Lovecraft Country, Episode 7 ‘I Am’ Recap and Review

This seems to be a Hippolyta heavy episode which has me stoked. It also ends up being really heavy in Afrofuturism which is rad as hell. If you want to catch up on the other episodes check them out here.

Hippolyta opens the episode by looking through her notes and messing around with solar system. We get a quick flash back to three days ago where she seems to be combing through the ruins of the Braithwhite mansion after it burnt down. Hippolyta is working with the orrery to try and crack the code. As she picks through the burnt debris she find the comic book her daughter drew amongst the rubble. Finally she figures it out and the solar system starts to move on its own. It opens up and she finds a key. It is game on and Hippolyta is raring to play.

Christina is downstairs in the house and shows Ruby that there are two bodies she is drawing blood from. We also see the dead body of Hilary is one of them. The serum comes from their blood. We learn Christina turns into Will partially because The Order of Adam does not allow women in it. Christina is quite the mage and her magic is pretty powerful. Ruby and Christina seem to be creating an Alliance. Ruby demands the truth and Christina seems primed to give it her.

Leti is having a dream about the manor burning down and her being pregnant. The baby seems to burn her alive. Not being subtle with the metaphor here. She wakes up and finds Atticus in the other room. She comes out and gives him a big kiss. He in turn hugs her back. He has been up translated The Order’s writings. They talk about how Atticus’s mother ran out the front door (Her name is Hannah) and survived the original fire. She then reveals that she has had a dream about her. Both Atticus and her share a moment. Atticus thinks that Hannah stole The Book of Names. It is a race to find out where it’s at.

Montrose and Sammy are hanging out at Montrose’s house. Sammy spent the night and now he is making breakfast. They flirt and share some sweet moments. There is some talk that maybe someone saw Sammy when he went to the store earlier in the morning. Sammy and Montrose have a fight and Montrose runs out into the hallway to apologize and grabs Sammy’s hand. Atticus and Leti catch them and Atticus calls him a faggot. NOT A GOOD LOOK ATTICUS. Atticus asks if his mom knows and Montrose says yes. Atticus runs out. Outside he clearly is not processing this information particularly well. Leti meets him outside and tells him she talked to Montrose and that there are relatives in St. Louis who have information regarding his mother. Atticus is mostly angry because he got beat so hard for being soft. His father WAS abusive.

Hippolyta is headed out on the road and Ruby is there to watch her daughter as she leaves for the road trip. Atticus and Leti get there right as she is leaving. They want to borrow the car she is about to leave in. She tells them to essentially go to hell and takes off. A plan B will have to be developed as they have no other way to travel. Atticus mentions the bus perhaps.

Leti moves inside to talk to Ruby. They still have some anger they need to work through. Leti apologizes for creating the last fight. Leti admits she was becoming their mother and that she tried to hustle Ruby which was unfair. Ruby mentions that their momma never apologized so clearly they are different.

Now onto Hippolyta’s grand adventure. She is listening to some classic French music and looking at the Atlas as she drives. A strange Black women drives by on a motorcycle, but she takes it as a good omen and keeps driving.

Atticus arrives in St. Louis to visit his relatives. Later at dinner he chats with his cousin, about how she met Atticus’ cousin Ethel. The conversation turns to his mother. He mentions The Book of Names but she mentions the family bible that she always carried and how The Book of Names could have been that bible. He inquires about its whereabouts and she tells him that it was probably burnt up by white people along time ago.

We are now in Maysfield. Hippolyta arrives at a giant Observatory. Ruby and Leti are entertaining a group of ten year old girls and they discuss where Ruby has been spending her time. Conversation turns to Atticus. Ruby asks her to taste the tomato saucea nd Leti can’t. The garlic makes her nauseous. Uh Ohhhhhhh her comes the baby action.

Atticus is looking at a picture album and notices a picture with someone who has the same birthmark as he has. As he looks at his birthmark Leti calls. She found the orrery and is worried Hippolyta might be in danger. Leti has found the coordinates and relays them to Atticus.

