skinless and extra-crispy Morelle Usher (Crystal Balint) who winds up being the only person to make it out of Prospero’s party alive–barely. Knowing the guest list was full of the rich and famous–who are now getting peeled off the floor of the condemned family property, the Ushers might be looking at more criminal charges coming there way. That sprinkler system was hooked up to hazardous chemicals the eldest Usher son, Frederick (Henry Thomas), was attempting to hide from the EPA. We find this out when Lenore (Kyliegh Curran) stumbles into an argument between her Grampus Roderick (Bruce Greenwood) and her father outside of her mother’s hospital room. Those hidden chemicals, added to the fact Perry hired idiots to run the party who never thought to check those tanks, means Roderick is worried reporters and law enforcement will spin the blame for this towards them. The only reporting they can count on now is Fox News– who seems to love the Ushers and that feeling is mutual. A public dragging seems inevitable, so, after the news of Perry’s death sinks in, the family gathers to plot how to spin their grief away from more legal troubles. Camille (Kate Siegel) leads the brainstorming and comes up with a way to sway public opinion towards sympathy with a headline that reads “America’s Fallen Prince.” Too bad the average American has very little empathy for billionaires whose greed unleashed an opioid epidemic resulting in thousands of grieving families burying their own sons and brothers. Roderick likes the tragic royal death angle, but insults Camille by putting Pym in charge of the story. Feeling secure in her “family fixer” role means she does not like Arthur Pym stepping on her toes. Unfortunately for her feelings, Pym has always been her father’s first line of defense, with Camille coming in second and she couldn’t hate tat more. Her father does allow her to shoot a video expressing the family’s pain over the loss of their brother, and Napoleon (Rahul Kohil) is on deck to be the face of their sorrow.

A Moral Dilemma

Later, at her office Camille watches as the news of Proserpo’s death hits the airwaves. Fox works overtime to spin an interview of Dupin’s (Carl Lumbly) to gain sympathy for the billionaire family. With that seed planted by the public’s propaganda machine, she can get back to concentrating on finding the federal informant. That bounty money is just waiting for a name and she desperately wants it to be her sister’s, Victorine (T’Nia Miller). We don’t know why she hates her sister so much but she is practically giddy when her assistants, Toby (Igby Rigney) and

Tina (Aya Furukawa), show up with information about some inconsistencies at the lab that point to Vic and possible animal abuse. There seems to be some discrepancies in the logs keeping track of the test monkeys. The rumor is, Victorine is fluffing the numbers to hurry the human trials by swapping out dead monkeys for living ones. Workers in the lab think she might be tricking the security cameras by shaving the animals’ chests so they match the ones she lost on the surgical table. Then at night, she cuts the bodies up and carries them out in trash bags. If the feds know this, they could have threatened her with jail time unless she spilled the family’s secrets. Camille finally has something she can use against her sister and to celebrate, she wants sex from both assistants. That was always part of the job description, and while the two were willing before, now that they’ve fallen in love and want to break up the throuple. This polysexual business lifestyle is over and Camille is livid! After spitting out her venomous animosity for love and monogamy, she fires them both but thanks them for the information they provided on Vic. Her sister’s downfall seems to be enough to keep her warm and satisfied that night. Before they leave they do offer her their sympathies for Prospero, but the look on her face says she could care less. This is unlike her sister, Vic, who we see in her hospital office struggling to hold back tears over the loss of her younger brother. While some members of this family seem apathetic and emotionless, Vic– and we see later, Napoleon, have somewhat functioning hearts. Of course, the monkeys in Vic’s lab would say otherwise. After a hug and comfort from her wife Allessandra (Paola Nunez), Vic dries her tears and steps out of her office and runs right into Verna (Carla Gugino) pretending to be a patient named Pam with a heart condition. This is her test of decency– the same test Prospero failed. Their run-in knocks Pam’s medical files to the floor and the flustered woman lets slip she is having issues finding a doctor to help her. Could those tears from earlier mean Vic will pass Verna’s test? Of course not, she is still an Usher. Vic makes the selfish choice by manipulating the woman into handing over exactly what she needs to dupe Pam into joining those rushed human trials.

Brother and Sister Bonding

Next, Camille checks in with Napoleon to prepare him for the following morning’s PR video, but the two siblings put work aside to hang out and get high. They eat edibles and snort cocaine and we get a good look at a looser version of the usually uptight Camille. This is where we learn she, along with Prosperro, and Napoleon, had not met their father until they were teenagers. Napoleon when he was 18, Perry went rags to riches at 16, and Camille met their father at twenty years old. This means the only children raised by Roderick were the two he had with Annabel–Tamerlane (Samantha Sloyan), and Frederick. “Froderick” as the family refers to their suck-up of an older brother, “is like a  Frederick cover band playing the hits but it’s sort of off key,” Camille says. She also mocks Tamerlane–Tammy and basically calls her a Gwenyth Paltrow knock-off married to a “fitness clown.” She calls Vic heartless and Napoleon an “Xbox Gatsby,” which he doesn’t seem to mind as he is happy not being a part of the family business so he can make video games. Camille reminds him that Ushers don’t make anything. He might not be a part of the family business but he takes the family’s money and pays other people to make video games. His hands are dipped in the same blood as the rest of them. He can’t deny that even if he cringes at the thought. And with that existential and genetic crisis she drops in his lap, she leaves her brother to get ready for a party he’s throwing with his boyfriend, Julius (Daniel Jun). As long as he looks fresh for the camera, she wishes him a good and safe night.

