Ryan Murphy isn’t the only showrunner who has a reliably great pool of actors to put through different based on this look alone.
Thankfully, though, that masquerading doesn’t extend to sporting old-school Planet of the Apes prosthetics during the chimpanzee sequence.
Aping Around
Verna’s second kill occurs in the episode named after Poe’s famous “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” which is cited as the first modern detective fiction story, and features an unusual killer. The culprit? An Ourang-Outan (or orangutan as this animal is know today) escaped a Parisian apartment armed with its owner’s straight razor, played here by Gugino as a chimpanzee.
Of all the nods to Poe, a killer ape is perhaps the most bizarre, but Gugino is more than game, leaning into the animalistic movements this bonkers set-up requires. Verna first becomes a DGAF security guard alias, before going full method as a chimpanzee.
Camille (Kate Siegel) attempts to uncover her sister Victoire’s (T’Nia Miller) disturbing and illegal work on apes at a secure facility. The soon-to-be next victim treats Verna like shit because of her pricey shoes and finds her nothing more than a petty inconvenience. In response, Gugino’s voice deepens and becomes more laconic, emphasizing her unbothered reaction to Camille’s threats of getting her fired. She might as well have a cigarette dangling from her mouth.
Things like time and space don’t restrict Verna, so her appearance in the same room as Camille after she has entered the off-limits space housing several caged chimpanzees is not unexpected—especially as we know Camille’s death is imminent. However, I wasn’t expecting Verna to go from dishing out a history lesson on animal testing (apparently, the Ancient Greeks started it in the fourth century BCE) to leaping on the center table like a woman possessed. Or, should I say ape-possessed?
Eike Schroter / Netflix
Either way, Gugino’s physicality quickly transforms from a hunched-over security guard to an ape sizing up a threat. Presumably, some wire work aided this jump, but what follows is all Gugino as she mimics the primates in this room and turns what could be a ridiculous scene into one that is scary and ridiculous—all while giving a literal voice to the animals that are harmed in the name of so-called science.
Watching this unfold half in fear and far incredulous (my expression matches what is onscreen), Siegel reduces some of the overt WTF elements with a certain amount of dry wit that runs throughout the series. Overall, Usher isn’t as impactful as titles like The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, but its dark humor balances out some of the sillier sequences, including this one.
It also helps that Gugino leans all the way into the ape persona while her scene partner ultimately says “fuck it” to her fate. It doesn’t get much weirder than this, and Gugino embodies the brutal menace and overall distress experienced by the test subjects.
Performing Poe
Verna is one of several characters that love to monologue, and in a cast of heavyweights (including repeat and new to Flanagan names), Gugino savors every line of dialogue with enough relish to make me briefly forget the whole mimicking an ape thing—even while it is occurring. It is also a series in which characters start spouting Poe’s poetry at the drop of a hat, concluding with Gugino’s recital of “Spirits of the Dead” in all its lyrical glory.
With each passing episode, Verna’s deal with the younger Roderick (played by Zach Gilford in flashbacks) and his twin sister Madeline (Mary McDonnell and Willa Fitzgerald) becomes clearer, and anticipating how each of Roderick’s pretty awful adult children will meet their end is part of the fun.
Rather than tap into a one-note lady of vengeance, Gugino imbues her performance with playful levity and menace. She effortlessly switches between these characteristics, and Flanagan has previously deployed this versatility in her splintered roles in Hill House and Gerald’s Game.
In the case of the latter, an imagined version of her character, Jessie gives her handcuffed self a pep talk about surviving a horrifying scenario—I won’t spoil it, but let’s just say I can never look at Gugino’s hand in the same way again. In Hill House, doomed matriarch Olivia Crain knows how to alleviate each of her children’s anxieties with tender, soft-spoken words until she ultimately comes apart at the seams. As past and present threads together, Olivia is shown in several forms, including ghost trickery, a monstrous vision, and another imagined depiction offering her husband wisdom. Gugino subtly shifts when necessary and isn’t afraid to tap into heightened emotions when the scene calls for it.
The actress laps up every grotesque death scenario no matter how silly—see the chimpanzee of it all—or grandiose. And the finale gives Gugino space to deliver a soft-spoken monologue about a future the teenager will not see.
Eike Schroter / Netflix
Whereas Usher doesn’t result in a similar gut-punch resolution as other limited series titles from the master of nuanced horror, Gugino’s respite from delicious bloody vengeance is quietly heartbreaking. “There’s a lot about my job I love. But there are moments like these that bring me no joy. I hope you know that,” she softly tells the doomed Lenore (Kyliegh Curran). Borrowing the raven’s aesthetic with feathered-looking hair and all-black tailored attire (okay, this is an outfit I imagine a classy bird would pick out), Verna takes on the appearance of Poe’s most famous refrain without resorting to squawks or flight.
Verna doesn’t always need to mask her identity through fun tricks, and this range makes it the perfect showcase for Gugino’s talents, and long may this collaboration continue.
Whether an ape, a raven, a benevolent executor, or whatever Flanagan cooks up in future projects, it is unlikely that the filmmaker will say nevermore to one of his most versatile featured players. Here’s to whatever twisted scenario Gugino finds herself in next.
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