J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant murder Emmett Till once more in Lovecraft Country’s “Jig-A-Bobo”
TV Reviews Recap
They murdered Emmett Till, and it hurts all over again. Directed by Misha Green, “Jig-A-Bobo” sees Tic, Leti, Diana, and Ruby discover the impact that the murder of a 14-year-old child leaves on a community. The beautifully written and hauntingly gory tale reaffirms the rules of magic, as most of the crew’s secret are brought to light.
The details of the day, the unrelenting heat of the summer, the smell of his rotting corpse wafting in the air, the reality of the brutality of his murderers causes mourners to become physically ill as they left the church. Everything, every aspect of that reality, feels like horror gripping the fabric of reality and dancing gleefully. As one woman proclaims, the only thing left to do is pray. For Diana, who believes a sheriff murdered her father, who has not seen or heard from her mother in days, who recently lost her best friend, the day is unspeakably cruel. Tic proclaims this reality as a “rite of passage” for every Black American child. He speaks, not of murder, but the reality that the life of a Black child, and anyone who resembles that Black child, means nothing to the country in which they reside. Cops can barge into a home unannounced, steal your life for no reason, and business will continue as usual. Much worse, the system that should protect will do everything in its power to make loved ones, acquaintances, and other brown folks responsible for that theft of life before taking ownership of its responsibilities. Learning this lesson breaks the heart and fractures the mind. Home should be a safe place. Bananarama’s “Cruel Summer” takes on an entirely new meaning.
The police discover Diana after she’d run off from the funeral. Her hurt manifests as rage when she hears the sound of children laughing. A simple joy her best friend won’t ever have again. For a while, I wondered why Emmett Till. Foolishly, I hoped magic would protect him, but this show has never shied away from the reality of being Black in America. Poor Emmett would still be kidnapped, beaten, and eventually murdered.
Misha Green and the team choose to point their lens at an oft-overlooked reality, of those left behind after a hate crime. How does a community process violence done to a child? How do friends and family cope? How are they treated by their community? On the South Side of Chicago, stores closed and an entire city stood vigil to mourn a lost child. The police bum-rushed Emmett’s best friend, harassed her, terrorized her, and spit on her for very little information. Then they delighted in her terror. Home should be a safe place.
When Diana finally makes it home, Montrose and his anger await her. He chastises her for running off and bangs on the bathroom door after her outburst. Her rage meeting his rage doesn’t allow for much communication. He tries to explain what he wishes he had known when white folks took his friend’s life. The initial pain is only the beginning. The indignities will keep coming in the form of Rastus on the Cream Of Wheat box, or a drawing of a pickaninny playing with a pristine white girl on a book cover. Reminders of Diana’s second class citizenship follow her everywhere. No safe place exists. Two caricatures of dirty Black girls follow her to the train, to Leti’s house, and the home of the Police Chief.
Anger drives Diana right into harm’s way. Watching the cops stand over her and demand she answer questions about her mother was horrifying. Diana understands that how she answers could mean the end of her mother or the end of her own life. But it’s thrilling to watch her spit on the cops who terrorized her, to hear her name her mother with conviction, to watch her bravely march into whatever reality might be waiting for her. As she faces society’s racist, minimalist of an 11-year-old Black girl, Naomi Wadler’s “March For Our Lives speech plays over the scene.
“I am here today to acknowledge and represent the African-American girls whose stories don’t make the front page of every national newspaper, whose stories don’t lead on the evening news.I represent the African-American women who are victims of gun violence who are simply statistics instead of vibrant, beautiful girls full of potential. I am here to acknowledge their stories, to say they mattered. To say their names. Because I can. Because I was asked to be. For far too long, these names—these Black girls and women have been just numbers. I am here to say NEVER AGAIN for those girls too. I am here to say that everyone should value those girls too. People have said that I am too young to have these thoughts on my own. People have said that I am a tool of some nameless adult. That’s not true. My friends and I might still be 11, and we might still be in elementary school, but we know. We know life isn’t equal for everyone and we know what’s right and wrong. We also know that we stand in the shadow of the Capitol and we know that we have seven short years until we too have the right to vote.”
Diana tries to beat the demon girls out of existence with a lead pipe, but when Montrose appears, he can’t see what’s causing her pain. His understanding of her hurt and pain doesn’t grant him access to her view on the world, or how it hurts her. To be so loved and still so alone in her pain must be devastating for Diana.
Meanwhile, Tic’s kept Christina waiting in a mausoleum, and she’s none too happy about the inconvenience. But when Tic reveals the key she’s been looking for, her attitude changes. The distant relatives decide to make magic. This isn’t hocus pocus; this series takes the rules and boundaries of spellcasting seriously, as seen with the Orisha in episode three. According to Christina, the materials needed to cast a spell are three-fold: energy, intention, and a body. “That’s how you upset the balance of nature without a disaster,” she explains. I think of the ways laws support unjust actions, the bodies that pay the cost of those actions, and who profits. A protection spell requires blood or piss instead of chalk to stick. Only hard work and sacrifice bring about safety.
Ji-Ah knows all about sacrifice. She brings a bit of troubling news to Tic and Leti. Ji-Ah knows Tic will die, but not when. Leti correctly guesses that Ji-Ah’s still in love with him. Of course, these two hotheads devolve into their worst behaviors. Tic takes on the hero’s assignment and tries to rush off to save everyone from impending danger. Leti pushes him away.
Tic runs into his father on his way to be a hero. With everything going on, the question that Tic asks surprises him. “Did you cheat on my mama?“ Montrose explains that he had desires, but he never acted on them. When he was a child, Montrose’s pastor was caught in the park with another man, and subsequently arrested at the pulpit, and later lobotomized. “I chose a life over a damn asylum, or a jail cell, or being found dead on the toilet in the park.” So Montrose entered a marriage of convenience. Both he and his wife wanted a family, so they made one. Then he calls that family a blessing, and the look on Tic’s face suggests he never thought the man who raised him viewed him in such glorious light. Then, the power is cut. As the city descends into darkness, the pair share a drink. Tic reveals that he, too, went through the portal that took Hippolyta, where he found a book, Lovecraft Country, written by his son, George Freeman.
Book lovers can rejoice, as the show explains some of the main changes between the original Lovecraft Country text and the television series. Of course, Tic read the book cover to cover. It’s the Freeman family history. Christina will sacrifice Tic to become immortal. Tic can’t fight the future, nor his instinct to try and be there for his child. Montrose tells him dying by magic is much more “jazz” than dying at the end of a rope or a white man’s bullet. Then he makes the declaration Tic made: He’ll do everything in his power to protect his son and his grandson. He can’t feel the spell working, and both fear they failed.
Leti’s faith grows as Tic goes off to be the hero. To her God, she can confess that she loves Tic, that she feels the devil is after them, and he comes in the form of magic that never does them good. Christina can’t help but chide Leti for her beliefs. As a magic caster, she believes all the credit for Leti’s resurrection goes to the caster: “Most men with god complexes want to live in heaven instead of hell, failing to realize God is both.” Leti offers Christina the page of Adam if she’ll use her magic to make Tic invulnerable. Christina says she won’t do it for Tic, but she’ll do it for Leti. She gives her the mark of Cain. (Quick Bible lesson: Cain slew his brother Abel. God punished Cain by forcing him to wander the Earth. Cain thought his punishment too great, terrified that the first person who found him would kill him. So the Lord put a mark on him so that whoever found him would not slay him.)
Later, when the cops come to Leti’s building, she realizes that she’s bulletproof. Amidst the chaos that is a police shootout, she recognizes how powerful she’s become. Tic can’t play hero anymore when faced with a couple dozen officers with raised guns. But it turns out, Christina didn’t lie about the spell. When the guns go off, one of those many-eyed were-rabbits, from earlier in the seasons, bursts from the ground to shield Tic. Then it takes off, devouring the entire unit of officers.
Let’s chat about Ruby and William’s sex scene. After a neighbor refers to Ruby as a maid, Ruby refuses to take the comment on the chin. The only person who made it inside the church, Ruby lives with the vivid memory of Emmett’s caved-in and puffed-out face. In his casket, the child barely looked human. To look upon a child in such a state takes a personal toll on a person.
William takes care of Ruby by undressing and bathing her. He does not ask her how she feels, he gives her the space to feel it. When he kisses her, Ruby withdraws, uncertain. There’s not a lot of trust between these two for obvious reasons, but they do often understand one another; usually without words. Watching them have sex in their borrowed bodies made me wonder again about the differences between Christina and William. Where Ruby and Hillary always seem like the same person, there are subtle differences between Christina and William. I wonder if Christina can only embrace her homosexuality as a straight man. I wonder if William truly loves Ruby. If he does, why not put that asshole at the gate in his place? I fear that Christina is using Ruby as a tool for her autumnal transformation.
