Theodora Crain

* Young
* Present

## CHARACTERISTICS

**Theodora "Theo" Crain** is a major character in *The Haunting of Hill House.* She is the middle child of the Crain family and works as a psychologist as an adult, living with her sister Shirley. She struggles with a heightened sensitivity which runs in the family - her mother and her grandma had the same powers. She can feel emotions from people, objects or places by touching them.

## Story

Theo was born to Hugh Crain and Olivia Crain. She has two older siblings, Steven Crain and Shirley Crain, as well as two younger siblings, Luke Crain and Eleanor Crain.

During a night in Hill House, Theo goes to the kitchen. There she discovers Luke, who is trying to use the dumbwaiter and he begs her to help him have ride in it. Instead of going up, the elevator goes down towards the basement. The dumbwaiter doesn't work anymore and Luke is stuck in the basement. Their parents enter the kitchen and angrily order Theo to leave. Afterwards, Theo goes to Luke's room and apologizes. She touches him and says that she believes what he says about the basement.

Theo is able to figure out where the entrance to the basement is and discovers a hidden door down there. Behind the door she finds some books. She shows them to her mother. While she does this, her mother touches her and Theo gets a vision of her mother after she killed herself.

During the last night in Hill House, Theo comes down stairs and Hugh enters the room with the twins. He orders her to take them to the car so he can get the other two kids. She resists when he grabs her arm, and she sees what had happened. She begins screaming at him not to touch her.

Theo takes the cheque from her brother for $15,000. She says that he got things wrong in the book, though she was impressed he wrote some interesting stuff, considering he was asleep for almost all of it. She says that she'll use it to get her phD.

In 2016, during Eleanor Crain's wedding, she was having sex with Stacey. She is caught by Steven Crain and Eleanor Crain, revealing to them that she is a lesbian ("Touch").

Theo goes to a club and notices Trish Park. Though Trish is about to approach her, she turns away and Trish doesn't.

She returns home and does paperwork in bed. She absentmindedly begins sketching a smiley face. She turns off the light and is later awakened by something pulling on her blanket. She finds that it is Mr. Smiley and turns on her light, causing him to disappear. A few minutes later, Shirley Crain knocks on her door and tells her about Eleanor Crain's death.

The sisters discuss what to tell Allie Harris and Jayden Harris about their aunt's death. Theo says that she's mad at Nell about her choice to commit suicide.

Nellie's body arrives and Theo can't handle seeing her body, so she leaves to go to Kelsey's house. She goes into the basement to try to figure out what's wrong with Kelsey. When she touches the couch, she finds out that Kelsey was being molested and that there appeared to be a smiley face in the wood of the roof. When she shakes her foster father's hand, she finds that he was the one who abused her.

She goes to her jeep and reports the abuse to Gina. She waits for the cops and watches him get sent away.

Back at home, Theo touches Nellie's body and begins sobbing ("Touch"). She sits outside on the porch and drinks. Kevin comes out and she tells him that Shirely found his cheque book. Trish Park arrives so they go to her room.

Theo kisses her and Trish stops her. She confronts her about her actions and how she'd been pushing her away. She apologizes and tells her about Kelsey and her sister. Trish kisses her to comfort her and Theo asks that she touches her.

## Relationships

### Trish Park

Theo and Trish seem to be dating throughout the series. Trish and Theo meet at a club, after which they sleep together. Theo sees the situation as a one time fling, and doesn't want to talk about her personal life with Trish at first, showing her difficulty with opening up to others. However, Trish keeps reaching out to Theo, attending Nell's funeral as well.

Theo's dream in the red room involve a conversation with Trish in bed, where Theo lost her powers, and Trish tells the full story of William Hill's death.

In the last episode Trish helps Theo to move out of her sister's house, implying they're moving in together and involved in a more serious romantic relationship. In the final scenes, Theo and Trish are seen wearing wedding rings at the family gathering celebrating Luke's two years of sobriety, implying they get married or engaged.

## Trivia

* Theodora is a major character in Shirley Jackson's novel "The Haunting of Hill House". She also appears in the movies *The Haunting* (1963) by Robert Wise and in the 1999 version by Jan De Bont. She is implied to be a lesbian in all of these versions but The Haunting of Hill House TV show is the first to makes it explicit.

## Quotes

* "I mean, she's sweet enough, but, pile of issues." - Steven Sees a Ghost
* "Boundaries. Maybe a brick wall when it comes to Luke." - Steven Sees a Ghost
* "Well, be sure to let your imagination get the best of you. That's the first step. Imagine the worst thing possible, assume it's true, and go from there." - Open Casket
* "He deserves to be here. You're not giving him time to get here. He missed her wedding, we're not gonna let him miss her funeral too." - Open Casket
* "When I was scared, I would imagine myself building a big wall, all around me, made of the strongest bricks in the whole world. And when I got scared, I would imagine myself putting another one on, one after the other, until that wall was so thick and so strong I knew I'd be safe in there forever." - Touch
* "This whole house is cold." - Touch
* "She buried it so deep, she had to make up a monster just to compartmentalize and cope. And she did such a good job that she planted him right in my head. [...] She just needed help, and no one was listening. And it's so much like Nellie." - Touch
* "I am feeling serious fucking concern! That is what I am feeling!" - The Bent-Neck Lady
* "I'm so sorry that we fought. You were right." - The Bent-Neck Lady
* "I'm drinking every time I feel like punching something." - Two Storms
* "No, you don't know. You don't know what I felt. And you don't know what I feel. And I am allowed to process that any way that I want to. You don't just stand there and dictate how we all grieve our dead si-" - Two Storms
* "Don't fucking touch. I have enough of my own grief. I don't need yours too." - Two Storms
* "I fucked up last night, Daddy. I mean, I really... I fucked up. Even by Crain standards. And if I make it through today alive, I'm gonna have to pack this all up and find a new place to live. And I don't think Shirley is ever gonna talk to me again." - Eulogy
* "Did you tow my car?" - Eulogy
* "All of us, all of us are just always helping you keep up this idea in your head that you're perfect Shirley, and we're just a bunch of fuck ups fucking up perfect Shirley's perfect fucking life." - Witness Marks
* "I had to know, and I... I touched her. And I felt... nothing. Just nothing. And it spread, it spread everywhere in me, this nothing, until I couldn't feel anything anymore. I was just this dark, empty black hole. And I tried to fill it up, I tried to fill me back up, and I called Trish and she came right away and I felt nothing. And then I tried to mourn at the wake and I felt nothing. And so I drank and I drank and nothing worked. I couldn't feel anything, Shirley. After I touched her skin, I couldn't feel... anything." - Witness Marks
* "I wonder if this is it, if this is what death is, just out there in the darkness, just darkness and numbness and alone, and I wondered if that's what she felt, and that's what Mom feels, and it's just numb and nothing alone. What if that's what it is for all of us when the time comes?" - Witness Marks
* "When I was a child, my mother spanked me for throwing a rock through a greenhouse roof. It was the only time she ever. [...] For the only time in my life, she hit me. Just once. That was all she could take, and then never again. But a simple rock through some glass taught me so much about my mother. It taught her, too. I thought about it for a long time, remembering the spanking. But remembering also the lovely crash. And after thinking about it very seriously... I went out and did it again." - Silence Lay Steadily