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| “ | I ran as fast as I could, but I couldn't catch him. | „ |
| ~ Vera Claythorne lying about Cyril's death in the 2015 miniseries. |
| “ | Don't be a fool. You're so tired that you're imagining the most fantastic things... | „ |
| ~ Vera's final thoughts before she hanged herself. |
Vera Elizabeth Claythorne, also known as Verya Clyde in the 1974 film, is the main protagonist in Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None and its adaptations.
She is one of the ten people summoned to Indian Island by Lawrence Wargrave, who have murdered in a way that the law cannot prove or punish them for. She is a young teacher, secretary, and ex-governess, who takes mostly secretarial jobs since her last job as a governess ended in the death of her charge, she is brought to Indian Island after receiving a fake job offer as a secretary.
Se was portrayed by the late June Duprez in the 1945 film, Elke Sommer in the 1974 film, and Maeve Dermody in the 2015 miniseries.
Biography[]
Her last job was working as a governess to Cyril Ogilvie Hamilton, the young heir to a wealthy family. While working there, she fell in love with Cyril's uncle Hugo Hamilton. Hugo was unable to marry her however since he was bankrupt, and Cyril was next in line to inherit the family fortune.
This led Vera to grow to hate the boy. When he begged her to allow him to swim out to a dangerous rock at sea, she allowed him to go, hoping that Hugo, could inherit his money, and marry her. She swam after him when he swam out, whether out of last-minute guilt or to exonerate her in the law's eyes is uncertain. Cyril drowned, and Vera was cleared of any involvement in his death. However, the plan backfired when Hugo, looking at her, realized what she had done. Since he loved his nephew, he was unable to forgive her and abandoned her.
Sometime later, Hugo encountered Wargrave in a bar, and while drunk, confessed to Wargrave his certainty that Vera had killed Cyril. In this way, Vera was the last victim to be collected by Wargrave. Also, since she is the last of the ten to die, Wargrave had marked her as the most guilty of the ten victims.
She manages to shoot Philip Lombard, and believing herself to have defeated the killer, returns to the house. In her slightly unstable frame of mind however, she began to suspect Hugo was in the house. Going up the stairs to her room, she finds a noose suspended from the ceiling with a chair underneath it. At this moment, the full consciousness of her guilt comes upon her.
Unwilling to carry on living, she hangs herself while Wargrave watches from the shadows. Her death corresponds with the last line of the 'Ten Little Indians' rhyme, "One little Indian boy left all alone/ He went and hanged himself and then there were none." Wargrave then moves the chair to the wall, so the police cannot suspect her of killing herself and therefore being the true killer.
In the 2015 Adaptation[]
In General[]
Vera also appeared as the main protagonist of the 2015 mini-series/serial remake of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. An anti-heroine/minor villainess Vera, along with nine other people was invited to Soldier Island off the Devon. Vera traveled to the Island under the pretext of employment as a secretary to a Mister and Missus Owen.
In reality, however, all the guests were walking into a trap. U.N.Owen was merely an alias and shortly after arriving the ten strangers were accused of contributing to the death of various people in a way that the law could not punish them for. In Vera's case, she was accused of murdering a young boy, that she was in charge of, by encouraging him to swim farther into the ocean than he could have, and allowing him to drown.
This version of Vera is based almost entirely off of her novel counterpart, and the most accurate portrayal of the character to date.
Episode One[]
Summer Employment[]
On a hot late August day in the late 1930s, eight strangers arrive at Soldier Island off the Devon Coast. Most have been ostensibly invited by old friends or the current mysterious owners of the island, Mr. and Mrs. U.N. Owen, a married couple. Vera Elizabeth Claythorne is a sports-mistress at a third-rate girls school. She is initially reluctant to go, not because she does not want the job but because the setting (an island) brings back bad memories concerning her previous employment as a governess. She accepted however because the money was good and there was an opportunity for advancement.
