NOTICE: This story is told through both the past and the present, so anytime that the words of this post are italicized, it’s referring to a flashback in the episode; anytime that the words of this post are bolded, it’s referring to the present day in the episode; anytime that the words of this post are normal text, it’s my own comments and analysis of the episode.
WARNING: There are spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t watched the series yet and would like to, please stop reading!
And if you missed the analysis for episode one, you can find it here!
(Rated TV-MA for nudity, violence, language, drug/alcohol use, and disturbing images.)
(The opinions in this post are purely my own as a huge fan of the show, and aren’t based on any professional knowledge or evidence.)
A quick recap of episode one before we begin:
As we jump back and forth between the past and the present, we meet the Crain family; dad, Hugh, mom, Olivia, and their five kids, Steven, Shirley, Theo (short for Theodora), and twins, Luke and Nell (short for Eleanor).
They’re in the business of flipping old homes and selling them for profit and have just arrived at their latest project: a hauntingly beautiful, albeit rundown, mansion known as Hill House.
But it doesn’t take long before the mansion totally freaks the kids out.
Come to now present day, Hugh’s out-casted by the majority of his family, Olivia has died, Steven’s a famous paranormal fiction writer, Shirley’s an owner and director of her own private funeral home, Luke has been in and out of rehab due to drug addiction, Theo’s a mysterious woman who lives in Shirley’s guest house (we’ll learn about her profession later), and Nell’s a shell of her former self, worrying everyone.
As we delve into Hugh and each of the Crain siblings (other than Luke) a little further, we start to see how deeply traumatized and haunted each of them truly is.
But, in a tragic turn of events, we learn from Hugh that Nell has died after visiting the now-abandoned Hill House, where she supposedly committed suicide.
Shirley wakes abruptly out of her sleep from a nightmare, gasping, and whispers, “Nellie’s in the Red Room.”
Her husband, Kevin, startled awake by her sudden outburst, asks her what’s wrong.
But Shirley, dazed, shakes her head and lies back down, attempting to go back to sleep.
Behind her, the clock says exactly 3:03 A.M. Eastern Time.
This time’s really important (we’ll learn why in a later episode)!
If we remember from episode one, at exactly 3:02 A.M. Eastern Time, Hugh and every Crain sibling (besides Nell) woke up from a nightmare.
Jumping back just slightly to the day prior, Shirley’s once again speaking with Max, the young boy who recently lost his grandmother whom we met in episode one.
Max explains, “Grandma’s dead…I know grandma’s dead. But she still comes to my room at night and she still sits on my bed, even though Mommy and Daddy said she wouldn’t. And I told her not to, but she was there again last night. And last night was bad. She looked different. Her fingers were purple, she didn’t have teeth, and she did not have hair. I don’t want to see her again, especially like that. So, I’m not going to look at her tomorrow, and I don’t want to see her in the open castle.”
Shirley corrects him, “The open casket.” She continues, “I understand, Max. I’m guessing your parents have talked to you about why you might be having these dreams.”
Max, interrupting, says quickly, “They’re not dreams!”
Shirley presses on, “And I’m guessing you’re a smart boy. You’re so smart, you probably know that your grandmother wore a wig, is that right? You probably saw her in the hospital a few times when she wasn’t wearing it. And you probably also know that she had fake teeth. Maybe she took ’em out once to show you. Made you laugh.”
Max begins to relax, listening to her more.
Shirley, noticing this change and now trying to comfort him, continues, “The thing about an open casket, and I know it sounds scary, is that it’s a great chance to take all of those pictures in your head of Grandma in the hospital, or Grandma without her hair or teeth, or anything else in your imagination, and cover it all up with a better picture.”
Max, confused, asks, “Better picture?”
Shirley responds, “That’s right. Before she’s ever even in the casket, I’m gonna fix her. That’s what I do.”
Max, curious, asks, “How?”
Shirley explains, “First, we give her a bath. Make sure she’s clean and soft. Then we put special chemicals in so she stays fixed forever. Then, we put her in her favorite clothes. And finally, I take extra special care to make sure she looks just like she’s supposed to. So, when I’m done, she will look just like she always did, just like you remember her.”
