S01.E05: The Bent-Neck Lady

[krankydoodle]

A dark specter with an unsettling silhouette has haunted Nell since she was a girl. Now "the Bent-Neck Lady" is back -- and she's calling Nell home.

 

Poor Nell! I feel like I should've seen the ending coming, but I was so wrapped up in watching her story unfold that I wasn't thinking ahead. Victoria Pedretti is amazing in the role.

Even though her romance with Arthur didn't get much time, I thought they did a great job selling the relationship and his importance as one of the few people to listen to her, which made his death all the more heartbreaking.

Edited October 15, 2018 by 17wheatthins
Added episode description

[Lebanna]

Ok, this was where the show really got me. I love time travel stories, especially recursive ones, but the idea of doing that as a ghost story? Fantastic.

That moment where Nell falls back through her life (as they say we do when we die) only to realize step by step that she has been creating herself the whole time. And then reaches the first time she saw herself, her head half on, remembers herself screaming, and in terror, screams. That was some really good horror.

[TexasGal]

Ok, that was some genuinely creepy good shit.  Wow.  I watched the first 2 episodes before going to bed because usuallly “scary” stories don’t scare me.  Those were creepy enough to keep me up for a while.  I’m glad I didn’t watch this one in the dark.

The casting of the girl children and adults is really good - they look so much alike and have similar mannerisms.  Adult Theo also looks a lot like their mom.

[Megan]

Chekhov's ropes.

As soon as I saw that little girl with the page boy on the spiral staircase.... 

Also, Who was that girl? None of the kids looked like that?

To be haunted by your own death your whole life. I really like this show.

Edited October 15, 2018 by Megan

[TexasGal]

10 hours ago, Megan said:

Also, Who was that girl? None of the kids looked like that?

 

I think that was Luke's "imaginary friend" from the garden.

[bilgistic]

This episode wrecked me. I am weeping.

The more I watch, the more I'm bothered by the show attaching itself to the The Haunting of Hill House name/pedigree. As others have said, it could have been packaged as The Haunting of Whatever Family Name House and it would be just as effective. It didn't bother me in the beginning, but it does now. I haven't read the novel, but I saw the original movie (years ago) and regrettably, the remake.

It bothers me because these are two distinct stories. The Haunting of Hill House is not this series. Clearly, the strength in this series is the theme of what you experience in childhood (what "haunts" you from your childhood) can follow you forever. It can shape your career, your health, your relationships, etc. They've done a very good job with this so far. I hope I'm not disappointed later.

It's affecting me because of my own difficult childhood. It wasn't completely horrible, but it was far from great. I have a deadbeat father, and my life has been indelibly shaped by that, from the time my folks split when I was five. I have two younger sisters I was in charge of at a very young age. I also struggle with depression and anxiety AND have sleep paralysis very occasionally, so this episode just gutted me. I can't move any part of me when I half-wake from sleep paralysis. I usually have to scream myself awake from the ether. It's just terrifying.

Edited October 16, 2018 by bilgistic

[Irritable]

That’s exactly what I said to my husband, that episode wrecked me. He sort of makes fun of me when I cry at shows and movies, but I couldn’t help myself ... absolutely heartbreaking.  She “got” everything she wanted, her entire family whole and healthy, only to realize in  terror at the end she had been tricked. Poor, sweet Nell.

Edited October 16, 2018 by Irritable

[Wicked]

Really good episode.  I'm wondering what Theo saw when she touched Nell in the morgue.  Did she see that Nell is/was the Bent Neck Lady?

[theartandsound]

Victoria Pedretti absolutely killed it in this episode. She fleshed out a fully realized character and took her through the gamut of happiness and sadness, hope and despair — sometimes in the space of minutes. When Nell's husband died and she was still in the throes of sleep paralysis, that was maybe the most riveting and chilling thing I've seen on television this year. Cannot wait to see what comes next in her burgeoning career.

[bilgistic]

2 hours ago, Wicked said:

Really good episode.  I'm wondering what Theo saw when she touched Nell in the morgue.  Did she see that Nell is/was the Bent Neck Lady?

I'd forgotten about that. I can only imagine she saw Nell's sadness, terror and the ultimate horror of going/coming "home" to face her literal and metaphorical demons and, instead of her vanquishing them, she was conquered by them.

