#Lovecraft Country Season 1 Episode 9 Review: Rewind 1921

It’s nearly end game on Lovecraft Country.

That’s after Tic, Leti, and Montrose went back in time to grab the big prize on Lovecraft Country Season 1 Episode 9.

Since Lovecraft Country Season 1 Episode 2, the Book of Names has been the Holy Grail for a lot of unholy people.

The unholy include Samuel and his white minions in the Sons of Adam chapter, Lancaster, although he appears to be out of the running, now, and of course, Christina, although she may have all she needs with just the negatives of Titus’s pages.

Maybe it’s just as well the Book of Names has ended up with the well-meaning, if not magically trained, black folks.

At least their hearts are in the right place.

They just needed the right leadership all this time. Not Tic, leading with his rage, not Leti, leading with her heart, and definitely not Montrose, leading with his fear.

Enter Hippolyta, back from finding herself in multiple dimensions on Lovecraft Country Season 1 Episode 7.

Hippolyta was properly motivated after returning to find Diana dying from her encounter with demons, Topsy and Bopsy, on Lovecraft Country Season 1 Episode 8.

Tic, Leti, Montrose, and Ruby tried to handle Diana’s condition on their own, even resorting to calling on Christina with all her doubtful motivations for help.

But the best that Christina could manage was a restoration spell, which only bought Diana time. And Tic had to agree to his deadly date with destiny on the autumnal equinox to get that stopgap measure.

I’m confused, a not uncommon happening on this series. If Christina still needs Tic to complete her immortality spell, what was getting killed by those thugs and coming back to life all about? She isn’t immortal yet, then?

Regardless, everybody realized they needed the Book of Names, which had been destroyed during the Tulsa riots in 1921 but only Hippolyta could foresee how that would have to happen.

So off everyone rushed to the Winthrop Observatory, which was located in Kansas in Lovecraft Country Season 1 Episode 7, but the title card had it in Kentucky this time around. Did the observatory get transported as well, or has the series shifted dimensions?

Once again, it’s just details.

This time around, I could buy Hippolyta being able to repair the dimensional-hopping/time machine. After all, she had gotten centuries worth of knowledge in, what, a few weeks?

And she now had ports in her arms so that she could serve as the motherboard for the machine in the present. That’s convenient!

This meant sending Tic, Leti, and Montrose back into the past without adult supervision.

This was the much-needed Montrose spotlight episode. You just can’t keep Michael Kenneth Williams in the background. Now, we understand why Montrose is the way he is. Now we get why he drinks as much as he does. 

Better yet, Tic understands, after spending his life hating Montrose and wishing that George was his father.

Montrose’s father, Verton, beat anything soft out of him. So Montrose, in turn, did the same to Tic.

In short, it was hard enough to be Black in Tulsa in 1921. But to be gay on top of that was a bridge too far.

It remained something that Montrose had to keep hidden in the mid-’50s.

The last thing he wanted to do was to relive the hell that was the Tulsa riots, when young Montrose saw his first lover shot by Whites in front of his eyes.

But he had to be the guide for TIc and Leti if they were to save Diana. Or, as his dad would have put it, he needed to man up.

Leti’s invulnerability sure came in handy, having the White rioters’ bullets bounce off of her.

You could see her heart breaking as Tic’s great-grandmother melted while their house burned to the ground.

And what a memorable scene when she walked through the fire during the destruction of Black Wall Street!

It was also great when, after Montrose and Tic made up, Tic became the hero of Montrose’s oft-told story about the riots.

Tic’s fevered bat swinging to save young Montrose, George, and Dora echoed his fever dream of Jackie Robinson attacking monsters way back on Lovecraft Country Season 1 Episode 1.

The trio made it back through the portal with the Book, but the conditions of Hippolyta and Diana were left up in the air for the finale.

Also undecided was on whose side was Ruby going to come down.

Christina was been very clear about her desires. She had a meticulous plan, and she was going to stick to it, regardless of who she has to kill to get there. Just ask Lancaster.

Ruby is the X Factor here. For some reason, Christina has kept Ruby around rather than cutting her loose. I can’t believe Christina would fall for anyone, but that’s what it looks like here.

And Ruby wants power. She showed that when she ruthlessly cut off oxygen to the comatose Del while explaining that she’d rather be a redhead.

Now on to the finale, with plenty of questions to be answered. What’s going to happen to Hippolyta and Diana? Will Tic survive Ardham again? Any chance George comes back?

To catch up before the finale, watch Lovecraft Country online.

Do you understand Montrose better now?

What will the good guys do with the Book of Names?

Who isn’t going to survive the finale?

Comment below.

Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.