Stewart Hotston’s commentary on the themes and allusions present in the eighth episode of the HBO series…

 

Faith and Christianity are the framework around which this episode is built. It is full of prayer, of discussions about miracles and magic, about God and immortality and it’s deeper in the marrow too. It’s not the only set of reference points this week by far – we see allusion to Achilles and his mother Thetis, pleading for his protection from prophesied glorious death. We also see the return of a certain Kumiho in an all too brief scene where she is abused by people making lots of bad decisions.

The lead in to Christianity doesn’t start in episode 8; it goes all the way back to the beginning and Titus’ quest to remake the garden of Eden using God’s own words. Indeed much of the series is about hunting down the ancient creator’s language to use it for our own ends. It’s a gnostic view of Christianity and one which denies certain central tenets (such as Jesus actually being the ‘word’ in question) but is a fairly popular twist in mainstream tellings of this kind of horror.

However, the best place to start is in episode 7. When Hippolyta asked the Cosmic Woman of Colour her name she simply replied ‘I Am.’ The immediate place to go for the allusion here is not the old testament. The Tetragrammaton, or the four letters God tells Moses comprise his name at the burning bush are really something more complex, a present imperfect for which there isn’t a good translation into English except by layering several possible versions. Perhaps the closest single phrase is ‘I will be what I will be,’ and remember to note that it’s imperfect, so there is a sense of becoming in the idea, not a sense of fatalism.

The better place to see what Hippolyta was hearing, and what happened to her, is in the gospel of John where the guards and priests come to arrest Jesus and when they ask if he is Jesus, he replies with the phrase, ‘I Am.’ Everyone present is described as ‘falling back’ at his answer both because of the allusion to him being identified as the same as God but also because it implies a completeness not present when God spoke to Moses.

The idea comes into this week with several of the characters; Ruby, Tic and Leti, all looking to become in some way or other but all having to trust on faith their efforts will yield something they can’t yet articulate.

When Ji Ah (amazingly) turns up to talk to Tic they also can’t help but translate her own identity into one they feel they can understand. It’s one of several misunderstandings in this episode and each one of them lead to minor and major catastrophes.

Ji Ah becomes a demon in their reinterpretation, a succubus, something deeply mired in Catholic thinking about women’s bodies and the evil of sex. This isn’t to excuse how women are treated in Ji Ah’s own context, but it does somewhat reveal the problem Tic (and Leti) have with their own view of the world. They are victims of the roads they’ve travelled to get to where they are.

Tic, rather than being able to see Ji Ah as the potential ally she could be rejects her out of hand and with great verbal violence. Despite Leti’s own ability to move on, he can’t.

Let’s come back to Christianity and Lovecraft Country. Cristina and Leti have a discussion in a church where Leti is praying for Tic’s life. They talk about miracles and magic and try to navigate their way to understanding if there’s a difference. One thinks no and the other yes, but neither is able to articulate why clearly and so they leave with this ambiguity at the heart of their understanding.

What Leti does say is Titus and Cristina’s obsession is that of Babel – to make a Name for themselves and so change their very natures. Part of us sympathises, especially with Cristina but part of us knows it’s something bigger than us and, perhaps, best left alone. To put it differently, you wouldn’t want me having that kind of power and, honestly, probably not yourself. Cristina sees only herself and in a discussion about compassion and suffering with Ruby she effectively gaslights her, telling Ruby that her feelings for others aren’t real, that she only really cares for herself and feels (unnecessary) guilt because of it. Ruby cannot articulate that it’s OK to feel both grief and concern for herself because she feels guilty at not being completely consumed by the grief she sees others feeling.

For me Cristina is increasingly obviously Tic’s antagonist and so the pieces arrange themselves accordingly. She is not evil as such but her fixation on power as the way to protect herself has drained her of her humanity. Ruby challenges her and we see Cristina try to understand how Ruby is feeling through the most extreme experiment one might want to experience.

Finally we have the ‘mark of Cain,’ the supposed marking God put on Cain after sending him into exile as a murderer. Cristina suggests it’s more than that and grants it to Leti in return for the language of God itself.

There are deep themes here of sin (without needing to refer to the exit track for the series, Sinnerman), of how it sits at the door waiting to be invited in (to quote Genesis). We see it everywhere, we see how the sins of the fathers are visited on their children and how legacy keeps us grasped in its clutches so that without the help of someone outside of us we end up ensnared and threatened with death. I was reminded of Kierkegaard and his idea of the sickness unto death, which the philosopher saw as what happens to us when we don’t align ourselves to God, to be what we should be. It’s how we lose ourselves. His three types of despair are threaded through the show in every action where people try to claim space in the world. In some ways there is no Lovecraft and certainly no Lovecraft Country without existentialism and without Christianity.

All this discussion only really covers half the episode. The other half is about Diana Freeman, Hippolyta’s daughter. Without her mother and in the face of the death of her best friend she is left adrift in grief and anger. Cornered and threatened (in a particularly disturbing set of scenes inspired by Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the famous anti-slavery novel) she determines to fight, to shape her own world, except in another case of misunderstanding leading to catastrophe we see her brave, heroic soul undone by someone who thinks they’re protecting her.

I was desperate for Hipployta to return and her absence was felt deeply in this week’s episode.

Diana’s actions bring the Chicago lodge to Leti’s home to take what they believe is theirs. When they can’t their anger leads to an extraordinarily violent confrontation where they determine if they can’t have something then they will destroy everything to do with it. Including Leti, Ruby, Tic and anyone nearby.

Tic and Montrose effect some kind of reconciliation and there’s a moment when Tic sits down next to Montrose then shifts an inch away. In his face you see the reason – that he’s unable to reconcile with his father so easily even if it’s what he wants. That inch is subtle but so powerful. They try spells of their own and learn that just like prayer, there’s no way of knowing whether it’s worked until it’s really obvious.

In Tic’s case the police shoot him but before the bullet can strike him down the effect of their apparently failed spell arrives and protects the shit out of Tic.

Will it be enough to defeat Cristina?

What has happened to Hippolyta and her daughter, Diana?

Has Ji Ah really left town?

Which road is Ruby taking; the one of personal ambition or the one where she discovers we only have each other and in isolation we even lose ourselves?

I ended this episode delighted and thrilled and hungry for the last two to come. But I’m scared because I can’t tell you who’s going to live and who’s going to die, for surely some won’t make it through.

Click here to read our previous reviews and commentaries on Lovecraft Country