Netflix: The Haunting of Hill House Season 1 Ep 4 (The Twin Thing) recap

Image courtesy of Amblin TV and Paramount TV

Luke uses a pay phone to call Nell, but he gets no answer (and we know why). He leaves a message.

Back to young Luke, he wakes up at night to the sound of dogs barking, and then hears a tapping noise coming down the hall outside of his bedroom door. He peeks out the door and sees an impossibly tall, thin man, feet floating several inches above the floor, and the tapping noise is the can he carries. He is pushing open each door down the hallway, peering in. Terrified, Luke quietly closes his bedroom door, and hides under his bed.

From under the bed, Luke can see the door open, and the man’s feet still floating above the floor as he moves closer. We see the man’s shadow as he picks up Luke’s “big boy” hat and puts it on his own head. Luke has been holding his breath, and can’t do it anymore; as he gasps in a breath of air, the man hears him, and bends over. We see his long, thin fingers and then his terrifying face looking directly at Luke, who begins screaming. THIS, my friends, is, in my opinion, the most terrifying scene so far! I was talking out loud to the TV, saying, “Oh, no, no,no,no” and “What the hell IS that?”

Adult Luke wakes up on a park bench, and spots Joey buying drugs across the street. He approaches her, and they talk briefly, then he uses the pay phone to call the rehab, and asks if they can both come back. Paige tells him it’s not a hotel, if you run, you lose your spot. “You did it to yourself.”

Throughout all of this, Luke keeps rubbing his neck as if it hurts. He tells Joey they can get a hotel room until the drugs she has taken wear off. Neither of them has money, and he sees the silhouette of the tall man in the dark. Luke is hesitant, but decides to ask Steven for money. He tells Joey again that Steven won’t believe he is clean, Joey is the only person besides Nell who believes him. He tells her about “the twin thing,” and says that once, he broke his ankle. Nell called him and said her ankle was really hurting, so she knew he was injured.

Image courtesy of Amblin TV and Paramount TV

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When they get to Steven’s house, Luke tells Joey to stay across the street, Leigh will know that she is high. Leigh answers the door, but won’t let him stay there; she tells him that she and Steven are not together, they separated a month ago.

Luke thinks back to visiting Steven and Leigh with Joey a while back while, when they were on a Day Pass. At dinner, they talk about rehab, and all of the rules. Joey tells them that Luke is also a good writer, he once wrote an essay about an imaginary friend (who is, of course, Abigail). She is very impressed with Steven and Leigh’s house, and says all it needs now is kids to fill it up. By the looks on Steven and Leigh’s faces, we can tell this is a sore subject.

While Joey and Leigh chat outside, Steven takes the opportunity to get in some digs at Luke. He refers to Joey as “slick”, and Luke defends her. She was with him when he was going through withdrawal, and Steven sarcastically states that he doesn’t know what withdrawal is like. Luke tells him that he had body aches, and was always cold, can’t he even give Joey a chance? Steven’s response is that no, he already gave them all to Luke. Luke says he is glad to be 30 days clean so Steven can make him feel like sh*t again.

We are back to the night Steven came home, only to find Luke coming down the stairs with his iPad and camera. Now, of course, we know that Luke is not using, and has a different reason for wanting money.  Again, we hear Luke tell him this isn’t what it looks like, and Steven curtly respond, “You cold?”

Still shivering from the cold, Luke returns to Joey and gives her the money for a hotel room. She requests to duck into the “junkie room” for a quick fix, and says she’ll be back in a flash. She doesn’t return, of course, and Luke can’t find her. He sees the tall man again, in silhouette.

We return to Luke’s group meeting at the 90-day clean mark, and he is speaking. He says it has taken him ten years to get 90 days clean, and that #4 (the Fearless Inventory) has always been the most difficult for him. He was always a scared kid, and it didn’t get better when his Mom died and he went to live with his Aunt. He kept expecting her to come back. Now his family won’t believe him, and doesn’t blame them after all the bad things he has done. He thanks Joey and Paige for supporting him.