#thinking of that bly manor scene about 'love and possession'

[biherbalwitch]

Wan, my love, being a petty bitch looks so good on you

[alllcirclespresuppose]

Feedback Fest 2024

These are in no particular order and they are all from a few different fandoms. Just 10 fics that I love.

Increments of Longing by QuickYoke: Though I've read fic off and on for a number of years, this is the first fic that I loved as much as I loved my favorite books. The story is built well, the tension is built just right, and everything really pays off in the end. I'd only read a smattering of Jaina/Sylvanas fics before this, but it made me search out a lot more. Warcraft & World of Warcraft fandom | Jaina Proudmoore/Sylvanas Windrunner

of greater marvels yet to be by seabiscuit: I'm a sucker for religious questioning and queer desire. The build up is sooooo good, so many scenes felt so palpable. As a former Very Religious Kid(TM) who has a lot of complicated feelings about it, this did such a good job of holding the religious pieces gently in its hands while also not shying away from how complicated it makes everything and sometimes how uncomplicated it makes everything. Warrior Nun fandom | Ava Silva/Sister Beatrice

Equilibrium by caesurae: If someone had told me I'd ever read a Pacific Rim crossover I would have laughed. Especially if they told me that I would love it. The characters just really work here and I think it does a good job of showing how people can connect and love and understand each other even when it's not romantic. Overwatch fandom | Pharah/Mercy

the spectres vain by QuickYoke: this was the fic that got me into the Bly Manor fandom. I had really liked the show, but hadn't really explored much in the fandom. But I subscribe to QuickYoke and I got a notification about this fic and loved it. And then I loved many a Bly fic after. The Haunting of Bly Manor fandom | Dani Clayton/Jamie & Dani Clayton/Viola Lloyd/Jamie

i broke my bones playing games with you by mooosicaldreamz: I love Peggy Carter, and though Peggy/Angie isn't actually my favorite pairing, I think it's a great one. This is just a nice little modern day AU where Peggy is Captain America (written before we had our Captain Carter) and she meets Angie and they eventually fall in love. Agent Carter fandom | Peggy Carter/Angie Martinelli

not quite enemies, not quite allies by afterism: Peggy/Dottie is my favorite Peggy Carter pairing, though it doesn't necessarily lend itself to very longform fics. It's just smut, but I think it's a good enemies to lovers that moves very quickly and ends really believably. And kind of makes me wish there was more fic to go with it. Agent Carter fandom | Peggy Carter/Dottie Underwood

there's a funeral in your eyes by nirav: I love this for everything that goes through Ava's mind as she is dealing with the person she loves being possessed and trying to kill her. I really love this scene being reimagined as if Beatrice had been possessed, and I especially love how this fic does it. Warrior Nun fandom | Ava Silva/Sister Beatrice

Three Nights by lecriteuse: In Dragon Age: Origins I've always had my warden romance Leliana. She's my favorite character, I like having her around as much as possible no matter what game I'm playing. But when I met Josephine and had her tell me a bit of her background, I restarted my game and made it so my warden had never romanced Leliana so I could let her and Josephine have a go at it before Inquisition. This fic does a great job of putting that into writing. Dragon Age: Inquisition fandom | Leliana/Josephine Montilyet

who needs comfortable love by the_ominous_owl: This was just a really fun take on the Warrior Nun mythology. And a really well thought out and written play on it. Considering we'll only have the two seasons, this slots in really nicely to the gaps of questions left behind. It's also really cute. Warrior Nun fandom | Ava Silva/Sister Beatrice

bring home a haunting by QuickYoke and youngbloodbuzz: If the spectres vain is what got me into the Bly Manor fandom, then this is what made me stay. I looked forward to this fic every week, often staying up very late as the chapters got longer. This is the fic I return to when I finish a rewatch because it does a really good job of conveying a lot of the same emotions and themes. Bly Manor's big theme of ghost stories and love stories being the same thing is really, really present here: what if the the ghosts of our past came back and our emotions continued to haunt us until we confronted them? The Haunting of Bly Manor fandom | Dani Clayton/Jamie

[kissmejusttokissme]

I posted 115 times in 2022

That's 115 more posts than 2021!

86 posts created (75%)

29 posts reblogged (25%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@kissmejusttokissme

@palmviolet

@monstrousfemale

@panicsam

@grandmastattoo

I tagged 110 of my posts in 2022

Only 4% of my posts had no tags

#steddie - 32 posts

#steddie fic - 21 posts

#steddie twilight au - 20 posts

#waiting room - 18 posts

#my fics - 16 posts

#steddie ao3 - 16 posts

#eddie munson - 15 posts

#ronance - 9 posts

#anon answered - 9 posts

#steve harrington - 8 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#lads let’s just imagine robin buckley going with steve to watch one of eddie’s shows and seeing the girl that she’s had a crush on for years

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Stranger Things AUs that I keep thinking about:

Ronance High School Musical Au

Steddie Camp Rock Au

Steddie Stardew Valley Au

Scooby Squad zombie apocalypse Au

Ronance Bly Manor Au

Steddie Howls Moving Castle Au

Ronance Pride & Prejudice

Steddie JATP Au

52 notes - Posted August 20, 2022

#4

Steddie Buzzfeed Unsolved Au PT2 (PT1 Here)

Kind of obsessed with looking at it from Eddie’s point of view. The man is an age-old demon hiding in plain sight at a fucking digital entertainment company. Before joining Steve's show, his job was to make internet quizzes and low-effort viral videos along with other boring stuff behind the scenes. (I imagine him as the demon equivalent to the trio from wwdits. Like, most other demons are out there possessing little kids and ruining people’s lives and Eddie is writing quizzes to purposely give people the worse answers in their 'Which Character Am I?' quiz.) He doesn’t even try too hard to hide his demon nature. People just always write it off as something else.

Then he meets Steve Harrington and, for the first time in decades, he starts having fun. And, sure, it feels a little disingenuous to be wandering around these haunted houses acting like the ghosts aren’t real (because, you know, he can literally see every ghost they encounter) but it gets a rise out of Steve and isn’t that what demons are supposed to do? Get rises out of people. (Plus, being friends with a human gets a rise out of the other demons so it’s a win-win situation.)

So, he starts enjoying the job and seeing how far he can take it. (Which, apparently, is very far.) Suddenly, he is the co-owner of Goatman’s bridge and he’s laying on the pentagram belonging to the demon at Sallie House (which he’s pretty sure gives him some sort of claim but, then again, what does he know? Demon law is exactly as boring as it sounds and he refuses to learn anything beyond what he needs). Not to mention that he keeps getting invited into Holy Spaces and speaking to priests and it’s all starting to get him a reputation as something a lot more powerful than he actually is.

(Somewhere among the way he might start falling in love with his co-host. Though he doesn’t admit it. Even he knows that a demon-human relationship is something that only works out in CW shows and bad romance novels.)

But then Steve finds out that he’s a demon. God knows how but he starts flicking Holy Water at Eddie and reciting scripture that he’s definitely reading off of his phone. It hurts but what had Eddie expected? The guy is a paranormal investigator after all. (And that puts a horrifying thought in Eddie’s head. Does that make him a paranormal investigator as well?)

After that initial moment of panic, Steve calms down and, much to Eddie's surprise, he doesn't start looking at Eddie like he’s a monster. He’s just mad that Eddie has been skewing the results. (“It’s not a win for the sceptics IF A DEMON IS SCARING THE GHOSTS AWAY!!!”) (And yes, Eddie finally admits to himself that he’s in love with the guy because how the hell can he not be.)

They spend the next couple of hours talking about every case they’ve investigated. Eddie refuses to tell Steve which locations were actually haunted but does tell him which demons were real. After four seasons, it’s the least he can do. But then Steve starts asking about how old long Eddie's been around and they find out that him being a demon bleeds into their true crime stuff as well. Because Eddie is older than fucking dirt and he's been around for most of them. Not that he knows anything useful. (“Jack the Ripper? Oh yeah, I was in London for that whole thing. No idea who he was but the beer was good.”) Which drives Steve up the fucking walls.

Even though he'd never admit it, Eddie is scared that the revelation means that they’re going to end the show but Steve just takes it as a challenge. (And maybe Eddie lets him get some evidence now and then. Just never through the spirit box. He hates that fucking thing.)

65 notes - Posted August 25, 2022

#3

do you have any steddie fic recs?

Do I ever!!! Thank you for asking me this because there are so many fantastic fics that I need everyone to read :) (These are not listed in any particular way, I love them all equally and couldn't pick my favourite if I tried.)

The Babysitters Club by salemofficialbb [completed] I don't actually know if I read this or Sub Culture first but I know that I consider both of them my introductory fics when it comes to Steddie. This fic is a chat-based fic that focuses on the older kids and their efforts to get Steve & Eddie together. It's cute and it's fun and it's one I reread when I need to smile. It's got Ronance, it's got Jonathan/Argyle and a ship I really like but don't see a lot of, which is Vickie/Chrissy. I laughed out loud while reading this, I squealed at times, I felt lighter after finishing it. (Also, something I did not notice the first time around because I'm v dumb is that most of the time when the characters send photos in the chats, the author links to a Tumblr with the photos so you can see them. It's immersive and I love it and yeah, please read this fic if you want to smile.

sub-culture by palmviolet [completed] I know this one gets recommended all the time but there's a reason for that. This fic is just mind-blowing in every way. It's beautifully written and the author has such a grip on the characters that they might as well just start writing for the show. It had me hooked from the first chapter where Steve helps Eddie through a panic attack and I read the whole thing in one sitting and my life is better for it, I think. The author takes such care in writing the story in a way that's respectful not only to the time period (make sure you read the author's notes because I have learnt so much about 80s gay culture from this author) but also with the characters. I really feel like I'm not doing it justice but I don't want to spoil anything about it because it's just amazing. If you haven't read it, please do. It's well worth your time. [Also, while I'm here, please consider reading palmviolet's other works such as the lathe (a time loop fic that's taken years off of my life) and their who says it was simple series (I am a simp for Eddie & Max interactions and would like to see more of them.)

Camp Folktale, Summer of ‘86 by cairparavels [WIP] I'm pretty sure I rec'd this in a Waiting Room author's note because I am obsessed with it. It's a fluffy little camp councillor's au and every update has me kicking my legs and losing my mind. All the ingredients for a good soup are in this fic: Steve being uselessly in love with Eddie, Eddie being uselessly in love with Steve, the kids being little shits and trying to get them together, the kids having fleshed out little stories alongside Steve and Eddie, Ronance, Chrissy and Fred (which I didn't expect but love) and Mews II playing a pivotal role in not only Steddie's story but my happiness. The author updates incredibly regularly and every update is great so don't let the fact it's a WIP put you off. It's worth your time and a nice cheerful story if you want a break from reading a lot of angsty fics.

all my ghosts (are with me) by steve_the_hair_harrington (peter_parkerson) [completed] This is a series of three fics that focus on Steve's reaction to sleeping with Eddie for the first time. The first two don't feature Eddie as a character but rather they focus on Steve & Robin as she tries to help him through his realisation that he likes Eddie. All of the parts are very well written and the friendship between Steve & Robin is spot on. (Not to go on a tangent but I also really appreciate the way that this author writes both Robin & Eddie as autistic characters. I felt it was handled really respectfully and also showed that two people can be autistic and have different ways of presenting it, which is always really nice to see.)

I Wake Up When Everyone's Gone by beetlesandstars [completed] This one is angsty as hell and I love it. This one-shot focuses on how Steve and, to a lesser extent, Dustin deal with Eddie's death. It's not a very long read but manages to do a lot in a little amount of time and I love when stories really focus on grief. It's one of my favourite things to read about/consume. Especially when they tackle the idea that grief isn't uniform and one person's grief isn't going to be the same as another even if they're grieving the same person. And this author does that beautifully.

Who the fuck reads to you in hell? by lichtbringer (percyinpanties) [completed] Another one-shot. This fic is about Steve reading Lord of the Rings to Eddie while he's in the hospital recovering from the events of volume two. I love the snapshots of his friends while he's in the process of waking up. I love the characterisation of Steve. I love that Eddie is alive and being taken care of. I just love this fic.