During Shirley’s explanation here, we actually get to witness the embalming process being done, so if anyone’s not into seeing that, here’s a trigger warning!
But whew, there’s a lot to unpack here.
So once we finish internally screaming after hearing all of this from Max, we realize the fact that this is a continuation of him losing more and more of his childlike innocence, thanks to his encounter with death and beginning his process of grief, most likely for the first time ever in his life.
We pull it back just a little with his adorable mispronunciation of “casket” with “castle”, but it’s clear that his recent experiences have deeply troubled him.
Interestingly, tying in with Max’s loss of childlike innocence, we also see how the trauma of dealing with grief has affected Shirley’s life as well.
While talking with him, she pauses frequently, extremely careful of what she says, so as to protect Max for just a little bit longer. Especially since she couldn’t protect herself as a kid.
Then as we watch her perform Max’s grandmother’s embalming, we can see how she’s methodical, almost to the point of being cold or robotic. It’s as if she’s removed herself far away from what she’s actively doing.
All of these responses are pretty common behaviors of someone who has experienced severe trauma.
The Crain’s mom, Olivia, is sketching what appears to be the renovation plans for Hill House.
But as Shirley enters the room, asking if it was indeed Hill House that her mom was sketching, Olivia replies, “No. This is our forever house.”
Shirley, being young and naive, doesn’t understand, saying that all she sees are “a bunch of lines”.
So Olivia goes on to explain, “When I look at it, I see a family running to a dinner table, from all three directions. This dining room is the heart of the house. Everything flows in and out, see? Every house needs a heart, and this is ours because that’s where we spend the most time together.” She pauses and then continues, “You know, a house is like a person’s body. The walls are like bones, the pipes are veins. It needs to breathe, it needs light and flow. And it all works together to keep us safe and healthy inside.”
Not only is this a beautiful way to describe the purpose of a home, but it’s important to remember for Olivia’s story later on.
Shirley, still not understanding, replies, “I don’t see any of that.”
Olivia chuckles, reassuring her, “It’s okay. When you’re little, you learn how to see things that aren’t there. And when you grow up, you learn how to make them real.”
This is a gentle nod to the Crain siblings witnessing the many literal ghosts that haunt Hill House, while the Crain parents witness—well—the more emotional/mental ghosts that haunt Hill House, and later, their own family.
Nell interrupts, asking Shirley where she went as she enters the room.
Shirley responds, “Nellie, I already told you, I’m too old for tea parties.”
This seems like an innocent thing, but when Shirley responds like that, it calls for a pause.
It seems like Nell might be experiencing a lapse in time, confused as to where Shirley had gone, even though Shirley had already clearly given her a response and moved on to go speak to their mom.
Nell then turns to Olivia, “Mommy, will you please have a tea party with me? Everyone keeps saying no.”
Olivia responds, “Sweetheart, I’d love to have a tea party with you, but I have to finish working, I’m afraid.”
Shirley, trying to help out their mom, asks Nell, “How about we play outside?”
Nell, disappointed, responds, “I guess.” Then, she perks up, “How about a tea party outside?”
Olivia quickly inserts, “You can play outside until dinner, but when I flash the porch light twice—”
Shirley finishes the sentence, “Time to come home.”
Olivia nods, “That’s the rule. Nellie, let me hear you say it.”
Nell responds, “Porchlight means it’s time to come home.”
This response has a creeping eeriness to it, as the porchlight’s extremely symbolic throughout this series.
If we remember from episode one, when Nell’s heading into the now-abandoned Hill House before supposedly committing suicide, the porch light is already on, as if waiting for her…beckoning her to come home.
Later, Shirley and Nell are out in the yard, Shirley taking pictures of Nell as she plays.
Nell proudly steps up to Shirley, asking her, “Did you know that princesses and queens and kings had tea parties? It sounds like a kid thing, but it isn’t. It’s very grown-up and uh-fisticated.“
Shirley, smiling, corrects her, “Sophisticated.”
First of all, no one said that you could be that cute, Nell.
But this is yet another illustration of her childlike innocence (and parallels really well with Max’s slip up with “castle” and “casket”) before it sadly deteriorates over time due to her grief and trauma.
Shirley continues, “Ask Theo. Maybe she’ll have one with you.”
