'Lovecraft Country' Finale Review: Tic, Leti and Hippolyta reclaiming magic from the Braithwaites falls flat
After nine strong weeks, this was going to be the gigantic going out with a bang. Tic (Jonathan Majors) had volunteered to help Christina Braithwaite (Abbey Lee) with her ritual for immortality and sure enough, offers himself up in yet another gross, gory ritual. But even though she bathes in a pool of Tic's blood and shapeshifts to none other than Ruby (Wunmi Mosaku), the grand scheme of things orchestrated by magic from Tic's ancestors eventually kill Christina. In that, she doesn't quite meet the same fate that the book's ending offers, and perhaps that's where 'Lovecraft Country' goes irredeemably wrong. Some endings are not to be tampered with, and even though we cheer, we sing, we gasp and pray for these characters we have grown so fond over in the last 10 weeks, there's no denying that Leti (Jurnee Smollett) deserved better than surviving near-fatal falls and phrases like "It's ours now", when it comes to magic.
Episode 10 of this season titled 'Full Circle' kicks off with Tic, Leti and Montrose (Michael K Williams) opening the Book of Names to help Hippolyta (Aunjanue Ellis) recover Dee (Jada Harris) from Lancaster's curse. Transported into a world of learning and knowledge, Tic finally learns of his ancestors and meets them too, as both he and Leti are being taught the magic they so desperately need. Tic is of course being taught by his mother — a beautiful moment foreshadowing what's to come in the next hour. Jonathan Majors is more convincing than he has been all season, and even though the myth and magic are confusing, not being the show's strongest suit, it's curious how to perform their own counter magic they must summon Titus Braithwaite and cut a chunk of his flesh.
This is ironic considering that for Christina and in the past Samuel Braithwaite's rituals of immortality to be complete, they needed Tic's blood and looks like now it's finally time for the rightful owners of this power to reclaim their place in history. So off they go on yet another road trip in a manner that makes you sing along with these characters, while also worrying how many will actually come back alive. Dee has been survived with her cursed arm chopped off and replaced by a new robotic one thanks to Hippolyta's eons of wisdom spent in the time machine. The group is also joined by a quiet and reluctant Ruby, mirroring the attitude of none other than Ji-Ah. Oh, and Dee has her own personal Shoggoth too now. It's all fun and games until they reach Ardham and the first domino falls: Ruby was Christina in disguise all along.
It is these little twists throughout the episode that kind of both make it and break it when it comes to the finale. Ruby's cold feet upon learning Christina's true, selfish motives forced the blonde to betray the only person she had grown to have a human connection with. And then we had Ji-Ah, who had traveled all the way from Korea because she had a premonition that the man she loved was dying. The parallels are glaring, but not compelling enough to make us put the popcorn aside, straighten our glasses and actually focus. For her part, Christina does a lot of hijinks to get the other dominoes out of the way. She throws Leti off a tall tower and hangs Tic upon the altar before slashing his wrists. The ritual is a success and for a brief moment, there's a visual juxtaposition in Christina drenched in blood laughing like a maniac over what she has finally achieved.
This victory is short-lived though. Leti soon appears out of nowhere and starts mumbling the incantations Tic's ancestors had taught her. For all the graphic macabre effect that Ji-Ah's nine tails bring to the screen, Leti's final words of judgment are as anti-climactic as "It's our magic now." It falls flat and doesn't do justice to the huge character loss we suffer in this finale: Tic himself. His death is crucial to the story and in that, the writers clear up well. Ji-Ah uses Tic's lifeless body as flesh from the Braithwaite bloodline so Leti can properly use her magic to its fullest potential and wipe out Christina forever. Of course, this wouldn't happen without Dee, who uses her new bionic arm to strangle the life out of Christina. It's cheerful, but the loose ends that just keep floating are jumbled.
The way Christina sacrifices Ruby like a literal pawn leaves more to be desired. Does Leti succeed at surviving her own sister? Does Montrose even come to terms with himself? What happens to Hippolyta and Dee? Do they start going on adventures together? Blatant segues to a second season aside, there's not much to applaud in this otherwise bleak finale. For an episode that spends considerable time focusing on the Freemans, their loved ones, crooning to Sh'boom as one of them embarks on a journey to his death, the finale remains awfully bland and anticlimactic. Here's hoping a second season can fix that soon.
'Lovecraft Country' Finale aka Episode 10 aired on October 18 at 9 pm only on HBO.