The Haunting of Bly Manor: Episode Analysis
Episode 2 of The Haunting of Bly Manor is split into two halves, with the first being 6 months earlier and focusing on how and why Miles got sent home from boarding school; and the second half continuing with the present-day storyline at the manor.
A teacher at Milesâ school, Father Stack, who takes a particular interest in helping Miles, reads a bible excerpt from Mark 5:11 in one of the lessons. He reads ânow, there on the hillside a great herd of swine were feeding. And the unclean spirits begged him, âsend us into the swine, let us enter themâ. So, he gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine. And the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the lakeâ. The excerpt is important to Miles in regard to the rules for Peter and Rebecca taking over his and Floraâs bodies. According to this bible story, Miles is told that Peter and Rebecca cannot survive in his and Floraâs bodies without them being pushed out, unless Miles and Flora give âpermissionâ for them to enter their bodies.
Itâs a notable difference that the original bible excerpt says that they were drowned in the âseaâ, not the âlakeâ. This alteration brings our attention the story, as it makes it more akin to Miles and Floraâs situation. It also brings it to Milesâ own attention that Peter and Rebecca taking over their bodies permanently will âdrownâ them, because they will never be able to take over their own bodies again. However, it also gives Miles hope that even the âdemonsâ canât take away manâs god given free will; and so Peter and Rebecca canât take possession of their bodies permanently, without them being given the opportunity to use their own choice to grant them that permission.
Father Stack also calls the âunclean spiritsâ, which are parallel to Peter and Rebecca, âdemonsâ when he is paraphrasing the story. The choice to change the word thatâs used reflects Peterâs malicious intent of taking over Milesâ body.
On the blackboard behind Father Stack, we can also see that there is a number of other bible verses which the pupils are reading in class. We can see written on the blackboard is; Mark 5:1-20, Gerasene Demonica, Matthew 8:28-34, Luke 8:26-37 and Healing Gerasene Demonica. All of the verses on the board are various narratives of the Exorcism of the Gerasene Demonica, which is the name of the story that Father Stack was reading.
Miles then receives a letter from Flora, through Father Stack. We donât find out until later in the episode that Floraâs letter says âcome homeâ, and has a drawing of her crying with a sad Rebecca and a happy Peter near her. The âcome homeâ thatâs written on the letter is a nod to The Haunting of Hill House, where Olivia wrote on the wall for Nell to âcome homeâ to her. In both of these instances âcoming homeâ results in tragedy. For Nell it resulted in her death and if Dani hadnât saved Miles and Flora, then Peter and Miss Jessel would have succeeded in possessing their bodies.
We then see Miles climb up a tree and jump from it. An action which seems odd and sudden at first, but after we find out that Miles is actually trying to get home after receiving Floraâs letter, it makes much more sense. Miles had heard at the beginning of the day that a classmate was at home and not able to return because âhe took a bit of a tumbleâ, so Miles is also trying to get sent home by taking a âbit of a tumbleâ himself. However, his plan doesnât succeed and so he acts out in a number of increasingly troubling ways in order to get sent home.
That evening, Milesâ friend, Hooper, asks him why he jumped from the tree and Miles says that he was âjust looking for the right keyâ. Looking for âthe right keyâ turns out to be something that Miles learnt from Peter. In Episode 3, Peter told Miles that to impress a woman you have to find the right key for her, and for the majority of women their âkeyâ is flowers. So in this instance, Milesâ goal is not to impress a woman but to return home to Flora, and so he is trying to find âthe right keyâ to make Father Stack give up on him and send him back home.
Milesâ third and final attempt to get himself sent home was to kill Father Stackâs bird, called Pidge, and he then shows no remorse when asked to apologise for the act. Miles does this because Father Stack told him previously that âitâs that feeling of remorse, that guilt... thatâs what distinguishes us in Godâs eyesâ and that ânone of us are blameless except... the animalsâ, and so he knows that the only way that Father Stack will send him home is if he does something unforgivable against an âinnocentsâ and shows no âguiltâ for doing so.