Nell does just that, but Theo turns her down.
Shirley takes another picture, this time of her sisters together.
As she moves on through the grounds of Hill House, she finds Luke playing alone nearby and takes a picture of him as well. She then approaches him, asking if he’s okay, and then reminds him to not forget the rule, “Lights flash…”
Luke finishes the sentence, “Time to come home.”
These are all really sweet moments of Shirley capturing memories of her family, something that’s extremely important to her.
For all of us who have experienced grief and loss, we know all too well the significance of pictures and videos of our loved ones who are now gone.
But this tenderness is short-lived as Luke sees a girl off in the distance by the woods. He waves to her.
If we remember from episode one, Luke shared with Steven that he had been seeing this girl, named Abigail, since they arrived at Hill House.
The Crain’s dad, Hugh, is speaking to Mr. Dudley, one of the mansion‘s groundskeepers, a little ways away from the kids, saying, “I appreciate your advice. I mean, I know you’ve worked on this house for so long.“
Shirley interrupts by taking a picture of them.
Hugh chuckles, telling Shirley to stay close. Then he turns back to Mr. Dudley, continuing, “Oh. Uh, another question. That master key you had didn’t work. You have any other ideas about that red door upstairs?”
If we remember from episode one, Shirley and Nell were trying to get into a room with a red door on the second floor with a key that Mr. Dudley had given them.
But it didn’t work, even though it was supposedly a master key.
Mr. Dudley responds, “Um…afraid not. Not…not…not for that one.”
Hmm…does Mr. Dudley seem a bit, nervous?
Like maybe he doesn’t want the kids to find out about what’s inside the room with the red door, so he’s been giving them fake keys to protect them?
Shirley, who isn’t exactly listening to her dad’s request to stay close, has wandered off into the woods surrounding Hill House, which is fairly far behind her.
She comes upon some withered and forgotten gravestones that are surrounded by tall grass. She cautiously takes a picture of them.
Then, suddenly, Shirley hears a soft whining noise nearby.
She looks to her left, noticing an old shed. She approaches it, concerned, and opens the door.
The shed’s dark, only partially illuminated by the sunlight coming in through the open door. She discovers that the cause of the soft whining noise is a litter of newborn kittens.
Relieved, Shirley smiles and approaches them, “Hi…where’s your mommy? How’d you get in here, huh? Where’s your mommy cat? She couldn’t be far. She needs to feed you. But you’re just the cutest little things.”
She takes a picture of them, but gasps as she notices something odd behind them, which was revealed by the camera’s flash. She couldn’t quite make out what it was, though.
Shirley pauses, confused, before slowly taking another picture.
This time, with the help of the camera’s flash yet again, she sees a clear figure of a face in the darkness behind the kittens.
Shirley screams, dropping the camera and running away.
Hugh and Mr. Dudley, back at Hill House, hear her screams coming from off in the distance.
This is yet another great display of childlike innocence being shattered, piece by piece, by something darker.
And let’s face it, any grown adult would have screamed and run away after seeing that, too.
Seriously trauma-inducing!
Hugh and Mr. Dudley investigate the old shed with a startled Shirley behind them. They discover that the figure of the face was actually an abandoned wasp nest that just so happened to have been built around an old Halloween mask.
Hugh urges Shirley forward so that he can show her, explaining to her that wasps will do that sometimes and that he even saw one once built around a wind-chime, which “looked really cool”.
I just wanted to note that I think this is a sweet moment of Hugh trying to make his daughter feel better and safe.
In a way, he’s protecting her here.
Shirley changes the subject to the newborn kittens, “These little kittens don’t have a mommy.”
Hugh interjects quickly, “You don’t know that. She could be out there somewhere.”
Mr. Dudley comments further, “Odd, her leaving them alone, though. Especially close to dark like this.”
Shirley continues, “Well, we can’t just leave them here. The dogs.”
Mr. Dudley responds, confused, “Dogs?”
Hugh tells Shirley that he isn’t sure, but she pleads with him.
He then turns to Mr. Dudley, asking, “Have you ever seen those dogs? Do you think they’d go after kittens?”
Mr. Dudley, still confused, replies, “No dogs on the property.”
