In The Fall of the House of Usher, Roderick and Madeline Usher successfully build an empire of wealth, but empires built on blood can only last for so long. Roderick is played by Bruce Greenwood, Zach Gilford, and Graham Verchere, and Madeline is played by Mary McDonnell, Willa Fitzgerald, and Lulu Wilson.
Roderick and Madeline were illegitimate children of the CEO of Fortunato Pharmaceuticals. Their mother was their father’s secretary, and their father was married to someone else, so he never acknowledged Roderick and Madeline as his children.
When their sick mother dies after killing their father, the twins are left with no family except for each other. Eventually, Roderick starts working at Fortunato, whereas Madeline works on algorithms, but they are both determined to get what they consider their birthright — Fortunato.
The deal that changed their lives
Roderick finds Ligodone, an opiate that can be sold as a painkiller, and pitches it to the CEO of Fortunato, Rufus Griswold. Fortunato starts selling Ligodone, but instead of a partnership, Roderick only gets a promotion and some money.
Later, when a fraud investigator, C. Auguste Dupin, asks Roderick to help him expose the company’s illegal and immoral activities, Roderick hesitates. Madeline, who is the smarter of the two siblings, makes Roderick work with Dupin, as she sees this as an opportunity to get what they want.
Roderick’s wife, Annabel, is wary of Madeline’s schemes, but Roderick trusts his sister. Roderick does what his sister tells him to do and betrays Dupin, who had become his friend. On the day of the deposition, instead of blowing the whistle, he claims that he is there only because Dupin would not leave him alone.
Dupin ends up losing his job, while Roderick becomes Fortunato’s most important employee by getting rid of Dupin. Due to this, Annabel also leaves him. Even then, Roderick and Madeline do not stop.
On New Year’s Eve, 1979, the siblings kill Rufus Griswold. With Rufus gone, Roderick will become the next CEO. That night, the siblings go to a neighborhood bar to build an alibi.
There, they meet Verna, the bartender, who somehow knows about everything that the siblings have done. Verna has an offer for them. She tells them that they can get all the power and money that they desire without ever paying the price for their crimes.
The siblings will live a long life and die together. Their children will also live a life of privilege. However, when it is time for the siblings to die, their bloodline will die with them. It seems like a good offer to the twins, and they agree to Verna’s deal without thinking about the consequences.
The fall of the house of Usher
Years later, Roderick marries his second wife Juno, who is much younger than him. Madeline also gets married, but she leaves her husband. While Madeline does not have any children, Roderick goes on to have four more children with four different women.
The siblings become the CEO and COO of Fortunato and amass wealth and power. They market Ligodone as a non-addictive painkiller, which kills millions of people around the world but also takes their company to new heights.
Roderick and Madeline are never punished for any of their crimes, and Roderick’s six children want for nothing. However, their lives turn upside down when the time comes to pay the price for the deal that they made with Verna.
All six of Roderick’s children die violent deaths one by one, and Verna has a hand in all of them. Madeline thinks that the deaths will stop once Roderick dies, so she makes him kill himself. She also gets the board to choose her as the next CEO.
This time, Madeline’s plan does not work. Verna does not let Roderick, who has CADASIL, die, as the siblings are supposed to die together. Roderick accepts the fact that he and his sister are going to die soon, and he cannot do anything to stop it.
No other death hurts Roderick more than the death of his innocent granddaughter, Lenore. Verna shows Roderick that the siblings’ greed killed millions of people and that these deaths are their true legacy. She then asks him to call Dupin to his childhood home.
Before Dupin arrives, Roderick poisons Madeline. To honor his sister like a queen, he gouges out her eyes and replaces them with an Egyptian queen’s sapphires. He then tells Dupin the story of his and his sister’s lives and confesses to their crimes.
However, Madeline is still alive, and even without her eyes, she finds her brother. She strangles him as the house starts collapsing. Dupin runs out of the house just as it falls and kills the last two Ushers.
Also Read: The Fall of the House of Usher summary and ending explained