Spoilers! 'The Haunting of Bly Manor' stars discuss their characters' bittersweet fates

Spoiler alert! The following discusses important plot points and the ending of "The Haunting of Bly Manor," so beware if you haven't binged it yet.

“I have a story.”

A mysterious woman (Carla Gugino) addresses wedding guests and begins a ghostly tale at the beginning of Netflix’s “The Haunting of Bly Manor,” which over the course of nine episodes digs into the phantoms of an English mansion as well as the lives, deaths, romances and tragedies that surround the cursed estate.

In 1987, Dani Clayton (Victoria Pedretti) is an American au pair hired by the wealthy Henry Wingrave (Henry Thomas) to move to a family estate in the English countryside and look after his orphaned niece Flora (Amelie Smith) and nephew Miles (Benjamin Ainsworth). Soon, however, Dani learns of the death of the previous nanny Rebecca Jessel (Tahirah Sharif), sees the woman's dead lover Peter Quint (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) and witnesses the faceless Lady in the Lake who's forever tied to this house.

Some characters survive, some die and some were ghosts the whole time in “Bly Manor,” the second in creator Mike Flanagan’s “Haunting” series (following 2018’s “The Haunting of Hill House). USA TODAY talks with three cast members about the bittersweet fates of their onscreen personalities.

Mrs. Grose is at home with the living and proves love outlasts death

A resident of Bly since her husband left her, British housekeeper Hannah Grose (T’Nia Miller) may be the warmest presence in the house, although sometimes she seems out of sorts. That's because she's actually dead: In the fifth episode, Hannah navigates being stuck out of time, and it's revealed she's been pushed down a well to her death by Miles (who's possessed by Peter), on the same day that Dani shows up to the manor.

Her tragic fate is made even more so one night drinking wine outside in front of a fire with estate chef Owen (Rahul Kohli). She loves him and wants to go to Paris with him, but as he leaves, Hannah realizes she can no longer leave Bly.

"In that moment, she's like, 'Owen, wait!' and it's just too late," Miller says. "That's the story, isn't it? Literally we only have now, there's no tomorrow. Grab it by the horns and if it hurts, let it burn. We'll get over it. We'll mend and we'll be all the richer for it."

Owen gets a happy-ish ending, but not the girl

As it turns out, Owen also loves Hannah, although they're never able to really tell each other. When he finds her body in the well after the final episode's climax with the Lady in the Lake (more on that in a bit), Owen's heartbroken. He ends up moving to Paris and opening a restaurant called A Batter Place, one of his corny puns that made Hannah laugh. (A picture of her also hangs there as a tribute.)

"It was bittersweet, but it was still sweet at the end," Kohli says. "Having his own restaurant was enough for him to be like, 'You know what, I'm OK. I still made something of myself. I'm still able to find some degree of peace and create an environment that makes me somewhat happy.' "

Dani’s sacrifice saves everyone, but dooms her

Early in the series, Dani has to confront the ghost of her dead fiancé, a dark bespectacled figure who followed her to Bly, so she can open her heart to someone again. Subsequently, she falls in love with the manor's gardener Jamie (Amelia Eve). But Dani also faces a life-and-death situation with the Lady in the Lake: After Dani escapes her deadly grasp, the Lady's about to take Flora to a watery grave when Dani invites the ghost into her, not only saving the kid but also lifting the spell that keeps all the spooks tied to Bly.

For many years afterward, Dani is at peace with Jamie as the lovers build a life together, though the Lady begins to haunt her again, until Dani decides one day that she needs to protect “her most important person.” Jamie finds a note that she's left, returns to the manor and finds Dani drowned at the bottom of the lake.

"It's frustrating, but it's life," Pedretti says. "People leave us before we're ready, and it doesn't allow us to feel good, but it allows us to see a representation of truth. Why does every love story have to show us if it's really good, you get happily ever after? Life's not so sweet. Life's not so fair."

'Bly Manor' concludes with a wedding and a hopeful note

The wedding that mystery woman's attending? It's Flora's, 20 years after she's left Bly, and the storyteller is Jamie. Two decades later, Flora and Miles are seemingly unaffected by what happened, and Owen and Henry – who are also there for the story – are blissfully unaware that this stranger just recounted a crazy time in their life.

"That's something that really resonated with me, that we can move past our childhood traumas and we can still be happy. Not everything is cemented," Kohli says.

After the wedding, Jamie returns to her hotel room, filling the bath and sink hoping to see a glimpse of Dani in the water. She leaves the door cracked open and faces it in her chair as she falls asleep, and a hand from an unseen body is seen on Jamie's shoulder right before the credits roll.

"They were so devoted to each other and the health and betterment of each other that, yeah, of course that leaves an enormous lasting impact," Pedretti says of Dani and Jamie's apparently undying love. "And that's something you can genuinely feel, to have a hand resting on the shoulder."