This was probably my favorite episode of the series besides the finale mainly because of how well it uses the tracking shot to it’s full ability. There’s only about 3 cuts in the entire episode and even those are made in such a way that unless you were looking for it, you wouldn’t notice it. See, I don’t think people understand the dedication that this kind of shooting takes for the entire crew because if anything goes wrong with the lighting or the effects or an actor misses their cue then everything has stop and be reset. It’s something that takes passion and determination. There’s a lot to unpack in this episode and I don’t think they could’ve done it a different way without losing the effect that this episode has on the series.
First and foremost, let’s just get this part out there : For those of you who don’t know, I lost my mother when I was 20. It was an event that has shaped my life pretty much ever since and I can personally say that I haven’t seen a form of media that handles the concept of death and funerals with it better than this show. The way that Red Lanyard understands and appreciates the handling of Luke’s storyline in the show, I understand and appreciate the feeling of unease that this entire episode has. The unease doesn’t come from the ghosts of the house but the ghosts of possibility. Why should Nellie be dead? What could they have done differently? Why did this happen? The differing reactions to Nellie’s death is what makes the most sense. Whether it was Steve breaking down after seeing her, Theo drinking heavily, Luke angrily muttering to anyone who would listen, Shirley trying to control everyone’s every single move or even just the family lashing out at each other in anger. I can honestly say that any and/or all of these things can happen during these times. No one really knows what to say and when we do finally speak, you’ll never really know what’s about to be said until it happens.
This episode also showcases the series’ ability to deliver on scares without them constantly being thrown at you. I was unsettled when Steven turned around and there was his mother standing by Nellie’s coffin. I also thought the scene where she became possessed for the first time was horrifying as well. All of this was done by a tight script, clever camera angles and a dedication to the quality of their product. All of these are things that many modern storytellers could take lessons on.
How the episode connects the two titular storms together was something that was honestly very unexpected. It starts off by there being a big storm while they’re viewing Nellie’s body and no one has the right words for the visitation and I loved that. No one ever really has the right words and anytime that you’ve seen it otherwise done in films or television was just flat out wrong. It begins after setting up the base of the episode in the funeral home and then we follow Hugh back to the house when they were all younger and the Chandelier crashes and wakes everyone up which is when everything gets wild.
Rewatching these episodes to write these articles makes me question a lot about Olivia, especially in this episode. When was she Possessed? You get a lot of hints at it throughout the series but it’s never confirmed as to when it really started happening but we’ll go more into that in a later episode. In this one we at least get an idea that she’s already seeing things but we’re not 100% certain of it until the last part of the episode.
When they lose Nellie in the dark is when the two parents go off to look for her upstairs while the kids stay downstairs. This is when we start to realize how good of a relationship Luke and Steven had when they were younger which then comes full circle when they have the first cut of the episode at 21 minutes.
We cut back to Luke at the funeral home while he’s listening to Steve tell a story about Nellie and this is where we get the beginnings of the family arguments as Theo proceeds to call out Steve for not staying with them longer than that first summer at their aunt’s. They keep talking about Nellie using the made up word : “Puffalope” which was a Puffy, Padded, Envelope. Hugh keeps talking about how those Envelope’s were the special ones she would use for her letters to Santa.
This leads to Steve questioning Hugh about if his letters from Nellie told him anything about her state of mind. He also keeps saying that Hugh is holding back information…just like he did when their mother killed herself. Steve is convinced that Mental Illness is rampant in the Crain family and that that’s what happened to Nellie. He refuses to believe anything about the Ghosts and just assumes that everyone is crazy. He begs for the truth which leads to Shirley saying that maybe he shouldn’t ask for the truth when his books are largely fictionalized. Shirley naturally hates his books and has since he started his career. She hates that he profited off of their tragedy and when she finds out that her husband actually took the money that Steve offered, She is livid with both of them.
As she walks away from all of them she realizes that Someone has put buttons over the eyes of Nellie’s corpse. Immediately after that, the power goes out and I love how Luke is the only one who isn’t freaking out about it. I genuinely believe that Luke knew everything about Nellie’s presence at this point. While everyone one else runs off, Hugh is left by the casket and follows Nellie’s ghost until we have our next cut.
We go back to the younger versions of the parents and, in my opinion, this is the scene where Olivia becomes fully possessed. We see that the ghosts and the statues are much more active in this scene and then her leading Hugh on the chase around the corners of the hallway were terrifying until it all finally led to the glass breaking in the windows. The younger version of Nellie reappears and then we go back to the Funeral home where Luke and Hugh start having a conversation about Nellie as a ghost. Shirley and Steve come back and then they all begin to have this final argument that culminates in Steve screaming that the wrong parent died that night, Nellie’s casket tips over and then the power comes back on. They fix her and get her set back up and all go their separate ways. Except Nellie
I don’t really understand how they got some of these shots that they did but I was so glad that they did. I went over each scene because of how important it is to watch how they did it. Everyone had to be on point with their jobs and the switch back to the classical cuts after her casket falls was genius. I genuinely loved everything about this episode.
“I waved and jumped and screamed and none of you even looked. I was right here the whole time. None of you could see me. Nobody could see me.” Probably one of the most tragic quotes when you start to think about it.