[oompa]

In my opinion, the best episode so far. A bit of obvious foreshadowing to the ropes in an earlier episode, but all of the time-y wimey stuff was great. 

Seriously, you've been haunted by stuff all your life and it's no big deal to go that THAT house at night??? Granted, I don't think that house would care about daytime/nighttime.

Poor Nell. At least she did have a little bit of happiness at the end with her family and husband.

[Cheezwiz]

Wow this episode really got to me - so heartbreaking. Poor Nell. I had a feeling as I watched that the "bent-neck lady" would either be Nell herself or her Mother. But sending Nell back through time was a really effective - both horrifying and sad.

Lately I've been feeling a bit wistful and sad about my own childhood, and I have had frightening episodes of sleep paralysis, so I could really relate to what was happening in this episode. For those who have never experienced it, Sleep paralysis is utterly terrifying - it really does feel like you might die, and that something malevolent is looming over you. I have woken up paralyzed to see a figure standing by my bed, or peering at me through my bedroom door. In other instances, it's felt as if another person has crawled right onto my bed and laid right on top of me. When this is happening, your body is frozen, and you want to scream in terror, but no sound comes out. I can really understand why people believed in the supernatural because of this phenomenon. It usually only happens to me when I fall asleep flat on my back, so I always try to curl up on my side when I sleep.

This episode really put me through the emotional wringer - bravo to the actress for a job well done.

[BeeBop88]

Poor Nell just can not get a break. Well, I guess she did in her neck. Really though, what a way to go.  It was interesting how the buildup was to Nell killing herself. 

Edited October 17, 2018 by BeeBop88

[BeeBop88]

So am I getting this straight. That it is not a real haunting of a house, but rather the haunting of a very strange family going through the fighting of individual demons that have haunted them through life? That Mommy and Daddy wasn't really right in the head?  And therefore messed up their 5 kids?

And did Daddy murder Mommy? Is that why Aunt Janet ended up getting custody of the kids? Very rare that the Dad doesn't get custody of the kids if everything is honky dory. 

Edited October 17, 2018 by BeeBop88

[Rap541]

There's really no way to answer your questions without spoiling. Would you like spoilers?

[BeeBop88]

16 hours ago, Rap541 said:

There's really no way to answer your questions without spoiling. Would you like spoilers?

No thank you.  I don't want to ruin it for others, so I can wait.  Thanks for the offer.

[Rap541]

You can message me if you have questions, I have watched all episodes at this point

[Dobian]

It was great getting back to some real horror again after the last two episodes, which really dragged.  This one made me jump several times but it wasn't just the jump scares that were good, it was the creeping dread as Nell flew back to east to return to that nightmare of a house.  Being in that place all alone, and the illusions it created for her *shudders*.  Great stuff, including the twist at the end, pardon the pun.

 

Quote

And did Daddy murder Mommy? Is that why Aunt Janet ended up getting custody of the kids? Very rare that the Dad doesn't get custody of the kids if everything is honky dory. 

In the scene at the motel he looked covered in blood, which is an ominous sign.

Edited October 18, 2018 by Dobian

[Anela]

WTF? Was she seeing the future? The house killed her and her husband, right? His neck bent to one side, as the spectre was there. 

Being killed by something pretending to be her mother = just as horrifying as the actual death. I don't think she killed herself. 

I loved the scenes with her husband, but my mother died of an aneurysm, only in the hospital. She had other health problems, but that was the most serious, and ended up being the last thing to be taken care of, because she was so delicate health-wise. This series has been a bit triggering, which I wasn't expecting, but then people joke about having aneurysms, so it's a minor one. 

[Anela]

On 10/15/2018 at 9:46 PM, bilgistic said:

This episode wrecked me. I am weeping.

The more I watch, the more I'm bothered by the show attaching itself to the The Haunting of Hill House name/pedigree. As others have said, it could have been packaged as The Haunting of Whatever Family Name House and it would be just as effective. It didn't bother me in the beginning, but it does now. I haven't read the novel, but I saw the original movie (years ago) and regrettably, the remake.

It bothers me because these are two distinct stories. The Haunting of Hill House is not this series. Clearly, the strength in this series is the theme of what you experience in childhood (what "haunts" you from your childhood) can follow you forever. It can shape your career, your health, your relationships, etc. They've done a very good job with this so far. I hope I'm not disappointed later.

