Summary
- Roderick Usher’s whiskey glass on his tombstone symbolizes his original deal with Verna for wealth and power.
- Madeline Usher’s two sapphires placed on her tombstone represent her association with Egyptian mythology and historical artifacts.
- Verna’s placing of a cat collar on Napoleon Usher’s showcases her dark humor.
The final scenes of The Fall of the House of Usher showed Verna (Carla Gugino) placing an object on each of the graves belonging to all nine Usher members. The mysterious character, who turned out to be a shape-shifting demon with whom Roderick and Madeline had made a deal in 1979, was present in all the episodes of the Mike Flanagan limited series based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story of the same name. Verna, whose name is an anagram for Raven, which is a prominent symbol in Poe’s works, had a deeper understanding of all the characters’ deep desires.
During its eight-episode run, The Fall of the House of Usher limited series focused on building tension and enforcing punishments. The first episode introduces Roderick Usher’s family tree, and the rest of the series gives each Usher child its own episode, before coming to a haunting conclusion with Roderick and Madeline’s deaths in The Fall of the House of Usher‘s ending. The last eerie scene in episode 8, “The Raven,” showed Verna wearing black in the cemetery, placing one object on each character’s tombstone while reciting Edgar Allan Poe’s “Spirits of the Dead” poem.
9 Roderick Usher – Whiskey Glass
Roderick’s Whiskey Glass Calls Back To His Original Deal With Verna
Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood) was the reason for all the deaths in his family. He and his sister Madeline had made a deal with Verna on New Year’s Eve in 1979 to gain wealth and power. It all started with Verna offering him and Madeline a glass of whiskey. He initially wanted to stay in character as Jay Gatsby and refused, but Madeline pushed him to accept it, a dynamic seen throughout the series.
Carla Gugino, who plays Verna in The Fall of the House of Usher, has collaborated with Mike Flanagan five times now.
After sealing the deal, the three drank Henri IV Dudognon Heritage Cognac from the whiskey glass, and he poured himself a few glasses of the same drink on his last night, this time, in a brandy glass. However, Verna placed the same whiskey glass he drank from in 1979 on top of his tombstone, empty. Before Verna left the objects on top of the graves, he received a different gift. The scene before showed Auggie (Carl Lumbly) visiting Roderick Usher’s grave to give him updates on what happened to his company following his death. After that, he placed his tape recorder from their interview on his grave.
8 Madeline Usher – Two Sapphires
Madeline Had A Passion For Egyptian Mythology
Madeline Usher (Mary McDonnell/Willa Fitzgerald) was also part of the pact made with Verna and is the last one to die, alongside Roderick. Throughout the series, she is often associated with pharaohs and Egyptian mythology, and her office is filled with stolen artifacts. The House of Usher’s Queen Twosret legend is the reason why Roderick replaces Madeline’s eyes after killing her.
The sapphires were supposed to give sight in the afterlife and were placed on the head of the pharaoh Twosret, which he had brought from Egypt. Roderick seemingly saw his sister as a queen, and wanted to bury her like a queen. Madeline returns and kills Roderick, wearing the two sapphires, which Verna placed on top of her tombstone in the final scene as a symbolic gesture for her love for historical artifacts.
7 Prospero Usher – Mask
Prospero’s Mask Relates To His Secret Party
Prospero “Perry” Usher (Sauriyan Sapkota) was the youngest Usher child, and he wanted to impress his family and earn their respect. So, he decided to throw a lavish masquerade party with 100 influential people at an abandoned old building that the Ushers owned. Even though his ideas were often dismissed by his family, including his plans for an exclusive nightclub, Perry had a different plan in his mind: he was secretly filming everyone. Perry planned on using the footage from the party as leverage later. During his scene with Verna, he wore the mask that played a key role in his final moments, and she eventually placed it on his tombstone.
