14 details in 'The Haunting of Bly Manor' you may have missed

When we're introduced to The Storyteller (Carla Gugino) on the first episode, we see her in what appears to be the bathroom of a hotel suite gazing into a sink and bathtub filled with water.

It's not until the last scene of the series that we learn that she is the adult version of the gardener, Jamie, and is still waiting for her love to return.

The big reveal in the final episode is that the woman introduced in episode one is actually Jamie, the former gardener, and that she's retelling the story of Bly Manor to an adult Flora (Christie Burke) and her wedding guests, including Miles, Owen, and Henry Wingrave.

Upon first watch, viewers may not have picked up on the accent that The Storyteller and Jamie share, or that she's wearing the ring that Dani gave her on episode nine.

Prior to the release of "Bly Manor," the episode titles were listed online by number, not by name. That's because each episode shares a title with one of James' haunting stories, which Flanagan cherry-picked to create his own.

The episodes are not direct adaptations, but there are some elements that would have given away Bly's secrets too early.

The official @haunting Twitter account shared the titles with subtle teases just over a week before the series released, and even then the title of episode eight, "The Romance of Certain Old Clothes," was kept under wraps.

Readers of James' "The Turn of the Screw" may have noticed that most of the character names are the same, but not Dani Clayton (Victoria Pedretti).

Tha name Clayton is likely an homage to Jack Clayton, the director of the 1961 film "The Innocents," one of the most famous adaptations of James' novella.

When Dani leaves the hostel for Bly Manor, the number on her room door reads 217.

This seems to be a direct nod to the hotel room in Stephen King's novel "The Shining" (and not the Kubrick film adaptation, which famously changed it to room 237).

Flanagan directed an adaptation of "Doctor Sleep," which was King's book sequel to "The Shining."

On episode two, we see a flashback of Miles (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) in a classroom at boarding school.

The instructor, Father Stack (Jim Piddock) is telling the students about a Bible story that's told three times with conflicting details but "the broad strokes remain the same."

The story is about unclean spirits being given permission by Jesus to leave a man and enter pigs "that then go jump in a lake." Miles asks if the demons also needed permission to enter the man, which sets up the show's rules for its ghosts.

Save for a sip of coffee or a taste of cake batter, we never see Hannah Grose (T'Nia Miller) eating or drinking.

She gives excuses that she will eat later, that she has already eaten, or that one of the adults needs to stay sober — but, really, she's been a ghost from the moment we meet her at the well.

On episode six, when Flora is tucked away in a memory, she sees a boy with no face and runs for help.

Uncle Henry (Henry Thomas) tells her that when he was younger he had an imaginary friend at Bly Manor who was a soldier.

The ghost soldier can be seen at various points throughout the season, including on episode three during a flash of lightning when Rebecca Jessel (Tahirah Sharif) and Peter Quint (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) are talking in the kitchen.

It's a subtle shift, but one of the things that viewers may have missed about Miles is that when he is possessed by Peter Quint, he often puts one hand in his pocket.

He also changes the swagger of his walk.

The Lady of Bly Manor and, later, its lake, Viola Lloyd (Kate Siegel), is formally introduced in the penultimate episode.

Her identity is teased during episode four, when Flora makes Dani a gravestone rubbing inside of the chapel.

Depending on your brightness settings, you may have missed that when Dani gives the Lady in the Lake permission to enter her body, one of her eyes changes color.

The sudden heterochromia signifies the new passenger occupying half of her body.

Many of the ghosts in Bly Manor (like the doctor in the plague mask and the boy with the doll face) make appearances in the first half of the season and are meant to be noticed.

There are, however, many blink-and-you'll-miss-it ghosts, and some that are maybe hidden too well.

"It was a constant conversation, as to how many of the ghosts to portray, how many to put in, and when and where," cinematographer James Kniest told Digital Spy. "I think that it just became a little bit less of a priority as the characters started to get really interesting. But they're definitely there."

Kniest added that, because of the ongoing global pandemic, they weren't able to finish production the way they wanted.

"That may or may not play a role in how much you can see into the shadows and see the ghosts," he added. "I think that it just evolved organically to a point where they have just appeared a little bit farther into the recesses of the manor. They are there."

It's no secret that the dolls in Flora's dollhouse represent people in the series, but you may have missed that it also acts as a real-time map of where they and the ghosts are.

"The dollhouse is like our Marauder's Map for this season," Flanagan told Entertainment Weekly, referencing the real-time map found in the "Harry Potter" series.

He added that it was an idea from a writer named Rebecca Klingel, who also came up with the Red Room in "Hill House."

Flanagan said that viewers who pay close attention will see that everyone is exactly where their dolls are.

In an interview with Collider, Miller confirmed that Hannah Grose's frequent earring changes reveal something about the character and where she is in the story.

"The bolder, the bigger, the edgier ... it's past, right? And the more subdued and conservative, it's present where she's sort of, her armor's on more. She's in her body, she's in herself."

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