Ew. I’ve watched a lot of television in my time and I think this episode of Lovecraft Country was far and away the grossest thing I’ve seen on TV. That being said, it was also a pretty great episode of TV (once you got past the skin shedding and the mafioso tied up and tortured in the closet), as Ruby (the excellent Wunmi Mosaku) got to see how the other half lives.
Ruby has been a rather amorphous character throughout much of the first half of this season of Lovecraft Country, serving more as a way to expand on Leti’s characterization than as a fully realized character of her own. We knew that she desperately wanted the counter job at Marshall Field’s and that she was gutted when she realized another Black woman was given the chance over her. So, naturally, when given the opportunity to do whatever she wants without the handicap of her Blackness, Ruby immediately marched down to Field’s (as us Chicagoans referred to it) to confirm her suspicions: She would have gotten the job in an instant if she were White. In fact, as a White woman, Ruby’s entire world seems to open up. She receives free ice cream, she can get the cops to do her bidding, she can sit in the park and read a newspaper with no fear of reprisal. She can participate in conversations with the racist White women at work and get a deeper understanding of just how little they think of Tamara, their black co-worker, and how titillated they are at the chance to take a trip to the South Side. And she can fully grasp just why Tamara was hired over her: Her racist, sexist, creep of a boss was attracted to Tamara and wanted to fuck her.
Throughout the episode, Ruby explores the two key facets of her outward identity – her Blackness through changing into Hillary Davenport and her womanhood through her interactions with the various men she encounters. The limits placed on Ruby by her race are pretty clearly outlined within the episode (as well as by our own knowledge of life in 1955 America). But the limitations of being a woman in the 1950s are just as important to understanding “Strange Case.” Ruby, as evidenced by her conversation with Christina (and the reveal at the end of the episode that Christina has been morphing into William all series – more on that and what it might mean a bit later) rightly asserts that race is the greater stumbling block in trying to get a fair shake in the world. After all, Hillary Davenport seemed to operate just fine in the wider world, aside from the creepy interactions with her lascivious boss. But even those interactions were mild enough that one could explain them away without much thought (which, in and of itself, is an important message about the ways in which women are taken advantage of and gaslit into thinking that actions they believe to be potentially shady are just figments of their imagination and they are overreacting). But there are still dangers, pitfalls, and flat-out discrimination when you’re a woman out in the world – they are just all compounded in exponential ways when you also check off one or more “other” boxes.
From a story perspective, this latest body morphing twist sets the stage for a host of interesting things moving forward. How will Ruby continue to be utilized throughout the rest of the story? Will Christina weaponize her against Tic and Leti? Or will Ruby turn out to be an asset? And then there’s Christina – an enigma of a character whose brief appearances were clearly leading up to the reveal that she’s also William (her comments about how hard it is to be a woman, her anger that she isn’t allowed to join the Sons of Adam, the possibility – which is really more like a probability at this point – that she was a catalyst in her father’s death). Now that we are in on her major secret, I hope the show shifts deeper into just what her endgame really is. She needs Tic to complete her takeover of the cult, and now she is in possession of Ruby – a possible bargaining chip. I was a bit cold on Christina, but now I’m intrigued to see just what other surprises she has in store.
Final Thoughts:
— So, I’ve kept quiet on this for several weeks, hoping that things might improve, but boy do Tic and Leti lack chemistry. As a problem solving duo, they’re fine. And the actors are great at what they are asked to do. But as a couple? No sparks. At this point I wish the show had just steered away from the romance aspect and simply let us see them as friends trying to solve a puzzle. But nope, we have to spend precious time watching the show try and convince us these two are meant for each other. No thanks.
— On the other hand, Montrose finally getting to let loose and accept – if even just for the moment – his sexuality during his dance with Sammy? That was lovely, worked incredibly well, and felt earned. As a character, Montrose has been up and down (again, a factor of the writing and not the performance), but this week we finally got to see what Michael K. Williams can do with a tortured character.
— Now, the reveal that Christina has been William (presumably this entire time, but it’s also possible that William simply died when the house fell down after the failed ceremony – I suspect we’ll get than answer next week). How will this work to help Christina in her quest to take over the Sons of Adam? After all, William isn’t an heir, so she can’t use him to take that place within the cult. She could use him (or any other man she so chooses – it appears the magic pulls from people she knows, as Hillary Davenport previously appeared as Dell the dog lady back in episode two) to infiltrate the Sons of Adam as a normal man. What’s unclear is if the person must be dead prior to being accessible for the spell (Dell and – presumably – William are dead), but if that’s the case, there’s nothing to suggest that she wouldn’t be able to kill Tic and take over the Sons of Adam through his body. Some food for thought moving forward.
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