Keep it Steady, Eddie by outofmygourd [completed] Another classic when it comes to Steddie fics but one that I've only recently got around to reading. This fic features Eddie working at Family Video with Robin & Steve and the slow-burn but incredibly sweet story of them falling in love. It also features Robin/Vickie and I smiled every time they were mentioned because they're so cute and I love them. Like with Sub-Culture I don't want to mention specific scenes and ruin them but there are so many amazing scenes in this fic. I really loved how the author incorporated the kids in a way that felt really natural as well as Wayne. It felt like the world was alive outside of Steve/Eddie and I just loved it. Definitely recommend this fic and also Not so Bad by the same author.

Some Cupids Kill With Dice by horrormoviebarbie [WIP] I bookmarked this fic with Lady Gaga's speech from that meme because I truly felt like it encapsulated the way I felt about it. In this fic, Steve Harrington is a single father to Dustin & Max who falls in love with his kid's English teacher, Eddie Munson. There are four chapters out right now and each of them felt like a gift from the universe. This author not only understands Steve on a cellular level but manages to create a story so amazing separate from the events of Stranger Things (I believe this is an AU in which there are no monsters) that I would not only buy it as a published book but I also want to see it made into either a TV Show or Movie.

the most remarkable thing about you standing in the doorway is that it’s you by greatunironic [completed] So I read the entirety of this fic in one sitting last night and it has changed me as a person. The characterisation of the kids as adults is perfect. The fear of rejection and the sunken cost mentality that if you leave something for too long then it's not worth touching? Killed me. The depiction of death (especially from a long-term illness) and the different types of grief that follow it took me out and put me back together again. I want to own Ed Levy's discography. I want to pin his interviews up on my wall. I want Madchen and Robin to be my best friends. I want this fic tattoed onto the back of my eyelids.

I don't know how many you wanted so I'm going to leave it there in case I've maybe gone a bit overboard. I do have more so if you'd like more, please let me know because I love talking about the amazing fics that I've read. Also, if you're reading any of these for the first time and you're enjoying them, please make sure to leave a kudos and a comment telling the author just how much you've loved them!

74 notes - Posted August 3, 2022

#2

Steddie Twilight AU ideas cause it's giving me brainrot:

Steve's parents are divorced. He spends most of the year living with his dad in Hawkins but spends summers and holidays with his mum across the country. He doesn't get on with either parent but it's easier to be around his mum because she's kind of just self-absorbed whereas his dad is overly-critical and just unpleasant to be around.

Steve misses his first go at senior year because he's roped into going travelling with his mum for a year after her latest divorce. It's not something he really wanted to do but he's nothing if he isn't a people pleaser and the chance to get away from his dad for a year was too good to pass up.

Except when he gets back to Hawkins things are... weird.

People keep going missing and turning up dead. Like, brutally dead. (Most of them drained of blood as well.) The police keep talking about animal attacks but Steve's never seen an animal pop someone's eyeballs from the inside out.

Also there's a new guy in town.

A ridiculously good-looking guy who works the night shift at the gas station but still turns up to school in the morning fresh-faced and rearing to go. A guy who, despite being a complete social outcast, is somehow joined at the hip with Steve's ex.

And Steve doesn't care about this new guy. He's just some guy. He's just... concerned about Nancy. (Especially after Robin tells him that Nancy ran away for almost a month while he was gone and then came back different.) So, yeah, he keeps bumping into Eddie and trying to get information out of him. (Like why his insanely gorgeous eyes keep. changing. colour... or how he's never tired even though Steve knows he doesn't get off work till like 6am.)

Except they just keep hanging out and Steve's concern shifts into a full-on gay crisis when he realises that 1) thinking about Eddie's eyes and rings and long soft hair isn't bro behaviour, and 2) Eddie is a vampire and he might actually be the one committing the murders

123 notes - Posted July 15, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Steddie AU: Buzzfeed Unsolved Edition (PT2 here)

Steve Harrington, a life-long believer in all things spooky, starts a silly little web series with his friend, Robin. The first season is relatively tame. Just Steve and Robin sitting in the front seat of his car, driving around Hawkins and talking about urban legends and unsolved mysteries. It's cheap to make and, hey, he's getting paid to hang out with his best friend so Steve isn't about to start complaining. But in the gap between Season 1 and Season 2, the show goes viral. Suddenly his bosses want him to go to haunted locations and try and capture evidence of the supernatural. Robin, rightly, backs the fuck out at that. Real or not, she doesn't want to mess with that sort of stuff. Not when the consequence is potentially being haunted for the rest of her life.

Enter Eddie Munson, a co-worker of Steve and Robin, who is so utterly unbothered by the supernatural that they have to put him on the project. The dynamic is perfect: the true believer and the absolute sceptic. And, as much as it surprises Steve, he actually kind of likes hanging around with Eddie. Office rumours be damned. Together they work their way through all the most haunted locations in America, collecting evidence (or as Eddie calls it *bullshit*) and not solving a single damn thing.

That is until the fourth season of the show when Steve suggests they try and perform an exorcism as the big season finale. He's bought a cursed doll on eBay and has all the equipment ready for the shoot. It's the first idea that Eddie ever shoots down and Steve can't work out why until one day he reads a fan theory that Eddie is a demon. It's an inside joke of the fandom and the accepted explanation as to why they never get any concrete evidence. And, sure, it's dumb but so is Steve sometimes, so he splashes Eddie with Holy Water the next time they're working late on set. And, well, that's the story of the first supernatural mystery that Steve Harrington ever solves.

238 notes - Posted August 23, 2022

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[novelconcepts]

Hi. I have a weird ask, only if you have time for it, of course.

I was wondering what are your favourite/most memoriable quotes from Bly Manor are and also, what are your absolute favourites/meaningful?

Thank you!!

I think my absolute favorite of all is “we’re heading into the dark, and we have to hang on to each other, so we can only carry so much.” I think that sums up the entire idea of this little family, made up entirely of people who have been through Some Shit, and still love each other so much. Also the narrator’s bit about finding someone you can be tired around. And the final exchange about getting through life with and without your forever person.

I’m also really attached to some of Dani’s little moments, but I think that’s more delivery than the quotes themselves. The way she delivers the whole speech about “there’s just too many of them; I could make a difference with just two” cracks my heart. Owen’s observation about anchors and burdens gets me; Jamie’s “I’ll feel everything for the both of us” on the heels of Dani’s “I’m so tired” speech. And I really appreciate Rebecca’s “no one should ever need that much help”.

Also, not a line, but I absolutely love the piano cue right as Dani whips her head around when Jamie says “good” in the greenhouse. It’s a perfect musical/performance moment.

[theadventurousdork]

Dani Clayton and Jamie Taylor: A scene by scene study on the dynamism of a queer romance

by theadventurousdork

Well, here we are! An unnecessarily long essay breaking down Dani and Jamie’s scenes together that I decided to write purely for the fact that they have taken a hold of my queer little heart and haven’t given it back yet. Grab some awful tea or coffee and take a read, if you’d like! 

Episode One

In this episode, we see Dani and Jamie meet for the very first time. This is the beginning of them and their story. It all starts in the kitchen of Bly Manor where a dirt covered Jamie walks in just in time for the residents of Bly to gather for an afternoon lunch.

“The gardener didn’t even introduce herself to the new au pair. She barely acknowledged her at all. Simply treated her as if she’d always been there. The others in the room just assumed they’d already met, which, if she were honest, was how the au pair felt when she first saw the young woman.”

Jamie walks in without even batting an eye to the new guest meanwhile, we see a soft eyed Dani looking over at the gardener with a gaze that gives the audience the first look to the gravitational pull that seems to be set between them. With Dani explaining her belief that she has seen someone on the parapet of the old wing, Jamie’s reaction is cold. She looks down at the table with a hardened look. She looks almost hurt. We learn later on that Jamie was the first adult resident of Bly to find the dead body of Rebecca Jessel floating in the lake of the manor which has probably resulted in trauma for Jamie as she remembers her late friend. With Owen and Hannah also finding the possibility of someone being on the balcony to be slim, the residents carry on with their meal. As the introduction to Jamie’s character, we are able to see her cold and guarded exterior. However, we also see her wit and humor as she comfortably pokes fun at Miles and Flora. The space she takes when she walks into a room isn’t empty for she fills it with her bold personality and Dani immediately takes notice of this yet she doesn’t show any hint of openly acknowledging it. 

Episode Two

Episode two sheds a different light on the pairing. This episode gives us the first look at Dani’s trauma and the weight that she’s feeling on her conscience. But first, we see her changing the tide at Bly as she puts Miles and Flora to work in the garden as punishment for locking her in a closet. As Dani and the children pull weeds, a relaxed Hannah and Jamie watch from a distance just as Owen offers them drinks. As the trio sip on their gin and tea, they discuss Dani and how her presence is a nice addition to the grounds of Bly. This is where something I call “testing of the waters: part one” occurs. Jamie asks Owen if he thinks that Dani’s pretty before continuing to poke fun at his inability to answer. Now this seems rude, especially considering Hannah’s negative reaction to it even going as far as to remind her that romances don’t fare well at Bly. However, I feel like Jamie does this purposefully to see if Owen would provide any reaction that would indicate that he would have any intent of pursuing Dani, which he quickly shuts down as he states that he only has eyes for Hannah. Jamie’s choice to do this can boil down to a simple poking of fun or maybe something more in terms of her trying to understand, and maybe even deny, the gravitational pull that she’s feeling towards Dani by deflecting it to Owen. 

This episode also offers the first glimpse into Jamie’s humanity and her deeply empathetic nature. As a distressed Dani storms outside in tears after being triggered from seeing her dead ex-fiancé’s glasses, our favorite gardener comes to the rescue with buckets in hand. Now this is probably the first time that Dani has physically seen Edmund’s glasses since she packed them away before leaving Bly which can explain her intense reaction to finding Flora wearing them. The part to highlight about this interaction between Jamie and Dani isn’t the fact that Jamie tries to console her but is the way that she does so. First and foremost, the gardener tries to make au pair laugh. She makes multiple attempts in her dialogue to make Dani crack the slightest smile. Jamie’s dialogue saying, “there we are,” after Dani finally gives into the attempted jokes shows how laughter was Jamie’s initial goal. 

“How else do you think I keep all these fucking plants watered? With my endless well of deep inconsolable tears. That’s how. It’s what got me the job in the first place.” 

After she accomplishes this, she goes on to relate to Dani by telling her that she cries several times a day in an effort to make Dani feel normal and not alone in her vulnerable state. To see someone as cold and guarded as Jamie admit to something like this quickly humanizes her and puts her in the position of becoming a dynamic character. Finally, Jamie tells the au pair that she’s doing a great job and leaves a smiling Dani to watch her as she leaves. This offers insight to how Jamie doesn’t like seeing people in distress. She radiates a grounding energy and puts it upon herself to ensure that no one feels like they’re in over their head. 

Dani is able to return the favor as she finds an angry Jamie kneeled over a massacre of her rose bushes. Jamie’s hotheaded attitude is shown as she wastes no time getting up to confront Miles for cutting her roses before they were ready. The point to highlight in this moment is that Dani hears her out. Dani listens to Jamie’s grievances and not once tells her that she’s overreacting. Dani hasn’t known Jamie for long but she knows the importance of plants to the gardener and she doesn’t give Miles a pass at ruining something that matters so much to her. Having two separate scenes showing that each half of the pair have the power to talk each other down regardless of having known each other long, serves as a taste as what’s to come for their journey together. 

Episode Three

Here we see “testing of the waters: part two” as the keepers of Bly watch over a sleeping Miles and Flora by a crackling fireplace. A tired Hannah rests her head on Owen’s shoulder as Dani and Jamie watch from across the room. Jamie goes onto ask Dani if she wishes she were leaning on Owen instead of Hannah and explains how every woman in town fawns over Owen without him even knowing it. This key moment goes hand in hand with Jamie’s testing of the waters in episode 2 when she tests Owen’s potential attraction to Dani to now testing to see if Dani would be interested in Owen. Jamie’s subtle comments allow her to see the odds of Dani liking Owen without risking any awkward interaction that would potentially be too invasive. With Owen being the only man in the house, it’s understandable for Jamie to want to see if Dani would pursue him which in turn would signal that Dani may not be interested in someone like her.