Hippolyta enters observatory and there is a place for her key. She inserts the key and a machine whirls to life. A series of numbers comes out of the orrery and she starts to do some mathematics to fill out the puzzle of the numbers on the machine. She is a genius. She figures out the equation and heads back to the machine. The machine has a key board and a number of dials. She starts to turn the dials.

Two white cops show up and pull their guns and threaten to shoot her. Atticus shows up and fights with the two guards. Just as the fight gets heated the machine starts to whirl louder and opens a portal to somewhere. Atticus throws one of the guards into it. Hippolyta shoots the other one and then gets sucked into the portal as well.

We get the exact astrological coordinates right before we see that she seems to be on a planet shrouded in darkness. There seems to be an alien building on the horizon. Two robotic aliens grab her and she wakes up naked in a room of all white. There seems to be some sort of Alien Implant in her wrist. A Black alien with badass afro greats her. Hippolyta wants to know who it is. She tells her “I am” and then tells her she is not in prison. The door closes and Hippolyta can’t get out.

Hippolyta begins to work the riddle of room and where she is at. There is a table that seems to be a bit like a jigsaw puzzle. Eventually after many days she gets out of the room. Just as she figures out how to open the door the alien with the afro stops her. The alien demands to know where she wants to go. Jokingly and under duress Hippolyta tells her she wants to be in Paris dancing with Josephine Baker. Suddenly their she is dancing on stage right next to her. She is not great at it. The other dancers are pissed she did such a poor job. Josephine comes to her aid and tells her she will do better next time. Later Hippolyta is catching on and is really enjoying Paris. The drugs, the sex, also Josephine.

Her and Josephine have an intimate conversation. Josephine tells her she feels like a burning star. They enjoy a special connection. We really get how sad Hippolyta had been back during her real life. She enjoys the freedom of this new life. She tells Jospehine

“They just found the smart way to lynch me”.

Hippolyta

Really powerful. Hippolyta is growing angry and powerful.

She screams I am Hippolyta.

She is immediately transported to a training ground surrounded by other Black warriors. Her trainer kicks her ass and delivers a monologue about what true freedom is. Now we get a training montage. Hippolyta is becoming a badass. The numbers I thought were astrological locations also indicate a passage of time and there is a lot of time that goes by. She trains and trains and eventually becomes one badass warrior. After beating the trainer she presents herself to the queen. She is given a rad as hell headdress.

Later in the same timeline she leads a group of other fighters against an invading white army. She kicks their ass. As do all of her soldiers. After cutting off the head of the leader. She leads a war cry about being a powerful women and then says as she drops her sword.

“I am Hippolyta, George’s Wife”.

She is transported back to a time with George. Hippolyta later discusses the many worlds theory with George. George asks if he is real. She says she doesn’t know but that it sure feels real. They share an embrace and she pulls back. She tells him she can name the thing that has been bothering her. and that she was so angry. She feels like for much of her life she has been shrinking. Their relationship made her shrink even more. George knew that all along but felt like it had to happen to have a family and for him to feel that she was safe. He apologizes. He tells her he wants her to be as big as she wants. She tells him

“I am Hippolyta, Discoverer”.

Hippolyta is now the captain of a space ship as she travels to different alien planets with George. She meets the Alien with an afro in space. She has fully changed and is ready to be accepted into the alien race. Hippolyta asks if she can go back to her planet. She comments it will be difficult to go back but that her daughter needs her.

Atticus falls through the portal and he is back on earth. He can hear sirens in the distance and the dead cop is still very much dead. He runs. We see a shot of the cop laying in his own blood on top of one of the hand drawn comics.  It has Diane’s name as the author. YIKES. Episode over.

There is some really great Afrofuturist stuff out right now but this from Daveed Diggs could be my favorite. This whole episode was one of my favorites.