The Fall of the House of Usher episode 7 deals with the death of perhaps the most unpleasant family member, which is saying something!
Here, we witness the death of the seventh and final Usher sibling Frederick, after we find out the horrifying truth that he's been drugging his wife and effectively torturing her to keep her quiet.
Meanwhile, we learn more about Roderick and Dupin’s relationship while they continue their intense conversation that has happened throughout the series, and we're finally getting closer to unraveling the mystery.
Here's everything you need to know about The Fall of the House of Usher episode 7...
What's going on with Dupin and Roderick?
Dupin grows tired of Roderick dragging this story out, and who can blame him really, as this has been going on for 7 episodes!
He is worried he's being taken on a wild goose chase, but things change when he finally bears witness to the weird things happening around the house. So far, all of Roderick's hallucinations about his children have been visible only to him, but this time Dupin can see some of the supernatural occurrences.
The clock in the house starts ticking, its pendulum swinging (very appropriate, no?) and he sees it, too.
However, Dupin is ready to call it quits until he learns that Roderick is finally finished, and he’ll be able to charge him with at least two murders. So he's finally won, by the looks of things.
Why did Dupin and Roderick originally fall out?
During his chat with Roderick in the present, he's wondering why he ever trusted this man given his overall shady disposition. But it makes sense; he trusted Annabel, Roderick's ex-wife and overall nice person. If she could love him, surely that meant he was trustworthy, right?
When we flash to the past, we see that Dupin believed he was finally able to bring Rufus Griswold and Fortunato to justice, but soon learns that Roderick’s participation in this deposition was all a ruse. He was never going to turn on Fortunato in the first place. He reveals that the signatures on those forms were not forged, that he signed them, and there is no wrongdoing on Fortunato’s part.
So he's well and truly betrayed Dupin, who thought he could trust this man. Despite getting arrested briefly for perjury, he's gone down in history with Fortunato and does eventually go on to be CEO. Meanwhile, Dupin's career is ruined and a heartbroken Annabel leaves Roderick.
How do Roderick and Madeline know Verna?
We've followed Verna since episode one, not quite knowing who she is or what she wants. But episode 7 makes this quite clear.
Madeline decides to head to her childhood home, knowing Verna will be there waiting for her. We learn that Verna is a satanic demon or Death itself and that on New Year's Eve 1979, Madeline and Roderick had made a deal with her.
Said deal is the reason all these deaths are occurring around them, and Madeline desperately tries to renegotiate the terms. Of course, devils aren't just going to go back on their deals that easily, so Madeline attempts to kill Verna unsuccessfully.
Did Roderick die?
Yes, but he came back again! Following Madeline's meeting with Verna, they both believe that Roderick's death is the only way to stop Verna's reign of terror. She's already killed six children, and she would kill a seventh if she wasn't stopped.
Madeline hands her twin a bottle of Ligodone and asks him to be a hero for her, and he starts taking fistfuls of the pills. He dies in front of her and she leaves him there, making the scene look like suicide.
However, Verna appears in the basement, wakes Roderick up with a touch of her finger, and tells him, “I can’t let you out that easy". So he's living to see another day or two, and it seems Verna has some big plans for him...
How does Frederick Usher die?
Horribly! He was also far too preoccupied to see his own demise coming, despite the fact all his siblings had died.
We've seen him being too preoccupied with torturing his wife Morrie for what he believes is infidelity, so he barely even registers his sister’s recent death. He's somehow become even more unhinged since we last saw him too, taping wedding photos all over his wife's bedroom walls, and continuing to keep her drugged up.
He dives into a new layer of sadism when he decides to pull out his wife's teeth, before heading off in search of her wedding ring so he can weld it onto her. He's officially lost his mind, it seems.
Frederick heads to the condemned building where his brother Perry's party took place, which saw the guests doused in acid and melted to death, except for poor Morrie who survived the ordeal and is now suffering a fate worse than death.
When he arrives, he does a bump of coke before asking the foreman to give him five minutes inside and then start the demolition once he gives the all-clear. But once he's inside, things start getting weird.
He freezes and then collapses. Verna appears and informs him that it wasn’t cocaine he took, it was the paralytic he’s been giving Morrie and she's responsible for putting it there.
Frederick is now paralyzed much like his wife, and Verna tells him she normally doesn't intervene this directly but he is "so wretched" she had to make sure he got what was coming to him.
Verna uses Freddie’s voice to give the “all-clear” he mentioned, and the wrecking ball crashes through the building, collecting up debris that forms a very sharp makeshift pendulum. It slowly moves closer and closer to him, and he can't move as it slices him open.
And there we have it, the final Usher child is dead.
