The Fall of the House of Usher: How did Napoleon Usher die?

The Fall of the House of Usher season 1

During The Fall of the House of Usher episode 4, how exactly did Napoleon Usher die? Well, the events of “The Black Cat” were born out of an internal horror-show for the Leo character, and you can argue that guilt was at the center of it all.

After all, he was responsible for what happened to the original cat Pluto and instead of taking responsibility, he decided to cover it up instead. He went and purchased a fake Pluto from Verna, who she knew would cause him great suffering as a result. The cat (or rather, Verna as the cat) did physical harm to the character, before eventually driving him completely mad. By the time his lover came home near the end of the episode, he was tearing down their apartment, desperate to get his revenge. He then sees a vision on the cat on the balcony, charges towards, them, and then falls to his death.

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“The Black Cat” is certainly in a way a story of obsession, and in a lot of ways everything Napoleon does in his time on the show is a manifestation of all the secrets he delights in hiding. In one way, they were going to catch up to him, and the cat ends up being the ultimate and most-violent catalyst at the core of the story.

Within this episode one of the things that The Fall of the House of Usher is playing with is the concept of free will. Did Napoleon ever have a choice that would save him from such a demise? The answer here is a little bit complicated, and we would say it is more or less “no” based on the end of the series. However, we would argue that he did at least have some control in the way in which he died; it did not have to be this painful or this awful!

Related Is Rufus Griswold on The Fall of the House of Usher based on a real person?

What did you think about the death of Napoleon on The Fall of the House of Usher episode 4?

Be sure to let us know in the comments! After you do just that, come back — there are some other updates coming your way soon.

(Photo: Netflix.)

This article was written by Jessica BunBun.

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