What comes next is what I like to believe is the moment that Jamie begins to fall for Dani and I mean really fall for her. The conversation about love and possession is beautifully done and sets the distinction that will go onto separate Peter and Rebecca from Dani and Jamie. After a vindictive history lesson on the toxicity of Peter and Rebecca’s relationship, Jamie mentions the idea of loving someone versus possessing someone to which Dani replies that she doesn’t believe should be possible. The effect of this is seen on Jamie’s face as she looks at Dani. It’s a face that says that she’s staring at someone who understands. Understands the fragility of love and the thin lines that separate healthy versions of love from toxic ones. It happens in the span of a second but we can see a switch click in Jamie’s mind just before she breaks her gaze. From what we collect of Jamie’s past a few episodes later, we come to understand that she has always been owned. Stemming from a broken home and growing up in the foster care system, Jamie has always been someone else’s possession to claim ownership of but never was truly loved and nurtured. To hear someone finally understand that there’s a distinction between loving someone versus feeling like they have the right of possessing them, must feel like a moment of overdue comfort. 

After a restless night due to seeing Edmund’s ghost again, Dani wakes up the following morning to see Jamie asleep on the couch. This scene lasts merely thirty seconds so why make the choice to keep it in? What significance does it really hold? Is there any significance at all? For me, the significance is comfort. I feel like there’s a level of comfort that Dani feels when she realizes that Jamie was just down the stairs as she laid awake the night prior feeling as if she were alone in the depths of her own shadows. 

The new day ends in the tragic news that Owen’s mom has passed away. After a sympathetic Hannah sends Owen off and leaves to light a candle for the deceased, the gardener and au pair are left to give their own goodbyes to each other. As Dani voices that she’s glad that Jamie stayed on the grounds throughout the day and the night prior, Jamie agrees and the two share an uninterrupted gaze at one another. Here is where we see Dani’s first advance as she takes hold of Jamie’s hand. Ever so slightly does Jamie latch back before Dani quickly pulls away. 

“Who the hell knew?”

Those words leave Jamie’s mouth as a mixture of relief and shock paint her face as she gets into her car. Dani watches her drive away with an expression that reads “did I really do what I think I just did?” This moment is cut short as she turns around to see Edmund’s ghost staring blankly from behind her. Fear overcomes Dani and a scream is let out as Edmund gets sucked backwards by an invisible force. Up until this point, Edmund’s ghost has remained stagnant, either appearing in a reflection or in parts. This extreme motion of getting pulled backward into the manor can be read as a way to reflect the intensity of the emotions that Dani is feeling in that exact moment. The amount of tension that Dani must have felt to muster up the courage to reach for Jamie’s hand must have been extremely intense which in turn would evoke an intense manifestation of Edmund’s ghost. 

Episode Four 

Episode four is what I call the episode of guilt. In this hour, we delve deeper into Dani’s past and the darkness that she’s been holding in her heart. Dani’s life just before Bly is revealed and we see snippets of her life with Edmund. From childhood best friends to teenage lovers to getting engaged, Dani and Edmund almost seemed like the perfect set up to an 80s romcom. Almost is the key word here as it’s revealed that Dani breaks up with Edmund just before he storms out of their car into the path of an oncoming truck, killing him right in front of her thus revealing why Edmund is haunting her. Flashforward to Bly, Dani has begun to see Edmund’s ghost more and more. His first appearance in the episode is in Dani’s bedroom mirror just as Jamie helps unzip her dress. If it weren’t apparent in the episodes prior, Dani holds an immense amount of guilt. This guilt doesn’t only stem from being the reason why Edmund was killed but also lies in who she is. Edmund’s presence is symbolic for the guilt that Dani feels whenever she is just on the brink of exploring her sexuality. We see that every interaction that Dani has with Edmund’s ghost occurs just after she shares a moment with Jamie. With Jamie being a tangible representation of what Dani desires, her visions of Edmund become more intense and more frequent as her guilt increases. 

The episode continues to show Dani experiencing Edmund’s haunting again when Jamie arrives back to the manor after attending Owen’s mom’s funeral. Here we see Dani catching herself staring at Jamie from across the table. When Jamie catches her gaze, Dani retreats to the sink where we see a mixture of nervousness and excitement across Dani’s face as she looks over her shoulder to take one more look. This moment filled with butterflies and yearning is cut short as Edmund’s hands slide across Dani’s hips as she sees him in a reflection which causes her to panic. Edmund’s presence is growing closer and stronger as Dani has begun to navigate her feelings for Jamie.

In a flashback, we get a glimpse into possibly one of the first times that Dani’s internal conflict of her sexuality crosses her mind. As Dani gets a dress fitted, the female tailor makes flirtatious passes at her. We see Dani acknowledge these advances and isn’t opposed to them occurring. The scene switches to a guilt stricken Dani, her eyebrows furrowed above saddened eyes that wander upward to Jamie who’s helping prep the table for dinner. This quick glance up to Jamie holds so much. The internal turmoil that Dani is feeling in this moment is palpable. To think that all of her moments of repression have led up to this. This feeling of wanting. This feeling of yearning. To live openly and authentically as the person she’s always been.

Later that night, the keepers of Bly hold a bonfire to honor those that they’ve lost. A weight can be felt on the four as they remember their late loved ones by the warmth of the fire. The concept of found family lies in the heart of those who find a home at Bly and can be seen through Hannah and Jamie’s odes to the late Rebecca, Dominic, and Charlotte. 

“Because from here on in, the shadows get deeper… the nights get longer. We’re heading into the dark and we have to hang onto each other. So, we can only carry so much.”

As they commemorate who they’ve lost, Jamie mentions Dani and how she believes that Dani is the key to getting Miles and Flora back to themselves. A moment of pain rushes across Dani’s face as Jamie states how she believes that Dani is stronger than she thinks. To be in the midst of an internal conflict yet hear how someone believes in your strength can be something so painful to hear as you struggle to believe it yourself. We see Dani in a battle with herself as she fights to live authentically regardless of the guilt she’s carrying. 

Eventually, the gardener and the au pair break away from Owen and Hannah to go to the greenhouse. A pivotal moment in the growth of Dani and Jamie’s relationship occurs here when Dani makes the decision to lay everything out on the table for Jamie and finally explain her history with Edmund as well as sometimes seeing his ghost. 

“I’ve never told anybody that.”

These words that leave Dani’s mouth are so intimate and so vulnerable. Jamie takes what she’s being dealt and handles it with such a level of care that ensures that Dani knows that she’s being heard and respected. As we’ve seen Jamie talk Dani down from a breakdown in episode 2, we see a parallel here where Jamie takes it upon herself to make Dani laugh in an effort to console her. This moment is cut short as Dani musters the courage to ask the heartbreaking question that allows Jamie to make the decision whether to take or leave Dani and all of her baggage.

“Think I’m crazy?”

The pain in Dani’s face as she asks this shows just how scared she is to be rejected by the one person she wants the most. Without even a hint of hesitation, Jamie reassures her that nothing has changed in her view of Dani’s strength. A wave of relief comes over Dani as she’s hit her tipping point of acting upon the feelings she’s been suppressing all this time. She kisses Jamie and a moment of vulnerability is shown on Jamie’s face as she gets the confirmation that Dani is sure in her decision to do this. This moment is short lived by Edmund’s ghost appearing just behind Jamie, causing Dani to retreat in a panic. This is probably the worst cockblock in the history of cockblocks. Dani quickly retreats as Jamie mirrors her actions and immediately puts her walls back up as embarrassment sinks into them both in different directions. As the pair make it back to Hannah and Owen, Dani is visibly disappointed with how things ended up. Jamie’s comment of “it’s all good” as she guides Owen away from the bonfire shows how she would prefer to move on right away instead of confronting the confusing messages she’s just received from Dani. 

The final scene of the episode is what I like to call Dani’s last straw. Dani’s guilt has turned to anger as she makes the decision to confront her own shadows by throwing Edmund’s glasses into the bonfire. Flashbacks of kissing Jamie intercut the scene to really solidify Dani’s desires to move on and be able to freely love her without the burden of her past. 

“It’s just you and me then.”

Dani is tired. She’s waited for this moment. She’s finally accepted this part of her and she stares straight into Edmund’s ghost without any more fear. She’s found the strength to move on. 

Episode Six

The sponsor of this episode is cement as Dani and Jamie cement their relationship in this hour. The episode begins with Dani’s attempt at reconciliation after the unfortunate cockblock of a certain dead ex-fiancé in episode four. Dani wakes up at the crack of dawn to visit Jamie in her greenhouse. Dani’s entire existence in this moment is ridden with nervousness as she puts on her best “everything is normal” face. Jamie is quick to notice how out of character waking up this early is for Dani to which Dani dismisses. We see that Jamie’s cold and guarded exterior is back and for good reason considering the unfortunate events at the end of her and Dani’s last interaction.  Dani’s eagerness to patch things up puts her through several attempts at getting a reaction out of Jamie, each of which ends up being shut down. First is the gesture of giving Jamie coffee which results in her gently spitting it back into the cup. Next is Dani’s attempt at voicing how lonely she’s been.

“No Owen. No you.”

Dani’s voice drags on a little longer here to emphasize how Jamie’s absence the last few days have created a noticeable emptiness at the manor. Jamie responds with a simple “sometimes people wanna be alone” which seems like her own personal choice. However, Dani finally gets a reaction through Jamie’s icy exterior when she makes her laugh after a terrible attempt at a British accent. This mirrors the other instances prior where Jamie has made the effort to make Dani laugh in order to ease any emotional tension. After the ice has been broken, we see Dani’s first wind of confidence as she asks Jamie out to a boring ol’ date at a boring ol’ pub. We can see relief and a sense of pride strewn across Dani’s face when Jamie catches her drift. This marks the beginning of a fresh start for the two. 

The next time we see the pair is in the kitchen as Jamie surprises Dani by coming back to the manor after initially leaving.

“Made it halfway home and I thought ‘rough day, maybe Poppins might fancy a little boredom.’”

Dani’s shocked excitement quickly turns into awkward nervousness as Hannah and Owen wave them away to spend time together. Jamie gently takes Dani’s hand and guides her out of the room. This presents the reaffirmation that Jamie still cares enough to try again with Dani.  

The gardener leads the au pair somewhere off on the grounds of Bly to a secret area where moonflowers have bloomed. She explains how difficult they are to grow in England and how fragile their lifespan is. 

“That’s a lot of work for a flower that only blooms once.”

“That’s what people feel like to me. Exhaustive effort, very little to show for it.”

“All of them?”

“All of them. Even you. Even me… especially me.”

Jamie’s emphasis on herself shows her insecurity of not being enough after anyone makes the effort to break down her walls and gets to know who she really is. What follows is a tear-jerking speech that gives insight on Jamie’s past and her painful upbringing. From the details of her childhood like growing up in a broken home, being forced into foster care, and serving time in jail, we begin to understand why she puts such a strong, guarded front. The absence of a family unit in her youth and young adulthood has resulted in her feeling like she may be unlovable. Like she might not be worth the effort of loving. Just as Dani did in episode four, this is Jamie laying everything out on the table for Dani to decide whether or not she will take or leave Jamie and all of her baggage. After Jamie finishes her monologue, Dani gets up and doesn’t say a word. She takes hold of Jamie and kisses her. No words can alleviate the pain that Jamie’s endured but the effort of loving her can be a start. Dani pulls away for a brief moment to reveal a relieved Jamie smiling back at her after she has realized that Dani has chosen to accept her for everything that she is. 

The next scene they have together is the morning after Dani finally gets her first restful night’s sleep. 

“The au pair could not remember that last time she’d slept this well. And she thought perhaps she never had.”

The moment to highlight in this short scene is Dani stopping to look at herself in the mirror. She is finally able to see her truest self without being haunted of guilt. She smiles as she looks at her reflection and to a sleeping Jamie in the bed next to her. She’s finally made peace with herself. 

