Spoilers below for those who haven't yet watched Lovecraft Country's wild season finale. You have been warned!
After giving audiences nine episodes of the most mind-expanding storytelling on TV, Misha Green's Lovecraft Country came to a howling stop with its Season 1 finale. "Full Circle" reflected on all the magical madness that played out previously, while also setting up a potential future for this ever-changing ensemble of characters and cast members. Assuming, of course, that HBO deems the show worthy of a Season 2 order. But before we get into that kind of speculation, there are an abundance of WTF moments to talk about from this thrilling and tragic conclusion.
It's a shame that we're already at the end of Season 1, but at least Lovecraft Country left viewers with more than enough big moments to ponder once the credits were finished rolling – without a post-credits scene, for the record. For anyone who missed our previous looks back on WTF moments, here's everything we noted from Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, and Episode 8. Now before this "stalling the inevitable" incantation truly takes hold, let's take a musical road trip through the finale's weirdest and wildest moments.
No Visual Clue In The Title Screen
Perhaps calling this a WTF moment is a bit extreme, but each of the previous nine episodes featured a small and simple visual clue on the title screen, beneath each episode's name, for something important that shows up later in the respective eps. However, this one didn't utilize such an image, although it did showcase a zoom-out on a striking background that incorporated imagery from the entire season. So it wasn't a total loss, but I guess I didn't realize how much I looked forward to that particular element until it was gone. Knowing this show, that's probably a metaphor for something.
Hanna's Flaming House Is Actually A Safe Haven
Despite Jonathan Majors' Tic and Jurnee Smollett's Leti having dreams making it look like Hanna's burning house was a hellscape, it was revealed to actually be a safe spot fueled by Hanna's rage and populated by the spirits of Tic's magic-protected relatives. Such as Tic's mother, Dora (Erica Tazel)! Weirdly enough, that burning abode is where Tic accepted his eventual fate, understanding that it needed to happen in order to truly keep the future bloodline safe and protected. It's also where Leti studied up on her magical skills with Regina Taylor's Hattie. Essentially, this house would be the best place to level up if Lovecraft Country were a video game.
Diana's New-Old Arm
Thanks to everyone's successful efforts to stop Diana from turning into a Topsy and/or Bopsy clone, she returned from her nightmarish slumber to her natural state. Well, except for her arm, which became a gnarled and withered souvenir from her cursed experience. I'm pretty sure I gasped with too much concern as Diana screamed during that reveal, which taps into the worst repercussion that a curse could have on a promising artist like Diana.
Rest In Anti-Peace, Titus Braithwhite
Because this show hadn't already brought enough justice to quasi-resurrected racists, Tic and Leti returned to the tunnels they discovered in Episode 4 in order to bring back the grand wizard poobah himself, Titus Braithwhite. And not to gather 'round for his undoubtedly splendid family anecdotes (sarcasm), but to remove his magical protection and truly send him off this mortal coil – with a piece of his chest missing – thanks to some assistance from Leti and Tic's trio of bewitching ancestors. Unfortunately, that happened after he transported himself elsewhere and tipped Abbey Lee's Christina off to his presence as she totaled her car and flew through its windshield like an evil blonde javelin. That accident was a WTF moment unto itself, really.
"Would You Be Willing To Die To Fuck Me?"
Jamie Chung's Ji-Ah offered up a top contender for Best Line of Lovecraft Country Season 1, as well as Best TV Line of 2020, with this English-translated response to an unwanted suitor who appeared uncomfortably interested in her "exotic" nature. Note that she gets all the points here, while the WTF actually goes to that dorky hornball for stepping way out of his lane.
Hippolyta's Machine: The Home Version
While it wasn't so explicitly laid out, Lovecraft Country appeared to show that Hippolyta found a far easier way to tap into her extra-dimensional identities without driving out to that abandoned-ish observatory. She seemingly built one of those machines inside her house, and then showed it to Diana – though not to viewers directly – when trying to make her daughter feel better about her arm situation. If anybody could craft such a science-enhancing construction, it's definitely Hippolyta, who also proved herself to now be an accomplished comic book writer/artist, as it should be.
