The Haunting Of Bly Manor's Hannah Grose (T'Nia Miller) began the season by lighting four candles in the manor's church, which actually hold a very significant meaning to the series and to her. But what do the four candles in Mike Flanagan's horror follow-up series actually mean.
Flanagan's highly anticipated follow-up to the successful series The Haunting Of Hill House arrived on Netflix in October 2020 and continues to captivate fans. Adapted from Henry James's 1898 horror novella The Turn Of The Screw, which is considered one of the greatest ghost stories in history, Bly Manor tells the story of a young governess named Danielle "Dani" Clayton, portrayed by returning Hill House cast member Victoria Pedretti. She is hired to care for Miles and Flora Wingrave, who've lost their parents to a tragic accident, and begins to discover that Bly Manor is full of hidden ghosts of the spirits who died there. When she first arrives, Dani meets their nanny, Hannah Grose, who is standing over a well seeming lost in thought.
Hannah is in love with the manor's chef, Owen Sharma (Rahul Kohli), whose mother dies in the midst of their story. She cares deeply for everyone and continues to do so even with one of the series' biggest twists. The four candles have everything to do with her as well as those she cares and cared for while she spent her life as the Wingrave children's nanny.
It takes the series up until episode 5, "The Altar Of The Dead," to reveal that Hannah Grose was murdered by Peter Quint (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) while he was possessing Miles. Up until this very moment, she seems to be one of the few living people who inhabit the manor. In episode 5, the show takes the viewer back to minutes before Dani arrived at Bly, when Hannah is looking down at the bottom of the well. Unknown to the new governess, she had been pushed down it only moments before. Tragically, if she had arrived sooner, Dani could've saved Hannah.
Throughout the series, Hannah sees the same cracks in the wall but looks at them confusingly. When she was pushed down the well, the last thing she saw was a "Y" shaped crack. While other ghosts get tucked away like Peter Quint and Rebecca Jessel, Hannah Grose does not get tucked into a memory, that audiences know of, until "The Altar Of The Dead" when she revisits the first moment she met Owen several times. Due to the fact that Dani interrupted her self-mourning, it stopped her from recognizing that she had actually passed away. Hannah was technically in denial, which angered Peter because he was forced to understand that he was dead seconds after the lady of the lake killed him. If the ghosts know that they are dead, it pushes them further towards forgetting themselves, getting lost in memories, and then losing their faces as they begin to fade with time. Hannah Grose withstood all of this until Peter forced her to look at her dead body in episode 7, "The Two Faces, Part Two."
Hannah lights candles in remembrance of the people who have died. Two of them are for Charlotte (Alex Essoe) and Dominic Wingrave (Matthew Holness), the parents of Flora and Miles. She shared a deep connection with Charlotte, who helped her through the end of a tumultuous relationship. Ms. Wingrave even joined her in lighting candles in remembrance before she died. Due to the bond they shared, Hannah lights a candle for the deceased Wingraves.
The third candle is for Rebecca Jessel, who is believed to have killed herself after Peter Quint supposedly abandoned her. Hannah felt connected to Rebecca due to her kindness and consideration for everyone around her. Fundamentally, she had a caring personality, which the nanny admired in her. Hannah also believed that Peter took advantage of her in every way. As a way to honor her, she lights a candle in the church and prays that she finds comfort in the afterlife. While it is assumed one of the candles is for Owen's recently deceased mother, she does not die until episode 3, "The Two Faces, Part One." The fourth candle, tragically, is dedicated to someone far closer to home for Hannah.
The fourth candle that Hannah lit in episode 1 was for herself as though she did not fully mourn or acknowledge her death, it remains in the back of her mind. This is also proven by the amount of times Hannah sees the cracks in the wall. Despite the fact that she doesn't forget herself or act like the other ghosts trapped in the house, there are pieces of her last living moments that still burst through to the realm of the living.
In order to feel at ease with death, she lights the candles for the dead. The practice is used in order to pray for someone and for a particular thing for that person. In the case of the Wingraves, it was likely that Hannah prayed that they are no longer suffering in the ways that they did when they died. Though it remains unknown as to how the pair died, it is known that they were in a tragic accident, prompting some fans to theorize that it was vehicular while others suggest Dominic's grief over Charlotte's affair led him to kill them both. Either way, Hannah prays that the tragedy they experienced does not follow them into the afterlife. She prays for Rebecca Jessel in hopes that she can move on from Peter Quint and no longer suffer under his torment. This also explains why she does not light a fifth candle, which would be for Peter. She does not like him, so she does not burn a candle in remembrance of him.
Hannah likely lit a candle for herself in remembrance of the life she once lived. It was clear that she felt a lot of unrequited emotions while she was alive. Hannah didn't believe that Owen loved her in the way that she did and the man she was with before betrayed her. It is likely she lit a candle for herself with the subconscious knowledge that she is dead and needs herself to move on in the afterlife. The ghosts within The Haunting Of Bly Manor are all tormented by something and Hannah Grose uses her candles to pray for their relief in the afterlife.
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