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Bly Manor: Your New Favorite Gothic Horror Lesbians

THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR (L to R) VICTORIA PEDRETTI as DANI and AMELIA EVE as JAMIE in episode 109 of THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR Cr. EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX © 2020

Its Victoriana is also its greatest weakness, however, as the pacing is at times sloooow, the conventions somewhat random. We are left with quite a few questions. Why is the magic dollhouse essentially unjustified? How come Peter’s hell-memory takes place outside Bly Manor? How come Henry Wingrave has an evil alter ego, essentially being haunted by himself? Why is Miles evil even before he starts being possessed by Peter? How come Carla Gugino’s accent is so goddamn bad?

Perhaps the strangest unexplained element lies in its central relationships. It’s set in the 1980s and features two interracial relationships, without really any backstory or context on British racial politics. Same thing with the lesbian relationship. It’s almost as if these characters live in a post-race/post-feminist world, where what is ordinarily in real life a point of conflict, an inter/personal crucible, is in Bly completely taken for granted. On the one hand, I’m really not looking for a social justice message in every single thing I watch, but on the other hand, it comes across as a touch of diversity and inclusion. (Oh wow, the supernatural horror show was unrealistic? Quelle surprise.)

For all its over-the-top cheeseball elements, its overwrought Gothic, its cringey diversity and inclusion elements, it is nevertheless very satisfying. It might not make you scream, it might not make you sleepless, but it’s got that stay-with-you-weeks-later element. Bly Manor is that at its heart, all love stories: tortured, tragic, and very romantic.

THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR (L to R) VICTORIA PEDRETTI as DANI and AMELIA EVE as JAMIE in episode 106 of THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR Cr. EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX © 2020

As the show reached new levels of fucked up and scary, as the ghosts conspired against the nanny, as Kate Siegel FINALLY showed up, turning out to be the mega villain with a habituated and involuntary murder streak, I got a horrible feeling that Dani would die, young, beautiful, deprived of the opportunity to grow old with the woman she loves. Thank Goddess it didn’t happen that way.

While some on the Internet have said that this show leans heavy on ‘bury your gays,’ that doesn’t ring true for me. Dani’s death is years later, following a rich and loving life with her partner. Her gayness is not punished through a gory death, which is kind of the central feature of the BYG trope. If we want multi-dimensional representation for lesbians in media, things have to happen to them. They can’t universally have happy endings. Owen also loses Mrs. Grose, an even sadder ending really, since she was dead before they ever had a chance. Horror isn’t the place to turn for your happily ever after.

And where are the other familiar lesbophobic tropes we’re so used to seeing? Lesbian codependency syndrome? Toxic stalker lesbian? The lesbian who cheats with a man? Lesbian bed death? There’s none of that nonsense. Jamie in particular spots babydyke drama a mile away and puts boundaries (!!!) around Dani’s withholding and yet needy back-and-forth, her unspeakable, tortured past she’s carrying around.

Anyway, back to the story. Dani survives the lady in the lake, and she saves Flora, but at a cost. Dani is haunted again. Her haunting by Viola is a mirror of her haunting by the high school sweetheart. She’s not safe around still water or glossy windows. And this time, there’s no way for her to throw off her specter, because she’s somewhere inside her.

It took pretty much half the season, but between the time of Jamie’s cheeeseball moonflower metaphor, I finally understood the language of the production. Maybe it took me so long because of my American horror orientation. Finally, it made sense; the absolute Bristishness! of the show, its misty lake, its empty abby, its manor house with a shrouded, forbidden wing. Its upstairs-downstairs, its working class and the landed gentry themes. This show is a Gothic novel for modern viewers. in fact it’s apparently (very loosely) based on Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw.

It’s Gothic not only in setting, but also in pacing and characterization. From the very beginning, the story is rendered Wuthering Heights-style, by a narrator removed by decades from the events. It’s got long and meandering (and somewhat out of place) monologues from Jamie and Mrs. Grose. The reveal of the central ghost story doesn’t come until the season is three-quarters of the way done and it’s hardly an explanation of all the ways the ghosts themselves are haunted in their afterlife. It’s got an extended visitation by an evil alter-ego. After the climax of the story, there’s still an entire episode dedicated to the where-are-they-now of every tangential character in the story.

THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR (L to R) VICTORIA PEDRETTI as DANI and AMELIA EVE as JAMIE in episode 109 of THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR Cr. EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX © 2020

Its Victoriana is also its greatest weakness, however, as the pacing is at times sloooow, the conventions somewhat random. We are left with quite a few questions. Why is the magic dollhouse essentially unjustified? How come Peter’s hell-memory takes place outside Bly Manor? How come Henry Wingrave has an evil alter ego, essentially being haunted by himself? Why is Miles evil even before he starts being possessed by Peter? How come Carla Gugino’s accent is so goddamn bad?

Perhaps the strangest unexplained element lies in its central relationships. It’s set in the 1980s and features two interracial relationships, without really any backstory or context on British racial politics. Same thing with the lesbian relationship. It’s almost as if these characters live in a post-race/post-feminist world, where what is ordinarily in real life a point of conflict, an inter/personal crucible, is in Bly completely taken for granted. On the one hand, I’m really not looking for a social justice message in every single thing I watch, but on the other hand, it comes across as a touch of diversity and inclusion. (Oh wow, the supernatural horror show was unrealistic? Quelle surprise.)

For all its over-the-top cheeseball elements, its overwrought Gothic, its cringey diversity and inclusion elements, it is nevertheless very satisfying. It might not make you scream, it might not make you sleepless, but it’s got that stay-with-you-weeks-later element. Bly Manor is that at its heart, all love stories: tortured, tragic, and very romantic.

THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR (L to R) AMELIA EVE as JAMIE and VICTORIA PEDRETTI as DANI in episode 106 of THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR Cr. EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX © 2020

If you like horror, last year’s The Haunting of Hill House was a treat. Haunting, emotional, with a gorgeous lesbian character, and best of all bingeable. I know you can relate to the struggle of browsing the horror section aimlessly, looking for that perfect mix of scary but not filled with sexual violence and woman-hating cheap thrills. So when the latest installment in what I hope will be season after season of Mike Flanagan-and-family streaming television was announced, I was both over the moon, and scared to start.

I waited a few days to make sure I was in the right head space. I cleared my evening and prepared for something so scary that I’d need a palate cleansing couple of Office reruns to help me sleep.

But The Haunting of Bly Manor did not start off scary. Mysterious and spooky, sure, but not chilling. Not disturbing. No Sapphic energy, and no darkly witchy Kate Siegel with her tortured touch-me-not thing. I was drawn in, but I was not compelled in that can’t-look-away-but-also-can’t-look way that only horror can deliver.

Then came Jamie, the broody, punked up gardener. The way she looked at Dani, the way Dani looked back in that instant spark, I swooned. At this point, I’d seen memes depicting their sexual chemistry, but I have been burned before by lesbian subtext that never becomes actual lesbian romance.

But Bly Manor delivered, and how! Dani was haunted by an ex-fiance. Her ghost was obsessive, cruel even. We come to find out that he died 30 seconds after she comes out to him. For any of you lesbians out there who used to date men, this plot twist had humor in it. Men really do be out here hanging on, holding grudges when they can’t measure up sexually to women.

Dani was racked with guilt over having led him on, over waiting way too long to live in her truth. It wasn’t her fault he died, but the combination of compulsory heterosexuality and female socialization is a hell of a drug. She takes her first steps into her power when she kisses Jamie in the greenhouse (ugh! Romantic!) But he of the eery stare and glowing glasses does not vanish! What about the power of lesbianism!? She takes aggressive action – she burns his glasses. Finally his ghost quits showing up in every mirror or reflective surface. She’s free to fall for Jamie.

This is when I really got scared. Not because the show was getting scary (although, with more backstory for Miss Jessel and Peter and Mrs. Grose and Owen, I was starting to get goosebumps). The real fear, the fear in my gut, was that I would see for the 500th time in popular media, the bury your gays trope. We’d all fall in love along with Dani as Victoria Pedretti and Amelia Eve’s sexual tension and heady chemistry deepened. And then we’d watch one of them die a horrible and violent death. If it went down like that, I’d never forgive Flanagan.

THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR (L to R) VICTORIA PEDRETTI as DANI and AMELIA EVE as JAMIE in episode 106 of THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR Cr. EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX © 2020

As the show reached new levels of fucked up and scary, as the ghosts conspired against the nanny, as Kate Siegel FINALLY showed up, turning out to be the mega villain with a habituated and involuntary murder streak, I got a horrible feeling that Dani would die, young, beautiful, deprived of the opportunity to grow old with the woman she loves. Thank Goddess it didn’t happen that way.

While some on the Internet have said that this show leans heavy on ‘bury your gays,’ that doesn’t ring true for me. Dani’s death is years later, following a rich and loving life with her partner. Her gayness is not punished through a gory death, which is kind of the central feature of the BYG trope. If we want multi-dimensional representation for lesbians in media, things have to happen to them. They can’t universally have happy endings. Owen also loses Mrs. Grose, an even sadder ending really, since she was dead before they ever had a chance. Horror isn’t the place to turn for your happily ever after.

And where are the other familiar lesbophobic tropes we’re so used to seeing? Lesbian codependency syndrome? Toxic stalker lesbian? The lesbian who cheats with a man? Lesbian bed death? There’s none of that nonsense. Jamie in particular spots babydyke drama a mile away and puts boundaries (!!!) around Dani’s withholding and yet needy back-and-forth, her unspeakable, tortured past she’s carrying around.

Anyway, back to the story. Dani survives the lady in the lake, and she saves Flora, but at a cost. Dani is haunted again. Her haunting by Viola is a mirror of her haunting by the high school sweetheart. She’s not safe around still water or glossy windows. And this time, there’s no way for her to throw off her specter, because she’s somewhere inside her.

It took pretty much half the season, but between the time of Jamie’s cheeeseball moonflower metaphor, I finally understood the language of the production. Maybe it took me so long because of my American horror orientation. Finally, it made sense; the absolute Bristishness! of the show, its misty lake, its empty abby, its manor house with a shrouded, forbidden wing. Its upstairs-downstairs, its working class and the landed gentry themes. This show is a Gothic novel for modern viewers. in fact it’s apparently (very loosely) based on Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw.

It’s Gothic not only in setting, but also in pacing and characterization. From the very beginning, the story is rendered Wuthering Heights-style, by a narrator removed by decades from the events. It’s got long and meandering (and somewhat out of place) monologues from Jamie and Mrs. Grose. The reveal of the central ghost story doesn’t come until the season is three-quarters of the way done and it’s hardly an explanation of all the ways the ghosts themselves are haunted in their afterlife. It’s got an extended visitation by an evil alter-ego. After the climax of the story, there’s still an entire episode dedicated to the where-are-they-now of every tangential character in the story.

THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR (L to R) VICTORIA PEDRETTI as DANI and AMELIA EVE as JAMIE in episode 109 of THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR Cr. EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX © 2020

Its Victoriana is also its greatest weakness, however, as the pacing is at times sloooow, the conventions somewhat random. We are left with quite a few questions. Why is the magic dollhouse essentially unjustified? How come Peter’s hell-memory takes place outside Bly Manor? How come Henry Wingrave has an evil alter ego, essentially being haunted by himself? Why is Miles evil even before he starts being possessed by Peter? How come Carla Gugino’s accent is so goddamn bad?

Perhaps the strangest unexplained element lies in its central relationships. It’s set in the 1980s and features two interracial relationships, without really any backstory or context on British racial politics. Same thing with the lesbian relationship. It’s almost as if these characters live in a post-race/post-feminist world, where what is ordinarily in real life a point of conflict, an inter/personal crucible, is in Bly completely taken for granted. On the one hand, I’m really not looking for a social justice message in every single thing I watch, but on the other hand, it comes across as a touch of diversity and inclusion. (Oh wow, the supernatural horror show was unrealistic? Quelle surprise.)

For all its over-the-top cheeseball elements, its overwrought Gothic, its cringey diversity and inclusion elements, it is nevertheless very satisfying. It might not make you scream, it might not make you sleepless, but it’s got that stay-with-you-weeks-later element. Bly Manor is that at its heart, all love stories: tortured, tragic, and very romantic.

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