Who is Verna in The Fall of the House of Usher? Character explained

Table Of Content

• 'The Fall of the House of Usher' Episode 8 Recap: Finale Reveals What Roderick and Madeline Did In 1979 - Netflix Tudum
• What did Roderick and Madeline do on New Year’s Eve, 1979?
• The Fall of the House of Usher: How did Frederick die?
• What does Verna have to do with "The Raven" in The Fall of the House of Usher?
• Do Roderick and Madeline have one last twin chat?

Both of those Netflix originals were directed by Mike Flanagan, who also directed The Fall of the House of Usher. Before her stint as a thriller star, Carla also appeared in Spy Kids, Night at the Museum, Troop Beverly Hills, and This Boy's Life. The Ushers take the deal, and 40 years later, when Roderick is diagnosed with an incurable illness and his death is imminent, Verna comes to collect. "Poe never really believed in God and the devil per se. She's not even evil," Gugino told Netflix's publication Tudum. When pitching the role to Gugino, Flanagan asked her to play a character inspired by Poe's "The Raven." Between that and all the raven imagery it'd be easy enough to assume that Verna is a raven. Flanagan doesn't directly adapt Poe's work here, but he borrows widely from it and puts his own twist on things.

'The Fall of the House of Usher' Episode 8 Recap: Finale Reveals What Roderick and Madeline Did In 1979 - Netflix Tudum

Today it sits flat near the entrance gates of Heritage Square Museum. This American Foursquare house (with Richardson Romanesque influences) was designed by famed architect Frederick L. Roehrig in 1895. One of the oldest surviving Roehrig houses, it was situated on the ultra-fashionable “Millionaire's Row” in Pasadena.

What did Roderick and Madeline do on New Year’s Eve, 1979?

Roderick and Madeline, the Usher twins, build an empire for their family by grasping at every opportunity and luck that comes their way. However, decades into the Ushers and their Fortunato Pharma company’s morally dubious success, tragedy strikes the family when Roderick’s heirs start dropping dead one by one. That night, Verna basically cuts them a deal saying that they can have whatever they desire but at a cost. She tells them that she can make them CEO and COO of Fortunato Pharmaceuticals with no legal consequences attached for their entire lives, but only if they agree to her part of the deal. While Roderick clearly felt lots of remorse for the collateral damage that his successes had caused through the years—Verna explicitly showed him the deaths he was responsible for—Madeline felt absolutely none.

The Fall of the House of Usher: How did Frederick die?

Through the years, the siblings convinced themselves that this simply couldn't have actually been real. They shared a traumatic event at a formative time in life, and had been drinking quite a bit—their meeting with Verna must have been a shared delusion, and for years, they wrote it off as such. Death is there to meet all of us in the end, just as Verna was there at each Usher family member’s end. Death is also neither inherently good nor evil, same as Verna. It takes us from a world that existed before our birth and will continue on after we’re gone. If Verna—who cannot be killed and can be everywhere at any time—is Death, it’s no wonder she finds people so fascinating and knows what lives they could have lived had they chosen a different path.

Carla Gugino, one of Mike Flanagan's frequent collaborators, plays the mysterious Verna

This interdependence causes a chain reaction when one of the elements suffers a breakdown. Madeline’s physical death coincides with the collapse of both Roderick’s sanity and the Ushers’ mansion. Thus, for a long lifetime of absolute control and wealth, Madeline and Roderick only have to agree that the day the twins die, so will their bloodline. For the Ushers, who grew up knowing their blood should’ve gotten them a seat at the table but didn’t, this offer is tempting and impossible to turn down. Even though the pair have secured a bright future in Fortunato, nothing is set in stone.

What does Verna have to do with "The Raven" in The Fall of the House of Usher?

Following a brief conversation, in which Prospero suggests they sleep together, Verna exits the room and disappears into the crowd. Suddenly, the sprinkler system starts up, which the youngest Usher child expects will make the night all the more lively. The night of his blowout rave party, Verna appears, seductively luring him into a bedroom. But as they say, “The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t,” because dealing with the unknown is often far more terrifying. Even knowing they’re an enemy is better than being unsure if they’re a friend.

