Cat Lovers Should Beware The Fall Of The House Of Usher Episodes 3 & 4
This post contains spoilers for episodes 3 & 4 of "The Fall of the House of Usher."
Horror director Mike Flanagan rarely relies on frequent jumpscares to deliver shocks and thrills, and his oeuvre primarily consists of raw, emotion-driven stories that aim to excavate the depths of the human psyche. To no one's surprise, his "The Fall of the House of Usher" — a modern reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe's short story of the same name, amalgamated with a dozen references to his work — also dives deep into the rot of emotions that fester, until they're potent enough to topple a formidable personal empire. Apart from the grisly deaths that mark almost every episode in this limited series, there are two instances of fairly graphic animal harm/death that can be potentially disturbing, especially for those who love and adore cats, whose presence takes on a special significance in the context of the Ushers and Poe's work.
Early on in the series, we are introduced to Pluto the Cat, owned by Napolean "Leo" Usher (Rahul Kohli), and his partner, Julius (Daniel Jun). While Napolean doesn't seem terribly attached to the feline, he's fairly tolerant towards her — that is until he wakes up after an especially intense night of partying under the influence, with no memory of the horrifying scene that greets him the morning after. The scene in question, which pops up in episode 3 of the series, is pretty violent and directly involves Pluto, and this incident sets the wheels of Leo's imminent death in motion, as we see him aggressively accelerate towards his own demise by the end of episode 4.
Does Pluto the cat die in The Fall of the House of Usher?
Around the 37:03 mark in episode 3 of the show, Leo stumbles upon the disemboweled body of Pluto, with his drug-crushing knife wedged into her body. The close-ups of this grisly scene last till 37:10, post which, Leo disposes of the body quietly and seeks to adopt a similar-looking black feline to evade suspicion and suppress his growing guilt. As Julius is unaware of this drug-hazed accident, Leo intends to keep it a secret from him, digging his grave further when he visits a pet shop, whose owner is none other than the mysterious, elusive Verna (Carla Gugino).
Once the series hones in on Roderick Usher's (Bruce Greenwood) confession, it becomes clear that the Usher children, who are all dead within the span of two weeks, have been held accountable for the sins of their father (and aunt), paying the price for their family's doomed legacy and their own personally-curated hells. Leo's predicament is no exception: after he adopts another black cat and passes her off as Pluto, the feline scratches him aggressively, pounces on him without warning, and leaves bloody, dead animals for him around the house. Pushed to the edge by these events, and Verna's menacing words when she visits, Leo gouges the cat's eye out, which occurs around the 48:05 mark in episode 4.
While these scenes are disturbing to witness, it is later revealed that Pluto the Cat was never dead in the first place — Leo's "realization" that he had accidentally killed her was a part of the hallucinations induced by Verna to set his death in motion. As the adopted cat was essentially one of Verna's many tricks, no cats were actually harmed by Leo, whether by accident or on purpose.
Poe's Black Cat
Flanagan is no stranger to establishing thematic motifs of dread with animal deaths, such as with the sudden death of the kitten litter in "The Haunting of Hill House," which served to highlight the rotten heart of the liminal space, along with the themes of premature death and acceptance. There's also good reason for Flanagan to include a cat eye-gouging scene in "The Fall of the House of Usher": This aspect of the story is loosely based on Poe's short story, "The Black Cat," which features a similar scene that is contextualized by a far more disturbing psychological situation for the narrator.
To briefly summarize what happens, the narrator of Poe's short passionately describes his love for animals, including a large number of dogs, rabbits, and monkeys he took care of with his wife, along with a special black cat named Pluto, whom he was especially fond of. As the years embittered him while he drowned himself in alcohol, he mistreated everyone around him, including his pets. One day, in a fit of inebriated fury, the narrator gouged one of Pluto's eyes out, and the guilt demolished him only for a brief moment, where he "experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of remorse." However, this feeling didn't last, as he "plunged into excess" again, much like Leo, who also dives headfirst into substance abuse instead of confronting the severity of his own actions.
Both Leo and the narrator pay for their transgressions in different ways, as the context is further complicated in the show, thanks to Leo's clueless self-absorption and the obscenely terrible legacy that the Ushers leave behind. In the end, Leo is killed by the phantom of his own guilt, personified.
"The Fall of the House of Usher" is currently streaming on Netflix.