‘Lovecraft Country’ Season 1 Episode 8 ‘Jig-a-Bobo’
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.
It’s the day of Bobo, Emmett Till’s, funeral. Diane is distraught over the death of her friend and the city of Chicago is in an uproar.
Letitia comments on the fact Diane is suffering from a lot of loss in a short time. The death of Uncle George and now the death of Bobo combined with the fact that Hippolyta is indeed missing because she never returned from the portal. In her grief and frustration, Diane leaves the funeral and goes into town. She is passing by a store where two girls come out and begin to laugh. Diane throws rocks at the girls and yells “there is nothing to laugh about!”
Most of the stores are closed because of Emmett’s tragic death. As Diane walks through an alley, Lancaster and another officer approach her to ask about her comic book. They ask Diane to confirm her name and they also ask her where her mother is. When Diane tells the officers she does not know where her mother is, one officer grabs her as Lancaster casts a curse on to her. He spits into his hand and places the spit on to Diane’s head. The officers leave and she heads home.
Montrose confronts her on where she had been and Diane asks him where her mother is. Frustrated by the circumstances, Diane accuses the family of lying to her and goes into her room. She washes her face to remove the spit as Montrose tries to calm her from the other side of the door. She puts on a hat and as her radio plays she takes notice to her book “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” on her bookshelf. The book falls down and Diane leaves her room from her window.
Once Diane reaches the train station, she notices she is being followed by a set of twin girls and here comes the history lesson.
The two girls are based off the two little girls from “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” Topsy and Eva. Topsy was a little Black girl portrayed to be mischievous and bad while Eva was white and innocent. Very telling of how Black girls are viewed still today in comparison to their white counterparts.
The set of twins that follow Diane through tonight’s episode were literally living caricatures with big red lips and un-kept hair. The twins were called to follow Diane forever under the curse Lancaster put on her. The only way he would lift the curse is if Diane got the orrery to give to him. She refused to assist and instead wanted to confront the twins head on. Sadly nothing but magic could rid Diane of the curse.
Ji-Ah pays Letitia a visit. When Atticus shows up to the home he realizes Ji-Ah is inside. Pained by the truth that is revealed about Ji-Ah and Atticus relationship, Letitia demands that Atticus leave the house. He tells Leti that he wanted to protect everyone from what he found out. Atticus tells Leti that he must make things right by casting a spell. Leti worries about what could happen to Atticus if the spell goes wrong.
Atticus runs into Montrose and asks him if he had cheated on his mother. Montrose said he never cheated and said he kept his lifestyle a secret because of the consequences that could follow. Atticus tells Montrose about what happened to Hippolyta. He also tells Montrose he traveled to the future and figured out Leti is pregnant with his future son, George Freeman.
George writes a book about the family which is how Tic learns how he would die. Montrose decides to help Atticus with his spell of protection.
Letitia asks Christina to meet her to ask a favor in exchange for the negatives of the lost pages. She asks Christina to make Atticus invulnerable. Christina tells her that she would make her invulnerable instead. Letitia agrees. Later on Ruby finally tells Leti that she knows about Christina and what really happened to Uncle George. As they are talking, the police come to Leti’s home requesting to search the house.
Lancaster can not enter the home because the house is protected. He decides to let the officers shoot up the home with everyone inside. Leti remembers that she is invulnerable so the bullets bounce off of her body. Atticus hears the gun shots coming from the house. When he gets to the street, the officers redirect their guns at Atticus. Just as the officer fires at Atticus, one of the creatures from episode one appears to protect him. The spell worked.
Takeaways:
One of the more painful scenes tonight was given to us by Christina. She reenacted the death of Emmett Till and although horrifying to watch, maybe it will bring some things full circle for folks.
When Ruby said to Christina she wants her to feel guilt over her safety because of her privilege following Emmett’s funeral, I felt that! The very things we as Black people must give second thought to, white people never have to worry about. Ruby said a lot of powerful things tonight.
I can not believe there is only two episodes left! Not sure how all of this is going to wrap up.
