Deron Generally
Deron GenerallyThe Haunting of Hill House
Netflix
Season 1 Episode 4
The Twin Thing
Luke Crain’s story is the focus of this episode. Luke shares a close connection with his sister Nellie and their bond is one of the things that both helps and hurts them. When Luke was a kid, he had a friend named Abigail and everyone believed her to be imaginary. When his mom finds a bowler hat in the house and gifts is to Luke, the ghost owner of the hat, a tall man with a cane that scrapes the floor, comes to collect it and finds a scared Luke hiding under his bed.
The bowler hat man is a vision that follows Luke into adulthood. When he celebrates being 90 days sober, he starts to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, his friend Joey’s sobriety becomes an issue when she escapes the house and he puts his in danger by following her in an attempt to bring her back. His attempts to get back to treatment are thwarted not only by his need to help Joey, but also the constant visions of the bowler hat man.
This episode is good, but other than the reveal of the bowler hat man when Luke was a kid, the episode itself was a little flat. Luke’s reveal about what really happened to Nellie is good, but the focus on Luke and Joey takes away a lot of the interesting aspects of the overall story. I would rather have focused on Luke’s journey to addiction rather than his co-dependent relationship with Joey. Even young Luke’s friendship with Abigail would have been more compelling and added more layers to the story.
There are some really good moments in the episode, especially with the bowler hat man. His presence is unnerving and the way he uses his cane is so visually and audibly creepy that you feel the same sense of fear that Luke is feeling when he comes for his hat.
The Haunting of Hill House S01XE04
