Lovecraft Country
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This Sundays episode ofLovecraft Countryisstreaming early on HBO Max.
If last week strived to makeAmerican Horror Storyirrelevant, this episodes subgenre-of-the-week to explore is adventure.
What Iinitially loved about the seriesis that there wasfunto be had.
And this episode was, despite its setup, rarely fun.
Presumably the episodes title refers to Titus Braithwhites history of violence.
This is, of course, an awful, racist thing.
Here exploration is code for colonization, genocide, and decimation.
This episode is extremely frustrating as a viewer.
We are constantly put outside of what should be engaging about this episode.
How exactly did Montrose figure out that moonlight would be the trick to finding the entrance underground?
How exactly did they figure out which of the three tunnels to go down?
Were given some answers, but theyre so convoluted and so in-the-moment that theyre almost impossible to follow.
The audience is rarely let in on the clue-hunting and discovery alongside the characters.
Letitia pushes stone buttons and we cant even see their corresponding images.
We have no opportunity to thinkOh, I bet its related to the book Montrose was reading earlier.
What did it say about Adam?
Parts of it I enjoyed not catching the bag and Montrose yelling YOU BETTER CATCH ME, BOY!
And this was all set up by Titus?It didnt quite work for me.
The episode had lost me by then.
How did she realize that theyre actually underneath her house?
That theyve come across the same elevator because time and space are working differently down here?
This isnt completely bad or unexplainable, we just dont see or hear the dots get connected.
Its just more frustration in an episode that feels hasty.
And this brings me to the most upsetting part of the episode.
In Yahimas words though, translated through Tic they are woman, man, Two-Spirit.
It just didnt have to be like this.
I thought a lot about the documentaryDisclosureafter watching this episode.
Its fucked up, plain and simple.
It fits into a history of violence.
And a show engaging with the violence of white supremacy should not be doing something like this.
InSundown,Atticus said, Stories are like people.
Loving them doesnt make them perfect.
You just try and cherish em, overlook their flaws.
He was talking about pulp stories written by Lovecraft and other white authors in a racist world.
This is something that any nonwhite person has to contend with in media or literary canons oversaturated with whiteness.
We can enjoy things and still reckon with their faults.
But, as the woman walking down the road with him responds, the flaws are still there.
I dont expect anything to be perfect.
And I cant see this arc as anything else: a flaw.
Im on the fence, especially after this episode.
Im assuming they left after the Tulsa Massacre at Black Wall Street in 1921.
Give the boy in the library a YA spinoff!
We finally get some of Ruby on her own.
But shes having a moment.
The department store job shes been wanting just hired a Black woman who wasnt her.
The kiss between Letitia and Atticus did not work for me Atticus was not very nice this episode!
Hippolyta whips that car around, presumably to head to Devon County with Dee.
Yes, I had to Googleorrery.
This world haseverything: ghosts, shoggoths, wizards, time machines!
Im assuming Tree makes it to Philly okay?
Bobo shows up again this episode (and according to Wikipedia, episode 8 is titled Jig-A-Bobo).
Are we getting an episode centering on him?
I dont really know how to feel about it right now.
But here are some other imaginations that give life to Emmett Till that I know Idolike byEve EwingandDanez Smith.
Gaywatch: Trees comment about Montrose and Sammy all but confirms that Montrose is queer.
And Sammys lil red, open shirt: A+
This article has been updated to note Yahimas Arawak heritage.
