Lovecraft Country’s third episode, “Holy Ghost” is focused on Leti (Jurnee Smollet) buying a haunted house and the psychological aftermath of George’s (Courtney B. Vance) death on his family. Like previous installments, this episode courageously comments on American history and features strong performances from its leads and continues a strong debut season.
“Holy Ghost” picks up around one month after the heroes escaped Ardham. The story opens on Leti showing Ruby a new house she bought in North Chicago with a mysterious sum of money. Ruby is suspicious but decides to move in anyway, assisting her sister in building a home for black wanderers and creatives in the area.
As you’d expect, the peace doesn’t last long. Days after they move in, white neighbors park outside of Leti’s house and harass her over the coming days. They tape bricks to their horns, burn crosses and late in the episode, break into her house. These devils get their comeuppance later, but before that, Leti has a powerful scene where she busts open their car windows, shattering their buffoonery momentarily.
It’s between moments of facing fragility from what happened in Ardham to displays of strength that Jurnee Smollet cements another excellent performance.
The other major plot line in the episode is the Freeman’s dealing with the aftermath of George’s death. Specifically, George’s widow Aunt Hippolyta (Aunjanue Ellis) is suspicious that Montrose (Michael K. Williams) and Tic (Jonathan Majors) are hiding the truth about her husband’s death. She confronts Montrose but he doesn’t tell her anything, the exploration of truth in that plot will be interesting to watch in subsequent episodes.
In the finale of the episode, Leti pieces together the mystery of the ghosts. She finds out that they were black victims of human experiments conducted by a University of Chicago professor who got disavowed because of “unethical practices.” The final moments are a must-watch, involving a voodoo priestess, an exorcism and racists getting their comeuppance.
Adding ghosts to the lore of the world is a bold choice. It expands the supernatural elements into an arena unvisited in the previous two episodes and conjures up new ways for the show to deal with racial commentary. Personally, I think the choice paid off well. Building a story line around deceased black people from human experiments is sharp, because it plays on the fear that many have about the inequities in medicine.
This episode continues a proud tradition of proving that American history is just as horrific as American fiction and that monsters of our society aren’t just supernatural but our neighbors and fellow citizens.
“Holy Ghost” was entertaining throughout and the first to focus heavily on Leti, giving her needed character development and poignant moments throughout. If subsequent episodes can deliver on the bar set by “Holy Ghost” then I’d gladly continue to be haunted by Lovecraft Country.
