Lovecraft Country: season one finale recap – spellbinding ending brings us full circle
Well, here we are, back where we began, and yet much-changed by all the places we’ve been along the way. This week’s season one finale – and perhaps lastever episode – picked up where episode nine left off, with a critically ill and Topsy-fied Dee being rushed to bed so the just-recovered Book of Names could be used to save her.
No sooner had Tic begun incanting than it flew open, landing at a page with Tic’s family birthmark on, and Tic and Leti collapsed on to the floor. They hadn’t gone far, though. As Montrose and Hippolyta frantically tried to revive their bodies, their souls were in the “ancestral space” (reminiscent of Black Panther’s ancestral plane) receiving some much-needed pep talks from ancestor Hanna (Joaquina Kalukango), Tic’s great-grandmother (Regina Taylor) and his mother, Dora (told you Erica Tazel would get a full scene).
For Tic, the ancestral space manifested as the burning Braithwhite mansion, while Leti found herself back in Dora’s burning Tulsa childhood home. The flames were significant, though, as Hannah explained: “It took a long time to understand the fire was my rage made manifest, that it could be tamed … I realised this magic was not something to be feared, but a gift to pass on.” (See Sonia Sanchez’s Catch a Fire poem from last week). Tic’s mother had other significant words of encouragement, but the show’s decision to leave the mystery of his biological father unresolved felt right: “You’ve got the best part of both of them,” she consoled. “Montrose’s fierce heart and George’s integrity. You’re a hero, just like in those stories you used to cherish.”
Purpose set, courage restored and teeth gritted, it was back in the magic elevator to revisit the vault setting of episode four. There, Leti and Tic conjured Titus Braithwhite, the mad old racist who started it all, with impressive efficiency (somebody’s been practising their spell-casting, eh?!). Then Tic helped himself to a chunk of Titus’s flesh (or some surgically implanted rune?), a necessary component of their plan, but not before Titus had a chance to briefly slip his magical binding, and let Christina know that “Those [racial epithets] have the Book!”
I’ve had my misgivings about Christina as a character, but her mini-speech in George’s shop was an undoubted series highlight. The lines themselves, and Abbey Lee’s delivery, amounted to an enjoyably dry send up of oblivious white (and class) privilege and the sense of entitlement it often entails: “This isn’t generational hate … our families aren’t at war,” she lectured them with an impatient eye-roll “This has never been personal. His death is a consequence of the spell I want to cast.” Well, when you put it like that! Of course black people should sacrifice their lives so that you might amass more power! Tic did take it personally, however and refused to hand the Book over, causing Christina to remove Leti’s invulnerability in petulant retaliation.
As the rest of the family retreated to the Winthrop House, Tic had to see a man about a dog. Or rather a woman about a nine-tailed fox. This was an unexpectedly lovely scene, wasn’t it? We were fairly sure we hadn’t seen the last of Ji-Ah (Jamie Chung) and making sleazy men in bars think twice before fetishising Asian women was just the can of whoop-ass I’d ordered. More unexpected was Tic’s empathic apology. Anyone planning to dump a significant other should take notes. He also (correctly) credited Ji-Ah with introducing one of the show’s most important themes, saying, “You were the one who reminded me we have a choice: We can be monsters … or heroes.”
That was the choice facing Ruby this episode, as Leti appealed at their mother’s graveside for her help with procuring a part of Christina’s body. If you thought that would be an easy ask, you underestimated the animosity that has built up between these sisters over the years. But still, surely, ultimately, Ruby would choose her own sister and her wider community over her patently untrustworthy lover? Surely?
Leti was happy to believe she had and it wasn’t until sometime after they’d arrived in Ardham (completing the “Full Circle” of the episode title) and preparations for their spell-hijacking were well under way that it became clear something was off: “Ruby” was actually Christina. She’d murdered Ruby and assumed her form after catching her in the act of trying to steal that blood (some cold comfort for Leti then; her sister did choose her in the end). In the subsequent struggle Christina-inRuby-form pushed Leti out of the tower window and to her apparent death.
