Lovecraft Country (2020) s01e09 Episode Script

1
Man, we should've been watching her.
I mean, I should've been.
Not if you just kept her
from leaving the house.
You knew she was upset.
She came by my house,
too, looking for you.
You could've picked up the damn phone
- and let somebody know.
- I was on my way out.
I told her to stay inside until I came
You just let her go? Let
Stop pointing fingers.
You all are to blame.
Now how do we fix this?
[uneasy music]
We need to call Christina.
Hell no. Look, we use
the same spell we've been using
to protect her from whatever this is.
We can't risk Dee's life
- fucking around with more magic.
- She's right.
We got lucky with our shit.
We need somebody who
knows what the fuck they're doing.
You think that white witch gonna help us?
Yeah, she will,
because I'ma give her Titus's pages.
What?
Those could be the very thing she needs
for whatever she's planning
for the autumnal equinox, boy!
It won't matter, Pop. Shit.
I'm calling Christina to save Dee.
Wait.
Christina already has Titus's pages.
I gave them to her.
Shit, Leti.
Tic, I-I went to her to trade them
for invulnerability for
you, to protect you,
but she offered me
invulnerability instead.
And you took it?
You took it and
fucked all the rest of us!
Pop, Pop.
You better back up!
You said no more magic!
That's what the fuck you said, Leti!
But you used that shit to
save your own ass, huh?
She had to protect herself. She's
Ruby, please.
[tense music]
Those pages were the
only leverage we had left.
No, they weren't.
Christina will help Dee
for me.
[disquieting musical crescendo]
She's gifted.
The detail's incredible.
I can tell from these the
curse is a combination
of Titus's pages and
Horatio's stolen ones.
Can you remove it?
No, not without the Book of Names.
The police captain
sealed that with his body.
He's the only one that can.
[sighs]
He's dead.
How?
There was a gas
explosion outside my house.
Can you use my blood instead?
No.
It isn't a-a magical cure-all.
[uneasy music]
I can perform a restoration and reset
the curse's cycle, but eventually
Dee will die.
Do it.
On one condition.
You come willingly back to Ardham
the night of the autumnal equinox.
[pensive music]
I'll need you all to
help channel intention.
And Dee was born here.
Births make locations
ripe for spellcasting.
But first I have a personal
matter to attend to.
While I'm gone, trace this
symbol around the apartment.
And get her temperature
back to as close to normal as possible.
What'll we do for the body?
The blood of her
closest relative should do.
Hippolyta.
Is gone.
Pop?
It's on you.
[screaming]
Why isn't it working?
I don't know. We've done
the spell perfectly each time.
We can't kidnap another nigger.
It's already gonna be
impossible to cover this all up.
[tense music]
Looks like the "Cop with Nine Lives" luck
has finally run out.
You're supposed to be dead.
The wound will come back,
no matter how many times
you try to swap spare parts.
C Christina. Please.
I was perfecting William's
metamorphosis spell
when the idea just suddenly came to me.
Regeneration could be life or
could be a curse.
Please. [coughs]
Every time that I turn back into myself,
William dies all over again.
That's what I wanted for you.
A thousand deaths.
But I'll have to settle for just the one.
[gasping]
[disquieting music]
[laughs softly]
Really, Pop?
You're supposed to be
down here getting chalk
so we can finish the symbols. Come on.
[coughs]
What's that, gasoline?
Yeah, could be.
Old George calls it Road Rash.
Never did tell me the ingredients.
You know, if he was here,
none of this would've happened.
If I could go back in
time, I'd take that bullet.
Don't talk like that.
I should I should've
never put Dee on you.
His last words to me was,
"Take care of our family."
You are.
Shit, you said the spell, saved me.
Your blood's gonna restore Dee.
And we're gonna figure
out how to save her, too.
My blood might not work.
Why wouldn't it? You heard Christina.
You might be George's son.
Mama cheated on you with Uncle George?
You see, me, your mama,
and George we we grew up
close together, son.