It's affecting me because of my own difficult childhood. It wasn't completely horrible, but it was far from great. I have a deadbeat father, and my life has been indelibly shaped by that, from the time my folks split when I was five. I have two younger sisters I was in charge of at a very young age. I also struggle with depression and anxiety AND have sleep paralysis very occasionally, so this episode just gutted me. I can't move any part of me when I half-wake from sleep paralysis. I usually have to scream myself awake from the ether. It's just terrifying.

 

My sister dealt with sleep paralysis in this house. She usually slept in complete darkness, but ended up having the TV on, and set to really low light, because it scared her so badly. She said that it felt like something got into bed with her, pressed against her. She was terrified. She had experiences as a kid, and I don't care if I sound silly: I believe in things like spirits. She saw something when we were kids, and I felt something that scared me, but it wasn't until the next day that she pointed to a picture, and said that she  saw that woman standing next to the bed the night before, looking at us. I don't know how to explain that one. That night, we were in my uncle's bed, staying at his house, and I asked mum if I could sleep in the middle when I felt scared, which was unlike me. The woman she said she saw, was deceased. His ex-wife that we barely knew. 

as I mentioned in another episode thread yesterday, it bugs me when people don't listen to children - don't take them seriously (no matter our age). We had things happen, like you Bilgistic, where my parents were divorced, and I was having anxiety attacks - almost four, when my mother took me and my sister back to England, anxious when she so much as went next-door and left us with our grandmother. I wanted my mother, which sounds normal for a small child who was thousands of miles away from her father, after her life has been upended, but mum and others would say "she just wants attention". I got punished for having anxiety attacks, basically. I also remember when the babysitters didn't show up, when I was around eight. I told mum, she didn't believe me, until she came home with bad cramps one day. They walked in five minutes before she was due home, and were fired, because I'd been telling the truth - they had been taking her money, without taking care of us. I once asked mum if we were such bad kids, and she said no, we weren't. She was just a stressed single mother. 

Edited October 19, 2018 by Anela

[Mabinogia]

I have sleep paralysis. I'm actually surprised it wasn't triggered watching this. It is HORRIFYING. For me, it is something slowly creeping along my bed, I can feel the weight of it pressing down on the mattress, slowly it comes closer and closer. I can't move, I can't breath, I can't scream. I can only just lay their and wait for it to get me. Then I wake up. Before I knew what sleep paralysis was I was completely convinced I was being haunted by something. 

7 hours ago, Anela said:

it bugs me when people don't listen to children - don't take them seriously (no matter our age).

Agreed. Even if you don't believe little Nell saw a ghost, something is going on in her life, in her head, that made her think she did. Don't dismiss it. Try to figure out what is wrong. I like that Theo became a child psychologist because it makes sense. She knows what happens when kids feel like no one is listening, when they aren't believed, and she wants to save other kids from the lives Nell and Luke ended up with. 

[Cheezwiz]

13 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

have sleep paralysis. I'm actually surprised it wasn't triggered watching this. It is HORRIFYING. For me, it is something slowly creeping along my bed, I can feel the weight of it pressing down on the mattress, slowly it comes closer and closer. I can't move, I can't breath, I can't scream. I can only just lay their and wait for it to get me. Then I wake up. Before I knew what sleep paralysis was I was completely convinced I was being haunted by something. 

I have had this exact same experience Mabinogia. It 's utterly terrifying - at the time I actually thought someone had broken into my apartment, snuck into my room and was crawling onto my bed. I have also "woken up" to see a figure standing over my bed staring at me, not being able to scream or move a muscle. I remember desperately trying to scream "Who are you?! What do you want!?" and no sound coming out. And then gradually the figure would fade away and my muscle movement returned. The show did an excellent job of depicting what this feels like.

I have been VERY careful to sleep on my side after watching this - I don't seem to have paralysis episodes unless I've fallen asleep flat on my back. No wonder people believed in supernatural bugaboos back in the day!

[Anela]

I believe for more reasons than that. :) But I also believe in sleep paralysis. 

