DISCLAIMER: This recap of The Fall of the House of Usher Season 1 Episode 4, “The Black Cat,” contains spoilers. Proceed at your peril.
The next homage to Edgar Allan Poe‘s works comes in the form of “The Black Cat,” a nod to the writer’s short story of the same name. Even down to the name of the cat — Pluto. It’s a delightful outing that gives Rahul Kohli and Carla Gugino so much to play with. They’re riveting every time they’re onscreen. I also love how each installment plants seeds for the other Usher kids that we see blossom in their respective death episodes. The mystery unfolding is compelling, with plenty of Gothic horror and magnetic performances to keep us sated.
Ready to delve into “The Black Cat”? Let’s get to it.
We open with Napoleon, aka Leo (Kohli), searching for a black cat to replace Pluto — Julius’ cat who wound up dead in their apartment. He meets Verna (Gugino), who’s posing as an employee at a shelter. She introduces Leo to a bevy of pretty kitties. Leo spots the perfect replacement for Pluto, a cat resembling the late black beauty.
Later, Leo returns home and learns over the phone that Camille is dead. Suddenly, the black cat scratches him across the wrist before dashing. We return to Roderick (Bruce Greenwood) and Dupin (Carl Lumbly) in the present, wherein Roddy talks about the power of denial. Leo was clearly in denial at that moment. Dupin hears a thud emanating from the basement. Roderick reassures him that Madeline is down there, hard at work on her next gadget.
(L to R) Carl Lumbly as C. Auguste Dupin, Bruce Greenwood as Roderick Usher in Season 1 Episode 4, “The Black Cat,” of The Fall of the House of Usher. Cr. Eike Schroter/Netflix © 2023
Then, we see Roderick, Madeline (Mary McDonnell) and Arthur Pym (Mark Hamill) hosting a meeting for the remaining Usher kids — Leo, Victorine (T’Nia Miller), Freddie (Henry Thomas) and Tamerlane (Samantha Sloyan). Leo is in tears. The siblings start turning on each other. Madeline states she will allow them to be emotional behind closed doors, but they must present a united front to the public. Roddy gives them a pep talk before Pym hands Leo a statement to deliver to the press. Leo will be their face, which Camille had planned after Perry’s death.
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However, Leo refuses. He rips up the statement and storms off, claiming Roderick can give his inheritance to the next “junkie” he finds in a hospital. He’s referencing Juno (Ruth Codd), who’s also in the room with everyone. Later, Roderick, Madeline and Pym watch the security camera footage from R.U.E. Clinical Research on the night Camille died. They pause it at the moment when Camille chats with Verna. Roddy asks Pym to enhance the shot, but Pym reminds him that it’s impossible. Madeline claims she doesn’t recognize Verna.
Meanwhile, Julius (Daniel Jun) comforts Leo as the latter tries to pick out funeral attire for Camille’s and Perry’s (presumably) joint service. Suddenly, Pluto (the replacement cat) leaps out from between Leo’s blazers and scratches him. Leo notices the initial scratch from the cat hasn’t healed. Strange. Next, Dupin waits for Pym to arrive for the trial. He discusses with the judge the possibility of Pym being in contempt of court. However, Pym enters, informing the court about Camille’s death. The judge decides to reconvene on Monday to give the Usher family time to sort their affairs. Dupin tries to talk to Pym, but the latter brushes him off.
Then, Roderick chats with Vic about why Camille would’ve been snooping around her operation. Is Vic the informant? Roddy asks her outright. Naturally, she denies it. Admittedly, I don’t think any Usher kids are the informant. Dupin might’ve made it up. Anyway, Vic reassures her father that they’re ready for human trials. She already has a candidate waiting in the wings.
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Next, Pym asks Freddie to break into a phone they found among Morella’s belongings. Freddie insists it’s not her phone, but Pym is even more insistent that he should try a few password combinations. Freddie reluctantly obliges. Roderick gets an enhanced photo of Verna as a security guard. It looks like the ole memory’s getting jogged now…
Madeline arrives at the previous location of Verna’s bar. However, it’s all boarded up. A massive raven design is on one of the boards while a real raven perches atop it, staring down Madeline. So, she did recognize Verna from the photo. Then, we see Roderick in a basement. He looks at the picture of Verna again on his phone, along with Pym’s message: “Ring a bell?” Suddenly, we hear a bell ringing, seemingly emitting from a brick wall in front of him.
(L to R) Daniel Jun as Julius, Rahul Kohli as Napoleon Usher in Season 1 Episode 4, “The Black Cat,” of The Fall of the House of Usher. Cr. Eike Schroter/Netflix © 2023
Later, Verna sits in Vic’s office while signing paperwork for the impending heart mesh trial. Verna’s pretty damn convincing as a sweet woman with health problems. Vic reassures Verna that they can start the trial at the end of the week. Meanwhile, Lenore (Kyliegh Curran) eats sushi at home. Freddie struggles to unlock the phone. Lenore gives her dad some tips.
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That night, Leo struggles to sleep. Julius decides to give his boyfriend a helping hand with a blowie. Suddenly, Leo reaches under his pillow, where he finds a dead bloody rat. He jerks upward in terror. Unfortunately, Julius is still down there, so Leo smacks him in the nose. While Julius checks out the damage in the bathroom mirror, Leo disposes of the rat and the bedding. Ew.