What we went through
that night at the massacre
you live through something like that,
it makes an unbreakable bond.
Ah, shit.
Shit.
[laughs] I spent so much
time sitting in that chair,
hiding from another one
of your ass-whoopings,
watching Un George work on the guide,
wishing he was my father, and now you
[somber music]
Christina's back.
Dee's fever's broken.
Is Dee sick?
[gasps]
[speaking Language of Adam]
[straining and yelling]
What do you know about magic? [laughing]
[speaking Language of Adam]
[speaking Language of Adam]
[speaking Language of Adam]
[disquieting music]
[flies buzzing]
Ruby?
You can't trust her.
And you think you can trust
Atticus and his crazy father?
The way he came at you earlier
Oh, Tic stopped him.
Leti, you're sounding
real stupid right now,
just like Mama running
after all of her men.
Now, if you just got out of your feelings
and opened up your eyes,
you might notice that Christina ain't try
to hurt either one of us.
I was shot!
By her father.
She then healed you and
made you invulnerable.
Shit, you need to be
getting in this car with me.
Has she told you about her plans
for the autumnal equinox?
Huh?
Because if Atticus has to come willingly,
it's probably a spell
that's gonna kill him.
[engine turns over, car starts]
Where are you taking Dee?
What's the source of magic?
Uh, the Book of Names.
- Where's the Book of Names?
- It's gone.
Gone? What does that mean?
If you'd just slow down a minute
The spell book. Give me more information.
What's going on?
My mama's family was keeping it in Tulsa.
It burnt up in the massacre.
Dee's curse the source of magic
Tulsa
Can we get this child back upstairs,
- get her comfortable?
- She's got 24 hours.
It'll take six to get there.
- Where?
- The observatory.
- The time machine?
- What?
It's a multiverse machine.
It's broke.
You shot it up. Don't you remember that?
I'll fix it. Take me
three, maybe four hours.
It won't matter if you can fix it.
We don't have a key anymore.
I won't need one. This tech will work.
Wait a goddamn minute.
You said you want to get a time machine,
what, to go back to Tulsa?
Hippolyta, I don't know
where you disappeared to,
but you're starting to sound crazy.
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.
Now get in the fucking car.
[dramatic music]
Who was she?
The groundskeeper at
my father's summer estate.
Her name was Dell.
How did she end up in a coma?
Your sister hit her over
the head with a shovel.
Did you only help
Diana to get to Atticus?
Leti said that you went
to her to spy on him.
All that shit you said
about seeing magic in me.
That was a lie.
I never once asked you about Atticus.
I'm not stupid, Christina.
My mama was a hustler.
I was your plan B.
You asked for my help
today, and I came for you.
And yes, I saw an opportunity,
and I took it, but I'm not using you.
I'm not your mama or your sister,
and if you can't see the difference
Are you planning on killing Atticus?
His blood is a component of
my spell to become immortal,
and I need all of it.
[uneasy music]
The way my father and the
other members of the order
discussed magic
It wasn't particular.
They they spoke of
it as they would money,
politics, or any other means
for bending the world to their will.
I want to use it to experience it.
All of it,
an eternity of firsts.
Every step to my ascension has
been meticulously planned out.
Atticus was going back to Ardham
since the moment he
first stepped foot there.
The only variable was time
and now you.
[uneasy music]
Promise me you won't hurt my sister.
I promise.
[gas hissing]
[Dell exhales faintly]
When I used to imagine being white,
I always saw myself as a redhead.
- He might not be yours.
- You might be George's son.
- You shut your fucking mouth!
- Uncle George!
[thunder cracks]
I spent so much time
sitting in that chair,
hiding from another one
of your ass-whoopings,
wishing he was my father. Now
You wanna put a flower in your hair?
Preening in the goddamn mirror!
Please, I promise,
Dad, I won't do it again!
I promise.
Begging won't save your hide.
I said pick a switch! Pick a switch!
I'm almost finished
with this circuit board.
I've just gotta get it turned on, is all.
I'll do the rest.
Thread the red wire with the silver one.
