289 "The Masque of the Red Death" (The Fall of the House of Usher E2)

[00:00:00] Hey everybody, I'm Rima. And I'm Pake. And this is Strange Indeed, a podcast dedicated to the Netflix show The Fall of the House of Usher. This week we are covering episode two titled The Masque of the Red Death. Yeah.

[00:00:27] I love the love the poem, the story and loved this episode this week. Yeah, this was a good one. It's a brutal one. By the end there. But yeah, a lot of good stuff.

[00:00:48] Yeah, it was. And we never got you know, we just got back from a trip like we're literally just seeing each other like online here but we just spent a weekend together along with

[00:00:59] the rest of our said friends. And we never got a chance to really talk about this episode much as probably good because we save it all save it all for this. But we certainly were

[00:01:11] pimping the show out pretty hard to all of our friends who hadn't yet started trying to get them to watch it. I've had a few people message me being like, okay, I'm watching it now.

[00:01:22] Yeah, I was like, now I've only seen the two but it's so good. You got it. And then I know a couple of people were like, I already finished it and I'm watching it again and

[00:01:31] just absolutely loved it. So that was really great. Yeah. This this was a really I thought another stellar episode. I know I was just I mean, they totally got me in their premiere just totally fell in love with the series already in the premiere episode. As we talked

[00:01:47] about when we covered episode one, but you know, I think they're really continuing, in my opinion, was some really stellar content and I just really love it. But a little bit of a departure. I don't want to go into the details. But I've seen a little chatter and

[00:02:02] I mean, I thought so too. I don't remember as much gore and gruesomeness in Flanagan's other series. So this was a little bit of a departure. So I'm sure we're going to talk

[00:02:14] about it, but it was definitely a little different. He's definitely got the scares down. I guess he's going for something a little different in this episode. So but another good one. So with that being said, let's go ahead and jump into it because I'm really anxious to talk

[00:02:32] about it. What is your first point of the night? All right, uh, maybe a little interesting with this one. Let's talk about ligadone. We heard the name in the first episode with the trial

[00:02:49] and and DuPan bringing it up as we so we kind of knew this is the main medicine that a lot of the kind of trial is about and the way that they've been taking advantage of people and people have

[00:03:02] been dying and there's addictions and overdoses and things like that. And legally they're trying to hold the Usher family liable because of this medicine. So we hear the we heard the name in the

[00:03:12] first episode, but here we get to learn more of it and they talk about it more DuPan and Roderick do. But then we also get to see it kind of in a flashback and as Roderick was pitching it. And so

[00:03:27] I just thought it was really interesting to see how important this drug is really to this whole story and to this family that it has played such a very pivotal like role in a lot of things. It's

[00:03:40] the biggest success yet probably the biggest downfall of this family as well. Their biggest closet skeleton of their the Usher Empire. It's this pain medicine. It's like a catch-all like it runs the entire gamut. You know they keep marketing it as like you know from headaches to

[00:03:58] serious surgery recovery and everything in between like anything that could possibly be causing any level of pain. It's just the like one pill does all you know there's dosing is differently a different but this is the medicine that anybody goes to for anything. The big downside being how

[00:04:17] incredibly addictive it is even though they market it as not addictive. And so that leads to this slew of cases and charges and all this stuff you know because of people developing drug addictions

[00:04:34] and all these overdoses and things that are happening because of it. We see Roderick younger again Zach Guilford, love that, working at Fortunato again. So he it's weird I still don't have all the pieces of how everything comes together. Yeah but you know we saw them as kids

[00:04:54] and then their mother was the secretary to the guy who was running it at the time and now this Griswold, this Rufus Griswold is in charge at this time frame that we're seeing in the flashback and

[00:05:06] he's working there in communication logistics but somehow he has gotten himself in the boss's office pitching this medicine which I don't know is like can anybody in a medical company just go

[00:05:18] and pitch a new drug to the CEO if you have the right connections. I don't know. I guess if you make an appointment then you find a hole in the schedule that you can get in there I guess so.

[00:05:30] It sounds like he wasn't really sure what he was there for he thought it was someone else so he may have been paying attention as to what is on his calendar just goes with what a secretary puts on

[00:05:42] there. Right but yeah so we see Roderick pitching the ligadone to Griswold which obviously this is what leads Roderick to the absolute top of the company over time and it probably didn't take very long once things started getting rolling. Even though he did not Griswold did

[00:06:00] take this pitch he did not go with it at this time but we know that things definitely end up working out for the ushers in the long run. We see Roderick and Madeline really talking about

[00:06:11] well he's not gonna take it now we'll make sure that you know he takes it anyway we're gonna find a way to get this thing on top whether he likes it or not. We still don't have all

[00:06:21] the pieces of how they get there but we know this is really the biggest stepping point in you know A to Z of getting Roderick Usher on top and the CEO of this company. Again it's kind of that pain

[00:06:33] it's like he says it's not pain management pain erasure for everything. Sounds like a really great drug so of course it would come with lots of asterisks right? Yeah one just little note about that conversation I thought it was really interesting that there's this mirroring of

[00:06:52] both of the younger versions of Roderick Usher and August Dupin and both of them saying or speaking about changing the world was a really big part of both of their kind of monologues in this episode

[00:07:04] coming from two very different viewpoints obviously but I love that you know this world needs changing I'm here to change the world was a big viewpoint and big talking point for both

[00:07:13] characters. So yeah I just wanted to kind of bring up Ligodone the importance that clearly it has I think we will definitely see more pieces of it and how it's really important. Lastly just how

[00:07:27] it plays a part in we really learned Juno Roderick's new wife that Ligodone was a big part of that August mentioned something about her being a heroin addict and he's like yes see success story

[00:07:42] like she went from that to now this and we get that Lenore and Juno interaction that was so incredibly awkward I mean anything's gonna be awkward when you lead it off with walking into

[00:07:54] your you know grandfather getting frisky with his new wife who's a woman that's younger than your own parents but yeah then you get this whole bonding thing between them quote-unquote which just leads to even more awkwardness whereas Lenore gets the story of their hospital room meet cute

[00:08:13] that just gets this way like it more and more awkward it just yeah it does not get character Juno she does kind of remind me of her character in Midnight Club is the way that she's just gonna

[00:08:27] say whatever comes to the top of her head and he's like oh that was too far you know but yeah we find out she was an addict who then was on like a like insanely high dose of Ligodone like

[00:08:41] that they had never done before to help her recover from like a car accident is what she says and Roderick views her as this like giant success story that he puts on a pedestal still

[00:08:52] a little strange for people to marry their success stories but mm-hmm you know I wonder if we'll learn more about those you know that situation and what led from one thing to another in that

[00:09:04] relationship as well I hope so I have a lot of questions about a lot of things so far yeah yeah so that's my first point it's just the the pill in the middle of like all of this story really

[00:09:22] right now mm-hmm yeah and clearly it's important because you know Roderick that like that's where he starts right when they're having that conversation it's like this is where all of all of this began so we get that origin story from Ligodone so I liked I liked getting that

[00:09:39] history and kind of finding out you know the backstory of that and still kind of you know not yet knowing how they got to be in control of the company you know because it's like that was

[00:09:54] one of our questions from you know the previous episode was you know okay so the the other guy died so they couldn't have just automatically taken over right so then who's this Rufus guy

[00:10:07] that took over but he's you know somehow they're going to come out on top and take take the company or something's gonna happen that they're gonna you know be owning the company and have control

[00:10:18] of it but I'm curious how did Roderick get a hold of this Ligodone like he he talks about this chemist he's like first we got to hire you know we got to hire this chemist he's the one that

[00:10:34] developed it or better yet by by this company they've already got it up and running it's already in place you know we just it's ready to be you know we just take it over and buy it out and

[00:10:43] roll it out how how did that connection come into play right like how because I mean he he didn't Roderick didn't like invent it or well I mean maybe he has this idea I mean he doesn't develop

[00:10:59] it himself maybe he hires someone maybe it was his idea and say I want a pill for you know for this and and used to this chemist to develop I don't know I'm just really throwing this out but

[00:11:11] I'm curious like how did that start right we know he doesn't have the money that he had you know he can't just like pay somebody to oh now just come up with this drug that I have in mind because

[00:11:25] he's living in this like tiny little apartment with a wife and two kids right now at this point so exactly where does where does that pull and that connection come from yeah yeah so how does

[00:11:34] he know this chemist you know that that developed it and how how is it that Roderick is the one kind of taking it and pitching it you know to Fortunato versus this you know other company that

[00:11:49] this chemist works for so definitely had some questions about that but I loved getting getting the backstory there yeah I love the flashbacks and of course seeing that Guilford it's a bonus

