Welcome to Multiversity Comics’ coverage of Lovecraft Country! This is the buzziest HBO series since last year’s Watchmen and by the will of God, it’s regained its “lives up to the hype” status. This week, the show goes further than its ever gone in a glorious, ambitious outing.
1. Bounce Back
A warm welcome back to the Lovecraft Country I love. The first couple of episodes of this show were superlative. The next couple were very good but messy. The next couple were trying their best but messy in a way that made them hard to love. The superb “I Am” is a return to the promise of the first two episodes of this show. It’s bold and both politically and personally poignant. It’s another home run at a moment that the series needed one. On all fronts, this is an episode that works. It almost feels silly to complain about any part of this episode because it’s truly all great stuff and each and every plot thread is moved forward in meaningful ways and the execution is great. However, the Hippolyta material is significantly more interesting than anything else that’s going on even before she’s transported through space and time. It captured my attention so fully that when I wasn’t watching her, I was itching to get back to her story, even though I was watching stuff better than most other tv. I’m sure there’s plenty in store for the next couple of episodes and most of this couldn’t wait but I would’ve been happy with an episode of all Hippolyta.
2. Family Issues Abound
The first half of the issue features quite a bit of meaty familial drama. First, Tic and Leti see Montrose saying goodbye to his boyfriend and Tic is…not enlightened to say the least. Montrose is obviously enraged and shattered and Michael K. Williams plays the moment in a way that’s almost hard to watch it’s so sad. Tic’s reaction is partially by the fact that Montrose beat Tic in part because he didn’t want Tic to “turn out soft.” In a show that doesn’t shy away from tough material and isn’t fond of easy answers, this is definitely the right creative choice even if it is heartbreaking. The amount of baggage that exists between Tic and Montrose could fill the bottom of a plane at this point and I hope the show gives them a chance to reconcile because I assume that one of them is going to be dead before this is all over. On a more positive note, Leti apologizes to Ruby and it’s a nice step toward reconciliation; maybe even nicer is the fact that the show doesn’t treat an apology as the end of the tensions between them. Oh also, Leti is certainly pregnant with Tic’s child and that is a situation that’s sure to lead to something crazy. This kid is going to bee a direct descendent of Titus Braithwhite and given what we saw happen to Tic, that’s sure to make an impact on the future of the show.
3. Christina and Ruby
Christina Braithwhite is still up to something with Ruby, though it’s not too clear exactly what. There’s an interesting dynamic between these two women. Both are on the outskirts of their families and grasping for whatever control or power they can. Christina is trying to get revenge for William but also wants to gain power in her own right. Ruby just wants to live a normal human life and lacks the freedom that her sister seems to enjoy. Whatever it is that their partnership (for lack of a better word) is building toward, I’m excited to see it.
4. Hippolyta’s Adventure (Part 1)
“I Am” is the episode that Hippolyta finally asserts herself as a main character. She makes her time machine work in a moment that feels genuinely full of wonder and delight that gave me the same feeling that Jumanji did when I first saw it at the age of 9. It leads her to coordinates that she has to drive to and she rejects Tic and Leti when they try to get the car for their own escapades- her life and priorities are important and she’s going to make sure other people know that now. As she activates the mysterious machine at her destination, Hippolyta is found by police. Tic arrives on the scene as the officers are about to attack her and then things go really crazy. A portal opens, first taking one of the two officers, then taking Hippolyta after she’s shot and killed the other, leaving Tic behind. From here, things kick into high gear and the episode starts to transcend almost anything that we’ve seen before in a story that’s part Cloud Atlas part 2001: A Space Odyssey all Lovecraft Country. Hippolyta wakes up on a spaceship where a giant Black woman assures her she is not a prisoner. Soon, Hippolyta gains the ability to travel whenever and wherever she pleases. First, she lives her dream life performing with Josephine Baker. She starts out starstruck and sloppy but bonds with Baker, then gets better and more comfortable, then joyous. During a discussion with Baker, she speaks of the rage she feels living as a Black woman. Suddenly, she gains an outlet for that anger as she is transported to trains as an actual Amazon. It allows her to be powerful in a way that isn’t born out of dealing with oppression but out of holding actual power in the world. The amazons fight white male soldiers and Hippolyta leads the charge. This is all insane, mind-bending, beautiful stuff. It’s full of great commentary and it somehow isn’t the craziest or best part of the episode.
5. Hippolyta’s Adventure (Part 2)
“I Am” reaches its height when Hippolyta goes to be with George. Courtney B. Vance’s face presence in the episode is more than welcome; his presence is like your first calm breath after a primal scream for Hippolyta and so it is for us, too. Vance and Aunjanue Ellis are also very good together and we only got a few minutes of them as a couple so it’s nice to see them here. Before she can really bask in being with him again, though, she confronts him about the ways in which he held her back and helped her minimize herself. Then, unlike most men, he apologizes. And it’s a real, genuine, thoughtful apology. With that, they choose to explore the universe together. They go to the alien worlds that their daughter, Diana, invented in her comics and George is the right hand man. Hippolyta’s story ends on its trippiest, most beautiful note. She finds herself in space, speaking to a giant, cosmic, Black woman, being inducted into some kind of society of discoverers. It’s a visually gorgeous sequence and a touching one, as well. Aunjanue Ellis makes all of this surreal material feel absolutely grounded in real emotions and experiences. She’s traveling through time and space, living dreams and power fantasies and lost moments that every living person wants to but and it feels not only believable but just. Hippolyta is a genius and a discoverer and she’s destined for greatness. In “I Am,” she finally gets her due. There is danger on the horizon though. The episode ends with Tic, running from a room where he’s alone with a dead cop, grabbing everything he can but forgetting one vital piece of evidence: Diana’s comic. This episode is Lovecraft Country at its best: ambitious and touching and nothing like anything you’ve seen on television before.