Hugh responds, “Well, sure there are. The kids have been hearing ’em at night. They’ve heard them every night since we got here.”
Mr. Dudley responds back, “I couldn’t say. The missus and I, we don’t stay on the property after dark. But…no. I’ve never seen dogs.”
Um…no thank you? That’s really creepy.
Do the Dudleys refuse to stay on the property after dark merely because of the mysterious occurrences with ghosts and unexplainable sounds of dogs?
Or is there something more?
Something much, much darker?
Shirley pleads with Hugh once again.
Shirley and her son, Jayden, are arguing over the Halloween mask (which coincidentally looks like the one that young Shirley found in the old shed) that she got him.
He specifically wanted Daredevil, but she got him a plain one so that he could decorate it himself, telling him that being creative and doing it yourself is better than just being like every other kid.
Kevin arrives home during their argument.
Finally, Jayden admits that his friend said that if their masks didn’t look good enough, ghosts would know that they’re just normal kids, and would attack them.
What a rude friend, right?
But this is a good example of how Jayden, as a young kid, is being pressured via fear of the paranormal and therefore is experiencing a loss of some of his childlike innocence, too.
But Shirley tries to reassure him, saying, “There’s no such thing as ghosts, and you know that.”
Are you taking a page out of Steven’s book with that denial there, Shirley?
She tells Jayden to go upstairs, but as he does so, he runs into a 3-D model of a home, which turns out to be a replica of the “forever house” that Olivia showed young Shirley earlier. A picture of Olivia also sits next to it.
It’s clear here that Shirley feels very attached and close to her mom, even now, and wanted to have a piece of her.
I think we can all attest to doing something like that.
Kevin and Shirley go on to discuss their funeral home’s expenses and how they’re barely staying afloat.
This is because Shirley has been too kind, cutting prices for many families during their time of grief. Which, while a very selfless thing to do, is hurting them greatly financially.
In the middle of their discussion, Max’s dad arrives to drop off pictures and jewelry for the funeral.
But as he does so, Shirley can’t take her eyes off the box containing them. It’s a pretty light purple, with an old-fashioned latch.
As Kevin thanks him and the two men walk away, suddenly another man’s sitting on the couch in the next room. He definitely was not there before.
Shirley and the man stare at each other, and the man slowly raises a drink to her.
She shakes her head and looks away for a moment, and then when she looks back, the man’s gone.
If it wasn’t already obvious, this is some form of a ghost for Shirley.
We’ll see him again later, and learn about who he is towards the end of the series.
As if being in a funeral home isn’t already creepy enough, though, right?
Don’t worry! It gets worse later.
Kevin re-enters the room, asking if Shirley had ever checked back in with Nell.
She tells him no, but that Steven said he did check in on Luke, and that he was fine in rehab.
Kevin scoffs, asking how many times this has been for Luke now.
Shirley says that she has lost track.
Jumping back six years prior, Steven and Shirley are at a rehab center, speaking with an advisor about the cost of putting Luke into their program. This turns out to be Luke’s first time being admitted.
But they discover that he doesn’t have insurance, so the price is quite costly at $6,000 a month with an average six-month commitment.
This is clearly frustrating for them, which is understandable (and it can tie back to their distaste for Luke six years later), but still.
We’ll find out in a later episode that for Luke’s sake, it’s absolutely worth it.
Steven and Shirley agree on the first month for sure and plan to go from there.
They then re-enter the lobby, joining Luke, Nell, and Theo.
They all say goodbye to Luke, encouraging him and wishing him well as he enters the program.
Shirley, who was reminiscing on this memory, looks down to discover, much to her surprise, a separate checkbook under Kevin’s name inside his briefcase.
This infuriates her, as they’ve only ever shared joint accounts.
Later, at the dinner table with her family and Theo, Shirley’s clearly tense.
But her daughter, Allie, breaks the ice by talking about her new gloves, which she got to be “just like her cool aunt Theo”.
As Shirley washes the dishes afterward, she and Theo discuss Kevin’s separate checkbook that she unintentionally found.
Jumping back to their childhood, Shirley, Nell, and Luke sit on the floor of Shirley’s bedroom as they feed the abandoned newborn kittens.
That night, the dogs that Shirley and Hugh mentioned earlier are now heard barking outside.