[tennisgurl]

That was horrifying and heartbreaking, definitely the best episode of the series so far. Poor, poor Nell. I suspected that some kind of time travel shenanigans were going on with the house and Nell's haunting, but her realizing that she herself had been haunting herself in her last minutes for her whole life, putting her on this very path, was just unbelievably tragic and terrifying. The last sequence where she dances with her dad husband, with her happy family all there, was beautiful and haunting, especially when, as you look around, you can see people in old fashioned clothes surrounding her, as well as her family. The other ghosts, presumably. 

Even though we only saw some glimpses of her marriage, they really sold their love, and how devastated Nell was by her husbands death. And, like last episode, I like seeing things from different perspectives, and how you can get new context of the siblings interactions depending on what we`ve seen, and whos story we`ve been following that episode. 

[Sakura12]

Wow. poor Nell. I never thought she was seeing her own dead body. No wonder she's so messed up. I suppose she didn't know it was her until the moment of her death. But now we have time travel along with ghosts. 

[JenE4]

Interesting that Arthur was also the bent neck man when he died, so I thought Nell perhaps was dreaming his death as a kid. I caught on to the “[Wel]come back Nell” and these glimpses of ghosts from the past as skirting the time continuum, but it took until the rope and “mom” putting the “necklace” on her that I realized she was going to be the bent neck lady...but she’s always been the bent neck lady. Da-da-DUM!

ETA: So after watching/posting last night, this morning I woke up at 3:00 with the “sleep paralysis” and couldn’t move my body and started thinking about this show—specifically the bent neck lady. Come on!! Guess I’ll need to watch this during daylight!

Since I had some more thoughts on the show in the middle of the night... Interesting how Nell progressed from the “paralysis” in bed, to sitting straight up on that hotel bed in a trance for 11 hours(!!!), to then “dreaming” everything as she was dancing etc through the house. (Her dad did tell her as a child that her dreams were bleeding over.) Near the end of the dance scene, right before Nell and Arthur kiss and the song ends, they twirl by other inhabitants of the house—including the groundskeeper, a twenties style flapper, etc. One of the people is a guy in the bowler hat. He’s a normal person here, but he’s obviously Luke’s spirit. I tried to post a clip, but can’t. It starts right at 6:00 left in the episode if anyone missed it. I guess we can assume these five people are the ghosts of the house and we can expect to see them in ghoulish form (speculation).

Edited October 26, 2018 by JenE4

[patty1h]

I just re-watched The Bent-Neck Lady and the end credits were rolling when I noticed the name Russ Tamblyn. Holy shit - I didn't even recognize him as Nell's therapist/psychiatrist. Cool that they brought him in for a role (he was in the original movie The Haunting).

[Rap541]

Also funny, Russ Tamblyn played Laura Palmer's psychiatrist on Twin Peaks. Pretty shitty track record there!

[Black Knight]

I just watched this - I've been waiting impatiently for Nell's episode because they did such a good job of building up the mystery in the previous episodes that I couldn't wait to watch this on my normal one-ep-a-day schedule.

Like everyone else has said, this episode was heartbreaking. I was really hoping during the closing scenes that Nell would die while remaining in her fantasy in which she heard from each of her family members what she most wanted to hear from them and reunite with her husband, but she wasn't spared that horror. She was a sweet person and didn't deserve it, but...that's the genre. Poor Nell. At least she had a couple of years of being happy with Arthur first before her entire life caved in.

Victoria Pedretti was indeed amazing, and I also have to give a shout-out to Carla Gugino, who does a terrific job of playing NotOlivia as someone who on the surface is the loving Olivia she's impersonating while subtly suggesting the wrongness underneath.

I also continue to love the way each episode clarifies and/or adds nuance to things we saw previously. When Shirley was told of Nell's death in a previous episode, she kept ranting about how it couldn't be true because Nell would never call their father, and we saw in this episode how Shirl was essentially correct in what she meant and yet wrong. Nell did call other family members first: Steve and Shirley. She knew Luke couldn't take calls in rehab, and she'd just had that argument with Theo.

So much of this episode reminded me of Emily Dickinson's "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" and I would love to know if the episode writer had it in mind. The whole poem is fitting, but I'll quote the last stanza here:

Quote

 

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,

And I dropped down, and down -

And hit a World, at every plunge,

And Finished knowing - then -

 

The last sentence, the Finished knowing, is the final horror for Dickinson in that poem, and it's the same final horror Nell endures. She dies knowing that her own death is what haunted her all her life.