Arriving at Soldier Island[]
Most of the group, including Vera travels down by train before being ferried across to the island by a Mr. Narracot. When they arrive there is no host to greet them but there are domestic staff, Thomas and Ethel Rogers, a married couple. Vera and the rest of the "guests" find a copy of a children's rhyme Ten Little Soldiers in each of their rooms and ten miniature jade figures representing the soldiers decorate the dining room table. Although she has arrived under the pretext of employment, Vera is told by Ethel Rogers that the hosts instructed that she is to be treated as a guest. As such Vera begins to settle down and enjoy herself, though she remains wary of Philip Lombard, who she saw eyeing her up on the train, causing her to move seats.
Accusations and First Murders[]
Following an extravagant dinner, Vera sits with Miss Emily Brent upstairs and the pair prepare to have coffee, whilst the men enjoy brandy and cigars downstairs. Then suddenly, a gramophone recording, which Mr. Rogers had been instructed to play booms out. Instead of music, however, a mysterious voice calls out in the manner of a court trial. One by one all eight guests and the Rogers are named as being responsible for the death(s) of another human being (or other human beings) for which they evaded punishment.
In Vera's case, somebody called Cyril Ogilvie Hamilton. This same recording reveals that one of the guests (Blore) is an impostor using a false name. Once the recording is dealt with the guests settle down to drink whiskey to calm their nerves, except for Mrs. Rogers who fainted, and Miss Brent refuses to drink. Shaken, six of the nine people refute the accusations made against them. They admit to knowing the people they are accused of murdering but insist that they all died from other means. Here Vera reveals that she was Cyril's governess. She explains that he disobeyed her one day and away whilst she and the Hamiltons were on holiday at an unspecified coastline. Cyril who was not a strong person wanted to swim out to some rocks but failed. Vera says that she tried to save him and had to be rescued after she almost drowned herself.
At this point, all of the guests have denied their guilt – except for three people. Miss Brent simply says that accusations are nonsense and do not comment further. Philip Lombard, on the other hand, freely admits that he is guilty of his supposed crime. This leaves Vera shocked, even more so when Lombard accuses the others of lying. This angers the others forcing Judge Lawrence Wargrave to intercede. Dispelling the accusations he suggests that they should all retire for the evening and then leave first thing in the morning with Mr. Narracot.
Moments later, however, Anthony Marston the youngest of the guests brings up the accusations again. After a moment's recollection, he realizes who the gramophone was talking about. The reckless young youth shows no remorse for his crime, but before anything can be said, Marston suddenly starts choking. He collapses onto Vera and vomits, then drops to the ground and expires from cyanide-laced gin. Unnoticed at the time, this was like the first little soldier of the nursery rhyme (one choked his little self).
The next day, the cook Mrs. Rogers is found dead in her bed from unknown causes although Dr. Armstrong declares she died in her sleep from an overdose of some barbiturate. Again, this matches the second verse from the poem (one overslept himself). Towards the end of the episode, Vera shows Dr. Armstrong that two of the soldiers in the dining room have disappeared. Throughout the episode, Vera is haunted by images of swimming in the water, memories of Cyril, his devastated mother, meeting her former lover Hugo Hamilton, and of that fateful day when Cyril died. As the episode concludes Vera and the other "guests" pack so that they can leave when the ferryman arrives.
Episode Two[]
No Escape and Realising the Truth[]
The poisoning of the two previous victims casts suspicion on Dr. Armstrong who understandably carried drugs on him. At Vera's insistence, Armstrong has his bag searched, arguing that two healthy people like Marston and Rogers wouldn't just die suddenly unless something happened to them. When the search turns up nothing, Armstrong angrily tips the contents of her case onto the floor, though Vera is courteous enough to apologize for suspecting him.
As most of the men conduct a hunt for the mysterious Mr. Owen, searching the entire island, the nature behind the accusations begins to come to take route. Philip Lombard once again confirms that he killed 21 Africans for a diamond reward, and Emily Brent recounts to Vera the fateful past of her former maid, Beatrice Taylor, which leaves Vera disgusted at the older woman's callousness.
