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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.
“We can be monsters or heroes.” The finale to HBO’s Lovecraft Country Season 1 is titled “Full Circle”, written by series creator Misha Green, with the story by Green and Ihuoma Ofordire, and directed by Nelson McCormick (Prom Night, The Stepfather).
Some spoilers ahead for those who have not yet seen this finale episode, the prior episode, or the previous episodes of the season. If you have not yet done so, get to that now, then return to this article when you can!
Lovecraft Country ends on a note filled with mixed reactions — both saddened and fulfilled. Showcased in three acts, the final episode for this season follows Atticus “Tic” Freeman (Jonathan Majors) and his family of loved ones in their final confrontation with their distant cousin Christina Braithwhite (Abbey Lee) as she works to obtain immortality. The characters face intense death anxiety and potential fate as events ensue.
Act I — Spirits
When the family takes Diana Freeman (Jada Harris) back home to lift the white man’s curse off her body, a spell is chanted and the Book of Names turns its pages to a symbol of the Freeman birthmark, taking Tic and Letitia “Leti” Lewis (Jurnee Smollett) into a metaphysical plane. There, Lewis meets the spirit of Tic’s great-great-grandmother Hattie (Regina Taylor), who teaches her the Book’s spells; and Tic briefly reunites with his mother Dora Freeman (Erica Tazel), but not before speaking with his slave ancestor Hanna (Joaquina Kalukango). The ancestor tells her descendant that she fled from her slavemaster because she knew she would not be safe, and she had to use a spell on herself — impregnated in the past by the master — to hide her bloodline from the Sons of Adam cult. She learned to control the fire, symbolic of her rage. Tic then expresses his fear of death to his mother, to which she responds, “[I]f we ain’t walking toward an altar to sacrifice ourselves for something important, what is our purpose? We tell ourselves we have a choice, but we don’t.” She tells her son that he has both of his (biological and adopted) fathers’ personal attributes: “Montrose’s fierce heart and George’s integrity.” Hanna tells Tic that the answer to their problems of oppression is in their blood[line], which may appear in the form of his yet-to-be-born son George. She says, “[M]agic was not something to be feared, but a gift to pass on.” Meanwhile, to come to terms with her partner’s imminent death, Lewis is told by Hattie that they must about loss and that they must learn to be strong in order to repair their mistakes.
After the girl’s curse is lifted, Tic urges his family must use the Book to properly protect themselves. In order to stop Braithwhite, the Freeman family learns that physical bondage must be established between Titus Braithwhite (Michael Rose), his white descendant Christina, and his Black descendant Tic. Black spirits emerge from the metaphysical plane and Titus is summoned so Tic can properly carve out a piece of his flesh. Titus nearly escapes and appears before Christina and her partner Ruby Baptiste (Wunmi Mosaku) — who almost crash into him on the road, but he is returned to the magic circle by Tic and Lewis.
Enraged by seeing her white ancestor, Christina confronts the Freemans and asks for possession of the Book of Names, which they refuse. She tells them, “This isn’t generational hate. Our families are not at war. This has never been personal.” When Montrose Freeman (Michael K. Williams) disputes that his son Tic’s upcoming death is a personal attack, the white woman tries to justify her reasons, that her becoming immortal must happen and that her Braithwhite bloodline must be saved by her. She offers to spare the Freeman family’s life in exchange for the Book, but they still refuse, and Lewis’s life and body are affected by the woman’s spell before she walks off.
Act II — Love for One Another
The second act of the finale takes a look at the dynamics between its many characters as if life as they know it would come to an end. Hippolyta Freeman (Aunjanue Ellis) and her daughter Diana have their personal issues, as the former had been in other worlds while the girl was placed into her comatose state (after being attacked by demonic entities). The mother tells her child that she traveled through the multiverse and learned a lot until returning to their world, where she says, “I named myself ‘Mother’.” Initially, Diana does not accept her apologies, but Hippolyta presents her with a neatly drawn comic book of space figures, then opening the door to an Afrofuturistic world of fixed possibilities. The Mother says, “People think of time as the physical manifestation, but it really is like so many things. In our minds, we get fixated on moments, stuck in them, but time never stops.”
