In the third episode of “The Fall of the House of Usher” there is a brutal fight between Rahul Kohli and a black cat. The director has now explained what was behind the unpleasant scene via X (formerly Twitter)…
Caution, contains spoilers for episode 3 & 4 of “The Fall of the House of Usher”.
In the Netflix horror series “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Mike Flanagan, things get beastly! This does not only mean the raven, which runs like a thread through the episodes and was probably the absolute distinguishing feature of master Edgar Allan Poe. In episode 3, the chimpanzee is also allowed to cause a bloodbath (and certainly bring back memories of Jordan Peele’s grandiose “Nope” for some viewers).
But that’s not all: In episode 3 we also witness how the restless drug addict Leo (Rahul Kohli) kills Pluto, the cat of his partner Julius (Daniel Jun), in a rather crude way after it had attacked him several times. This storyline then continues in episode 4 (“The Black Cat”). Leo gets a replacement cat from the shelter, but this also proves to be not exactly a lovable velvet paw, but also attacks the Usher offspring with hard bandages.
This finally ends with Leo not only smashing the entire apartment to rubble with Thor’s hammer (!), but finally jumping to his death from the balcony after trying to push the black quadruped off the premises. Thereupon we see how a black cat climbs over the corpse of Leo. Mike Flanagan has now made reference to this via X (formerly Twitter).
DOES MIKE FLANAGAN REALLY HATE CATS?
On the social media platform, the showrunner, screenwriter and director was namely asked about the confrontation between Leo and the cats: “What have cats ever done to you?”, a user wants to know. And Mike Flanagan has an answer ready, in which he once again draws attention to a very crucial detail in the finale of episode 4.
“Okay. So… The Black Cat’ was written by Edgar Allan Poe. In HIS version, a cat is killed. In MY version (SPOILER!), it turns out that killing the cat was just a hallucination. In MY version, the cat is alive and well. Who hates cats? 🙂 “
Okay. So… “The Black Cat” was written by Edgar Allan Poe. In HIS version, a cat is killed. In MY version, the cat is…
(spoilers)
… In MY version, the killing of the cat is revealed to be a hallucination. In MY version, the cat is alive and well. So who hates cats? 🙂 https://t.co/3EyukDXiYB
– Mike Flanagan (@flanaganfilm) October 12, 2023
The user responds to Flanagan by saying, “Wait. When are you going to realize it was a hallucination!!!?! I know the evil cat was a hallucination, but Pluto didn’t die?”. In fact, it quickly becomes clear that the imaginary cat associated with the mysterious woman played by Carla Gugina was not real. But Pluto didn’t die either, as the Gucci collar at the end of episode 4 makes clear:
“That’s why we put so much emphasis on the fact that Pluto wore a Gucci collar, but the new cat did not. Look at the cat in the last shot of Episode 4 wearing that collar.”
So it’s clear that even the first fight with the “real Pluto” didn’t happen. Instead, it seems that the animal simply hid or lived at large for a few days. This has apparently happened several times before, as becomes clear in a dialogue between Leo and Julius. One thing is certain: Mike Flanagan is not a cat hater, but has purposefully chosen not to let any of the cats die – combined with an exciting detail.
All eight episodes of “The Fall of the House of Usher” are available for download on Netflix.
