Lovecraft Country Season 1 Episode 4 ‘A History of Violence’, Recap and Review

Lots of great 13 Ghosts vibes on last week’s episode. Check out all of our recaps and reviews from the back episodes of Lovecraft Country.

In what seems to be reoccurring theme we get a historical broadcast to start out the episode. This one is about the red scourge. Montrose seems to be grappling with the trauma of the Ardham. He is reading the bylaws of and precepts of the Order of the Ancient Dawn. He finishes reading and lights the entire book on fire. He tells us “It smells like Tulsa”. A historical reference and a reference to another HBO show.

After the opening credits Christina drives her VERY nice car to Leti’s house and tries to come in. She is barred by blood on the side of the house. She tells Leti she really just wants the orrery and also comes to warn her about Atticus coming to the office. Christina tells her she doesn’t want him to die AGAIN. Yep she is totally there to protect Atticus I am sure.

Meanwhile Hippolyta is talking to her dad about the orrery and how it is a mechanical model with TWO suns. At her work she brings the orrery and is discussing how it isn’t really working. Someone she works with argues every locked thing has a key.

Leti walks into the library and yells at Atticus in a library whisper. Atticus tells her what he learned regarding Braithwhite and being invincible. Leti also discusses how she got the money to buy the house (it was Christina’s money to begin with). Leti finds out Atticus was going to leave until the confrontation with Christina. The pages of Hiram are hidden in the vault and Atticus feels confident that he can open it because he shares blood with Hiram. If he can find the pages he can cast spells to protect everyone. He tells Leti he doesn’t want help. She leaves in a huff and we discover that Montrose is already one step ahead of him.

He has to go talk to his father and Leti is already there. Montrose does not want to help them and tries to talk them out of it. He tells them they are the reds in this fight and they are out numbered. There are 34 lodges and Montrose refuses to help. He tells her he knows where the vault is, its in Boston.

Christina is out playing hide and go seek with a bunch of kids and is picked up by a couple of police officers. They lead her into a room with Captain Lancaster. She tells him she is there with business from Hiram. It seems to be turf battle as they both lay claim to the missing pages.

The next day Leti and Atticus are packing the car and are flirt fighting again and its adorable. Oh shit Montrose shows up with Hippolyta and Dee. It is a family road trip. If this episode becomes a road comedy I am 100% down for it. One last person, Willy, catches a ride to Boston. It is full load as they head out.

Ruby heads out for interview at Marshal Fields. She starts to look at clothes and we discover that there is now a Black sales clerk. Ruby acts disappointed.

We have arrived at the museum in Boston. Within the museum lies Titus’s vault. The group breaks up and Willy is with Atticus’s group. They call him Tree. He is also the guy who told Atticus that he fucked around with Leti in high school. We saw him dancing with Leti in the last episode. So in their group lies some tension.

Dee and Hippolyta are in the planetarium and they are discussing how Hippolyta discovered a comet. We have found Braithewhite’s exhibit. Tree is a distraction and is getting in the way. Tree now tells Atticus how close Sammy and Montrose have become. Montrose tells him that the security guard is going to let him in to the museum later that night.

Christina is tooling around town in her nice car and stops at a house and calls for William. Two cops are tailing her and William comes out to beat them up. He tells them to tell the captain to stop following her.

Now this episode is a caper film as Montrose and Atticus figure out how to break into Hiram’s vault. The moonlight highlights a clasp. Leti moves the clasp and the vault opens. Their is a long rope down into the chamber that hearkens back to the Raiders of the Last Ark. Atticus climbs down into the chamber and sees three tunnels. The first has a warning as an inscription. ‘Beware all who enter because even the tide rises’. It is clear they need Titus’s map. Leti breaks into the exhibit to get the map and her and Montrose both climb down after Atticus. Leti and Montrose have a little discussion about which tunnel to take. Leti convinces them to take a specific tunnel and they head off.

