Rewind 1921

**Rewind 1921** is the ninth episode of the first season of Lovecraft Country, and the ninth episode overall. This episode aired on Sunday, October 11, 2020 on HBO.

## Synopsis

With Hippolyta at the helm, Leti, Tic, and Montrose travel to 1921 Tulsa in an effort to save Dee.

## Plot

Tic, Leti, Montrose, and Ruby watch over Dee, who is dying from the curse placed on her by Captain Lancaster. Tic wants to go to Christina for help in exchange for Titus’ pages, but Leti reveals that she already traded Titus’ pages in exchange for invulnerability. However, Ruby assures them that Christina will come to their aid if she asks.

Christina arrives. From the well detailed pictures drawn by Dee, she deduces that the curse is a combination between Titus’ pages and Horatio’s stolen ones. However, she can’t remove it without the Book of Names. The Captain sealed it with his body and he is the only one who can lift it. They tell Christina the Captain is dead, and when asks how, Leti says there was a gas explosion outside her house. Christina says she can perform a restoration and reset the curse’s cycle, but Dee will eventually die. Christina will perform the spell only if Tic agrees to come back with her to Ardham on the night of the autumnal equinox. She’ll need all of their help to channel intention. She adds that births make locations ripe for spell casting, so better they do it in the apartment, where Dee was born. Before leaving to tend to personal matters, she hands Tic a symbol to trace around the apartment and tells them that the blood of Dee’s closest relative will be needed for the spell. With Hippolyta gone, the task falls on Montrose.

Captain Lancaster just barely survived the shoggoth attack. He attempts to heal himself using magic and "spare parts" from black men they've abducted and killed. However, the spell has failed each time. Christina arrives disguised as William. She tells them that the wounds he suffered from the attack will come back no matter how many times he attempts to swap spare parts. She retrieves the talisman she had Ruby plant in his office and reveals that she cursed him. She wanted him to die a thousand deaths but will settle on letting him die now.

Tic finds Montrose in the garage getting drunk off George’s moonshine. If Montrose could go back in time and take that bullet for George, he would. He then reveals that his blood might not be able to save Dee as Tic might be George’s son, making him Dee’s closest relative. Tic becomes upset at this revelation after all the years he wished George was his father. Leti joins them to inform them that Christina is back. Hippolyta then suddenly returns and inquires about Dee’s health.

Tic, Leti, Montrose, and Ruby stand over Dee, who is transforming into one of the demon girls that came after her, as Christina performs the spell with Hippolyta’s blood. Christina successfully manages to reset the cycle of the curse, buying Dee another 24 hours.

Leti follows Ruby out and warns her that Christina can’t be trusted, however, Ruby says she trusts Christina more than she does Tic and Montrose, pointing out Christina has not done anything to harm either of them. Leti asks Ruby if she knows about Christina’s plan on the autumnal equinox and how it likely involves sacrificing Tic. Ruby doesn’t reply and joins Christina in the car.

Ruby asks Christina about Dell, her father’s groundskeeper. Christina reveals that she ended up in the coma after Leti hit her over the head with a shovel. Ruby then questions if Christina only helped Diana to get to Tic. Ruby believes that she was merely Christina’s plan b after she failed to get Leti to work for her, but Christina assures her that isn’t true, though she does admit that her plan for autumnal equinox is to kill Tic as she requires all his blood. Ruby makes Christina promise that no matter what, she won’t hurt Leti. Ruby hints she always imagined herself as a redhead if she were to be white.

Hippolyta was on earth 504 for the equivalent of 200 years on their earth. She acquired infinite wisdom and intends to use it to save Dee. And so, Tic, Leti, Montrose, and herself drive to the observatory in Kentucky to retrieve the Book of Names from Tic’s family before it got lost in the Tulsa riots. Montrose is haunted by what Tic said to him and how he treated him as a child. Tic and Hippolyta fix the time machine up whilst Leti and Montrose tend to Dee. Montrose reveals to Leti that he and Tic are aware that she’s pregnant. Tic didn’t tell her because he also learned that he dies during Christina’s spell.

Before long, Hippolyta gets the time machine up and running. There are upwards of 60 trillion parallel universes. They need to rewind to their Earth’s Tulsa in 1921. The computer needs a motherboard to give it instructions, so Hippolyta plugs herself up to the machine using the purple implants in her wrists. She uses the picture of Montrose, George, and their father at the Stradford from 1921 to triangulate. She then warns them not to change anything in the past. Hippolyta plugs herself up to the machine and the portal appears. Tic and Leti jumps through. Montrose hesitates, remembering awful events of his past, but eventually he joins them and travels back in time to Tulsa, 1921.

Montrose is visibly affected to be back in this traumatic era. Tic, Leti, and Montrose get dressed in more time appropriate clothes so as to not draw any attention and head over to Dora’s house, the last known whereabouts of the Book of Names. Montrose comes to a stop as they near a park. He appears traumatized by the mere sight of it. Tic realizes that he’s drunk and scolds him. He suffered under Montrose’s abuse for years only to learn that he may not even be his father. Tic tells Montrose that after Dee is safe, they’re done.

The three of them arrive outside of Dora’s house. Montrose and George stayed just next door. Tic, Leti, and Montrose watch as Verton, Montrose and George’s father, beat Montrose mercilessly with a switch after catching him in George’s prom jacket with a flower in his hair. A young Dora exits her house and comes to Montrose’s defense, stopping Verton, allowing Montrose to flee. Verton, clearly drunk, stumbles away and tells George: “At least I ain’t the only man in the house.” Dora smacks George’s corsage to the ground and asks why he didn’t help Montrose. She’s disappointed that he didn’t come to Montrose’s aid. They then get word from Dora’s sister, Beulah, that prom has been canceled, so George and Dora decide to go looking for young Montrose. Tic and Leti then realize that Montrose has sneaked away, suspecting that he’s gone to warn George about dying in Ardham. So Tic and Leti decide to split up. He goes to the park in search of Montrose while she recovers the Book of Names. Before parting ways, Tic reveals that he knows she’s pregnant, to which she replies that they should name him George.