When Ruby later interacts with Christina, she’s able to express her anger, in a way she never does with William. She asks them to feel empathy for all the hurt Black Americans feel daily. Unconcerned with the pain of others, Christina only understands aspirations of greatness. In Ruby’s rage, she can only see the desire for personal gratification. They both understand that by taking the potion, Ruby was attempting to hide, but neither understands why. In that skin suit, Ruby looked an awful lot like Carolyn Bryant Donham, the woman who claimed the 14-year-old Emmett grabbed her by the waist and told her he’d been with white women sexually. In 2017 she recounted the statement saying, “That part wasn’t true.” I think Ruby needed to destroy that woman from the inside out. I think having some ownership over what happened to a woman like that, of using that image as she saw fit, was cathartic.
Christina, given her conversation with Leti earlier, believes herself to be closest to godlike, understanding both heaven and hell as essential operating systems for the Lord. As a god, she chooses not to recognize the troubles of those beneath her; forgetting that all power comes from people. If they stop believing in God, God ceases to exist. In an attempt to understand Ruby, Christina asks three men to murder her like Emmett. They beat and shoot her. Her neck is wrapped in barb wire as she struggles to breathe and is then tied to a large fan and dumped in a river. The experience has a profound impact, but does it change her? We’ll have to wait until next week to find out.
Stray observations
- The irony of thinking white folks own entitlement is dumbfounding, Christina!
- Will someone please go get Diana? Y’all should have protected her. She just lost her best friend. I’m livid.
- Okay, Christina has taken us on an awful emotional journey. Is she evil, a victim, abusive, a liar, well-intentioned? We don’t know! That last act made me think maybe she does love Ruby, or at least respect her. I don’t know what to make of her, but I do not trust her. What do you think?
- That better not be the last time we see Ji-Ah. She had very little information to share, not sure why she was here other than to let Leti know Tic had been with another woman and almost died.
200 Comments
This was an amazing episode. There’s so many parts of your review that I want to comment on – but I think there’s a key part of the episode your review missed. Ruby chided Christina for not understanding Emmitt’s death and not feeling anything. Ruby wanted Christina to feel the pain of the black community – of how a young man could be beat, have barbed wire around his, neck, and sunk to the bottom of river with a cotton gin. Ruby was so angry that Christina was so calm and emotionless- and couldn’t see her pain. So Christina literally recreated Emmitt’s death just that to understand what Ruby was feeling and to a greater extent what Emmitt felt. That was completely out of character and unexpected – but in amazing way. I do believe Christina actually cares for Ruby.
Call me sentimental, call me an asshole, call me a dick, I can be pretty much be all of them, but I will say this. Or rather, this:Season finale: whatever happens happens. But, at the end, Michael K. Williams puts his hand on his shoulder, he says, “forget it, Tic, this is lovecraft country.” and either they watch a house burning or imploding. I want this. I need it. It’s gonna be everything.
That was the creepiest episode yet. Those two little girls will now share a space with Karen Black from Trilogy of Terror in my head.
So they flew in Ji-Ah from South Korea just to say I don’t know anything?
I hope those creepy girls show up on World Of Dance next season.
They were amazing. Incredibly creepy but also amazing.
I cracked up when one of the creepy dancers broke the 4th wall and stuck her tongue out at us.
The makeup was so good that I had to look it up to find out that those are adult women and professional dancers. One was just in the WAP video.
I have a feeling that Ji-Ah is going to save the day and die in the process (which would be pretty fucked up)
Hopefully they go halfway with the heroics. Not full on saving the day, but being a huge piece of the puzzle, and at worst getting injured. I wanna see her pull a Scott Pilgrim and join team Le-tic not for love, but for herself. Prove she can beat her nature and be a good “person”. Or something like that. Basically, I just want her to stick around.
Ji-Ah stops at 99 men, needs 100 to complete her process. William/Christina will be able to climax in mid-transformation and be killed by her.The ‘real’ Ji-Ah will be returned and not know Tic at all, thus letting Leti take over as his love interest. In my preferred version Leti sacrifices and Ji-Ah as wholly formed entity stays but we’re already too far down the rabbit hole of which PoC are going to survive…and it’s too easy to kill the Korean woman and let the black woman survive and she’s receiving 2nd to top billing anyway.
Hooooooly crap that was scary. I haven’t been that scared at
a tv/movie monster in a LONG time. I keep forgetting this is a horror
show. It was scary enough seeing the cover of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and
then scarier when you saw the back of the girl on the train stairs. But i
had NO idea it was going to be TWO of them, so when the second stuck
her face out I legit got a huge spike of chills all over my body.
I gotta stop watching this show alone. I was kinda scared to get up and go to the bathroom last night.I guess it’s instant karma for, after watching the Ruby/William sex scene with the skin melting off earlier in the ep, I called my wife over who had never seen the show and said “Hey, wanna see something horrifying and out of context?”
The way she skipped backwards up the stairs was freaky has hell.
Freaky and wild but a few times I could tell they clearly reversed the film because momentum affected their body movement. Still, they’re both amazing dancers!
“Hooooooly crap that was scary. I haven’t been that scared at a tv/movie monster in a LONG time.”As a lifelong horror fan who thought I had turned the corner on being scared, I share this sentiment! So horrifying in layers. I found it delightful! Though they had more of a creep factor them “demon-ninnies” were scarier than anything I’ve seen in a while. Well done!
yeah, it was the layers, the music, the fact that it started in bright daylight… It just enveloped the whole ep and you never really felt any sort of respite from the terror. Every time they shifted to another character i kept thinking WHAT ABOUT DEE? and PLEASE DON’T GO BACK TO DEE.And just from the simple, visual aspect, the monster design was just freaking A+. I am not watching the next ep alone late at night after everyone else goes to bed again.
There was an interesting It Follows quality to the whole Diana vs Dancing Curse Girl Troupe ordeal.
I thought so too! But the cumulative effect of the “demon-inny” girls short scenes were far scarier than that entire movie.
Some elements seemed a direct homage to me. The way nobody else but the victim could see the stalkers, the way it appeared as if the victim was fighting against an invisibile force yet the wounds materialized out of thin air.
Nah, that was straight ”Nightmare on Elm Street”! Which, was actually the last horror movie that truly scared me, so maybe that’s why I felt so affected.
Those two girls also had that Tethered scariness from Us.
So far nothing in this show has truly scared me, which is fine, because it’s more about the systemic horror of institutionalized racism than boogymen.But holy shit. I almost couldn’t watch the scenes with those two little girls. Holy shit.
Those two little girls will now share a space with Karen Black from Trilogy of Terror Right?That damn song, too: “Stop that knocking, stop that knocking….”
Yes, the song just brought it up an extra level. Like, the girls would be scary on their own, but the song made it terrifying.
I felt like it was The Shining turned up to 11, given the race references in that movie. I felt the demon girls were going to ask Diana to “play with us forever and ever.” Terrifying.
I honestly thought with the timeline and the national significance of the horrible murder by Emmett Till would be incorporated more than just a glancing set piece. If “Bobo” (Till) was one of Dee’s best childhood friends, I think that our characters would have at least known Mamie his mother and realized what she did. And what Mamie Till did still has to be one of the most heroic and audacious acts of passion and righteousness by having his casket open, as thousand viewed his body–with a face so disfigured it look barely human but instead like a half-filled wet and stained flour sack. It sent a shockwave throughout the nation the likes previous lynchings had not. It was covered relentless and two Black publications carried the photos.The monsters in Lovecraft Country have been used metaphorically in the oppression and violence toward black citizens. I honestly think Emmet Till didn’t need to have horror tropes “replace”. They should have played Till’s murder straight. Shot inside the Church what with the wailing, the recoil by people viewing Emmett the claustrophobia and heat. I think the singularly repellent act of brutality deserved that and the significant footnote in 20th Century it represented. If people were surprised to learn about Black Wall Street in WATCHMEN, I suspect the memory of Till is equally vague.
My only criticism is that they spent too much time with the Diana/demons chase. Much of the hide & seeking could have been cut in order to give the other storylines time. Or, if this was meant to be Dee’s episode, they could have made more of the chase.
I completely agree. I knew about Till’s murder (I remember seeing a PBS documentary on it—almost by chance—when I was in my teens) but I can tell you that a large majority of my friends up here sure didn’t and didn’t even realize it was real so that they could go and look it up. It’s a heavy burden for a show like this to have to educate some of it viewers–but they chose to take on the subject matter and for a show that usually spells everything out, I think there could have been a way to be slightly more clear about what happened (not how he was murdered–we got that clear enough–but everything else).
This makes me think that this must’ve been part of the intent. It works as a character moment for Christina to understand Ruby, but I wonder if this was the Creator’s way of saying “so you don’t care when a little black boy gets lynched with barbed wire, how about now?”
That’s a fair point–but if so, I think they kinda failed. You can’t fault a large swath of the audience for assuming that Till is just a fictional character and his murder a fictional incident for this show, considering how it was handled in the show. To use an obvious comparison, a lot of the Watchmen audience wasn’t aware of the Tulsa Race Massacre until the show, but somehow the show managed to integrate it into the plot and make (more or less) clear what *really* happened.
