Lovecraft Country – Holy Ghost

Lovecraft Country‘s third installment, “Holy Ghost,” was a curious change in narrative structure. For its first two episodes, it seemed as though the series would be a tightly serialized drama. But this week, the story jumped forward several weeks from the tragic events of Ardham and gave us a haunted house story that, on first glance (or, until the episode’s epilogue) appeared to have nothing to do with the Sons of Adam and Tic’s role securing that secret society’s future. Now, I’m someone who tends to prefer wholly serialized stories over more stand-alone episodes, but darn it if I wasn’t thoroughly engrossed in this mostly stand-alone adventure. And much of that stems from Jurnee Smollett’s star turn in the episode.

Leti has been a bit of a cypher thus far in the series – a character who has a certain mystique that surrounds her (she’s a free spirit, has a reputation, she disappears on her own for stretches of time without letting those in her life know where she is and what she’s doing, she has a strained relationship with her family and her community), but until this week we had only been allowed glimpses under her tough exterior. As is so often the case with this particular character archetype, there’s a soft, romantic center hiding within Leti (it turns out she isn’t the “loose woman” many assume her to be and she really does want her sister’s love and approval). However, that emotional core doesn’t negate her outward strength. She is able to stand up in the face of supernatural and real attacks. Leti refuses to break even in the face of pure evil. And Smollett’s performance is a masterwork of weaving in and out of these two distinct Leti’s.

The look of dogged determination when confronted with the odious racist cop, the painful and primal refusal to back down from the horrific ghost, the tired and emotionally battered young woman confessing to Tic that their bathroom encounter was her first time having sex with anyone – contrary to what everyone in their social circle believed, and the triumphant woman who had vanquished the racist ghosts of the past and present (at least for the moment), taking her victory lap by giving an interview touting the new affordable housing unit on the North Side* offered us the deepest look yet into just who Leti is. And Smollett was sensational in conveying the wide range of emotion – and the carefully modulated lack of emotion – required of Leti in each scene. But perhaps the most interesting thing we learned about Leti this week wasn’t revealed by Leti at all.

*For those who aren’t clued into the segregated past – and, in so many ways, present – of Chicago, a quick primer. Throughout the last 80 or so years, Chicago has largely been split into to sections: the South Side and the North Side. Today, as in the 1950s (when Lovecraft Country takes place), the South Side is comprised of mostly Black neighborhoods while the North Side contains most of the city’s White population. A Black woman buying a house on the North Side in 1955 would have been a shocking and rare event. And it would not have been a welcome development among her White neighbors.

Here’s how good Lovecraft Country is: in the midst of an episode about confronting the racist past and present of all-White neighborhoods in Chicago, the series threw in a crucial piece of information about Leti that might have slipped your notice. In the epilogue, we learn that the previous owner of the Winthrop house was a member of the Sons of Adam, and that he stole important documents that Christina is looking to retrieve. And she fronted Leti the money to purchase the house. Now, while it’s not made explicitly clear how the money made it from Christina to Leti (Christina admits she was Leti’s benefactor when asked by Tic, and Leti tells Ruby that the money came from their late mother – albeit with a guilty look on her face), the show appears to insinuate that Leti was well-aware that the money wasn’t from her mother. So, that raises the question: Are Christina and Leti actively working together? And if so, how should that shape our knowledge and understanding of just who Leti is as a character?

As I have mentioned before, I haven’t read the source material for the series, so I genuinely have no idea how this particular story will shake out. What I do know is that after “Holy Ghost,” I’m excited to see just where the series goes with Leti. She certainly isn’t a damsel in distress and she can hold her own in any fight. And if she’s actively working with Christina to figure out just what Winthrop knew? Well, that makes her all the more interesting.