In Netflix’s ‘The Watcher,’ Dean (Bobby Cannavale) and Nora Brannock (Naomi Watts) buy their dream house in Westfield, New Jersey, only to find themselves being stalked by someone identifying themselves as the Watcher. The letters that the Watcher sends are bizarre and unsettling. The Watcher claims that they have been watching the house for generations. ‘The Watcher’ is a true crime series about obsession and greed. Toward the tail end of the show, a new plot element, Ode to a House, is introduced. Here is everything you need to know about it. SPOILERS AHEAD.
What Is Ode to a House?
In ‘The Watcher,’ an ode to a house begins as a note and becomes something more as the series progresses. In episode 5, while attending a luncheon with her neighbors Mo and Pearl, Nora learns that the latter received a letter about five years ago. It was much shorter and more positive than the ones from the Watcher. In the letter, the sender praises the unusual beauty of Pearl’s house, underscoring how different it is from the rest of the neighborhood. “Dear Miss Winslow, I love your house. I love looking at it. I love how different it is. Your house is special. I’m so glad you haven’t changed it,” the letter read.
In the evening, Ellie, Nora and Dean’s daughter, looks up on the internet and finds a Facebook group called An Ode to a House, comprising former students of an English teacher named Roger Kaplan. It was Kaplan who came up with the assignment. He originally told his students to find a house they love in the neighborhood and writes a few words about it, instructing his students to make two copies of the note, one for Kaplan and the other for the owner of a respective property.
In ‘The Watcher,’ because of Kaplan’s obsession with local houses and the experience as an English teacher at Westfield High, Dean and Nora briefly think that he is their stalker. “657 Boulevard has been the subject of my family for decades now and as it approaches its 110th birthday, I have been put in charge of watching and waiting for its second coming. My grandfather watched the house in the 1920s and my father watched in the 1960s. It is now my time. Do you know the history of the house? Do you know what lies within the walls of 657 Boulevard? Why are you here? I will find out,” the first letter reads.
Ultimately, the Brannocks are forced to sell 657 Boulevard at a loss. While it is pretty much proven that Kaplan is not the Watcher, the stalker’s identity remains unknown.
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