The Pale Blue Eye Ending Explained- Who Was The Killer, Falling Disease, And All The Poe References

Based on Louis Bayard’s book of the same name, The Pale Blue Eye is a twisty gothic thriller befitting the classic author it prominently features. Like The Cask Of Amontillado, it is a tale of deception and revenge. With a third-act twist that is as heartbreaking as it is shocking, the new Netflix addition is a chilly tale ideal for a cold winter’s night. With a stuffed cast including Christain Bale(Augustus Landon, Harry Melling(Edgar Allen Poe, Lucy Boyton(Lea), Gillian Anderson(Mrs. Marquis), and Toby Jones(Dr. Marquis), The Pale Blue Eye is a well-acted, gorgeous period piece sure to delight mystery fans and classic literature lovers.

Augustus Landon is called in to investigate when a grisly crime is uncovered at Westpoint Military Academy. His reputation as a shrewd mind prompts the heads of the school to reach beyond their ranks before more bodies pile up. Landon befriends another cadet Edgar Allen Poe, and the two uncover family secrets and desperate truths. Along the way, the two forge a relationship that is threatened as the conclusion reveals a betrayal that can’t ever be forgiven.

Although Christain Bale’s Augustus Landor is the investigator and seeming lead protagonist of The Pale Blue Eye, the star is unequivocally Harry Melling’s Edgar Allen Poe, whose brand of morose cheekiness blends all the melancholy brilliance of the complex man. Here’s everything you need to know about Edgar Allen Poe, who was the killer, and why they did it in The Pale Blue Eye.

Cadet Fry was found dead with his heart cut out in the dead of night. A cadet saw what he thought was an officer near where Fry was found, and another thought he heard someone crying that night. Unfortunately, that is all the information Landor has to go on. He enlists the help of quirky cadet Edgar Allen Poe who quickly begins gathering evidence and proving his intellect. When animals are found mutilated, and then later another body is found, the two must rely on each other to clear Poe’s name and figure out who the real killer is.

While all of this is happening, Edgar begins spending time with Dr. Marquis’ daughter Lea who he falls in love with despite her being involved with Cadet Ballinger and being very ill. The more time he spends with her, the more he falls in love. Cadet Ballinger becomes jealous of their relationship and attacks Poe, who Landor saves. Unfortunately, this encounter, coupled with Poe declaring he would kill Ballinger, makes Poe the lead suspect. When a third cadet goes missing, the school is thrown into chaos. Just when things look the bleakest, Poe discovers that Lea and Artemus took Fry’s heart to try and bargain with the Devil for Lea’s life.

He tells her he would do anything for her, and she asks him to give up his heart. Landor meanwhile finds the officer’s coat that the cadet saw on the night of the murder and a picture of Henry Le Clerc hanging in the Marquis’ study. Le Clerc was a witch hunter accused of witchcraft and devil worship. He wrote the book Landor’s friend Pepe told him about earlier in the film. The book detailed how to communicate with the Devil and perform a ritual using a magical circle that might save her life. Artemus and Lea found the book and tried to perform this ritual. She had been given just months to live and was desperate to survive. When she used Fry’s heart, she improved for a time but was deteriorating again. This is why she asked Edgar to be her sacrifice.

Landor found Poe, Artemus, Lea, and their mother as they were performing the ritual just before they killed Poe and saved him. Unfortunately, Artemus and Lea were killed in a massive fire when one of the candles got knocked over during the scuffle. At this point, everything seemed to have been solved, and the film would end, however. There was one last twist in store. Dr. Marquis resigned from the school, and Mrs. Marquis was left to her own devices, having lost both of her children. Everyone blamed Artemus and Lea for the deaths of the cadets. Everyone except Cadet Poe.

The ending of The Pale Blue Eye

After everything has been solved, Poe returns to Landor’s cottage and confronts him. He tells Landor he knows about his missing daughter. He claims it came to him while he slept. The first night they met, Poe told him he still talks to his late mother. Poe accuses Landor of killing cadets Fry and Ballinger for what they did to Landor’s daughter, Mattie.

Three cadets raped and left her for dead before the film’s events. Landor found her battered, bloodied, and broken. He tried to help her, but she was too traumatized, and she lept from a cliff and killed herself. Landor told everyone she was missing, but she did not run away, and he knew exactly where she was. Her death so destroyed Landor that he vowed to get revenge. He knew cadet Fry was involved because of the pendant Mattie came back with after her rape. However, Fry refused to tell him who else was involved, and Landor killed him, thinking that would be the last of it.

