Jig-A-Bobo

**Jig-A-Bobo** is the eighth episode of the first season of Lovecraft Country, and the eighth episode overall. This episode aired on Sunday, October 4, 2020 on HBO.

## Synopsis

A distraught Diana finds herself in Captain Lancaster's crosshairs. When a visitor from his past arrives at the boarding house, Atticus and Leti each take steps to protect their future.

## Plot

The entire South Side gathers for the funeral of Emmett Till, better known to his friends and family as “Bobo,” after he was lynched in Mississippi for being accused of offending a white woman. Tic, Leti, Montrose, Ruby, and Dee are among the attendees. Ruby regrets bringing Dee to the funeral, but Tic and Montrose agree that she should see him for herself. In addition to Bobo’s death, Leti wants to tell Dee the truth about Hippolyta and how she isn’t coming back. They suddenly notice that Dee's missing and split up to find her.

Dee has wandered off from the funeral. Still distraught over the passing of her close friends, she lashes out, even throwing rocks at two laughing girls. She is then apprehended by Captain Lancaster, who found her travel comic at the observatory. They ask where her mother is and what her name is. Dee claims that she's on a guide trip. Lancaster asks Dee about magic and how much she knows of it. The other officer draws chalk symbols on the stone ground on both sides of Dee's feet. Upon realizing that she is clueless, Lancaster performs a spell. He chants in the Language of Adam, maggots appear from the ground and his voice changes into a low, gutteral sound. He and wipes his spit across Dee’s forehead before leaving. Dee, frightened, gets up and leaves. The eyes of the man in the advertising mural on the wall seems to follow her as she runs away.

Leti returns home in search of Dee, but instead, she finds Ji-Ah sitting in her living room.

Tic meets with Christina in her family's mausoleum in a cemetery. He wants her to teach him how to cast a spell to protect himself. She congratulates him on recovering Titus’ pages. Tic then shows her the key to Hiram’s time machine and uses it as a bargaining chip to persuade Christina into teaching him. She informs him that an incantation isn’t a spell. He’ll need more than just his words. To cast, he needs energy, intention, and a body. She outlines a protection sigil in dust and tells him to trace it around the location he’s going to cast the spell in. Tic hands over the key as promised and asks what’s going to happen during the autumnal equinox. She tells him that she’s going to achieve immortality.

Dee returns home and confronts Montrose about the lies that everyone has been telling her in regards to her mother. She questions if her mother is dead. Montrose insists that she’s on a guide trip. Dee is certain that he’s lying and hides away in the bathroom. She scrubs Lancaster’s spit off her head and puts on a baseball hat. Montrose can relate to Dee’s pain. They took his friend when he was around her age. He and George learned early on that no matter what they do, the white folks always take it from them. He tells her that when they come for her, she better make them work for it. Dee then sneaks out the back window after being startled when notices the drawing on the cover of the book 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' on the bookshelf in the bathroom has transformed into a grotesque figure and the book goes flying on to the floor.

Ruby returns to the North Side. She is confronted by a white man as she attempts to unlock the front gate. He asks if she’s the maid. She replies: “No, I’m not the damn maid.” Christina arrives disguised as William and sees her inside. Ruby gets undressed and Christina helps her into the tub. Afterward, Ruby takes the metamorphosis potion, and she and Christina have sex. Towards the end, the potion wears off, and Ruby returns to her natural state mid-sex.

Tic returns home to find a woman’s shoes sitting by the front door. He realizes it’s Ji-ah and heads inside to find her sitting across the table from Leti. She looks happy to see him, but Leti does not look at him and appears stoic and upset.

Dee waits on the platform for the train to arrive. She notices two demon-like girls similar to the figure on the cover of the book, with wild hair, yellow eyes, and sharp teeth, slowly and menacingly making their way towards her, though only she can see them. She rushes off the platform as they slowly approach, pushing past bystanders to get to safety.

Ji-ah reveals that she’s a kumiho — a Korean term for succubus. Otherwise known as a nine tail fox spirit. She’s killed 100 men. It’s in her nature. She asks what Tic's excuse is. She explains that when she has sex and her lover climaxes, her nine tails attach to him, taking his life force. This is how she’s able to see their entire lives up until their death. Tic asks when he is supposed to die, but she doesn’t know when nor did she see how it happened. Tic, frustrated and angry, questions why she came if she didn’t have any answers. Leti, who is clearly upset at hearing all this, replies it’s because Ji-ah loves him. Leti storms off, and Tic tells Ji-ah to leave as their relationship wasn’t real.

