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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.
“Just stop and think about what you’re risking.” The second-to-last episode of HBO’s Lovecraft Country Season 1 is titled “Rewind 1921”, written by series creator Misha Green, along with Jonathan I. Kidd & Sonya Winton-Odamtten, and directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff (The Day After Tomorrow).
Some spoilers ahead for those who have not yet seen this episode, the previous episode of the season, or the ones before that. If you have not yet done so, get to that now, then return to this article when you can!
The human monsters take the spotlight in this week’s episode of HBO’s horror drama. With Diana Freeman (Jada Harris) unconscious from last week’s episode, her cousin Atticus “Tic” Freeman (Jonathan Majors) and uncle Montrose Freeman (Michael K. Williams) as well as Tic’s romantic partner Letitia “Leti” Lewis (Jurnee Smollett) are left to wonder how to get the demons out of her. Using the aid of Lewis’s half-sister Ruby Baptiste (Wunmi Mosaku), the Freemans’ distant cousin Christina Braithwhite (Abbey Lee) offers to lift Police Captain Seamus Lancaster (Mac Brandt)’s curse from the girl. Later, a group of them are sent — by Hippolyta Freeman (Aunjanue Ellis), who has returned from the future — back to Tulsa in the year 1921 at the onset of its tragic moment in American history. What we see in this episode are events of despair after despair before us.
Lancaster finally dies when feeding off the lives of members of the Black community won’t stop from what Tic’s monstrous protective spell has done to him. As William (Jordan Patrick Smith) — disguised as Braithwhite — tells him, “Regeneration could be life or could be a curse. Eventually, evil men will have to suffer for their wrongdoings, and we can only hope that this police officer got what was coming to him after cursing Diana in the previous episode. On the note of regeneration, Braithwhite agrees to lift the curse off from Diana, but only if Tic is to return from Ardham during the autumnal equinox. The trick here is that her help will only prolong Diana’s living but eventually, she will have to pass on, so Lewis and the Freemans work hard to make sure she lives to see another day.
Tic suggests that they give Braithwhite the missing pages to the Book of Names, but Lewis reveals that she had already done this in exchange for his life to be saved. However, she then reveals that Braithwhite can only let Lewis and her unborn son be saved from harm. In order to achieve immortality, the Freemans’ cousin tells Baptiste that Tic’s life will need to be sacrificed — specifically needing all of his blood, but she also suggests that she didn’t use Baptiste to get to Tic.
Hippolyta returns to tell the group that she had come from the future and she has the proper tools needed to help save her child. She says:
I was on Earth 504, and I was there the equivalent of 200 years on this Earth. I could name myself anything. Infinite possibilities that came with infinite wisdom, and I’m gonna use all of it to save my daughter.
She shows Tic, Montrose, and Lewis her arms, and demonstrates that the time machine could be activated. With Hippolyta as the motherboard, she turns the device into a multiverse machine, flips through the 60+ trillion dimensions, and transports them to Tulsa, Oklahoma to retrieve the Book of Names. The group land over three decades back into the past, where they see teenage versions of Montrose (Gerard Mikell), George Freeman (Christian Anderson), and Montrose’s future wife Dora (Leeann Ross). The children’s high school prom is canceled for an odd reason, although the travelers from the future are aware of the imminent issue.
Being in the past triggers Montrose’s trauma, witnessing his homophobic father Verton Freeman (Will Catlett) beating his younger self with a stick and watching a loved one — a friend named Thomas (Khamary Rose) — being shot in the head by white men. In addition to this, he doesn’t believe he fulfilled his late brother’s wishes of saving their family from destruction: Diana is harmed and Hippolyta was lost to time; and it turns out Tic might be George’s biological son. Montrose blocked the boy from memory because the Tulsa massacre suggested that the history of its people needed to erased in order for matters to feel alright. His son tries to prevent him to save Thomas from getting killed as it could possibly change the future. Montrose admits that the boy was the first of many sacrifices that were made so he could sire Tic. The father and son watch younger Montrose “break up” with Thomas, and present-day Montrose says this had to happen because “men have sons” and that for years, he couldn’t allow himself to be gay.
Lewis meets her in-laws in the past, knowing that they will be killed at the hands of white supremacy. She convinces one of the relatives that she is from the future when she tells them off a family birthmark. The unfortunate part is Dora’s home will be burnt to the ground with her family inside. Lewis is the only person in town to not be affected physically by the fires, and by the time she returns to the present, Hippolyta is in turn affected by opening the portal for too long.
All the actors delivered great performances here, so it would be hard to pick who did the best. The writers for the episode must be commended for bringing this event to light, that it cannot go unnoticed. People need to know that this happened and people’s lives were not lost without a reason. To add, the portrayal of homophobic and racist America needs to be exposed.
“Rewind 1921” is a dark episode that features no mythological creatures to fear, but rather actual evil in the form of the white man. As an homage to great time travel stories — including Back to the Future –, this week’s episode does much more by showcasing the historical accuracies of living in 1921 (which HBO has also succeeded in last October’s Watchmen, another drama series that premiered nearly one year ago). The protagonistic group all learn that Lewis is pregnant, and Tic becomes the savior of his parents and uncle, much like how Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly did in the science-fiction franchise. In the past, Williams Dreamland Theatre is featured in the background screening the Buster Keaton film The Goat, which centers on a man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The film was coincidentally released less than two weeks prior to the riots, where history’s Caucasians suspect chose the wrong place and wrong time to do what they did.
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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