Back in the present day we see Hannah staring at a crack in the kitchen wall, which we go on to find out is actually a recurring vision of a crack in the well.âs wall. This crack in the wall of the well was the last thing that Hannah saw, after being pushed down the well, before she died.
As Owen, Hannah and Jamie sit and relax while Dani has the children weeding in the garden, they have a brief conversation. Jamie âtests the waterâ and asks Owen his âthoughts on the new au pairâ and says that she thinks that Dani is âmaybe a bit too prettyâ, continuing to ask him âdo you think sheâs pretty?â. Jamie is obviously interested in Dani but wants to dip her toe in the water before plunging in, to see if Owen will attempt to pursue Dani. But Owen says âdonât worry, I only have eyes for you, Hannahâ - if Jamie knew that Owen, the only man in the manor, was interested in pursuing Dani then she knows that there would be no point in even attempting to pursue Dani herself. But through this probing sheâs found out that she will have no competition from him, so she has a glimmer of hope that she might have a chance.
In this scene, Hannah also touches the back of her neck/head, which is something that she does repeatedly throughout the season. She constantly does this gesture because her neck was broken when she was pushed down the well; so she continually feels the pain in her neck, in the same way as she often sees cracks in the walls and gets stuck in memory loops.
Later, after the children and Dani have finished the gardening, Dani returns to her room to find that Flora has cleaned it and has found Eddieâs glasses amongst her belongings. Dani runs out of the house and has a panic attack, as this is probably the first time that sheâs seen the glasses since Eddieâs mother gave them to her right before she left for Europe.
Jamie is on her way to fill in the crack in the kitchen wall, which Hannah asked her to do earlier, when she comes across Dani as sheâs having her panic. Jamie handles it in the best way possible by trying to get Dani to laugh. Itâs clear that her goal was to make Dani laugh as when Dani does eventually laugh, she smiles and says âthere we areâ. Jamie continues to try to calm Dani down and to help her feel normal and not be embarrassed (we can clearly see Dani is embarrassed and trying to hide her crying), as she tells her âI cry three, maybe four ties a day around here. Five, if Iâm really being honest with myselfâ.
In return for helping to calm her down when she was having a panic attack, after finding that Miles (being possessed by Peter) has ruined Jamieâs roses, Dani tries to calm Jamie down. Although at first saying that theyâre âjust a few flowersâ, after seeing how much Jamie cares about them, Dani instead is sympathetic and says âno, youâre right, Iâll talk to himâ.
Just like Jamie did with Dani, Dani assesses the situation and adapts to fit the emotional need that was required of her at that moment - to calm Jamie down and make her feel seen. Dani shows compassion, empathy and understanding towards Jamieâs feelings, even though she might not understand why Jamie is upset herself.
When Dani is playing the game of hide and seek with Flora and Miles, Flora hides up in the attic. The attic is where the ghost of Perdita lives and thatâs why the ghost can only hum along with Flora with a strained voice - Viola strangled Perdita, so her throat must have been extensively damaged and so she can only really wheeze.
Amusingly, after Miles (being possessed by Peter) tries to strangle Dani during the game of hide and seek, Dani says that the game is over, she runs back into the main part of the house and shouts âolly olly oxen freeâ. Iâd never heard this term myself, but after looking it up, I found that itâs a phrase used to tell the players of a game that the sides have changed or that the game is over entirely. I found this amusing as it seems like a very feeble attempt to rein the children back in, after almost being strangled by one of them.
After seeing Peter through a window, we get the first example that what Dani said about herself in Episode 1, âIâm a lot braver than people thinkâ, is definitely true. She doesnât run and hide, despite being absolutely terrified of Peter, but she picks up a fire poker and runs outside, shouting âIâm going to call the fucking policeâ, to confront him herself.
At the end of the episode we get another example of Miles trying to protect Dani from the ghosts in the house. Miles knows that Peter is lurking around, as heâs just been possessing him, and so he tells Dani that he doesnât âfeel so goodâ and pretends to faint, so that Dani will come back inside and away from Peter.
You can read my previous The Haunting of Bly Manor posts here:-
Episode 1 - The Great Good Place
Episode 3 - The Two Faces, Part One
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