[00:12:01] I like what you said about the quote or phrase that kind of ties the Dupin Roderick together and that's this world needs changing that's actually my first point so I'm glad you mentioned

[00:12:21] that because I do think that is what for these two ties them together it's interesting to see this we get a little bit of a backstory on Dupin he's a fraud investigator it looks it looks like a

[00:12:34] Medicare fraud investigator and he is already on the trail of Fortunato and we hear Rufus Griswold kind of mentioned this like disaster he's trying to you know clean up right so I'm assuming that

[00:12:49] this is what this is about and depends on this case you know about the drug trials and these bodies being missing it sounds like that they're exhuming these bodies and getting rid of them

[00:13:00] before anyone else can get a hold of them and run tests or do whatever to find out what their like real cause of deaths are so he's he's determined and he's gung-ho and he's you know ready to fight

[00:13:13] the good fight and bring down all of these evil powerful men yeah you know which we'd see that's big of a deal like really is life's work this guy because he's been after Fortunato before the

[00:13:26] ushers even had anything to do with it right yeah long time coming long time coming for both of them so yeah he was already going after them way before the ushers were in charge and had taken over so

[00:13:42] you've got you know depend on the one side trying to fight the good fight and seems to really believe in taking people like them down which you know can't blame him there and one thinks the world

[00:13:58] needs changing you know he says that but then you got Roderick Usher who wants to create a world free of pain you know because of what his mom went through you can really hear the passion

[00:14:11] in his voice when he's talking to Rufus Griswold about how much he had to watch his mom suffer and that that I think is also noble I think that there's something you know to that and it's and of

[00:14:25] course it came through this drug this ligatone now of course the way that you know whether or not he knew as he's pitching it when he calls it non-addictive I don't know that I don't know if

[00:14:36] it you know he could have just been saying that and continue to market it that way to say that because I mean knowing that it's addictive because I think they said that in the first episode like

[00:14:44] you knew it was addictive but you market it as non-addictive but did he know it at the time I don't know but it's interesting to see these two men sitting across from each other you know how

[00:14:58] many years after all of this that they seem to have almost like a respect for each other that they once shared like a similar dream of the world needs changing but they both kind of went about it

[00:15:10] in different ways and you know did they really change the world you know who knows I mean if you know I don't think for the better either one of them at this point you know I don't think

[00:15:22] Dupin was able to really stop anything I mean the Usher still had their drug and it sounds like it ruined a lot of lives you know Roger Gresher and his family they all sound like pretty bad people

[00:15:35] if he really knew all those things and obviously not great but it's interesting to see them come together two men on the opposite sides of the coin but also kind of having you know similar

[00:15:47] thoughts and feelings but going about in different ways and I think also what ties in the phrase this world needs changing is Perry because it feels like that's what Perry is kind of after as well

[00:16:01] he seems to want to change his world anyway by becoming respected in his own family wants to kind of you know change the status quo seems like all the siblings they either think that he's the

[00:16:16] informant or they all just really look down on him you know because of the circumstances of of how he came to be in the family and you know their how their dad you know got to be with his

[00:16:29] mom and how he came to be so it seems like you know he's looking to change you know how he's viewed by his family so he's also looking for you know a change in his world so it kind of ties all

[00:16:41] of them in my opinion kind of together but I do I do love the dialogue between Dupin and Roderick I really like their conversations but yeah that was my first point was was just in particularly

[00:16:57] that phrase and how it kind of tied all three of these characters in this episode together what is your second point all right I want to talk about Madeline really mainly just like one

[00:17:14] scene so I have it kind of Roderick and Madeline but it's this directly after the the pitch meeting there with the ligadone but just this conversation they have at Roderick and his wife I guess first

[00:17:26] wife Annabelle which so that was probably what what Frederick and Tammy I think would probably been the baby I think those are the oldest two Tamerlane and and Frederick yep yeah but yeah so we see kind of this relationship that Roderick was just kind of this humble normal

[00:17:50] family father-husband kind of guy at first who knows what all kind of led to him you know all this power going to his head and he just kind of becoming this type of person who travels around

[00:18:01] the world and has children all the time who doesn't even know he's having them sometimes I assume so we don't really see again I wonder if we see more of the change in personality and how you know

[00:18:14] Roddy became the Roderick Usher that he is today or was before this big fall because he seems to be like a very heartfelt normal good humble romantic kind of guy we see

[00:18:28] him reciting the poem it's a poe poem a poem I is like this but yeah he's reciting Annabelle Lee to his wife Annabelle and in this poe-less universe because it's based on Poe's works

[00:18:45] right Roderick is the one that wrote this poem for his wife of course in reality if those who don't know about Annabelle Lee that is Poe's final complete poem he ever did it was actually

[00:18:57] published 1849 shortly after his death it was the last one that he did and side note my favorite love that yeah it's a good one uh but yeah in that conversation we get more of Madeline that

[00:19:11] we didn't know about or really see in the first episode that she is as Annabelle calls it like the high-tech person a tech person but she's like well it's not really that high tech it's just

[00:19:22] algorithm algorithms it's math it's it's it's just understanding the human condition really uh but she is the algorithm person of the family way on the forefront of this yeah people weren't talking about algorithms and things like that back in those days really I don't know I would

[00:19:41] know what that is back in that those days if someone is having what are you talking about but but Madeline that is her bread and butter that's what she knows that's what she has clung

[00:19:54] to and that makes me wonder about the time frame is this stuff happening before or after their meeting with with Verna in the bar I know I've wondered that I was just thinking that too uh on

[00:20:05] my second watch like when in the timeline is is that yeah or after that bar scene is because then it's like well are these connections with the ligodome chemist and this you know knack for algorithms and understanding things are these things that they have gained because of some

[00:20:21] kind of deal or bargain or is it you know their their own minds before that I'm not sure but the whole conversation was fun I liked there was the dig a lot of AI and algorithm stuff

[00:20:35] there's the dig where uh Madeline says like hell an algorithm could write movies and tv shows and uh Roger just goes not well I mean it's absolutely perfect considering the current climate with the strides for the writers and um the the actors right now uh absolute perfection

[00:20:55] good job writers good job writers it's really funny I definitely chuckled yep at that not well I was intrigued by Madeline's behavior in this because I mean she's there hanging out with

[00:21:12] Annabelle before Roderick even gets back home so like there seems to be some closeness but then the whole conversation Madeline's like very pretentious and talking down to Annabelle like it almost like

[00:21:23] she has some kind of disdain or hate for her that just kind of lies underneath the surface uh and it's just me reading into it but maybe it's this whole like well you know

[00:21:33] Roderick's worth so much more and you're sitting here wasting his time and energy just by playing housewife when he could be out accomplishing much better things if you weren't holding him down like I know it's a weird thing for me to jump to her but it's

[00:21:44] like the vibe that I got I don't think you're far off I do think she feels superior you know to Annabelle and you know feels that yeah maybe Roderick is better than her I definitely

[00:22:02] got a bit of a vibe from her too like this is all like we we are made for bigger and better things this is all just a waste of of like time and energy is so I got that vibe too I don't think

[00:22:15] you're far off yeah yeah but it just it was interesting to see this side of Madeline we know that she's kind of this driving force behind them even though Roderick is the CEO

[00:22:25] is you know the little step ahead of her but she really is pulling a lot of strings and and we see that uh you know she's the one that really pushes him you know when you hit

[00:22:34] a brick wall you don't turn back you go through and right now Griswold is their brick wall uh and obviously somehow they tore right through him to get on top they absolutely did so he was not

[00:22:47] that big of a obstacle but yeah I just like some of the other lines uh where she talks about down the line we could mimic human consciousness that is immortality talk right there uh it's like that

[00:23:02] and then another you know can an algorithm write a poem like Roddy it's like well Annabelle let me introduce you to chat gpt uh literally did an entire run for your lives episode that was just

[00:23:15] chat gpt generated poems uh I remember yeah so yeah uh yes yes it can uh you know rhythm can I don't know if quite like Roddy or or Poe in this instance but it can do poems um and yeah so then we

[00:23:34] see the older Madeline in the I want to say current timeline but not really because it's still a flashback from like after the deaths of all of the kids and stuff I think I wasn't sure like where in

[00:23:45] the timeline this is taking place because it's Lenore and Madeline we don't really see but I think I think it's still before because I think uh Freddie talks to her about it yeah I think it's

[00:23:56] still before yeah but we see the older Madeline has this very black mirror like algorithm you know be right back anyone uh that's like having a like digital recreation of a person by you know having that individual answer this lengthy like questionnaire filling out a journal and then

