'The Haunting of Bly Manor': Who is the ghost with big glowing eyes that Dani keeps seeing in mirrors?
Spoilers for 'The Haunting of Bly Manor'
Dani Clayton (Victoria Pedretti) moves from America to England to start afresh, but lands in Bly Manor instead - a purgatorial ground roaring with trapped spirits who cannot get out of this afterlife. While it looks like Dani's hopes for a new life will be marred by Bly's hidden secrets, for the initial phase of the episode, it is also fairly hinted that he is constantly being haunted by her own past. When we meet Dani, she goes back to her motel room in England to reveal a mirror draped with sheets. Although not stressed upon at that moment, soon it becomes clear that Dani is scared of mirrors. When she looks at them, she sees a tall, dark frame of what looks like a man, with eyes glowing like headlights.
In Episode 1, when Dani tells her mother about bagging the job, she has to explain over the phone that she is not running away from anything. We are further led to believe the man in the mirror is somebody Dani lost, as she claims she "knows death". All the way in Episode 4, we finally learn the mystery behind this apparition Dani keeps hallucinating. Dani sparks a flame with the resident gardener at Bly Manor - Jamie (Amelia Eve). When the two share a moment or two alone, or even when Dani comes close to acknowledging that she might be falling for Jamie, this image in the mirror becomes more and more persistent. It's not just in the mirror anymore; it is walking and stalking Dani, almost as if not allowing her to indulge in Jamie - this hinting at a possible romantic interest from her past.
When Dani finally confronts this entity, a flashback ensues. We meet the round-spectacled young Eddie (uncredited), who is little Dani's best friend first, and eventually, fiance. The two of them have a gala engagement reception and Eddie's mother couldn't be happier. She gifts Dani her vintage dress for the wedding, but while overwhelmed by the outpour of love and acceptance from her would-be in-laws, one can't help notice a reluctance in Dani. It comes out more prominently during her dress-fitting, when the lady helping her compliments Dani on her shoulders and she is flustered for a moment. The underlying hint of Dani's closeted sexuality is finally addressed when she caves into Jamie's touch and moves on, but it is sadly something she couldn't admit to Eddie.
Dani's then-fiance thinks his would-be-bride is just under the pressure of the gigantic wedding they are about to have. During a dinner-date when Eddie keeps insisting they can cut out a lot of unnecessary fluff from the wedding, Dani's reaction leads him to pop the other kind of question: does she even want to get married? Put in that spot, Dani fumbles with reasons why she can't; it's not just the crowd or the overwhelming responsibility of it all. She isn't ready to get married but its just days from the wedding and Eddie is beyond pissed at her opening up so late. The two have a fight in the car and Eddie gets out of the driver's seat for air but is hit by a speeding bus instead. The last thing Dani sees before Eddie falls are his glasses - glowing with the reflection of the bus's headlights, and just moments later, he dies in the hospital.
When it is time for Eddie's wake, Dani sees him again, for the first time since his accident. But this Eddie is charcoal black, almost as if an entity of impending gloom appearing in mirrors with eyes glowing the way she had sees him last. Ever since it becomes a constant mirror image for Dani, until she burns his glasses in a bonfire at Bly Manor and confronts his ghost to leave her alone. Nobody knew of their break up, Dani doesn't both explaining, but it is that guilt that drove her across the ocean to a new continent hoping here she could start afresh. Funnily enough, that new start comes only after Dani moves on with Jamie. The two get intimate, and she sleeps soundly like a baby, for the first time since Eddie's death.
'The Haunting of Bly Manor' premiered on Friday, October 9, and is now available for streaming, only on Netflix.