Next, in the present, Roderick gets a shock when Leo “falls” through the ceiling to land between him and Dupin. Leo lifts his bloodied head, turning it to face Roddy. Roddy leaps to his feet and chews out the hallucination of Leo. However, Dupin believes Roddy’s yelling at him. Naturally, he bites back. Roderick apologizes. This leads to the men reminiscing about when they first met. The year was 1979…
We see young Dupin (Malcolm Goodwin) knock on young Roderick’s (Zach Gilford) door. Annabel Lee (Katie Parker) encourages Roderick to let Dupin inside. Dupin reveals there’s a conspiracy afoot at Fortunato. One particular doctor has been forging patient and employee signatures, including Roderick’s. Initially, Roddy claims he doesn’t recall signing those documents, but he must have done so. Dupin wants help in uncovering this conspiracy. But since Roddy won’t budge, he departs.
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Then, Roderick tells Rufus Griswold (Michael Trucco) about Dupin’s visit. Rufus vows it won’t happen again. Roddy tries to ask him about the signatures, but Rufus evades answering his questions. Rufus states that Roddy’s part of the club now. He’s one of the big guys. When Roderick returns home, he realizes it’s time to get out before Rufus destroys his reputation. However, young Madeline (Willa Fitzgerald) orders her brother to stay put. Get Rufus on his good side before twisting the knife. Oh, and he should call Dupin, who left his card. Why not endeavor to uncover Fortunato’s crimes before taking over their birthright?
We flash forward a few decades to Leo and Julius. Julius gently encourages his boyfriend to abstain from drugs for a spell. Give himself a break. Freddie knocks on their door. He asks Leo for drugs. Sure enough, Leo’s got some cocaine that’s calling Freddie’s name. Pluto makes her grand entrance to, once again, claw the sh*t out of Leo. This time, she slashes his eye, turning it bright red.
Bruce Greenwood as Roderick Usher in Season 1 Episode 4, “The Black Cat,” of The Fall of the House of Usher. Cr. Eike Schroter/Netflix © 2023
Meanwhile, Tamerlane goes over some documents while walking on the treadmill. She’s watching Bill-T’s (Matt Biedel) workout video. Bill-T introduces the winners of a contest. One might look familiar to you … it’s none other than Mike Flanagan! The other one is Verna as “Candy,” her alias. Naturally, this disturbs Tamerlane. Fun fact: her company, Goldbug, is named after Poe’s short story, “The Gold-Bug.”
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Later, Leo finds a dead, bloody pigeon on his gaming chair and a small mouse in his slippers. Ugh, this is my nightmare. He calls Verna and begs her to take the cat. Verna arrives with a pet carrier. The lighting in the room changes to a yellow/white light, just as it looks bluish-white when Camille died and blue/red when Perry died. This represents the different colored rooms in “The Masque of the Red Death.” Anyway, Verna tells Leo that the cat’s in the wall.
Suddenly, the cat leaps onto Leo. They struggle for a while until Leo pokes its eye out. It flees. When Leo looks up, Verna has an eyeball hanging from her socket. She licks her hand. It’s terrifying. Leo grabs the Mjolnir on his wall. (Why do I have a feeling that it’s actually Rahul Kohli’s Mjolnir?) He vows to get that cat out of the wall, once and for all.
Meanwhile, Freddie snorts coke while contemplating his next move. He tries to use Morella’s (Crystal Balint) finger to unlock the phone. When that doesn’t work, he removes part of her facial bandages to use her face. How would that work if pretty much all of her skin is gone? Of course, this doesn’t yield results, either. Tamerlane confronts Bill-T about Candy’s involvement in the workout thingy. He claims he didn’t know she was standing behind him. Tamerlane works to ensure that Candy won’t be allowed near them again.
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Next, Juno puts on her sexy lingerie for Roddy. She asks him if she can ease up on the Ligodone. However, Roddy insists it wouldn’t look good for their image if she lessened her Ligodone dosage. When he removes her satin robe, Roderick spots a skinless man behind Juno. He has his arm snaked around her shoulders. Then, he gets in Roderick’s face. This is, presumably, the ghost of Perry.
The Fall of the House of Usher. Mary McDonnell as Madeline Usher in Season 1 Episode 4, “The Black Cat,” of The Fall of the House of Usher. Cr. Eike Schroter/Netflix © 2023
Later, Juno calls Madeline, who sits with Roddy in his room. He tells her about his CADASIL diagnosis. She promises that Victorine’s heart mesh will be priority number one. He doesn’t think he has five years, though, as is the standard prognosis for this rare hereditary disease. But Madeline is trying to be hopeful. That evening, Julius arrives home to find his apartment utterly destroyed. Leo has taken down the walls in search of this cat.
Leo spots Verna’s corpse in the wall at one point, with the one-eyed cat perched above her. This is a nod to “The Black Cat” short story ending and Byam Shaw’s illustration from 1909. Perfect. In the blink of an eye, though, the display vanishes. Unfortunately, Leo sees the cat sitting on the balcony railing. It leaps over the side. Leo gets a running start and chases after it, hurtling over the railing to land with a deadly thud on the ground below. Julius looks over the edge in shock. Meanwhile, Pluto — the real Pluto — hops on Leo’s back and meows. RIP, Leo.
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Who do you think is next on Verna’s death list? What kind of deal did Roderick make with Verna? Only time (and more episodes) will tell.
The Fall of the House of Usher is now streaming on Netflix.
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What I do: I'm GGA's Managing Editor, a Senior Contributor, and Press Coordinator. I manage, contribute, and coordinate. Sometimes all at once. Joking aside, I oversee day-to-day operations for GGA, write, edit, and assess interview opportunities/press events.
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