Theo comes barging into Shirley’s bedroom, waking her and asking her angrily, “What? What do you want? Why are you banging on the wall and calling my name?”
Shirley, confused, tells her that she wasn’t, but their arguing is cut short by the dogs barking again outside, louder this time.
Then the banging on the walls happens again, gradually increasing in consistency and volume, forcing Theo onto Shirley’s bed out of fear, where they cling to each other and cry out for help, screaming.
It stops as Hugh comes flying into their room, asking them what’s wrong.
They tell him, but he says that he didn’t hear it.
However, he immediately validates their fear, telling them that he believes them.
He then tries to reassure them by saying that it’s just the old pipes.
This is another sweet moment of Hugh trying to comfort his kids and protect them.
Instead of dismissing their fears (however seemingly irrational) as many parents do, he sticks up for them and makes them feel heard.
This too reminded me of my own dad, who often comforted me when I was afraid of things, even if he knew there was nothing to fear.
But as Hugh continues trying to comfort them, his face slowly begins to morph, his mouth growing into a horrible, long scream similar to that of Nell’s and Olivia’s in episode one.
Shirley wakes from yet another nightmare of this exact memory and suddenly receives a call from Steven.
We’re now back to where we were at the beginning of the episode.
Steven tells her that Nell’s dead.
Immediately, Shirley’s in denial, telling him to shut up.
Steven, stuttering, says, “I’m not so good…”
But Shirley, getting angry, responds, “What the fuck do you mean?”
Steven, still in disbelief himself, tells her that Nell killed herself.
Shirley begins to cry, and the reality of the situation begins to set in.
I remember the exact moment that this happened to me as well, as I’m sure we all do.
That one horrible moment that changes someone’s world forever.
Steven goes on to tell her about the experience that he had of seeing Nell in his apartment earlier that same night.
But Shirley, trying to fight back the truth, tells him that he’s wrong and asks who told him this.
Steven tells her that Hugh did, but Shirley immediately says that he’s wrong, too.
Steven tries to explain more about the phone call with Hugh, but Shirley keeps denying it, saying that Hugh “can’t do that again, he can’t just not tell us what happened”.
This is a really powerful and heartbreaking scene, as I think it’s so accurate to how experiencing this moment actually is.
Not only is the acting phenomenal, but I really appreciate how well it was written.
Many other television series and films in the past haven’t successfully shown the realities of dealing with grief in a believable way.
But this series absolutely does!
Steven, not knowing what else to say, tells Shirley that he’s sorry, but Nell’s gone.
Shirley, getting angrier, tells him that she told him that Nell was in trouble and that he needed to find her.
They hang up, and Shirley breaks down in sobs as Kevin asks her what happened.
As we figured out in episode one, Steven’s meant to represent the first stage of the five stages of grief: denial.
And, after literally just seeing Nell’s ghost, he’s struggling internally with whether or not to believe in the supernatural for the first time ever in his adult life.
As for Shirley, she’s meant to represent the next stage of the five stages of grief: anger.
This is beginning to be introduced more heavily in this scene here, where she’s blaming Steven and Hugh for Nell’s supposed suicide, growing in anger at what he’s telling her.
But honestly, this is a really normal response to hearing such terrible news.
Shirley gets dressed to go out to inform Theo of the tragic news, but as she approaches the guest house, Theo cries out, and the lights turn on inside.
Shirley wakes the next morning and greets the newborn kittens.
But as she approaches their box, she finds out that something’s horribly wrong: one of the kittens has died.
Later, Shirley and Hugh join each other in the yard as they dig a grave for the kitten.
Olivia approaches, telling them that she found a box for the kitten to be put in upstairs.
And what do you know, the box is exactly like the box that Max’s dad brought into the funeral home earlier that present-day Shirley was so fixated on: a pretty light purple, with an old-fashioned latch.
Not only is this such a good, spooky moment, but it represents how so much more than ghosts can haunt us.
Olivia shows Shirley how she had decorated it with flowers, explaining that the kitten was very special, and therefore, deserved a special place to rest.
Shirley asks if the kitten was in the box and if she could see her.