[00:24:18] it also like breaks down the entirety of this person's like online you know uh in social media existence so it's picking up all the nuances of their personality and the way they think and the

[00:24:29] way they talk to basically make a chat about the chat bot out of somebody out of their likeness um as Madeline had mentioned that's immortality talk it's sort of kind of an immortality of a

[00:24:41] kind and then it's interesting that Lenore is the subject of this project right here do you recall in episode one when Roderick kept kind of getting interrupted by text messages from his granddaughter Lenore yeah do you think it was really Lenore or this AI version of Lenore

[00:25:08] oh I had not even thought about that until you just said that but that could be a good kind of twist because here's what I was wondering um at the funeral in the first episode now you

[00:25:25] mentioned that because it was like Roderick and Lenore on one side and then like everybody else was still sitting in another spot to where like any conversation that they had and you know there's

[00:25:34] this grumpus thing that is what she said but in this episode she says oh yeah I used to call him that and it almost wonders we know that Roderick sees ghosts so that is a really good uh thing to

[00:25:47] point out there's like was even was Lenore even there at that funeral uh well just the way that Madeline was talking about this like AI version uh in like literally just create a whole

[00:26:03] almost person digital person and I'm seeing this today didn't they I don't try to pay too much attention to anything that has a headline with the Kardashians or Jenner's in it but I thought I saw

[00:26:19] something um just a headline that somebody did something with Kendall Jenner's likeness like there's an Instagram account or something uh that is like her image and her voice and I think it's something similar to that like you can interact or I could be completely way

[00:26:41] off base listeners are probably like oh my gosh you don't know what you're talking about where I heard something like there was somehow uh an AI likeness of her captured and hearing this episode

[00:26:53] and what they were talking what Madeline was talking about doing with Lenore I was like I are aren't we doing that right now I mean is that is that what this was about because I I should have

[00:27:04] went back before I even mentioned it and just looked it up to validate but I I'm like oh my gosh I feel like that's what I saw like that's that's a thing that's happening like right now

[00:27:13] and we know that you know there are people using the you know AI technology in not good ways I mean there's I think there's probably some good use of it there are some good things that can come

[00:27:28] and then there's some I think negative things like with everything like with all technology again Black Mirror gives us these cautionary tales of how you know technology can start out as a good

[00:27:37] thing but it's people that screw it up um and that's of course the the case with AI um that can be used for for bad so I I don't know but it just and I don't know I don't have any like

[00:27:50] evidence to like back that up but it's just like made me curious that there were these text messages and he kind of just kept ignoring them he seems to have a genuine love for Lenore and

[00:28:03] he called her and um you know his wife when they were in his office my two favorite two favorite ladies you know so he seems to have a genuine affection if you know it's curious I don't know

[00:28:14] if it was just that he's having this conversation with Dupin that kind of you know overrode that um but he just seemed to have a I remember a strange look on his face when he kept getting

[00:28:25] these text messages and just ignoring them yeah I think I didn't even think about that till you mentioned it but now my mind was like reeling with like oh no but then what does this mean

[00:28:33] and could that is yeah the the idea that Lenore is the one doing this AI personality kind of recreation thing and yeah the text messages that he seems to kind of be ignoring and the way that

[00:28:46] she didn't talk to anybody else but him at the funeral it could be a really cool twist that you might have seen coming in advance a little bit I don't know I don't know and I don't know what the

[00:28:56] I mean and I don't know why or the purpose if it if that is the case um I I don't know um but just got me thinking uh I like all that Madeline is very interesting

[00:29:11] you know we you definitely called it last uh last week when we covered episode one about uh she's definitely a driving force probably a big driving force behind where they are today

[00:29:27] uh not letting anything stand in their way and I knew she was I mean you could definitely tell she was smart but she's not just smart she seems like a certified genius you know with with what

[00:29:37] she knows and again is that natural or did she get get that way through maybe some ill ill-gotten gains or something like that I don't know but I was like wow you're not just like intelligent

[00:29:47] and business intelligent you're like genius level to um be where she's at in um the times that you know there was not the technology like we have today um so it's it's she's an interesting character for sure and there's just certainly something about her and Roderick's interactions

[00:30:10] too I don't know I know they're close and maybe it's a twin thing so I don't know I don't know where I was going with that um my next point I wanted to talk about the use of color um

[00:30:28] in the mask of the red death pose story you know it's about this you know lavish ball it's a masquerade ball uh and the attendees the people that go to this ball are trying to

[00:30:46] seek refuge from this plague right and there are in in this tale there are rooms that are decorated that are decorated by colors um blue purple green orange white violet and black

[00:31:02] and they symbolize different stages of life and I am wondering if that is going to be a theme in this series as well because I think they start in this episode with the color red

[00:31:20] mm-hmm um in the episode Perry is often seen wearing red and he's being illuminated a lot by red light and there's symbolism behind the color red Perry himself he's has a bold nature he's passionate uh but then also very lusty

[00:31:51] we get a clear picture of that for like first thing you know um with him in bed with um you know was it just the two girls in his bed or it was like a whole five or six okay yeah yeah

[00:32:05] there was like a yeah a whole bed full of people so he's clearly very lusty uh red you know kind of represents that as well uh red can also signify fire and blood which I think ties into the whole

[00:32:21] ending with the sprinklers uh and then with uh Verna and her red cape um the lighting with her and Perry talking in that red room you get that red illumination as well and I feel like we keep

[00:32:40] seeing it over and over and over and over in this episode so I think red plays a color in the episode obviously but I think also is going to or not just red but color schemes are going to play a

[00:32:54] part in the series I wonder because if as much as what we saw red we got a little bit of um oh shoot is it is it Camille the um PR yeah the daughter okay I didn't have her name written

[00:33:11] down and I blanked for a minute um she is like she has white hair a lot of what she wears is has white in it and her office is very white and stark um so there was a real contrast there so I

[00:33:29] yeah just I I think color is going to play a part I don't know if it what else it will mean but I just think I'm seeing a theme just in these two episodes so I and I love that I love that I love

[00:33:41] that it kind of ties into um Edgar Allen Poe's story of you know symbolizing um the colors in the story but also playing a part in this series as well so I hope I hope I get to see that yeah

[00:33:59] what is your next note or point uh I'm going to talk about the mask of the red death uh yeah you mentioned it a little bit there that last scene and a lot of that uh of course those who

[00:34:13] are familiar with Poe very familiar would maybe see this coming a little bit just with Perry with his name Prospero uh so I found this really cool kind of breakdown of the story

[00:34:27] that I can read just so it's just like so somebody gets a real idea of what it is but the mask of the red death is a story set in an unnamed country during the time of a deadly plague known as the

[00:34:36] red death like you mentioned which causes its victims to suffer from sharp pains dizziness profuse bleeding before succumbing to death the disease is described as being highly contagious and fatal with no known cure prince Prospero the protagonist of the story is a wealthy and eccentric

[00:34:54] nobleman who takes refuge in his opulent abbey with a thousand of his closest friends and associates seals himself and his guests inside the abbey believing that they can escape the red death by isolating themselves from the outside world within the abbey Prospero organizes a masquerade ball

[00:35:08] a lavish and decadent celebration featuring different rooms representing various colors and themes like you said and the party goers indulge in pleasures and distractions seemingly oblivious to the suffering and death occurring outside their fortified walls however as the

[00:35:21] revelers enjoy themselves a mysterious figure dressed in a blood-stained and grotesque costume appears the figure is described as having the appearance of a victim of the red death this uninvited guest moves through the different rooms causing fear and unease among the guests

[00:35:35] Prospero outraged by the intrusion pursues the figure with a dagger only to find that the figure disappears before him the presence of the red death seems to defy Prospero's attempts to control and isolate himself from it eventually the figure reaches the final room which is shrouded in black

[00:35:49] and decorated with a large ebony clock the figure's appearance terrifies the guests and Prospero himself falls on the floor and dies the revelers realizing that this figure is the embodiment of the red death also succumb to the disease and perish so good story it's yeah it's

[00:36:07] it's it's a really good one i've always liked it and so yeah they i should have seen it coming more even in this episode it's like because it was still at the end i'm like what and then it's

[00:36:19] like no that no that makes sense of course this is always going to end this way uh you know as you're watching throughout the uh throughout the episodes like i'm gonna build this big party and

[00:36:27] all these people and you're like uh because the universe that this is i guess it doesn't exist but oh if you if you read poe you would know this is a bad idea yeah um but yeah because he's got this

[00:36:40] big uh wild orgy death party i call it uh everything sounds good right up until the end there yeah yeah the death part take that out everything else sounded great not as fun uh