Like this?
Like how I taught you to
French braid Dee's hair.
[thunder rolls]
Go on.
I had a reason for
taking the invulnerability.
You're pregnant.
Ruby told you?
No, Tic did.
Seems Hippolyta wasn't the only one
that got swallowed up
by that damn machine.
Tic went to the future, too.
Why didn't he tell me?
Because he learns that
he dies in Christina's spell.
All right. I'll take that.
Hippolyta said there's
parallel universes.
It might not be true.
And what if it is? Huh?
By you handing over those pages
you might have a hand
in the death of my son.
You'll understand when you have yours.
There's no making this right.
It's a boy?
- [electrical sparking]
- Whoa!
- [device sparks]
- Whoa, whoa, whoa!
What you doing? It's working!
There are upwards of 60
trillion parallel universes.
We need to rewind to
this Earth's Tulsa in 1921.
The computer needs a motherboard
to give it instructions.
What's a motherboard?
Me. I'ma jack into the machine.
I'm gonna need that picture
you keep in your wallet
to triangulate.
You know, when Mama was alive,
Daddy saved every penny he
made from the Pullman Porter tips
just so he could give us one night a year
at the Stradford.
- Me and George used to eat
- Here.
I'll concentrate on the Stradford.
Once you're there, be
careful not to do anything
that might change this future.
Now, whatever's going on between you all,
leave it here, right here.
It's our only chance to save Dee.
[dramatic music]
[screaming]
- Aunt Hippolyta!
- Wait, wait, it's working.
Go! [screams]
[music softens]
["Avalon" by Al Jolson playing]
Look at the nigger faggots. [laughs]
Think I don't know
what the hell's going on
under my roof? Huh?
A flower in your hair?
Please, I promise, Dad.
I won't do it again. I promise.
Pick a goddamn switch!
Begging won't save your hide.
I said pick a switch! Pick a switch!
Montrose! Montrose, go! Go!
[whimpers softly]
[car horn honks]
They ku-clucking again
down at the courthouse.
Crackers.
Still, ain't no reason to be
shutting down the dance.
They find a way to ruin everything.
I look so pretty in my dress.
Saying something
about some kind of dance.
It's canceled.
[somber music]
That was Booker T.
Washington school's prom.
They closed the school just hours
before the mayhem started.
Didn't they burn Mama's
house down that first night?
With her whole family inside.
We want a chance of getting
that book, we better go now.
Yeah, you're right.
We don't need no extra attention.
We need to blend in.
[uneasy music]
I'll take care of your bag.
Good morning.
We'll cross the tracks.
There's a shortcut on
the white side of town.
When we get to the house,
you knock on the front door.
They won't recognize you.
Distract them, but be careful not to
I know. I can't say anything
that might change the future.
[uneasy music]
[car horn honks]
[distant yelling]
[gunshots]
I'll sneak in the back
and try to find the book.
It's probably in your
great-grandmother's room.
Montrose, do you
remember which one that is?
You okay?
- Wrong with you?
- God damn.
Of all the days for your bullshit.
Dee's depending on us.
Boy, shut your mouth.
I only had a few sips.
You're pathetic.
- Wait!
- [gunshot]
[gasps]
Boy, you have no idea
what you're walking into.
God damn.
You think you know
war? You don't know shit.
Man, take your sorry
ass back to the portal.
He can't go back. He knows
where your mama lives.
- We need him, Tic.
- Shit, I don't.
I took your bullshit,
your beatings, your
berating, forgave Mama
and Uncle George for not protecting me
from your ass, now
'Cause I thought you was my father.
Fuck that.
When this is done,
when Dee's safe, we're done.
[somber music]
[sprightly music]
[children laughing]
The two houses on the corner,
those are your mama's and mine.
All right, Leti, you up, hmm?
- All right.
- Wait, wait, wait.
Think I don't know
what the hell's going on
under my roof? Huh?
Pick a switch!
Please. I promise,
Dad, I won't do it again.
I promise.
Begging ain't gonna save your hide.
