'Lovecraft Country': Season 1 Episode 10 "Full Circle" Recap & Review
Everything comes together perfectly in the first season finale for HBO’s newest flagship program.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead
We jump right into the action from last week with the Tic (Jonathan Majors), Leti (Jurnee Smollett), Hippolyta (Aunjanue Ellis), and Montrose (Michael K. Williams) driving Dee (Jada Harris) back to Chicago with the book of names. Once they get to Hipp’s house, they take her upstairs and Tic performs a spell to open the book of spells to save Dee. Once he finishes his words, both Tic and Leti fall completely to the floor. Flash to a portal world, where we are within the book of names, a place created by his ancestors as a pathway for Tic and Leti to communicate with them.
Tic speaks to Hannah, who tells him how he can save everyone he loves and change the future of their family for generations. Leti speaks to Tic’s great aunt who gave her the book in the last episode. She tells Leti that she will become the new guardian of the book of names, and must work together with Tic to finish his task. The last person they speak to is none other than Tic’s mother, who tells him death is just the beginning for Tic and the Freeman name. Once they acknowledge what they must do, the ancestors, along with Tic and Leti, break the curse on Dee and wake up.
Moving to the kitchen, Tic and Leti tell Montrose the plan that they must do. They are going to use Christina’s (Abbey Lee) spell against her and destroy their enemy once and for all. There are multiple steps to doing this spell, each must be done correctly or it will not work at all and Christina will win. Upon giving this information, Tic and Leti set out to the tunnels under her house and start to perform the first part of the spell. In this incantation, they summon Titus Braithwhite to face the Freeman ancestors and face their wrath. He escapes the spell for a minor moment, long enough for him to flash in front of Christina to let her know our heroes have the book of spells. Tic and Leti are able to summon him back and they kill Titus, taking a piece of flesh with them.
Back at the Freeman house, Dee is upset that Hippolyta abandoned her and will lose her arm due to the damage of the spell cast on her. When the mother explains to her daughter what she did and who she did it for, Dee doesn’t want to hear it. Later in the episode, we see the two connect over comic book drawings of Hipp’s adventures and Hipp gives Dee something she will use for the rest of her life. But more on that later.
With the first part of the spell completed, the group discusses moving on to the second part of the spell, which will involve the use of Christina’s blood or flesh. But before they get too involved in the conversation, Christina walks into the shop and tells them that she knows they have the book of names. If they give her the book, then she will leave Tic and his family alone for good and find another way to make her spell work. Tic refuses and as Christina leaves, she takes off the protection spell she put on Leti a couple of episodes ago.
As the group heads to Leti’s house for the night, Tic calls an old friend that is still in town to grab a drink. When he gets to the bar, we realize he’s called Ji-Ah (Jamie Chung), and the two sit and have a beautiful conversation about the regrets of their relationship. Tic tells her that he shouldn’t have abandoned her and should have treated her better when he found out about her curse. She tells him that her mother passed away and that she has found her purpose, that she must embrace the darkness. It’s clear to the audience, in order to save Tic and learn who she is going to be, Ji-Ah must have sacrificed her mother to the shaman. The scene is designed to be closure for the characters, though Tic tells her she is part of his family and she comes back to the house with him to be with everyone else.
The next day, we find Ruby and Leti at their mother’s grave. They talk about their on and off relationship and how it has led them to this moment, with Leti asking her sister to help them stop Christina. Ruby doesn’t want to and starts to walk away until she tells Ruby about Tic and their baby. With this information, Ruby goes back to Christina’s place and tried to seduce her. She is successful and the two kiss each other, leading to their first time together in their true forms rather than in their other personas. As this is going on, Tic helps Leti become baptized for the sake of their family and their baby coming on the way. This leads to a sequence the next morning of Tic looking at all the people in his life, and realizing this might be the last time he sees them before he dies.
Right as the group is about to leave for Ardham, Ruby shows up with her end of the deal and all of our characters get in George’s car and drive to Ardham. They sing and laugh on the way, making it feel like a real road trip. As they get to Ardham, the group separates, with each doing their own part to help cast the spell. Tic makes his way to the middle of the Ardham town, where the ritual will take place. While this is happening, Leti and Ruby start to make symbols in the watchtower. But as the sisters start to talk, it is clear, Ruby is not Ruby but Christina and that Leti’s sister was killed trying to get the blood. Leti fights Christina, exchanging punches back and forth, till Christina lays a haymaker on Leti and throws her over the top of the watchtower. Meanwhile, Montrose, Hipp, and Ji-Ah are captured by the cities people and taken to watch the ceremony.
When the moon appears, Christina comes out and stands in front of Tic, ready to perform her act. Tic sees all of his family but Leti was captured, which he realizes that Christina killed her and their child. His anger is palpable and heartbreaking to watch as the spell is cast and his arms are cut open to the point where he loses a ton of blood. As this is going on, Dee is in the car, waiting patiently, until she hears some monsters come out, and as they are about to attack her, we see Tic’s protector come and kill them and save Dee. We also see Leti’s eyes open up and she gets up to run and save Tic.
Leti gets to the ritual right as Tic dies, gets to see the love of her life die right in front of her and watch Christina gain full immortality. As Christina comes down, Leti stands her in the stomach but it does nothing, She starts running the spell to counter but all Christina does is laugh at her and tell her to give it up. It’s at this moment Ji-Ah realizes what she must do, and as dark smoke forms because of Leti’s spell, Ji-Ah embraces who she is and has the darkness consume her. When this happens, her tentacles go throw Christina and Tic’s body, using their blood to complete the spell.
A flash of light comes on screen and we see Tic’s final goodbyes flash in front of our eyes and also Christina saving Leti with her spell to protect her from the fall at the watchtower. When it is over, we see Christina consumed by giant rocks on her body. Leti tells her that they control all the magic now, and no white person will ever take it from them. Christina has failed but the visions came true, and as Montrose goes to get his son, they all realize he is not coming back. Hipp gives Montrose a letter to read. In the letter, Tic tells his father to give his grandson the life he never gave Tic and to use this as a second chance for not just himself, but for everyone else. The group carries Tic’s body to the car to take back to Chicago.
And just as you think this is all over, there is one more surprise up this finales sleeve. Remember when Hipp gave Dee something special, well Hipp gave her daughter a mechanical arm made out of steel. With this, Dee walks into the town of Ardham and find Christina calling for help. But Dee shows no mercy and rips out her throat, killing her on the spot. As this happens, Dee rises to see Tic’s monster, now Dee’s protector, scream into the vast of night, leaving a loud roar as the final thing we see in season one of Lovecraft Country. Where this next season goes, whenever we see it, will be very interesting considering how well they wrapped everything up in this tenth episode. But whatever Misha Green has in store for us, you can guarantee we will be excited the minute we see more episodes are coming with these extraordinary characters in the vivid, lived-in world.