Ruby is singing the blues. The crowd does not love her performances and she is not exactly thrilled by their lack of enthusiasm. William shows up at the bar and starts buying her drinks after the set. William tells he can change her life. Ruby seems dubious but interested.

Down in the cavern our trio tries to cross a crevasse. They tie each other up and prepare to head across. This seems another reference to the Indiana Jones movie (this time The Last Crusade). Leti will be the first to cross. They take it very slow. Just as she gets to the other side and into the darkness she screams. Atticus goes after her and they discover that there is a swinging booby trap. Leti makes it past the booby trap, but the board connecting the two sides starts to disintegrate. Atticus goes back to get Montrose. They make their way back to the other end of the board and discover a door with a pictograph of the Garden of Eden. They must hit a series of pictures in order to open the door. Montrose hollers about Adam as the focal point of the puzzle. That does it and the door opens into another room. They are relieved despite being in a room with three or four inches of water. The water is rising “ever the tide shall rise”.

Back at the bar Ruby is venting to William. Specifically her relationship with Leti. She offers some really great analysis about white privilege and we get just how depressed she is. William and Ruby go back to his place and DO IT. His chest is covered in ruins and she cuts herself and he sucks her blood. Its pretty hot even if it feels very much like he is using her.

Now Montrose and Atticus are fighting about why Montrose knows so much. He tells everyone about reading the bylaws. He also tells them he read it and then burned them. Just as things get really heated, they find the body of one of Leti’s racist neighbors. That leads them to an elevator shaft. They call the elevator and it comes down. Atticus tries to get Leti and Montrose to go up. She tells him to fuck off and tells him to stop acting like this is only happening to him. The water is quite high now as they make their way down the shaft. The two men share a conversation about the need to work on their relationships. Its a good moment of connection between the two.

Leti comes to the end of the tunnel and they find a door with an arm sticking out of it. Atticus puts on the signet ring from the hand and removes the hand and places his hand through the whole in the door. Something grabs the other side of his hand and his blood starts to fill the ruins on the door. A ladder falls from the ceiling as another room opens. In this new room we see the remains of an ANCIENT dinner party. Some serious One Eyed Willy references going on in this new area (So keeping track at home we have two Indiana Jones and now a Goonies reference). In one of the dead bodies’ hands we find a scroll. When they reach for it the dead body wakes up and takes on a previous form. Her body is covered in glyphs. Titus took her hostage and made her translate a text. Titus killed all of her people and imprisoned her. It is important to note that she is speaking a language only Atticus can understand. She clearly is speaking some sort of aboriginal language. Atticus asks for her help. She tells him he is not guilty of his fore fathers sins but that she doesn’t know his spirit. Just then the chamber starts to break up and fill with water. The four of them escape into the elevator and Leti rescues the missing pages just as the elevator starts to rise. Atticus and Leti share a kiss. The Native American women starts to scream so loud that Atticus has to knock her out.

On the way back home form Boston Dee and Hippolyta discuss how the trio that is not with them got back to Chicago. Just as they discuss how that might have happened Hippolyta discovers an atlas that Montrose had been writing on. We see a white hooded figure and Devon County circled. She turns the car around to find some answers.

Back in Chicago Atticus relays to Monstrose that Titus cast some sort of spell that prevents the Native American women from really talking. Montrose tells Atticus that his mother would have been proud of him and that he has grown into a good man. It is touching moment. Atticus goes to bed and Montrose walks into the strange woman’s room apologizes to her and then slits her throat.

Questions and Answers

1. Everyone needs a beautiful orrery in their lives.
2. The Virgo Cluster which is referenced early in this episode is the perfect place to study how different galaxies intersect with one another. My guess is that will play an important role down the road.
3. There is a lot of crazy shit surrounding the number 34. Some biblical some mathematical. It is wild rabbit hole to dive down.
4. Devon County is a real place in England. The surrounding places sound very Lovecraftian.