Olivia cautiously allows her to do so as Hugh asks if Shirley wanted to say something nice about the kitten, explaining to her that it’s called a “eulogy”.
Shirley asks what she should say, and Hugh explains to her that she could say goodbye or tell a story.
Olivia goes on to explain that it’s similar to how Shirley likes to take pictures, which captures a moment forever.
She tells her, “Stories do that, too. So when we die, we turn into stories. And every time someone tells one of those stories, it’s like we’re still here. For them. We’re all stories in the end.”
Ouch…this is one of my favorite monologues in the entire series.
Does anyone else need a tissue or a hug or some other form of comfort?
No? Just me?
Shirley thinks about it for a moment and then gives a eulogy for the kitten, “This kitten grew up in a tool shed and my room. I’m not sure what her name was, because her brothers and sisters all looked the same, but I think she was the one I called Jasper. She was a good kitten, and she never hurt a single thing in her whole life, and not many people can say that.”
Immediate tears. Especially as an avid animal lover myself.
But as Shirley continues to tell the kitten goodbye, she suddenly thinks that she sees it breathing.
Hugh and Olivia try to reassure her that the kitten’s gone, but Shirley believes she saw it breathe, and picks it up, dropping the box.
And indeed, it does look like it appears to be breathing.
However, as she starts to comfort it, the kitten’s mouth slowly opens, and a large bug crawls out of it, crawling onto Shirley’s hand.
She screams in terror.
Yikes! Talk about destroying a kid.
The next afternoon, Shirley stands at her empty embalming table, anticipating who will soon be lying there: Nell herself.
Back upstairs, Kevin and Theo tell her that they think it’s a bad idea, but Shirley won’t be persuaded otherwise.
She was going to do Nell’s embalmment and funeral service herself.
I think that this is really brave of Shirley.
I know that I couldn’t do the same with my own sister, no matter how much I might want to.
However, Theo’s worried that Shirley hosting the funeral there might not give enough time for the rest of their family to arrive.
But Shirley, displaying another example of her anger, bitterly says that it’s Hugh’s fault that Nell was as messed up as she was and that Luke was probably off high somewhere.
Theo, surprised, says that she thought that Luke was in rehab.
But apparently, as of that morning, he no longer was. And the rehab center had no idea where to find him.
Theo defends Luke, arguing that Shirley isn’t giving him enough time to get there and that he deserves to be there, especially since he missed Nell’s wedding.
Shirley, annoyed, says that she can hold off for a short while, but she wasn’t going to wait forever on Luke to pull it together.
Shirley then abruptly excuses herself, ignoring Kevin and Theo’s pleas, and goes off to begin hosting Max’s grandmother’s funeral.
Max and his parents enter the room.
Max, still hesitant, doesn’t want to approach the open casket at the other end of the room.
This resonated with me, and was some serious deja vu, as I had this exact same moment at my own dad’s visitation service.
Shirley approaches, encouraging Max to see his grandmother.
Eventually, after he continuously refuses, Shirley offers to go up there with him.
Sometime not long after the events of Hill House, there’s another funeral service with an open casket at the other end of the room.
It’s Olivia’s.
Hugh tries to comfort Shirley to see her mom.
But just like Max in present-day, she refuses, afraid.
Then a kind funeral attendant approaches and tells her that he’ll go up there with her (a great parallel to how present-day Shirley’s trying to do the exact same thing with Max).
Later that afternoon, everyone’s adamant that Shirley not do Nell’s embalming.
But Shirley, stubborn and decided as she looks through pictures of Nell, says that she’s going to do it, that “she’ll fix her”.
That line hurt.
I often find myself wanting to try and fix those that I love when they need it, too.
But, as I’m sure we all know all too well, there’s no “fixing” this.
Not really. Not ever.
Nell’s body arrives.
Shirley, Kevin, and Theo stand there to greet her.
But Theo excuses herself, saying that she can’t do it, and heads to her car, driving away.
They take Nell’s body down to the embalming room, and everyone leaves Shirley to be alone.
Slowly, Shirley unzips the bag, but she can’t look at Nell.
Not yet.
I can relate to this. I too didn’t want to look at my own dad, but I knew that I had to in order to confirm the truth.
It’s the hardest thing that I’ve ever had to do.