Later, Vera finds General MacArthur sitting alone on the cliff. The old man has succumbed to grief and presumed insanity, crippled with guilt over killing his former friend and wife's lover, Arthur Richmond. As Vera tries to persuade him to come and prepare for the boat's arrival, MacArthur assures her that nobody is coming and that none of them are going to escape from the island. MacArthur says that he has found peace with his impending demise and tells Vera that she will understand what he is talking about soon enough. Vera insists that he is wrong and makes herself scarce.
Shortly afterward, however, the General is found dead, his head smashed in by a telescope. As the body is brought back to the house, the remaining seven people realize that whoever left the mysterious message intends to make good on their threat. Vera also recounts MacArthur's last words and is the first person to realize that the killer is carrying out the murders in a specific order and manner, corresponding to the nursery rhyme. Returning to the dining room, she finds that one of the eight figures is missing - leaving only seven. Recounting the third verse, she realizes it fits MacArthur's declaration to the letter "Eight Little Soldier Boys holidaying in Devon. One said he'd stay there and then there were seven".
The Situation Deteriorates[]
Despite the horrendous weather Vera, who does not want to die, desperately tries to swim across the ocean to the mainland but is stopped by Wargrave who brings her back inside telling her it would be suicide. As the "guests" sit inside the drawing-room, Vera now trying to warm up, they try to come up with an idea as to who this mysterious Owen person might be.
Accusations go back and forth until Wargrave has a revelation. The former Judge proposes a damning theory - U.N. Owen is an acronym for "Unknown" - which means that the killer is not a mysterious eighth person hiding on the island, he is in fact, one of them. Rogers enters at this point, prompting Vera and the others who are now suspicious to think it might be him. With that in mind, everybody retires for the night.
The following morning, Armstrong wakes everybody up after making a grizzly discovery in the cellar. Mr. Rogers was murdered in the night, his body split open with an axe. Again, this matches another verse of the Little Soldiers poem; One chopped himself in half and then there were six. With that the others realize that Vera was right; they are all being killed off one by one following the verses of the poems. Vera (who vomited) slaps a hysterical Armstrong, before leaving with Miss Brent to make coffee. As the weather, and conditions inside the house begin to deteriorate Vera tries to remain calm making coffee for the others.
When she spies only five soldier boys on the table, she bangs the gong and Miss Brent is discovered shortly afterward, impaled with one of her knitting needles (a bumblebee stung one and then there were five). With real panic now setting in, the five survivors band together, though they remain suspicious of each other - Vera even got into a confrontation with Blore because of this.
When Lombard reports that his revolver is missing, the guests are all understandably horrified. Realizing that they need to find the revolver and suspecting that there must be a master key enabling the killer access to all their rooms, they all consent to a strip search. When Vera's turn comes around, she dresses in a swimming suit, the one she wore on that fateful holiday. She recalls her final conversation will Cyril in which she acknowledged Cyril's assumption that she was in love with his uncle Hugo and that she would marry him one day.
Noticing an empty hook hanging from her bedroom's ceiling, Vera recalls the fateful events of that day and how she tried to reach Cyril. As Armstrong, Blore, and Wargrave search her room, Vera and Lombard who is kept out of the same room as Armstrong, stare at each other and Vera even undoes her dressing-gown slightly. When the search of the bedrooms turns up nothing, the group conducts a thorough sweep of the house, searching every room. Despite this, they do not uncover the gun or key - both of which are stashed inside the mouth of the polar bear rug in the sitting room. Tension and suspicion on Soldier Island are now at its absolute zenith.
Episode Three[]
Despair[]
Only five of the original ten "guests" are left, a killer hidden amongst their ranks, leaving them all skeptical and suspicious of one another. Staring off into space Vera recalls a conversation she had with Mrs. Hamilton. Here it is revealed that Cyril's birth changed the inheritance title, leaving Hugo penniless and that whilst Mrs. Hamilton wants him to find a nice wealthy girl, no one will marry him due to his poverty. Vera then rushes over and joins the boys in a game of cricket.