[Lady Calypso]

Wow....that was just....wow. I really wish I listened to others on here when they said that this episode was one not to watch right before bed. I am a dumb person having just finished watching at 2am and am unable to turn my light off. I never expected to react in this way, but here I am, heartbroken for Nell and how she met her end....and the revelation of the Bent-Neck Lady. 

This series has gotten better with each episode so far. I don't think they can top this episode, though. I can't see how they ever do, because they was an hour and eight minutes worth of tension and fascination and terror. 

I was heartbroken over Arthur's death and how it haunted Nell. Even though he didn't appear that much, I still felt for him, and for him and Nell. She almost had a life that could have broken free of her terrors, but in the end, it was not meant to be. 

I was sad for Nell, who was really struggling after Arthur's death and watching her twin relapse again and again, finally using HER as a way to get high. I think, at that moment, she realized that something needed to change. It's too bad the therapist (hi Russ Tamblyn!) chose to give the advice to face her demons. 

Nell being brought to the house was horrible because throughout that whole sequence, I knew what was coming, I couldn't stop the tears from forming, and I was STILL hoping for a different outcome by the end. I'm glad Nell got some form of happiness with Arthur before his death, and she got a brief moment of happiness before her death, but STILL. 

Now, with her death, I worry about Luke. There's a reason she dreamed of his possible demise the night before she went to Hill House. She clearly has a strong twin connection with him and can foresee things to happen in the future so what does that mean for Luke? 

And now we also know why Luke was holding his neck when he woke up the moment she died....but also why he kept rubbing his neck afterward. I had a strong feeling Nell would die from that stupid rope that Olivia had forewarned in the flashbacks last episode, but I didn't want that to be true. 

I have never had sleep paralysis, but I used to have nightmares as a kid, to the point where I would wake up screaming. I don't know exactly when or why they stopped, but they did...yet I always fear that they'll come back. So I totally understood, in a different way, the terror that Nell felt when she woke up. 

Excellent job to Victoria Pedretti. I didn't know her name before this series but now I'll remember it. She's an up and comer, it seems, and I look forward to seeing the rest of her appearances in this series and in future projects. She just really brought everything to the table here.

On another note, I find it funny that the actress is in her mid twenties but she's playing someone who is in her early thirties. I guess they really wanted to have Nell retain her youth.

Oh man, I can't even watch the next episode, but I'm also too terrified to go to sleep. 

[Black Knight]

8 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

I had a strong feeling Nell would die from that stupid rope that Olivia had forewarned in the flashbacks last episode, but I didn't want that to be true.

When Olivia told young Nell that she would give her that necklace someday, I knew that was going to factor into Nell's death somehow too. Of course it ends up being what the house uses to trick Nell into putting the noose around her own neck.

[Black Knight]

18 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

On another note, I find it funny that the actress is in her mid twenties but she's playing someone who is in her early thirties. I guess they really wanted to have Nell retain her youth.

Well, the adult actors are covering a range of more than just a couple years, since we see them discussing Steve’s first book before it’s released and in the farthest forward time we’ve seen, he’s now published a bunch of books.

But I’m not sure Nell even makes it to 30. Her older sister Theo was specified to be 30 at Nell’s wedding, and if I understood the timeline right Nell died a little under two years later.

[galaxygirl76]

On 10/26/2018 at 12:00 PM, patty1h said:

I just re-watched The Bent-Neck Lady and the end credits were rolling when I noticed the name Russ Tamblyn. Holy shit - I didn't even recognize him as Nell's therapist/psychiatrist. Cool that they brought him in for a role (he was in the original movie The Haunting).

I thought I recognized his voice so midway through the episode I looked up the cast list on IMDb and found out I was right it was him.

[Peanut6711]

On 10/16/2018 at 11:41 PM, oompa said:

Seriously, you've been haunted by stuff all your life and it's no big deal to go that THAT house at night??? Granted, I don't think that house would care about daytime/nighttime.

I don't know. There's some reason the Dubley are willing to work there during the day but not return at night though.  There seems to be some distinction though it didn't stop the kids from seeing things in daylight.  