I agree in the sense that they aren’t taking a stand on whether this is something the audience should know is real or not, but I guess I take a more lax stand that this shouldn’t be the job of the show. Much like Watchmen it starts the conversation, and if you’re engaged with the show then you will learn more, both increasing your appreciation of the show and the history that it’s using to tell it’s story. I guess I don’t think entertainment carries the burden of being educational, but I can totally understand the desire for it to be said more explicitly.
I get that point. I probably wasn’t clear enough, but that’s kinda what I meant by saying it was an awfully big burden to place on the piece. I still feel that there is *some* responsibility there. I admit I’m from Canada, and this was not covered in school or anything (like I said, I only really knew about it thanks to a show on PBS)—but I’m gonna guess it’s not all that much better known, overall, in the US either. Even this review gave me pause for a second before I clued in—initially I thought that Joelle was talking about things we saw or were discussed on the show—not things she already knew about the real life case.
But I definitely think it’s not a clear cut issue in how it was handled, and can see both sides.
I remember a fair bit of commentary around e01 of Watchmen about the number of viewers that didn’t realize the Tulsa Massacre was a real thing as they were watching it. I would wager that more Americans had at least heard of Emmett Till before this episode, even if they didn’t know all the details.
That’s probably true (coincidentally PBS, at least our local one, just reran the Emmett Till episode of American Experience). I still maintain they were too subtle here–if someone hadn’t heard of the real case, I severely doubt this would have led them in any direction to learn more (which isn’t true of Watchmen, if we are comparing).
I agree with this assessment. I also think it’s a lot easier for people (well, white people) to believe that a handful of people could do horrible things to individual black people, i.e. lynchings, than for close to the entire population of a city and the National Guard completely destroying an entire neighborhood and business district and wantonly gunning down people, setting their homes and businesses on fire–with people in them–and bombing the area.
Doing to Christina what was done to Emmett just to prove her immortality was in incredibly poor taste if you ask me. This show feels far too silly and fluffy to take on the issues it is. I enjoy silly fluff shows and I enjoy intense politically conscious dramas. The way this show is trying to balance these two is just not working for me at all.
I feel a bit less strongly than you on that issue, but I admit a few of the times they’ve used voice over real life recordings from (mostly, but not entirely) black voices from history over certain scenes, I’ve wanted to shout at the TV, “Oh, come on!”
I previously voiced my annoyance at the real life recordings used in the show in lieu of a soundtrack, but as of this episode, I kind of got it. They’re like extended quotes that relate to the character the episode focuses on. Only, instead of having them just appear on screen at the beginning or at the end, like most films and shows would do, they’re played over a crucial scene. It’s not entirely effective (I still maintain it’s distracting in the moment), but I respect the experimental nature of it.
They do work for me better on some episodes than others. I’m sure I’m just being dense, but I had no idea what that Judy Garland bit had to do with Ji-Ah’s experience, for example…
Wasn’t it about other people forcing on you their perceived image of you that’s not the real you? (Like Ji-Ah’s mother and then Tic did to her). I might have to re-listen to it.
I suppose that’s a fair point. I still felt it was a bit of a stretch (having to hide her true self as a supernatural being? Her “mom” forcing her to sleep with and kill men? This corresponds to Judy’s real life falling apart as she tries to hold on to the public/movie image of herself?
Also, Judy Garland could never live up to the perceptions of her rooted in the movies Ji-Ah adored.
Oh yeah, I even forgot Judy Garland directly appeared in the episode. That “quote” was completely earned.
Doing to Christina what was done to Emmett just to prove her immortality Nobody did that to her. (And I don’t think that’s the immortality she was talking about. She already had that, her father had that, and now Leti has that, but the equinox ritual is about something else that she doesn’t have yet). She wanted to understand a little bit of what Emmett went through, to internalize what Ruby internalized. She’s a sociopath trying to feel something. And we can take it as an allegory to say, “White people, try to put yourself in a black person’s shoes and understand their pain before indulging in empty acts of facade solidarity” (it’s the same kind of attack to the hypocrisy of calling oneself an ally made by Jordan Peele in Get Out). In a way, Christina is more honest in admitting she doesn’t feel anything, but then trying to feel it out of respect for someone.
I know this isn’t the topic of this conversation, but I didn’t get that whatever allowed her to come back from the water was the same as the protection spell she had and put on Leti. That spell seems to deflect harm (so, if they threw a punch, it would glance off and invisible barrier before hitting her. Same with bullets and such.) And, she said a bit of spell before they started which implied to me that she was removing the protection spell. This seems to be something else and I don’t know if it’s another spell that allows her to come back from dead or what. But, whatever it is, if she has it, why does she need to do an immortality spell?
Yeah, good points. It’s definitely another spell. Maybe the immortality she seeks is more about not aging, since she has indestructibility already down, but it’s possible that it still involves her body decaying over time.
Someone else said they thought it was more about eternal youth and that makes a lot of sense to me. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it.
“Eternal Looking Like Peak Abbey Lee” is the name of the spell. 🙂
Totally agree. And also think it, among some other points listed in these responses, knocks this down from a grade of “A”, but I suspect the writer is on an impartial mission at this point.
If “Bobo” (Till) was one of Dee’s best childhood friends, I think that our characters would have at least known Mamie his mother and realized what she did. And what Mamie Till did still has to be one of the most heroic and audacious acts of passion and righteousness by having his casket open,At about 50:42 Ruby and Leti are in Leti’s basement darkroom, looking over the pictures Leti took at the funeral (of several people, but not of Emmett’s body), and Leti says, “Mamie was brave enough to show the world what they did to her son, and I wasn’t even brave enough to take a few damn pictures.” Between the physical sickness of those leaving the church and the palpable dread of those about to enter it, coupled with Leti’s acknowledgment of the way Emmett’s mother made the brutality of her son’s murder as public as she could by holding the open casket funeral, I think the show put forth the horror and humanity of the event without needing to beat us over the head with historicity.
It was so eerie to see the curse the white policeman put on Diana was the caricature of black girls made by white men. The images of the black tropes spy on her – from the ad on the wall to Uncle Tom’s Cabin book. And then she is followed by monsters only she can see.
But she fights back. She tries to escape first but they always follow. So she choses to fight. I loved her finding the guy who cursed her. Walk right into his place. Finding out what he did. And when he offers her a way out, something she could do, she just spits at him. And then goes, makes a trap for the monsters and fights them.
Will someone please go get Diana? Y’all should have protected her. She just lost her best friend. I’m livid.
Unfortunately, the adults in her life fail her. They fail her as moral support for all the people she lost. They ignore her when she tries to talk to them or outright lie to her. Both about her mother and magic and leave her to find it out on her own. By trying to protect her they make it worse. Both by leaving her unprepared and by making her not trust them. And in the end Montrose let the monsters catch her. As you say they can’t protect her from the police. But Atticus accidentally avenges her. After all it was her refusal to bring orerry what brings them to Leti’s house. They all die and it’s not even there. If Dee wasn’t dying it’d be almost satisfying. At least she gets to outlive her attackers.
I knew it. I knew the moment Tic became so overprotective with water
and resting. I knew he knew. And I knew he knew because of what he
learnt going through the portal. I didn’t know he went to the future.
The future when his son wrote Lovecraft Country instead of Matt Ruff. Or
at least something much closer to Matt Ruff’s book than the series.And
knowing he’s about to become father makes Atticus to try to understand
and make up with his own father. The finally talk and learn why Montrose
was trying so hard to pretend to be straight. Leaving in fear of noose
or a bullet as a black man was already too much. Adding the punishments
for being gay terrified him. And he wanted family and love even though
his fear and self-hate made his squander both.
Montrose also
lets Tic know he’s dyslectic. But, yes, Montrose is still keeping one
secret. He didn’t cheat on Dora but she did cheat on him.
Still,
they made up enough to preform the spell together. Now that lives of
his son and grandson are at stake Montrose helps with the magic from the
pages he tried so hard to hide from Tic he committed murder. Something
Tic is overlooking but then he also has blood on his hands.
They
aren’t the only ones exchanging truths. Leti and Ji-ah finally meet.
And it’s time for Tic to come clean about his time in the war. And for
Ji-ah to explain to him what really happened and who she is. But unlike
with his father his not ready to hear her. He rejects her again. He
can’t believe it was real. He can’t believe he’s going to die. Not now
that Leti is pregnant.
But Leti still hasn’t told him. She
tells Ruby first instead. And Ruby in turn tells her she knows about
magic and all that happened since Ardham. She tells Leti about
Christina. And William. And Hillary. And promises of magic. Leti knows
it’s stupid to believe Christina’s promises. And yet, she also goes to
her.
Everyone makes deals with Christina. Ruby does it because
craves the ability not to care about the white men monsters hiding
everywhere. This way of walking around without worrying about pain and
just get what she wants seduces her as much as sex in disguises with
Christina does.
