‘The Haunting of Bly Manor’: Does Flora Wingrave Know Her Brother Is ‘Tucked Away’?
Benjamin Evan Ainsworth plays the creepy Miles Wingrave in The Haunting of Bly Manor. There is unique reason for Miles’s behavior that fans of the Netflix series will understand, but did Flora Wingrave (Amelie Bea Smith) know why her brother was acting so strangely?
[SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers ahead for The Haunting of Bly Manor].
There’s something wrong with Miles Wingrave
Some viewers chalked it up to losing his parents in a tragic accident, but there was no mistake that Miles was an unconventional child. When he first meets Dani Clayton (Victoria Pedretti), Miles comes off almost debonaire. It isn’t long before we learn Miles has behavioral issues that got him kicked out of boarding school. But Miles has more going on beneath the surface.
Eventually, we learn Miles is possessed by the ghost of Peter Quint (Oliver Jackson-Cohen).
Peter Quint uses Miles Wingrave’s body for a majority of ‘The Haunting of Bly Manor’
Most of Ainsworth’s role was playing an older man “tucked away” inside the body of a young boy.
In Bly Manor, being “tucked away” is when a ghost takes possession of another person, leaving them “tucked away” in their memories. Eventually, we learn Peter Quint, Henry Wingrave’s (Henry Thomas) former valet, was within Miles. At the same time, Rebecca Jessel (Tahirah Sharif), the au pair who seemingly killed herself, took control of Flora.
Throughout The Haunting of Bly Manor, it’s not always easy to differentiate between when Miles is truly himself and when he’s consumed by Peter Quint.
Did Flora know her brother was possessed?
In The Haunting of Bly Manor, Flora goes in and out of being “tucked away.” That’s likely because Rebecca Jessel knows Peter Quint is still working to find a way for them to be together. By tucking Flora away, Rebecca can protect her.
As such, it’s likely Flora is fully aware of her brother being possessed by Peter Quint. From episode 1, it seems like Flora knows Miles isn’t really Miles — instead, he’s housing the spirit of the man responsible for the death of Miss Jessel.
“Miles, stop being weird!” Flora said when Dani first arrived at Bly. Because she fears the man possessing her brother, Flora likely felt helpless most of the time. That’s why she never made anyone else privy to the situation — to protect herself and her brother from Peter Quint.
There’s a way fans can tell who is ‘tucked away’ and who isn’t in ‘The Haunting of Bly Manor’
Eagle-eyed fans noticed when a character willingly allowed a ghost to take control, they developed heterochromia, a condition in which people have two different color eyes or irises. This occured with Dani and the Lady in the Lake (Kate Siegel).
Heterochromia only occurs with the characters who willingly allow a ghost to use their body as a vessel. That’s likely symbolic of the fact that both persons are in control. But when a spirit enters another person’s body without permission, the eyes’ color doesn’t differ. Peter took control of Miles without permission, leaving both of his eyes the same color. This made it hard to detect when Miles is and isn’t “tucked away.”
