Episode eight of The haunted Bly Manor dedicates its black and white ensemble to Viola and Perdita, the two sisters who haunt the grounds of Bly Manor. Throughout the show, we see little clues of their existence, from their paintings to their funerary tablets. While based largely on Henry James & # 39; The rotation of the screwThe show derives the story of the sisters mainly from James' short story "The Romance of Certain Old Clothes". The story of Viola and Perdita reveals one of the show's greatest secrets: the identity of the creepy lady in the lake. The haunted Bly Manor peel back layers of terror to reveal a tale of jealousy, resentment, and tragedy.
We begin in the middle of the 17th century when the two women see their widower father, Mr. Willoughby, die. Viola is the oldest, who was born five years before Perdita. You must get married so someone can think about Bly and her father's business affairs. The sisters stay close and know that Bly needs to stay in her family. So they invite their distant cousin Arthur Lloyd. While Arthur has Perdita in mind first, he and Viola marry and eventually love each other. To keep it in place, Viola commissioned a portrait of herself to signal who would really be responsible.
After Viola protects her home, she becomes restless and enters a routine: waking up, walking, and sleeping. Unfortunately, shortly after the birth of her daughter Isabel, she becomes ill and hostile (to whom she says: "It's you, it's me, it's us"). While she coughs and vomits for years, she stays alive and cannot touch her daughter or sleep with her husband. At night she walks up and down and sings the very creepy music box song "O Willow Waly". She infuriates Perdita, who she suspects may be something wrong with her husband. In the end. Perdita is fed up and suffocates her sister to death. Soon after, she quietly marries Arthur, her portrait then hangs right next to her sister's.
Before she dies, Viola packs a suitcase with her best clothes and jewelry for Isabel. In death she is in this trunk, waiting for her daughter. In financially difficult times, Perdita opens the trunk to sell its contents just so Viola can choke her. Arthur moves far from Bly and throws the cursed chest into the lake. Viola (now the lady in the lake) repeats her waking, walking, and sleeping routine, hoping to see her family again. Over time, she forgets who she is and why she meanders through the grounds. She continues to take victims along the way, including the faceless little boy and Peter Quint. Over time, the other ghosts forget who they are and also become faceless – in fact, it is Perdita, faceless, who gasps for air while Flora hides in the attic. Similar to The Haunted Hill House, The haunted Bly Manor skillfully navigates fear with family drama.
Even if Viola doesn't kill her, people who die on the estate will be caught in their gravity and won't be able to leave Bly – think of Peter, Hannah Grose, Rebecca Jessel, and everyone who passes before them. Miles and Flora sense Viola early on and warn Bly workers not to wander out of their rooms in the middle of the night. Ultimately, it turns out the creepy kids aren't that scary after all, just helpless kids making the most of a centuries-old curse.
