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

Table Of Content

• Who Does Carla Gugino Play in The Fall of the House of Usher?
• How often does Redfin update their new listings?
• Who Is Verna? 'The Fall Of The House Of Usher' Character And Ending, Explained
• What Does the Raven Symbolize in Edgar Allan Poe’s Poem?
• 'The Fall of the House of Usher' Episode 8 Recap: Finale Reveals What Roderick and Madeline Did In 1979 - Netflix Tudum

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. Verna first appears as a brunette bartender whom Roderick and Madeline meet on New Year's Eve in 1980. But she keeps popping up in each of the Usher family's lives throughout the series. In the end, Roderick brings Madeline to their childhood house’s basement, which he has filled with their priceless collection of items, preparing the perfect tomb for his twin. Roderick recognizes the genius within Madeline and wants to give her a queen’s death.

Who Does Carla Gugino Play in The Fall of the House of Usher?

Built in 1841 as a simple three-room adobe, this home base of the pioneering Workman family was updated during the 1870s. According to historians, the renovated house is “believed to have been designed by early Los Angeles architect Ezra Kysor... This 1895, Queen Anne-style house was built in the very trendy Victorian neighborhood of Boyle Heights. Located in the South Bonnie Brae Historic district, this multicolored wonder is on the National Registry of Historic Places. Built in 1894, it perfectly exemplifies the Victorian dictum of “more is more,” and is a combination of Richardson Romanesque, Queen Anne, and Moorish Revival styles.

How often does Redfin update their new listings?

'The Fall of the House of Usher' is Poe-try in motion : Pop Culture Happy Hour - NPR

'The Fall of the House of Usher' is Poe-try in motion : Pop Culture Happy Hour.

Posted: Thu, 12 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

At one point, she tells Roderick Usher, however, that he has one of the top "body counts" of all those she's "worked with." The final episode of the show reveals Verna to be the devil, or at least one of his demonic emissaries. She is the catalyst for the Usher family’s immense fortune, then subsequent downfall. At this point, Roderick and Madeline Usher, along with their private investigator Arthur Pym (Mark Hamil), take note of the mysterious figure at the party and the mysterious security guard, but can’t place her. Verna has no interest in souls—the most common currency of the Devil—and said they aren’t real. She seems to like making offers out of a genuine curiosity to explore human limits.

Who Is Verna? 'The Fall Of The House Of Usher' Character And Ending, Explained

The night Roderick and Madeline murder Rufus Griswold, they go to a bar and meet a woman named Verna. The woman knows everything about them and offers to make a deal with them, and the Usher twins agree to it. Through a long con, Roderick tricked Dupin under Madeline’s instructions and earned the trust of the Fortunato owner, Rufus Griswold. Afterward, the twins led the man to death with the perfect stage set for Roderick’s ascension.

A reaction to fussy Victorian styles, American Foursquare emphasized boxy lines, “honest” carpentry and plain facades. It is considered a cousin to both the Prairie and Craftsman styles of architecture. They are a testament to the wide variety of Victorian architectural styles, from the Far East- and past-obsessed Moorish Revival and Richardson Romanesque to the Arts and Crafts-inspired Foursquare and Eastlake movements.

Verna continues to cross paths with each Usher family member right before their untimely, and gorey, deaths. For example, she works at the animal rescue Napoleon Usher visits to get a black cat, which he ends up chasing off a balcony, falling to his death. She also kills Camille L’Espanaye by transforming from a security guard at her half-sister Victorine's research lab into a murderous chimpanzee.

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

Although no clear answer is given about her identity, we can assume Verna is a celestial being going as far back as civilizations, humanity, and even time. While looking into the informant, Camille suspects Victorine, who is developing a revolutionary medical device for various heart-related issues. When Camille tries to look into the shady details of Vic’s business, she enters her lab, where she is mauled to death by one of Vic’s test chimps. However, before her death, the strange woman from Perry’s party also visits Camille and imparts some cryptic final message. That left only two Ushers—the ones who entered the world together, and had to go out as well. While Madeline tried to skirt the system by having Roderick overdose on his own Fortunato meds, Verna wasn't letting that happen.

The Fall of the House of Usher Finale Explains Verna’s Dark Connection to the Family

Here, Griswold realized that Madeline wasn't just seducing him—she was drugging him too. He passed out, waking up tied to a chair in a secret tiny room behind a brick wall being built. It's through this framework—Roderick telling stories to Dupin—that we learn just about everything that has happened to the present point. We learn about the violent and untimely deaths of each of Roderick's children—whether from Annabel Lee (Katie Parker) or "bastards"—and how in every case, it was their own failings that led to their demise. However, Poe’s raven has no physical control over the speaker and his fate.

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

Verna's actions, and her various monologues to the Ushers immediately before they each die, also underscore that she's only targeting people in accordance with what she "must" do. She introduces herself to Roderick's youngest son, Prospero, at his masquerade party/orgy as "consequence." As the thunder persists outside, the Usher house collapses, with Dupin escaping in the knick of time. The siblings meet their end buried under the same house where they had their beginning together. When Roderick invites Dupin to his childhood house, he offers the attorney a way to bring the Ushers in with 73 charges and one admission of murder. Since he has spent his entire life running away from his actions’ repercussions, the sudden need to repent seems odd.

Even though Roderick does it all under Madeline’s influence, his eagerness to succeed becomes clear when he jumps at Verna’s offer in 1979, even though he’s the only one to lose something since he already has two kids at the time. Nevertheless, he gives their lives away like it is nothing for a chance of success. As illegitimate heirs to the Fortunato company, with a mother who killed the previous owner in her near-death psychosis, the twins were only ridiculed workers in the company. However, after an opportunity for something bigger knocked on their door in the form of a young Auguste Dupin, looking to sue Fortunato for their illegal practices, the Ushers took advantage of the situation. Mike Flanagan’s Netflix horror–drama show ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ delves into several motifs and themes of Edgar Allen Poe’s works through the lens of an elite, wealthy family.

But the beauty of the show is that, just like creator Mike Flanagan's other projects for the streamer, it works on multiple levels. 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.

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 the deal she makes with Madeline and Roderick in the early hours of January 1, 1980, she clearly lays out the terms, and they accept them. And Verna, to her credit, expresses deep remorse that she must kill Lenore, the only innocent member of the Usher family, and grants the teenager a painless death. In cast quotes provided by Netflix, Gugino described Verna as "the executor of fate or the executor of karma." Importantly, Verna isn't an indiscriminate killer or monster who attacks people just for the fun of it.

However, the twins went to a bar to build an alibi on the night of Griswold’s death. There, they met Verna, with whom they drank well past the ball drop until the bar ran empty. In the after-hours, Verna, garnering the twins’ hungering ambitions, offers them a proposal. The twins can have unending power and luxury without any legal repercussions for their actions. In return, they would only need to barter away their future generations. On November 20, 2023, Roderick Usher, head of one of the most influential families in America, invited Attorney Dupin, the man leading the trial against his family and pharma company, Fortunato, to his weathered old childhood home.