The final Dani and Jamie scene of the episode occurs at the end of the day just as Dani puts Flora to bed. Here we see the purity in the relationship that the two are creating. We see Dani unapologetically long for Jamie as she says she’s going to leave for the night. The au pair’s subtle look at the gardener’s lips as she speaks and the inching closer and closer to her shows just how high Dani’s confidence levels have risen to after being able to finally love freely. To see Dani in such a smitten state of mind is a breath of fresh air for not only herself but for us, the viewers, who have seen her in such a trapped state of mind when it comes to loving someone. The innocence of longing, in tandem of making the promise of spending other nights together, show how much care and caution they are taking in order to ensure that they’re building their relationship in a healthy manner. What they are both experiencing shows a trade off of what they each have to give to the other. Dani has accepted her sexuality, which is something that seems like Jamie has already done long ago. Meanwhile, Jamie is being loved and wanted, potentially for the first time which is something that Dani has already experienced in her past. Each half of the pairing offers support and guidance to the other as they begin their journey as a couple. 

Episode Nine

This final episode of the season was an absolute doozy in terms of Dani and Jamie’s relationship. I’ve watched all of these scenes a solid million times over and I bawl my eyes out every. damn. time. But I mopped up my tear-soaked notebook and carried on for the purpose of this essay. The episode picks up action as Flora sacrifices herself to save Dani from being dragged and choked to death by Viola, the Lady of the Lake. As Jamie and Owen arrive back at the manor after both having awful dreams, they briefly see Hannah as she says that they’re needed at the lake. Jamie bolts the second she hears Dani yelling. She knows Dani’s in trouble and wastes absolutely zero time trying to find her. Jamie yells Dani’s name and you can feel that her sense of urgency has one goal in mind: save Dani. 

“It’s you. It’s me. It’s Us.”

Viola has accepted the au pair’s offer. Besides Flora, Jamie is the only witness to see Dani’s last moment of belonging to only herself. From this point on, the darkness begins to fester deep within Dani’s soul and Jamie must live knowing that there was nothing that she could do as she watched Dani let part of herself go to let Viola in. Jamie runs into the lake as Dani’s trauma starts almost immediately. Her breathing is quickened, and she can’t stop repeating those final words that she felt deep in her bones. The gardener holds the au pair and takes one look at her as she already notices the effects of trauma. Dani’s darting eyes are panicked as she struggles to register that Jamie is there with her. Her breathing finally slows as Jamie holds her close in her attempts to calm her down. Jamie is Dani’s grounding force in this moment. Dani has finally freed the ghosts of Bly but at the cost of her own self. Her own life for the souls of the others. 

The following scene highlights the days following the incident at the lake, immediately starting with Jamie and Owen looking into the well to find Hannah’s dead body. I wanted to highlight this moment just for the sake of Jamie for she has been there to witness all the deaths of her loved ones firsthand. She was the first adult to find Rebecca in the lake, one of the first to find Hannah in the well, and the first to see Dani die in more ways than one. She just can’t seem to catch a break but after all… death is beautiful, it’s natural.

Jamie finds Dani as she packs away her things however, Dani’s mind appears to be somewhere else. Darkness has begun to burrow itself into Dani’s soul. She’s shaking. She’s terrified. She’s mourning the loss of herself. 

“I feel her. In here. It’s so quiet, it’s so quiet, but she’s in here. And this part of her that’s in here, it isn’t… peaceful.”

Dani explains how Viola’s presence feels like a beast waiting for her in a thick jungle. She feels hopeless again but this time feels heavier than all the rest. She has something to lose here now. She has a relationship with Jamie to lose, she has an entire life to lose. It isn’t as simple as feeling the guilt of losing someone or the guilt of loving someone. This feeling isn’t human, this feeling of dread goes beyond what the stages of grief entails. Where is she to go if she can’t go within herself to find peace? 

“She’s gonna take me.”

A tear falls down Jamie’s face as these heavy words fall out of Dani’s mouth. This is the first hint of Jamie losing Dani. The fear of the inevitable fills the room with such a weight that no words can alleviate Dani’s pain. Yet Jamie tries. She tries her damn best. She offers her company with the seal of a pinky promise. She gives all that she can offer: herself and her love. Dani’s feeling of darkness doesn’t have to be lonely this time. 

After a final goodbye to Henry, Miles, and Flora, the gardener and the au pair set off to start their lives together as the image of Bly fades away into the distance. Their life together starts at a diner as Jamie plans their course of action, hoping to end up in Vermont to see snow by Christmas. Here we see Dani looking at her own reflection in the tableside jukebox before stopping Jamie as she worries that they’re planning too far ahead. Dani’s cautious. She doesn’t want to get either of their hopes up. 

“One day at a time is fine by me. As long as those days are with you, Poppins. One day at a time is what we’ve got.”

There’s a brightness in these words which in turn reflect onto them. There’s a light in this moment that shows that they haven’t lost their footing yet. And thus begins the final climb to their highest point before the tragedy that lies ahead occurs. We flashforward to a year later to The Leafling, the flower shop that the pair have opened up together. Dani is still Dani and Jamie is still Jamie but more in love this time than the last time and the time before that. 

“You see, I’m not sick of you. At all. I’m actually pretty in love with you, it turns out.”

Here we see the reintroduction of the moonflower. The symbol of Jamie and Dani’s love. The last time we saw the moonflower was back when the pair finally made the choice to accept one another and start their relationship. This time, we see the moonflower one last time as Jamie chooses to solidify their love by finally breaking the big L word. 

A montage ensues of the gardener and the au pair’s life together. Years have passed and peace was just finally in their grasp. Or so it seemed. This feeling of fluttering innocence is put to a halt as Dani sees Viola’s reflection in the door of the flower shop. Dani stops in her tracks as she stares at the reflection, her face is still as she stands in a quiet shock. That is until she sees Jamie through the door, smiling at her with such a playful gaze. This instance shows yet again that Jamie is Dani’s grounding force even after all this time and Dani’s own reflection returns not even a second later. This is a moment for the audience to take a peek into Jamie’s importance in Dani’s life, especially at a point that something so vengeful is making its way to the surface. To see Jamie’s smiling face cut through the image of the beast in the jungle, we can’t help but feel the same pain yet also the sense of relief that Dani must feel in this moment. Although Dani returns to herself, we can’t help but feel Viola’s presence looming. 

The scene that follows is another significant milestone in Dani and Jamie’s journey together as Dani comes back home with a dying plant that’s concealing an engagement ring. Above the surface, Dani has put the ring in a dying plant because she knew that Jamie would waste no time investigating how to save it. But this can also be interpreted in relation to Jamie’s moonflower speech where she says “every living thing grows out of every dying thing” to show how their relationship is taking the next step of growth as she pulls the ring out of a dying plant. The ring itself is a traditional Irish Claddagh ring, which shows how Dani did her research and chose a ring specific to Jamie’s northern heritage. The hands that make the band of the ring represents friendship, while the heart representing love, and the crown representing loyalty. These representations are fitting for the relationship that the pairing has created and for Dani’s proposal speech. 

“Here’s the thing - you’re my best friend and the love of my life. And I don’t know how much time we have left but however much it is, I wanna spend it with you.”

The thing to highlight about Dani and Jamie’s relationship is that it runs on Dani’s timeline which is something that is so important to showcase, especially considering how Edmund had made almost all the choices for her in her previous engagement. Jamie understands this and has always insured that Dani felt comfortable before progressing further into their relationship together. In this moment, Jamie finally has a promise of love while Dani has security in the person she loves the most. As Jamie accepts her proposal and the two share a moment of celebration, Dani’s face of worry as she hugs Jamie shows that she feels an inability to be fully happy. She’s unable to fully give herself to Jamie in this moment which in turn shows how Viola’s presence is getting closer and getting darker. 

We jump slightly forward in time to the pair visiting Owen’s aptly named restaurant, A Batter Place. After a moment of remembrance for Hannah, Dani looks into the reflection of a metal water pitcher to see Viola’s reflection yet again. Dani’s face is surprised by this sight, but she keeps it quietly to herself as to not ruin the moment of reunion. If we compare this instance to the first time Dani looked at her reflection at the tableside jukebox at the diner years prior, we can see that this moment is filled with much more darkness. The light that used to be inside of her is dimming. Although Jamie is holding her and is physically next to her in this moment, she doesn’t cut through the darkness anymore. Jamie’s power as a grounding force is dimming as well. 

“So, they’re all happy?”

The inflection in Dani’s voice here is so subtle that only Jamie takes notice of it. Jamie looks at Dani and senses that something has gone off in her. Owen continues to explain how Miles and Flora have no recollection of the events that took place at Bly. No recollection of the sacrifice that Dani made to save them. 

“So, if they don’t remember Hannah…they don’t remember…”

Dani’s voice trails off here. She looks down and is caught in the bitter realization that her sacrifice has been forgotten. This feeling of a looming darkness, this feeling of living a life that’s ticking down to her own demise… was it worth it? Jamie can feel Dani’s pain immediately as her eyes stayed glued on Dani who’s trying to see if there would be any way to remind Miles and Flora about what she did.  The gardener stares at au pair without breaking away and in this instant, we can see that, along with Dani, Jamie is breaking too. Breaking under the burden of knowing that she can’t take Dani’s pain away.

The scene that follows shows Dani washing dishes where she sees Viola again in the water. She panics and finally admits to Jamie that she’s been seeing her more and more. The tension that was present between them moments earlier immediately fades away as Jamie wastes no time in trying to console Dani. Jamie’s blind optimism here has a slight tinge of desperation as she refuses to let Dani slip away into the abyss that’s growing stronger and stronger. Dani’s interaction with Viola’s reflection in this moment sets off an alarm bell within her, unlike the other times where she sat quietly and dealt with it on her own. This is Dani’s tipping point. The highest level of fear is felt as the reality is beginning to sink in that the beast is coming for her. Another thing to note here is that even after all these years, Jamie still makes the conscious effort to make Dani laugh. 

“I’ll do the washing up from now on, yeah? You’re shit at it anyway.”

Dani can’t help but give the smallest laugh, but it’s more than enough for Jamie. Through Jamie’s optimism, we have begun to see that she’s not only consoling Dani but also herself as she tries to convince both of them that they can have so much more time together. The episode continues on with the train of heartbreak as Jamie comes home after receiving civil union paperwork for her and Dani. What comes next is what I feel like is the most heartbreaking Dani moment in the entire series. Dani stares deep into an overflowing bathtub where an ominous Viola stares back at her. Jamie is quick to bring Dani back to reality but Dani has lost her footing. Her hold on Viola has flipped to Viola having a hold on her. 

“It’s like every day I feel myself fading away, but I’m still here, and… I don’t really understand how that is.” 

The fear has withered away into emptiness as Dani struggles to stay afloat. We see Jamie so pained as she watches the light fade into a grey nothingness as she listens to Dani talk about how she is beginning to lose herself to the beast. 

“I’m not even scared of her anymore. I just stare at her, and it’s getting harder and harder to see me.” 

To listen to the love of her life slip away through her fingers has Jamie in a phase of denial as she continuously refuses to let Dani break apart. We see the gardener’s optimism wavering as she tries her best to help the au pair hold onto herself. Dani’s voice as she says Jamie’s name is filled with nothing but pure hopelessness and despair as she dips further and further into uncertainty. Yet Jamie doesn’t lose hope. Jamie would never give up on Dani as she repeats the words she told Dani in the diner all those years ago. 

“One day at a time.”

However, Jamie has run out of answers. She can only offer comfort now. 

Next we see Dani hit her lowest low as she is taken over by Viola and awakes to see that she almost strangled Jamie to death in their sleep. Dani is shocked and broken as she sits in the disbelief of what she almost did. The time has come. The beast has arrived. Viola has waited years until Dani was so broken down and so vulnerable, that she would finally be able to take her. However, we can’t help but believe that Dani fought off Viola this long thanks to the love her and Jamie shared.

The gardener wakes up the following morning to find an empty space next to her. She reaches to the empty space in the bed and then for the note left on the bedside table. It can only mean one thing: her biggest fear has come to light. With her strong will and determination, Jamie gives one final push and flies back across the pond to Bly to face what she’s been in fear of all this time. The amount of immense grief that is felt in this moment, to be at the same place that the love of her life began to be taken away from her all those years ago, must be incredibly damaging. The manor holds so much of Jamie’s life. She found her family there. She created a beautiful garden on those grounds. Her and Dani’s love blossomed on the same grounds that she first began to lose her that night at the lake. Jamie storms off to the edge of the water. Her face is so tired. She already knows what she’s going to find and yet she still doesn’t lose the hope that maybe, just maybe, it wouldn’t be true. 

