Lovecraft Country (2020–…): Season 1, Episode 7 - I Am. - full transcript
[bright tone]
[gentle music
[playing distantly]
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- Come on, light up.
[groans]
Goddamn it!
- Mama!
- Pumpkin, I asked you
to stay in the car.
- Mama, I don't think
we're supposed to be here.
What does this have to do
with Pop's death?
- He was here.
[light music]
♪ ♪
[sighs]
I'm sorry.
I just can't figure it out.
♪ ♪
They need to tilt based on
how they rotate on their axis.
[curious music]
♪ ♪
f
[sweeping music]
♪ ♪
[eerie music]
♪ ♪
d
- Did you kill them?
- No, they were already dead.
I just... transformed
their blood into a potion.
- [exhales deeply]
- Ruby, it's okay.
- You have been lying to me
this entire time.
Nothing that has happened
since I met William...
Shit, you... has been real.
- What you know of William
is true.
Captain Lancaster
did try to kill him,
and in fact he succeeded.
- So this has...
This has been about revenge
for your dead lover?
- Yes.
I want revenge for William.
But I want so many
other things too.
- [scoffs]
- Just listen, please.
Please.
My father was a leader in
the Order of Ancient Dawn.
- What the hell is that?
- It's a group of powerful men
who wield magic.
They don't allow women to join.
I begged my father to teach
me anyway, but he refused.
I sought William out to seduce
him into being my teacher,
to prove I could be better
than the son
my father wished he had,
but the more William taught me,
the more I realized
how silly it was
to limit my pursuit of magic
around impressing my father.
William's spell,
which I completed,
was the beginning
of bigger ambitions.
I could be so much more.
Do things most people
couldn't even imagine.
- Like fuck me.
As a man.
- I never lied to you.
The words may have come out
of William's mouth,
but they were mine.
- I wanna know everything.
Right now.
No more secrets,
no more half-truths.
Every fucking thing.
- The whole truth
involves lost pages
from the Book of Names
and your family.
d
♪ ♪
- [screaming]
[breathing heavily]
d
You been up here all night?
- I translated
about half the pages.
The ceremony at Ardham
was complicated.
They had this symbol,
written in chalk
all over the lab,
which makes me think
it's important.
And then they had all these
weird mechanical elements
I-I've never seen before.
- It's not as simple as
just saying the words.
- Titus and Samuel
and that entire lodge
spent decades
studying this stuff,
and they all died
in failed attempts
at casting these spells.
- Not you.
Not Hanna.
She managed
to escape the fire,
ran right out the front door.
- How you know
she ran out the front?
[curious music]
- [sighs]
I don't, not really.
This'll probably sound crazy,
but...
I think I had a dream
about her this morning.
- Were you in the lodge
while it burned around you?
♪ ♪
I might've had
the same dream.
- Uh, Hanna's standing
in the doorway.
I felt like I'd been
chasing after her, and I'm...
- What?
You're what?
- I'm, um, not scared.
Even though the house
is burning around me.
How are we having
the same dream?
- I think Hanna might be
trying to tell us something.
Warn us maybe.
But I can never hear her.
Could you?
- She doesn't
say anything in mine.
She's just standing
in a doorway
smiling with that book.
- What book?
- All the things to take
when you're pregnant
and running out of your
master's burning house,
and you stop to grab a...
- The Book of Names.
- No, it can't be.
If Hanna escaped
with the book,
wouldn't there be magic
in your family?
- I barely know anything
about my mama's side.
She's the only one who survived
the riots in Tulsa.
- [exhales deeply]
If the Book of Names
is still out there,
that's not just
some more spells.
That's instructions
on how to cast them.
- Christina's
going after the pages.
We gonna get
the whole damn book.
♪ ♪
- ♪ Listen to me, honey,
listen to me ♪
♪ I, I need your lovin',
oh, can't you see ♪
♪ Let's do it ♪
- ♪ Let's do it ♪
- ♪ Let's do it ♪
- ♪ Do it, do it ♪
- ♪ Let's do it ♪
- ♪ Let's do it ♪
♪ Ah, baby,
let's make some love ♪
- ♪ Baby, let's make
some love ♪
- Oh, come on, baby.
Love me tonight.
- Well, good morning.
- Morning.
I figured since
I spent the night,
I could at least
make breakfast.
- No, what you figured,
since this was the first time
I let you spend the night,
you would make a big old
production out of breakfast.
- Drop the needle
in that record for me.
- Yes, sir.
- [chuckles]
- [soft vocalizing]
♪ ♪
- There's nothing in your
cabinets but whiskey,
so I went to the store.