[00:36:54] yeah where he invites morella his brother's wife also to this party just to get back to him just to get back at freddy for being a dick to him earlier um i've got a question about that but

[00:37:05] i'll get to that uh yeah i just want to talk about the end a little bit it was just as that story was there uh verna is is the red death this intrusive guest that the story talks about

[00:37:18] of course she's not as grotesque honestly she's the exact opposite um carly pardon me for my uh honesty but i'm gonna say damn carla could you know looking hot in this episode holy crap

[00:37:31] i can't argue with that she looks freaking amazing absolutely hot yeah yes uh but yeah uh the party is crashed by verna and really the only people that see her or track her at all except for like

[00:37:50] the bouncer and the staff and stuff that she gets them to leave later on but really the only people that see her or pay any mind to her are perry and morella um and has this you know conversation with

[00:38:03] perry in one of the bedrooms with her usual cryptic conversation that's super ominous everything that she says feels like it could be layered with all kinds of foreboding warnings uh you know telling him about consequences with the line i like you know you are consequence perry

[00:38:18] and tonight you are consequential uh of course he doesn't have any idea what she's talking about i'm just like the first episode i'm still very very intrigued about this character

[00:38:32] character of verna uh who is she what what is she yeah yeah uh yeah so she kind of leaves perry with this really ominous message and i like the way you know because he like leans in for the kiss

[00:38:46] and closes his eyes and when it's not there he opens his eyes and she's like changed like the you know little shroud and the hood and the mask and stuff are back on her as she's walking out the

[00:38:56] room but uh it goes back to the party which rima i know you are definitely soaked for the nine inch nails uh yeah as soon as that song starts playing i was like well i know we're both rocking out um

[00:39:08] hell yeah i've got to get i don't know if anyone has a side note and i don't mean to interrupt but gotta see if there's like a playlist of uh because i love there's a lot of good music in that party

[00:39:20] yeah yeah or even just like this whole episode there's a lot of great music because even in the scene with camille and her uh assistance as weird as that scene was i'm sure we'll talk about that

[00:39:32] there's some borns playing in her apartment or her house there and i was like ah so good yeah great music nine inch nails wicked game i mean really really great use of music in this episode

[00:39:43] yeah uh-huh but yeah then let's we'll talk about it the sprinkler scene uh that ends it's just it's so fucked up and like you mentioned earlier not really something that flanagan does too much she doesn't really do too much over the top like gore it's very

[00:40:03] psychological and supernatural but this was just brilliantly gruesome and horrific and disturbing uh and the way that it's shown you know this pure bliss of prospero that quickly changes to screams and panic that it doesn't take long with lights popping and flashing and the music going off and

[00:40:25] it doesn't take long to end with the entire mass of bodies of party guests is just this melted pile of goo on the floor with the last people alive just whimpering and gasping i'm just like god

[00:40:38] damn that was rough the noises even it wasn't just the visual it was um the audio as well yeah i mean this took me back to season four of stranger things with the squelching so much squelching

[00:40:57] oh my god it's squelching again so icky vecna is that you know it's perry um man and then verna appearing again and the kiss of death that's that's really all i could say about

[00:41:19] that last little thing it's like man and then the title card at the end is just so freaking cool i love it i hope they do that every episode just like the gong follow the house of usher because

[00:41:29] it's it's a good punch right there at the end was a really good punch yeah yeah i did have one question because i mentioned you know the only other person that tracked verna was morella did

[00:41:39] she get out before the sprinklers went off even after two watches i'm not actually 100 sure because like she sees that something weird is going on she hears the voice of verna telling

[00:41:50] her get out but then we don't see her leave so i don't know i i don't know either i i don't recall seeing her and i don't know if she was if she got out before everything was locked so

[00:42:05] i don't know or if she could have followed the the bartenders and staff out that one door yeah i don't know wouldn't that be something if um i mean it was never mentioned but

[00:42:20] yeah i feel there's still definitely gonna be some major fallout from this whole thing i mean obviously perry shows that there's a lot of very wealthy and famous and influential people who are

[00:42:32] at this thing that it's that's it's gonna be a huge deal you can't just kind of i would say you push it under the rug but you saw how those bodies were all melted the floor you more got to scrape it

[00:42:44] under the rug uh yeah and how do they how would they even trace the people that were there um yeah because those invitations were accounts and yeah i was just trying to think of like how

[00:43:08] they sent the invitations and how private it was how exclusive it was and then being able to identify the people um there at the party um i want to know who that one person was that they pointed

[00:43:25] that he pointed to on the monitor yeah you look real closely there and they're like oh my god what is that you know i'm like who who is it you know i mean i'm sure completely irrelevant like to

[00:43:36] the story uh the core story but i'm like well who who who was it who was this person that we couldn't even like say a name or who they were or supposed to be clearly i guess someone very powerful or

[00:43:48] influential or something who's somebody that can show up at a thing not related to them and people lose their ever living minds oh taylor swift yeah yeah perry perry in this party and it wasn't even

[00:44:04] about the party uh you know i mean i i think he he thought that this was going to give him maybe some clout with the family that he could actually pull this off and do something with it

[00:44:17] but it was mostly about all all this blackmail because he had all these cameras uh i have thoughts about that yeah so i it's uh i and i'm i'm not necessarily sad for i mean i think this

[00:44:37] this show and this is what mike flanagan really excels at and that's character development because i i'm you know i've gotten the feeling just the the very little that we've been exposed to

[00:44:49] the usher family and the children especially like all of them seem pretty terrible in some form uh but in this episode you know yeah perry was awful he was you know had this whole idea of

[00:45:05] like blackmailing and videoing people without consent or knowledge and you know and especially like his his brother with with uh morale being there so clearly not a good person either but

[00:45:20] they did i think a good job of like getting you to feel sympathy for him because yeah i've i felt there were moments that i felt bad for him and you know he's just like the the little baby brother

[00:45:32] he's the little boy that is overlooked why are you here we had everything set and then you showed up and he can't get anything done right you know everybody thinks he's a complete moron after watching this episode maybe they're onto something i don't know i've got thoughts but

[00:45:48] but yeah he just seems to be like the black sheep of the family in the way that like they only claim him because they have to right well and with that scene with napoleon it was

[00:46:01] like he was giving him all this praise and being like you know once you realize i'm paraphrasing because i don't remember the exact quote but he's like once you realize like your

[00:46:09] full potential there's not going to be anything or anyone that can stop you and then you're going to be you know at your best and i'm like if if if only this had went in a little bit of a different

[00:46:21] way right like i feel like you know because he did seem really smart he seemed ambitious but just definitely went down like the the wrong path um to you know to try and get the recognition

[00:46:34] to get the respect and um the attention the good attention of his father of his family to kind of again change the status quo like i mentioned earlier changing his world um so it's it's

[00:46:50] i wish we had gotten a little bit more time with him to kind of get to know his character a little bit because here he is he's already dead in the second episode and i don't know if we'll

[00:46:58] if it if the storyline's going to continue moving from this point after his death and and or if we'll see him in flashbacks and get to see him more but i i do like that they did a good job of like yeah

[00:47:10] he's a he's a pretty rotten character and he's going to do and plans to do anyway some really rotten things however you still managed to find sympathy for him um in a situation

[00:47:23] i liked also did you pick up on any foreshadowing in the opening episode or opening scene with him lying in bed with the bodies all around him and then that's how it that's how it ends uh with him

[00:47:40] surrounded by all of these like bodies like half naked bodies anyway and that's how it kind of panned panned out too i thought that was kind of cool um i hope i wonder if they'll do that with others or

[00:47:54] if that was just this episode but anyway yeah i i am curious to see where they go forward i mean we know again all of the the usher children die in different ways and so yeah honestly it kind of

[00:48:09] excites me to watch further episodes and be like okay where do we they're going to plant those little seeds and then we're going to see how it all happens one after the other it's like

[00:48:17] dark as that is to say like i'm excited to see how that all plays out it's fiction so i feel yeah yeah i give myself an us a pass because it's all fiction and just being entertained yeah

[00:48:36] uh well my is my turn we've got got just talking about stuff okay uh well i wanted to just kind of mention this one's kind of a short one but i've but i'm curious if it's going to play more into

[00:48:51] the rest of the series but the mention of the the comic the wizard of id uh and the particular one that roderick uh points out about the golden rule um so i feel kind of ancient talking about

[00:49:08] the wizard of id because i do remember that comics and remember reading it and i thought it was good uh but the golden rule that is mentioned from the wizard of id um means that uh in in whatever