“The gardener said the words she’d heard those years ago; she willed it with everything she had. You, me, us. Us. ‘Take me with you,’ she cried in her heart. ‘Take me. Drag me down like you did the others.’ But the lady in the lake was different now – the lady in the lake was also Dani. And Dani wouldn’t. Dani would never.” 

The agony and desperation that we see Jamie endure in the moments that we see her find Dani laying at the very bottom of the lake is a type of pain that is unmatched from any other moment of pain that we’ve seen this season. Her muffled screams as she takes a hold of her heart, only to let her arms go in despair under the water is something so haunting yet so unbelievably moving to see her love so much considering how far she’s come from the cold and guarded gardener we saw all the way back in episode one. She would’ve given up everything. Absolutely everything to take Dani’s place. Given up everything to join Dani at the bottom of the lake. Unlike Peter with Rebecca, Dani could never take Jamie down to the depths. Dani could never harm a single soul, let alone the one person that mattered the most to her. By letting Jamie go and taking Viola’s place as the lady of the lake, Dani has broken the cycle of violence that’s haunted the grounds of Bly for centuries. As Jamie was the hero of Dani’s story, Dani will always be the hero to Jamie’s. 

The final act of the season ends with an older Jamie finishing her story to the wedding guests. 

“She would know nothing of the gardener, nothing of their life together. The details, the specific moments would all fade away. More time will pass, and the water will wash away the delicate features of her; of her beautiful, perfect face. But she won’t be hollow, nor empty. And she won’t pull others to her fate. She will merely walk the grounds of Bly, harmless as a dove, for all of her days. Leaving the only trace of who she once was in the memory of the woman who loved her most.”

We see an older Jamie comfort a teary-eyed Flora who is afraid of the time when she would also lose the love of her life. Jamie comforts her with advice that we can only ever assume she learned in her time with Dani. The final scene shows the gardener’s nightly routine as she stares into reflections, hoping to catch one last glimpse of the au pair. As she drifts away into sleep, a hand wearing a golden wedding ring rests gently on her shoulder. Our haunting love story has come to an end. And the rest? Well the rest… is confetti.  

[like-rain-or-confetti]

Dang that was DARK

Now I know I've been looking at this with rose tinted glasses. This yandere vampires are down right BAD. I was just focusing on the possessive and not the fact that a yandere vampire would freakin end all romantic rivals and potential threats

Yanderes love is very twisted so far to the point you can't really call it love.

It's not love when someone kills and feels threatened by everyone around you.

It's not love when they want to manipulate and isolate you to keep you under their control.

That's possession. You're not a person, you're an object to be won over. You are deemed unable to understand the extent of the world around you according to the yandere. So they don't think highly of you as a person. They think highly of you as a shiny new toy.

As Dani and Jamie spoke about in The Haunting of Bly Manor. Love and possession are opposites.

Someone can love you enough and so much as to let you go, knowing that they aren't what you need or want. That you can grow into a better or happier life without them and your happiness is enough for them to be able to let you go because that's what that person wants for you.

Someone can love you so much as to protect you and love you every bit of the way. You're ultimate support. The one person you can depend on to give you the truth even when you don't want to hear it.

Love is not manipulating all of your surroundings to bring you closer to that person. Love is not isolation and control.

I'll say one thing about my writing and the twilight saga. The relationships with vampires aren't considered normal. The mating bond isn't upon human standards. For us humans, it's unhealthy. Toxic, controlling, maybe even abusive. There's an animalistic, primal element to it that doesn't care for free will. Such as the Volturi. No one in that coven can leave and any mates along the way can't leave either. If there is a break up, that human is dead because they're a liability. So it's times like these that I think fiction needed to be remembered as fiction. No one should be looking for a relationship like this.

On a somewhat lighter not... probably not the best time to mention this but I actually started a draft months ago for an idea I had for a yandere reader falling in love with a vampire. I haven't actually seen anyone look into the idea of a yandere reader obsessing over a character. I ended up deleting it because I didn't think it was worth while but I wrote a scene where Vladimir realises just how toxic the reader is and when Vladimir mentions Stefan, they cut him off demanding he never talks about Stefan again. Vladimir, of course, was horrified.

[starring-movies]

The Haunting of Bly Manor: Episode Analysis

*SPOILERS*

Episode 7 - The Two Faces, Part Two

Episode 7 of The Haunting of Bly Manor is mainly a continuation of Episode 3, which has the same name, as we explore more of Peter and Rebecca’s backstory and a lot more questions also start to get answered.

The episode starts as Dani has been tied up and is coming back into consciousness after Miles (possessed by Peter) hit her over the head at the end of Episode 6. As Peter is trying to set his plan in motion, for him and Rebecca to possess Miles and Flora’s bodies permanently, he suddenly gets thrown into a memory. Unlike Hannah, Rebecca and Flora who ‘dream-hop’ through many of their memories, Peter only ever gets put into one of his memories.

The memory that Peter repeatedly gets pulled into is the memory of a time when his mother came to visit him. Peter’s mother knocks on the door and when Peter lets her in, she tells him “I’m out” and that this time she’s out “forever”, because she says “I suppose they’d say I’m cured”. It’s never explicitly made clear where she’s “out” from, but it’s most likely that she’s been released from a mental institution for her failure to help her son when she knew that her husband was molesting him (which is something that is insinuated later in the episode).

Peter’s mother tells Peter that she needs money from him now that she’s been released and so she blackmails him, saying that she’ll show Henry his “juvenile records”, if he doesn’t give her any money.

The scene then moves to the memory which Rebecca has entered, where we find out that “priceless heirlooms” have been stolen from the manor and that Peter had been embezzling money from Henry. From this it becomes apparent that in Episode 5 when Hannah saw Peter stealing a necklace from Charlotte’s vanity, he was stealing it so that he could sell it and give the money to his other to keep her quiet. It seems that Peter was stealing the “priceless heirlooms”, such as the necklace, to give the money to his mother. However, the “quarter million pounds” that Peter embezzled from Henry most likely really was for the purpose that he said - so that he could run away to make a life in America with Rebecca and free himself from his mother’s blackmailing.

A small little detail; is that after Rebecca finds out that Peter is dead, we see her zoned out in one of Miles and Flora’s lessons. On the desk that Rebecca is sitting behind, there are some word blocks that spell out “redrum”, which is a nod to the 1980’s film ‘The Shining’. Mike Flanagan created The Haunting of Bly Manor and also directed the 2019 sequel to The Shining, Doctor Sleep.

It’s interesting to note that in The Shining “redrum” spells “murder” backwards, and Rebecca ends up being murdered by Peter.

This is not the only reference to The Shining, as there was another one in Episode 1. When we see Dani leaving the hostel which she’s been staying at, as she’s shutting the door behind her, we can see that her room number was 217. In the original book of The Shining by Steven King, the haunted room that Jack Torrance enters is room 217 (but in the movie it’s room 237).

As well as these two instances, there is yet another reference to The Shining, also in Episode 1. When Miles and Flora are locking Dani in the cupboard, we get a shot of them just before the shut the door on her. The shot of Miles and Flora standing side by side with one another evokes the memorable shot of the twins in The Shining.

Rebecca tries to suggest to Peter that they still continue their previous plan to run off to America and tells him that she doesn’t mind if people think that she’s “some batty old witch who talks to thin air”. Peter tells her that they can’t do that because he “can’t leave Bly” and he “can’t get past the end of the drive”, but then he discovers that he can possess Rebecca’s body just like he can with Miles’. The two of them devise a plan where Peter will possess Rebecca’s body and he’ll try to leave while still in her body. They carry out the plan the next morning but as Rebecca runs to the boundary of the grounds, Peter is ejected from her body.

This brings up a question of confusion, as in Episode 9 Dani manages to leave Bly with The Lady in the Lake in partial possession of her body and neither of them were thrown out from Dani’s body. Since Dani is able to leave the grounds, the reason that Peter was pushed out of Rebecca’s body must be because he exited her body himself. As he was about to cross the boundary he probably came to the realisation that if he left while still in Rebecca’s body, then he and Rebecca will never be able to be properly together again and so he pulled himself out so that he could think of another way that they could be together. However it also could be that Dani stopped Viola’s gravity well when she invited Viola into herself (we see all the other ghosts are released when this happens in Episode 9), but this still wouldn’t explain Peter’s oddly quiet reaction when he gets pushed out of Rebecca’s body at the manor’s boundary.

This would also make sense of a lot of a few other things as well. It would make sense of the odd reaction that Peter gives after the failed attempt at escape, when Rebecca says “it didn’t work” - he doesn’t look particularly sad that it didn’t work, even though he was so enthusiastic to finally be able leave and be with Rebecca. It would also make sense of when Older Jamie says that “Peter had not been back to find her, he had left her at the boundary of Bly”. Peter disappears for so long because he’s trying to come up with a different plan for them to be able to be with one another.

After trying to leave the manor in Rebecca’ body doesn’t work, for whatever reason, Peter then comes back to Rebecca with his new plan. Peter explains that when he tries to take possession of Rebecca’s body, neither of them mean to, but he always tries to push her out and she always tries to push him out and so the possession is “temporary”. He tells her that there is a way that they can be together forever and able to touch each other but to do this he says he needs to be given permanent possession of her body and for this to happen she needs to invite him in and give him consent. However when he’s explaining this to Rebecca, Peter doesn’t explain that his grand plan for them to be together means that he’ll take over her body and they’ll only be together by being tucked away in a memory together.

After being given consent from Rebecca to have permanent control over her body, which he gets through the phrase “it’s you, it’s me, it’s us”, Peter carries out his plan. Rebecca gets tucked away “in a memory of them”, and although they are together and can touch one another, this is not what she wanted (nor is this what he really promised to her when he got her to give him her consent) and it’s not ideal for him either as he is now left in Rebecca’s body “here, alone”.

Since Peter is now alone in Rebecca’s body and he doesn’t want to continue to be alone, he decides that he’ll drown her body so that they’ll both become ghosts and they will both be together that way. We see Rebecca (possessed by Peter) crying as she walks into the lake, and then we see Peter crying in bed with Rebecca in the tucked away memory, which is how we know that Peter was in possession of Rebecca’s body when she drowned.

But then as the water starts to enter Rebecca’s body’s lungs, Peter leaves and Rebecca herself is forced back into control of her own body again. We see just what type of a person he is, as he leaves her on her own to feel the pain of the drowning. In a parallel to this, this shows us just how much Rebecca cares for Flora, as in Episode 9 she tells Flora that she’ll take over her body before she’s dragged into the lake and she’ll feel everything for her - a completely selfless action considering that she’s already had to endure the pain once.

Like Peter and Hannah, Rebecca immediately turns into a ghost and we see her mourning her body and the betrayal of her trust, as she stands by the side of the lake and cries. This explains to us why, when Rebecca was possessing Flora’s body, she always walked to the lake - because she sits by the lake and mourns her life.

This is the most prominent example of the love versus possession conversation that Dani and Jamie were having in Episode 3. Peter says that he loves Rebecca, but he displays no true love for her at all, to ask for her complete trust and consent and then to betray her by stealing her life. Peter is acting completely on selfishness and is treating Rebecca like a possession who he manipulate for his own personal benefit. To truly love someone is to want the absolute best for them, even if that comes at your own expense; but when Peter makes this decision he isn’t thinking about Rebecca at all, he’s only thinking about his own desires and loneliness.

After Peter drowns her body, Rebecca returns once more to the memory of when Peter gave her Charlotte’s fur coat. The memory was once a very happy one for Rebecca, but now it’s been tainted by Peter’s selfish actions. Rebecca now sees how Peter manipulated her as she says that “I didn’t agree”, she only agreed to them being together not for him to take her life from her.

Peter suddenly gets pulled back into the only memory that he gets pulled into, the memory of his mother coming to visit him. Peter says that from constantly having to return to this memory he feels “like I’m in hell” and his mother says “well, where else would you go”, stating that there is nowhere else that he could go after what he did to to Rebecca.

Peter then gets released from the memory he was being tucked away in and he returns to the attic, where Miles and Flora are in the process of freeing Dani. Peter stops Miles and Flora from letting Dani go and Rebecca returns from her dream hopping.