On 10/17/2018 at 12:39 AM, BeeBop88 said:

And did Daddy murder Mommy? Is that why Aunt Janet ended up getting custody of the kids? Very rare that the Dad doesn't get custody of the kids if everything is honky dory. 

 

While I don't think the father murdered the mother, I'm not sure he didn't do some kind of jail time, hence the reason they were raised by the aunt. And where is the aunt now? 

On 10/18/2018 at 11:05 AM, Dobian said:

In the scene at the motel he looked covered in blood, which is an ominous sign.

 

Bad parenting moment #101 in this show. Even if it was paint  like he claimed, why the heck didn't he change his clothes before he returned to his kids!? Like they weren't traumatized enough.

On 10/26/2018 at 1:00 PM, patty1h said:

I just re-watched The Bent-Neck Lady and the end credits were rolling when I noticed the name Russ Tamblyn. Holy shit - I didn't even recognize him as Nell's therapist/psychiatrist. Cool that they brought him in for a role (he was in the original movie The Haunting).

Also Dr. Jacoby, the Hawaii loving shrink of Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks.  I wanted to cringe though when he suggested Nell return to the house where she'd realize it was harmless.  Blood is on his hands. 

On 10/27/2018 at 2:15 AM, Lady Calypso said:

On another note, I find it funny that the actress is in her mid twenties but she's playing someone who is in her early thirties. I guess they really wanted to have Nell retain her youth.

In the first episode where we see Adult Nell I guessed her to only be in her late teens/ college years.  I was surprised when we found out she'd been married. Of course, I also didn't realize at that point that she and Luke were twins, assuming she was the youngest.  Little Nell is adorable. The child actress does a great job. I find the adult Nell (actress) a little flat, but still very sympathetic.  I really felt bad for her in the scene where Theo visits her in CA after the husband's death. While I've come to like Theo the best since her own episode, I found her really cold in that scene. As a therapist, she should have handled Nell better.  Even w/out their traumatic childhood, the girl had just lost her husband to sudden death and yet Theo acted pissed that Nell wasn't showing her around LA and sunning it on the beach with her. 

Edited October 30, 2018 by Peanut6711

[MamaMax]

On 10/25/2018 at 9:47 PM, JenE4 said:

Interesting that Arthur was also the bent neck man when he died, so I thought Nell perhaps was dreaming his death as a kid. I caught on to the “[Wel]come back Nell” and these glimpses of ghosts from the past as skirting the time continuum, but it took until the rope and “mom” putting the “necklace” on her that I realized she was going to be the bent neck lady...but she’s always been the bent neck lady. Da-da-DUM!

ETA: So after watching/posting last night, this morning I woke up at 3:00 with the “sleep paralysis” and couldn’t move my body and started thinking about this show—specifically the bent neck lady. Come on!! Guess I’ll need to watch this during daylight!

Since I had some more thoughts on the show in the middle of the night... Interesting how Nell progressed from the “paralysis” in bed, to sitting straight up on that hotel bed in a trance for 11 hours(!!!), to then “dreaming” everything as she was dancing etc through the house. (Her dad did tell her as a child that her dreams were bleeding over.) Near the end of the dance scene, right before Nell and Arthur kiss and the song ends, they twirl by other inhabitants of the house—including the groundskeeper, a twenties style flapper, etc. One of the people is a guy in the bowler hat. He’s a normal person here, but he’s obviously Luke’s spirit. I tried to post a clip, but can’t. It starts right at 6:00 left in the episode if anyone missed it. I guess we can assume these five people are the ghosts of the house and we can expect to see them in ghoulish form (speculation).

I noticed him there, too.

[Love]

On 2018-10-30 at 11:50 AM, Peanut6711 said:

I really felt bad for her in the scene where Theo visits her in CA after the husband's death. While I've come to like Theo the best since her own episode, I found her really cold in that scene. As a therapist, she should have handled Nell better.  Even w/out their traumatic childhood, the girl had just lost her husband to sudden death and yet Theo acted pissed that Nell wasn't showing her around LA and sunning it on the beach with her. 

Funny how we all have our own takes.  I felt for Theo because I think in her mind, she wanted to spend time with her sister in LA.  However (and this is my take), I believe Theo was hurt because she felt Nell only wanted her there because knew of Theo’s “gift”.  She needed to know what really happened to her husband.  She thought Theo could help.  Otherwise, why would they have had that scene in one of the flashbacks where Nell was fascinated when she witnessed Theo using said “gift”.  

