Welcome to Multiversity Comics’ coverage of Lovecraft Country! This is the buzziest HBO debut since last year’s Watchmen and I am thrilled to report that it absolutely lives up to the hype. We’re halfway through the season and the midpoint is thought provoking to say the least.
1. A Different Kind of Episode
Directed by the incredible Cheryl Dunye, “Strange Case” is as momentous an episode as any other of Lovecraft Country. It’s a sprawling episode, filled to the brim with story and strong cultural commentary like we’ve seen before. But as the show’s narrative has expanded, so too has the scope of explored themes and with that expanded scope has come some more iffy decisions when it comes to the politics of the series. Now, the good moments of the episode are really great but the missteps (one in particular) feel large. Luckily, the fundamentals of the show are strong enough that engaging with those more complicated aspects feels like a worthy and interesting exercise more than it does a drag.
2. Gross!
The horror of this week is easily the most disgusting thing that the show has shown so far. In fact, the kind shedding scenes are probably the grossest things to grace (or whatever the opposite of grace is) television screens since Hannibal ended. It’s visceral and makes you feel like your own skin is coming off. There’s the added horror of watching a body try to break through another body which is pretty awful. There’s certainly some symbolism to this- a black woman ripping her way out of a white woman’s body and a white woman ripping her way out of a white man’s body are obviously telegraphing some things about desired power versus actual identity but mostly, it’s all very gross.
3. The Sunny Side of the Street
Knowing and understanding things are not the same. Most people (and likely everyone who has chosen to watch Lovecraft Country) know that racism is bad and that white people live easier lives than Black people do. To truly understand it, though, is a difficult thing. In “Strange Case,” Ruby develops an acute understanding of the difference between living as a white woman and as a Black one. At one point in the episode, Ruby speaks about her experience being Black and a woman, saying “Most days I’m happy to be both, but the world keeps interrupting. And I am sick of being interrupted.” Being a white woman stops her from being interrupted. Even further, it gives her newfound power. Power to get her dream job with the same resume she’s always had, power to walk around in whatever neighborhood you want, power over the police- white power. It’s really a fascinating story brought to life by two excellent actresses. Jamie Neumann plays Ruby’s white self, Hilary with effective discomfort and dumbfoundedness. Wunmi Mosaku is, of course, superlative. About 90% of this subplot is the clear high point of the episode and it really is something to behold.
4. Tic and Leti 4 Ever
Leti and Tic’s big scene is great- easily my second favorite part of the episode. There’s been a lot of emotion in this show but the vulnerability that he shows and the grounding that she gives him in return is really great. That leveled out dynamic means that this time when they sleep together, there’s nothing rushed or rough or cold about it. The whole sequence is really beautiful and emotionally raw in a way than portrays this Black couple really differently than most that we usually see. I’ve like Tic and Leti this whole time and they’re chemistry has been clear but for me, this was the first time they really popped. Now we just have to think of a ship name.
5. Questionable Decisions
Now for the part where we deal with the messier storytelling decisions of the week. Here’s an itemized list:
First, Montrose is officially queer which is cool but the portrayal here is complicated. On the one hand, there’s a vulnerability that Michael K. Williams performs incredibly well that feels rare in portrayals of black men. At the same time, the whole story feels very under-explored and peripheral. He spends the episode with trans women after sleeping with another man and the scenes are very beautiful but there’s also something missing from them. It’s not so much that there’s anything explicitly wrong with it as there is that there’s not enough that’s right.
Continued belowWilliam was Christina in a William skin suit the whole time? It feels like a bizarre decision and most definitely one that brings up some uncomfortable questions about the way this show views consent. But also this is weird magic manipulation so maybe that part of things is a little less pressing? This one is definitely harder to make heads or tails of but it’s something I hope the series actually grapples with.
There’s a scene where Ruby-as-Hilary sees her boss assault her black co-worker in the back alley of a club. Later, she confronts him in his office as Hilary under the guise of wanting to sleep with him but she quickly turns things around, binding him and pretty brutally assaulting him in ways I’d prefer not to recount as Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow” plays. The assaulter being assaulted feels like it’s made to be triumphant comeuppance but she doesn’t just beat him up, she sexually assaults him and that’s not something that we should root for ever. This isn’t a girl power- Cardi B song moment. Maybe that’s not important to the show. Maybe the stance is that this is a Black woman doing whatever she wants and that thing isn’t good but it’s what the white man she’s hurting has lived like as long as he’s been alive. But that Cardi B song really makes it out to be triumphant when it’s actually pretty horrifying moment. The whole skin peeling off as it happens thing sure is an image with staying power, though.
So, yeah, this is an episode that left me feeling uneasy on the whole. In many moments, it’s artful and powerful. But I others, it’s messy in ways that aren’t particularly admirable. Like I said earlier, these are complications that are worth engaging with in a show as generally good as this one but engaging with them doesn’t mean moving past them. I hope Lovecraft Country grapples with at least some of this because it’s a show that I’ve loved. And I’d like it to continue to be.