[00:49:24] situation the one uh the one or ones could be more people right or authority that has the more financial leverage has the power to exert authority over others and um we hear prospero start to say that kind of repeating the that golden rule um but do you

[00:49:51] notice that as he's saying it he gets cut off midway and it cuts to roderick because prospero probably in his circle he's the most powerful out of his friends he probably has

[00:50:07] more more money more influence just because of who he is and being an usher but as he's repeating the golden rule uh it cuts him off and it cuts to roderick because roderick uh has more money

[00:50:23] than prospero he has more influence he's also the father so he's like the rulemaker but then when roderick is he's talking about the golden rule and he's reflecting back uh when he

[00:50:37] um first saw that comic he gets cut off and it goes back to then his boss in that flashback rufus griswold who possessed the gold um yeah and of course roderick and madeline somehow

[00:50:59] hopefully we'll find out eventually takes it away from griswold but i liked how they were kind of flashing um and referring to that about you know the one uh the golden rule the one who has

[00:51:13] you know the gold makes the rules whoever has the gold makes the rules yeah which it's never actually finished nobody gets to say the full thing right so like you said it keeps getting

[00:51:23] cut off the only way that you actually get to know for sure that there are rules is how that ends is they show the like comic that's cut out and like framed on the wall as he mentioned

[00:51:31] you can read it there but yeah but anytime prospero or roderick tries to say it they do get cut off yeah i i liked that it it felt meaningful you know kind of again reflecting that no no no it's

[00:51:46] not you there's still someone above you that's making the rules or that has the gold and um and oh no no no before you it was this person right you know so it i like how it kept kind of

[00:51:57] cutting off and i don't know if um if we'll see it again i don't know if it'll get mentioned again but it just it stood out to me um so i just wanted to kind of make a a point about it um and if if

[00:52:09] if that's if it doesn't carry on if it's not mentioned again or isn't kind of play into the theme or anything in the rest of the series um i still thought it was pretty cool at least in this

[00:52:21] episode how they used it because i i think that the direction and the editing and everything about the series so far has been really great so stood out to me and i just wanted to mention it

[00:52:32] yeah sure what's your next point all right honestly my last main point all right uh is i i referenced it a little bit was like i've got thoughts about that um it's just before the the big masquerade party is our that beautiful idiot perry

[00:52:54] uh man it just yes a lot of the things that we see with him uh party boy perry right as we see him waking up after like this big orgy basically at his place got a very art deco modern uh

[00:53:07] apartment or house there with his friends crushing pills with a butt plug you know as you do one does uh and then he gets like threateningly scary with one of them farage over some gull eggs which were

[00:53:24] just there the whole time but yeah it was one of those things where you really see that like he is a little like they play it off like he was joking like he's just got like that kind of

[00:53:33] personality where's oh you know they say oh you almost got me but but really you have to wonder is like what he would he really have done something if his eggs were gone like he seems

[00:53:45] a little unstable uh i mean i don't know called him crazy yeah you know maybe he was and just see his his lock screen on his phone was just a nipple so okay then um

[00:54:04] this strange individual uh but yeah a lot of it's just like i said that beautiful idiot because throughout the whole episode anytime it's you know freddie or camille or victorine or tammy

[00:54:18] whenever perry comes up they're just like oh well he's too stupid oh he's an idiot you know and you're like man they're really hard on their like kid brother until you see a lot of the things

[00:54:27] that he does in this episode you're like no maybe they're onto something he's not very bright like he's he's creative he's got like his he's got this aspirational and ambitious mind he knows how to put things and plans together and bring people together and make things happen

[00:54:45] but as far as thinking about the consequences again the consequential that verna comes up with thinking about the consequences consequences of his actions or how they affect other people or even the words coming out of his mouth and how they can be used against him or for

[00:55:03] something else he just doesn't think about it he's very selfish and short-sighted and we see that a lot um he's shadowing his oldest brother freddie at the fortunato business they're facing litigation over these abandoned buildings that they own which have been storing

[00:55:21] all kinds of like toxic chemicals metals etc and that's negatively affecting the environments and stuff around these locations which is a little foreshadowing there of course you know one site had such a highly acidic concentration that and it just like gets cut off you're like dude yeah

[00:55:38] you were in the meeting yeah you were there you were in the meeting they said it was housing chemicals and yet you're still gonna be like oh it's just water spray it to go check those tanks

[00:55:47] to think that maybe that's where they're hiding and storing the chemicals before they can dump them or whatever come on it was it was right there dude yeah uh and he's big and he's aspirational

[00:56:00] but it's not really with in in hand with the family business he's like i want to party i want to get people high i want to make people happy but i want to make people give me money he's not

[00:56:10] thinking you know he's he's terrible at like the corporate evil part of the family business uh you know as these lawyers are breaking down what's going on he's like oh that sucks about the environmental tragedies but damn these buildings are dope for my lavish parties maybe

[00:56:24] like just out in the open like he's just like if we own them wink wink nudge nudge then i can throw some real ragers here you know like terrible for the family business absolutely like someone

[00:56:35] stuck a sock in his mouth make him shut oh my god yeah which then i laughed so hard when freddy called him gucci calligula that was so hilarious damn if that's not the most accurate and hilarious

[00:56:48] thing imaginable you know man i was like that's good so good i'm gonna have to use that like make that a username or something for something i gotta keep that around i gotta keep that in my

[00:57:02] back pocket that's too good it is too good it's probably already out there since this is air it's already out there we're we're we're daylight here yeah yeah uh which also just frederick constantly saying mole instead of informant is funny uh he still just can't get it straight

[00:57:21] yeah so that's just i feel about perry like i said he's he's a creative and aspirational personality but he's just a stone cold moron when it comes to common sense yeah uh yeah he's

[00:57:33] it's you know yeah no themes except it's got to be a masquerade like he just like he just his brain just goes wherever and everything just follows because he's he's a leader in the fact

[00:57:44] that he has that kind of money and influence and people are probably scared to not go along with him even his closest friends so it's just like anything he says we're gonna we're gonna do um

[00:57:54] and then of course when he needs lots of drugs for this big party uh so maybe the one sibling that doesn't just absolutely hate him is napoleon is leo uh which i love their little interaction

[00:58:05] you know like who do you think i am to get all this stuff you know uh i'm offended and appalled of course i have it of course i can do it i love ralcoli i swear so good uh and the little netflix

[00:58:20] and the little netflix in joke there that's funny it's just like you know move that kind of weight what have you been you've been watching narcos or something because you should if you have it

[00:58:28] it's brilliant um nice little shout out yeah yeah another netflix show but yeah but it's just the tanks on the roof of this building that he was explicitly told is housing dangerous

[00:58:43] chemicals and he's just like yeah i'll assume it's water and we'll make it rain wet ass party but i guess wop can also stand for like what a putz it's just not thinking which goes again you said like this other side hustle of this party is you

[00:59:01] know fill the guest list with all these elites and celebrities and high profile individuals and then use this hidden camera footage of them to blackmail them for their deviant behavior i'm like

[00:59:11] okay that's a great plan for one time uh yeah and then you'll never throw another party again because people are going to avoid you for extortion you know uh but it's like he gets this idea where

[00:59:24] he's like oh i'll just do it for other people because he was going to do it anyway by inviting morella there because he's mad at his brother for being an asshole so that's why he's doing this

[00:59:32] he's very just impulsive as well i say he is he was r.i.p perry um yeah yeah yeah so we see a lot of the characters like you so they make you feel sympathetic for him

[00:59:45] in some degrees but then also yeah he's just not a good he was not a good person and no and we see just like he's all over the place he had had no care for who or what got hurt in

[01:00:02] his way as long as he could accomplish whatever insane things he wanted to do next yeah but still terrible way to go yeah definitely um i only you said that was your last point i only have

[01:00:24] just some notes and like easter eggs so um i'll just mention the ones we haven't already talked about um we we got to see in the conversation between dupin and roderick uh the looks like

[01:00:43] the ghost of perry after his accident post-accident is roaming this childhood home the same as roderick's mom yeah but we finally learn what's up with roderick like oh he something's going on

[01:01:00] with him he's sick there's something happening and we find out what it is he's got some sort of i'm not even gonna try to pronounce or give the full name of what that was but it's some sort of like

[01:01:09] vascular dementia um and he says it can cause hallucinations among other uh side effects or other things from this disease do you think that he's seeing these ghosts as a as a symptom of

[01:01:26] this um disease that he has or do you think that the ghosts are real because depend did not react to like perry full-on just walk straight in between them and nice little jump scare there

[01:01:41] in front of roderick um he's not he didn't react um so i'm curious what everyone's thoughts are about about that is he a figment of his imagination or does depend just not see him i don't know

