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*** Spoiler ***

It is revealed in the final episode, that Roderick Usher and his sister Madeline struck a deal with Verna at a bar. That's why she's after Roderick's children, the bloodline of Usher. And she did take them out one by one before the end of Roderick and Madeline's lives.

Now, look back at the first death of the Ushers - Perry's death, I wonder why she didn't spare all the partygoers at Perry's party. They aren't Usher. She did spare the lives of the staff at the party though. But how about the upperclass partygoers? So what was her intention to take them all? Is there any hidden meaning?

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  • Spoilers can be read in the summary before even opening the page:\ I managed to hide this properly without actually reading it.
    – Tetsujin
    Oct 27 at 7:41
  • The Fall of the House of Usher has been described as a “loose adaptation” of the Poe story and there are alludes to Poe’s other works... :)
    – Lotte Pia Gravgaard
    Nov 14 at 0:25

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It's revealed in Episode 6 that

Verna is some kind of entity that makes deals with people to make them rich and powerful in exchange for likely similar deals that she made with the Ushers. She's shown with Zuckerberg, the Rockefellers, modern politicians, and even the founder of Monsanto in 1901.

So given that it's likely that she made deals with all these people's parents as well and has been tormenting them alongside the Ushers. The people at the party were all part of the deal.

It should also be noted that Verna never does anything herself to lead to these deaths. She psychic drives the Ushers to make decisions that end up costing their lives, and sometimes people get hurt along the way. It is not Verna who kills these people. It is the Ushers and their ego/obsessions.

For example, in episode 5,

Verna psychic drives Victoria to have a fight Dr. Ruiz. Victoria, by her own decisions, kills Victoria which is the jumping off point that ultimately leads to her own death.

So in the case of Perry, Verna did not kill those people at the party herself. All she did was appear on the rooftop of the factory which allowed Perry to see the water towers that held the acid. Perry, by his own decision, decided to hook up the water towers to the sprinkler system because he absolutely needed this party to go his way. So it was Perry who ultimately lead to the deaths of all those people.

EDIT:

Is there any hidden meaning

From a story telling point of view, this episode is a modern adaptation of the short story The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe. In this story, a rich prince named Prince Prospero invites 1,000 noble guests to a luxurious party to escape a plague knows as the Red Death which has been ravaging the countryside. He barricades the entrances such that nobody can get in or out. When the clock strikes midnight, a mysterious masked figure in a red robe appears. Prince Propsero pursues this figure only to suddenly die when he finally confronts it. The other party goers rip off the mask and robe only to reveal that there is nobody underneath, and it was in fact the Red Death. They all flee in terror but are unable to leave. They all succumb to the Red Death.

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  • Thanks for the details, it all makes sense now.
    – Ragnarsson
    Oct 30 at 16:15
  • I haven't heard about this Netflix series before, but are you sure it's an adaptation of "The Masque of the Red Death" when there's literally another Poe short story called "The Fall of the House of Usher"?
    – Rand al'Thor
    Nov 9 at 19:28
  • @Randal'Thor: It's an 8 episode miniseries. Each episode is an adaptation of a different Edgar Allen Poe story. The Fall Of The House Of Usher is covered in the very last episode.
    – DeeV
    Nov 9 at 20:07

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