Though it's only revealed in the series' final episode that the Crains had been in the Red Room many times when they were children without them knowing it, there is a visual cue for viewers throughout the entire show that clues us in to when the Red Room is present. Fittingly, the clue is that something in the room is always red. Check out the proof below:
Whether it's the red suitcase in Nell's toy room or the red chair in Liv's reading room or the red beanbag in Steve's game room, there's a clear object in each of these flashback shots that is unequivocally red. That stays true in the dream visions the Crain siblings have while in the Red Room in the final episode: Luke's signature black Chucks are suddenly red, Trish's lingerie is red, and so on. (You can see every example of this in the slideshow above.)Similarly, the room is always laid out the same way, whether they're actually in the Red Room or it's disguised as something else. There are clear identifying elements that reveal to us in retrospect that, yes, they were in the Red Room. The shot of the Red Room is always face-on, and there is a central window in the background, in the middle of the wall. See this shot of Liv in the Red Room with Nell, Luke, and Abigail:
Compared to this shot of Luke in his treehouse:
Which takes us back to the final scene. If our key visual signifiers to the Crains being in the Red Room are clear uses of red and that specific framing, just take a couple seconds to examine this final shot:
"Whenever each child, each sibling, is in the Red Room, something in the fantasy is red. And it’ll be a very, very small thing," Jackson-Cohen points out to TheWrap. "There’s something at the end — it was Kate [Siegel], who plays Theo, who kind of pointed it out to me — with Luke’s sobriety cake. She went, ‘The cake is red.’ And on set I went, ‘Oh, my God!’ And she went, ‘I don’t know!’"
So is this how we really should be reading the ending? It certainly adds a tragic twist to the deal Hugh makes with Liv to let their children out of the Red Room. On first viewing, it seems as though the deal is exchanging his death for their freedom. But does this new look at the finale mean that the Crains only thought they escaped, but in reality stayed trapped there in seemingly happy dream futures forever?
Don't expect a straightforward answer. Jackson-Cohen said that when he asked the series showrunner Mike Flanagan, his boss simply said, "I don’t know."
"I can’t tell whether or not I’m just crazy with this — or whether or not it’s something that could have legs," Jackson-Cohen told TheWrap.
Editor's note: As some commenters have pointed out, Flanagan previously told Thrillist that the original ending definitively did have the same Red Room window in the background of this shot, but ended up opting for a more positive ending.
“I ultimately decided not to. It was too cruel,” Flanagan told Thrillist. “But there was a lot of talk that this peace might not be real. In the version we ended up going with, I think it absolutely is real. We committed to that course of action.”
So how do you take this new wrinkle to The Haunting of Hill House's ending? I, for one, want to think the Crains got their happy ending, and this is just a visual metaphor for how they will always emotionally be tied to the Red Room. Let us know in the comments! And for more on the complex Netflix series, watch the video above where the cast explains whether or not there should be a Season 2, or watch them below reveal how those haunted ghosts almost got a lot more backstory in Season 1. Plus, check out our deep dive into all the hidden ghosts you might've missed.
Terri Schwartz is Editorial Manager of Entertainment at IGN. Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.