Tic does it despite knowing she is planning to
sacrifices him for immortality during Autumnal equinox. She even admits
it – well, the immortality part – during their exchange. He’s hoping he
can use her own knowledge and magic he found to protect himself from
her. And what he gave her is just a key to machine that’s broken so no
harm, right?But Leti makes a deal too. She tries to make it for
Tic but Christina only agrees to give the invulnerability to her.
Implying the Tic sacrifice is what she is planning (although maybe she only wants to share her magic with women – she could take away what she gives Tic after all). But it’s not going
to be that easy. Both spells worked. Bullets bounce of Leti. Tic has his
own shoggoth to protect him.
Christina, given her conversation with Leti earlier, believes herself to
be closest to godlike, understanding both heaven and hell as essential
operating systems for the Lord. As a god, she chooses not to recognize
the troubles of those beneath her
I don’t think Christina thinks of herself as godlike or a devil even if she’s playing one in this story. As you say gods are bound to their believers and she wouldn’t want to be bound to anyone.
I think she just want to make sure nothing can take away the power she has. Her father wanted to go back to Eden but she wants everything on this Earth. She wants to make sure she never has to be afraid of anything men can throw at her. This was what she recognised behind Ruby’s chiding – that fear of what the white men can do to her like the man at the gate – and Christina doesn’t want to ever worry about that.
Christina proved to herself she can come back from any
death. She knows about magic more than any of the rest of them and they gave her
even more pieces she needs. She’s getting all the pieces she needs to be truly unfettered. And now that the policemen of Chicago Lodge
are dead she’s back being the big bad.
Montrose also lets Tic know he’s dyslectic.First thing I thought at that point was, “Do you really want for a dyslectic to recite the strange words of an unknown spell?” I don’t think Christina thinks of herself as godlikeIt seems to me she essentially told Leti that magic is not divine nor makes you divine, it’s just a tool to achieve things (see how she also told Ruby it’s a way to get what she wants and self-actualize). “Perhaps my father considered himself godlike when he resurrected you, but he was just a mortal, confused that being powerful and being able to manipulate those around him made him more. Most men with god complexes wanna live in heaven, but not hell, failing to understand that God is both.”So for Christina, being powerful through magic doesn’t make you godlike because God is above it all. I was actually surprised to hear her express such words of reverence for God, instead of being dismissive of the very concept, since it was easy to imagine her as an atheist (which is what she imagined Leti to be). And now that the policemen of Chicago Lodge are dead she’s back being the big bad.Disagree. The situation is more nuanced than that (and so far, the show is not concerned with Big Bads at all. The first who could fit that description, Christina’s father, was immediately dispatched. And the cop always felt inconsequential and died inconsequentially). (And in a Lovecraft world, humans are always doomed fools at best. When the real Big Bads arrive, story’s just over).Also, I feel it’s important to keep in mind that Christina is representing a second angle of attack in Misha Green’s specific interpretation of the source material. While most black characters fight on behalf of their blackness, Christina is fighting on behalf of her womanness. They’re both fights that can’t be won, because of History, but at the same time the show can’t have them completely lose, or their very existence would be deprived of meaning. We’ll have a complex dance, not clear battle lines.
The whole thing with deciphering Book of Adam makes so little sense (even if there is the same number of letters as in English how do they know what sounds letters make and how that lets Atticus translate it, etc, etc) that Montrose reading it perfectly is just a blip.Yes, Christina clearly thinks little of religion and men who want to be gods. What she is after is freedom.
She doesn’t have to be evil to be the big bad to the Freemans. She just needs to have goals that are inimical to them. Wanting to kill Atticus for her immortality qualifies. Even if she’s doing it to free all women from oppression not just herself. (Although I don’t think that’s actually her goal and the sacrifice of Tic may also be a misdirection).
You’re not using “Big Bad” according to the common definition, though. “Antagonist” is the more appropriate word. For one, an antagonist can switch to ally, occasionally or permanently (it happens in Miyazaki movies all the time, for instance). A Big Bad can’t. Nebula is an antagonist in the MCU; Thanos is the Big Bad. Montrose himself has worked as an antagonist in certain episodes.
I haven’t gotten to this part in the episode yet (Diana is still being chased). I really like your insight about the adults letting Dee down, so I’ll watch the rest through that lens.I’m not a Lovecraftian, so I’m wondering if the fact that White people own the magic is supposed to be some kind of thematic reversal. I usually see/read narratives where non-Whites possess the spells. They are able to work with the natural world to create a different form of power. It bothers me so much to watch a white cop working magic – like they don’t already have all the power anyway. Plus, it’s hard to believe that a cop would have any talent for it: I’m assuming ‘imagination’, ‘discipline’ etc. It’s weird.
Thank you. Although that’s not only way to look at it.In this world magic = privledge so of course it’s hoarded by white men like every other kind of power. But magic isn’t white thing only – we see orisha’s mark protecting Leti’s house and the Arawak had access to Language of Adam. Juust like with everything else they took it for their own. And no, I’m sure that cop doesn’t think he has enough. It’s always thoses who already have it that get to have more.
Thanks for the reply. I’m ALWAYS looking for more interpretations, lol. I agree 100% with your insight. I haven’t read the book by Matt Ruff, but now I’m wondering if everyone who has read it will know how the series ends. I did a tiny bit research and found that Lovecraft was a serious racist, so this is a cool project. I hope the non-Whites end up with the magic. Or maybe we’ll find out that they had it first, and were robbed (as is so typical).
BIPOC have magic: Leti drew on Yoruba magic to protect the house, Yahima had magic. It’s thematic that white people strove to stamp out the cultures that preserved their version magical knowledge, and that knowledge has been lost to their descendants in America.
I like this. Please say more if you feel inspired 🙂
I’m not a Lovecraftian, so I’m wondering if the fact that White people own the magic is supposed to be some kind of thematic reversal.As a longtime Lovecraft reader, I can tell you this is not the case, for two separate reasons. The first is that, as Tic also mentioned in the pilot, Lovecraft himself was one of the most racist people in human history. Even his racist friends would ask him to take it down a notch or three. As a consequence, when his stories feature non-white (which is, almost never), they’re just “the dirty immigrant” stereotype, shadowy, deformed figures filled with depravity that lurk in the background inspiring disgust and fear in the protagonists.The second reason is that magic in Lovecraft is not a power to fight the darkness, it’s a way to invite the darkness in (the show is not entirely adopting this point of view so far. But the show and book, it must be said, use the title “Lovecraft Country” mostly as a way to say, essentially, “No country for black men”). When a character reads a forbidden book and casts a spell from it, they summon something that shouldn’t be summoned, and that might just mean the horrible truth about the universe being ruled by monstrous, demented gods who blasphemes and bubbles at the center of all infinity, gnawing hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time and space.Knowledge is not power in Lovecraft, knowledge is your undoing, so it doesn’t really matter who’s wielding it, they’ll just end up dead or insane at the end of the story.
This is very interesting. I might actually be spared having to read any Lovecraft. It sound like terrible stuff.
Oh no, it’s great. It’s fascinating and philosophical stuff, and very creative. The racist side is not really evident in the narrative, which is not concerned with race almost at all. In fact, the point of view ends up ironically being universal, because the protagonists are usually not described in much detail, so you can see how someone like Tic would still be able to see himself in them.
Good follow up, thanks:) Unfortunately I have spent my entire adult life studying literature (most of it fitting the description of ‘philosophical’), and now I’m just TIRED, lol. I have read that, in addition to being a bit ‘pulp-y’, Lovecraft’s prose can get a bit ‘precious’. Decades of reading James Joyce, Henry James, and James Faulkner have given me a great appreciation for plain-speaking folk, lol. Mark Twain was never a favorite because he’s so male-centric, but now that I think of it……..Oh hell yes. Please, someone write Huckleberry Finn or The Adventures of Tom Sawyer from a woman’s point of view. It doesn’t have to be a RAFT. It can be an Amtrak that crosses the country or two ladies in a twin-engine aircraft.
I see it as all having access to their own brand of magic but the magic being used by the white men is being perverted and upsetting the balance because of their intention. They’re using magic to access godlike power & to transform their mortality where the others seem to access magic for protection & personal transformation.
These are great responses. Don’t know why I’m having trouble with this series. I’m watching the performances so intensely that themes are just flying right past:/
caricature of black girls made by white menOr white women. It’s interesting that the show connects this ghost (whom I have been waiting for since the trailer—very definitely the creepiest and most memorable yet, in large part because of all the racist history) not just with the “picaninny” figure in general (which would have been obvious) but specifically to the Topsy character from Uncle Tom’s Cabin, implicating benevolent racism in all kinds of interesting ways.It’s interesting to think about—particularly in relation with everything going on with Christina’s character this episode.
I should’ve said white people but I had Lancaster on my mind and English has this annoying thing where men can be used to mean human in general not only male.
I wasn’t seriously complaining about it–just an interesting connection in terms of the other stuff going on and the questions about the allyship of white femininity raised elsewhere in the episode.