One by one, all of Roderick's children, and his only granddaughter, die until only Madeline and Roderick are left. In the final episode, the twins are sitting in the basement of their childhood home, drinking and reminiscing about their life together. They wonder if they would've done anything differently if they'd believed Verna was real all this time, and ultimately decide that they wouldn't have. The mysterious woman from Roderick and Madeline Usher’s past is Verna.

BBH's German assets were seized by the U.S. government in 1942 due to the Trading with the Enemy Act, but Bush was not convicted of a crime. Fred Trump was a real-estate developer and businessman whose housing developments were sued for racial discrimination. His son Donald Trump went on to become the 45th president of the United States. While in office, Trump stoked far-right discriminatory views, attempted to overturn the 2020 election, incited an insurrection, and became the first president to be impeached twice. Recently, he was arrested in connection with attempts to overturn Georgia's 2020 presidential election results. Current Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is the longest-serving senator from Kentucky, having started his Senate career in 1985.

"The Fall of the House of Usher" Serves Up Some Poetic Justice - www.autostraddle.com

"The Fall of the House of Usher" Serves Up Some Poetic Justice.

Posted: Wed, 18 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

The show enhances both sides of the coin as it unfolds, tracking Roderick’s past as well as his present. The farther back one looks, Roderick’s ambitions and cutthroat attitude come to light. Ultimately, regardless of her undisclosed title, Verna remains a supernatural force closely related to themes of death and success. Consequently, she has an intrinsic connection with mortality and immortality. Therefore, before she claims Roderick and Madeline, she compels the former to meet with Dupin to disclose every secret to ensure his memory, now immortalized in human consciousness, holds some truth behind it. Fans of Edgar Allen Poe will recognize the visual and thematic reference between The Raven from his eponymous poem and Verna’s character, down to the fact that the latter’s name is an anagram for the former.

Then, she toys with her at the opening of her lifestyle brand. Verna looms large for Tamerlane, She ultimately destroys every mirror she sees; shards of glass fatally pierce her body. Even as the family awakens to Verna's presence, the woman doesn't stop wrecking havoc on the family. She agrees to be the first patient for a human trial for Victorine's cardiac medical device, which definitely isn't ready to hit the market. When Verna sells Napoleon Usher (Rahul Kohli) a black cat, the son snaps a close-up picture of the woman, which brings the siblings a step further to recognizing her. But before they can stop her, she drives Napoleon Usher so crazy that he falls to his death off his balcony chasing down the cat.

With each sibling’s death, Verna’s interference in the matter increases, and she starts showing unnatural colors. As a result, everything changes when the revelation comes that the twins crossed paths with the woman once in 1979. Furthermore, although the twins try to deny it, they realize that the strange woman at every crime scene is Verna, a bartender they met on New Year’s Eve of 1979 when they were running from their actions, looking for an alibi. Ultimately, after the oldest Usher kids, Frederick and Tammy, meet their own demises, Madeline accepts the reality of the situation. Nonetheless, a significant shift occurs when Prospero “Perry” Usher, the youngest of the lot, meets a gruesome end. Perry wants to prove his worth in the family and tries to make millions out of nothing by throwing a hedonistic orgy in an abandoned building.

She knows that they want power and money and would do anything to get it. The price for this guarantee will be “deferred,” she tells them. “At the end of it all, just before you would’ve died anyway,” she tells Roderick, “your bloodline dies with you.” They don’t know whether to take her seriously or not, and so humor her with a few follow-ups.

At the meeting, Roderick dives into his life story, promising to confess his crimes and divulge the truth behind his children’s deaths. For the deal to go through, Roderick and Madeline have to agree to let their bloodline die with them. In the end, Roderick and Madeline accept the terms and live a good life until it’s almost time for them to die. The swiftness with which Roderick agrees to the deal takes even Madeline by surprise.