The echo of the common yet pivotal assertion "This world needs changing" reverberates throughout the second episode of "The Fall of the House of Usher," binding the contrasting worlds of Aguste Dupin and Roderick Usher. Both men, an attorney and a pharmaceutical tycoon respectively, perceive the requisite transformation of the world through disparate lenses. Dupin yearns to dismantle malevolent white supremacists like Usher, while Usher is bent on eradicating pain via his addictively potent new drug, Ligodone.
“The Masque of the Red Death” is an episode that enshrouds itself with elements of death and the demise of an empire, simultaneously exploring the early years and incremental ascent of Roderick and Madeline (Mary McDonnell) in the pharmaceutical domain. However, the pivotal focus of the episode pivots around Prospero, aptly named in homage to a character in an Edgar Allan Poe narrative.
Young Prospero, wearied by the ceaseless ridicule from his family, ardently desires a seismic shift in the existing order. His aspiration of pioneering an elite nightclub, dismissed by his father, propels him towards organizing a secretively extravagant party in one of Fortunato's dilapidated labs, notorious for its environmental damage. It is during this endeavor he encounters Verna (Carla Gugino), a perplexing woman, previously seen by his parents during their youth.
Verna, who morphs from mysterious to ominously clear for Prospero, fails to dissuade him from his path, despite sharing tales of party consequences. His secret agenda, blackmailing the affluent and influential with their unbridled debauchery, unfolds at a masked, drug-induced soiree. Unfortunately, his grand plan of a sensational rain inside the lab unveils a fatal error, as the unleashed “water” is, in reality, a lethal acid rain, killing all, including himself, instantaneously.
The haunting aftermath has Prospero's disfigured spirit wandering, a perhaps illusory specter seen by Roderick. His possible hallucinations, potentially induced by his vascular dementia, create an eerie aura, juxtaposed by Dupin’s stark nonchalance towards any supernatural occurrences in the Usher abode. Roderick's keen interest in his daughter Victorine’s heart mesh technology arises from its potential to diagnose and decelerate his debilitating illness.
However, Victorine is entwined in her own complications, with her sister Camille, suspecting her of liaising with federal agencies and consequently, scrutinizing her research through her subordinates, with whom she maintains intimate relationships. Parallelly, Madeline seeks to forge an artificial intelligence through her great-niece, Lenore, aspiring to synthesize an entity capable of emulating human consciousness, thereby offering a semblance of immortality.
The episode, oscillating between the present and the past, provides glimpses into the 1970s, when a young Roderick Usher endeavors to champion his new drug, Ligodone, to Fortunato Pharmaceuticals. Hailed as a non-addictive opioid, it promises to alleviate pain for a wide demographic, from children to chronic pain sufferers. Despite an initially tepid response from Griswold, the pharmaceutical magnate of the time, Roderick and Madeline, the latter having freshly resigned from a disparagingly sexist workplace, vow to escalate Ligodone to prominence, even if it necessitates crushing adversaries like Griswold in their path.
Madeline's foresight proves accurate, yet as Prospero learned ominously before his death, unbridled revelry begets unavoidable repercussions. For the House of Usher, the consequences of their monumental, world-altering celebration are on the precipice of becoming increasingly, darkly significant.
