Is The Haunting of Bly Manor Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot

Talismans and a very locked cupboard

The story is told by a woman at a rehearsal dinner in Northern California in 2007, about events in London and Bly in 1987. Dani Clayton, an American, gets a job from Henry Wingrave, who needs someone to mind his niece and nephew, Flora and Miles, at the family country house. She arrives with Owen the cook and meets Hannah Grose the housekeeper and Jamie the gardener. Talismans sit all over the manor, including one belonging to Rebecca Jessel, the previous au pair, who allegedly killed herself. Hannah says they protect Flora. Dani sees a man on the parapet and a figure in a closet mirror, and Miles locks her in a cupboard. Afterward she finds muddy footprints and sees both children watching her from their windows. In the second episode, Miles's old school history comes out: he picked fights, killed small animals and got himself expelled, apparently on purpose, holding a note from Flora telling him to come home. Dani then finds a photo of Rebecca with her lover, who is the man from the parapet, and Miles faints while a ghost grins at him.

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A dollhouse with a faceless resident

A flashback shows that the man on the parapet is Peter Quint, who works for Henry and starts a relationship with Rebecca when she interviews for the job. Peter grows possessive and jealous, especially of how Rebecca talks to Owen. In the present, the police cannot find Peter, so the adults guess he is alive and lurking around the grounds. Flora is found by the lake, staring at Rebecca's ghost. Then comes Dani's own backstory: she was engaged to her childhood friend Edmund, argued with him in the car after Edmund realized she did not want to marry him. Edmund stormed out and was hit by a truck. At the hospital Dani first sees his ghost, and she plans a secret move abroad. At Bly she sits with the staff at the bonfire held after Owen's mother's funeral, where Jamie starts a tradition of throwing bones into the fire. Dani and Jamie fall in love. Later Flora notices that the doll in her dollhouse has no face, and Dani burns Edmund's glasses.

Hannah's unfinished plans for Paris

Episode 5 follows Hannah through memories that jump around in time, some real and some imagined: her interview with Owen, his offer to take her to Paris, and the day she caught Peter stealing from the Wingraves. One night Peter is killed by the Lady in the Lake, the faceless woman in white who tracks mud into the house. As a ghost, he learns he can possess Miles. This is the scene people dread: Hannah sees Miles talking to Peter, Peter possesses Miles and shoves her down the well, and she dies. Dani arrives at the manor right after, which means Hannah has been a ghost, without knowing it, ever since. In episode 6, flashbacks show that Henry had an affair with Charlotte, the wife of his brother Dominic, and is Flora's biological father. Dominic and Charlotte later die in an accident in India. In the present, Flora sleepwalks and dreams of the past, Dani sees Rebecca's and Peter's ghosts, and Miles knocks her out as she tries to flee with Flora.

How to haunt a house properly

Episode 7 explains the rules. At Bly Manor a ghost can possess a living person briefly, and permanently if invited. A ghost that stays at the manor too long loses its face and its sense of self. Peter convinces Rebecca that she and he can stay together forever if she invites him in. She agrees, and he walks into the lake in her body, which drowns her and turns her into a ghost too. Rebecca is horrified and feels betrayed, yet Peter talks her into a second plan: possess Miles and Flora permanently and start new lives with them. Meanwhile the two ghosts and the children bring Dani up to the attic. The children let the ghosts possess them. Hannah calls out to them, and Peter, speaking as Miles, leads her to the well and makes her accept that she is a ghost. Flora then reveals that she and Rebecca were only pretending, and Rebecca's ghost is still separate from her. Dani tries once more to escape with Flora and is attacked by the Lady in the Lake.

A chest of dresses with a grudge

Episode 8 goes back centuries. Willoughby, who owns Bly Manor, dies and leaves two daughters, Viola and Perdita. Viola marries a distant cousin, Arthur Lloyd, which annoys Perdita because she has feelings for him. Once their daughter Isabel is born, Viola comes down with a lung disease and refuses her last rites, insisting that she will not leave. She grows bitter and isolated, and keeps searching for her daughter. Perdita finally smothers her and marries Arthur herself. Viola's spirit ends up trapped in a chest of her dresses and jewelry. When Arthur's money runs low, Perdita opens the chest to sell the contents, and Viola's spirit kills her. Arthur sinks the chest in the lake and leaves with Isabel. Viola becomes the Lady in the Lake, who wanders the manor at night looking for her daughter, kills anyone in her way and traps those who die on the grounds. Over the centuries she loses her face and her memory. Back in the present, Viola drags Dani by the throat until Flora steps in, and because Flora reminds her of Isabel, Viola carries Flora toward the lake.