Fans Of The Haunting Of Bly Manor Have A Crazy Theory About Hannah
Contains spoilers for The Haunting of Bly Manor
With The Haunting of Bly Manor, creator Mike Flanagan has successfully told a beautiful love story within a haunting ghost story, delivering a great sequel to Netflix's hit series The Haunting of Hill House. Based on Henry James' The Turn of the Screw and some of his other stories, Bly Manor tells the tale of a new governess watching over two children in the English countryside who starts to have haunting experiences at their estate. Though the show premiered on October 9, 2020, fans continue to rewatch and theorize about the story and characters, and with Flanagan even stating that there are puzzles in the background to figure out, there's plenty left to explore.
Whether it's the significance of each ghost haunting Bly Manor, like the plague doctor and the young boy Flora (Amelie Bea Smith) gives a new face to, or the real cause of the Wingraves' death, there's a definitive story to every detail. One fan-favorite character, Hannah Grose (T'Nia Miller), the housekeeper of Bly Manor, has been getting a lot of attention for her lines and the possible significance they might have. Even more, some fans have an all-new theory about Hannah, and why she might be different from the others characters in a significant way.
Hannah Grose may be more special than the others
One fan of Bly Manor highlighted in a Reddit post how Hannah can stay in a corporeal state after death. Though she can't leave Bly or eat or drink, she has the ability to change her appearance and can largely interact with the living world. Reddit user u/slickshot proposed their theory that Hannah is "special" — different in a similar way to Theo (Kate Siegel) in The Haunting of Hill House, who can empathically feel what others do by touching them. U/slickshot's main support of this is how "Hannah, not knowing she was a ghost at the time, was able to enter one of Rebecca's memories" on episode 5, "The Altar of the Dead."
On this episode, Hannah travels through her own past memories, as well as other people's memories. One key scene has Hannah observing a moment between Rebecca (Tahirah Sharif) and Peter (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), shortly before his death. The ghost of Rebecca interacts with Hannah, stating, "I haven't seen you in this one before." She starts questioning, "How did you slip into my —" but Hannah interrupts her, apologizing. Going even further, Hannah then enters Peter's memory, witnessing his death at the hands of the Lady of the Lake. Neither Rebecca nor Hannah see this happen themselves. The smooth transition between the two different ghosts' memories hints at a very unique ability, and through all this, Hannah still has no idea that she is a ghost herself.
Hannah has a long history of predicting events before they happen
Along with her unique experience as a ghost, Hannah has an innate ability to predict events before they happen. One of the biggest examples is when Hannah foretells the nature of Peter's death in detail during episode 3, though there are many more instances throughout the series.
Another Reddit user, u/catwhoprefersdogs, pointed out a few of these moments that take place on episode 5. In one memory, Hannah tells the running Wingrave children to "slow down or you'll break your bloody skulls," which is the exact nature of her own death. If this interaction truly happens in reality, it's a prognostication of events to come, before both Peter and Hannah's death. Later on, Hannah interacts with Miles, smoking a cigarette while possessed by Peter. Hannah tells him not to smoke, then asks, "Or do you want to die a horrible, choking death?" She might not remember or realize, but this is exactly how Peter dies, though not from cigarettes. Along with that, Viola Lloyd (Siegel) dies "coughing and choking with tuberculosis (before being smothered of course)."
As they say, twice is a coincidence but three is a pattern, and there's definitely at least three instances of Hannah's prophetic ability throughout The Haunting of Bly Manor. It wouldn't be a huge surprise if Flanagan revealed that this theory is true. Given Theo's ability in Hill House and the ghosts running rampant through these stories, an extra-special Hannah would fit right in.