To try and convince Miles and Flora to give consent for their bodies to be possessed, Peter says that they’ll be able to go to their “forever house” where they’ll be with their parents forever. The “forever house” is a reference to The Haunting of Hill House where Olivia made blueprints of a “forever home” for the family to live in once they got enough money from flipping Hill House (but when Olivia dies, Hill House becomes the forever home). The “forever house/home” is something that is supposed to symbolise safety and family, however in both Hill House and Bly Manor this isn’t really the case. In Hill house the promise of the “forever home” that Olivia dreamt of was never fulfilled; and in Bly Manor the “forever house” that Peter is talking about is just for Miles and Flora to be permanently tucked away in false memories.

Despite Peter’s manipulation, he does know what love really looks like. He tells Miles that, when he’s tucked away in the “forever house” with his parents, he’ll be “with two people who love you so much, so much. That makes you the luckiest man in the world, the richest person, I wish I could be that rich”. Peter recognises that being in a safe place with two people who love you makes you the “richest person” and was something that he never got to experience himself. Not that this makes his behaviour acceptable, but it may from his childhood where Peter developed a distorted view of love and posession, and so this is why he manipulates others and treats them as his possessions - while Peter is supposed to be the conventional ‘villain’, this fleshing out of his past makes his character much more multifaceted and complex, as well as making his actions much less black and white. This added depth and complication is one of the things that makes Bly Manor and its characters so deeply flawed yet extremely relatable.

When Peter takes permanent possession of Miles’ body, when Miles gets up we can see that his right eye is still blue but his left eye is now brown. This is a sign that the person is no longer completely themselves anymore and we see the same thing happen to Dani’s eyes in Episode 9.

We then see Miles (possessed by Peter) walking with Hannah to the well, to try and get her to come to the realisation that she’s dead. He compares Hannah to the cartoon Wile E. Coyote, who would run off a cliff and just keep going, just as Hannah has died (run off the cliff) but she just keeps going and doesn’t become a proper ghost. Miles explains to Hannah that “when Wile E. Coyote looked down, then he’d fall, only when he looked down”, so he tells Hannah that she also needs to look down in order for her to come to terms with her situation and then she’ll also fall (become a ghost). The looking down that Miles wants Hannah to do is not just an actual looking down the well to see her corpse, but this is also a metaphorical looking down of her seeing the ‘big picture’ and for her to stop being in denial.

Hannah finally looks down the well and sees her corpse. She isn’t interrupted (like when Dani interrupted her doing this in Episode 1), but she’s given a proper moment to take in what she’s seeing, and so she is able to come to process and accept her death - just like Peter got to see and accept his body being dragged away by The Lady in the Lake; and just like Rebecca saw and mourned for her body by the side of the lake.

We then return to Flora and Dani in the attic and we find out that Rebecca only pretended to go along with Peter’s plan and possess Flora’s body. Rebecca tells Flora that “no one should ever need that much help”, showing us that she understands true, selfless love and to ask that much of someone is not caring for them at all. This also relates back to what Peter did to Rebecca, he should have never needed “that much help” from Rebecca as to take her entire life from her.

As well as this, it shows us how much Peter is like his mother. Peter’s mother asked too much of him and, in a way, ended up killing him by blackmailing him for money, which is just as he told her that “I hope you know that, late at night, that you killed your own son”. Peter is just as manipulative as his mother when he persuades Rebecca and Miles to trust him so that he can possess their bodies - needing to ask for “that much help” from a person is not love.

You can read my previous The Haunting of Bly Manor posts here:-

Episode 1 - The Great Good Place

Episode 2 - The Pupil

Episode 3 - The Two Faces, Part One

Episode 4 - The Way It Came

Episode 5 - Altar of the Dead

Episode 6 - The Jolly Corner

——————————————————————————

[travel-hopefully]

A collective post of everything I watched on Netflix in 2020

I finally found the watch history function on Netflix which I wanted in order to reminisce over the TV/film I watched over the last year, including the good and the bad. I’ve included a little round-up of my thoughts for each, as lockdown has got me with plenty of time on my hands. If anyone has watched any of the below feel free to give me a message- happy to discuss anything!

Travelers (season 3) - this was an unforgettable show with some great characters and definitely put me through hell (in a good way), I am a David x Marcy shipper for sure!

IT Crowd (season 4 & 5) - my favourite comedy show ever, and I mean the UK version

Explained (random episodes) - interesting bite-sized episodes on a variety of topics

Sherlock (season 3 & 4) - it kinda went downhill from season 4...and doesn’t help that there is no season 5 in sight

Unforgettable - must be pretty forgettable cause I couldn’t remember watching, a typical revenge plot romp I think

The Mind, Explained - same as for Explained above, except more pyshcological

You (season 2) - binge-worthy! I love to hate Joe Goldberg.

Don’t F**k with Cats - wow, this was disturbing but so gripping.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle - geniunely a good remake and rather amusing

Sex, Explained - as for Explained but a little more intriguing ;)

The Stranger (season 1) - full of suspense and a good binge watch but ultimately full of plot holes with an unsatisfying conclusion

Gavin & Stacey (season 3) - a classic which I only started watching in 2019

Sex Education (all of it) - comedy gold!

Unbelievable (limited series) - very harrowing, an emotional rollercoaster based on a real-life rape case

Atypical (all of it) - light-hearted and fun to binge

The Sinner (season 1) - it was okay... wasn’t spectacular compared to other similar dramas I’ve seen

Love Is Blind (season 1) - cringey but satisfying

In the Shadow of the Moon - I hardly remember this one :)

Dunkirk - a stand-out historical movie

The Stepfather - typical killer stepfather plot but rather enjoyable

The Super - an interesting premise, but not that super

Saw VI - all gore not much plot

Doctor Who (random episodes) - no words needed :D

Louis Theroux and Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends (random episodes) - I love his style of interviewing - what a man!

The Revenant - a lot of... well, not much

Nightcrawler - it was decent, but something was missing which I couldn’t put my finger on

How To Get Away With Murder (seasons 1-5) - probably my biggest new watch of the year, a rollercoaster of suspense, drama and murder, another season to go...

Ocean’s Eleven - fun but cheesey

Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare - creepy faces and an interesting ending

Eli - it started one way then went another, I wasn’t convinced

Star Trek (2009) - I couldn’t really get into this one...

In the Tall Grass - a lot of running around in grass

Bloodride (season 1) - i loved this, a quirky idea, i binged it

Apostle - intense, a satisfying religious cult horror

The Platform - great idea, not sure on the ending

What Keeps You Alive - what happened in this one again?

History 101 - didn’t watch many episodes :P

The Prodigy - a decent child possession horror

Into the Night (season 1) - really enjoyed this, a highlight of the year for me, hoping for a season 2

It - pretty chilling and creepy, but a tad cheesey

Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - the first one has a brilliant dinosaur fight scene, the second one has too many plot holes and inconsistencies to take seriously

Knowing - a Nicholas Cage sci-fi/apocalpytic classic, pretty decent

Stranger Things (random episodes) - i tried to get my bf into the show but sadly he still isn’t much of a TV fan

Miranda (random episodes) - such fun!

Black Mirror (seasons 1 & 2) - another one i introduced the bf to, i got a bit further with him on this one, the very first episode being the highlight

The Last House on the Left - a decent remake, but nothing outstanding

Dark (season 3) - this, my friends, is one of the greatest shows of all time. want a timey-wimey story where everything is connected and has an amazingly satisfying conclusion? this is the show for you!

The Silence - a bad ‘A Quiet Place’

Geostorm - i’m a fan of disaster movies but this one wasn’t in the same league as some of the greats

Panic Room - a mum and kid hides in the panic room when a group of thugs break into the house, it was enjoyable but not all that memorable

Prisoners - a very long film with some enjoyable parts but overall unsatisfying

Girl on the Third Floor - it was okay, i can’t remember much of it

The Woods (season 1) - another Harlan Coben adaptation- not as good as ‘Safe’ or ‘The Stranger’ but still a gripping thriller

Time Trap - a fun time-travel film with some interesting turns of events

72 Dangerous/Cutest Animals (random episodes) - just ‘cause i love animals

Slasher (all of it) - some very gory deaths, especially in season 3. quite disturbing but keeps the suspense up throughout.

2012 - a guilty pleasure of mine, realistic or not

Kingsman: The Secret Service - a fun spy film, will be looking to watch the second one soon

Blackfish - this was harrowing, it really made me think, but overall i’m on the side of tilikum

Unsolved Mysteries (season 1 & 2) - watching some of these my jaw dropped, love theorising on this kind of stuff

Down to Earth with Zac Efron (season 1) - Zac is great in this, he seems so chill and literally ‘down to earth’

The Call - I love this film, seen it 3 times now

Contagion - very relatable right now, interesting to see the parallels with todays situation

Next in Fashion (season 1) - i didn’t get too far with this, i found it a little superficial

Searching - another of those internet web-cam based films. decent but not memorable.

Non-stop - another Nicholas Cage classic, this time a suspense thriller

Freaks - as the title suggests this one was rather weird, i didn’t quite gel with it

The Perfection - wow, that was an experience. definitely memorable, even if some characters make questionable decisions...

Extraction - not usually a fan of action-type thrillers, but i actually enjoyed this one, plus it has Chris Hemsworth in it!

Line of Duty (season 2) - full of suspense, a great build-up in the first 5 episodes, but the way they tied it up really grated on me 

Insidious - watched this one with my sister. a genuinely good horror film on rewatch with an amazing cliff-hanger

A Quiet Place - another one watched with my sister. labelled a horror but its more sci-fi, either way its a classic. bring on the second film!

The Dark Tower - disappointing mostly.

Gladiator - i’d never seen this before and now i understand the hype- what an epic movie!

Criminal UK (season 2) - didn’t disappoint following the exceptional first season

Venom - a fun comedic marvel film, definitely need to watch more from Marvel in the next year- i need an order to watch them in as don’t know where to start

Our Planet (season 1) - chill David Attenborough to put on in the background

The Equalizer - a great action revenge thriller plot with a badass Denzel

Merlin (random episodes) - who doesn’t love a trip down memory lane with some nostalgic bbc merlin?

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) - pretty scary remake

The Witcher (season 1) - rewatched in order to familiarise myself again before season 2 - i didn’t realise how funny the show was until this time round, gotta love Jaskier!

American Murder: The Family Next Door - this was haunting

The Haunting of Bly Manor - phenomenal, emotional, creepy, heartbreaking - i much preferred it to Hill House

Abducted in Plain Sight - seriously, how naive are the parents in this? i could have a rant for hours about this!

The End of the F***ing World (seasons 1 & 2) - very bingeable, Alyssa makes me laugh too much, i love how relatable the show is

Fractured - didn’t expect much from this consipiracy-type film but it kept me guessing right till the end

The Ripper (limited series) - very intriguing, but the mysogyny in this was shocking

Inconceivable - a typical mother looking for her baby revenge plot but still entertaining

The Midnight Sky - i’d heard rave reviews for this but was disappointed by a lacklustre plot which was sacrificed for award-winning cinematography

Killer Women with Piers Morgan (season 2) - a pyschological interview series which looks into the mind of murderers, rather interesting

May the Devil Take You - scarier and jumpier than i thought it would be!

So 2020 obviously gave me a lot of time to watch a s**t load of stuff and looking back at it i feel like i got a decent amount of my watch-list ticked off! And obviously this is not including shows watched on other media so there’s that too (a special shout-out to the William Hartnell era of Doctor Who which I watched this year on BritBox). In all, 2020 has definitely introduced me to a few new fandoms and progressed my love for others. 

[moonflowerlesbians]

hope your surgery went well! i’m rewatching for the 500th time bly manor and you ever think how dani in the episode 3 after the “love and possession” discourse when she went at bed she seems relieved and presumably thinking about the looks she and jamie shared? or how the next morning, was so satisfied watching at jamie because she stayed all the night?

i wonder if jamie went straight to her flat or if she stayed for the breakfast too and they shared other looks

ok sorry it took me a minute to reply yesterday was not good for me but ooo this is great.