I said pick a switch!
Pick a switch!
[ominous music]
- [yelps]
- Move your hands!
He caught me in George's prom jacket.
They paid good money
to have it made at Byar's.
Didn't need me messing it up.
Get up!
You wanna put a flower in your hair
and be preening in the goddamn mirror?
Not in my house!
[yelping]
- That was, uh
- Please!
It was George's corsage.
I deserved it.
Don't nobody deserve this.
Stop! You're hurting him!
Mama?
Please
Dora, don't
You better move, girl,
before I give you
something to holler about.
Verton!
Chastise your boys how you like,
but mine you leave her be.
[whimpering]
Hell y'all looking at?
The hell y'all looking at?
At least I ain't the
only man in the house.
You, uh you look real pretty.
Why did you just stand there?
What did you expect me
to do, fight my own dad?
I expect you to help your brother,
who's always getting more
lickings than you seem to get.
She was wrong.
George helped me more than anyone else.
Go on. Put it on.
Dora, your prom's been canceled.
What? What happened?
Don't know.
Miss Anna Mae called
and told Mama just now.
[sighs] Guess we should
go look for my brother.
They have no idea what's
about to happen to them.
Where's Montrose?
Where the hell'd he go?
Shit.
Hey. He went that way.
Ah, hell.
He's going to warn Uncle George.
What?
Gonna warn him about
getting shot at Ardham.
He knows he can't do that.
He was talking about it earlier, Leti.
Hell. We gotta go find him.
Come on.
Tic.
- Tic?
- Yeah.
Yeah. Shit.
They told me this story a million times.
They going to the park, gonna get beat on
by a bunch of white thugs.
That's the park they,
uh He stopped at earlier.
That park is over 20 minutes away,
and he's had a head start, so
Yeah, we can't get him and the book.
We gotta split up.
[tense music]
[wires sparking]
[engine turns over]
Meet back at the Stradford?
Yes.
[ominous music]
We should name him George.
You should go.
[eerie music]
[suspenseful music]
I spent so much time
sitting in that chair,
wishing he was my father. Uncle George!
[cries out]
- Wait!
- [gunshot]
Hey, boy! Ha ha!
Eeny, meany, miney moe!
Catch a nigger by her toe.
Come here, gal!
[gunshots]
Whoo-hoo!
Where you going? Whoo!
- [yelps]
- Damn it, you got her!
[ominous music]
[shotgun cocks]
[gunshot]
Come on!
I got one for all you crackers.
[gunfire]
Come on! Get in my house!
Come on, get in the
house. Get in the house!
[all gasping]
What the hell's going on out there?
They were being shot at.
I was on the phone with Anna Mae.
She started screaming,
and her line went dead.
She said there was a
mob at the courthouse.
This is about that mess
with Dick at the Stradford.
Them two men that was chasing you.
Where'd they come from?
She's had a fright. Let
her catch her breath.
Go and get her some water, Beulah.
[uneasy music]
What's your name, honey?
Letitia.
Tell us what happened to you.
- Verton
- If there's more coming,
then we need to know, damn it,
so we can protect ourselves.
There's a truck of them
at the end of the block.
[dramatic music]
There's no time to waste.
We need to get the hell out of here.
Not without the kids.
Hold on a sec.
Okay, I'ma slip out the back.
There's only a couple places they can be.
I think you'll be safer here with us,
but if you got family to get to, then
I'll stay.
Here.
I'll keep watch on the roof.
Martha, Mama, y'all
hold steady at the front.
Beulah, take our new
friend Letitia to the back.
Hey.
If anybody comes close,
you shoot to warn,
then you shoot to kill.
[dramatic music]
You can't do this.
What the hell you following me for?
You can't warn Uncle George. Ah, shit.
I wish he were still alive, too,
but we don't know how
saving him could change things.
I ain't here to warn George.
What you doing here, then?
[hushed] Montrose!
Who's that?
[boys murmuring]
Name is Thomas.
He's about to get shot in
the head if I don't save him.