[Lucelu]

On 10/17/2018 at 12:10 AM, Cheezwiz said:

Wow this episode really got to me - so heartbreaking. Poor Nell. I had a feeling as I watched that the "bent-neck lady" would either be Nell herself or her Mother. But sending Nell back through time was a really effective - both horrifying and sad.

Lately I've been feeling a bit wistful and sad about my own childhood, and I have had frightening episodes of sleep paralysis, so I could really relate to what was happening in this episode. For those who have never experienced it, Sleep paralysis is utterly terrifying - it really does feel like you might die, and that something malevolent is looming over you. I have woken up paralyzed to see a figure standing by my bed, or peering at me through my bedroom door. In other instances, it's felt as if another person has crawled right onto my bed and laid right on top of me. When this is happening, your body is frozen, and you want to scream in terror, but no sound comes out. I can really understand why people believed in the supernatural because of this phenomenon. It usually only happens to me when I fall asleep flat on my back, so I always try to curl up on my side when I sleep.

This episode really put me through the emotional wringer - bravo to the actress for a job well done.

I have had the same phenomena. For a period of time I had this happen to me. I could sense a person or entity ir figure standing next to me on my bed. I can hear them breathe. They are going to stab me with a knife sometimes and I see the arm with the knife above me.. or sometimes they are going to choke me but it is mostly the knife. I try to push them away or punch them but I am paralyzed or extremely weak.  Sometimes I could feel pressure of their arm across my chest and I feel I might be crushed. I cannot even scream, it comes out in a squeak. I started locking the door and then sensed the figure outside of it. After that I went out partying with my friends all night and passed out in rooms together so I was not alone. This was when I was 19-early 20s, a long time ago but the recollection of how it feels has never faded. I too am a side sleeper now.  I am watching this episode now and it is so sad and just disturbing. Seven ghosts - is that why the twins always keep counting to 7?

Edited November 4, 2018 by Lucelu

[Lucelu]

This episode is turning out quite difficult for me as I recently lost my brother and grieving a lot for him. I am thankful they arranged for him to be cremated so I did not have to view his body. My mothers death preceded his a couple of years ago and he was the one who found her. But the funeral home was very similar but more people were there than just siblings/inlaws. The concept of imbibing more alcohol is tempting. I consider that my brother's kids are likely having a harder time than me even though I had known him his entire life --but they really depended on him, he was the anchor to their world. So I try to use that grief to reach out to them. Make them understand they are not without family that loves them (they are all in their 20s).

[methodwriter85]

On 10/14/2018 at 10:56 PM, Megan said:

To be haunted by your own death your whole life. I really like this show.

Shades of Natalie Wood and her own death, for real.

Sleep paralysis really is horrifying to go through.

I feel like this show is a metaphor for what it's like to go through a traumatic childhood and how it can follow you through your entire life.

Edited November 4, 2018 by methodwriter85

[JenE4]

10 hours ago, Lucelu said:

Seven ghosts - is that why the twins always keep counting to 7?

I think they explained this by this episode—or even in this episode—but putting behind spoiler tags just in case:

Spoiler

Luke counted out 7 buttons for Nelly to represent the 7 members of the family to focus on counting that they’ll all stay together and keep each other safe.

I’m sorry to hear about the terror you endured with your sleep paralysis!

[Zima]

I watched this episode several days ago, and it's still giving me the creeps! 

[willco]

I don't know if I'd say this was my favorite episode so far, because I really liked Theo's episode, but it was pretty damn good ! And I really liked the reveal Nell was, in fact, the bent-necked lady ! That was a great twist that I honestly didn't see coming, at least until we saw the rope. I always seem to figure out where shows are going way early and while it's great to be so brilliant all the time ( ha ha), I get tired of it, rarely seems to be a twist that surprises me. So while this twist seems so obvious now, it wasn't to me at all and that kind of made my day.

 

As tragic as Nell's suicide is, I am glad that she didn't really do it to herself, because I was dreading that outcome. It's the house and it's tricks and mind games that made her do that. As depressed as she was, I really doubt killing herself would have been the end result, had she not been seduced by whatever is pulling her mothers "strings".