Back in the present, the men are discussing possible ways that they could contact the mainland for help but the weather prevents them from doing so. When Vera offers to bring the group tea, Armstrong is skeptical about drinking it, due to the possibility of it being poisoned. In response to this, she calls him an "Idiotic creightonous bastard". Blore then suggests that from now on they should all travel either singly or in a group - because that way even if one of them did try to do something to the others it would be four against one - which Vera and the others agree to.
Whilst they are having their tea, Wargrave is asked about the case of his supposed victim Edward Seaton. He recounts to Vera and the others that Seaton was not as innocent as the press suspected. As he concludes his tale, noting "Justice comes to all" Vera sees an image of Cyril standing in the doorway. As the group exits the dining room, Judge Wargrave excuses himself having grown tired with Armstrong's paranoia.
Recollections and Romance[]
Standing in the drawing-room, Lombard and Blore begin to suspect Wargrave, as Vera recalls a moment of intimacy with Hugo showing he returned her affections. After Armstrong yells at her for running her finger across the rim of a glass, Vera decides to go to bed. Upon entering her room Vera goes to wash her face only to see another image of Cyril.
Suddenly, Vera has an image of someone reaching up from the sink and strangling her. She screams in terror and blacks out - recalling the moment when the rescue crew made it back to shore. Vera recalls Mrs. Hamilton's pained reaction after finding her only son dead, and the look of horror on Hugo's face. Vera then comes to but has enough sense not to accept the glass of brandy offered to her by Blore. As Armstrong and Blore become even more suspicious of Lombard and Vera, the doctor suddenly notices that the Judge is missing.
The group rushes downstairs and find Judge Wargrave slumped in the sitting room chair, dead from a gunshot wound to the head as declared by Dr. Armstrong. The Judge has been dressed up to the match the sixth verse of the poem (one got chancery and then there were four). Vera is initially stunned but the others are in no doubt. After laying Wargrave down on his bed, the men accuse one another since they didn't hear the gun go off, and since she was unconscious at the time Vera is the only one who is not a suspect (for this particular murder).
The remaining four engage in a demented bacchanal with alcohol and drugs. Vera dances with Lombard, making Armstrong and Blore even more suspicious. Once they finish the four people all watch one another go into their rooms, though Lombard soon joins Vera for a passionate night. They are soon interrupted by Blore who saw Armstrong leaving the house, leaving the other three to believe he is the killer. Lombard joins Blore in a search for Armstrong, the two men telling Vera to stay behind and lock her door.
As she waits, a nervous Vera recalls a meeting she had with Hugo in the hospital she was treated at following Cyril's death. Hugo told Vera that Mrs. Hamilton was going to London, and intended to give her additional payment since Vera would now lose her job. Vera offered to watch the house for the pair, but when Hugo mentioned he intended to sell the house, Vera could not stop herself from saying "But it's yours now!" She promised to find a temporary residence, inviting Hugo who told her that he would be with his sister-in-law for the time being. When he mentions that there would be an inquest, Vera asked if he would attend but Hugo was evasive and distant.
A Desperate Plan[]
The men returned the following morning without Armstrong, who has disappeared. Much to everyone's surprise, Lombard finds his gun waiting for him on his bed. As the remaining three gather in the dining room, they wonder who could have possibly planted the gun, Vera accuses Armstrong as it matches the fourth verse of the poem - a red herring. After a little discussion, the group concludes that Armstrong is the killer and set them all against one another, and is hiding somewhere.
After Vera and Lombard watch Blore break down in repentance, confessing to his crime they reassure him that someone has to come for them eventually and that there are still three of them against the mysterious U.N. Owen. With Lombard taking control the trio all agree that they need to get off of the island and decide to light a fire on the cliff and at Vera's suggestion vacate the house with supplies. Vera promptly heads down to the kitchen to pack food, then leaves with Lombard, Blore bringing up the rear.
Exiting in a hurry the group fails to notice that one of the knives is missing, and by the time Vera and Lombard reach the cliff, they realize too late that Blore is not with them. Despite Lombard's instructions Vera follows him back to the house, to find Blore dead, stabbed through the chest with a bear-skin-rug draped over him. Thus the eighth verse of the poem is realized, "a big bear hugged one and then there were two". The pair subsequently return to the cliff, where Vera spots something resting near the hide tide zone.