When he was tapped to investigate his own crime, he was provided access to everything he needed to suss out the other two cadets involved. Fry’s diary gave him Cadet Ballinger, and it was common knowledge that Ballinger, Fry, and Stoddard were close. Stoddard took all his things and ran because he knew he would likely be killed next.

The scene at the film’s beginning is Landor returning from the academy after killing Fry and washing his hands, literally and figuratively, of the whole thing. Poe was able to figure all of this out because of the scrap of paper left in Cadet Fry’s hand. He recognized the handwriting from the note that Landor had left for him.

Everything Landor had done in the investigation was to figure out who else was involved in his daughter’s rape and to cover up his crime. When he was called back to investigate, he was surprised to find Fry’s heart had been cut out. Even though Landor had written the note himself, he used Poe’s curiosity to help throw the blame onto someone else. It backfired eventually, though, because Poe was exceedingly clever. After confessing everything to Edgar, Landor goes to the cliff Mattie jumped from and commits suicide. He has no further reason to live with his wife and daughter dead and at least two and possibly all three of the men who hurt his daughter dead.

Who was the killer?

Landor killed both Ballinger and Fry. Stoddard is presumed AWOL, but he may be dead as well. Landor could have killed him and hidden all of his things along with his dead body. Additionally, Landor cut out the heart of Ballinger and mutilated the animals to make it look like all of it was done by the same person. Artemus and Lea never killed anyone. They just used the dead body that fell into their laps. The only thing they were guilty of was mutilating Fry’s body and attempting to sacrifice Edgar, who was a willing participant. An argument could be made that Artemus was a bully and Lea selfish, but they hadn’t become killers yet. They performed several paranormal rituals attempting to appeal to the Devil, which is what the magical circle and candle residue were from in the ice house.

What is falling diseases or sickness?

The disease that Lea suffered from was called falling sickness. It caused her to fall to the ground and seize when she was on a date with Edgar. She was a sickly girl recently diagnosed and given just three months to live. Falling disease, falling sickness, and falling evil were all names for what we now know as epilepsy. Before modern medicine could diagnose and treat epilepsy, it was largely misunderstood. It is less likely that the ritual healed Lea and more likely that she went into a brief period when her epilepsy was inactive.

All the Edgar Allen Poe references what The Pale Blue Eye symbolizes

In addition to one of the main characters being the titillating author, there are several other things ripped from his works or what is known about his life. Poe was a gifted storyteller but a troubled soul. He frequently struggled with depression and addiction, and both are present in the fictionalized version of Poe seen in this movie. He finds Landor drinking at the tavern and has no trouble downing shots with Artemus and his friends because he is well on the way to becoming the alcoholic he is later in life.

From Lenore to the ever-present ravens, there are references to Poe’s works littered throughout The Pale Blue Eye. The title itself references one of Poe’s most famous works, The Tell-Tale Heart. A story of guilt and violence, it is a clue to what happened to the cadets at the military academy. In the story, a man becomes consumed with the idea that he must kill an older man with one milky diseased eye. The killer believes he can hear voices from hell and that he needs to kill the elderly man. After he does so, the killer is driven mad (assuming he wasn’t already) by the dead man’s beating heart. The pale blue eye in the story is a symbol of a lack of inner sight or understanding. Landor is stuck or blinded by grief and can’t see a future without vengeance.

I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees—very gradually—I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.

The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allen Poe

Poe frequently wrote about lost love. In Annabel Lee, the speaker loses his love to jealous angels who kill her when they become envious of their love. It is a poem of unbearable suffering and transcendent love. In Lenore, which many believe to be about his wife Virginia, the speaker talks about meeting his love in paradise again someday. Just like Poe’s love in the film Lea was dying of a disease, the writer lost several women tragically to tuberculosis in real life. Landor was another tragic character who lost both of the women he loved.

Ultimately The Pale Blue Eye is a dreary tale of grief, violence, and revenge. Melling is fantastic, and the fresh take on Poe is fun. You may see the twist coming, but it is an easy watch on a cold weekend. It is currently in theaters and on Netflix.