[01:01:57] yeah i don't know i mean because i feel like there's some reality to it as far as whatever verna and this deal and everything that's happening like he's going to be haunted by

[01:02:09] you know he's very set on like this is all his fault you know we see how perry dies and then roderick is still saying like you know i killed him you know you say he's he's meaning like by

[01:02:19] his actions by you know whatever bargain he may have made or whatever but you know because we see it it happened because of perry's stupidity but it's like but it has something to do with

[01:02:32] verna and it's like i know it's because of to still be determined or told what happened what was made that you know the the time to pay the piper has come and so this is what he's paying

[01:02:43] with is with the lives of his children yeah yeah yeah he's definitely kind of being haunted by these ghosts of his past and i'm guessing feeling very guilty about that um and because yeah he does keep

[01:03:02] repeating like his children are dead because it's his fault and he's like well i killed him and it's like a little bit of the telltale heart going on which i'm sure will probably come out

[01:03:16] sometime i can't remember now all the titles of the episodes but being something from poe i'm sure will play a part in some of this but that's what it kind of reminds me of some of that guilt

[01:03:26] um and so learning about his now he has this prognosis um he only has some years left and this is why we keep seeing this experiment from his other daughter victorine's this heart mesh

[01:03:45] thing that she's trying to do he thinks it's going to help him in some way i don't know that i understand exactly what he's trying to achieve or how exactly that this is going to help him i

[01:03:56] don't think i've i don't think it makes sense in my brain but he explained it a little bit yeah that it's it's like a smart heart is what it was like almost like a robotic or you know like there's

[01:04:08] this ai is an algorithm thing i guess also to it that it's supposed to be able to read read his heart and brain connection and like know what he needs at any given time to like help the health or

[01:04:20] whatever that's just kind of what i read into it it's very that yeah it's very broad and vague yeah i thought because we see victorine and alessandra working on it uh the heart mesh

[01:04:32] which is like well they're her uh little nest egg thing or whatever her you know way to contribute to the family fits the main family business very well it's medical but we see roger like pushing her

[01:04:45] and rushing her to get it done and go to human trials and get it to market as fast as possible and it's nowhere near ready for that i'm like he's like why is he rushing it so much and then

[01:04:55] when he reveals to dupin that that's really the only way he's going to survive is if this thing gets done so it's for him that he's pushing her to get it done but yeah it's this smart heart

[01:05:06] a fake heart and you just mentioned telltale heart so uh i can see those two connecting maybe uh because we've got to get victorine's death in an episode somehow um so is it going

[01:05:20] to come along with that also does her death have something to do with this nightshade that they're using in that trial that keeps getting brought up as well i don't know yeah everything's related and everything has a purpose it's intentional somewhere somehow yeah i don't know that that

[01:05:39] that makes more sense i was like i'm not quite clear on it and maybe we don't need to really understand or whatever but yeah that's definitely why he's pushing and it was interesting because

[01:05:47] when we get the flashback with uh him in the office with griswold it sounds like their their main focus at least in that day when griswold was running the company was medical

[01:05:58] devices because he talks about uh that medical device and like well you know this is this is what we lean into because this is what we're good at and there's like less risk and you know um

[01:06:10] that's that's what they were focused on where roger's like yeah but you know think of the volume of that medical device and the people that need it versus like this pain med right

[01:06:20] so it's like oh so that you know is it kind of also stems into what fortunato was in in the beginning were medical devices um not just like pharmaceutical yeah so that was interesting

[01:06:35] um i have a couple of easter eggs but only a few there might be more but and we might have already well i think they were already mentioned so you mentioned when roderick was reciting uh annabelle lee to his wife annabelle but again seems to be more

[01:06:54] something he wrote not yeah poe in this world and did you catch uh we we heard the name of the lab known as roderick usher experiment or room org is what they referenced it or nicknamed it um yeah i

[01:07:13] thought that was funny so i didn't i didn't have any others um from this episode uh there might be others maybe you have some or maybe our listeners will have some the last one i had

[01:07:27] isn't really an easter egg but it's a quote and you mentioned part of it i loved that quote from verna at the party when she's talking to perry and she says there are always consequences take

[01:07:37] you for instance someone a long time ago made a little decision then another then a big one then one of absolutely no importance and then by and by you were born on that day you were

[01:07:49] the consequence of a harmless choice made by someone in a moment where you didn't even exist and that choice defined your whole life you are consequence perry and tonight you are consequential

[01:08:01] so was all of that she referring to roderick talking about you know i just made a little decision than another than a big one then one of absolutely no importance um talking about roderick in some way um again i think tying into this whole relationship who is

[01:08:20] verna what happened when verna met madeline and roderick what what is all of this about and yeah and she tries to get him to stop like she gives him an opportunity like to to stop the party and

[01:08:37] and not go through with it so i i don't quite have it all figured out because i feel like i don't know who verna is i don't know why and he was given the choice and and then she lets out or

[01:08:51] she warns like the bartenders and the staff but because perry made his choice and that there was a consequence to that it was like i don't know i'm trying to just piece it all together like

[01:09:06] the the people at the party wanted to be there but the staff did not they were told to be there to work so they got to leave and even morel i was curious why because she was invited and chose to

[01:09:21] be there but is it because she was kind of unsure about being there was it because like she's like i don't know that i want to be here i'm kind of uncomfortable being here i don't know if i should

[01:09:29] be here because i was like why did she warn morel to get out i don't know if she got out but she did warn her to leave yeah oh no i don't know so much mystery just kind of a lot i say playing

[01:09:42] around in my head just trying to make it make sense i don't know but i don't know if i got someone dressed like um carla gugino did in this episode um in this you know trippy party telling

[01:09:52] me to get the hell out or run i think i'm gonna run i'm gonna go i think i'm gonna listen um oh one more easter egg i did there was um the movie hush there was a mask used in that movie

[01:10:08] there was a mask in this episode at the party that looked very very similar to that i don't know if that was on purpose i picked up on that but i think it was one of the notice though one of perry's um

[01:10:20] they had this throuple you know going on i think it was one of them that had this mask that looked very much like the mask in that was used in hush that's cool nice little that makes sense

[01:10:31] planiverse easter egg i love that movie it's so it was so so good um that was all that i had all the notes and easter eggs and and things what what do you have i've got a little list of just

[01:10:46] random notes and thoughts of course i will say because we maybe i haven't looked at the feedback so maybe you included this i don't know but uh mofavo over this like week reached out to us about

[01:10:57] episode one with the uh ouija board in the eliza flashback at the usher house when the madeline and roger were kids and like i did notice it but we i don't know why we completely forgot to talk about

[01:11:09] it because it we talked about it in boston we did just like a little bit in person but not on the podcast i totally yeah i wasn't even thinking it was like yeah that was weird is like hyper

[01:11:20] religious kind of character that eliza was why would that have been in that house i think it's just like a call back to weijia origin of evil origin of evil that mike flanagan directed as well uh but yeah let's see just other

[01:11:38] random thoughts again uh we don't get a lot of pym the pym reaper in this episode mark mark hamill but i really i'm still really enjoying his character we really only see him in that

[01:11:49] scene at the office with the the lawyers and stuff yeah but just he's got that very disregard any and all words from the idiot child vibe you know just every time perry says anything he's just

[01:12:01] like clearly he doesn't know what he's talking about no he doesn't mean that no he's like ignore him he's an idiot uh but yeah he's the family attorney i mentioned last week that he's

[01:12:13] just he's keeping everyone afloat and alive i swear you know is he's like coaching word for word the things we get that you know it's funny because freddie's like if you don't know what to say

[01:12:23] here's what you say and then you see pam standing in the background also like reciting it word for word like making sure like you've got this to a script here we at fortunato take our responsibility

[01:12:33] to the environment very seriously and we are aligned with you in our mutual goal of compliance with any and all regulatory guidelines yes uh yeah talked about the heart mesh other just like little goofy things i do love that there's a good bit of

[01:12:51] humor sprinkled in in places uh like tammy's husband bill t or built uh the cheesy workout video guy and that camille is so like oh this is stupid and then later we see camille in her own

[01:13:04] home just like punching and jabbing and doing you know like to win the video watching built like yeah uh-huh which yeah camille the media queen uh looking for ways to disprove the people

[01:13:17] that are speaking up against the family in the trial uh while also trying to dig in on this possible informant if they exist and we see a little bit of this dynamic between her and

[01:13:27] her assistants which is just so weird there's very weird this is a horny episode there's a lot of a lot of sex and kink going on uh we get get some real insight into these you know characters and

