Even The Haunting of Hill House Cast Had No Clue About the Stages of Grief Theory

The Haunting of Hill Houseis the latest Netflix series to take the internet by storm, which means it's easy to fall down rabbit holes of Easter eggs and fan theories. But one theory in particular has really struck a chord with fans, adding even more layers to the already complex family drama.

As Tumblr user cagedbirdsong pointed out, each of the five Crain siblings represent one of the different stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. And what makes this theory even more mind-blowing is that the stages of grief each sibling represents actually corresponds to the order in which they were born!

The eldest, Steve (Michiel Huisman), is obviously denial, refusing to believe in the supernatural despite the mounting evidence to the contrary. Shirley (Elizabeth Reaser) is clearly anger with all her self-righteous grudges. Theo (Kate Siegel) is bargaining, trying to rationalize everything to understand and attempt to get a better result. Luke (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) is depression, attempting to escape these feelings through heroin and insisting to Nell's ghost that he can't live without her. And then Nell (Victoria Pedretti), poor Nell, is acceptance, telling her siblings that all that matters is that they loved each other completely.

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But if you think your mind was blown by this revelation, imagine what it must have been like for the actors, who apparently had no idea what their characters signified in Mike Flanagan's reimagining of Shirley Jackson's novel.

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"I totally see it now," Victoria Pedretti tells TV Guide. "I get what people are saying, the idea that we represent the various stages of grief but it was never a discussion when we were working."

If you're thinking, "Well, if the actors didn't know maybe this is a totally coincidental thing and not actually canon," take a seat, because Flanagan confirmed the stages of grief theory on Twitter, responding to BuzzFeed's write-up of it with "Good catch..."

TLDR; The Crain siblings represent the five stages of grief and if you didn't catch that, don't feel bad because even the actors who played the Crain siblings had no idea.

The Haunting of Hill House is available to stream on Netflix now.

Additional reporting by Krutika Mallikarjuna