I like to think she stayed for breakfast and the rest of the day since she was wearing the same clothes for the hand grab scene. I’d love to see someone write a missing scene of Dani waking her up with shitty tea because, correct me if I’m wrong, Jamie doesn't taste Dani’s tea before the “you’ll desecrate it” line after the funeral. So Jamie’s going on word of mouth. It would be great to see Dani timidly thank her for staying the night with terrible tea in the warm light of the den.

[theothergaycousin]

Jamie recalling Dani‘s memories

So, one of the scenes that catapulted me into thinking about this theory I’m about to expose, is when Dani holds Jamie’s hand and as Jamie’s leaves, her only words are: “Who the hell knew?”.

This kind of expression is something one usually thinks in hindsight. It could be very well inserted into a conversation, but since we now know that Jamie is the narrator since the very beginning, it makes me wonder, if that piece of dialog really happened back then, or if it’s just a thought that present-day Jamie is having as she relives their story together.

So, having this theory in mind, some other portions of Dani and Jamie’s dialog in the series, especially REACTIONS to Dani, might be Jamie’s present-day musings of what they had talked about back in the day.

Another out-of-place reaction was when Dani and Jamie were talking about Rebecca and Peter’s story. Jamie was the one who breached the Possession versus Love theme, however in the end of their conversation, it was Jamie who was kind of intrigued by Dani’s opinion of how Love is the opposite of Possession. It could very well just be the actress’s choice of dealing with their logic, but at the same time, it could be Jamie looking back and their exchange and having a “a-ha” moment, that maybe she didn’t have in the past but is having now that she knows how it all ended: that Dani thinks love is the opposite of posession and that explains Dani’s choices after they’ve lived together and how she helped get rid of Bly Manor’s curse.

This could also explain why Jamie didn’t really greet Dani the first time they crossed paths. Granted, it could’ve just been her gay bravado and how she felt disconnected with people around here back then, but at the same time, since Jamie really is the narrator, wouldn’t it be silly to introduce herself to Dani, the one she’s known all these years? When she’s telling the story, she DOES KNOW DANI, better than anyone else. So in a way it could be Jamie saying she also felt like Dani at that moment - that she already knew her. And she did, and does, right now. Anyway, this one sounds a bit more far-fetched that the previous moments, I think.

ANYWHO, I’m thinking of rewatching the series to try and pick out more moments like this, so see if there’s a pattern of if its just my mind questioning Jamie’s actress choices of acting :P

EDIT: ALSO, when Jamie tells Dani they’ll have other nights to spend together. It’s like she’s in the present day reassuring Dani they’ll have years together in the future.

[ghostbustermelanieking]

tma as “the haunting of bly manor”: self-indulgent au ramblings

this started as me really loving thobm’s ending (both in general and as a representation of what i want out of tragic gay love stories in horror) and thinking “wow it’d be cool if tma ended like that,” and ended up here because i started analyzing the parallels and where other characters fit in and couldn’t stop thinking about it. indulge me on this one please

(putting this under a cut in case anyone is watching the haunting of bly manor and doesn’t want to be spoiled. i don’t think you necessarily need to have seen thobm to understand this but it probably helps.)

· okay as pieces of horror that deal a lot in tragedy and death and love and themes of being trapped and fighting against things and reliving moments in time and losing yourself to outside forces, i think thobm works really well as a template for a tma au

· to start off: martin is the storyteller. of course martin is the storyteller

·“statement of martin k. blackwood regarding… a ghost story” more on this later

· the magnus institute stands in for bly, and it’s pretty much the same except it’s in the middle of fuck-all nowhere, and is much less staffed, and half the staff just like. lives there out of necessity

· it isn’t just a temple to the eye though; it’s mostly that, but it’s also kind of like a sinkhole for all the powers. the land it’s on is a mess and divided up between the powers like a mini fearpocalypse

· consider: tim and sasha as owen and hannah come and suffer with me

· ok aside from the inherent tragedy of their stories being in parallel, consider: tim would make those awful puns and sasha would absolutely pretend to hate it

· ok but also consider: sasha dies and no one notices, not even her. she’s taken by not-sasha the lady in the lake and she dies and no one notices it, but everyone wonders where sasha’s always going, why she always seems to be so out of it.

· imagine sasha fading into the background not realizing that shes dead... tim not understanding why she's pulling away or constantly disappearing, why she acts so strangely when he suggests they run away... sasha reliving moments with tim, unable to understand why she keeps coming back to the moment where she pushed him out of the way when something was in the institute, not realizing it’s the last time she saw him alive

· “tell him i love him…” oh my god

· not sasha is the lady in the lake. just because.

· jonah elias magnus is a little bit the lady in the lake a little bit peter quint he’s got the backstory of this being his house and being there for fuck-all-ever, and he’s using all these people as cogs in the machine, trying to get them to lose themselves to the eye or anything else there, using their lives and wellbeing to benefit himself (especially jon more on that later)

· (it should be noted there’s a very good fic with a huge manor and ghosts and romantic stuff and jonah possessing people called antigonish that makes way more sense than this but anyways)

· basira and daisy are a little bit quint and rebecca jessel. not entirely; their backstory is different and so is their dynamic, and daisy doesn’t possess basira to kill her and trap her there forever or anything like that. but she does go over to the hunt and ask basira to come with her. the difference is, basira wants to

· georgie is henry wingrave. minus the spousal infidelity and secret daughter, but in that she refuses to come to the institute. she’s brushed enough with it (with the end) that she doesn’t want to come anywhere near it, or anyone involved. she’s henry wingrave who separates herself from everyone for her own preservation but also loses jon and melanie in the process… who calls all the time because she misses them and wants to either apologize or beg them to leave but can never get up the courage to say anything… who comes back to get them out and dies briefly and has her encounter with the end… who talks to sasha when she reveals she’s dead and says, “tell him i love him…” who helps melanie leave in the end…. jesus christ

· melanie and jon are both dani yes i will elaborate

· melanie is dani in that she’s the last to come, and she thinks it’s going to be a new start even though it’s anything but. (she’s running, although not from a ghostly fiancé, but from the slaughter and the war ghosts and the humiliation she faced on the internet.) she comes to give a statement and ends up never leaving, and the slaughter only tightens its hold on her. georgie disapproves. melanie wants to leave when she figures out she’s trapped but she doesn’t know how

· jon is dani in that he is the second to last to come, and also the linchpin to ending all of it. but he’s also a little bit the kids, in that he’s being manipulated and taken over by the eye and in a lot of danger but he has no idea. he’s still the archivist he still takes statements and elias (who’s a lot less present here but still has some sway over everything) is manipulating the hell out of him ala quint to miles and flora

· the covering mirrors motif pops up here somehow mirrors looking glass eye all of that

· jon still takes statements, and statements are a version of dream-hopping. where they can relive their statements and their fondest memories and all of that, but jon is unwilling voyeur to all of it

· tim and martin are the ones who don’t stay at the institute overnight. jon and melanie and sasha and basira do. gradually tim and martin start to leave less and less

· it ends in a big confrontation i’m not sure how. lake + eye imagery, the power well trying to pull everyone in. sasha accepts she’s dead. georgie comes for her loved ones. jon gives himself over to the eye to save everyone, so they can all leave

· here is where storyteller martin comes in because imagine that ending of dani and jamie in a jm context. holy fucking shit

· jon and martin who leave the institute and go to scotland on borrowed time, knowing jon will inevitably lose the rest of him to the eye someday, but wanting to spend whatever time they have left together. the safehouse period but it lasts for years pls imagine. all of that. oh my god

· jon eventually going back to the institute to protect martin and martin following him and getting there too late… that entire scene by the lake… holy shit holy shit

· storyteller martin who won’t talk about it for years before finally giving the statement (possibly at georgie and melanie’s wedding just because, possibly not like that at all). who gives the statement futilely hoping it’s the key to seeing jon again because that’s always worked before. storyteller martin who is still looking for jon years later, who fills the sinks and tubs and sleeps with the door cracked open. storyteller martin who sleeps unknowingly with jon’s hand on his shoulder

· this is messy and unformed but i’ve been screaming about it for weeks oh my god someone draw this for me

· i don’t expect actual tma to end anything like this but i’d die if it did

[longwewillwait]

TLDR: Ivy is a song about a forbidden love that persists in spite of everything and that is 1000% Dani x Jaime

There’s a lot of specific imagery in Ivy that could be used to refer to Dani and Jaime. The main symbolic device Taylor uses is comparing a consuming feeling of love to how ivy will overrun an unkempt stone wall. This is the most obvious link to Bly Manor in imagery (the literal ivy and stone of the ancient manor and its gardens, c’mon), but there’s more layers. Starting at the first line “how’s one to know I’d meet you where the spirit meets the bone” referring to Dani meeting Jaime at the manor, where she was destined to eventually return because of the lady of the lake. My original interpretation of Ivy led me to believe our narrator was dead and reflecting on her relationship right before her death. I think of Dani’s spirit reflecting on her relationship with Jaime now that she’s dead, though she stays with her (as we see in the last scene). There’s also the line in the first verse of “the old widow goes to the stone everyday, but I don’t I just sit here and wait grieving for the living” Dani is waiting for Jaime because she loves her, not possesses her, and she wants her to live a full life. “Grieving for the living” relates to Dani’s reflection on their relationship while they were both alive, for which she grieves. Another line that really stands out to me is in the second verse: “I wish to know the fatal flaw that makes you long to be magnificently cursed.” Dani knows that one day she’s going to have to return to Bly Manor and the lake, and she doesn’t understand why Jaime would want to build a life with someone that can’t promise themselves forever. In Dani’s eyes, Jaime “longs to be magnificently cursed” because she longs for their relationship which is destined to be doomed. In the chorus, the narrator refers to her lover’s hand as “freezing” which I believe to again refer to the destined “death” of their relationship. Then there’s the “but it’s been promised to another” which, for the Dani and Jaime interpretation, I don’t take to be in reference to cheating but instead the Lady of the Lake. Dani has, in a sense, been promised to the Lady in the Lake. “I can’t stop you putting roots in my dreamland” Dani can’t stop Jaime’s love for her and how it covers her and tries to shield her from the inevitable. Obviously Taylor wasn’t actually writing about Bly Manor when she wrote Ivy, so the pronouns are going to be off, but I still think all of the references to “He” could be applied to the Lady of the Lake, especially in the third verse and the burning down of the relationship. Even the “drink my husbands wine” line could be related to Dani daring Jaime to stick around and watch what they’ll become in spite of the Lady in the Lake. Ivy is my favorite song off of Evermore for a lot of reasons, but especially for the unique imagery Taylor uses. It’s a song about a love forbidden, for one reason or another, that persists in spite of everything, and I think that perfectly encapsulates Dani and Jaime.