Here I got confused: Why was Leti able to come back from the dead? Just as Christina was imbued with power from Tic’s blood, Leti sat bolt upright and lifted her shirt to reveal the mark of invulnerability had returned – but what’s the connection between these two events? Was it something to do with the words we later see Christina/Ruby incanting over Leti’s body? Did Christina intend for her to survive? Or are Christina and Leti magically connected in some other, as-yet unexplained, way?
Either way, she was too late to defeat Christina singlehandedly. That required input from Ji-Ah, who found a way to interpret the shaman’s prophecy about becoming “one with the darkness” that was heroic, not monstrous. Ji-Ah’s kumiho visions also gave Lovecraft Country’s writers a convenient way to tie up a few more loose ends. These revealed, in no particular order, that Tic had introduced Dee to a few friendly shoggoths and handed Hippolyta a letter to give to Montrose in the event of his death; that Hippolyta had found some way to heal Dee’s withered Topsy arm and that, as mentioned above, Christina/Ruby had said some words over Leti’s body.
This excitement culminated in a big magical explosion, which left Christina trapped under rubble. “You’ve bound me from magic!”, she whimpered, “Not just you,” Leti responded. “Every white person in the world … Magic is ours now.” (Were there any white viewers with spell-casting ambitions who found this line a little hurtful? In the wider context of black historical suffering, I’m sure you can appreciate it’s only fair.)
All that was left was to mourn Tic, and the reading of his Dumas-quoting letter to Montrose helped with that. Plus there was a little hint of how Lovecraft Country might go on without him: All hail Bionic Dee! Hero for an uncertain future!
Listening guide
Looking to update your Spotify workout playlist? Ready or Not by Highland Park Collective feat. Gizzle was the motivational track playing as Leti and Tic entered the elevator.
Weary by Solange soundtracks the family’s return to the Winthrop house for a (very) brief respite.
I Am Blessed by Nina Simone expresses Tic’s state of mind as he prepares for his potential fatal mission with the support of his family and friends.
Lovecraft Country loves a good road trip sing-a-along and this one was to ShBoom (Life Could Be a Dream). Notably, it’s the original version, written and recorded by black doo-wop group the Chords in 1954 and not the cover version by white Canadian group the Crew-Cuts which took the US No 1 spot later that same year.
Additional notes
I’m guessing that red, glowing thing in the Winthrop House basement was one of Tic’s now-tame pet shoggoths? The one he used to teach Dee basic shoggoth husbandry.
As the family drive back to the Winthrop House, they wave to a new black family apparently in the process of moving into a house on the road. It’s an indication that Leti’s efforts “pioneering” desegregation were not for nothing.
Dee scribbling on a paper with a headline reading All White All Male Jury Acquits Emmett Till’s Murderers. I’d be interested to know if any paper of the time actually reported it with that headline. Seems unlikely this is the Chicago Defender.
Don’t shoggoths hate light, as established in episode one? How come the ones in the woods didn’t seem bothered by Dee’s torch? Come to think of it, we never did find out how and why cows give birth to shoggoths, did we? (Reason enough to commission a second season, I reckon.)
The book that Dee’s was reading by torchlight in the car was presumably George Freeman’s Lovecraft Country? The words seem pertinent, anyway: “If they were ever truly going to disrupt the hierarchy of warlocks, they would have to spill blood other than their own.”
No word yet from HBO on that second season, but there is reason to hope. The ratings have been good and there’s certainly no shortage of potential narrative directions (nor, sadly, of episodes from the US’s horrific history of racism). Also, if Tic’s really gone (sob!), then at least Jonathan Majors’ busy movie star schedule needn’t be an impediment. Missing him already? Do check out my interview with him.
Quote of the week
“He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience extreme happiness.” Tic borrowed this line from The Count of Monte Cristo to go out on. And if it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for us.