Make sure you’ve taken your lorazepam before starting this week’s episode. It starts with a bit of a jolt.
Episode five has us open with Ruby waking in William’s house…in Dell’s body. Dell, the woman Letitia struck with a shovel in “Whitey’s On the Moon”. Meanwhile, Atticus and Letitia find Montrose alone. It’s only strange because they thought he Montrose had been with Yahima. And when Atticus realizes Yahima is dead, he launches an assault on Montrose.
Ruby uses her whiteness to push the single black employee at the department store she manages. She has infiltrated a white environment, using coded language to try and fit in while still sounding superior to her one black employee. All while trying to build her up.
Montrose, broken and bruised, makes his way to bar owner Sammy’s home. Their reunion is clearly appreciated by both of them. Because sex. But because of their reunion, Montrose is now more involved in an atmosphere he clearly has wanted to be a part of. This episode covers a number of human rights issues, but this one is front-and-center for the narrative around Montrose.
It’s clear Montrose had difficulty in a hetero-normative family structure. His backstory is one fraught with addiction, absenteeism, and just a general sense of depression. When he is with Sammy in this episode, all becomes clear. He’s with someone he loves. He sits back and acts as a fly on the wall as Sammy, and several others, prepare for a drag show. During said performance, Montrose dances. He embraces Sammy and kisses him.
This is in contrast with parallel scenes involving Letitia and Atticus as they explore their romantic feelings for each other. It feels like a self-check implanted by the creative team. If you object to this, then why didn’t you object with the other couple?
Tying it together with the story around Montrose, it’s clear the story is focused on LGBTQ discrimination.
The story involving Ruby, from “Jekyll and Hyde Park” taken from Matt Ruff’s novel, makes more sense in the scope of LGBTQ or a focus in gender and race privilege. The horror of Ruby’s visage as Dell slipping away shows the horrors she is willing to go through in order to gain the many benefits she lacks as a black woman in 1950’s America. Likewise, we discover that Christina was William all along. She used his male designation to obtain a benefit she lacked as a woman.
It’s a heavy episode, with the team asking you to check your own biases when you consume media. They show the struggle of many groups, and the importance of intersectionality in our desire for equality. Coming from a creative team looking to turn the racism of H.P. Lovecraft on its head, they remind us that we can’t tune out politics when they’ve been intertwined with people’s lives.
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