[givemearmstopraywith]

what are your thoughts/ interpretation on twin peaks? i finished it recently and i’m so confused idk what to think of it yet and i don’t think i got it (if there is even something to get)

twin peaks is, mostly likely, my favourite television show of all times: i love david lynch and his inscrutable, incomprehensible, simultaneously surrealist and gothic way of telling stories. 

obviously, major spoilers for twin peaks- both the original series and the return.

i think the main thing to recognize about twin peaks is that it is, above all, a story about trauma. its about how trauma is passed on from person to person, how it kind of becomes an ouroboros- a snake eating itself. leland is traumatized. i’ve always read leland’s childhood experiences with BOB as some sort of foil to being abused and in that vein, but you can also lead the act of possession itself as the trauma. leland passes trauma down to laura, a patrilineal curse: the trauma eats laura alive, it kills her through leland’s own transgressions. there’s a quote from fred botting’s gothic i find particularly pertinent:

“The Gothic theme that the sins of the father are visited on the offspring is manifested in the representations of the illegitimacy and brutality of paternal authority, the repetition of events, and the doublings of figures and names in successive generations” (Botting 84).

the black lodge, like a gothic manor- think wuthering heights, thornfield hall, manderly, bly manor, hill house, or even twin peaks itself- is the physical manifestation of that trauma. it’s populated by harbingers of terror and the sublime: the subversion and distortion of the family unit, the obscure element of the sublime (as according to burke), and doppelgängers, most notably, in the form of malevolent tulpas. 

i like the use of tulpas in twin peaks: the idea that your double can be the physical manifestation of the most malevolent effects of an endured trauma. BOB is, of course, the physical manifestation of the trauma itself. the tulpas are the physical manifestation of the effects of that trauma upon the victims, hence why both laura and cooper have doubles. this is further supported by the fact that BOB eventually travels with cooper’s doppelgänger over the next twenty-five years while the “real” cooper remains trapped in the black lodge.

its also interesting that lynch refers to the black lodge as “the red room” on some occasions, and that the lodge itself is red: the red room is a motif throughout gothic literature that represents trauma- think of jane eyre’s red room, where she is locked as child and suffers an apoplectic fit, juxtaposed against bertha locked in her attic, suffering the torments of abandonment and madness. 

going back to twin peaks. the premise of that first season is how the trauma of laura’s death affects the entire town. more than affecting the town, or just laura’s family, or her friends, it also affects an outsider, dale cooper, who becomes so enmeshed in the macro effects of this trauma that it, in turn, traumatizes him. he becomes trapped in that trauma with laura, affected by but unable to really help the horror that has been enacted upon laura, upon twin peaks, and now upon him. this is what gives birth to the emergence of cooper’s tulpa in the return. just as the trauma eats laura alive, it eats dale cooper. the root of it is the single act of transgression enacted upon leland, unaddressed, that consumes laura and soon, everything it touches.

of course, the ending of the return is where cooper is finally able to do what he’s been trying to do for twenty-five years: keep laura from being murdered in the first place, thus reversing the trauma effect on twin peaks and on himself. he prevents laura’s murder and absolves himself of the future necessity of solving it, the act that causes his descent in the traumatic world of the black lodge in the first place. pete never finds laura’s corpse: those striking opening scenes where grown men weep at the sight of the horror they have been subjected to never occurs. but here’s the thing: the very last moment is a reminder that there is always a thirst for blood in this world. there will always be a force of darkness that needs to be fed: just as BOB, as an entity, is almost compulsively forced to possess and torment. 

these thoughts are a bit rambly and nonsensical, but i hope this helps you grapple a little more with what twin peaks is about and what it’s ending means! and again, this is just my interpretation of the show- there are so many to have, but this is why i love it. x

[annaskareninas]

i just finished the haunting of bly manor (literally, just finished it) so i’m going to write up some of my #thoughts on it. major spoiler alert for, like, the entire series.

ok so firstly this show literally broke me in a way that i was not expecting. hill house was one of the best things i have ever watched and i doubted a show could move me like that again but bly manor came close. the ending was absolutely devastating but so beautiful.

in my opinion it wasn’t as good as hill house. i felt that there wasn’t as much structure to the plot and it didn’t tie up as satisfyingly as i would have liked. specifically the scene at the beginning of episode nine, when dani rescues flora from the lady of the lake - to me that felt much too rushed and too fast, especially given the build up to the scene (being forced to wait during ep. 8). other parts felt too long: i absolutely adored episode eight and it was probably my favourite episode of the show (love you kate siegel) but honestly it could have been condensed down into half that time or interspersed with present day scenes. also the majority of episode nine, with jamie and dani’s life, was beautiful but again felt too long. it felt like two or three episodes were spent building up to a scene which lasted for like five minutes, and then the rest of the episode was a little disappointing in terms of that. 

the actual ending itself with the grown-up wedding scene confused me and i actually had to look up what was going on afterwards to understand it. although a nice idea there is not much resemblance between jamie and the narrator and since we don’t tend to literally shapeshift when we get old i wasn’t a fan of that decision. also replacing flora’s accent entirely seemed tenuous to me but that’s just a small detail. the very last scene though, once i realised who the narrator was, i thought was beautiful. the fact that dani was staying with jamie in a gentle way, only appearing when she slept, sparing her the haunting she had received from edmund, i really liked that detail and i thought it was the perfect ending. unfortunately, i didn’t feel that enough closure was given to the rebecca+peter storyline. they were the main focus of the show for like seven episodes and it seemed random to suddenly shift the focus to viola and then not give them a proper ending past them just sort of disappearing. that to me felt less satisfying.

for me, the stand-out star of the show was t’nia miller as hannah, and episode five probably the best. i spent much of it deeply confused as to what was going on (in a good way), until the realisation partway through that she was dead all along hit and i thought that was such an incredible twist. by far that episode was the best, twisting together hers and rebeccas and peters storyline - i thought it was cleverly made and close on a masterpiece.

the acting was obviously incredible. as well as t’nia, victoria pedretti was as incredible and beautiful as ever, and i also felt deeply touched by katie siegel’s viola. the child actors were amazing, especially miles when possessed by peter quint i found to be quite frightening. unfortunately the accents were a bit hit or miss, especially the narrator’s. i know they were casting people who had already appeared in hill house but carla just did not body that role, and i think an actual brit would have done a better job of such a voice-heavy role. also minor complaints as a brit it felt very much written by americans with americanisms in the dialogue etc. but thats really a minor point. other than that the writing and acting was really very good and convincing.

in terms of the horror, i was let down. after the true fear hill house’s bent-neck lady inspired in me, i was hoping for something just as good from bly, but i just did not find it scary at all. maybe the faceless ghosts were a little creepy, but definitely not scary. i found that as emotional as it was, without the fear to balance it out the feelings didn’t hit quite as hard as they did in hill house. 

overall, like hill house, the whole show seemed to be about letting go, of grief and loss. i also think it’s about forgetting: good forgetting, like forgetting the pain of losing a loved one and moving on, and bad forgetting, like what happened to the ghosts of bly. i felt that this theme shone through in the second half of the show, introduced by the death of owen’s mother to dementia. again like hill house, memory is a big theme, with the flashbacks and forwards, which in bly manor were sometimes so extreme i couldn’t quite tell where in the timeline we were. i think it represents a slower kind of grief than hill house does - not the sudden, awful, traumatic kind, but the slow, painful loss, such as that of jamie and dani, living their lives but always knowing that it wouldn’t last, and that of owen losing his mother to dementia. and in the ghosts: the loss of forgetting and the loss of being forgotten. who cares about the lack of jumpscares, when that, in itself, is terrifying.

[sokkascroptop]

hi!! okay so this might be a Big reach but i've been thinking a lot about the haunting of bly manor, and when i like something i connect it with other things i like and what not but ANYWAY, there's this scene where they talk say "people mix up love and possession. I don't think that should be possible. They're opposites really" and i feel like it's like that for y/n's relationship with azula and sokka or just with people from her past compared to the people she has now +

+ it's like how people thought of y/n as azula's #1 follower who was totally loyal to her and ig azula liked knowing that(infatuation aside), y/n was "hers", she wasn't her own person, she was like her soldier that happened to be her friend/crush and idk how to explain it well enough!! kinda like mai's scene when she tells azula that she loves zuko more than he fears her, and aaahhh i'm so sorry this is all over the place you can ignore this part if you want lol the first one is Good Enuf

Anon, I think you’re spot on so I will absolutely be addressing both parts of this!! 

In my mind, Y/N’s idea of love and is skewed. Those lines are how she thinks/thought. She’s confused and thinks that they are the same thing. In her mind by doing everything that someone wants, it will make that person love her. And deep down her greatest desire is to be accepted. That means that she is willing to give up those important/genuine parts of herself to fit into the mold that someone else has made for her. This was basically all started by her dad, who created her into a little follower. He trained her how he wanted her to act and she was so desperate for any type of attention from him that she did it. Then, when she left and went to the Capital City, she needed the same direction and found that in Azula. 

So the first time that never had someone trying to push her into a specific mold is when she begins traveling with the Gaang. And this just turns her world upside down. That is why the first time that they actually go out she has a major freak out, asking them what they want from her so she can do it!! And their response is like, “we just want you around? your purpose is being here.” and that is just a huge realization for her and she begins to change from that moment on. She is no longer expected to be a certain type of fighter or friend, for the first time she is wholly and completely herself. Which can be really scary at times! She’s very insecure about it! She is waiting for the other shoe to drop even now! She is constantly trying to prove to her firends that keeping her around is important and she does that by risking her life, because that is how she finds use in herself. She thinks that if she makes herself indispensable, they won’t leave her behind.

[rubyvroom]

HalloweenFest 2020 begins! 

***spoilers abound***

Bloodsucking Bastards - we got about 10 minutes into this and noped out because I hated every single character. Dysfunctional office full of bros is a creative location for a horror film, but too close to my actual life to be entertaining. Sorry Pedro Pascal, I could not hang on long enough for you to show up. 

Apollo 18 - very faithfully follows the found footage formula, just on the moon. Still, the idea of the alien creatures was pretty fun, and the footage was done rather well.

Phantasm - movies in this era are very hit and miss for me. Surprisingly, I loved this. Don’t get me wrong, it was definitely budgeted with the 75 cents someone dug out of their couch and it doesn’t do things like “have continuity” or “make sense” except for the way all the sequels worked very hard to make it so, but I’m planning to stop at just this one so it can exist as this weird nightmare artifact in my brain. No lore needed. Just flying surgical balls and short zombies and cool images and dream logic. 

Scarecrows - I did not enjoy this whatsoever, which makes Mr. X sad. I can’t even say why I loved Ready or Not and hated this, when they are at least equally gruesome. Something about tone and cruelty and having at least one human being worth rooting for. The setup and the scarecrow idea were inventive though?

I'm Thinking About Ending Things - this was for Mr. X the equivalent of how Scarecrows was for me. He liked it, but the parts that were meant to be painful were really, really making him suffer. Whereas I was like : this is AWFUL i LOVE it the whole time. Toni Collette is as usual the MVP. It is a very frustrating movie. It will live in my head rent-free for weeks.

Cabin In The Woods - Ive finally seen it. The internet ruined all the good jokes. And my tolerance for stock Whedon characters is a LOT lower than it once was. But the concept is still good and its very entertainingly executed. Not scary, but some good thoughts about sacrifice and horror (I mean, the ancient ones are us, right?)

The Haunting of Bly Manor - This was 0% scary but very enjoyable anyway as a gothic romance in the very traditional sense that the characters are all terrible or ghosts or terrible ghosts or else in love with ghosts or in love with people possessed by terrible ghosts and basically everyone is cockblocked to eternity but they are very pretty doing it. They dropped a couple story threads at the end in a way that made me insane and Mike Flanagan has yet to really stick a landing but overall great October vibes. Made me want to stare out over a moor in a white nightgown, grade A.

The Wailing - This was a very good, very scary Korean movie. I feel like I am missing some major cultural context to really understand it. There is something fascinatingly unsettling about the rhythm of Korean movies which is clearly not remotely based on the structure of American movies, and in a horror film that’s tremendously effective for a western viewer even if it’s harder to make sense of the plot. Also the actress who played the little girl was fantastically unnerving.

Mandy - We watched the first 10 minutes of Mandy before concluding this deserves better than the shitty download we were watching. It was too small on our screen and too dark, and the visuals on this demand to be watched properly. I’m ordering this DVD and we’ll watch it soon. 

Seoul Station -- Animated prequel to Train to Busan (which we enjoyed very much). It’s very well animated and the action is terrific. Probably the best pure-horror animated film I’ve seen yet. Creepy and tense. Has some very pointed social commentary. The ending left a bad taste (I didn’t think the bed scene was necessary, it was gratuitous) but overall very good.  

Near Dark -- 80′s movie about vampires that came out the same year as Lost Boys and was largely overshadowed despite being much better. Less fun, but better. It swings wildly between “being a vampire is no fun -- oh no wait it totally is!!! -- oh no wait it’s very much not” in the bloodiest way possible. Bill Paxton at his Bill Paxtonest, Lance Hendrick being the coolest, Adrian Pasdar being very very young and everybody looking great in a cowboy vampire nightmare that I can’t believe I never watched until now. 

Hush - This one was a little frustrating because I’m not real into home invasion movies and it was a little inconsistent in the main character’s awareness as a deaf woman but I’ll admit, I really hated that smug red-pill-looking killer and it was satisfying as hell to see him get his in the end. 

MANDY - We probably didn’t need another woman in a refrigerator movie, but if we were going to throw out all of the other “man goes on a crazy rampage to avenge his girlfriend” movies and keep just one of them, we should keep this one. It was pretty rad. (Which is to say it is my favorite of the 2020 batch of Halloween movies, damn if I could tell you why though)