Recap: ‘Lovecraft Country’ Episode 8: “Jig-a-Bobo”

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HBO

If you missed this weeks episode of Lovecraft Country, you picked a bad week to miss the show.

The episode starts by showing large crowds marching through the streets. It looks like a large funeral procession, until it’s revealed that this is in response to the death of Emmett Till.

Diana, Atticus’ younger cousin, is overwhelmed by the event and runs off from the crowd. Arriving at her home, her uncle approaches her aggressively, forcing her to lock herself in her room. A copy of Uncle Tom’s Cabin falls from her bookshelf, the image on the cover depicting a stereotypical, racist picture of a little black girl. As her uncle becomes more aggressive with his door pounding, Diana sneaks out the fire escape.

As she ducks down an alley, two white police officers trap her and cast a spell on her. This spell results in two girls, almost zombie-like in appearance, dancing around erratically. Both look like haunted, real-life versions of the girl on the cover of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The episode intertwines between her story, with the two girls following Diana everywhere with no one else able to detect them, and Atticus.

Atticus’ story this week has a lot going on. He confronts Christina asking to learn magic, to which she promises to help him learn. Especially since she’s working on “unlocking immortality”. Then, in her male persona, Christina goes to visit Ruby. Since Emmett Till’s death, Ruby has been feeling apocalyptic about her place in society. She chastises Christina for using the male persona to meet her personal needs without attempting to make things better. And then they have sex. With the spell making them their alternate personalities.

We also have an appearance from Ji-Ah, who has arrived to tell Atticus she knows how he’s going to die. She remained silent because, as she explains, no one has survived who has slept with her. She didn’t know what to make of the visions she had of his life. And then Letitia gets mad because, in spite of the relationship having happened while he was in Korea and before a relationship with Leti, Ji-Ah had been in love with Atticus.

Montrose comes out to Atticus in this episode as well. Atticus asks him if he had ever cheated on his mother, and Montrose unloads. He tells the story of a preacher that was accused of being gay, taken to an institution, and had a lobotomy. “I chose a life over a damn asylum, jail cell, or being found dead in the bathroom of a public park,” he opines to Atticus. And Atticus reveals he knows that. He knows that and more.

Pulling a book from his pocket, a book called Lovecraft Country, he has Montrose explore the back. At the bottom is an image of a a black man, the author of the book.
“That’s my son,” Atticus tells Montrose. “This is the story of our family.” He reveals Leti’s pregnant, but doesn’t know it yet, and that he is soon to die. Though reassuring that he has until the autumnal equinox, Montrose states “That’s five days from now.”

Oh, and Christina is going to do it to “unlock immortality”.

Letitia, torn about how to feel about Atticus’ situation, goes to her home with Ruby. As they’re discussing current conflicts, a loud knock comes from the front door, and they notice a squad of police cars out side their home. When invited in, the officers are blocked by an invisible barrier. Leti tells Ruby it’s because they’re likely magic too. However, now they know the women practice magic. And a hail of gunfire comes through the walls.

The episode is full of emotional, tense moments between characters. There is a number of acts where violence is brought upon others, some there and some only in the attacker’s mind. That coupled with more racist cops, and we all know what has happened in this series to the characters that exhibit racism in this series. Let’s just say the aliens from the first episode make a comeback.

Lovecraft Country airs Sunday nights on HBO.


RELATED: Check out all of our Lovecraft Country coverage!

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