Lovecraft Country — Series 1 Episode 7 — I Am: A Review

19th October, 2021.

Right at the moment … ?

I’ve got a baked potato in the oven: ever so slowly crisping up.

And I’ve some of my famous — or possibly notorious — beef stew ready to be popped in the microwave.

I’ll be having dinner at some point in the next half an hour.

Then … ?

I’ll be watching episode 7 of Lovecraft Country: something I’ve been following these past few weeks.

I’ll be taking a set of — ha! — extensive notes, and drafting a post.

One I’ll put up tomorrow night: after I’ve had some sleep.

OK: ten years ago, I’d’ve finished the post on the evening I’d watched the episode.

But?

Getting some sleep in between now and tomorrow gets more appealing, the older I get!

~≈🐙≈~

20th October, 2021.

Episode 7 — I Am opens with the now familiar recap: of the story so far.

But shifts: to show us Hippolyta,  (Aunjanue Ellis),’Tic’s aunt, working on an orrery that she and Diana (Jada Harris), have discovered at the ruins of Ardham Lodge.

The pair have travelled there: expecting to find the truth about George’s death*.

But instead have found themselves a mystery.

Back at their hotel?

Hippolyta eventually opens the orrery: only to find a key, directions to the Winthrop Observatory … and a set of figures that she needs to feed in to the Observatory’s strange machinery†.

Which is where both ’Tic (Jonathan Majors) and Captain Lancaster find her: feeding in figures an a frenzied rush.

It’s just as Lancaster is about to shoot the pair?   That Hippolyta feeds in the last numbers: and opens an intergalactic portal for her and ’Tic, finding herself in an otherworldly cell … only to be guided to meet Josephine Baker, a Dahomey Amazon, and George, her dead husband.

Guided by the mysterious Seraphina AKA Beyond C’est, and offered a place in Seraphina’s society.

Something she’s tempted by, but reluctant about: she still has responsibilities on Earth.

Which is where we find ’Tic: spat out of the portal and back into a world where he’s left holding his cousin’s comic … and unable to fins Hippolyta …

~≈🐙≈~

Now: I’ve been enjoying this series a lot, so far.

With the possible exception of episode 5, Strange Case, it’s every episode’s been a blinder of a thing to watch.

And even in Strange Case’s case?   It’s still a good episode: it was just one I wasn’t taken with.

I Am, on the other hand … ?

Is keeping up the good work.

Not only are we getting some revealing character development: we get to find out exactly how academic Hippolyta is, and also how much she sacrificed, in marrying George, bringing up their child and helping run the Guide … but we’re getting a plot that’s moved forward, and more insights into the Lovecraft Country background world.

It’s powerful stuff.

Stuff I feel is enhanced by I Am’s Afrofuturistic stylings and by the brief history lessons offered.

Frankly?

I Am is another powerful episode.

And one that leaves me looking forward to episode eight.

I’ll watching that on 26th October: next Tuesday.

I’ll be telling you about it, next Wednesday.

I’d love it if you joined me.

I Am.

★★★★

*        George (Courtney B. Vance) was killed back in episode two.

†        Machinery that is uncanny, strange and eldritch.   Oblong, oblong, in other words …