The Fall of the House of Usher Ending Explained: Who is Verna? Who Killed All the Heirs? What Happened on New Year’s Eve 1980?
The Fall of the House of Usher is available on Netflix from 12 October 2023. This is the new American miniseries created by Mike Flanagan. The protagonists are the brothers Roderick and Madeline Usher, who built a pharmaceutical company, with which they created an empire of wealth and power. But when the heirs of their dynasty begin to die, secrets come out. They find themselves facing their past. The deaths, by the way, occur in brutal and mysterious ways. The tragedy in which the family protagonist of the story is involved is shown to us from the beginning of the season: all of Roderick Usher’s children have died in just two weeks. But what is happening? How did we get here? Throughout the following episodes, we will see how, one by one, the members of the younger generation of the Ushers lose their lives in the most grotesque and extravagant ways one can imagine.
And, as we discover in the finale of The Fall of the House of Usher, the origin of everything is on New Year’s Eve 1980. From Mike Flanagan, creator of The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass, a diabolical horror series inspired by a story by Edgar Allan Poe arrives on Netflix: The Fall of the House of Usher. The ruthless siblings Roderick and Madeline Usher have made Fortunato Pharmaceuticals an empire of wealth, privilege, and power, but when the heirs of the dynasty begin to die at the hands of a mysterious woman they met in their youth, the secrets of the past come to light. But how does this terrible story end? What is the explanation for the ending of The Fall of the House of Usher? Let’s find out together.
The Fall of the House of Usher Ending Explained: The Story Plot
Their story is told by Roderick to District Attorney Auguste Dupin (Carl Lumbly) in the old house where he grew up with Madeline. The man’s six children – from five different mothers – died within a few days, and Fortunato is on the verge of disaster: the authorities have discovered that the painkiller known as Ligodone, the company’s flagship product, company, causes strong addiction, and many of its users have died of overdoses. Fortunato was aware of this, but she always kept it under wraps, just like the Sackler family did with OxyContin, one of the most sensational scandals in recent years in the medical field. If you have seen All the Beauty and the Pain, a documentary by Laura Poitras that won the Golden Lion in Venice in 2022, you know what I am referring to: The Fall of the House of Usher takes inspiration from the opioid crisis in the United States, which is believed Sacklers’ Purdue Pharma contributed. In a similar context, Roderick retraces the strange deaths of his children, all linked by the presence of a mysterious woman called Verna (Carla Gugino).
Netflix’s new horror TV series The Fall of the House of Usher collects the literary works of Edgar Allan Poe and the events related to the Sackler family, which deals with opioids in the United States. The plot of the episodes follows the Usher family, led by twin brothers Roderick and Madeline. Their pharmaceutical company, called Fortunato, allowed them to reap financial and social wealth. According to Assistant US Attorney Auguste Dupin, such riches are due to the deaths of thousands of people who became addicted to the painkiller Ligodone, produced by their company.
Dupin spends years trying to stop the Usher family and eventually finds a way to sue Roderick and Madeline. But this time too they have the upper hand. But suddenly Roderick‘s two youngest sons die in mysterious accidents. In two weeks, all the family’s heirs die strangely. At this point, Roderick decides to talk to Dupin, to whom he wants to confess his crimes, in his childhood home. Awaiting his death and grieving for that of his six children, he wants to confess his wrongdoings by revealing the true reason for what is happening.
The Fall of the House of Usher Ending Explained: The Whole Truth
In this conversation with Dupin, Roderick begins to talk about his past. Together with her twin sister Madeline, they lived only with their mother, Eliza, without knowing the identity of her father. In reality, her father was William Longfellow, former CEO of Fortunato Pharmaceuticals, for whom the woman worked. The man never recognized the twins. Her mother subsequently died. As? Roderick and Madeline buried her before she even died, convinced that she was dead. The woman emerged from the tomb and then killed Longfellow, before actually dying. The Usher twins thus passed from one foster home to another. Once they grew up, they looked for work in the Fortunato company, of which Rufus Griswold was CEO at the time. Roderick approached him with the product Ligodone, a newly manufactured opioid. Initially, Griswold rejected Usher’s plan and then purchased the drug. In all this, he gave Roderick no credit. The Usher brothers thus have to bide their time. Ligodone started to succeed and more and more deaths were recorded.