Leti packs Tic’s bag and tells him to leave as well. After everything they’ve been through, she can't fathom why he didn’t tell her the truth about his time in Korea. Tic thought he was protecting them by keeping it a secret. He realizes that was a mistake and enacts his plan. He tells Leti that he’s going to cast a protection spell, which he learned from Christina before giving her the key. Leti tells Tic that he can’t trust Christina and reminds him that there’s too much at stake. Tic explains that he’s fighting for their future as they’re surrounded by monsters.

Ruby tells Christina how Emmett Till, a 14 year old boy, was beaten and shot to death, then tied with barbed wire by the neck to a cotton gin fan and cast into the Tallahatchie River. She asks Christina if she cares. Ruby wants Christina to feel the anger and pain she feels. But she knows that Christina will never understand as she was born into privilege. Ruby claims that she took the potion earlier because she didn’t want to be a black woman having sex with a white man. Christina reveals that she doesn’t care about Emmett Till, Roy Bryant, J. W. Milam, or any unfortunate souls who shared their fate. Nor does she care that half the city is on the brink of chaos. When she was having sex with Ruby, she saw someone being reborn. In truth, Ruby took the potion because she wanted to hide from the fact that she was a woman who wanted what she wanted.

Dee arrives on the North Side. Leti is leaving just as she gets there. Dee asks about Tic, but Leti’s not sure when he’ll be back. Dee then sees the two demon girls and tries to warn Leti, but can’t speak. Leti does not take her seriously and leaves. Dee then notices Woody hidden on the side of the house, but she is forced to flee on a bike as the two girls approach.

Tic finds Montrose sitting on the curb and asks if he ever cheated on his mother. Montrose had desires but he never acted on them. Not until Dora was gone. Tic takes a seat next to him. Montrose reveals that when he was 8 years old, the pastor of his church got caught with another man in the park. Palm Sunday morning, police came and snatched him off the pulpit in handcuffs. They put him in an asylum and cut out half his brain. This is Montrose’s reason for hiding the fact that he is gay. Both he and Dora wanted a family and that’s what their love was built. Tic then reveals that Leti is pregnant. She hasn’t told him yet. He found out when he went to the future. He hands Montrose the Lovecraft Country book he returned from the future with. It’s written by Tic’s son, George Freeman.

Leti is in church alone and prays to God for guidance and protection for Tic. Christina joins her and they briefly discuss the similarities between miracles and magic. Perhaps her father considered himself God-like when he resurrected Leti, but he was a mere mortal. Most men with god complexes want to live in heaven and not hell, failing to understand that God is both. Leti questions if Christina means to be God, but the real reason she called her was to make her a proposition. She offers Christina photos of Titus’ pages in exchange for her putting an invulnerability spell on Tic. Christina won’t do it for Tic, but she’s willing to place the spell on Leti. Leti retracts the negatives but as Christina walks away, Leti changes her mind. Christina gives her the Mark of Cain — her father’s invulnerability spell. Christina was the first to realize it could also be used to heal someone.

Dee hides out in an alleyway near the police station. The two demon girls are approaching her from behind but Dee does not notice them and she rides away, following Captain Lancaster on her bike as he drives away.

Montrose tells Tic he shouldn’t have given Christina the keys to Hiram’s machine, but Tic reveals that she won’t be able to use it as the machine is broken. Meaning that at least for that time being, Hippolyta is trapped in the future. Tic was only there for a short while, but he remembers white folks rioting. He was only there for a second before the woman in the hood, with the robotic arm came in, shoved the book in his hand, and pushed him back through the portal. Tic reveals that the book is their family’s story, though some of the details differ; Christina’s a man. George survives Ardham. And Dee’s a boy named Horace. It ends with Christina sacrificing Tic on the autumnal equinox to become immortal, which is just five days away. Tic isn’t sure what to do next. Montrose tells Tic that he’s going to do whatever he can to save him and his grandson.

Dee barges into Captain Lancaster's office and asks if her mother is dead. He’s not sure but says that she mostly likely is. She then asks about the curse he placed on her and what will happen if the demon girls get to her. She is defiant. Lancaster is willing to remove the curse if Dee retrieves the orrery, but she refuses and spits on Lancaster’s shirt, saying: “Fuck you, pig,” before leaving.

Dee gets on her bike and tries to leave, but she finds herself caught between the two demon girls. One demon girl in front of her and one behind her. She gathers her confidence and screams at one as she resolutely pedals ahead towards one of the demon girl as if to run her over but steers away and escapes.

