‘The Haunting of Bly Manor’ Recap: ‘The Romance of Certain Old Clothes’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Eight of ‘The Haunting of Bly Manor’.
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If there is one universal truth that can be said about ghost stories, it is that they follow a pretty by the numbers formula. The kind that involves innocent and good people finding themselves under fire from a malicious spirit, one that they know they must defeat in order to enjoy peace in life again. Which eventually leads them to an unsettling and heartbreaking discovery. In that, the spirit in question suffered greatly in life before they died, and that pain allowed for their tortured spirit to carry on and punish others for eternity, in a desperate attempt to avenge their death. And the only way to end their reign of terror is to give them either the peace they crave or outright justice and this is a formula that we see often in ghost stories, simply because… it works.
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For audiences eat this up time and time again, since it allows for us to explore darker aspects of the human condition and it helps to remind us to be kind, always. If anything, that particular formula is relevant to today’s discussion, simply because for a time… it seemed as though The Haunting of Bly Manor was heading into that familiar territory, thanks to everything ‘The Romance of Certain of Old Clothes’ sent our way. For not only did this particular tale transport us to the 17th Century to introduce us to a pair of sisters named Viola and Perdita, that were desperate to keep their way of life going after their father died, it quickly plunged them into what appeared to be quite the love triangle. One that should have brought forth the kind of cruelty and pain that would have kept a spirit held tight to Bly’s beautiful walls.

But rather than go that traditional route, the series opted to try something quite different and refreshing, by offering up a supremely unique origin story for a spirit. For shortly after Viola had her first child, she became violently ill with a lung ailment, one that left her sickly and wheezing and weak and it should have killed her. But rather than succumb to the illness, she exceeded all expectations and forged ahead, determined to beat it and live life to its fullest. But she was never given that chance thanks to her sister, and while that makes it seem as though her sister’s choice to offer her sister ‘mercy’ was the cause of the evil, that simply was not the case. For the more time we spent with Viola in the void, the more it became apparent that she wanted to be free of her ghostly prison; in order to see the world and her daughter and experience life through her eyes and sadly… since she never got that opportunity, bitterness took hold.

Which locked her in an endless cycle of roaming the halls and the grounds of Bly Manor, in the hopes that she would eventually get the opportunity to enjoy more life with her child, somehow, and her fury over this, brought about quite the surprise. For anyone that died at Bly was stuck within her rotten desire to never let go, and they were trapped in this plane for so long, that they would eventually turn into nothing more than faceless creatures roaming about the property. Locked in an endless void between worlds simply because Viola could not and would not accept her death and refused to believe that the new experiences that life sends our way could no longer be enjoyed, and the innocent would continue to suffer that same fate until she had her way, and it would seem that poor Dani Clayton is the next victim in her centuries old fight against life itself. 

In the end however, this really was quite the brilliant story when all is said and done. Largely due to the fact that it offered up such a unique origin story for a ghost. Because the thought of someone haunting and taking lives because they were robbed of the opportunity to enjoy more of it, is quite the original twist. One that also manages to complicate the endgame for this story as well. But before we get ahead of ourselves, the other reason this story holds up so well, is the quality world-building that it provided us with. Because we truly came to understand Viola and her motivations over the course of the hour and even sympathize with her to a certain degree, since she did miss out on plenty thanks to her illness. But all of that aside, knowing her story and knowing her power, sets the stage for a powerful finale for certain, one that will take some kind of miracle to bring her reign of terror to an end. Because how does one free a spirit from this plane, when it wants the impossible? Until next time.

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