How to Sell Your Lemon-scented Soul

In what is arguably one of the best monologues of the show, Roderick defends his business to Auguste by explaining how to make lemonade. You don’t just make lemonade, you patent the very idea of lemons. You turn them into a must-have fruit, and you juice them into every ad, movie, influencer account, song and dinner table across the country. You blanket every inch of the consumer’s life in lemons until they become synonymous with good old American fun. Only when the word lemon takes on a whole new meaning to the thirsty buyer do you sit back and rake in the money and finally “make some f**ing lemonade.” Auguste hangs off of every word, but there is just one problem with his analogy–lemons can’t kill you, but Ligodone can. Dupin steers the story back to Perry who had the drug Monty in his system at the time of his death. Monty is the street version of Ligodone and Dupin has to wonder if Prospero’s judgment was affected by the drug and that’s what led to the chemical mishap that cost him and many others their lives. Roderick is stunned by the accusation he killed Perry. He said he was responsible for his kid’s deaths but not like that! Pym must have kept that information from him because the man is paid to protect them. Although Pym can’t protect Roderick from a dead Camille who jumps out at him while he rants at Auguste. After a deep breath he says he sometimes regrets ever stumbling onto that drug since it wasn’t his to begin with. We flashback to how the Usher family became the peddlers of Ligodone and it all starts with Rufus Griswold (Michael Trucco) and that failed pitch from the last episode. When the Young Roderick (Zach Gilford) is called into his obnoxious manager’s office, Griswold thanks him for the heads up on Ligodone, Apparently, Usher did not patent his idea because another company already makes the drug and Griswold orchestrated a buyout. He takes the credit and the profits from the miracle drug and all Roderick gets is a check for $500, a 15% raise and an office on the 4th floor of the company– closer to his boss who now thinks he has good ideas. Roderick can barely contain his rage–Griswold is a thief and that idea could’ve made him a billionaire. Still, he takes the check because he is financially struggling with two kids and a wife. After growing up poor and in the foster system, he craves the life guys like Griswold have and if he has to lick the man’s boots, so be it. Later that night he gets drunk and complains to the younger Madeline (Willa Fitzgerald) while his wife listens in from the kitchen. His sister–the cruel pragmatist, reminds him of those days when they were younger and how it inspired her to play the long game when getting what she wants. Roderick always rushed for instant satisfaction and often failed and wound up punished, but not Maddie; she planned and plotted until she got what she wanted, even if it ruined their foster parent’s lives. She tells him to sit back and let her handle Griswold, and the viciousness in her voice sends chills down Annabel’s (Katie Parker) spine. Later she tells Derek she understands their childhood was rough but she doesn’t like her sister-in-law at all. That feeling seems mutual but Roderick changes the subject with a kiss.

Monkeying Around

The next day Pym informs the family that the security footage from the night Perry died shows a woman in red he can’t identify. After questioning the security guards who survived the ordeal, he realizes this mystery woman wasn’t on the guest list. She was, however, the one who was warning people to leave before the sprinklers were turned on.

Back at a trashed Napoleon’s apartment, the spokesperson for the family’s grief wakes up with scratches all over his face and blood on his hands. His appearance isn’t exactly camera ready and he has no idea how it happened. After worrying he killed his boyfriend, he follows a trail of blood and he sees their cat and it’s been cut up into pieces. He must’ve been so high that he killed it! Quickly and before Julius wakes up, Napoleon disposes of the poor animal and scrubs the apartment clean. He winds up convincing Julius that the cat escaped during the party. For now, his secret is safe but his sister is going to lose his video appearance.

Back at the hospital, we get a quick scene with Lenore catching her mother ripping off her bandages. The screaming woman seems like she is losing her mind. We also check-in with Vic, who calls Pam to invite her to join her drug trials to help with her heart condition. As one sister is luring a sick woman into a deadly situation, another sister, Tamerlane, is luring Verna into her marital sex games. Now going by Candy the escort, the three hit it off because there seems to be something very personal about the woman and that appeals to both Bill and Tammy.

Finally, we head to the hospital lab where Camille is determined to get to the bottom of whatever Vic is up to with those monkeys. The doors are locked and she rudely orders the female guard to open them. Of course it’s Verma with the keys, and she gives Camille the same choice she gave her other siblings: she can leave now or pay the consequences later. Camille cannot be dissuaded and goes into the lab to take photos of the tortured monkeys. Soon one of the cages opens just as Verna walks in to ask why she hates her sister so much. Verna goes on to talk about humans and the abuses we commit– from medical to pointless cosmetic testing, these animals are enslaved and murdered and for what? Lipstick and human longevity? Camille can’t listen to this woman’s woke animal rights speech and threatens to have her fired. In response, Verna jumps up on the table like a wild animal and slowly starts to open her shirt to reveal some symbol carved into her skin. As she yells and howls like her cousin primates she shows a moment of pity for Camille. It didn’t have to end this way, she could’ve died peacefully in her bed. And with that, Verna turns into a monkey and attacks Camille just as the woman snaps a photo of her metamorphosis. The next morning the staff at the lab finds a trail of blood and Camille with her face torn to shreds. Sitting next to her is a bloody growling monkey–the consequence of cruelty. First Perry and now Camille; that is two Usher kids down and four more to go!