So, who really is the informant in Netflix’s latest Mike Flanagan horror series, The Fall of the House of Usher? Naturally, spoilers to follow.
The Fall of the House of Usher easily establishes itself as one of the best TV series of 2023 and certainly ranks as the best Netflix series of the year too. As we outline in our The Fall of the House of Usher review, the return to the Flanaverse uses inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe to craft a stylish story about revenge, greed, and betrayal, and it’s delightful.
Speaking of betrayal, one core plot point in the story explores the Usher family turning against itself sparked by the revelation that an informant (not a mole) has been leaking their dirty secrets to the government. But, the truth is, The Fall of the House of Usher informant isn’t who you think, and there’s a catch.
Who is the informant in The Fall of the House of Usher
Shockingly, the truth is that there is no informant within the Usher family, and the informant is instead a fabrication created by Auguste Dupin.
Dupin recognized that he’d have to play dirty to beat the Ushers. So, in order to strengthen his case against the Usher family and bring them down for their decades of crime and corruption, Dupin made up that an informant within the Usher family was giving him crucial details and information about their wrongdoings.
He stated that he needed to protect the identity of the informant for fear that they would be persecuted by the rest of the family, but the truth was that he couldn’t reveal the identity because the informant didn’t exist. Either way, it added more credence to his argument and applied pressure on the Usher family who began to fight among themselves as they attempted to track down the traitor.
This was spurred on by Roderick Usher himself, who promised a reward of $50 million to whoever could find out the identity of this informant. That paranoia and suspicion left the family more susceptible and vulnerable to the attacks from Verna, eventually leading to the downfall of the family. So, Dupin’s lie did help to defeat the Ushers, just not in the way that he’d expected.
If you still want more from Flanagan’s latest series, see our guide to the Usher family tree and The Fall of the House of Usher’s true story. Or, check out the status of Wednesday season 2 before learning what else is new on Netflix. If that’s not enough, see our picks for the best horror series to keep you going through Halloween.