House of Usher on Netflix: Who Really Is Verna? The end of the horror series explained

Attention! This article contains major spoilers for The Fall of the House of Usher Episode 8. If you haven’t seen it yet and don’t want to know what it’s all about, read no further.

Mike Flanagan’s Netflix series, The House of Usher Has Fallen, has a very good cast. A standout from this gallery of heroes is Verna, played by Carla Gugino as a demonic character who destroys the members of the Usher family one by one.

Carla Gugino has appeared in several Mike Flanagan productions, both in television and film, most notably in his film Jessie on Netflix in 2017, and in television series such as The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor and Midnight Sermons. Although he usually plays heroes or tragic figures in Flanagan’s projects, casting The Fall of the House of Usher casts him in an entirely new type of role.

While The Fall of the House of Usher is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s story of the same name, the characters are also taken from several of the author’s other works or are original creations for the series. Verna, Gugino’s character, falls into both categories: she has connections to Poe’s famous story, and is an original character.

Appearing in both the present and the past, the supernatural Verna often takes on different forms, names, and personalities when confronting members of the Usher family, making her character shrouded in mystery.

A shape-shifting demon

Verna is a shape-shifting demon, not a ghost like many of Flanagan’s antagonists. As a demon, he has some supernatural abilities that allow him to transform into new identities, take on terrifying faces to scare Asher and show him what he wants.

Verna is not taken directly from Edgar Allan Poe’s work, but is an anagram of Poe’s most famous narrative poem.Ყoran“(“Ყav” in French). Of course, Verna also turns into a raven several times in “The Fall of the House of Usher”. In Flanagan’s story, Verna’s goal is a violent coup against the corrupt pharmaceutical empire of Roderick (Bruce Greenwood) and Madeline Usher (Mary McDonnell).

After making a deal with Roderick and Madeline in 1979, Verna keeps the deal in 2023 by punishing the heirs of the Usher dynasty for the twins’ misdeeds in their family empire and their greed. After Asher explains to the heirs the mistakes they’ve made (or, in one case, regrets her fate), Verna leads each of them to their untimely deaths.

Verna explained the deal between young Roderick and Madeline

While it’s clear that Verna is a disturbing figure from Roderick and Madeline’s past, the truth about their connection isn’t fully revealed until New Years 1979 in the series finale.

After killing Gris (Michael Trucco) and locking him alive behind a wall in Fortunato’s basement, Roderick and Madeline head to what they think is a nearby bar, only to later discover that no such bar – or a bartender named Verna – ever existed. There, the twins spend the night talking to Verna to establish their alibi, while the bartender offers them a deal that will solve their biggest problems.

Verna asks young Roderick (Zach Gilford) and Madeline (Willa Fitzgerald) what they would do to make everything they’ve always wanted come true. He explains to them that he can make Roderick or Madeline CEO of Fortunato, that they will face no legal consequences for the rest of their lives, that they will never be punished for their crimes, and that they will receive unprecedented wealth as “King and Queen of Fortunato”. “.

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The twins may have it all, but it comes at a price: it’s the next generations that will pay the price for this bargain, the entire Asher line must die before Roderick himself dies.

The deal comes with several other pitfalls. Madeline and Roderick must die at the same time. Roderick will live longer than any other Usher man in history, but Madeline and all of their bloodline will fall with him. Verna explains that all of Usher’s descendants will be privileged and blessed with wealth and lack of consequence, but they will all be cursed for their short lives. Without hesitation, Roderick agrees and condemns his children and grandson to brutal deaths in the name of power, status and greed.