Hello readers,
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Just an aside before I begin this review. I didn’t realize that I hadn’t actually posted this until I opened up my drafts. I can’t believe that I had posted episode 6’s review before this one. I am rectifying that right… now.
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Here it is, the episode I was probably most looking forward to. “The Bent-Neck Lady” is Nell’s episode, and we learn some important information. And we get more questions. Lots and lots of questions.
The bent-neck lady is a shadowy figure that has haunted Nell since the first night. After that night, the apparition followed her for a while, but eventually disappeared. However, it’s returned, and Nell is once again confronted by specters of the past, and the one place she had hoped that she never would have to deal with for the rest of her life.
Let’s dive into the review.
Poor Nell.
The episode chronicles how Nell died, and we also learn what the bent-neck lady is. The episode lined up to many of my expectations, but there were some interesting, and most notably, twists in the story that I wasn’t expecting (although in retrospect, I probably should have, considering that I’ve mentioned that the story follows certain ghost story tropes.
The opening of the episode shows the first time that young Nell encountered the figure. The two stare at each other before it screams as does she. It’s an effective choice. Then she falls asleep on the couch, and we get to experience that cool tilty camera movement from episode 1.
We then get to meet Arthur, Nell’s future husband, and the two of them are just freaking adorable. I know I’ve said this many times before, but the casting is so good in this show, and the chemistry between the cast is so effective. There’s a definite chemistry between Nell and Arthur, and I legitimately rooted for them.
But the show hits us with a gut punch immediately after their wedding. We don’t even get a moment to take in their happiness. Nell wakes up one night in the throes of sleep paralysis, and as Arthur gets up to turn on the light, she sees the BNL and Arthur collapses, dead.
The next scene is her first meeting with her psychiatrist. There are actually a few meetings between the two of them, and as the episode progresses, each of her visits takes place progressively throughout the day until
she is cast half in light and shadow. I love color symbolism, and the show has consistently used the contrast between the light and the shadow, and it’s awesome.
The only part of the episode that I didn’t care for was the way that they handled Nell encountering herself in her dying moments. It’s kind of a cheesy effect, and while I get what they were going for, particularly in light of the last time she encounters the BNL. Watching her fall over and over again just kind of looks silly, even within the context of the episode. I wonder if it would have worked if Nell had initially done the fall, and then somehow combined her going through all the times she saw herself. I was also under the impression that Nell had more experiences with the BNL through the years, so I thought that she would have seen the BNL more often.
That speaks to a niggling problem that I’m beginning to have with the series: I feel like it’s holding too much back. Maybe that has to do with the red door. Maybe all of the ghosts are relatively benign, and its the opening of the red room that escalates the situation. Does this mean that Abigail is bad? Is there something that kept Abigail out of the house up until a certain point.
There are some interesting things brought up during flashbacks. Firstly there is the China tea set that Nell finds. It’s not that it’s necessarily the tea set in and of itself, but more Mrs. Dudley’s reaction, the Nell saying that she found it in “the toy room,” Nell’s fixation on the cup with the stars, and that the tea set belonged to Jacqueline Hill. Nell also drinks from a mug with a star pattern. This can’t be any sort of coincidence. Jacqueline Hill will probably figure heavily into the secret reveals. Perhaps it is she who is locked within the red room. That would connect to the fateful tea party where Nell comments to Luke that the woman they were having tea with wasn’t their mom.
We do have the first real inkling that Mrs. Crain is beginning to change. When she accuses Nell of writing on the wall, Mrs. Crain snaps, and it seems like it’s unusual and out of character. She did comment in the previous episode that she would get headaches during sensitive moments. Assuming that the haunting is supernatural in nature, could she be possessed by one of the Hills? Nell does pick out the cup with the stars, and I presume that that is a rather important hint. That being said, maybe Nell’s fate is similar to the young Crain, seeing as she had a coffee mug covered in stars. The show likes to make connections, so there has to be something that links Nell and the young Crain daughter.
Near the end, Nell is in awful shape. She dumps out her medication, drives Theo and Steven away, and looks emaciated, and drained. When she’s at the house, her imagined happiness is palpable, and though you hope that her fate can be changed, you know that her doom is inevitable. When Nell sees her mother and calls her Mommy like a child, your heart cracks a bit. And when she sees Arthur at the bottom of the stairs, it breaks in twain. Nellie didn’t and doesn’t deserve such a fate. When she reaches the top of the spiral staircase and Mrs. Crain hands her the necklace, you can’t help but feel a strong sense of foreboding. You have to wonder though, Mama Crain presumably gave her the noose, but why was she crying? Would an evil ghost be capable of tears?
And then, what about her last night living? I think that it was Luke that she saw floating on the ceiling, although it was difficult to tell from the dark lighting, but who was jiggling the door handle? Obviously it wasn’t the BNL, so who? What?
One thought I had as the episode progressed, was that Nell imagined the whole thing. When Nell first sees the BNL, Luke wakes up and looks over to her sister, but she appears to be alone. When Nell first meets her future husband, Arthur, at the sleep clinic, he mentions that during sleep paralysis, it is common to see shadow figures. And when Arthur dies, it seems that the BNL/Hill house is what kills him, but he suffered an aneurysm. And at the end of the episode, everything that she experiences could be construed as happening in her head. If she had only seen Arthur, her mother, and the other historical figures, then there would be stronger evidence as to everything being real. But I’m not sure what to make of Nell’s living family (past and present) appearing to her. Even the last sequence could merely be her subconsciously just done, and when she came to her senses, she realized that she didn’t really want to die, but it was too late. Hence, her mother’s remark: “It’s time to wake up, sweetheart.” Nell had been living in a dreamlike state since Arthur died. Heck, I could even buy that the Nell seeing all of the past moments in her life as a projection on her dying mind’s part. Her brain mashed together her death and her past, and here we are.
The biggest problem with that theory comes with the shared experiences that her family had at the time of Nell’s death. I’m kind of conflicted here. It seems that her father knew what the BNL implied, and implored Nell to wait. I really wonder how Nell’s life between Hill and present went.
And I was wrong. Hugh Crain was at Nell’s wedding, so my thoughts were incorrect regarding that point.
I continually am impressed by how how well this show seems to be planned. The timeline is cut up in such a way that when you realize how the story connects, you can’t help but go, “Whaaaaaaaaaaaaa?” In the wrong hands, it would be annoying and irritating, but in the hands of this creative crew, it’s magical.
I know that I’ve mentioned this ad nauseum, but this series is incredibly sad. Nothing good seems to happen to anyone…except for Shirley. Somehow she’s lived through life fairly unscathed for some reason. You have to wonder what deal she made with the ghosts of the house (kidding).
We’re still missing some key information. The show has become less clear, and more complicated, and I’m torn about the current direction. I do realize that there are still five episodes left, so complications are to be accepted, but I’m left a little more lost as to the direction of the story, and I’m unsure as to how I really feel about it. I know that sounds kind of weird, especially after such an important and powerful episode, but I think that this is the first time I’ve felt dissatisfied during an episode of Hill House. There seems to be a danger of the show’s rules not being consistent. I’m hoping that the rest of the series can reestablish the rule of law in its world.
And as I’ve said in probably every episode review, the actors are great. The hopelessness that builds around Nell is expressed extremely well by actress Victoria Pedretti. I love this cast.
Best regards,
Kevin
Adventures in Korea 