Lovecraft Country
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I say where is your fire?/ Cant you smell it coming out of our past?
Sonia Sanchez, Catch the Fire
It was inevitable thatLovecraft Countrywould head back to Tulsa.
(Deja Vuwith Denzel Washington and Paula Patton, anyone?)
With Diana still cursed, the adults are trying to save her.
So when Hippolyta shows up just in time, they all head to the observatory.
With Hippolyta back, her purple wrist-ports as channels, they can go back in time.
Montrose is a troubled, haunted character.
Weve encountered Montrose as dependent on alcohol, often dazed or in a fugue of his own memories.
Even the smell of burning reminds him of Tulsa.
But what we didnt know was just how much this traumatic massacre was wrapped up in Montroses gay shame.
So he lies, meeting Thomas and telling him that he is not gay like he is.
Scared, the two hold hands together, despite having been so afraid to do so in public.
The imagery is heartbreaking.
Further, we watch adult Montrose and Atticus watch on, Atticus embracing his father.
Atticus knew that part of the story so well that Jackie Robinson shows up in his dreams.
But looking on, the adult Montrose and Atticus see something not matching up: The stranger isnt coming.
He knows the story so well it becomes his destiny.
The past and the future collapse.
While Atticus helps Montrose, Letitia has been tasked with retrieving the Book of Names.
Letitia goes to Doras family home trying to blend in as a townsperson.
The new baby, her great-great-grandson, will be her faith made flesh.
The two say the Lords Prayer together and we watch as she burns alive.
In order for the lineage to continue, this family in 1921 has to stick to their unfortunate fate.
This happens simultaneously as Atticus swings the bat across town.
Tic and Leti each give life to and solidify others death here.
Its heavy, but its presented in a manner thats breathtaking.
We know that the family is burned alive.
The Sonia Sanchez poem reads, Catch the fire … and live./ live./ livelivelive./ livelivelive./ live./ live.
The family will live on through our protagonists.
This episode is a story about not just generational sacrifice, but generational relation.
How we both extend from and reach back toward our ancestors before us.
Montrose recounts the names and stories of lives lost during the race massacre, honoring actual victims.
What if the horrors of the past are not only a destructive fire, but one that drives us?
The fire of living … not dying, as the poem suggests?
An operatic version of the poem carries the episode into the credits.
Christina helps our Black protagonists this week in exchange for Atticus willing return to Ardham on the Autumnal Equinox.
Will she be successful?
Will Atticus survive the finale?
Leftover Country
The black shoggoth … when the world needed him most, he vanished.
We got lucky with our shit.
We need somebody who knows what the fuck theyre doing.
Ruby: Shit, you gotta be gettin in this car with me!
The dialogue in the early parts of the episode was so funny.
Jurnee Smolletts delivery of We should name him George is glorious.
I know theyre proving their drama chops here, but Id love to see them in a comedy.
With the stone in place, his wound will keep returning.
The shoggoth attack last week jumpstarted his death.
Christina, as William, watches him die.
Where might Ji-Ah be?
In my screener, the intertitle says the observatory with the multiverse machine is in KENTUCKY.
However, in I Am.
Im not sure if this is an error or if Im missing some information.
Will they look for a new person for her to embody?
Is this simply a reference to the novel and shes just indicating that shes done using the potion?
Im still frustrated that Rubys arc is so tied to whiteness.
Im hoping this means shes DONE with it.
Christina to Ruby: The only variable was time, and now you.
