Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manor
Ep7: “The Two Faces, Part Two”
Directed by Yolanda Ramke & Ben Howling
Written by The Clarkson Twins

* For a recap & review of “The Jolly Corner,” click here.
* For a recap & review of “The Romance of Certain Old Clothes,” click here.
After Dani’s knocked out from behind by Miles, the boy and his sister realise their game’s gone too far. When Dani wakes up she’s tied and gagged in the attic. The children aren’t playing a game on their own. Rebecca and Peter are there with them, too. Quint tries to tell the kids occasionally right is wrong and wrong is right. It’s mostly a bunch of bullshit to help the boy reconcile with what he’s done. Flora wants them to “tuck her away” somewhere, she’s worried about Dani being terrified. But then Rebecca begins to slip away through time, hearing Hannah’s voice calling, what they refer to as “dream–hopping.”

Hannah comes knocking at the door. Except it’s just what Peter hears. He slips away through space and time, as well. He’s at his door, letting his mother inside after obviously not seeing her for a long time. His mother said she was “cured.” She didn’t want to go looking for anything from her husband, obviously estranged. She then got into the idea of blackmail, shaking down her own son. We get bits of Peter’s history, some concealed juvenile records from a conviction when he was young.
Then we go to Rebecca as she sits with Hannah and a cop. Hannah was reporting the “priceless heirlooms” stolen from Bly Manor. Rebecca told the cop about the plans Peter had, about going to America. She didn’t know the exact plans, so she wasn’t lying. The cop got nasty, making Rebecca feel small for not knowing, as if her lover should’ve explained his plans to someone he actually cared about, and then, Rebecca was alone. Miles came down to comfort the governess about Peter, telling her: “He‘s still here.” He said Peter passed along the message himself.
Another shift in time and space. Rebecca walked into the kitchen where Owen and Hannah were chatting while Jamie was starving. She left them and went off on her own. They knew she was reeling in the wake of everything with Peter. Instead Rebecca went out by the lake, holding the butterfly clip and thinking of her runaway lover. Jamie joined her to try and encourage Rebecca to smarten up and use this moment to get Lord Wingrave to accept her pupillage. This resonated with the governess.
Later, Rebecca saw Peter in the shadows of her room. She angrily confronts him about nearly making her “a criminal, too.” He tells her he’s been there all this time. She doesn’t understand. She approaches him and he pulls away. It’s because he’s a ghost! He passes his hand through hers, and she understands instantly.

The two lovers, separated by death, continued to be together as much as they were able throughout the day. Rebecca would head upstairs right after classes end. She suggested to Peter they still go away together, even if he’s a ghost. But he explains he can’t leave Bly Manor, he can’t even get past the driveway. They couldn’t touch each other, either. It was driving Rebecca crazy. Peter shoved her as she cried out. Then he was gone. It was like Peter was inside Rebecca. He comes out of her again, then he hears the knock on the door, going back to the memory of his mother.
Whoa!
So, when Flora gets “tucked away” one of the ghosts is controlling her.

And now, back to another of Rebecca’s memories. She tried running past the driveway’s end holding Peter’s hand. Of course it didn’t work, even hand in hand. It was a sad blow to their potential future elsewhere. Rebecca became more depressed after Peter left her there. He stayed away a week. One night, she went to her room and Quint was waiting for her in the dark. He said he’d been exploring the house, and that he’d found a way to be “together again,” to be able to touch and taste one another. Peter wanted to “share a life” with Rebecca, to use the newfound power of possession to extend their relationship beyond the barrier of life and death. She agreed, if they were to be equals. Easy to see how that might get abused. Like when Peter made Rebecca walk into the lake, so they’d actually be dead together.

This put Rebecca into a meta time loop of her own existence. She had to face the most beautiful memories of Peter as being part of the manipulation. She’d realised the control he held over, that now was their new existence, one that would last for all eternity. Quint betrayed his lover in life and in death, as well. He exerted control over her that will forever haunt the both of them. Not to mention he’s had plenty to haunt him anyway. Like that recurring memory of his mother, seemingly the only one he ever returns to while the others seem to have plenty of memories. “It‘s like I‘m in Hell,” he tells his mother. Peter confronts a horrific history of child sexual abuse through this memory.
Soon, Peter’s back in the attic with Dani and the kids. The children are trying to get the au pair free. Quint uses his ability to get inside Miles to influence things, then he jumps out again. Miles isn’t a fan of the body-hopping; also brings up the idea of consent, and the fact Peter’s obviously a bit of a border-crosser when it comes to personal boundaries. Rebecca comes back and Peter tells her they have to finish things. Are they going to use the children to body hop themselves out of Bly Manor? Peter mentions the “forever house,” which the kids know about, and it sounds creepy. Doesn’t appear Rebecca wants to do it, though Peter hauls a faceless ghost out to show her what’ll happen if they don’t complete their plan.

The children think “us” and fall unconscious. When they rise again, they’re Rebecca and Peter in those little bodies. Dani’s left to watch the whole thing in terror. Peter’s planning to dispatch the au pair, he doesn’t want to have her alive to tell someone the story, no matter if it’d be an absolutely insane story to tell somebody. First, he wants to take care of Hannah. The boy goes for a walk in the woods with the housekeeper. They end up at the well, where Hannah’s had a bad memory already. The boy asks her to look down inside, so she does. She sees a crumpled corpse laying there.
Hannah snaps back to the interview with Owen.
And she realises she’s dead.

Upstairs, Rebecca’s back out of Flora. She asks the girl to untie the au pair. Thankfully the little lady can be saved, but for Miles it’s too late now, Quint has had hold of him too long. The new governess and Flora go running downstairs and outside. The girl won’t go and stops them, right as the faceless woman shows up to snatch Dani, dragging her off as she once did with Mr. Quint.
My favourite episode so far! The sentimentality is, again, too strong. Does Peter Quint REALLY need to be turned into a sympathetic character? Nah, not for any adaptation of The Turn of the Screw. Nevertheless, I thought this was a fantastic episode. It was emotional, and more importantly it was scary. Very sinister, so good.