TV Review: Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House S.1 e.8: “Witness Marks”

Hello all you lovely readers,

After a tension-filled previous episode, it might seem like it would be appropriate in a normal narrative to have a break in the action… this isn’t that kind of story.  This is an episode of exposition… and more questions… and frights… and not a break in sight.

I can’t quite make out who it is.  Is it Olivia?

The episode opens with Steve and Leigh at a fertility clinic.  They haven’t been able to conceive, and the two discuss their options with the doctor.  But there is something lingering just outside the office, and Steven says that needs to talk to his wife about something important.

That was one month ago.

In the present, the remaining Crains are trying to figure out where Luke may have disappeared to, and the two oldest are convinced that he had gone to get a drug fix.  You would think that someone would have thought that he might have gone back to that house, but geez, this family is so incredibly messed up.  Theo has the most cogent theory as to why Luke may have disappeared, but there’s no ultimate realization as to the where.  It takes him performing an unauthorized transaction for it to finally click.

Really this episode belongs to the eldest of the Crain children.  Steven finally has the confrontation with his father that had been building since “Two Storms.”  We learn that Steven was so afraid of passing his “corrupted” genes on that he had a vasectomy right out of college, but never told his wife about it… it’s no wonder that their relationship was fractured.  With the utter lack of information that Hugh imparted upon his children through the years, it’s no wonder that Steve is hurt and angry at his father.  There’s a lot of pain in Steven that has only been hinted at through the series.

Hugh Crain was finally able to talk to his eldest son and completely upended his ideas about what happened in the house.  He mentioned that, based off of what was written in Steven’s book that he had actually seen ghosts in the house, and that Steven was the most in danger.  I have to ask: how can Steven be the most in danger when it already claimed the life of Nell.  Why wouldn’t the house have gone after Steven like it went after Luke?  There was that apparition in the fertility clinic, but I’m puzzled by Hugh’s remarks.  It doesn’t seem that Hill House has made an effort to attack Steve, although he did admit to seeing things.  What is this specific danger to Steven?  I hope that this isn’t a plot inconsistency and that they elaborate on what that means.  I guess I should give them the benefit of the doubt since the show has seen fit to explain my immediate concerns in the episodes directly following 😛

Hugh said something interesting that got me really thinking after the episode was over.  He said that he tried to keep everything to himself because the house was dangerous for the family (which makes sense) and that the house would try and defend itself against any attack… which may explain why Hugh never had the house demolished.  I wonder if Hugh tried to destroy the house when he went back after dropping the kids at the motel.

She’s just awful.

And then there’s Shirley… She’s an incredibly selfish person, more so than any of the other kids.  It’s interesting that she is so willing to help others outside of her family but is so cold toward her family.  Ack, Shirley is such a frustrating character… which is a credit to actress Elizabeth Reaser.  She’s easily the least sympathetic of the Crains.

WHO IS THIS?  We’ve seen him twice thus far.  Is this a guy Shirley cheated on Kevin with?

This episode two emotional moments–the conversation between Hugh and Steve is the first, and Theo serves as the second.  After a jolly brilliant jump scare that forces Shirley and Theo off the road, we find out what happened during “Two Storms” when Shirley caught Kevin and Theo in the wine cellar.  Everything that Shirley assumed about the encounter was absolutely wrong.  We are reminded why Theo’s “gift” is not really a gift, and we find out what she saw when she touched Nell’s body.  Listening to Theo’s agonizing recall of what happened was incredibly affecting.  Kate Siegal put in a powerful performance, and between Hush and Hill House, she’s an incredibly versatile actress.  Cheers to her!

“Witness Marks” is perhaps the last moment of quiet for the Crains before the final spiral toward their (presumably) imminent demise.  I can’t think of any other outcome at this point, especially considering the Hugh and Steven’s conversation.

There is only one place that Luke could have gone, but the Crains cannot see that the only place for Luke to go… back the place that destroyed the family…

I’d like to take a moment to say, “Thank you” to the show runners for addressing some of my concerns from the last episode (:P).  We get to see more of Olivia’s ongoing changes, from speaking to apparently empty rooms to breaking a gift from Steven.  I’m glad they’re finally showing more of her transition.

“Witness Marks” leaves some interesting thoughts and questions about the very nature of the house.  When Hugh and Steven are driving to Hill, Hugh speaks to the danger of the House as if it were alive.  Hugh says that the house will defend itself, and we definitely see thatwhen Luke arrives.

This episode is the push over the edge of the final hill (no pun intended).  All the actors have finally arrived, and it remains to be seen if the family can escape the horrors.  Though there are still questions that have not been answered yet; we don’t know what ultimately happened to Olivia; we don’t know how what happened to Hugh that forced the state to take away his children (although we can probably infer the cause).

I also had another thought… what if the reason why Olivia was so affected by the house is that she has Hill blood coursing through her veins.  Maybe that’s why she was so affected, why she is still there, why there’s different versions of her floating around.

But why is Steven  specifically in danger?  He saw ghosts, but all, save Shirley had explicit supernatural experiences living in the house.  What makes Steven so vulnerable compared to Nell or Luke?  Is it that he saw the mold?

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Speaking of the moldy splotches.  I just realized that the marks underneath the vanity, on Shirley’s broken model house… AND the corrupted versions of the ghosts, all have similar marks!  In “Eulogy,” Hugh talks about mold possibly existing within the walls of the house.  Mold can be very dangerous if left unchecked within a house.  You would need to purge the mold from the source.  In Hill House, it is the red room.  The House is unsalvageable and the Crains should have never gone near the thing.  The mold has infested them…

Luke was the third to fall, the rest will soon follow.

Still hoping for a happy ending,

Kevin

It begins.