How come this character in Bly Manor can touch objects and interact with others?
In the recently released Netflix series Haunting Of Bly Manor, Hannah is introduced as the housekeeper of the namesake manor. However, it's later revealed that Hannah was dead all along, even before Dani arrives at the Manor
It was established in the series that the house ghosts cannot touch humans (which makes sense) maybe except Viola but that can be explained because she was the first ghost in the house and she's the force that keeps the other ghosts from leaving the garden of Bly Manor, and that indirectly suggests that they cannot interact with objects either. For example, when Rebecca first sees the ghost of Peter Quint, she's unable to make any physical contact with him
But if you carefully look at the scenes where Hannah was hanging out with the others in the kitchen, she was seen holding objects from her hands (for example a teacup), though she never seems to drink from them. There's this scene where she is holding a wine bottle in front of the bonfire alongside Owen, Dani and Jamie. And there are scenes where she physically interacts with other characters.
So how come Hannah touch and interact with the objects?
Best Answer
Her denial allows her to interact with the real world.
In an interview with Thrillist, show creator Mike Flanagan explains that because Hannah hasn't accepted her death, she can continue to interact with the real world.
"If you die on the grounds of Bly Manor, the first thing that happens is you go through a period of intense denial," Flanagan explained. It's what happens to Hannah Grose (T'Nia Miller) throughout the entirety of the series. She's simply dead this entire time, pushed by a possessed Miles into the property's well before Dani Clayton (Victoria Pedretti) arrives to look after the kids. There's a Wile E. Coyote metaphor that's used by the boy which illustrates the concept of self-awareness (something the ghosts tend to be lacking here) that's both cartoonish and downright violent.
"The idea was that this first stage of it was this dreamed life that people could still carry on," Flanagan continued. "They could dream up new clothes for themselves, which Hannah does, which is why she keeps changing her outfits and seems to physically interact with the world and appears to people. They're putting up this effort because of muscle memory and denial, basically. But once you accept the fact that you're dead, like Wile E. Coyote running off the cliff, a whole bunch of the rules immediately change."
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What do the cracks in the wall mean in Bly Manor?
As a result of the fall, Hannah breaks her neck and dies; the last thing she sees before she fades away is a crack in the wall of the well. The fact that she continuously sees that same crack in walls around the house is her subconscious screaming at her to accept her fate.Why does Mrs Grose see cracks?
Life as a ghost Indeed, her spirit is starting to fade away because of the curse that has been cast on the manor. Her experience at Bly is troubled, and she begins seeing cracks in the walls of the manor, similar to the crack at the bottom of the well, which was presumably the last thing she saw before her death.Is Mrs Grose a ghost?
Grose, is a spirit until the very end, mainly due to the fact that - unlike the other ghosts - she refused to forget herself. The series provides subtle hints at the big reveal that Hannah Grose is dead but viewers are not aware of this until episode 5.The Haunting of Bly Manor | Teaser | Netflix Italia
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