Tic is drawing symbols on the ground with his blood. Montrose has trouble reading the incantation. He reveals to Tic that he’s dyslexic and that he has been since he was a boy, which Tic was not aware of. Tic is surprised to find out another thing about his father he didn't know about. Tic stands in the symbol, and Montrose recites the incantation, but it doesn’t appear to work.

Christina brands herself with the Mark of Cain and pays two men to beat her up and shoot her before tying a barbed wire around her neck and casting her into the river, mirroring Emmett Till’s death. One man says "Why would anyone want to die like that." as they walk away. She emerges from the water seconds later, sobbing and laughing.

Ruby comes down into the basement to find Leti developing photos of her and Tic. They discuss Bobo and how brutally he was murdered. Leti feels ashamed she couldn't take photos of Bobo but his mother was brave enough to show the world what happened to her son. Ruby says Leti can't feel guilty for protecting herself first. Leti then reveals that she’s pregnant. Ruby says that she should’ve stayed with Marvin instead of going to Ardham, revealing that she knows about magic and how George really died, through Christina. Leti warns Ruby that Christina is playing her, however, Ruby believes that what she and Christina have is a mutually beneficial relationship. During her stint with Christina, Ruby realized that she doesn’t want to be white and that what she truly desires is to create a space for herself, which she can do with magic. They are interrupted by someone calling for her urgently to come upstairs.

Leti and Ruby head upstairs and look outside the window to find the entire Chicago Police Department outside her house. They claim they have a warrant to search the premises after getting a tip that known Nation of Islam radicals were organizing, Though in truth, Captain Lancaster is simply after the orrery. He tries to enter Leti’s house, but is blocked by the protection barrier. He leaves, and seconds later Lancaster and his officers open fire on the house.

Dee retreats to her family’s garage, where she locks all the doors but one. She then draws pictures of the two girls. Upon their arrival, she arms herself with a led pipe and attacks. She beats the two demon girls but they refuse to stay down.

Leti and Ruby take cover as the police open fire, destroying the contents of the house. However, Leti is protected by the Mark of Cain, making her bulletproof.

Montrose enters the garage to see Dee screaming and swinging the pipe, though she’s the only one he sees. He restrains her, unaware that she’s under attack by two demon girls.

Tic arrives outside of Leti’s to see the house under police fire. He stands there helpless. The officers turn their attention on him and open fire even as he has his hands up. Fortunately, just before the bullet hits him, a shoggoth emerges from underground and shields Tic. It then goes on to attack the officers. While it’s distracted Leti runs outside and embraces Tic. After tearing through Captain Lancaster and his men, the shoggoth turns its attention to Tic and Leti and comes to heel in front of Tic as a pet would its master.

## Cast

* Jonathan Majors as Atticus Freeman
* Aunjanue Ellis as Hippolyta Freeman (credit only)
* Wunmi Mosaku as Ruby Baptiste
* Abbey Lee as Christina Braithwhite
* Jamie Chung as Ji-Ah
* Jada Harris as Diana Freeman
* Michael Kenneth Williams as Montrose Freeman
* Mac Brandt as Seamus Lancaster
* Jordan Patrick Smith as William
* Kaelynn Gobert-Harris as Topsy
* Bianca Brewton as Bopsy

Co-Starring* Alex Collins as Crane
* Mac Wells as Brother Nelson
* Tyrone L. Robinson as Reverend Parker
* Ariel Eliaz as Rabbi
* Timothy Batten as Male Neighbor
* Julian Green as Youth Commuter
* James Bascomb as Male Commuter
* Casey Hendershot as Mob Henchman
* Larry Herring as Police Officer
* Anastasia Wilson as Mary Churchgoer
* Madison Alsobrook as Ice Cream Girl
* Tickia J Sutton as Ice Cream Girl
* Morgan McGill as Young Girl
* Emery Mae Edgeman as Young Girl
* Livi Birch as Young Girl
* Erin Young as Ruby Body Double
* Jordan Scott as Rookie Cop

## Notes and Trivia

* The episode title, *Jig-A-Bobo*, is a play on words in reference to the racial slur "Jigaboo," and the death of Bobo, better known as Emmett Till.
* The episode was inspired by Wes Craven’s **A Nightmare on Elm Street**.

## Gallery

### Promotional

* Photos
* Videos

Lovecraft Country Season 1 Episode 8 Promo HBOLovecraft Country Radio Jig-A-Bobo Episode 8 HBO