The Freemans plan to take Christina’s flesh as the second step of their mission, however, they can only achieve this through Baptiste. Lewis meets her half-sister at their mother’s gravesite, where she offers the Book. Baptiste refuses, saying that Lewis only comes to her in times of need. As Tic had learned earlier from his mother, Lewis tells her sister, “[Family] is not an obligation. It’s acceptance. It’s a willingness to sacrifice everything that is necessary in order to protect it.” Baptiste later accepts but is killed by Christina, who later uses the Black woman’s body as an assumed identity to deceive Lewis and the Freemans with a fake vial of the Braithwhite woman’s blood and hair.
Tic makes amends with Ji-Ah (Jamie Chung) for having wrongfully told her that he never loved her. This time, he says that his expressed love for her in South Korea was real. He then meets Lewis in church, where they undergo a short ceremony the night before departing to Ardham, Massachusetts. He still is not ready to accept his fate when he tells Lewis, “I need a lifetime,” as a reference to the son he may never get to raise. He takes one good look at the people in his life, and the Freemans are joined by Ji-Ah and “Baptiste.”
Act III — Darkness and Demise
At the remains of Ardham Lodge, Tic had consumed his white ancestor’s flesh and what seemed like his white distant cousin’s blood. However, in a confrontation with Lewis atop a tower, it turns out Christina had traveled with the family disguised as Baptiste. A fight between white people of the area and the oppressed minorities of another land begins, and Lewis is knocked out from the tower and falls a great height. Tic’s forearms are cut open by his cousin, who drinks his blood. Christina achieves her immortality as a cloud (or stairway) of darkness approaches the moon, but Lewis — having survived her fall — stabs the white woman through the abdomen with her own sword.
As a sort of Deux ex Machina, Ji-Ah fulfills her mudang shaman’s prophecy — that she will “become one with the darkness” — and uses her kumiho spirit abilities to bridge the connection between Tic and Christina. Lewis recites a spell that takes away Christina’s immortality, but this attempt still kills Tic. As the family carries Tic’s body away, a letter has been given to his father, which says, “There is not a happiness nor a misery in the world. There is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.” For his final request, Tic provides Montrose a second chance at being a father by allowing him to raise his grandson, George.
Final Thoughts
This 10-episode journey for Lovecraft Country has finally paid off, but it shows that living comes at the cost of death. Life is beautiful and so is death — despite what we may think, but what we do with our time on Earth matters most. Through the power of love, we are taught that figures of hate can be demolished. Some of the best moments of this episode come through the dynamics of its characters, such as in the short road trip scene where the family is singing along to The Chords’s song, “Sh-Boom.” The hour-long season finale had run like a film, although its impact felt like it was longer. Its solution to tackling white supremacy was a difficult one — and Titus Braithwhite was portrayed as an unashamed racist — but it does provide hope for the future. Diana Freeman says that telling stories isn’t enough, that everyone’s blood will have to be shed. She encounters Tic’s monstrous guardian and they provide the final blow to Christina, revealing that Hippolyta had given her daughter mechanical prosthetics in place of the curse that had laid waste to her left arm.
“Full Circle” succeeds in its title description by returning to what primarily most of the season’s previous episodes have given and then integrating such elements into one whole cohesive finale. Hippolyta uses knowledge acquired from the multiverse on her family, Christina uses a Black woman’s body to conceal her whiteness (whereas Baptiste became white to hide her Blackness), Ji-Ah fulfills the shaman’s prophecy, and the victims of the Tulsa massacre provide the Freeman family with aid to take down the Braithwhites. This all comes full circle in the final act: the return to Ardham. Although Tic is gone, we can hope that the story will continue. Indeed, there is still a society of evil to get rid of! The characters in this episode have developed to the extremes, and the actors that played them have performed to the best of their abilities. In addition, the cinematography and the musical scoring and soundtrack add to the emotional weight and narrative of the episode. Hats off to Misha Green, her cast, and her crew of the series for making this show work.
What do you think of the series? Have you seen the show yet? If so, would you like to see more of it in the future? 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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