They go down to investigate and discover Dr. Armstrong's corpse brought in by the tide. This leaves Vera and Lombard as the only survivors. Although Lombard wants to find a better vantage point Vera insists that they need to move Armstrong's body out of respect. This turns out to be a trick and she lifts Lombard's gun from its holster, pointing it straight at him. Lombard insists that he is innocent and that this "Mr. Owens" latest trick. Vera, however, is sure that he is guilty and when Philip lunges at her, she pulls the trigger - unloading the gun into him, shooting Lombard dead.
The Truth Revealed[]
As Lombard drops to the ground, Vera suffering a complete breakdown, screams in hysteria, overcome by emotion at what she has just done - not just now but previously. She collapses onto the sand distraught and has her final recollection of the past. At the inquiry into Cyril's death, Vera testified. In a tearful, emotional speech Claythorne explains that Cyril disobeyed her, he ran off when Vera went to get the bat and ball for a cricket match she promised him. The former governess insists (as she has done so throughout the series) that although she tried, she simply was not fast enough to save him. Cleared of any involvement in Cyril's death, Vera was subsequently thanked by a devastated Mrs. Hamilton for at least trying to save her son.
Moments later she was approached by Hugo. Staring at Vera, Hugo explains why he was so distant earlier, he had been unsure about something, but now after watching Vera testify, he knows that he was right. When Vera asks what he is so sure about, Hugo tells her flat out that he knows she is lying!
A look of shock spreads across Vera's face as Hugo recalls watching her during their previous cricket match. Hugo knows from experience that Vera is a fast runner and that even if she did turn her back for a minute, as she claims, Vera still would have had no problem catching up with the physically weak Cyril.
Vera insists he is mistaken but Hugo overrides her, telling her that he has also figured out why she did it. Fighting to control his anger, Hugo explains that for all of her intelligence Vera had underestimated one very important thing. Hugo did not care one bit about the money he has now inherited because he genuinely loved his nephew! Vera insists that she loved Cyril too and that she loves Hugo as well, but when she tries to kiss him, Hugo steps away from her firmly.
Recognizing what this signifies, Vera Claythorne can only stare on in shock at her now ex-boyfriend. She listens in stunned silence as Hugo steps close to her one final time. The bereaving Uncle tells the manipulative woman flat out that she has gotten away with it since there is no evidence to contradict her story.
Hugo tells her threateningly though that if he ever does find a way to prove it - he would hand that evidence over to the authorities and be there to watch Vera hang. He then storms out leaving a stunned Vera in his wake. With Hugo's threat hanging over her, Vera finally recalls the full truth, making a devastating revelation - Hugo was right, and the accusations against her are true. She did intentionally let Cyril drown!
Vera led the unsuspecting young boy out onto the beach and permitted him to swim out to the rock. She then sat back and callously waited until he was out far enough that she could not reach him. Although she was seen charging up the beach, once all of the witnesses were gone, the evil governess deliberately slowed her pace down and then swam aimlessly to cover her tracks. She then turned herself over so that it would look as if she had almost drowned, whilst trying to save her charge.
Her plan was cold, calculated, and fooled everybody except Hugo!
Confrontation with the Killer[]
When Vera comes too, she finds Lombard dead on the beach. Thus the penultimate verse of the poem is fulfilled, (one got frizzled up and then there was one), leaving Vera as the "last" survivor. Appearing somewhat delirious, Vera returns to the house after seeing a specter of Cyril on the cliff. The boy's ghost leads her upstairs towards her bedroom, where she drops the gun on the landing before turning to smile at Cyril one last time. Upon entering the room Vera Claythorne finds a noose is waiting for her on the previously empty hook, with a chair placed suggestively underneath it.
In a trance-like state, Vera reacting to the suggestion climbs onto the chair and places the noose around her neck preparing to hang herself. Just as she is about to do so, the doorknob rattles. Vera calls out, thinking it is Hugo - come to fulfill his promise, and demonstrating how much she still loves him. When the door opens, however, it is not Hugo. Instead - Lawrence Wargrave walks in, very much alive. Thus the perpetrator's identity, U.N.Owen is finally revealed!
