‘Lovecraft Country’ Season 1 Episode 5 ‘Strange Case’
Culture Editor Bianca Gregg is back with her recap column, this time spotlighting HBO’s newest series “Lovecraft Country.” Get introduced to the characters, memorable scenes, and plot-twists as we dig into the racially-charged supernatural guilty pleasure.
On tonight’s episode, Ruby awakens as a white woman, naked and afraid chile. She is shocked by her seemingly overnight transformation. She rushes out of the home and goes into town where she runs into a Black boy. The police ride up and attack the boy thinking he did something to this white woman. Ruby tells the officers the boy did not hurt her and they put her into the police car. As they ride back into the white side of town, the officers tell Ruby they are taking her back to her husband. She screams that she does not want to go and begins to have spasms in the backseat. William takes her out of the car and brings her inside where she continues to have spasms and bleeds on the floor. William cuts her open and reveals Ruby’s actual form.
While Ruby lays in bed, William explains how he never experimented with metamorphosis on humans. Ruby wakes up and realizes she is experiencing magic. She asks William if she is free to leave and he tells her she can do whatever she would like. He leaves the potion to trigger the metamorphosis behind. Ruby becomes a white woman again. As a monologue from “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf” plays, we witness Ruby as a white woman enjoying a stroll through town, getting ice cream from the parlor and reading a newspaper in the park. Things a Black woman would not be able to experience in the same format.
Meanwhile, Atticus and Letitia find out that Yahima is gone. Although Letitia thinks she ran away, Atticus realizes Montrose killed her. Upon the realization, Atticus violently attacks Montrose. Montrose leaves the home and appears at Sammy’s door. The two have sex with each other but Montrose refuses to kiss Sammy.
That night Ruby is in the tub relaxing as William enters. She asks William why he wanted to share his magic with her. William tells her in return for giving her this magic he will eventually need a favor by way of a woman. The following day Ruby heads to the department store she had wanted to work in as Hilary Davenport, a white woman. With the same qualifications she had as Ruby plus her new white skin, Ruby snags a job as assistant manager. Ruby’s first day at work proves to be an interesting one. She discovers that Tamara, the Black woman that had been hired to work there had no actual qualifications and that Ruby herself was better qualified. Ruby also hears how the white women that work at the store feel about Black people, including the people on the Southside. They even joke about getting Tamara to take them to the Southside for a night out.
William shows up to pick up Ruby. He tells her that night she would need to fulfill her favor. William gifts Ruby a servants outfit. He let’s Ruby know this is a favor for Christina, no surprise there. That night at the party, Ruby serves the men including Captain Lancaster at the party. Frustrated she goes into the kitchen wondering where Christina is. Christina appears and requests that Ruby plants something in the captain’s office. When Ruby refuses, Christina explains that if she truly cares about William she would do it. Considering Captain Lancaster attempted to kill William. Ruby goes along with it and while in Lancaster’s office she hears the person that is in the closet. It’s a white man with a slit throat. Just when Ruby wants to make her escape from the office, she hears Lancaster on his way in. She gets into the closet with the man and watches as Lancaster changes his shirt. Horrified by what she is witnessing.
The next day at work, Ruby tells Tamara she must work harder and prove herself to be better than the white people around her. Everyone in the store stares at Ruby considering she is white and saying negative things about white people. When Paul, the manager, approaches the women to see if everything is okay, Ruby says everything is fine and Tamara has invited all of them to the Southside after work.
At the bar, Ruby watches her white coworkers party with the Black people in the bar. Knowing some of their true feelings about Black people and their privileges of being white, Ruby decides to leave. She goes out back and crushes her bottle of potion as she transforms back into Ruby. While in the alley she sees Paul trying to force himself onto Tamara. Tamara escapes from Paul.
Christina shows up to the house and sees Ruby on the sofa still bloody from her transformation back to herself. She sits with Ruby and attempts to relate to her but Ruby is not hearing it. She let’s Christina know she could never relate to what she goes through. Christina tells Ruby that William showed her this magic so she could be “uninterrupted” Ruby and asks Ruby what she would do if she was completely uninterrupted. The next day, Ruby uses her potion to report to work as Hilary. She gives Paul her notice of resignation. When Paul asks her why she wants to leave, Ruby says because she wants to have sex with Paul but not as an employee. She begins to take Paul’s pants off and ties the belt around Paul’s neck. In a very brutal way, Ruby avenges what happened to Tamara the previous night. In the midst of her revenge, she changes back to her original form and allows Paul to see that a Black woman did these things to him. When William returns home that night, Ruby questions him about what is in the basement. Suddenly William begins to have a metamorphosis. As many viewers suspected, William and Christina are the same person. Oh how this will all play out.
Takeaways:
Seeing Montrose smile and feel free in the drag club was actually a beautiful moment. For much of the season we have seen him in emotional pain but tonight was a different side.
Atticus and Letitia are a couple that is very appealing to the eye as seen in their sex scene from tonight.
We are finally going to get the back story on Atticus and Ji-Ah next week which should explain the final scene from tonight’s episode.