Do you see anybody?
No.
I'm just so nervous.
Not for us we'll be fine.
Daddy's got skeet shooting trophies.
He's the best shot
this side of the tracks.
But Dora?
I'm sure Mr. Freeman will find her.
But what if he doesn't?
We got into the nastiest fight earlier.
I said some horrible things.
I was just jealous she was getting
to go to the prom with George Freeman.
You won't tell that I'm
sweet on him, will you?
No, I won't.
Good, 'cause
Mr. Freeman's gonna find her,
just like you said, and
I'm gonna apologize
for being such a brat,
and everything's gonna be okay, right?
[melancholy music]
Yes.
Everything's gonna be fine.
[gunshot, glass shatters]
That's Daddy's gun.
Get away from the window!
Mama, Nana Hattie! What do we do?
Go check on her.
[gunshots]
[tense music]
I lost that boy's name.
Couldn't even say it before today.
You see, he couldn't just be dead.
He had to never exist.
That was the only way I could go on
and not die here with him.
I could save him now. I could save him.
I'm sorry about what
happened to your friend,
I really am, but you can't save him.
Yes, I can. It won't change nothing.
- It'll change nothing, son.
- Listen, listen, listen, listen.
Listen to me.
You don't know that, all right?
Let go, God damn it. Let go.
Listen, listen to me. Listen to me.
If you don't end up
with Mama, I won't exist.
My son won't exist.
I c
Just stop
and think
About what you're risking.
I have.
Thomas won't mean much.
He's just the first in
a long list of sacrifices
I made to be your father.
You a faggot
You see right there?
I'm telling him we can't
be friends no more
'cause he's a faggot, and I'm not.
I lied to him and myself for years.
I cut out all the soft parts of myself
just to be a man, because men have sons.
I swallowed my pride when we found out
your mama was pregnant,
and you could be George's.
But you were my son.
You had to be.
I did it all, and I would do it again,
because the only
thing I ever wanted to be
was your father.
So it can't change.
It can't.
You better be sure of that, Pop.
I see. So you're a coward.
- [glass shattering]
- [angry shouting]
Ah, shit! Come on.
What you doing in here, gal?
I was hoping I could get a better shot.
No.
You was looking for something.
Knew you felt off from the start.
Ain't never seen shoes like yours.
Who are you?
You best start telling truths,
or it's a bullet between your eyes.
[tense music]
I'm from the future. I'm
Dora's son's girlfriend.
I'm here because we
need the Book of Names.
The good testament's
the only book I know.
[screams] Gil, they're
coming down the street!
- I'm coming, baby!
- Please.
I'm running out of time. Now,
we need the Book of Names
to help save a little girl named Diana,
your great-grandson's cousin.
She's been cursed.
And we need it to help protect him, too,
from Christina Braithwhite.
And I know all this sounds crazy,
but I can prove it.
You have a family birthmark, yes?
Atticus saw it in the
picture of your cousin Ethel.
It looks a little something like this.
Dora's son.
You came to the past for the book.
We die here, don't we?
You know about Dora
and George showing up,
getting saved by the stranger,
but see, I never told
nobody this part of the story.
[men yelling]
[gunshots]
[glass shatters]
What's going to happen to us?
[angry shouting]
Hey, where you going, coon?
Come on. Come on!
We got so scared, grabbed hands.
We ain't ever so much as touch in public,
scared somebody would know.
[angry shouting, cheers]
Get away from the door!
Get your things and let's go!
Please, wait! We can't change it.
I can't just stand by while they kill us.
I'll never forget that cracker's scream.
"Nigger faggot!"
[mournful music]
Please, listen to me.
Dora escapes with your cousin Ethel.
She grows up. She
marries Montrose Freeman.
Together, they have a beautiful baby boy.
We call him Tic
because Atticus is really a mouthful.
And I fell in love with him.
I am in love with him.
I don't want him to not exist.
But we can't change any of it,
because the future, my baby
Mama! Mama! Where are you?
