Lovecraft Country S01E07 Review: I Am

Tic, Leti and Montrose are all still struggling with their secrets. And if it just affected them, I’d probably feel differently. But the fact is, their keeping secrets is unkind at the very least and at the most, actively harmful, bordering on cruel.

I am thinking of both Ruby and Hippolyta when I say this. Not telling Ruby about what happened can probably be forgiven, considering that I doubt that any of them ever dreamed that William would go after her. Or, you know, that William doesn’t actually exist. Like Dell, he’s just a husk for shape-shifting now.

But with Hippolyta, it’s harder to square. She knows something isn’t right with the story they gave her about George’s death. It’s probably the way they shift their eyes when the subject comes up. Without the facts, though, she’s just kind of stuck. She does visit the ruins of Ardham house, where she finds George’s copy of the Orithyia Blue comic, but not much more.

In the end, it’s the orrery that helps her. It doesn’t tell her what happened to George, no, but it does something else. It opens up the universe.

But before we visit other dimensions, we must concern ourselves with the details of this one. To wit, uh, Leti’s probably pregnant. And she definitely cannot drop that on Tic right now, because he and she just caught Montrose with Sammy. Tic didn’t take it well, mostly because he seemed to realize that Montrose’s abuse was rooted in fear and self-hate.

Instead, he goes off to St. Louis, to speak with a woman who was friends with his mom’s cousin. He’s trying to find the Book of Names, which both he and Leti have dreamed about. Sadly, though, Bertie, the cousin’s friend, says that all was lost in the Tulsa Massacre. Mmmmm, I have a feeling the Book is still out there, though.

So while he does that, and Leti stays behind to look after Dee (and make amends with Ruby), Hippolyta is following the orrery’s directions. Her seeing Bessie Stringfield, who famously rode a motorcycle across the contiguous United States, is good foreshadowing. The world is about to become a lot bigger for Hippolyta.

The orrery takes her to an observatory in Kansas, where she figures out how to use the machine inside. Captain Lancaster’s tentacles reach this far, though, and the local cops keep a watch on the place. Also, Tic finds her there somehow. Anyway, after shoving one of the cops into another dimension, she too is sucked into another world.

Hippolyta finds herself on a spaceship, maybe (?). It’s not a prison, though, and it takes her some time to realize that she can be anyone, go anywhere, as soon as she names what she wants. It’s understandable why this concept would be unfamiliar to a Black woman in 1950s America.

At first, she names what seems to be the first thing that comes to mind–dancing with Josephine Baker in Paris. And she does that for a while. Then she appears to be one of the Mino, the so-called “Dahomey Amazons,” the female soldiers in what would become the Republic of Benin. In this world, they fight Confederate soldiers. Sure.

And then she’s back with George, where she’s able to confront him for the role he played in making her life small. It’s not that he didn’t love her, because of course, he did, but that it was easier to have her home. In this dimension, she’s able to tell him how that felt and she’s able to have him apologize.

Apology accepted, she then explores outer space, like Orithyia Blue, the heroine she inspired in Dee’s comic. Like the Book of Names, though, I’m sure she’ll be back.

In the meantime, though, Tic returns from whence he came with a paperback copy of Lovecraft Country, a book written by one George Freeman. So, uh, what was he doing in the other dimensions?

9/10 – In the book, Hippolyta uses the orrery and the observatories to explore other planetary dimensions. While I really liked that chapter and story, I also really enjoyed this version, which is more centered on Hippolyta herself. I don’t know how this all ties into the greater story yet, but I appreciated that they gave her the opportunity to uninterrupt herself and her life. Without, you know, grotesque violence (outside of combat).

Also, I need everyone’s outfits, especially that dress Leti wore.

And if you’d like to read a bit of Hippolyta’s story from the book, you can do that here. (Remember that Horace in the book was changed to Diana on the show.)

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InstaGlam

6 months ago

They are surprisingly bad liars, aren’t they? And unfortunately, they’re trying to fool the smartest one of the bunch. I kind of wish Hippolyta’s conversation with George had gone a different way though.

skyler2001r

Reply to InstaGlam

How so? I’m glad she was able to figure out the whole George mess. I thought it was good of her to accept an apology. I was glad that she requested to be where he was. Yes, they are bad liars.

Samuel234

Reply to skyler2001r

Yeah I thought the conversation/scene went great too. It was important for her to know what happened to George. I still secretly hoped that George was alive.

The_Odds

This episode was my favourite by far and I finally figured out why Hippolyta looked so familiar to me. The actress was recently in a biopic as the mother of the gospel singing Clark Sisters. It was a fantastic show.

Shane

I didn’t like this episode, with its focus on Hippolyta. I wasn’t sure why I should be invested in her. Wasn’t sure why she was being featured. Never identified with her as any kind of main or sympathetic character. Last I checked, she stole an orrery from her friend’s house. Not a character that I’m interested in. Also wasn’t interested in the random machine that ‘opened the universe’. The hunt was for the pages, suddenly they’ve got this machine. Just….eh.

Reply to Shane

Really? I found it interesting watching her learn what she could do. I get what you’re saying though. Maybe next episode will tie her in a little better. I was just glad that I understood this one better.

Drewsi

I thought the random machine that opened up the universe was pretty cool. I actually enjoyed the episode. It was interesting to see how Hippolyta figured it all out and also figured out what happened to George.

Silver

I didn’t like it either, just not for the same reasons. I’m guessing the machine could be used to help translate the pages and find the rest, but it felt like a disjointed wrinkle in the story. I care about Hippolyta since it’s easy to see that she didn’t buy their story, but she wrecked any feelings of goodwill when she found George and really let him have it. The episode seemed to drag and it didn’t really further the story.

I enjoyed it and thought focusing on one or two characters made it easier to follow, but I do wonder where they’re going with this. I think this first season wraps up in mid-October, so I hope something significant happens soon.

I have the exact same feelings. We need something big to happen. I agree that I liked the focus on just a couple of characters. In the first couple of episodes I was lost.

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Lovecraft Country S01E07 Review: I Am – Hippolyta!

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