The sight of him causes Vera to come to her senses. Flinching visibly she desperately tries to remove the noose from around her neck, but in her frantic state, she accidentally knocks the chair onto its side. With the noose tightening around her neck, Vera struggles to retain her balance on the overturned furniture, barely managing to so via the tips of her toes.
Wargrave ignores Vera's desperation and pleas for help, however. Instead, the vigilante Judge sits calmly across from Vera watching her struggle. He gives a boastful confession; revealing that he is a secret psychopath, tricked Armstrong into helping him fake his death, and has terminal cancer. When Claythorne tries to appeal to his sense of morality, Wargrave admits that this is his final act of justice; as whilst he is doing a bad thing he is technically still punishing the guilty.
The evil Judge then tells Vera of his ambition; he wants to create an unsolvable murder before he dies. Now with all of his victims dead, he intends to shoot himself to fulfill his sense of justice, whilst completing both the puzzle and the poem. Thus he will leave behind an unsolvable mystery that nobody can solve and that for years to come the detectives will be wondering who U.N. Owen might be.
Spotting an opportunity Vera tries to bargain with Wargrave, arguing that she emptied the gun when she shot Lombard so the judge can't kill himself the way he intends. She then offers to cover up for the "despairing" old man, saying that they can pin it all on Lombard and frame him as the killer (though Wargrave says he was the sanest out of all of them) and that she, Vera, killed Lombard in self-defense. She assures Wargrave that she can fool the authorities into believing her. In her delirious, desperate state Vera finally admits - that she did it once before!
Smiling up at Vera, Wargrave calls her a "beguiling woman" and admits that she is his favorite person. This declaration most likely had an ulterior meaning i.e. he judges her the most guilty. Vera, now desperate for breath does not pick up on this, however. Instead, she tries to reason with him one last time, promising that if he just lets her down she can help save them both. Lawrence Wargrave complies, but not in the way that Vera is expecting. Instead of helping her down, he yanks the chair out from under her and places it against the wall, so that it will be clear Vera did not kill herself.
As Vera Claythorne starts choking in earnest the last verse of the poem is finally set; "One Little Soldier Boy left all alone. He went and hanged himself, and then there were none". Stopping at the door, Wargrave reaches into his pocket and reveals that he had tricked her all along. The Judge took one of the bullets out of the gun before returning it to Lombard. He gloatingly tells Vera, "You forgot the one that shot me!" demonstrating once again that whilst Vera is intelligent, she still overlooked the minor details.
With that, Wargrave closes the door on Vera and abandoning her to her fate. He then heads downstairs, returning to the dining room, where he sets the table for two, before loading the revolver with the final bullet, wiping off the fingerprints and shooting himself, using the recoil to land the revolver at the other side of the table. As such Vera Claythorne, the child murderer, the tenth "Little Soldier" and Wargrave's final victim does not escape from Soldier Island and is finally served justice for her crime.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Despite the 2015 version being the most accurate portrayal of Vera to date, there are several differences between this version of her character and other portrayals.
- In the 1945 film, she was innocent of the accusation, and Hugo is the guilty one who tricked Vera into helping him before dumping her.
- In the book, she is still guilty, but she succeeds in killing herself before she finds out the true identity of "U.N. Owen."
- The novel implies that her decision to kill Cyril was a spur of the moment and that she may have gone after him following a last-minute change of heart, though she may have done it just to cover her tracks. In this version, Vera is shown to be a much darker character, as she deliberately led Cyril to his death.
- In both the 1945 film, and the novel, she does not become physically involved with Philip Lombard.
- She was also not confronted by Hugo following the inquiry. In the book, he simply disappeared out of her life and would instead relay his suspicions to Judge Wargrave whilst the pair were on a cruise of the Atlantic. In both cases, Hugo realized what Vera had done and hated her for it.
- Her death is based on the nursery rhyme's ending "...he hanged himself and then there were none."
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 Villains(Non-Poirot & Non-Marple) | |
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