Well that escalated at a regular pace!

Where episodes one through three are slow burns setting the foundation for our nine-part series, episodes four through six are completely dedicated to giving us some answers.

Some of my guesses were right, and some were on the right track(?). I’m going to save the good and the bad for the final review (episodes seven through nine) and want to take this chance to just recap on the highlights.

Miles and Peter: What did I say!? The kid was possessed! I knew it! the first chunk of episodes dropped many hints but this second set rubs it in your face; the request for wine at dinner and his frustration at being denied, him outside smoking the cigarette, and of course his playing with the lighter.

Peter has been (obviously) dead this entire time and has been shacking up with Miles. Peter is evidently somehow stuck in this state with no way of escaping. The lady in the lake seems to serve as a protector(?) to Bly and once realizing that Peter’s intention was to steal she gave him a WWE spooky choke slam. By the way, we need to retire the cliche woman in ‘wet white gown look’. Let’s put those thinking caps on!

What we still don’t understand is what does Peter want? Or why hasn’t he or Rebecca told anyone about their current state? What benefit is there in keeping what’s happened to them a secret? I hope there’s a juicier reveal than just, “we needed this thing to last nine episodes.”

Flora: This one I didn’t catch. To be honest, I’m not sure I understand it yet… Flora has been getting “tucked away” since the beginning; she gets transported into memories and forgets where she is or what she has been doing in present time.

This seems like a similar case to Hannah (more on her in a moment)but we know Flora is indeed still alive…She had that wonderful little monologue with Owen at the dinner table about just how aware of living she is!

The other thing confirmed(?) is that as Miles has been posessed by Peter Flora has been getting posessed by Rebecca. Ew… former lovers taking the body of children brother and sister; yuck.

Are Rebecca and Peter working together? Are their intentions the same? I don’t get it! Also, what role do the other ghosts play? Did Rebecca really kill herself or is there more to it?

I often forget this is supposed to be scary because I’m acting like the blonde woman with the math equations meme.

Poor Hannah: Well, I knew something was up with all that staring down a well but I did not guess this would be the case… It turns out Hannah has been serving us Nicole Kidman in The Others; she’s a ghost!

Not just a ghost, but a ghost that came to be just moments before Dani met her in episode one. Yikes!

I have to confess, though this has been the sweetest creepy reveal of the show thus far, it feels extremely familiar. For those that have seen ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ you may remember the big reveal of the hanged lady. Well, this feels awfully similar to that where our ‘hanged ghost anchor’ was the crack on the stone at the bottom of the well. Don’t get me wrong this was a great ghost story moment, but its formula feels recyled. Honestly, a good deal of ‘Bly Manor’ feels like equations and techniques we already got two years ago. Not trying to dump on it! It’s still proving to be a fantastic piece for the holiday season but just hasn’t been a slam dunk.

Ok, Uncle- and?: I suppose this is worth covering… In the midst at our minimal ghost attacks we find that Flora’s father is in fact her uncle (insert soap opera gasp)!

As mentioned in the previous review, these two shows have shown excellent character investment but, frankly, by this point in the story I was hoping for more freaky s***.

Uncle is now on his way to Bly with a belly full of booze and Dani has been knocked out by the adults inside the children!

Section one was clearly creepy intros, section two has been info dumps and reveals, so I’m going to keep my fingers crossed that section three will be the horror series that kicks this thing up.

That being said, I have found its pacing so off, its scary techniques so recycled, and the calm demeanor of the children in the midst of ghosts so reassuring(?) that it doesn’t feel like I’m watching a horror show at all anymore…

Well, let’s see what the last section has for us.