Lovecraft Country S1.04 — Underwater
Tonight’s episode of Lovecraft Country felt a little off to me. The characters were making a few too many silly decisions and the story was a touch too easy, in my opinion.
To start, Christina visits the Winthrope House but she is unable to enter because the blood on the doorway acts as a barrier (good to know). After telling Leti she is looking for the solar system (that Hippolyta apparently took), she tries to convince Leti that she’s more on her side than the men. It doesn’t go well and Christina leaves.
Leti confronts Tic at the library, much to the dismay of a young boy trying to read his book at the same table. They are mad at each other again, though the reasoning is pretty thin. Ostensibly it’s because he didn’t tell her about Christina, but I feel like the back & forth will-they-won’t-they is not that exciting anymore.
When he won’t tell her anything of worth, Leti storms out to find Montrose, who clearly already knows everything. Tic realizes she’s right and confronts both of them. Meanwhile, Montrose has been drinking, crying, laughing, and reading the rulebook for the Sons of Adam (before burning the book) — you know, a regular Tuesday afternoon. After a lot of arguing, he agrees to help them find Titus’ vault so they can hopefully uncover the lost pages.
They realize that it is likely in the museum in Boston where Titus donated a lot of money and artifacts that he was “given” (read: looted). The new threesome packs into Woody, along with Hippolyta and Dee and Tree. FYI in case you forgot, Tree is:
- The guy from the bar who told Tic to go outside when “Sammy” (not positive who he is) was getting a blowjob from another guy
- Also he was the one who told Tic that he saw Montrose get into the car with the white man (William) in the first episode
- And he’s the guy who saw Leti dancing with the other man at the party and told Tic that he already “hit that” in high school but he would back off from her if Tic was interested
- He also insinuated that he thinks Montrose is gay
- And apparently he has a big dick
Anyway, the group arrives at the museum and Montrose meets up with a security guard he knows from the bar. The guard tells him he’ll open a backdoor for them that night. They go to the Titus Braithewhite wing and pretty much immediately find the vault. When they return at night, the moon happens to be in the perfect position to illuminate the vault door. Then, much like in Harry Potter, Tic goes down first. He tries to make it all about him, but Leti and Montrose quickly follow.
In the pit, they are faced with three tunnels. They decide on the north one because Titus’ last adventure was to the Caribbean. They walk and generally argue for a while before arriving at a long, thin plank. It is booby-trapped, but they make it across. As they continue walking, they realize the tide is rising. More arguing and walking and then they come across the dead body of Leti’s neighbor and the elevator from her house.
Ok so either they walked all the way to Chicago or there is some magic elevator connection. Honestly, in this show, either option is possible. Tic tries to get Leti and Montrose to take the elevator up and Leti rips into him to tell him to stop being so selfish and to realize that they are in this too (basically every scene in the last third of all Harry Potter s). That shuts him up and then they arrive at the vault door. After they remove an arm stuck in the door, Tic puts his arm through and his blood opens the vault.
Inside the vault is a tableau made up of human skeletons. An indigenous family is sitting down for a meal, including a breastfeeding baby. Up above, a skeleton sits at a desk holding onto a roll of papers — clearly the pages they need. As Tic grabs the roll, the skeleton reanimates into a two-spirit (hermaphroditic) woman. She speaks in Arwak, which Tic understands and translates. She explains that Titus sought her help in translating the pages and she aided him for a while until she realized he was evil. She stopped and he took her and her family to that prison. But, when Tic asks for help, she denies him as well.
Montrose won’t take no for an answer, though, and grabs the pages from her. All of the windows explode and water flows in. Montrose grabs the woman and they all swim out and into the elevator. Whoever was holding onto the pages (Montrose I think) lets go, but Leti swims out at the last second to grab them. They rise up and out of the water. To celebrate, Tic kisses Leti…which is so silly. But whatever. Then, the woman makes the most awful screaming noise and Tic punches her.
Back in Leti’s house, Tic realizes that Titus turned her into a siren so she can’t speak if she is out of the vault. He plans to teach her English so she can help him translate the pages and then he can help change her back. But, he doesn’t get the chance because as soon as he leaves her, Montrose walks into the room, closes the door, and slits her throat.
So! It seems like Montrose is potentially on the Braithewhite side after all. Or at least, he is not completely on Tic’s side. We shall see where that progresses.
Briefly, other storylines in the ep: Leti’s sister arrives at the department store to apply for the job only to find out that they hired their first (and presumably only) Black employee the day before. She is heartbroken. After a sullen show at the bar, she is approached by William, who buys her many drinks and listens to her life story. He tells her he can give her anything he wants in life and takes her home. They have sex (also she cuts her hand in the middle and he licks it — gross).
Also, Christina is taken in by the police after playing hide and seek with a bunch of kids (weird) and we find out that the Captain of the force is also either in the Order or trying to get into the Order. He also probably has some sort of torture chamber connected to his office because she was talking to him but looking out of an off-screen window and the subtitles kept saying “moans” or “cries.”
Finally, Hippolyta and Dee are driving back from Boston to Chicago and wondering how the heck the rest of them made it back without a car. When she sees Dee doodling in the atlas, Hippolyta decides to return to Lovecraft Country to “get some answers.” That is a really silly idea but I guess it ensures that the group will also return to Lovecraft Country when they invariably need saving.
Next week looks like Leti’s sister will get more screen time and I assume Montrose will either have to come up with a good story for the siren’s death or something. Until then!
Originally published at http://lizziekreitman.wordpress.com on September 7, 2020.