Help me! [cries]
[flames roaring]
[screaming]
[alarmed shouts]
[fire roaring]
Montrose! Get off of my brother.
George and Dora showed up
like my own personal cavalry.
We were lucky they only had one gun,
or else we'd have all been dead.
"For I know the plans I have for you,"
declares the Lord, "plans for welfare
and not for evil, to give
you future and a hope."
When my great-great grandson is born,
he will be my faith turned to flesh.
[yells, gasps]
The book is bound. I
was told to protect it,
but never to open it.
Here are the words you'll need.
Now go, before you can't.
I'm spelled with magic.
Fire can't hurt me.
Just when we thought all was lost,
a stranger showed up,
swinging a baseball bat
like he was Jackie Robinson,
hitting home runs with their heads.
Dora, get back! [grunts]
He saved us all.
The last thing he said
before he disappeared was
[both] "I got you, kid."
Something's wrong.
Get up!
We must've fucked something
up coming through the portal.
[dramatic music]
You're the mysterious stranger.
[screams]
[yells]
I'm ready.
I hope the good Lord is.
Pray with me.
Our father
[both] Who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name
Sometimes I wonder what to say to you now
in the soft afternoon
air as you hold us all
in a single death.
I say, where is your fire?
I say, where is your fire?
You got to find it and pass it on.
You got to find it and
pass it on from you to me,
from me to her, from her to him,
from the son to the father,
from the brother to the sister,
from the daughter to the mother,
from the mother to the child.
I say, where is your fire?
I say, where is your fire?
Can't you smell it
coming out of our past,
the fire of living, not dying.
The fire of loving, not killing.
The fire of Blackness,
not gangster shadows.
Where is our beautiful fire
that gave light to the world,
the fire of pyramids,
the fire that burned through
the hulls of slave ships
and made us breathe?
The fire that made guts into chitlins,
the fire that took rhythms and made jazz,
the fire of sit-ins and marches
that made us jump
boundaries and barriers.
The fire that took street talk and sounds
and made righteous Imhotep raps.
Where is your fire, the torch of life,
full of Nzinga and Nat Turner
and Garvey and Du Bois
and Fannie Lou Hamer
and Martin and Malcolm
and Mandela?
Sister, sister, sister, brother, brother,
brother, come, come, come, come, come.
Catch your fire. Don't kill.
Hold your fire. Don't kill.
Learn your fire. Don't kill.
Be the fire. Don't kill.
Catch the fire and burn
with eyes that see our souls
I got you, kid.
Walking, singing,
yeah, building, mm-hmm,
laughing, ha ha, learning, yes, loving,
yes, teaching, mm-hmm, being.
Hey. Hey, hey, hey, hey,
young, young, young brother.
Hey, hey, hey, young,
young, young, young sister.
Here is my hand.
Catch the fire and live, live.
Live, live, live. Live, live, live.
Live, live, live. Li-li-li-li-li-li-li
[screaming]
[dramatic music]
[gunfire]
Gotta get back!
Oh, shoot! We should go over here.
- Go, go, go!
- Let's go, let's go!
Move!
[dramatic music]
Go, go, go, go, go! Go, go, go!
Leti! Leti!
I gotta go find her.
There's something wrong with the portal.
[screaming]
I can't keep it open!
You have to! Leti!
Leti's not back!
Oh, shit!
[somber music]
[airplane buzzes]
[screams distantly]
[child cries]
Peg Leg Taylor's last
stand on Standpipe Hill.
Oh, that was something.
Still, they burned down
Byar's Tailor Shop.
Dr. Jackson,
"best Negro surgeon in all America"
Shot in the face.
Mrs. Rodgers lost her invalid daughter.
White Phelps
took in Negroes, hid 'em in the basement.
Commodore Knox.
They did him in the worst.
And Thomas?
[portal sizzling]
Come on, do it for Dee!
[dramatic music]
[screaming]
[screaming]
Aunt Hippolyta, come on!
[screaming]
[whimpers]
[gasping]
Did we get it?
We got it.
We fucking got it.
[somber music]