 

I really hopes that the rest make it out of this alive, but that doesn't seem likely.

[Cheezwiz]

On 11/3/2018 at 7:52 PM, Lucelu said:

have had the same phenomena. For a period of time I had this happen to me. I could sense a person or entity ir figure standing next to me on my bed. I can hear them breathe. They are going to stab me with a knife sometimes and I see the arm with the knife above me.. or sometimes they are going to choke me but it is mostly the knife. I try to push them away or punch them but I am paralyzed or extremely weak.  Sometimes I could feel pressure of their arm across my chest and I feel I might be crushed. I cannot even scream, it comes out in a squeak. I started locking the door and then sensed the figure outside of it.

Oh, Lucelu, this is horrifying - your account sounds even more frightening than what I experienced! I had menacing figures by me during my paralysis episodes, but none of them were wielding weapons! Interesting that you switched to side-sleeping (as I did also). I wonder what it is about sleeping on the back that can bring this on?

I have never seen sleep paralysis as part of a storyline in movies or TV shows before, and I thought Hill House did an excellent job of depicting it - clearly someone or someone(s) on the writing team had been through it. For those interested, there was a documentary that came out on Netflix a couple of years ago called "The Nightmare" that explores this phenomenon.

[The Mighty Peanut]

I also have sleep paralysis, though it manifests a little differently--I have vivid lucid nightmares that are so detailed I can see plaque on teeth, individual whiskers, usually belonging to an extremely realistic demon I can feel holding my chest. And yes, shadow people when I do wake up. When it happens, it's so real I always wake up thinking I must have been in a different dimension. I know it sounds ridiculous, but they feel more real than waking life in some ways.

Anyway, I digress. I just adore Arthur. His gentleness was so, so sweet, and I am so sad for what happened, and that Nell had to watch and wonder forever of she could have saved him in those few seconds she was paralyzed. And OMFG he is a cool drink of water, what a smile.

[Nanners]

On 10/17/2018 at 12:10 AM, Cheezwiz said:

It usually only happens to me when I fall asleep flat on my back, so I always try to curl up on my side when I sleep.

This episode really put me through the emotional wringer - bravo to the actress for a job well done

I kept wondering why she kept sleeping on her back!!! Though it has happened to me on my side if I’ve been really stressed and hadn’t slept well for days.  

So weird, I just posted on the previous episode thread about how validating it was to hear that my experience was real before I saw this episode, so I understood why she felt so good with Arthur.  Don’t know why she stuck with that therapist though, even if he didn’t believe in ghosts there was obviously something super traumatic underlying her symptoms - hey, go confront your debilitating triggers, no big deal! He IS a quack.  

[Neurochick]

I am watching this series now because I finished Bly House and was told Hill House was better.  So far yes, it is better.  Both series have a huge reveal in episode 5.

Whoever wrote this series knows a lot about addiction, recovery and adult children issues.

Luke being unable to do a fourth step, which is why he keeps relapsing.  The fourth step is a moral inventory.  Luke can't write about his past, so he keeps using to numb it out.

Nellie's death was heartbreaking and a literal interpretation of what really happens to people.  Haunted by their past, unable to share the truth of their past and eventually are destroyed by it.  Too many addicts die because of that.  Something happens to you in your past that you just can't share with anybody and that secret could kill you, and for some people it does kill them. 

One of the reasons I think the adult children in this family are so screwed up, is because they never talked about what happened.  Their father never talked about it with them, and as adults they've consciously pushed it down.  But it comes up:  Steve writes novels about haunted places, Theo who can feel things with her hands (kind of Green Mile-ish) is a psychologist, Shirley the mortician, Luke, the addict.  They're all saying "nothing happened" but their actions say otherwise. 

[Jax7917]

This is a really stupid question I know , but did Arthur die because of the haunting or did he really die naturally ? It did seem suspicious plus he had a bent neck when he died but they didn’t really address it other than saying it was a natural death . 

[Bruinsfan]

I've only had a couple of sleep paralysis experiences when I was a little kid (younger than Nell), but I still remember the feeling of terror clearly and it was a lot worse than when I was driven off a snowy highway by a semi as an adult. Finding out it was a widely experienced phenomenon in college was a big relief.