Table Of Content
The Fall of the House of Usher tells the tale of the unnamed narrator who receives a letter from his childhood friend, Roderick Usher, inviting him to visit the Usher family mansion. Roderick explains in the letter that he is suffering from a mysterious illness and is in desperate need of his friend’s support. The new series from Mike Flanagan introduces us to siblings Madeline and Roderick Usher (Mary McDonnell and Bruce Greenwood), who created an empire with medical company Fortunato Pharmaceuticals. However, as we learn in the series finale, "The Raven," that empire came at a steep price. This death comes as a major twist; throughout the conversation between Roderick and Dupin, he notes that he's not answering texts he's receiving from his granddaughter.
Everyone Verna made a deal with in 'The Fall of the House of Usher,' including Donald Trump
Furthermore, she opened a nonprofit in her daughter’s name, who saved her, which ended up saving countless lives. In the end, the Usher money goes into repairing the damages the family left on the world during their stay. Although the drug was massively addictive and led to thousands of deaths, Fortunato continued to defend its usage and marketing as a non-addictive pill. By the end, Juno was on a heavy dosage of the drug and presented as the star witness of Ligodone’s non-problematic existence.
Verna’s deals
The next two siblings, Leo and Vic, are driven to their deaths by strange circumstances revolving around their lives. Although these two siblings commit suicide, the details surrounding their deaths remain inexplicable. Moreover, the woman appears to be around every sibling before their deaths. By now, Roderick’s CADASIL disorder has started to affect his life through hallucinations of his dead kids. The mysterious woman from Roderick and Madeline Usher’s past is Verna. She’s a shape-shifting demon/Angel of Death/immortal being that Roderick and Madeline meet in the year 1980 at a bar on New Year’s Eve.
Why Does Roderick Try To Kill Madeline?
Is Verna Really Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven? Carla Gugino Explains Her House Of Usher Character - Screen Rant
Is Verna Really Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven? Carla Gugino Explains Her House Of Usher Character.
Posted: Sun, 15 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
In Poe's most famous poem The Raven, this bird symbolises mourning over the loss of love. That tracks here, too, as Verna's role is intrinsically tied to death and the grief it brings. Verna often describes humanity as separate from her and even alludes to being around before people existed.
At the very end of the last episode, Verna visits the Usher family gravesite and leaves a memento on top of each of the Usher's gravestones. Turns out, there was highly acidic liquid (that Fortunato was supposed to dispose of, but didn't) in the water silo on top of the building, and when the sprinklers turned on, acid sprayed on all the revelers, killing almost everyone. Before leaving the party, Verna places her mask over Prospero’s face, and that is how his body is found. She meets Prospero Usher, Roderick's youngest son, at an exclusive and hedonistic party he's throwing at one of his dad's old factories. In this interaction, she's a blonde wearing a skeleton mask. When Prospero asks who Verna is, she says, "Consequence, and tonight is consequential." She then flirtatiously tries to convince Prospero not to set off the ceiling sprinkler system that are supposed to be the climactic moment of his rave.
One of his most clever references is the character Verna, played by Carla Gugino. Verna is the most enigmatic character in "Usher," and her true nature is never spelled out for viewers. Netflix's "The Fall of the House of Usher" is a spooky must-watch just in time for Halloween. But the beauty of the show is that, just like creator Mike Flanagan's other projects for the streamer, it works on multiple levels. Madeline, without children of her own, didn't have to think much. And while Roderick should have thought of it more, he didn't.
With Verna on their side, the Ushers rose to run Fortunato Pharmaceuticals where they developed the drug Ligodone that has infiltrated the world to such a degree, it’s reminiscent of today’s opioid crisis. All of Roderick’s children, including the illegitimate ones, have enjoyed a life of luxury and no responsibility—a gilded life, you could argue—and the company has seen no legal repercussions, just as Verna promised. Because of that, it was crucial to portray Verna as a neutral character. “Verna is offering each of these people the most honest conversation they will ever have in their lives. She doesn’t really care if they’re good, they’re bad, they’re this, they’re that,” she said. In order to intently engage with her character with no attachment, Gugino reflected on her past experiences working with Brazilian shamans.
The Trump family
Yet, after Verna’s return to Roderick’s life, the man realizes his own folly. Although his disorder, CADASIL, creates hallucinations, when he sees his kids’ dead bodies haunting him, it is due to Verna’s supernatural interference. He believes the Usher name has come to an end now, and he must submit to Verna’s desires. Every mistake he has ever made haunts him, and he blames himself for his children’s deaths since they died for his ambition and greed.
After Madeline and Roderick killed Rufus Griswold on New Year’s Eve in 1979, Verna spoke to the twins outside time and space. She told them that she can guarantee that they will get immense power and wealth without getting punished for their crimes. Furthermore, all the Usher deaths seem to be accidental, which makes it hard for Roderick to believe that someone can have a hand in them. When Roderick and Madeline are shown evidence of Verna meeting all of Roderick’s children before their deaths, the siblings are reminded of the night they met Verna.
As Roderick, his twin sister Madeline (Mary McDonnell), and their lawyer-slash-fixer Arthur Pym (Mark Hamill) investigate who she might be, they find her undoctored image throughout history. 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. Though this isn't fully revealed until the final episode, Roderick Usher and his sister Madeline struck a deal with Verna at a bar—on New Year's Eve, no less—before he had any children.
Verna enjoys watching humans selfishly gorge on their ambitions while actively putting the rest of humanity at harm. She seems to crave the knowledge of how far a person’s hubris is willing to take them. As a result, she has worked with numerous names throughout history and watched them destroy the world and its residents for their own benefit.
Compelling arguments can be made for her being various famous mythological figures, an amalgamation of them all, or something new entirely. But while it’s fun to guess at Verna’s real identity, not knowing makes her far more interesting and terrifying in the best tradition of Edgar Allan Poe. Philip Winthrop (Mark Damon) travels to the House of Usher, a desolate mansion surrounded by a murky swamp, to see his fiancĂ©e Madeline Usher (Myrna Fahey). Roderick foresees the family evils being propagated into future generations with a marriage to Madeline and vehemently discourages the union.
While Madeline tried to skirt the system by having Roderick overdose on his own Fortunato meds, Verna wasn't letting that happen. And so Roderick invited Madeline over to their childhood home, where their mother once died (and rose again, only to strangle a man to death before finally dying herself), to share a drink. The final episode finally reveals what Roderick and Madeline did—and were running from—all those years ago, and how they first got involved with Verna in the first place. Described as the executor of fate, she returns to Roderick and Madeline decades after their initial meeting to massacre the heirs of the Usher fortune at the height of Fortunato's power. As the thunder persists outside, the Usher house collapses, with Dupin escaping in the knick of time.
