Hill House Rewatch: Stephen Sees a Ghost
I have been thinking about how to approach this. When I did my "Lost" rewatch, I summarized the episode, and those were not fun for me to write and even less fun to read. With this being my fourth rewatch, I will focus on the most critical character or two in the show and explore their journey in the episode and the show overall.
Seeing that his name is in the title of the episode, let's talk about Steven (Michael Huisman). He is the eldest of the Crane children. We first see him as a child when the family lived at Hill House. He hears his sister Elenore (Victoria Pedretti), called Nell, crying at night and goes to check on her. In this scene, he is the typical older brother looking after his younger siblings.
This is contrasted years later in the present-day scenes. Steven is a writer whose biggest hit was when he wrote about the family's experiences at Hill House. He is talking to a woman about her ghost experiences, and Nell calls him, and he ignores her call. This is the first glimpse at where the family is now. They have become estranged in the years since they left Hill House. Later, when he talks to his sister Shirley (Elizabeth Reaser), they downplay the call because they assume it has something to do with Luke (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), Nell's twin, who has been in and out of rehab. Nell is the only one who hasn't written Luke off, and she is always worried about him.
We see later why Luke has been written off by his family. When Steven gets home, he sees Luke coming down his apartment building stairs with a camera and an iPad. Steven assumes Luke stole that stuff from him to sell and buy drugs. Luke insists that it is not what it looks like. Steven tells Luke he can keep the camera but needs the iPad back. He offers him $200 in exchange. Luke takes the money and gives back the iPad and the camera. Steven goes to his apartment, sees his door has been kicked in and turns on the light. He sees Nell standing in the corner.
Nell is the other character I want to discuss. We don't see much of Nell. In the past, we see her as a child dealing with seeing The Bent-Neck Lady at night. Nell and Luke both have ghosts that tend to pop up during their lives. In the present day, Nell spends the episode calling her family. She calls Steven, Sherley, and then her father, Hugh. Her father is the only one to pick up the phone. She tells her dad that "the bent-neck lady is back," and when he asks where she is, she tells him she is at home in bed. He tells her to go to Steven's house. She is lying to him. She gets out of the car and is in front of Hill House. After dad calls Steven, we see Nell dancing with nobody around Hill House.
Now back to Steven. He starts talking to Nell, and she stands there, saying nothing. When dad calls Steven, we hear him mention Nell. Steven tells him that Nell is at his apartment. Then we hear dad tell Steven that Nell went back to Hill House and she's killed herself. Steven turns around, and Nell is standing right behind him. She opens her mouth and screams. Steven falls to the ground, and Nell is gone.
Random Ramblings:
One thing I didn't get to was Steven's last night in Hill House. This is the night everything went wrong. He doesn't see much, but he does see someone or something running through the house. At this point, we know that mom never made it out of the house.
One incredible moment happens near the end of the episode. We hear a cracking sound, and all the Crane children wake up. We don't know it at the time, but this is when Nell kills herself.
I have never been one to hide my process, so this format might change as the season progresses.
