'Lovecraft Country': Season 1 Episode 4 "A History of Violence" Recap
Within episode four of “Lovecraft Country,” we focus on Montrose Freeman’s (Michael K. Williams) secrets, a steamy, unexpected hook up, and a quest to find the missing Adam pages.
WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
“A History of Violence” fades into Montrose Freeman’s (Michael K. Willams) apartment in the dark of night. He is still struggling with the passing of George (Courtney B. Vance) and the demons of his past. We see him just trying to sleep but can’t. It’s tied back to the book about The Order’s history, which George gave him before he passed. Montrose burns the book his brother gave him in a moment of restlessness, and he falls back to sleep.
The next day, we see Christina Braithwhite (Abbey Lee) pull up to Leti’s (Jurnee Smollett) boarding house. When she walks to the front door, she’s blocked from coming in because of the ritual performed in the last episode that prevents evil spirits from coming in. Christina talks to Leti about the Sons of Adam’s papers. It’s the same conversation she had with Tic (Jonathan Majors); only Leti realizes that her house was paid for by Christina and not her mother. Leti figures out what we already know, if Christina wants to come into the house, something inside must be worth her time.
Looking for Tic, Leti finds him at the town library looking for clues in books to find the missing Adam’s papers. Let wants to assist him, but he won’t let her come close to helping him. He’s doing this to protect her, but he should know better after everything they have been through over the last couple of months. After Leti storms off from his rejection, Tic discovers that he’s looking into the same books last checked out by someone he knows, Montrose.
Going to his father’s favorite bar, Tic discovers Montrose and Leti sitting together, talking about finding the papers. Montrose tells them to leave it alone, but the two friends tell them they have to know how to find these papers. Tired and scared of what might happen, Montrose tells them a museum in Boston might lead them to uncover the missing pages to their puzzle. They agree to set out to Massachusetts the next day.
On the other side of town, Christina sees an old friend of the order, Captain Lancaster (Mac Brandt), the same cop her bullied Leti about her house. Lancaster is upset Christina is in his town, wants her to go, and doesn’t want to listen to her because she isn’t a member of The Order. She tells him she can do what she wants basically, and keep an eye on the Freemans and Leti. Not taking orders from her, he sends some of his cops to follow her. As Christina is heading inside the establishment she is staying at, her bodyguard William (Jordan Patrick Smith) comes outside to see the cops and beat them up. The quick cut might suggest Christina and William are the same person, switching their appearances. It would be exciting if that turns out to be confirmed within the next couple of weeks, but it’s just a fun theory for now.
Morning comes, and Tic, Leti, and Montrose set out for Boston. The only problem is Hippolyta (Aunjanue Ellis) and Diana (Jada Harris) are coming along with them because they are using George’s car. Though the mother and daughter aren’t in on the group’s plan, Hippolyta is very wary of what is going on. The group rides together to Boston and land at the museum. Looking for a vault inside the building, they realize the whole exhibit is about Titus Braithwhite, and a lot of his discoveries were on display. Montrose gets a hint from the security guy on duty they will be able to come back later at night and look for what they need.
Back in Chicago, Ruby (Wunmi Mosaku) is struggling to find a regular day job. She tries to see if she could work at a department store, but it doesn’t work out for her. We later see her at a bar, playing for a less than enthusiastic audience. Ruby finishes her set and starts to drink, with someone right next to her, buying them round after round. It’s William, looking to be a calming ear for Ruby, trying to cast a spell on her. She falls for his charm, and the two go back to the place she’s staying at, and they make love on the stairs. It’s an incredibly steamy scene, but we all know it will lead to a world of trouble.
Meanwhile, back in Boston, the gang has got into the museum after everyone has left. They are looking around the statue of Titus for an entrance to a passage to find the papers. They find a lever, and it opens a hatch, and with the help of the map displayed behind glass upstairs, the group makes their way down a dark path toward their objective. This is when the episode feels like a homage to “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” with the group embarking on a dangerous adventure that feels like Indiana Jones will come around the corner to help them. Case in point, they find a bridge to cross, and as they are getting across, the path starts to disappear. When they get to the door to open it up, Tic and Leti don’t know how to open it, leading Montrose to tell them how it opens.
When they get on the other side of the door, Montrose comes clean to Tic and Leti about how he knows so much about their journey. He explains he read the book George gave him and then burned it. Tic gets mad because he kept it from him, but Montrose did it to protect him and their family. As they continue down the tunnels, water levels start to rise, and a body appears. It’s one of the dead white neighbors from the last episode, showing us the tunnels under Leti’s house leads to the papers. We now understand why Christina wanted to get into her home so badly.
As they move to the end of the tunnels, they find a door with a hand inside. Using his ring from The Order, Tic puts his arm in the door and uses it to open for them all. They find themselves in what looks to be a ship, with skeletons sitting around a table. When they move to another room, they find a desk with the papers under a skeleton’s hand. When Tic goes to reach for it, the brittle bones transform into a being of an indigenous woman from ancient times. She speaks a language no one but Tic understands. She tells him that Titus used her to translate the papers, and when she refused to help him, he cursed her to the vault she lives in.
Tic asks for her help finishing the translation, but she says she doesn’t recognize his spirit and can’t help him. As they talk, the glass windows around them start to break, and water fills the room. Running leads to swimming as all four head for Leti’s elevator, and by the skin of their teeth, they make it in before drowning. Due to the situation and everything going on, Tic and Leti kiss again, proving these two still really love each other.
Before we finish with the main group, we go back to Hippolyta and Diana, driving back to Chicago, mad at the group for abandoning them. Diana finds Georges atlas in his glove box with the path to where our heroes went in the first episode. Hippolyta turns the car around, looking to search for answers she might not want to find out.
At Leti’s house, Tic tries to talk to the woman but can’t because Titus put a spell on her, which means she can’t speak unless she is in the vault. He tells Montrose this, hoping he can read into how they can get her to translate Adam’s papers they possess. Montrose tells his sons how proud he was of him for everything he did for them on this journey, and Tic takes it to heart. As Tic goes to his room and closes the door, Montrose walks back into the indigenous woman’s room, closes the door, walks behind her, and slits her throat. A violent, shocking ending leading all of us to wonder what Tic and Leti will think we discover this in the morning.