6 Camille L’Espanaye – iPhone
Camille L’Espanaye’s Need To Expose Her Sister Led to Her Death
Camille L’Espanaye (Kate Siegel) worked in PR, and she had files on all the Usher children. Since the revelation of a possible informant in the Usher family, Camille decided to find out who it was. She suspected her sister, Victorine, had something to hide, so she snuck into her lab during the night to gather evidence, leading her to her final act as she took pictures with the flash on of the multiple chimpanzees in cages, before Verna took the form of one of the chimpanzees and mauled her to death. In the final scene, Verna places her iPhone on her tombstone, reflecting the last object she used and led to her death.
5 Napoleon Usher – Cat Collar
The Cat Collar Placed On Leo’s Tombstone Reflected His Death Arc
Napoleon Usher (Rahul Kohli) didn’t get along with his boyfriend’s cat, Pluto. Following a crazy night when he used too many drugs, Leo hallucinates he killed the cat, so he gets rid of all the evidence and later goes to get a similar one to keep up appearances, minus the cat’s expensive collar. His only explanation was that someone must’ve stolen the cat’s Gucci collar, which he seemed to have forgotten to take off when he disposed of the body. Later on, Verna comes back to haunt him taking the cat’s form, and, in a frenzy to catch him, he jumps after it and dies. Verna placing the cat collar on his tombstone proved her dark humor.
4 Victorine LaFourcade – Plastic Heart
Victorine’s Life Work Actually Led To Her Death
Victorine LaFourcade (T’Nia Miller) worked hard on perfecting a mechanical heart that would replace the real one. She tested the device on chimpanzees, and Roderick invested thousands of dollars in the research while rushing her to start testing on humans. Although the device is nowhere near ready, Victorine encounters Verna, who passes as a patient with heart problems, and lies to her to convince her to do the trials.
However, the doctor who performed the surgeries, her partner, Alessandra, refuses, and, after a fight, she tries to leave. Trying to stop her, Victorine throws a marble bookend at her, accidentally killing her. She doesn’t stop there and tries (and fails) to revive her with the mechanical heart, which haunts her and she eventually stabs herself. In the final scene, Verna places a plastic heart on her tombstone, a hint at her life’s work.
3 Tamerlane Usher – Golden Scarab
The Symbolism of Verna’s Object for Tammy Reflects Her Stolen Project
Tamerlane Usher (Samantha Sloyan) struggled hard to release her upcoming project, Goldbug, which was a rip-off of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop. Her entire arc revolved around launching Goldbug with the help of her fitness influencer husband, William Wilson, showing her deeply concerned about the presentation, without paying attention to the actual products or her marriage. When she had to present the products at the brand’s launch, she proved she didn’t understand what she was creating. Although the golden scarab Verna puts on her grave in the final scene does not reflect the brutal way Tammy died, it is the perfect symbolism for her life filled with pretending.
2 Frederick Usher — Bag of Cocaine
The Cocaine Reflects Frederick Usher’s Addiction
In his final years, Frederick Usher (Henry Thomas) was defined by his drug use. He turned out to be one of the worst of the Usher clan, as he was cruel to his wife Morelle, and also failed to pay attention at work, which is why he didn’t demolish all the abandoned Usher factories in time. While allegedly taking care of his wife, Patrick had one of the most disturbing scenes in The Fall of the House of Usher, extracting Morelle’s teeth while drugging her with Nightshade. Verna intervened and manipulated Frederick into adding Nightshade to his cocaine, which led to his death.
1 Lenore Usher – Raven Feather With White Rose
Lenore Usher Is the Only One Verna Felt Love for
Lenore Usher (Kyliegh Curran) was the only innocent member of the Usher family, who had to die to end the Usher line, as her fate was sealed with Roderick’s deal. She had a heart of gold and fought against injustice, calling her family out for being villains. Besides getting a gentle death, Lenore Usher’s tombstone received a raven feather, because Verna took the form of a raven, with a white rose tied to it. Unlike the other characters, Verna placed the object gently on top of the tombstone, underlying Verna’s love for her, as the victim of all The Fall of the House of Usher characters.
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