Lovecraft S1.06 — Sex kills
Tonight’s episode of Lovecraft Country was different than the others because it all took place in a flashback, which made it feel almost like a self-contained movie. While I mostly trust the writers, I am a little worried that HBO is falling into their favorite trap of spreading a story too thin and then rushing to wrap everything up at the end. But, I’m going to remain positive for now because I really am enjoying the show.
As we knew from last week’s trailer, tonight’s episode focuses on Ji-Ah, who was Tic’s lover when he was stationed in Korea. The episode begins before the war, though. It tells the story of Ji-Ah’s relationship with her mom — basically, her father brought dishonor to the family and it is up to Ji-Ah to restore it. She hopes she can do it through school, but her mom says she has to “bring home men.”
I thought it was weird that she said “men” instead of “a man,” but then they revealed the situation. And it’s totally normal! It turns out that Ji-Ah is actually a monster that was summoned by the mom to kill her husband. The monster, called a kumiho, lives inside the body of her daughter, who her husband was raping. The kumiho is described as a “a nine-tailed fox spirit that is summoned into the form of a beautiful woman to avenge the wrong done by men.” TOTALLY NORMAL!
When Ji-Ah brings a man home, she takes him into a separate room, lights a lot of candles (well actually she lights one candle and all of the others lit themselves. The man was unfazed), and…massive tails shoot out of all of her orifices and into the man as he writhes in pain. You know, a regular Saturday night! As she is attacking the man, she sees all of his memories. Then, he explodes in a sea of blood and Ji-Ah and her mother clean up. Her mother reminds her she needs to bring home 10 more men (to get to 100) so she can be free and “human again.”
As they are cleaning, Ji-Ah asks her mother about her husband and tries to understand why what he was doing to her daughter was wrong. Apparently, when she absorbs the souls of the men, she gains all of their memories. Her mom tries to convince Ji-Ah that her daughter is still in there, but Ji-Ah feels nothing of her. She is very unsure that absorbing the soul of the 100th man will make her human again because she has never been human before.
As if this situation could not get worse, cue the Americans. Tanks thunder down the street and men with machine guns yell “don’t be alarmed” — which is, of course, completely alarming. The hospital goes into overdrive with hurt soldiers pouring in. All of the staff are constantly covered in blood. Her best friend, Young-ja, is seen whispering with an orderly and later Ji-Ah confronts her about it. She realizes that they are both communists, but she doesn’t realize how bad that is until they see a communist sympathizer hanged in the street.
Things get worse when the nurses on Ji-Ah and Young-ja’s shift are rounded up by the American soldiers because there is a communist leaking information in their midst. The soldier asks them to confess and when no one does he shoots a nurse in the head. As he goes for another, his gun jams and he calls for his private, who is, obviously, Tic. He immediately shoots the girl next to Ji-Ah and when he points his gun at her, Young-ja confesses to save her. They take her away and Ji-Ah is left in the dirt with the 2 dead nurses.
A few months later, Tic is brought into the hospital. Ji-Ah recognizes him at first glance and decides she will take his soul as her 100th. Her mother, who had been angry with her since Ji-Ah reported that she wasn’t going to take a final soul, is overjoyed. She begins to interact with him, mainly begrudgingly at first, but then he sets up a secret date with her to watch the new Judy Garland movie and she realizes there is more to their relationship. She brings him back to her sex/murder room and we learn Tic is a virgin. He also tells her that he’s done some horrible things and she can definitely relate. They start to hook up but before it goes too far, she tells him to leave.
The next day, she confronts him at the base and tells him that he killed her best friend. She explains that she was going to kill him but she sees that the war has torn him apart. They see each other as complex people and they realize that there is hope for both of them. They kiss and later have sex. It seems like she is able to control her tails if she wants (or if the sex is just mediocre), so he survives.
Their relationship seems strong and a few months later (the episode is segmented by seasons) in winter 1950, he finds out he can go home. He asks her to come with him and they begin to have sex. It’s…really good and she forgets to control her tails. As they enter Tic, she sees his past and then his future. She sees him in bed with Leti and then she sees him attached to a table and clearly dying. Ji-Ah throws Tic off of her and yells at him not to go home because he will die. Obviously very concerned about what happened, Tic runs off.
Devastated, Ji-Ah finds comfort with her mother. They go to visit the shaman who summoned the kumiho to ask if Tic will actually die. The answer is not clear — probably because the future has not been determined yet. My guess is that they are going to bring Ji-Ah over to Chicago to help them fight. Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense for them to have gone through all of this backstory and character development. Plus, she is a badass character and I would love to see her go toe-to-toe with Christina.
Looks like next week will be a whole Hippolyta episode. I just hope all of the characters end up meeting her in Lovecraft Country because, well, that’s the name of the show and they were only there for like 5 minutes. Until next week!
Producer who loves TV, looking for my next opportunity to be creative & pet dogs. View all posts by lizziekreitman
Originally published at http://lizziekreitman.wordpress.com on September 21, 2020.