Yes, we are due more specific condemnation of white women feminism. There were little bits of showing white women complicity in the system but so far the horror has been concentrated on white men and especially police.But they are so set on making Christina such a cypher to preserve to final episode twist about how good or evil she is that we have no real idea what her motives and goals really are. She’s less an character and more an object advancing the plot when necessary. In some ways she could be replaced by a bomb ticking down. And we’ll have to guess whether it’ll level everything or just spray everyone with confetti.
Intriguingly, the character of Christina seems to suggest that a way for a white person to be free of racism is not caring at all about racism. Which makes you an asshole in a different way, because you also don’t care about the death and suffering caused by racism, but at the same time you don’t share the hatred and fear the racists feel, not out of empathy, but just because you’re so above it all you barely understand what’s inspiring those feelings to begin with.
I mean, if you assume the show’s setting her behavior in this episode (or all of the episodes, for that matter) as a model for other white people to emulate. So far the comments seem to be pretty evenly divided in terms of whether her behavior at the end of the episode is a sign of respect for Ruby or a symptom of her extreme apathy and disrespect, so I’d say it’s an open question at this point.
How would apathy result in asking to be beaten to death? Apathy would be keeping doing nothing, not reacting at all. To me, it seems clear that it was directly presented as a reaction to what Ruby said to her. But if you want to take a different view, at the very least you have to assume she’s self-destructive (which is in direct contrast with her stated goals), masochistic and/or a glutton for punishment due to some kind of hidden guilt. She went to quite extreme lengths to set up that scenario, so apathy, that ain’t.
As Sven.T.Sexgore points out, it’s not really the same experience when you know you’ll heal and revive. Sure, Christina (briefly) feels the physical pain associated with Till’s specific injuries, but she gets to skip out on the existential terror of knowing that these are likely her last moments on earth and that it’s all because people hate the color of her skin. Unlike Till, she chose this.I honestly don’t have an opinion yet. I think the scene was ambiguous enough that her motives could still be interpreted as a genuine desire to connect or morbid curiosity/thrill seeking at this point.
a genuine desire to connect or morbid curiosity/thrill seekingBut did we ever see her do anything that resembled pointless thrill-seeking so far? The script positioned that scene as a follow-up to her conversation with Ruby. If we enter the realm of wild speculations for the sake of argument, then sure, anything can be in an universe like this. But based on the information we have and the basic rules of narrative, the possible immediate conclusions aren’t so discordant.
wild speculations for the sake of argument More like thinking about how the 60-second scene in question fits in with the show as a whole. Past episodes have made it pretty clear that Christina, at best, has ulterior motives for befriending everyone and, at worst, is manipulating everyone to gain access to the stolen Book of Adam.That certainly leaves open the possibility that she started genuinely caring at some point, especially in her relationship with Ruby. But suggesting that her words and actions in this episode make her some sort of model for overcoming/escaping prejudice feels like a stretch.
While this is absolutely a valid interpretation, I took Christina’s reaction after coming out of the water to mean that this was a test of a spell she’d done only recently and was testing. In other words, I’m not sure she knew she’d resurrect, as she checks her bullet wounds first.
I thought that’s where the episode “jumped the shark” a bit.
At the wake of Emmett Till all her family were so worried when she disappeared but as the episode went on, Diana was largely forgotten (i.e. scene between Leti and Diana shortly afterward).
Yes, it was a little weird how they went from frantic to ignoring her. I wonder if that was also part of the spell.
It has been heartbreaking to realize just how alone Diana is, and how the community that should have protected her still sees her as tertiary, when it sees her at all.
True but I think it also underlines her new status as an orphan. She no longer has her adults. Her closest family – uncle Montrose and cousin Tic – have their own family problems. She fells into cracks because she’s no longer anyone’s priority.
Book lovers can rejoice, as the show explains some of the main changes between the original Lovecraft Country text and the television series.A bit too cute for me.
It also somehow implies that Tic’s son is not the most progressive man when it comes to gender equality.
Michael K. Williams’s Montrose character dressed in a shirt, tie and suit vest reminded me of Michael K Williams’s Chalky White character from Boardwalk Empire.
It’s partly because Michael K. Williams always plays the same character. Although, I gotta say, with some of the recent developments, Montrose has gone as far from a Michael K. Williams type as I ever saw him play.
If you look closely you’ll see a trench coat and shotgun hanging up in his bedroom.
Do they ever name the creatures from the first two episodes? I think of them as sort of like Shoggoths, because of the eyes. Anyway, Tic’s was different. It appeared to be blackish, and I think it was larger. Also, shooting it had no effect, when in the first episode they could be shotgunned down. Good bursting through the asphalt effect. Really didn’t know what was happening at first.If it is the same thing as from those episodes, did it arrive completely formed out of magic? We saw them created before, seemingly born in episode two, and by mutating those that they bit in episode one. Was that the result of Montrose trying to cast a spell, or was it the result of Christina intervening? After all, the officers were working for her rival. I suspect the former. Did it have a connection to Tic specifically, or just his bloodline? I mean, it’s magic, so it doesn’t have to be consistent, but still.The different color of the creature made me think of the John Carter books that Tic was reading in the first episode. Never read them myself, but there is a color classification of different species/races of Martians, with some big size differences. Considering we open with a discussion of the books and Tic’s dream about the green martian, I assume that it’s meaningful.I’m curious about Montrose’s reaction to Dee. He appears to regret how he raised Tic. I’m just surprised that he was, not gentle on her necessarily, but never turned physical in his frustration.The skin suit returned. Effective, but gross. I guess it should be praise to the FX team that I don’t want to see that, like, ever. Also, I know that the the experience with the nine tailed fox probably shook Tic, but he was a bit of an asshole there.
I don’t think they’ve ever been named ‘in universe’ but the showrunners have referred to them as shoggoths.
Tic’s ‘shoggoth’ puts me in mind of John Carter’s calot companion, Woola, who behaved as sort of a giant, loyal Martian murder dog (and later accompanied Carthoris, the son of John Carter).
Sorry I have to be the one, but…is this the first time that a TV series or (non-porn) movie has actually not shied away and shown a man’s asshole? There are many things to hate about 2020, but Trump with Covid19 and now this development are two things I will graciously remember at Thanksgiving this year (seriously, I haven’t had another human in my home and rarely even step outside since the end of February, so these two things count as highlights).
Well if we’re gonna be specific, I’m not sure we actually saw the ass, umm, hole. Close, but… (Yes, I rewatched the sequence for research purposes…)
Wait, what? (I mean, when?)
Same here. Did I miss a scene or something?
No hole. Hole, taint and testicles shadowed out. (According to members of my research team and their editing tools.)
I thought maybe it was just the poor quality of the, umm, way I was watching this–so I appreciate you confirming this. (Seriously, it would have been an especially odd camera angle to get a good view of his, umm, hole, and I feel very uncomfortable right now 😛 )
Da fuq?
LOL
I dunno… the show has nodded to real world history all along the way, but to make use of Emmett Till’s death as a plot point like this feels a little, uh, exploitative? Just made me uncomfortable to have that very real tragedy share the hour with a demon dog throwing cops dismembered body parts around. Soured the pulp, as it were.
Yeah, I was kind of surprised they didn’t use a fictional analogue inspired by Till. Especially since he and Diana were described as best friends.
All the threads are coming together and weaving nicely – can’t wait to see the final image they make. Christina mimicking Emmett Till’s death was definitely a confusing moment to watch. Not in the ‘I don’t understand’ sense of confusion but in the conflicting feelings that arise. It seems to suggest a true care for Ruby but, at the same time, a white woman mimicking the death of a black boy while knowing she can’t truly die feels very gross and appropriative. Which, I suppose, is fitting with the unknown and uneasy light they frame her in.
Christina mimicking Emmett Till’s death was definitely a confusing moment to watch. Not in the ‘I don’t understand’ sense of confusion but in the conflicting feelings that arise. Yes, very much so. I would even take a more macro view of it say that the showrunners were very much on a knife’s edge in terms of taste for including that scene with Christina “playing” the part of Till.
I haven’t figured out how I feel about that last scene with Christina. On the one hand, I suppose that knowing she can’t die but still choosing to go through that pain to understand Ruby indicates that she really does care about her (or at least recognizes in herself a lack of empathy that she’s setting about trying to correct), but on the other hand . . . Emmitt didn’t just get to pop up out of the river and go on his way. They tortured that boy for hours and hours. They made sport of it. That shouldn’t be minimized for entertainment value.Also, how can anyone who isn’t objectively evil (aka racist cop) NOT feel empathy for Emmitt and Mamie? I get that Christina will have, at this point, only heard about it through news sources – the photos from his casket wouldn’t have been published yet – but I don’t think it would take much to be horrified by what happened to him.
Well I think Christina likely thought of herself in terms of sociopathy. She didn’t not care about Emmett due to racism (or at least not only racism) but due to the fact he did not matter towards her goals. Hence being a little taken aback by Ruby’s question. What will remain to be seen is if that is the truth and this display was something else entirely or if Ruby really did manage to plant a seed and show she isn’t a true sociopath (though still very much not a good person).
how can anyone who isn’t objectively evil (aka racist cop) NOT feel empathy for Emmitt and Mamie?Well, Christina seems to me to have all the signs and characteristics of a sociopath. I think she wouldn’t be able to feel empathy regardless of the circumstances of Emmett’s death or his ethnicity.