[01:13:44] i'm very curious i'll say that yeah because yeah because toby and tina her assistants you know as she says the office oh you will be needed this evening and like what do you need

[01:13:53] and they show up and it's uh of course well camille's an usher so obviously it's a power dynamic sex thing uh because that that's that's what makes sense uh because there's even more uh

[01:14:07] weird stuff with that with uh tammy so we get to like the little scene where she hires a woman to dress up like her and be her stand-in for dinner and romantic evening and

[01:14:20] eventually sex with her husband all while she's watching and it's like i'm sure somewhere in the world it exists this isn't the first time this has ever happened but at least me personally it's the first case of a female in a straight relationship being cuckolded i think i've

[01:14:35] ever seen it's not yeah cuckolding herself was i was like i've not seen that before yeah so that was interesting yeah yeah it was really interesting uh then let's see if i had

[01:14:51] anything else i mentioned the nightshade yeah so the last thing is just a kind of little joke uh because we get lenore and freddie working on the ships and i can't see a ship in a bottle

[01:15:00] without thinking of chris pratt from parks and rec andy dwyer in the episode where he's in bradley whitford's character's office and he's got the ships in the bottle everywhere and you just see like uh you know bradley whitford's character is talking to to leslie

[01:15:15] nope and then you see andy i got it i got it out and he's been in there and he pulls a boat out of the bottle completely intact and it's like that's not how did you even so yeah

[01:15:28] good show good show but yeah so anytime i see a ship in a bottle i just think of andy from parks and rec i got it out i did it as one does but yeah that's all i got good stuff

[01:15:45] yeah i think that's a good place to wrap i again a lot of mystery still a lot of questions i'm sure we'll get more it's only only second episode so but yeah really great i i really

[01:15:57] enjoyed this one for sure excited for the next one all right well that takes us into our listener feedback we got some really great feedback this week so um do you want to kick off the first one

[01:16:11] there for me all right first one from alma contrarios says first off the cast is amazing it's always cool to see flanagan's regulars but now he added mark hamill who is awesome as the

[01:16:22] family lawyer and i just love bruce greenwood and mary mcdonald who are killing their characters the storyline with the drug trials is eerily reminiscent of oxycontin crazy and okay onto perry oof what a death so was the masked chick the devil and did the sister-in-law get out can't

[01:16:38] wait to hear the cast good questions um we don't know yeah i can't really give you an answer because we're asking the same questions ourselves same questions i mean i don't know she i don't know

[01:16:50] that she's well i mean we we asked last episode like oh is she like a devil but in the in the story um it was death right so is she is she death i i i don't know and we may not know

[01:17:06] lindsey schlicht says unfortunately i can't say i loved this one it's making me nervous for the rest of the series the thing i love most about mike flanagan is how beautifully he does horror

[01:17:17] with heart how one minute he's scaring the crap out of me and the next i'm crying about some tragic love story it's hard to imagine we're going to get that this season i feel like i'm watching

[01:17:27] american horror story the kardashians do dallas or something terrible family and their sexcapades and nothing else i did enjoy one moment of horror with perry but otherwise was left underwhelmed and disappointed i hope i'm totally wrong and we will still somehow get some heart in there somewhere

[01:17:46] i valid valid valid for sure it was a depart this episode was a departure um and yeah this so far what i've seen it's not hill house so which is where we got the horror with heart for sure

[01:18:06] all right well we have the next one from donna elizabeth which kind of two parts for each episode because first she says i just watched episode one didn't think you'd mind if i commented on it known

[01:18:14] at all always do always thank you says i know nothing about this show except for the title i enjoyed the first episode and i'm looking forward to watching episode two the best thing for me

[01:18:23] is the cast i'm so happy to see actors from flanagan's other work plus a few others with a cast and creator like the ones this show has it's going to be awesome and then after episode

[01:18:32] two she says well i didn't see that coming the father said he killed the kids curious to see what comes next thank you don marine favo says i think i'm team verna final scene at the party

[01:18:48] perfection a couple of observations dupin boss asked him okay then say you win if you could catch them all take all of it all the greed the foulness the rot in the world and sit down across from it

[01:19:02] what would you say is that what conversation uh with usher is or will there be another conversation will conversation be what depend is aiming for loved wizard of id comic growing up about perry's orgy pitch to morella having never been pitched on debauchery party is that how it's

[01:19:20] done those words on front steps of your mansion but leave it to mike flanagan to make it work not sure i want to find out what led to tamerlane's issues uh is damn it toby wearing a kilt why because kilts are awesome

[01:19:37] but yeah i do love the damn it damn it toby toby damn uh and this last uh facebook one here comes from mary patricia dorigo says gruesome death but well deserved wasn't sad when it happened but did jump scare me in the old house living room

[01:19:59] scene i wonder if the bartenders and servers at the orgy were the same as the ones in the bar on new year's eve 1979 i'd have to go back and check on that that's a really good thought

[01:20:11] yeah i don't know i did not go back we did get an email uh this week from our good friend daphne and pics other co-host she says hi reema and peg loved this episode and i'm fully invested

[01:20:27] in this series already it's just the right amount of gore and creep factor i'm sad we will see no more perry as i enjoyed his ideas of debauchery given prospero's earlier appearance to roderick

[01:20:38] i had a feeling that once the entity told morella to leave that something sinister was going to rain from the ceiling makes me think that the acid or whatever was in those tanks was a failsafe put

[01:20:48] there to disintegrate anything that needed to disappear again i adore that flanagan reuses actors as we get to see so many of our favorite from previous series pop up here and the music

[01:20:58] was sublime the tie-in to the mask of the red death is pretty incredible as it includes the masquerade party and the red death itself has been described as profuse bleeding from pores which connects really well to death by disintegration even the robe and mask worn by

[01:21:14] the entity matches the story i'm sure there are more but these are the ones that stand out to me can't wait to hear your thoughts daphne awesome awesome as always thank you so much daphne

[01:21:30] first voicemail we have is from our good friend laura let's see what she had to say greetings reman pake hooray strange indeed is back in our ear holes i'm so glad you guys are back

[01:21:45] it's the perfect time of year to get back into the podcast it's the perfect time of year for spooky mike flanagan stories and it is the perfect time of year for edgar allen poe my

[01:21:59] muse my hero i have a long long history with edgar allen poe um when i was a little kid i was never the one to ask my parents for bedtime stories or fairy tales i asked to be told ghost stories

[01:22:13] so my dad would recite to me many edgar allen poe stories that he happened to just have in his memory banks and i fell in love with edgar allen poe from probably the time i was six years old so

[01:22:29] so so excited for this new mike flanagan series the fall of the house of usher um i think it's going to be it looks like from the first episode i'm not um onto the second episode yet but it

[01:22:42] looks like from the first episode that this is a uh more of a mike flanagan story wrapped up in the loose framework of the fall of the house of usher with many many of other poes other

[01:22:56] poe works sprinkled in so i'm i'm looking forward to that because i i'm familiar with and love so many of his short stories and his poetry um some of the things i like the family the usher family

[01:23:10] wow they remind me so much of the family from knives out in fact i got some heavy knives out vibes in some of these scenes especially in that old um huge mansion with

[01:23:21] them all together they're they're just so petty and ruthless to each other they reminded me a lot of the characters from knives out but i am really happy to see all of our old mike flanagan favorites

[01:23:35] uh favorite actors back again and it doesn't matter who they're playing those actors are always great um some of the things i don't really love right now but i'm sure uh as the series progresses it

[01:23:48] might not be such an issue for me is i i don't care for some of the modern references i mean poe was such a master of gothic romance and gothic horror that i just like i really want to see

[01:24:01] this set in those gothic scenes like the beginning where dupin and usher are talking in the old dilapidated uh family home of his which is just like the story but um all the references to social

[01:24:15] media and media they they're they kind of date a show for me because if you watch this in another five or six years it's like are those media references going to kind of date a show it i

[01:24:28] think uh haunting of hill house kind of did it better where it was set in a modern day setting but it didn't have so many uh very to date media references but you know not a big deal i'll

[01:24:43] probably get over that i really also would have liked to have seen august dupin who is a big character in about three of edgar allen poe's short stories um i would have liked to see him as

[01:24:56] an investigator instead of a da because um edgar allen poe is known to have been the godfather of the modern day detective story and inspired um sir co sir arthur conan doyle and agatha christie

[01:25:13] to write um murder mysteries and create the character of sherlock holmes so kind of sad that he's not a detective or investigator of some sort um also i was glad to see that pake noticed the

[01:25:29] substance on um roderick's fingers when he was in the bar on new year's eve uh considering the apparition we'll say that roderick sees in the limo at the end of the episode i think i have a