The young police officer, Auguste Dupin, entered the game to investigate. He discovered the incorrect practices of Griswold, who hid the true effects of the drug from people by falsifying documents and consent forms. Dupin thus asked Roderick for help in framing Griswold. The young Usher, supported by his wife Annabel Lee, decided to accept. In reality, together with their sister Madeline, they had another plan in mind. In court, he did not testify against Griswold, rather he accused Dupin of forcing him to speak. At this point, Griswold won the case and decided to make Roderick his partner. This was the moment the Usher brothers had been waiting for, as the members of Fortunato’s board of directors also trusted Roderick. During a New Year’s Eve party, Madeline and Roderick drugged Griswold and then buried him alive inside a wall hole in the basement. The world was told that the entrepreneur had left everything. Thus, Roderick Usher became the hero and head of the company. Over the years the two Ushers obtained more and more wealth and power, but he began to have feelings of guilt, complete with hallucinations.
What Happened on New Year’s Eve 1980?
That all of Roderick‘s children died in succession, from youngest to oldest, is not an unpleasant coincidence. The great power of the Ushers wasn’t always something Madeline and Roderick could count on. Having been the result of an extramarital relationship with the owner of a large pharmaceutical company, Fortunato, the two brothers grew up in hardship, only protected by their single mother. Years later, Roderick found a minor job within Fortunato. However, despite his excessive ambition and attempts to advance, his career seemed stagnant. Madeline, with her great cunning at play, devises a plan to finish off the boss of the company, but not before raising her brother’s name among the great partners. Together they partner with the lawyer Auguste Dupin, a young man to denounce Fortunato’s misconduct. Betraying him at the last moment, they demonstrate his loyalty to the big figures in the company, and Roderick comes to be seen as “the right hand” of his boss. At this time, New Year’s Eve 1980 arrives.
At the company’s New Year’s party, the brothers poison Fortunato’s CEO. Afterward, Madeline, who pretends to be flirting with him, takes him to a hidden construction area of the building. There, while the sleeping pills they have given him continue to take effect, they tie him to some pipes and begin to build a wall in front of him. When he wakes up, the task is half done. Despite his attempts at negotiation, the Ushers end up walling him up. Roderick will possibly be chosen as the new CEO. However, it doesn’t all end here. Immediately afterward, both look for an alibi and go to another location. There they will meet the woman we have seen throughout the entire season, attending the deaths of the Ushers: Verna.
Who is Verna?
In the first chapter, a mysterious woman causes the deaths of Roderick Usher’s descendants. Although we do quickly discover that it is a supernatural creature, as it changes its appearance and geographical location with ease beyond what is humanly imaginable, it is not until the end that we discover exactly what the reason for its presence is and what its consequences are. intentions. Let’s go back to 1980: at the bar where the brothers go to find an alibi and avoid being suspected of the murder they have committed; Verna is working as a waitress. After talking to both and seducing them with her sharp tongue, the three of them talk until dawn. There, Verna, who is nothing more than a personification of the devil himself, offers them a deal.
The Ushers will enjoy a long life of power, money, and greatness, in exchange for the fact that, when the hour of Roderick‘s death arrives, in his last days on Earth, all his offspring must die with him. Madeline, his sister, will also die next to him, in the same way they came into the world. Furthermore, during their lives, they will never have to answer anyone and will not pay for any crime committed. Consumed by their great ambition and thirst for power: they both accept. And here is the reason for the whole chain of tragedies that we see throughout the season. The pact with the devil has given them everything and has ended up taking it away too. When Roderick discovers that he is suffering from the same degenerative disease as his mother, he also realizes that his entire family is about to fall.
Who Killed All the Heirs?
Roderick divorced his first wife Annabel but managed to get his two sons Federico and Tamerlane on his side, through money. The man later had other relationships, from which other illegitimate children were born Victorine, Leo, Camille, and Prospero. Meanwhile, Tamerlane is very close to her aunt Madeline, who has no children with her. During a party hosted by Prospero, sprinklers sprayed water from reservoirs at the top of the building as an attraction. The man did not know that the tanks had been used to contain toxic water, with chemical and dangerous substances. In the end, all the guests died, including Prospero, who was burned by the chemicals.