I think that’s the fundamental thing about Christina–she is objectively evil. Sure, she’s got her little Girlboss Feminism plan to take over the Order of the Ancient Dawn and achieve immortality, but she has shut herself off completely from anything that isn’t about power or its pursuit. That’s why she doesn’t believe Ruby when she talks about Emmitt’s death: she cannot conceive of Ruby giving a shit about her community, because to Christina, the only real motivation is the self, and the gratification of personal desires. Her cynicism is proof of her evil.
I’ve been wondering if the show runners wanted to show the extreme violence inflicted on Emmett Till to underscore the horrors of white supremacy, but didn’t want to revisit it on a black body. I’m still a little confused about the in-universe reason though.
I feel Christina represents that lack of community within white people. If she removes herself from the racism that connects her white peers, then she really is only concerned about herself. Add in her wealth and her pursuit of power, then you can see it’s a solitary position where she’s at in the world, and how rich white people who hold the power can seem so removed from all that is happening and essentially act like sociopaths.Ruby and Christina both struck a chord with each other, Ruby about needing to be selfish, and Christina about reconnecting to her humanity.
I think it had multiple layers and wasn’t just one thing, but I picked up a critique of the limits of lean-in feminism and even performative allyship.
I’m confused why she needs to do the autumnal equinox thing to achieve immortality if she can just come back from any death.
I think it is that she does not die and heals inflicted wounds. But if she keeps aging her ‘default state’ to come back to is still going to be old and decrepit – hence wanting eternal youth on top of it.
Ah, eternal youth. Got it.
When Samuel Braithwaite was explaining the spell, he was not just going to become immortal but was going to re-set the order of things in the world by putting all animals back into their proper place.Christina says that she would have “an eternity of firsts” to experience. This is about remaking civilization and ruling it with immortality being a by-product.
Late to the game here, but my suspicion about why she did it is not very generous to Christina. While I initially too thought she was doing it to get a sense of Ruby’s pain, I actually think she was thinking of it solely in terms of how to test her newest, beefed up protection spell. When Ruby listed off all the horrible things those white men did to Emmett Till, what most stuck with Christina was not the horror, but how each of the acts individually could have killed someone. What better way to test out if you truly can’t be killed than to hire some thugs to do all 4 things? That’s why she laughs the way she does after she pulls herself up out of the water- the laughter of pure relief, that the spell works. There was no sense of gratitude or empathy there. Contrast that with the cathartic cry-laugh Dee does after she throws the rocks at those laughing girls earlier on in the episode.
Ji-Ah got in to the house. She isn’t a threat and I think she will be back. She also said that she killed 100 men. Tic was supposed to be the hundredth. Has she killed one last and banished her curse?Is Dee being pursued by Hounds of Tindalos? The persistence of the creepy little girls mimics theirs.I am glad they did not show Emmet’s body. It would probably be exploitative to do that and showing the outpouring of shock and grief at his murder was terrifying enough.
Good catch on Ji-Ah being able to enter the house. That didn’t occur to me despite being reminded when the police showed up later on.
Is Dee being pursued by Hounds of Tindalos? The persistence of the creepy little girls mimics theirs.Nah. This isn’t a story where Lovecraft’s books are real, they were just loosely inspired by, or coincidentally similar to the real thing. The characters in universe dub the “Shoggoths” as such because they’ve read Lovecraft, not because they’re actually the creatures that Lovecraft described. Plus, there’s really nothing like the Hounds in those monster girls; no connection to time travel or angles of space and time.
It only stops those who want to cause harm to Leti from entering the house, like it stopped Christina and the racist cop. Ji-Ah has no ill intentions and while Tic calls her a ‘Succubus’ it isn’t really a proper parallel. She’s supernatural but definitively ‘neutral’ on the grand scale. That and maybe they just let it be an oversight. But no, she describes herself still as the 9 tailed fox spirit.
I’ve made it through enough Ruby transformations to weather Emmet’s open casket. Brutal . . .
I wonder what riot Tic saw in the future? I think it was the 1992 LA Riots. George Freeman II would be 37.
Well judging from his copy of Lovecraft Country he’s been to 1986, but it’s possible that he travelled to many moments in the future.
The book was published in 1986, sure. But he could have gotten it at any point after that. The book did seem used, like it had been read a few times.
He mentioned that the book was shoved into his hand by a man with a robotic arm. Either he was baffled by modern prosthetics or he went to the Future Future.
or he encountered the same robotic like folk that Hippolyta did
He mentioned that the book was shoved into his hand by a man with a robotic arm.He said a woman. It’s the same uber-black-woman Hippolyta encountered.
So, because Ruby was willing to have sex with Christina the day of Emmett Till’s funeral, that means that Ruby doesn’t really care about racism? That seems to be Christina’s argument. Ruby looks like she is considering that claim. It’s ridiculous, imo. I wish they had given Ruby a clap-back.
I think Christina fundamentally lacks empathy for other human beings, and typically people like that (narcissists or, say, overgrown orange toddlers who have the launch codes) tend to assume that other people are just like them, and thus will twist their narrative to fit.
No, what Christina argued was that Ruby was tired of being treated like crap by society for being a heavy black woman with talent and skills and didn’t really care about the grand scheme of racism over getting herself a head which is definitely something EVERYBODY has to face. I think in particular Ruby is less interested in the greater good of civil rights than being a modestly famous jazz singer or a successful business woman. If you offered Ruby a 10K a year job in 1957 or equality for all black Americans, she would have to seriously weigh those options which is what Christina as the white surrogate is relying on: Buying off ambitious enough people that could change the world.
Much as I like Tic, Leti, and Montrose they’re not really ambitious people. Not in the way Ruby is anyway. Rather, they have magic more or less fall into their lap and suddenly it gives them leverage. But without it, Leti would be a struggling news reporter, Tic would likely be a fantasy writer of some renown by the 1970s, well past the age of making a huge difference, and Montrose would drink himself to death. Ruby had ambitions that set her apart from them, even though they were more practical ambitions, they were the kind that opened doors and Christina subverts that because they also fall far more into the capitalist bent that allows white supremacists to uplift the Herman Cain’s of the world while putting others down.I do agree that Ruby is also a strongly sympathetic character and the whole colorism going on between Leti and her being half-sisters is something that rubs me so aggressively wrong but it is what it is.
No, my understanding is Christina giving Ruby permission to still be selfish even on a day like that one.
I think Ruby is still reckoning with what kind of a person it makes her if she’s honest about her desires, and unfortunately, I think her bond with Christina/William makes her more likely to accept C’s cynical interpretation of who Ruby is.
Oh yeah, Christina is BAD news. She is a young woman with ambitions, which is entirely normal. I just think that audiences aren’t accustomed to seeing Black women with this kind of drive? I’m not sure why the narrative is asking her to to question herself. I did read a piece that suggested this show fails somewhat insofar as the characters aren’t doing much except fighting off disasters or looking for each other. The characters only seems to be serving the plot. This strikes me as true.
Christina may have affection for Ruby, but ultimately she’s just a chess piece in Christina’s game. She’s seducing her into wanting to use magic, which puts her further into Christina’s control (or so Christina thinks, I’m guessing Ruby will not be the pawn Christina hope she will be). Christina puts the Mark of Cain on Leti instead of Tic because she is planning to sacrifice Tic to gain immortality. I was so mad no one was looking after Diana!
I think she was supposed to be a chess piece, and now Christina is conflicted because she’s actually experiencing some form of empathy for the first time.
Perhaps. They are certainly shading it that way. But when it comes to a choice between her connection to a black woman and power, she’ll choose power.
It was, I believe, ep. 3 where we see Dee, Emmett (Bobo) and their friends playing the Ouija Board. It said that Emmett’s vacation would NOT be good. So now I’m wondering, is this meant to suggest that we are controlled by fate? I can actually imagine some people saying that the kids were participating in something very dangerous so Emmett was only bringing dark powers around himself. More ‘magic’? I’m getting a little confused about the all ‘magics’ in this show.
It was bold of the show to have a white character experience how Emmett Till died. I could guess some people might be offended. It made me think of the white painter whose portrait of his body in the casket got such blowback for unjust cultural appropriation. The creator/showrunner here being African-American mitigates any outrage. Personally, I was okay with it.I wish William would turn back into Christina while making love to Ruby. They’re probably leading up to that.Diane’s demonic pursuers gave off major Us (the movie) vibes.This show’s visual palette continues to be so striking. The climactic action set piece was very well done.
Dana Schutz’s “Open Casket,” a 2016 painting in the Whitney Biennial — I was thinking about that too! The question of cultural appropriation, and the question about what a white person can, or is allowed to feel is definitely present in this episode.
Shoggoths are just the most wonderful form of cop control – my favorite scenes.Leti: “Did you just throw a patrol car on my lawn?”
