Netflix: The Haunting of Hill House episode 8 (Witness Marks) recap

2 of 2

The Haunting of Hill House – Netflix

Adult Shirley hears the doorbell again, then knocking at the door, and again, when she opens it, no one is there. When she walks back inside, she sees the mysterious handsome man again, raising his glass to her. Another knock on the door, no one there. Theo comes up from the guest house to apologize.

Theo follows Shirley into the house, and tells her she can explain about what happened with her and Kevin. She says, “He pushed me away”, and Shirley tells her to get out. Theo fights back, telling her that Shirley is always throwing it in her face that she lives in the guest house. She says, “I choose to live there, with you, for you. You ice people out. I live there to keep you warm, I don’t HAVE to live there.”

The always-rational Shirley calls her sister a slut. Theo says what happened wasn’t Kevin’s fault, and that Shirley thinks she is always perfect. Shirley pushes Theo, then hits her, and a very rare, light-hearted moment happens. Theo, shocked says, “Did you just punch me in the boob?” Shirley, shocked at herself, responds, “You kissed my husband, that’s what you get.”

Shirley drags Theo toward the door, then knocking starts, no one is there. As soon as she shuts the door, the knocking starts again, then there is knocking on the windows and walls, and Shirley’s phone rings.

Steve answers his phone in the car, it’s Shirley telling him that Luke used her card at a gas station on the way to Hill House. Hugh tells Shirley and Theo to stay at the house, he and Steve will go.

Steve tells Hugh that Luke is going to Hill House to kill himself. “I’ve seen the same look in Nell’s eyes and Luke’s eyes, when he used to draw his crazy ghouls in his tree house. Our family has a disease.” He tells Hugh that he made sure he would never have kids, he had a vasectomy after college. Leigh didn’t know. He doesn’t regret it though, because “we’re all crazy, and it’s killed two of us already.”

The Haunting of Hill House – Netflix

At Hill House, young Steve presents the vanity to Olivia, and she loves it. But as she sits and looks in the mirror, her face sudden looks fearful and she punches the mirror. She cries, telling Steve she’s sorry.

Hugh calls the gas station, and is told that Luke filled up 5 cans with gasoline. As he drives towards Hill House, he tells Steve that Luke is going to burn the house, and “it will defend itself.” Steve again tells Hugh he is being ridiculous, but Hugh is firm. There is a lot Steven doesn’t know, and for the last twenty years, Hugh has held the door closed, because monsters are on the other side.

More from Netflix

Hugh tells Steve that “our family is like an unfinished meal to that house”, and the house is most dangerous to Steve himself, because of what he wrote in his book. Steve is puzzled, but Hugh continues, telling him that Steve saw, and wrote about, a ghost, and he didn’t even know it. In chapter 19, he wrote about finding the vanity and walking past the man fixing the grandfather clock. The repair man working on the clock was not there.

The grandfather clock was evaluated, using something called “witness marks”, and to repair it would have required a specialist – no one was there to fix the clock. And then, Hugh delivers another shocker. “I never build you kids a tree house. There was no tree house.” He says that Olivia wasn’t sick, none of them are, the house is dangerous for them.

Shirl and Theo are driving to Hill House, and, in a moment of weakness, Shirley admits that she is not perfect. Theo tries again to explain about how she and Kevin ended up in that embrace, Shirley cuts her off, and they are fighting again.

Theo says that she touched Nell’s body, Shirley snaps at her, and then, it happens…one of those moments everyone is still freaking out about. Suddenly and shockingly, Nell’s corpse-like face shoots between them from the back seat, screaming. The sisters pull over, and jump out of the car, Theo collapsing on the ground crying.

“That was HER, do you believe THAT?” Theo, still sobbing, tells Shirley that she touched Nell’s body because she had to know. “I touched her, and I felt nothing. It spread in me, and I couldn’t feel anything. I drank, nothing worked. I couldn’t feel anything.” She was in the basement when the lights went out, and she wondered if that’s what Nell felt: numb, nothing, alone, and what if that’s what death is?

The lights came back on, Kevin was standing there, she didn’t see him, he was just a light in the darkness, and she reached because she had to feel something. Kevin stopped her and said no, then she saw him, and Shirley walked in. She says she is sorry, but she is glad she did it, because she started feeling things again. One of those things was fear, “I was scared I would lose the only sister I had left. I am so sorry.” Shirley takes her hand, and they walk back to the car.

Luke arrives at Hill House, and as he removes the gas cans from his car, the lights in the house glow red. Inside, he pours gas all around, then begins to count to 7 repeatedly. He lights the lighter, tosses it, and blue flames form, then immediately go out. He sees Olivia standing on the stairs beckoning him, and a female specter grabs his head from behind.

What an emotional episode! Kate Siegel gave a stellar performance during Theo’s breakdown outside of the car, her monologue was gut-wrenching. I was crying my eyes out. And Nell popping out so unexpectedly? Readers, I think I peed a little, it was really scary!

We are winding down now, only 2 episodes to go, how do you think this is all going to end? Will the Crain family remain intact?

Next. Blumhouse and Amazon create horror universe. dark

Fan of The Haunting of Hill House? Looking forward to more from the Netflix sensation? Let the other ghosts know what you think in the comment section below.

Home/Netflix