'Lovecraft Country' Episode 4 Review: Indiana Jones-type adventure gets very racist and transphobic, very soon
Spoilers for 'Lovecraft Country' Episode 4 'A History of Violence'
After reviving the lost charm of 'American Horror Story's debut season 'Murder House', HBO's 'Lovecraft Country' takes on more pop culture phenomenons in terms of tropes and plots and borrowing from the likes of 'Indiana Jones, Journey to the Center of the Earth' and even 'Goonies'. For that matter, we get a story so twisted, so vaguely conclusive and so ominous in its setting in the recently aired fourth episode 'A History of Violence', that it's hard to expect any fresh horror. Think a long wooden plank above an abyss level creepy.
When it comes to reinventing horrors, 'Lovecraft Country' had promised a lot of fun from the start. Sadly, four weeks later, not only is the fun redundant but for a show by Black people, about Black people reclaiming their stand in Lovecraftian horror, things get more problematic than just abrupt plots and revelations that one can't quite piece together. In that, 'Lovecraft Country' queerbaits and introduces the 'two-spirit' Yahima only to kill them off violently - like most mocking, ridiculing portrayals of the trans community on the screen so far, thus falling prey to the same tropes the story had initially aimed to vanquish.
The episode kicks off with more than just Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors) and Letitia Lewis (Jurnee Smollett) carrying on with uncle George's (Courtney B. Vance) legacy. This time they are joined by Montrose Freeman (Michael Kenneth Williams), who frankly could never be a replacement for the fatherly figure Tic has just lost and neither does George's widow Hippolyta Freeman (Aunjanue Ellis) help things, especially with her carrying their young teenage daughter Dee in tow for what looks like a fatal adventure, once again. Their quest this time drags them all the way back to Massachusetts with as Christina Braithwhite (Abbey Lee) hovers over Chicago in an attempt to stake her claim in the upper ranks of the Order of the Ancient Dawn.
This is also where the title reference comes in, with Titus Braithwite's history of violence unfolding. They mask his slave trade as 'shipping', call him a 'famed explorer' teaching the 'way of civilized man' to Indigenous people that's also horribly racist. And his 'explorations' are just a whitewashed name for colonization and genocide, but Titus's horrors don't stop there. To find the missing pages from his book, the trio scour museums in Boston and search around underground caverns in a very National Treasure-esque manner, overcoming the many labyrinthine layers of Titus's traps to hold them hostage in what seems to have been Leti's own basement all this time.
There are too many plot developments, in too little time and barely any explanation. The camera work absolutely ignores looping in viewers to significant findings that the trio are making based on a tattered, barely-there map, so when they do make the discoveries and have their Eureka moments, it's frustrating because with all the fun to be had, being made to feel incredibly stupid isn't quite the delectable side dish. The most frustrating part in all of this has to be the introduction of Yahima - an Arawak, presumably gender non-conforming person who keeps getting referred to with the she-her pronouns in a story that's all about inclusion and more. Not just that, Yahima is also granted the most brutal, violent death within moments of being introduced - something we saw addressed in the 2020 Sam Feder documentary 'Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen'. This unabashed introduction of the community only to be granted the lowest hanging fruit of all violent fates is not something one would expect from the HBO show, but here we are. Being left confused and agitated because honestly - is clarity and integrity too much to ask from the journey of a Black man reclaiming his rightful place in a White supremacists' world of horrors?
Leti is once again a powerhouse, while Montrose continues being chicken-sh*t and blatantly queerbaiting the audience with steamy flares rising between him and a random stranger they meet along the way. It's interesting to introduce the angle, but something constructive is also every bit as necessary as approaching the topic of inclusivity and four strong weeks later, the dish-dash narrative with its flimsy storytelling seems to fall prey to everything that is wrong with pop culture narratives today.
Let's add to that Ruby going home with Samuel Braithwaite's heir despite the occult-type markings on his chest and one can't quite fathom if the smartest woman on the show has really fallen for a White man's bulls**t, or if there are more racial horrors to come, unnecessarily padded with comedy. The only respite? The impeccable soundtrack. Rihanna’s 'B***h Better Have My Money' booming while Christina makes way to reclaim her spot at the top tier of magic, and Leikeli47’s 'Money' behind Ruby strolling into yet another predominant White department store are pure gold.
'Lovecraft Country' airs every Sunday at 9 pm only on HBO.