The security camera captured a woman approaching Prospero before his death. This mysterious person had not been invited to the party. The woman has appeared in front of every heir and is mysteriously linked to all their deaths. She is Verna, the bartender who found out about Griswold’s murder. To keep her silent, the two Usher brothers had agreed with her: their heirs would have to die shortly before their deaths, in exchange for her not reporting the incident and they would become rich. In the end, Verna reveals herself to be the devil, who made the famous pact with the devil with them. In exchange for freedom and wealth, the two Usher brothers accepted the condition. When Roderick was sick and near death, behold, all his children died.
How The Fall of the House of Usher Ends: Final Explanation
The Fall of the House of Usher has an ending that brings the lives of Roderick and Madeline Usher full circle. First of all, let’s find out what happened on that terrible New Year’s Eve in 1980 when the two Usher brothers, then very young, walled up Rufus Griswold, the head of the Fortunato company, alive to take his place after having made him drink a glass of wine with some paralyzing. Rufus was the head of Fortunato, a company where the same mother of the two Usher brothers worked before she fell ill, died, and was buried by her children. Charming, confident, and extremely ruthless, Rufus made his fortune by crushing others for his gain but this time he was crushed by those who were more ruthless than him: Roderick and Madeline.
After killing him, the two, to have an alibi and not be discovered by the police, went around the city and ended up in a small bar where they met what turns out to be the devil himself with whom they make a pact: if they will get away without being discovered, they will live a life of total wealth at the cost of their future lineage perishing. The two accept without thinking too much and what seemed like just a crazy dialogue with a stranger turns out to be reality when all of Usher’s children begin to die, all killed by the same woman, namely Verna, the same one with whom they had made that pact in 1980. She will die finally, also Roderick‘s niece, the young and good Leonore who will be killed in the last episode by the devil himself.
After killing his sister through deception and revealing the whole truth to detective Auguste Dupin, Roderick will die at the hands of Madeline herself who, not being completely dead, will strangle him and cause the collapse of the House of Usher and their dynasty. Dupin will manage to get out of the collapsing house and save himself by proving to Roderick and the spectators that true wealth lies not in money but in connections with other people. In the end, the Usher lawyer will be the only one to end up in prison because he did not accept the pact with the devil, and Roderick‘s second wife, Juno, will take over the company, transforming it into a non-profit ready to save lives human after having herself detoxified from Licodone, the opioid drug that had made the fortune of the Ushers. Leonore’s mother, who was the only survivor of the accident during the party that killed Prospero, was saved and helped others with many charitable initiatives. Thus, with the collapse of the House of Usher and Dupin saying goodbye, for the last time, to this evil family in the cemetery, this story ends.
Roderick gives this whole explanation to Dupin and, near the finale of The Fall of the House of Usher on Netflix, reveals how Madeline died. The latter convinced her brother to kill himself so as not to feel her guilt anymore. The woman’s goal was to keep all the family wealth for herself. But Verna does not accept this ending, as the pact requires the two brothers to suffer together. A few hours before meeting Dupin, Roderick called Madeline and poisoned him with cyanide. She then replaced her eyes with two large sapphires, not realizing that she was still alive. And then the figure of Madeline appears and kills Roderick by suffocating him.
The House of Usher begins to crumble and fall. Roderick‘s last wife, Juno, inherits the riches. She later decides to end her addiction to Ligodone, using her inheritance for rehabilitation programs with a new organization, called the Phoenix Foundation. For the Ushers’ unfair practices, the only one arrested is the lawyer Arthur Pym, who had decided in the past not to sell his soul to the devil. Since he does not want to create further drama, after retiring, Dupin visits the cemetery and leaves Roderick‘s confession tape on his grave. The lawyer understood, thanks to this story, that the most important thing is family and having heirs. The Fall of the House of Usher ends with a raven resting on the grave of Usher and looking menacingly at Dupin. The latter is not shaken by his look, because he knows he is an honest person. In the final scene, Verna places the objects that caused the deaths of all the Ushers on the graves. She puts a glass of whiskey on Roderick‘s grave because they agree with that.
