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Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
At the very least, there are two sides to everything. The fifth episode of HBO’s Lovecraft Country is titled “Strange Case,” written by series creator Misha Green, Jonathan Kidd, and Sonya Winton, and directed by Cheryl Dunye (The Chi).
Some spoilers ahead for those who have not yet seen this episode or the first prior episodes of the series. If you have not yet done so, get to that now, then return to this article!
Misha Green and her team have outdone themselves on the most chilling episode of the series to date. “Strange Case” primarily focuses on Ruby Baptiste (Wunmi Mosaku) as she wakes up in a random woman’s body. Meanwhile, Atticus “Tic” Freeman (Jonathan Majors), Baptiste’s half-sister Letitia “Leti” Lewis (Jurnee Smollett), and Tic’s father Montrose Freeman (Michael K. Williams) deal with yet another loss, this time a lead that could have helped them take down their distant relative Christina Braithwhite (Abbey Lee).
The episode and its title take major literary inspiration from Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and — like its executive producer Jordan Peele’s 2017 horror film Get Out — deal with body horror as its primary theme. Christina’s partner William (Jordan Patrick Smith) gives Baptiste a magic potion and uses metamorphosis as an explanation behind her transformation from Black woman to white woman and back. He says:
A butterfly lives a full life before it dies. Then a caterpillar emerges from the sames cells — the essence of the butterfly, yet different. It’s more. I wanted to apply this process of metamorphosis to humans, but my research is all theoretical.
William adds that he had met astrophysicist Hiram Epstein, the previous owner of the Winthrop house in which Leti Lewis and Tic Freeman currently reside. He then extrapolates the scientist’s work to create “doorways” of the universe via magic, although also arguing that perhaps science and magic are not so dissimilar. He turns the television on to a news station, the reports of which seem to compare Baptiste to Kenyan locusts traveling through North Africa and are “destined to devour everything in their path.” In fact, this is exactly what Baptiste sets out to achieve throughout this episode.
In her white form as Hillary Davenport (Jamie Neumann), Baptiste learns to use her newfound whiteness as a currency to her own advantage. She tells William, “I don’t know what is more difficult: being colored or being a woman. Well, I’d say that I’m happy to be both, but the world keeps interrupting and I am sick of being interrupted.” She applies for a job position at the shop she was discouraged from applying to in the previous episode. As Davenport, she also tampers with a Black colleague named Tamara (Sibongile Mlambo) and dehumanizes her boss Paul Hughes (David Stranbra), a lowkey racist.
Baptiste is not the only character who is revealed to have two sides. Montrose Freeman, after being found out by his son and Leti Lewis of what he did at the end of the previous episode, goes to find comfort in the LGBT community, a member of whom is his secret lover. Baptiste does William a favor to help Christina drop a mysterious item in Police Captain Seamus Lancaster (Mac Brandt)’s office, only to discover that William is Christina in disguise through the same magic potion used on herself. This feat parallels what Stevenson’s protagonist Gabriel Utterson had done for Henry Jekyll and his evil counterpart Edward Hyde. All of this is hidden, however, the cross-dressers and drag queens featured in this episode do not but rather embrace it.
As William states at the beginning of the episode, “Humans say that metamorphosis isn’t death.” To evolve and become renewed is life. In the form of Christina, the character says that whiteness is equated to “unmitigated freedom.” When she calms down after first finding what has been done to her body, Baptiste tells William, “It scared the shit out of me to wake up white … that wasn’t pain. That was something else, like being unmade.” She later compares her being Black to Christina’s being white: “You can’t relate to who I am, and I’ve spent enough time on your side of the color line to know that the only thing that you white women are disillusioned with is yourselves.”
In the episode, other events take place, such as the behaviors of women in the workplace. Baptiste (as Davenport) tells Tamara that she — and other Black women — need to strive to keep their places in American society, starting with the workplace environment. Davenport says, “Just remember: no matter what anybody says, they can’t take your educational achievements away from you.” The white women are more concerned with sexual matters than race; one colleague cites her own father, stating, “Boy, is paranoia the price of being a working girl in America!” Throughout some scenes, Davenport witnesses white people refer to the Black community in bestial terms such as “animal” and “safari.”
“Strange Case” is, indeed, a strange case and a strong episode for this series so far. All of our Black characters develop, whereas our white ones, unfortunately, do not. Tic Freeman and Leti Lewis’s relationship explodes to new areas as they try to work out a current predicament in their little mission to take down Christina Braithwhite. Freeman had found courage in battle and later dreams of being set ablaze at his distant relatives’ lodge. Wunmi Mosaku delivers an outstanding performance as Baptiste in terms of the anger she puts on when dealing with the whites; it is truly remarkable to watch.
What do you think of the series so far? Have you seen the show yet? Let us know! For more horror, drama, HBO, and Lovecraft Country-related news and reviews follow The Cinema Spot on Twitter (@TheCinemaSpot) and Instagram (@thecinemaspot_).
Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
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