The Fall of the House of Usher creator clarifies episode four detail that changes everything

Mike Flanagan, the creator of The Fall of the House of Usher on Netflix, has clarified a tiny detail about the cat in episode four which has really changed everything. I don’t know about you, but I definitely misinterpreted this when watching.

The Fall of the House of Usher is all about just that – how the House of Usher comes crashing down. Early on we are told all the Usher children have died, and each episode dives into the death of each of the children. Episode four is called The Black Cat, and follows the demise of Leo Usher, Roderick Usher’s third child to die.

In the build up to this, we saw Leo kill his partner’s cat Pluto by stabbing it whilst high on drugs, and he headed off to a pet shelter to try and adopt an identical one. At the shelter he was met by a very familiar face, Verna. So, we knew this isn’t going to end well. He found a replacement cat, but Pluto’s signature Gucci collar was going to obviously be missing.

via Netflix

When he returned home with the new cat, Leo told his boyfriend he’d found Pluto on the street, and someone must have nicked the Gucci collar, a very plausible story. But then, everything took a dark turn. The new cat started being aggressive, and was bringing dead animals into the flat.

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Leo called Verna to have her pick the cat back up, and she then told him the new cat must be hiding out in the walls. Leo then went on an angry rampage, trying to hunt the cat out the walls, and ended up seeing it on the balcony, before falling to his death.

We then saw a cat crawl over Leo’s body on the floor, ironic right? But Mike Flanagan has clarified the cat at the end of The Fall of the House of Usher episode four was actually a pretty important detail.

Okay. So… "The Black Cat" was written by Edgar Allan Poe. In HIS version, a cat is killed. In MY version, the cat is…

(spoilers)

… in MY version, the killing of the cat is revealed to be a hallucination. In MY version, the cat is alive and well. So who hates cats? 🙂 https://t.co/3EyukDXiYB

— Mike Flanagan (@flanaganfilm) October 12, 2023

Someone tweeted him and said: “Annual time to ask @flanaganfilm WHAT DID CATS EVER DO TO YOU?????????” To which Mike Flanagan said: “Okay. So… ‘The Black Cat’ was written by Edgar Allan Poe. In HIS version, a cat is killed. In MY version, the killing of the cat is revealed to be a hallucination. In MY version, the cat is alive and well. So who hates cats? :)” 

Wait, it was a hallucination?! Someone replied to this and said: “Wait. When does it get revealed it was a hallucination?!?! I know the evil cat was a hallucination but Pluto didn’t die?”

Mike then added: “That’s why we made such a big deal about the the fact that Pluto was wearing a Gucci collar, and the new cat was not. Look at the cat in the final shot of the episode, who is wearing the collar… and the empty bathtub, which means ALL of the animal violence was imagined.”

via Netflix

So, the cat walking over Leo at the end was Pluto! And the dead animals being brought into his flat was all in his head! Pluto is alive and well!

Just to add to the confusion, did anyone else notice the collar the cat was wearing at the end but think it was the same as the little bell necklace Verna was wearing? Oh how I got this so wrong.

The Fall of the House of Usher is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

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