In The Fall of the House of Usher, the death of every Usher is linked to a woman named Verna, who changed Roderick and Madeline’s lives years ago. Carla Gugino plays Verna.
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.
They forget all about the deal until Roderick’s children die one after the other within the span of two weeks. All their deaths have one thing, or rather one person, in common — Verna, who has returned to claim her price.
The harbinger of death
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.
Mysteriously, Verna has not aged a day since then. Arthur finds pictures of Verna with some of the most important people in the world, and some of these pictures are older than 100 years, but Verna looks the same in every picture.
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. However, it is possible for Verna, who is not a human. She is a supernatural entity who transforms into a raven.
Verna even leaves an address for the siblings, which leads Madeline to their childhood home. Madeline wishes to change the deal that the siblings made with her years ago, but she soon realizes that she cannot have her way this time.
Verna’s deals
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.
The two of them, as well as their children, will have everything that they want, but when they die, their bloodline will die with them. Madeline and Roderick agreed to this deal. As soon as they left the bar where they met Verna, it vanished.
Madeline and Roderick ended up believing that their encounter with Verna was a figment of their imagination, as they were under the influence that night. It is only years later that they realize that all of that really happened.
Roderick’s children are awful people, and Verna enjoys taking their lives. All of them die painful deaths except Roderick’s granddaughter, Lenore, the only good Usher. Verna has to kill her, as it was part of the deal, but she takes no pleasure in her death.
When Arthur is sent to kill Verna, he realizes that she is not a human being, so she cannot be killed. Verna has an offer for him as well. She will ensure that Camille’s file on Arthur is never found in exchange for something that he loves, but Arthur refuses to make a deal with her.
Verna then shows Roderick how many people were killed because of his greed. She asks Roderick to meet Dupin at his childhood home, where Roderick and his sister die together.
When the house crumbles and kills the siblings, Dupin sees Verna standing on the fallen house. However, the very next second, she disappears, and a raven is seen perched in her place. He sees the same raven when he visits Roderick’s grave.
Verna knows the past and the future of every character in the show. She makes offers that no human has the power to make. She decides what would be a fitting death for each character. It is almost like Verna, whose name is an anagram of the word raven, is death.
Also Read: Roderick and Madeline Usher: The Fall of the House of Usher characters explained