[01:25:43] seek sneaking suspicion being familiar with one of edgar allen poe's most famous short stories what he and his sister might have been up to on that auspicious new year's evening so we'll just

[01:25:59] have to see how that uh turns out i'm really excited to go further watch the rest of the series and see what you guys think welcome back strange indeed and i'll catch you on the flip side love

[01:26:16] that thank you laura yeah my twisted sister um good stuff of course random tangent but i thought about it because she mentioned like perfect spooky time of the year for all this stuff

[01:26:29] and there's just a little tie-in i'm just a shout out to black craft cult because uh while we were up in massachusetts we me and i you know a small little group of us took a trip up to

[01:26:38] salem and went into the black craft store and i bought myself a new hoodie there and i was just gonna give a shout out there because i showed him because it is a like edgar allen poe hoodie with

[01:26:48] a big raven on the back says nevermore and it's so cool i love it a lot i think like four of us bought the same hoodie like we now have a group that's like magic it's gorgeous it's absolutely

[01:26:58] gorgeous i i love it so much yeah it absolute perfection um yeah i a lot of good points laura i and i totally yeah you make a really good point too about the like the modern day references

[01:27:16] social media being one um yeah i it i get what you're saying it doesn't take me out of it but i totally get what you're saying and yeah they did i think a really good job with that in hillhouse

[01:27:26] too um but hopefully um you know there there isn't a whole lot of that as the series continues and i also am also curious um because i have a little sneaky suspicion as well what she was

[01:27:39] talking about with episode one with the what was on roderick's hands in the bar scene love it i knew i knew we were gonna hear from laura because she i knew um she is so into poe

[01:27:56] um and i'm really glad to hear from her keep writing in or leaving us some voicemails laura we have two voicemails from our friend steve um for i've got the first one for episode one

[01:28:11] and then another for episode two so let's get into those hello strange indeed this is steve uh just finished watching the first episode of follow the house of usher and uh wow i'm uh it's

[01:28:24] gonna be interesting uh that mark hamill character um seems to be a real good fixer lawyer whatever um can't wait to see how the rest of this series kind of develops uh i loved listening to your

[01:28:37] coverage of it uh i did listen to it listen to you guys first and then uh decided to watch the episode so um i may try to do a live steve of episode two tonight uh this is wednesday that

[01:28:49] i'm sending this and i'm leaving tomorrow uh to meet up with y'all the other zeds uh on our annual reunion so um yeah fall of the house washer it's it's got me hooked i'm gonna be interested to see

[01:29:03] where it goes from here talk to you later all right thank you steve and let's get into his thoughts on episode two hello strange indeed this is steve and this is going to be for episode two

[01:29:21] of the fall of the house of usher uh the mask of the red death right okay so this is dupain dupain anyway the prosecutor guy and back in 1979 and he was a fraud investigator

[01:29:33] your son prosper wasn't just crazy he was like he missed all of these uh this orgy wow that he's waking up from now apparently somebody else's pills and this is quite a house did he just drink

[01:29:44] those eggs raw ew what's the significance of frederick keep messing up mole and informant paris dealer oh oh you i can like you watch freaking narcos or something which you should watch narcos because it's brilliant i've never seen narcos by the way is that the ghost of

[01:30:01] his mom walking around back there behind what's that uh the lawyer guy what's his name okay that was i didn't jump but that was shocking i guess whatever that thing is is new yeah the wizard of

[01:30:12] ed i remember the wizard of ed communications logistics office no it's a mail room wow young madeline is talking ai from 1979 interesting here you go juno bond with your granddaughter over a blowjob story i have no comment on this dinner party here i can't remember the woman

[01:30:30] that she's the usher right and her husband and she just likes to watch her husband uh with other women oh frederick's wife is actually going to go to this thing okay so the club is all about the

[01:30:43] blackmail who's this blonde woman with prospero is that carla gugino oh you better go frederick's wife she told you to go you should go yeah i figured it some kind of acid or something in

[01:30:54] those tanks up there on the roof that you connected the sprinklers to oh ugly okay and that's where it ends oh okay the end of the first episode we had roger bleeding from the nose

[01:31:07] that was but that was weeks that was a couple weeks before the events that are happening now where he's giving his confession to uh uh dupan right i i don't know all right episode three

[01:31:17] next week or whenever see you tomorrow or friday and we did yeah we hung out i remember him talking to me uh in the kitchen at the airbnb where he was like i sent you the voicemails with

[01:31:33] this and this and this was like yeah we'll get to them uh we had a fun time hanging out glad we're back to this and thanks everybody i do want to say for being patient with us while we did like

[01:31:43] miss a week releasing an episode right when we started a new show but with all the travel and everything you know we got to get together and have our fun so we really appreciate it and thank

[01:31:53] you guys for being patient and waiting that week and still coming through and giving us all this great feedback and stuff this week and continuing on the ride with us yeah we have the best listeners

[01:32:03] and yeah it was um amazing to get to spend time with everyone so we do appreciate everyone's patience while um you know we we got through our travel and doing our annual reunion as steve would

[01:32:16] say um with everyone and all the folks that could make it i'm already um ready to start planning for next year where are we gonna go next year so i've i think you're in the group you know where i

[01:32:28] where my vote is i've got an idea of a place i've been talking i think i threw my vote in for the same so if we want to stick with kind of a a spooky yeah vibe a little bit it's a good one i absolutely

[01:32:40] agree i would not be mad about it at all so we'll see we'll see if um if we outvoted or not um but anyway we're we are we're back on our regular schedule at least for the moment i've

[01:32:54] i'll talk to you about it later i do have some travel coming up in like two weeks that's gonna fall right around our recording time so of course and and it is not um you know uh z related or

[01:33:06] reunion related but i will be out of town so we'll we'll talk about that later but yeah for the moment we are back to our regular weekly recording schedule for um all those that are wondering

[01:33:16] so next week we will be covering um episode three of the fall of the house of usher titled murder in the room org um excited for that one i can't wait to see um see it after we wrap this

[01:33:31] tonight i'm yeah hoping i can um get that in and after i get done editing but i'm excited it'll be a fun one i'm excited to watch but yeah so thanks again for all the feedback if you want

[01:33:43] to leave us messages voicemails all of that stuff facebook through uh our email all that you can find all the links all the stuff you need at podcastica.com and while you're there be sure

[01:33:56] to check out our other shows there's a lot going on right now on podcastica.com um jason and lucy just wrapped up the daryl dixon finale um the ted lasso rewatch with ben and kristin

[01:34:10] penny's doing a buffy rewatch uh right now um wheel of time wrapped up i think a few weeks ago yeah loki is running right now i think it's alex sydney and kirk doing that one and i'm really

[01:34:27] enjoying season two of loki especially this last week's episode awesome well and if you need a little something light after all this dark stuff especially after like this episode you can definitely check out our coverage on strange indeed here we're covering great british bake off

[01:34:43] if you need something a little bit lighter cleanse the palate you know after watching something like that we're having fun there um you know just covering something a little light we love bake off here at strange indeed um so yeah check out podcastica.com and all the great

[01:34:59] shows including run for your lives pake with you and daphne you guys you're wrapping up your season right is that where you're at yeah we're kind of closing out the season then we'll be gone for

[01:35:10] about a month take our little break we'll still be getting stuff together for the next season a lot of good movies but yeah this final season has been fun as far as uh art final season

[01:35:19] this final bit of this season let me make sure people don't think oh no they're going away no we'll be back soon um but yeah so we did pet cemetery nice both the original the 80s original

[01:35:31] and the 2019 remake we did our tremors episode we did tremors 7 shrieker island wrapping up that series right now as well uh this weekend will be our uh season seasonal look back special where

[01:35:45] we go back and kind of pick our favorite monsters and creature characters and movies and all this for that last season and then we'll have a halloween special coming up next week as well

[01:35:55] sticking with the pet cemetery themes pet cemetery bloodlines is out and it is a prequel and so we'll be covering that for halloween and releasing that on halloween so that tuesday should

[01:36:05] be looking for your feed for its special episode there of bloodlines nice go check them out right so yeah so just make again make sure to go to podcastica.com you can find all the podcasts

[01:36:19] that are going on there you can subscribe leave reviews all of those things that help all of us at podcastica get ourselves out to more listeners to where you can share in the love with these

[01:36:30] podcasts with more and more people we get more people to come hang out with us when we go do those things too yeah yeah please and thank you in advance yeah so for now that is our show thanks

[01:36:43] everybody for listening uh until next time i'm reema and i'm babe and julie gary is strange indeed