Shoggoths are just the most wonderful form of cop control
They’ve only been shown to kill cops in the show IIRC.
I laughed my ass off when old Shoggy threw that cop across the lawn.
“Shoggy” – I like it. They DO seem to prefer human heads. It’s efficient.
Of course the two demons that followed Dee were specifically based on Topsy from Uncle Tom’s, no? I mean this isn’t important and of course she became the basis (or more correctly connected with) the “picaninny” figure anyway, showing up as a sort of stock black face character in minstrel shows, etc, even when they weren’t adapting Uncle Tom’s Cabin. But having the creepy white skipping girls sing a skipping rhyme about Topsy seemed to cement that (I was wondering if that was at some point a common skipping rhyme—I wouldn’t be too surprised). This was also a clever genre throwback, I think, to the little girls skipping and singing the Freddy’s Coming for You skipping rhyme in the Nightmare on Elm Street films especially since the demons’ powers were very Freddy-like. Ie. claws that ultimately slash away at a character while a well intentioned adult, who can’t see the killer, tries to restrain the victim, inadvertently allowing them to be slashed.
I’ve been so annoyed with Montrose’s gay story arc for so many reasons. But if this is how they’re wrapping it up–with him explaining why he was too scared to come out (I mean because that explanation was such a shocking surprise, too)–and I suspect this is the last time it will be touched in a probably busy final two episodes, I just give up.
And Montrose, claiming being so scared and terrified of his secret being divulged, KNOWING how horrible it feels to be threatened and abused, beats the living shit out of his innocent son on a daily basis anyway. No sympathy points here.
Yes, I’m sorry. The odd correlation of the fact he beat his son (sons?) up with it having to do with having to hide away his homosexuality doesn’t wash with me. I don’t get it–are they saying he was trying to toughen them up so they wouldn’t be “weak” like him? (Cuz that’s not any better.) Or?
The abused often abuse.
And both he and his son killed defenseless women in cold blood…yet they are heroes?
I wish they would have had George live so he and Montrose could do their search for the papers on their own. The show instead fell into tropes. I liked the fact they were in a Lodge together in the book.There is little sex in the book too…because it has story. Not sure why HBO wants all the sex and nudity. I don’t understand the sex scenes sexy and they do not advance the plot 99% of the time.
Yes!!
I did keep thinking that it was odd that only Montrose seems to be looking for her.Kind of worried about the Mark of Cain, basically while I know the Bible story, my supernatural knowledge of it is from Supernatural and Lucifer. But mostly worried that the future may have been changed with the life that may have been taken for it.But hey if we apply Succubus lore, Ji Ah can heal others.
I think Christina’s going to have to replace those sheets. No way those are salvageable.
After that I will no longer categorize period sex as messy.
Hilarious!
That sex scene confirms Lovecraft Country as prime depravity tv. Shapeshifters shedding racial skin mid-coitus, just impossible to beat. It is all going downhill from here on out.
Can you tits stop putting spoilers in headlines?
The theme of this episode felt like it was “we’re only as sick as our secrets”. I felt like all the action was propelled by the characters not talking to each other until the absolute end of the episode. If Leti would have told Tic she was pregnant…if Tic would have told Leti he knew…D may be too young for all this but everyone, including Hypolita, keeping her in the dark made her a sitting duck if not the biggest target. I’m shocked Christina didn’t try first honestly. Speaking of Christina – tf was she doing this episode. Everyone took stupid pills and gave it up to her and now she’s gonna get them all including Ruby. Also did anyone catch that William scar tattoo is the mark of Cain? Now I think she’s the one that killed him not dead cop man.
I can’t figure out if this an ongoing series, or will be retconned into a miniseries/movie ala Watchmen. Or will it go True Detective and change each season, since rifts in space time and whatnot.Been an enjoyable ride so far no matter how it plays out, that’s for sure.
Up until her ‘murder’, my assumption has been that Christina is basically the white feminist whose intersectionality only goes so far. But now? Is her suffering and death her crucifixion? Now that she knows what it’s like (kind of) will she transform from the aloof Old Testament God to the empathetic New Testament one?
We shall see.
In 2017 she recounted the statement saying, “That part wasn’t true.”Should be “recanted.”
Not sure I’m following right, but Atticus as the last living male of the line has to be sacrificed before Christina can take all the power. But Christina doesn’t seem to know about George in utero. But, she also put a protective spell on Leti. She will be very disappointed. I think.
Did I miss it in a previous ep/recap that we were supposed to know that kid was Emmett Till? He was the same kid who asked the Oijia board if he was going to have a good time on his trip and it said NO, right? Or was this in the book that you knew it was him before the funeral scene?
They’ve only called him Bobo until this week, but that’s a known nickname of Emmett’s and the time/place have been rightish, so people here have been inferring it from the start (and/or letting book knowledge slip?).
They did call him Bobo in the ouija board episode. He’s also wearing that very distinctive black/white tie which knowledgeable people (aka black people) would’ve picked up on.
I think it’s safe to say that most white folks watching this show wouldn’t have picked up on Emmett’s very distinctive white/black tie and the fact that they called him Bobo during the ouija board scene. I think it’s safe to say most black folks would have gotten those references.
Even though I like the cast, I’m having problems liking any of the characters of this show. Montrose was a violent father who murdered an innocent woman. Tic murdered innocent women in Korea. Ruby raped a man – an evil man but rape is rape. Leti hasn’t done anything this bad but because everyone else is so awful, it just made me really angry when she brushed off Diana. Come on, get your head out of your arse! That child was crying and obviously terrified!
I also wish the show wouldn’t chase so many rabbits all at once. It’s weird that we haven’t seen Hippolyta this week when last week’s episode gave the impression that she would instantly go back to her old life. And the way Ji-Ah’s reappearance was handled, one big scene than barely any other mention, was anti-climatic. The show seems to be holding back some material for its final episodes but it shouldn’t be so obvious.
“it just made me really angry when she brushed off Diana.”
Agreed. That was a real idiot ball moment.
I think they implied she was cursed by the police chief that anyone interacting with her wouldn’t notice and she wouldn’t be able to talk. It’s like the main characters forgetting the pilot monster encounter the following morning, but the rules of this amnesia aren’t clear and don’t come with the standard telegraph that other shows tend to use to be more watcher friendly.
I don’t know what to make of her, but I do not trust her. What do you think?
Family and love is a major theme in Lovecraft Country and Christina has rejected any notion of that, making her an antagonist, if not the villain. While Ruby is conflicted, she loves and is protective of her family, especially once she sees Leti is pregnant. Even Ji-Ah loves her mother and is protective of Tic. Christina seems to be set up in opposition to all of that.* What kind of idiot lets someone who just told you that they are dyslexic read a blood magic incantation over them? I thought for sure that was going to lead to some type of disaster. Maybe it still will.* Jada Harris. There’s just one incredible showcase performance after another on this show. But even knowing that, Harris’s performance was surprising and shockingly good. * I’m glad that Montrose and Tic are finally healing their relationship, but I am still not forgetting Montrose MURDERED AN INNOCENT PERSON IN COLD BLOOD.* I wonder if George Freeman knows Matt Ruff, or is this a universe where Ruff never wrote Fool on the Hill either?
I think having that many dead cops on your lawn is a disaster. What are the consequences for that going to be?
From the brief glimpses of irate and torch bearing white people (neighbors?) in the trailer for next week, there will be repercussions.
Jada Harris was AMAZING in this episode. I wish she’d had more to do throughout the season.
Regarding Christina, if someone’s family is dedicated to awfulness then isn’t it fair to then turn on those systems than be the next torchbearer of that evil or implicitly let that kind of thing slide by in order to uphold the ties of the family unit?Just like the weirdness of Montrose brutally murdering that indigenous character onscreen and getting his own queer rebirth the next episode with little to no consequence, and Tic shooting that innocent nurse in the head but it’s okay since he didn’t relish it?I’m not sure I fully get the narrative rules of this universe still, where in order for all the white people (with multiple lines*) to be pure evil they then have so many of the more prominent characters do incredible awful things while nominally being sympathetic?Why specifically did Ji-Ah have to kill at least 99 people so far, Hippolyta shoot someone (I forget if he was explicitly aware of magic or a glorified security guard?), or Ruby sexually assaulting someone who’d gone less far than she had— yet they’re still treated fairly sympathetically? *They pointedly showed white extras in line for the funeral and I assume that meant they were sympathetic rather than there to gawk?
If anybody has any doubt on how powerful and significant the murder of Emmet Till was/is: I live in country at the other half or the World from the US (Brazil), where most people don’t speak English, and I’ve not read the book. Yet, when I found the name of the episode was “Jig-a-Bobo”, I was all “Shit, I know what this is about, it will be a heavy episode”.On a lighter note…When the guns go off, one of those many-eyed were-rabbits, from earlier in the seasons, bursts from the ground to shield Tic.