Slowly, through tears, Shirley finally looks at her sister.
Another trigger warning here, because even with only seeing Nell’s face, it’s still really tough to look at.
The decay and damage are severe.
The next day, Nell asks Shirley if she can feed the newborn kittens this time, to which Shirley agrees.
But as they approach the box, Nell notices that this time, something’s wrong with all of the kittens.
Shirley begins to frantically check each one until only one finally makes a small noise.
When she picks it up, though, suddenly its eyes open wide with a horrific, milky white stare.
There’s no iris or pupil.
Shirley begins the embalming process of Nell as she talks with Steven on the phone, who agrees with everyone else that she’s taking on too much.
He then tells her that he and Hugh have been looking for Luke together, but have had no luck as of yet.
Shirley, frustrated, interrupts him by asking, “Do you know what I’m doing right now? I’m elbow deep in our sister’s chest cavity and pulling out a bag of her internal organs. That’s what happens when a body is autopsied, and I have to take it out. You have to get two grown men to an airport. Get it done!”
And then hangs up on him.
Olivia sits with Shirley on her bed, explaining to her that, although a sad situation, newborn kittens passing away can happen sometimes, especially when they’re without their mom.
She continues comfortingly, “And no matter how much you love them, you’re not their mommy. But they’re better now. They’re where they’re supposed to be.”
Now it’s Olivia’s turn to try and protect her daughter.
Shirley, trying to come to terms with that, asks about the last one with the horrific, milky-white stare.
Olivia tells her that they found it a new home.
But this upsets Shirley, and she begins asking many questions all at once about “why couldn’t she be the one to take care of it” or “why couldn’t she have at least gotten the chance to say goodbye”.
Olivia’s confidence begins to falter, and she hurriedly tries to explain that they couldn’t let her take care of kittens who were “so sick”.
But Shirley, too bright for her mom’s attempt to protect her, tells her that she doesn’t believe her.
They begin to argue until Olivia finally yells for Shirley to stop, wincing in pain and grabbing at her forehead.
Later that evening, Olivia’s lying in bed with Hugh, an ice pack on her forehead.
It appears that she’s had a sudden, severe migraine, which she used to suffer from quite frequently.
Hugh affectionately calls them “color storms” and tries to comfort her.
But Olivia, concerned, tells him that this time there was no color at all.
It was pitch black.
They talk about her condition briefly before Hugh changes the subject, saying that he wished he had been a part of the conversation between Olivia and Shirley earlier.
Olivia, offended by this, gets up, asking what he would’ve done differently, spilling the truth that Hugh ended up taking the last kitten out into the woods to put it out of its misery.
They begin to argue about how this whole experience was extremely traumatizing for Shirley.
Shirley finishes with the first stages of Nell’s embalming process.
Yet another trigger warning here, we see Shirley sewing Nell’s scalp back together.
But she hears a noise and looks up to see Jayden and Allie peeking into the room before quickly shutting the door, frightened by what they just saw.
Shirley curses to herself and goes out to confront her kids.
They apologize, saying that they know they aren’t supposed to come down there, but it’s Auntie Nell, after all.
Shirley softens, telling them that she understands that they’re curious and sad and that she’s sad, too.
She then asks them what they’d like to know, saying that she won’t lie to them and that any questions they have are completely normal.
Shirley wins some mom points here.
Similarly to Hugh, she doesn’t dismiss her kids, but rather, gives them the opportunity to sit with their feelings openly.
Jayden and Allie ask what Shirley’s doing to Nell, and she briefly explains the embalming process.
Then they ask her why she died.
Shirley tells them, “I don’t know. She was just so sad that she did. But she loved you both so much.”
Then they ask where Nell is now, to which Shirley responds that she doesn’t know, that nobody knows, but that she can tell them what she thinks tomorrow.
With no further questions from either of them, Shirley asks that they go upstairs and pick out one of their favorite pictures of Nell to hang at the funeral so that she can get back to work.
The next day, Shirley puts her recent pictures in a photo album of their time with the newborn kittens, reminiscing as she cries quietly.
Shirley continues the next steps of Nell’s embalming process, applying her makeup.
Jumping back two years prior, Shirley’s applying makeup on a fresh and happy-looking Nell, a soon-to-be bride.
