'The Haunting of Bly Manor': Did Peter Quint kill Rebecca Jessel? Here's how she really died
Spoilers for 'The Haunting of Bly Manor'
(Note: Dominic and charlotte are uncredited)
In the original book, 'The Turn of the Screw', Henry James' Miss Jessel is alluded to have had an affair with her former fellow employee of the Essex country house she works at, a man called Peter Quint. The story hints at a possible pregnancy and Peter's character is narrated in a way that would be the modern-day sexual predator. Both Jessel and Peter die an unfortunate death, the former by suicide, and the latter by slipping on ice. When she starts seeing their apparitions, the protagonist in the novella, the Governess theorizes that both of them wanted to possess the two children she is currently caring for, Miles and Flora. In Mike Flanagan's Netflix series adaptation of the story, 'The Haunting of Bly Manor', Jessel (Tahirah Sharif) and Peter's (Oliver Jackson Cohen) ghosts can be seen trying to possess the kids too, but did Peter really kill Jessel? Or did she die by suicide, is the real question.
After a lot of teasing, tormenting twists in the story, the answer comes all the way in the latter half of Flanagan's series, when we first learn how Peter died. He had stormed into the house in the middle of the night and walked to the forbidden wing of the manor where the house's previous owners and the kids' dead parents Dominic and Charlotte used to live. What Peter doesn't know is the manor is actually haunted by the Lady of the Lake, who has turned the property into a ground of purgatory. The sleeping ghost of the lady wakes up at night sometimes, gets out of the lake, walks through muddy grass into the house and straight to the wing where her bedroom once used to be in the hopes of getting her daughter from there. In the process, whoever she crosses paths will, she kills and drags their body to the water to be forever condemned within Bly's boundaries.
On that fateful night, a smug Peter stumbles upon the lady while making his way to the master bedroom and true to her nature, she snaps his neck and drags his water to the lake within the property. By this time, Peter and Jessel have already sparked an intense romance, and the smart, wise, and goal-driven Jessel is lured into an alternative life by Peter who promises to take care of her. Jessel falls for Peter fatally, if you will, and when he disappears after his murder, she is left tormented, feeling jilted somewhat. Peter's disappearance is seen as thievery by all employees at Bly Manor because nobody knows what happened to this sinister man with evil intent. They think he stole Charlotte's jewelry and ran away to America as he had promised Jessel they would together.
It breaks Jessel, thinking she was fooled by Peter's sweet words and false promises, so she is beyond livid when a few days later she sees him hiding behind the curtains of her bedroom. To Jessel's shock, Peter tells her he couldn't have just met her randomly and reveals he had died, and how he can't escape Bly. Jessel, who had seen the warning signs and red flags galore in this crook of a man, is left wallowing in misery over being torn apart from her lover and agrees to take the final step to be reunited with him. Peter assures her he will possess her body so she doesn't feel the struggles of drowning in the lake, but he betrays her once again and leaves her body as she is drowning to do it all by herself. Realizing the horror of what she had just done, Jessel screams at her now lifeless body, floating face down on the lake at Bly's grounds, but it's too late.
Even in death, Peter continues to manipulate Jessel, tempting her with offers of possessing Miles and Flora so they could live forever and not turn into faceless monsters like those cursed to roam the grounds of Bly after death. Reluctantly, Jessel complies, but it is her change of heart in the final moments that saves Miles and Flora's life.
'The Haunting of Hill House' premiered on October 9 and is now available for streaming on Netflix.
