For those who haven't seen episode 6, Tamerlane Usher begins to lose swathes of time, presumably from sleep exhaustion. Is she falling asleep or simply spacing out? The narrative doesn't wholly clarify that aspect, but we do know that it's messing with her perception ... and so is Verna, who taunts Tam with visions of a stalker and visions of a woman stealing her husband away. There's nothing wrong with a character suffering from a tenuous grip on reality, but Tam's mental faculties disappear faster than 5G coverage in the boonies. She's so completely lost that she doesn't even question why the microphone stand she threw at her "stalker" soars through the woman — who was never even there — and collides with Juno Usher (Ruth Codd). And that's weird, right?
Episode 6 takes a decidedly pointed turn toward the supernatural, but the only person who clocks that shift is Madeline Usher. Tam just glosses over the fact that her potential assailant doesn't even have corporeal form, as if she hadn't spent the last five episodes acting stable. Crass, vicious, and controlling, but stable. In comparison, her sibling's deaths feel more grounded in their own failures. Perry (Sauriyan Sapkota) ignored routine safety checks, Leo (Rahul Kohli) abused drugs and alcohol, Camille (Kate Siegel) entered dangerous restricted areas for a scoop, and Victorine (T'Nia Miller) broke health regulations to fabricate a false medical miracle. But Tam? With feet full of glass, she stabs the mirror over her bed without a single thought behind her eyes. Either she's a lot less intelligent than we assumed, or Verna did more behind-the-scenes tinkering than we know.
All episodes of "The Fall of the House of Usher" are now available to stream on Netflix.