Steven enters the room, and Nell asks how her soon-to-be groom, Arthur, is doing.
Steven jokes that he handcuffed him to a radiator downstairs, but that he appears to be the happiest man in the world.
Steven and Shirley share an intense glance, saying nothing.
Steven jokes with Nell some more to ease her nerves and then leaves.
Shirley, clearly bitter, mockingly says how lucky they are to have a famous writer attend the wedding.
But Nell pleads with her, saying that Shirley had promised to not fight with Steven for the day.
Suddenly, a taxi pulls up outside, and Luke steps out of it.
Shirley excuses herself and rushes outside to confront him before Nell can see him.
Shirley tries to push Luke back into the taxi, who says that he wants to be there for Nell.
But she can see that he’s high on something, even though he weakly tries to deny it, and tells him that she had heard from the rehab center, who told her that Luke had run away the week before.
He pleads with her more, saying that Nell wants him to be there, but Shirley quickly shuts him down, asking how much it was for the cost of the taxi.
She ends up just giving him $100 anyway, telling him that it’s the last that she’s ever going to give him and forces him to leave.
Shirley then returns to Nell, saying that everything’s fine and that it’s going to be a perfect wedding.
But Nell, distraught, quietly says, “Almost perfect…”
And it’s clear that she does in fact want Luke to be there.
Little does she know, he had tried to do just that.
Shirley drops her make-up brush, crying softly and telling Nell that she’s sorry.
Suddenly, Nell’s lips begin to move.
Shirley watches as the same large bug that crawled out of the first kitten’s mouth in her childhood now crawls out of her own sister’s mouth.
Shirley jumps back but realizes that it was merely a hallucination, albeit a terrifying and traumatic one.
She slowly reapproaches Nell once again and begins to cry harder this time, lying her head down on her sister’s chest.
Back at Olivia’s funeral, Shirley and the kind funeral attendant are slowly approaching the open casket as Shirley sobs.
As she finally lays eyes on her mom, though, she realizes how peaceful and beautiful Olivia actually looks.
Shirley looks up at the kind funeral attendant in awe, and says, stuttering, “You fixed her.”
He smiles, telling her that that’s what he does.
She repeats herself over and over quietly, saying, “You fixed her…you fixed her…”
Sure, let’s just absolutely rip mine and everyone else’s hearts out.
But what an incredible way to tie that whole dynamic together!
Shirley was so touched here by the funeral attendant’s kindness, both to her and her mom’s body, that she went on to later be in the exact same position herself, fixing people as well.
Shirley stares down at her now-finished work, smiling softly.
Nell, like Olivia, looks like her former self once again: peaceful, beautiful, and whole.
Shirley begins to leave, turning off the lights.
But as she turns around to close the door, Olivia’s body is suddenly on the second embalming table, just as she appeared in her casket before Shirley years ago.
Olivia sits up slowly, her eyes the same horrific, milky-white stare (with no iris or pupil) as that of the last kitten, and smiles at Shirley.
Her top layer of clothing slides down to reveal the true damage to her body beneath; one of decay and ruin, similar to that of Nell only hours ago, when her body had first arrived.
Shirley stares in horror as Olivia raises a familiar, light purple box with an old-fashioned latch for her to see.
The box jolts suddenly, the loud sound of a kitten in distress echoing across the entire room.
Panicked, Shirley turns the light back on, and Olivia’s body disappears.
This time, she waits to turn off the lights until after she has closed the door.
That’s some seriously intense nightmare fuel!
I know that I’ve had the unfortunate luck of having some dreams and hallucinations like this of my own dad that were anything but pleasant.
Later that evening, Shirley stares at a beautiful picture of Nell on her wedding day as she sits in her office.
After a moment of solemn contemplation, she gets up to leave, turning all of the lights off in the funeral parlor before heading upstairs to her home.
Once she’s out of sight, however, the focus is now on the 3-D model of the forever house from earlier, which unmistakably begins to flash the lights of the front porch twice.
Signaling, as Olivia had once told her kids so long ago, that it was time to come home.
Was this the spirit of Olivia beckoning for her family to come home?
Was it Hill House?
Or are they one and the same?
That’s for us to decide.
