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After what felt like an ending of a show in Episode 2, Episode 3 of Lovecraft Country, titled Holy Ghost, starts to tease where we are going in the series more than the second episode ever did. The show throws in a ghost story as a bridge to the rest of the series so let's dig in...
Jurnee Smollett gets to shine as she is front and centre of this week's episode, from story to performance to themes.
Leti gets one of her heart's desires that was planted in Episode 1, which is moving on up to the surburbs. But the surburb has issues and it's not just the racist white folks.
Her move to the haunted house becomes a crucible of sorts, where she needs to face up to her own selfish desires and a false sense of who she is whilst dealing with ghosts and racist neighbours.
Jurnee Smollett shows off her range; she can play the sexy vixen, she can be the tough chick who's wielding a bat like Harley Quinn and she can do terrified well.
The episode gives her plenty of chances to be terrified. From the ghost in the mirror, to the lady whose mouth had been obliterated, to ghosts from pictures.
The ghosts in the house are creepy as hell, and I loved the twist that the show gives to the standard haunted house fare.
These ghosts are not just evil spirits up to no good but souls of black people who have been tortured by the evil white scientist who previously owned the house. It's cool to see Leti move from fearing the ghost to her calling on them by name to help in her moment of need.
And they answer her call, which in return restores them from ghoulish beings that the white man had made them into as they get transformed back to who they were before they were experimented on and killed. More importantly, the combined ghosts and Leti are able to exorcise the house of the evil white man.
There are some great subthemes in that whole ghost story. From touching on how science has a very bad rep when it comes to what it's done to the black bodies in the pursuit of knowledge, whether it be during the era of eugenics to early gynaecology. Basically another episode of how white history has issues with blackness.
Whilst commenting on medical malpractice done to the black body, Episode 3 threw some breadcrumbs hinting at what is to come beyond the episode.
For one, Hippolyta is still mourning Uncle George's death and the ghost led her to a room with an Orrery that has more planets than there are in our solar system.
But,at that same time, Orrery disappeared when the three racists barged into the same room... meaning Hippolyta may have ran off with it but why? To what end?
Then there was the quick wink and you will miss it scene, where Diana, Hippolyta's daughter was playing with Emmett Till with the Ouija board.
The board tells Emmet Till that he's not going to have a great time in Mississippi and tells Diana that "George is dead", which freaks her out and plants its own seed about the youngest Freeman's possible interaction with the supernatural.
But the biggest carrot left dangling is Christina, whom we see didn't die with her father after a couple of pages of The Book of Names were stolen by Horatio Winthrope, who was part of the Sons of Adam wizard club that we saw in previous episodes.
Winthrope has hidden the pages somewhere in the house so Christina has been playing puppet master all along to get Atticus and Leti to the house so they can find it for her. The question is: why doesn't she look for it herself? Yep, the plot thickens.
So the arc that we saw in the first episode is not over... the game is still afoot and the wizards are not done with Atticus and his companions, getting Leti the money and pretending that it's from her mom.
I bet the end goal is to get Atticus and Leti to find the letters, but what is Hippolyta's role in all this? The three white racists who died trying to invade the house... their bodies were dumped in the secret passage downstairs with the magical runes. Was this done by Atticus or by some other power? Time will tell.
So I was happier with Episode 3 than with 2, although I still feel most of the white guys are one note bad guy racists. It's still some good TV though, which delivers on jump scares and creepiness, whilst touching on greater historical issues and I'm glad the series seems to still have an overreaching story it wants to tell.
It felt like: The Exorcist without the puking and levitation.
Verdict : ***
Index:
* stay away **ja nee *** not bad ****almost perfect ****Instant classic
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