Montrose makes his way to the park. He comes across a vehicle filled with liquor. He breaks the window with a baseball bat and steals a bottle.

Leti finds herself under attack by a group of white men armed with guns. They chase her down and open fire, though she is protected by the invulnerability spell. Verton and Gilbert come to her aid nonetheless and shoot back before helping Leti inside, where Nana Hattie, Beulah, and Martha wait. They ask her about the men who attacked her, and she informs them that there’s a truck of them at the end of the block. While Verton slips out back to find the kids, Gilbert passes out guns to each of them. He goes to keep an eye out on the roof while Martha and Nana Hattie guard the front and Leti and Beulah watch the back.

Tic finds Montrose standing in an alleyway near the park. He warns his father against informing George of his death, but that’s not why Montrose came. He had a "friend" named Thomas who got shot in the head that night, which Montrose is hoping to prevent.

Leti and Beulah watch the back door. Beulah is worried about her sister, Dora. They got into a nasty fight earlier and Beulah said some things she regrets. She was simply jealous that her sister was going to prom with George. Beulah is hoping that they'll survive the night, she'll get to apologize to Dora, and that everything will work out, but Leti knows otherwise.

Montrose completely erased Thomas from his memory after that night as it was the only way he could move on, but given the chance, he has to save him. Tic reminds Montrose that if he saves Thomas, then he won’t end up with Dora and Tic will never be born. However, Montrose argues that this won’t be the case. He won't allow for it to be. It was that night that Montrose told Thomas that they couldn’t be friends anymore. Montrose emotionally talks about how he had to sacrifice so much to be Tic's father, and that nothing will change because all he ever wanted was to be his father.

Nana Hattie catches Leti rummaging through her drawers and holds her at gunpoint. She remarks that she’s never seen shoes like Leti’s and asks who she is. Leti reveals that she’s from the future, Dora’s son’s girlfriend and that she needs the Book of Names. She proves it by drawing their family’s birthmark on a sheet of paper. When Hattie realizes that Leti came to the past for the book, she concludes that they must die during the riots. Hattie then looks outside and sees that the house is surrounded. The mob of white men begin throwing Molotov cocktails into the house. Leti can’t allow her to save her family as it will change the future. She explains how Dora survives and goes on to have a son. Hattie realizes that Leti’s telling the truth and retrieves the Book of Names. She tells Leti that when her great-great grandson is born, he will be her faith. As the room fills with fire and smoke, she hands the book over to Leti and tells her that the book is spelled. She was told to protect it but never to open it. Rather than leaving, Leti decides to stick with Nana Hattie until the end. They hold hands and pray to God as Hattie goes up in flames.

Tic and Montrose watch as young Montrose and Thomas are surrounded by a group of white men and Thomas is shot in the head. George and Dora show up shortly after and the three of them attempt to fight off their attackers. Tic and Montrose wait for the stranger with the baseball bat to show up and save them but he never shows. Tic sees a baseball bat on the ground and realizes that he is, in fact, the mysterious stranger who saved them when they were kids. Tic races over to George, Montrose, and Dora’s with a baseball bat and fends off the group of white men attacking them. He then looks down and says: “I got you kid.”

Tic and Montrose make their way back to the portal, narrowly avoiding explosions and gunfire. Tic jumps through the portal, where Hippolyta is struggling on the other side to maintain its structure. Foaming at the mouth as the energy is too much for her to maintain. Meanwhile, Montrose stays in 1921 and watches as Tulsa burns to the ground, reciting the names of the people he knew who died that day. He sees Leti in the streets below, hugging the book close, slowly making her way closer. Walking through the fiery explosions of aerial bombs without so much as a scratch.

Tic pleads with Hippolyta to maintain the portal. Her eyes glow white, her hair turns blue, and she levitates into the air as the portal holds, allowing for Leti and Montrose to make it through with the Book of Names.

## Cast

* Jonathan Majors as Atticus Freeman
* Aunjanue Ellis as Hippolyta Freeman
* Wunmi Mosaku as Ruby Baptiste
* Abbey Lee as Christina Braithwhite
* Jamie Chung as Ji-Ah (credit only)
* Jada Harris as Diana Freeman
* Michael Kenneth Williams as Montrose Freeman
* Mac Brandt as Seamus Lancaster
* Regina Taylor as Hattie
* Jordan Patrick Smith as William
* William Catlett as Verton Freeman
* Keith Arthur Bolden as Gilbert

Co-Starring* Alex Collins as Crane
* Gerald Mikell as Young Montrose
* Christian Anderson as Young Geroge
* Leeann Ross as Young Dora
* Nilah Blasingame as Beulah
* Charlotte Haynes-Hazzard as Martha
* Daniel Noris as Armed Thug
* Kailyn Gainer as High School Student
* Ava Mbaye as High School Student
* Matthew McVay as Dawn Member

## Notes and Trivia

* The episode title, *Rewind 1921*, refers to Tic, Leti, and Montrose travelling to 1921, Tulsa.
* The episode is a re-creation of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre.

## Gallery

### Promotional

* Photos
* Videos

Lovecraft Country Season 1 Episode 9 Promo HBOLovecraft Country Radio Rewind 1921 Episode 9 HBO

## References

1. ↑ To remember Tulsa, ‘Lovecraft Country’ went the extra mile: writing an opera