Tic Eating Some Yucky Raw Yuck-Ass Chest Meat
Remember when Tic and George were smart enough not to eat any of Samuel Braithwhite's liver meat earlier in the season, and how nicely set up it was with the plates and the utensils and the cloches? In hindsight, that would have been a utopia situation compared to Tic trying to gnaw down on the so-very-thick flesh that he'd carved out of Titus' chest, followed by a blood chaser. Combating the absolute grossness of Tic's disgust with his own situation was Montrose's surprisingly sage advice to "pinch and swallow" as a way of making it easier on himself. Granted, spooky flesh isn't the same as rotgut moonshine, but the suggestion was still extremely fatherly of Montrose.
Lovecraft Country Got Me Again With A Body-Switch Twist
Within the narrative context, it makes all the sense in the world that Christina utilized a Ruby potion in order to pull a mega-reversal on Leti & Co. ahead of the big ritual. What doesn't make sense, though, is that after the variety of twists that already went down with Christina's identity-swapping potions, that I somehow still didn't see this coming until five seconds before the reveal played itself out. Misha Green and her creative team set up the perfect distraction with Leti and Ruby's sibling rivalry, which then makes Ruby's unfortunate fate all the more depressing.
Fight Night
Before the shock of Ruby's potential death could truly set in, Lovecraft Country unleashed its biggest fight scene of the season, with Leti facing off against Christina-as-Ruby, which was a nice and important layer to that dispute, which ended in Leti being thrown out of a window and to her "death" below. (That moment was legitimately shocking as it happened.) Meanwhile, the other heroes were caught up in a brawl with a c(k)lan of Braithwhite followers, and it was nearly as shocking to see that Montrose, Ji-Ah and the pitchfork-swinging Hippolyta survived and took out all those old-timey white folks without suffering any serious injuries. Big thumbs up for the back-and-forth edits that made the scene feel so frantic and badass, too.
Ji-Ah Saved The Day
As if shutting that dude down so fucking hard earlier in the episode wasn't enough, Ji-Ah brought the previously introduced shaman's words to reality by taking on the darkness that was expelled during Christina's ritual, which basically did what Christina's blood would have done had Ruby's mini-heist been successful. While tapping into their minds, she also tipped viewers off to some of Tic's final machinations setting up his letter to Montrose and Diana's shoggoth power, as well as Christina catching Ruby and hooking her up to IVs like William and Hillary.
Tic Still Died, Though
Yeah, both the writers and Jonathan Majors himself absolutely set the table for Tic to die by the end of this episode, but did I still expect to hear about some kind of spell reversal that would allow him to survive while still granting his future bloodline exclusive access to magical powers? I most definitely did. But it didn't happen, and even though it's hard to tell whether Tic was truly a hero or not throughout all of Lovecraft Country's first season, his death was definitely a major blow that is a truly difficult one to mourn in traditional ways, considering what it means overall for Leti and their son-in-the-making. That said, it's very interesting to consider how Montrose will do with his role as a reformed grandfather.
So Did Christina
On the flip side, it was quite quick and easy to get over Christina's death once it finally happened in full (we think). Despite having some redeemable qualities – such as her partially progressive views about Black people that specifically provide her with certain advantages – and showing signs of remorse over possibly killing Tic for a failed spell, the character's true colors were always as white as her pale skin, so she doesn't deserve lavish memorials. For as much as I did predict that Christina would die, though, I most definitely did not foresee HOW it would happen. Namely, having Diana show up with a new bionic arm to squeeze Christina's throat until it literally burst, which was fucking awesome. Because seriously, don't you just sometimes think certain people need to have their throats exploded, with or without bionic arms involved?
Diana, Queen Of The Black Shoggoth
Similar to how Hippolyta completely transformed herself throughout the season, Diana also ended the finale as a different character from who she was early on, both mentally and physically. As revealed in Christina's death scene, Diana's curse-mangled arm was amputated and replaced by a rocking bionic arm, giving her a sense of power and pride that wasn't there before her encounter with Topsy and Bopsy. I'm assuming that replacement happened during a wormhole trip with Hippolyta. As well, those final moments fully confirmed that Diana now controls the protective power of the Black Shoggoth, which Tic was seen passing over to her in Ji-Ah's visions. That shot of the monster running up and howling at the moon is definitely one of the sweetest visuals of the season, and I hope it becomes a poster I can hang on my wall.
Without any more episodes left to go in Season 1, Lovecraft Country fans now have to patiently wait to hear what HBO will decide for the show's future. In the meantime, it's currently available to stream in full on HBO Max, but be sure to stay tuned to CinemaBlend for updates as they become available, and stay up to date with our Fall TV 2020 premiere schedule to see what new and returning shows are coming soon.
