Henry is on a mission.

The end of episode 6 saw him attack a man from behind after being challenged, in that typical racist entitled way. Despite the nature of the encounter, it was hard not to sympathise with Henry and what he did.

However, Henry then doubles down – breaking into his boss’ house ostensibly to confront him, perhaps to kill him, but instead he finds the house apparently empty. Except he discovers after searching upstairs and down that it isn’t empty. We are left not knowing what happens next as the show switches away to other members of the family.

For the last couple of episodes Henry has been debating his life and his position with a man in minstrel makeup, straight out of the black and white minstrels. Except in this particular instance the minstrel is a black man under the makeup talking in the racist language the minstrels always used; cartoonish, grotesque, with a hint of the animalistic and ladles of threat in his face. Henry has accepted the presence of this caricature without question, quickly moving to treat it as a peer, as someone with wisdom to which he would listen.

Setting aside the reality that White people often see complaints by people of colour as focusing on something that’s not really there because they cannot see it, it’s worth spending a moment or two thinking about what this character represents both to Henry but also to the viewer.

The minstrel speaks of a time perhaps just after slavery but certainly where it is a living memory. When I use the word grotesque it is in the old fashioned sense of a person or idea which is overwrought and emotionally raw. Larger than life and gruesome too. Designed to frighten those which encounter it, the grotesque is threatening but also something we relish because we can project onto it that which we fear, that which we lust after and that which we believe we have left behind.

If the minstrel here is something of a mentor for Henry, it is one whose ideas Henry takes only where they fit with where his anger is already pointing him. It reminds Henry that although he can believe in progress he finds himself in the position of a dog being given scraps from the table which can be taken away as quickly as they are given. Not trusted but tolerated, not understood but categorised.

If the minstrel is trying to destroy Henry then Henry is a willing participant, walking the path with no real provocation and one begins to wonder if the evil in this show will lead to the destruction of everyone, not simply Henry and his family. Is Henry the cause of this situation, the catalyst maybe, while remaining blameless? It seems to me the evil sees the hostility of those on the street towards the Emorys and uses it against everyone, taking their prejudice to its ultimate expression.

Ruby, too, finds her course reaching its apotheosis. Her desire to fit in expressing itself as a desire to become White and to be no different from those around her. It started with a disturbing dance routine in episode 6 and culminates here in a moment of absolute horror. Everything that is beautiful about Ruby is taken from her, twisted and then destroyed.

As for Lucky, we see her most clearly interacting with the spirit as it might actually be, with results that whilst only nearly catastrophic remain a disaster. In contrast to Henry her self-destruction is not outwardly focused but inwardly, on her family and on her own self.

All three experience a moment of clarity and in a rush of coming together realise they need to leave, and leave now. Yet events taking place elsewhere conspire against them and in the series’ weakest element we continue to follow Betty as she falls into the hands of yet another abuser. The tropes around Betty are infuriating; childlessness, an ineffectual gay husband, the theft of her savings kept from her, and abusive men all around. All of these things remain unnecessary and serve to give the White people around her who she has provoked into extreme racist behaviour a pass because her moral failings (and by extension theirs) appear to stem clearly from her own trauma.

As the family pack and try to flee, Henry makes a gruesome discovery and what could have been a fatal showdown with their neighbours collapses into a public display of grief. The Emorys do not get away and we are heading into the home straight.

Rating? 7 out of 10.

Stewart Hotston