some thoughts about bly manor that i havent seen other people express yet (big spoilers)
1. Dani isn’t just haunted by her fiance, she’s haunted by what he represented. When she sees him it tends to be in mirrors, so he’s stood with her like some perverse image of heterosexuality. He tends to touch her in a sexual/romantic way which she’s clearly uncomfortable with. He is both literally the spectre of her dead fiance and a metaphor for compulsory heterosexuality.
1b. see also: dani seeing him while literally trapped in a closet against her will.
2. The last episode is 100% a metaphor for being in a relationship where one partner has a chronic/terminal illness. This includes chronic mental illness (the suicidal ideation is not there by accident). Theres a lot of subtext about feeling like a burden on your partner, being scared to put them through the trauma of your illness and being scared theyll leave you when youre too much trouble. These ideas are brought up earlier in the series when discussing Owen’s mother’s dementia (and i could make a whole other rant about Jamie’s character development in this regard).
3. Preface: I dont like peter he’s an abusive arsehole and controlling freak. BUT I think this dislike is making people less likely to examine Peter’s motivations and the character’s themes. I think he represents one of the show’s central themes about the cyclical nature of abuse; how abused people often take out their abuse on others, therefore creating more abused people.
We know peter was abused by his father (probably sexually abused if the comments about ‘other boys’ and ‘innocence’ and his mother knowing are read into) so it’s interesting to me that his actions towards Miles and Flora could be seen as him grooming them by taking over their bodies without their consent. They both seem to know to keep their interactions with him a secret, he promises them rewards for their compliance and when they complain that he ‘tucks them away’ without their consent he acts contrite and promises not to do it again. Peter embodies the cycle of abuse, grooming the children the way he himself was likely groomed. I am not in any way excusing his actions, just saying its interesting.
4. Linked to the above point: the cyclical nature of the lady in the lake (how she walks the same path each time, how her years trapped in the trunk were a repeating cycle) parallels the cycle of abuse and this is totally intentional. Viola started this cycle of pain, abuse and death through her unwillingness for her loved ones to watch her die. She and Perdita murder each other, another strange cycle of violence, and the ghosts created by the cyclical violence are trapped in her “gravity” and unable to leave (aka unable to leave the cycle of abuse). The cycle will keep on going forever until it is stopped actively, just like real cycles of abuse.
4b. Dani stops the cycle (both the cycle of abuse and the lady in the lake) through a totally selfless act of love. this makes me cry bc she’s so good, she didnt deserve any of this.
5. Peter and Rebecca’s “love” is intentionally compared to Dani and Jamie’s. Dani and Jamie discuss how “love is not about possession”. Peter LITERALLY possesses Rebecca so he can force her to stay with him forever. Jamie knows that Dani will have to leave someday and cherishes every minute, Peter murders Rebecca to prevent her from leaving. Poetic Cinema.
6. everyone has said this but its worth noting. I’m crying. I’m fucking crying. everything about this show is so good I havent even delved into half the shit i could wtf
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