Shoggoths, Ms. Monique! They’re called shoggoths. Show some respect for the poor creations of the Elder Ones… :)Also, when Tic touched the snout of the shoggoth, I got strong vibes of:
so i think i’m starting to understand that this story is actually about how love transforms us all. There are many different types of love: love of a person, love of family, love of power. But the maxim holds true.Christina is obviously an enigma. She is all of those things Joelle mentioned. No way she reenacts the till murder if Ruby’s words didn’t get through to her, even if that is also an obvious example of making a statement to the audience about white apathy to Black trauma. But love, or the possibility of it, makes Christina more human, makes her want to feel things she hasn’t felt before.
There is an obvious parallel between Ruby and Christina assuming an alternate identity to have sex. For Christina, William’s skin is like a magical strap-on; she gets to transcend gender, as Ruby transcends race. And she also gets to be compassionate and tender while still maintaining privilege in a way the ice princess couldn’t… or can she? Will Christina and ruby get down as themselves? The long stare suggested it’s possible. Ji-Ah also wants to be human. Did she already achieve her goal? She mentions she killed 100 men, did that reverse her curse? Or does she still have kumiho powers?Doesn’t make sense that she would fly all the way out to Chicago and then disappear again. So I’m betting we do see her in the last two episodes, and that it’s more impactful than her Episode 8 appearance.
I’m here to say so glad that the Shoggoth showed up to massacre the cops.
What an awesome and creepy episode. Those little girls will be in my nightmares.Tic and Leti continue to be able to bring out the worst in each other. I like them but damn they can be frustrating, but at the same time feel very real. The Christina thing at the end is something I’m trying to figure out. Yes, I appreciate the fact that she does it to try to understand Ruby, but knowing she would survive means she won’t completely understand. She gets the pain that he went trough, but not the fear of death. I also took not of the men who did it to her. “Who the hell would want to die like that?” Well who the hell would want to do that to someone, guy who just did it? I’m wondering if the writers wanted to show Christina, a white woman, going through what Emmett did to get thick headed white viewers to try to understand the brutality of it. Although if they need to see that for it to happen, they’re probably not watching the show anyway.
It’s official, nobody walks with the same fierce energy as Jurnee Smollett. Hell, resolute walking is a main component in Abbey Lee’s day job, and she didn’t even come close in any of the many walk-aways both of them did in this episode.
hahaha damn does that hair bounce.
Then you haven’t seen Sean Peyton walking the sidelines for the Saints looking like he don’t need no man.
I noticed the same. And I was also looking at the picture of her up there in the funeral dress and realizing how high those heels are and just marveling at her ability to walk like that in those shoes. I’d fall.
This show is nonsense. What a letdown.
I just don’t buy that Christina did that as an empathy lesson. There’s something else behind that…ritual.
This is a good show but every episode is not an A ( and the B one should have been A). It’s not Watchmen. It’s clunky in places and it not sure of its tone.
The movements, the sounds, the look…This was very Jordan Peele, very Us, the depiction of the picaninny girls. Brilliant horror.
I can’t believe what I saw with those kids, and it chilled me to the bone because I’ve had these nightmares when I was young. I remember the story of Topsy and being so bothered with the content of it, perhaps my earliest memory of a racist caricature in a book? (Was it Reading Rainbow? No, it couldn’t have been. Fuck this is gonna bother me now. Where do I remember this?!) It was so long ago, but with “Jig-A-Bobo”, my old terrors come flooding back into my mind, and this hour damn near left me curled in a ball in the corner! I’m sure other things happened that were also important this episode.
No one is actually watching this show.
Uh, no, Joelle — we don’t trust Christina!Yeah, pretty pricey plane flight from South Korea. And how did she have any idea of where to find Tic? (Was that explained?)Great episode. But those little girls transformed from the Uncle Tom’s Cabin cover art are not leaving my brain soon enough.
I’m pretty sure Tic talked with Ji-Ah about his past and history while they were together, which is how she knew what city he was from. It was probably not that hard to track him down after that, especially since Leti and her house made the news
They kind of missed the boat by treating Emmit Till’s story in such a tacked-on manner. They’ve gone off source anyway so they might as well have done a better job of focusing on this event. To say he was her best friend when they never so much as mentioned him previously is just a miss. Having him show up earlier as a precocious kid would have added a lot more weight to the story of his murder. The way they handled here was just a missed opportunity. I wouldn’t call it a stunt, but it was not handled as deftly as I would have thought a production of this caliber would have handled it.
He was in other episodes. He was in the scene where they played with the Ouija. They kept calling him by his nickname, BoBo. I think counting on people to pick up the fact that he was Emmett Till without explicitly saying it now, however, probably wasn’t a good idea.
Thanks. I agree. I wasn’t aware of his nickname, but even if all they did was blurt out “Emmit” in the middle of that scene it might have been missed. An aside discussing him excitedly preparing to travel to visit his relatives in Mississippi would have been a more poignant way to foreshadow that tragedy, and give it a little more weight in the craziness of this show.
When the kids were playing with the Ouija board, he asked it, “Am I going to have a good time on my trip?” and the pointer thing immediately moved to “No.” But I had no idea that Emmett Till’s nickname was Bobo, so I (and I’m sure lots of other people) didn’t make the connection at the time that this kid was him. It wasn’t until I read something afterwards where someone pointed it out. So it was foreshadowed, but it was too subtle for even most people who had heard of Emmett Till to catch.
Thanks, totally missed that. Now maybe if they’d have had some more conversation, called him Emmitt, and said “Mississippi” it might have caught on better, to the betterment of the story and the act of addressing his legacy.
“I wish we had seen him earlier.” We did. “I wish they had alluded to his trip via foreshadowing.” They did!
At a certain point, when is it just on you for not paying attention? I didn’t know his nickname or even about the trip, but that Ouija scene was so specific and deliberate, I knew it had to mean something so I went searching and eventually figured it out. Intellectual curiosity- look into that between making stupid sports references, maybe.
Thanks for that insufferable reply in an otherwise friendly exchange of information. Keeping the internet great! Yea YOU! I mean really, look at your post, you bore. What is your problem, other than needing attention? You must be a blast at parties you don’t get invited to.
In order for me to get the most out of this show, I need to read about 4 recaps and their comments, do a lot of googling, and then rewatch each episode.
That’s too much work for a TV series. I feel like I’m back in graduate school.
This show wasn’t written with the White gaze in mind. I remember seeing a story in Jet magazine on the 20th anniversary of Till’s death which showed the casket photos, etc. For most GenX Blacks and older we grew up knowing these things. The shirt and tie he wore in a famous photo was replicated in the 2nd episode. We knew that his nickname was Bobo, that he was from Chicago but spent summers in the South like many Black children of the Great Migration.White-centered stories don’t dumb it down for others who may not know certain historical events; why should this one? We are inundated by and indoctrinated in your history; you have the choice of whether or not to learn ours. It’s not, however, our job to teach you.
It’s a TV show on HBO, not a history class made for angry pedantic people. Had they simply granted the two child characters more of a scene it would have given more weight to his story – AND HIS STORY DESERVED MORE WEIGHT. You’re the second person to come on my thread calling me a shithead for wanting a more clear exposition of his legacy. I took years of AP History in HS and college. I read about it as a kid. I knew and recalled most the details except his nickname, which I might have known at one time but forgotten after all these years. So all I’m saying is a nice expository scene between the two kids would have set up the real-life murder of an innocent, precocious boy with more power, particularly to those who didn’t know of his legacy. Face it, playing “I’ve got a secret” with it only plays to pedantic people who want to be angry at other people who did not learn of it for whatever reasons, and those other people could have learned quite a bit more about it if they had given it more weight with a better scene. I am not the enemy here.
Get over yourself and start giving a fuck about black history and then maybe you won’t need to write think pieces about your own ignorance in the comments section. I took years of AP History in HS and college.Did you fail APUSH and have to take it twice?
Came for the attention didn’t you? Stop fucking up an otherwise good site about entertainment with this kind of shit. I mean, look at what you wrote in response to what I wrote. I wanted Till’s story to get MORE attention. What in the fuck is wrong with you? Did you not read it?
I knew I was going to like the Devil Doll episode the minute I read it.I hope that there’s a Extra on the DVD about them at least. Screw Dancing with the Stars- those two were great!
“Diana tries to beat the demon girls out of existence with a lead pipe, but when Montrose appears, he can’t see what’s causing her pain. His understanding of her hurt and pain doesn’t grant him access to her view on the world, or how it hurts her. To be so loved and still so alone in her pain must be devastating for Diana.”That’s a great explanation of the limits of even empathy sometimes.
I know this opinion won’t be popular, but — objectively, how is wanting someone to feel guilty about the position they were born into different than wanting someone to feel bad about the position they were born into?I get that sounds alt-right, and the specific characters complicate the question but still — why is hating someone for being born with a trait they did not choose okay, regardless of where the hatred is coming from?**I’m talking about the Ruby/Christina scene, in case that wasn’t clear.
My impression of the Christina/Ruby relationship is that it is a weird version of intersectionality.