On the way,
I ran into this woman
with this cute little
African scarf.
Would you believe, she said
she got it at Marshall Field's.
[laughs]
I ain't never seen
not one colored
go into that store.
♪ ♪
- That was Bernice.
My neighbor.
- It was at the bus stop.
She didn't see me come in
or out of here.
♪ ♪
- What's this, pork?
I don't eat pork.
They ain't have no
beef sausage down there?
- The Queen of Sheba herself
don't eat beef sausage.
When'd you get off of pork?
- Why are these grits
so runny, Sammy?
I-I like my grits firm.
You... you know this.
- What you gonna moan
about next,
that the coffee is too wet?
- Too much sugar in it.
- Why is it
that every time
you feel like
we're getting too close,
you make it a point
to show me
you don't care about me?
- Did I say that, Sammy?
Don't put no goddamn words
in my mouth.
- No, I'm not gonna let you
play me crazy this round.
- Hey, Sammy.
Wait.
I'm sorry.
♪ ♪
- [softly]
Excuse me.
- So it is true.
You are a faggot.
- I'm still
your goddamn daddy!
And you'll respect me!
Get outta here!
You get out!
Don't you ever call me out
of my fucking name!
- Did Mama know?
- Yes.
[somber music]
♪ ♪
- Why y'all come here?
- [huffs]
[grunts]
[breathing heavily]
- I, uh...
I asked him how he found out
about your mama's family.
He said she had a cousin
that survived the riots too.
He tracked a friend
of hers down in St. Louis.
We get Woody, yeah?
It's only a three-hour drive.
- Okay, yeah.
He said he had to whup my ass
so I wouldn't be soft.
[chuckles]
That's not the real
fucked-up part.
The fucked-up part is
I told myself it was because
he cared about me.
Wasn't never about me.
He was beatin' my ass,
whuppin' my ass,
beatin' my ass
'cause he's a...
[ragtime music playing]
- Thank you for babysitting,
Ruby.
I know it was last-minute.
- No, it's no big deal.
I had to get out of the place
I was staying for a bit anyway.
- Dee, you ready
to go over the checklist?
- It's all there.
Don't need to go through
this stupid checklist.
- This was a tradition
with her father.
Checklist topped off by
a travel comic for the road.
- Well, I'll get her
to invite some friends over,
have a party
while Mom is away.
Pick up her spirits.
Oh, right.
- Thank you, Ruby.
[engine starts]
- Hey, Aunt Hippolyta,
you heading out someplace?
- A guide trip.
- We were hoping we could
borrow Woody for a day or two.
- Well, obviously you can't.
- It's important.
- So is my trip.
- We just sent out
a new print,
and Uncle George would not
want you driving around here...
- Did George put you
in charge of the guide
before that sheriff
you say shot him?
- No.
- Then I sure as hell
don't need your permission
to do guide work.
Back up.
[tires squeal]
- Looks like we're taking
the bus to St. Louis.
- Shit, yeah.
If we leave now and get
to the house and pack a bag,
we can maybe get there on time.
- Yeah.
- Or I can go by myself,
if you want to stay,
talk to your sister.
d
- So where have you
been staying?
- How many days
after I moved out
did you start to care?
- Ruby.
Things have just gotten away
from me a little bit lately.
- Do tell.
- Doesn't matter.
It's no excuse.
Our last fight
was one of our worst,
and it was my fault.
I should have told you about
the money coming from Mama.
All these time I've spent
thinking about all the things
I hated about her,
it never occurred to me that
I could actually become her.
I may not be
a hustler like her,
but I tried to hustle you.
For that I'm sorry.
[gentle music]
♪ ♪
- I never heard Mama apologize
in all her life.
So maybe y'all aren't
exactly the same.
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
- [singing in French]
♪ ♪
- [singing along in French]
♪ ♪
Hi.
Ah.
♪ ♪
d
♪ ♪
- Let me get you some more
macaroni and cheese, baby.
[chuckles]
- Excuse me.
- Ms. Osberta.
- Hmm?
- How'd you know
my cousin Ethel?
- Our husbands served
on the deacon board
at First Baptist Church.
Sherman and I were married
for 30 years.
- So y'all met at church
and just stayed friends?
- Mm-hmm, yes, oh, yes.
[chuckles]
Not long after Sherman
went on to glory,
Ethel's husband passed too.
It was hard,
and we just didn't want to be
two lonely widows anymore.
So one day Ethel said to me,
"Bertie..."
that's what
she always called me...
Said, "Hey, Bertie,
I don't know what's left
"for two old gals like us,
but this sure ain't it."
[both chuckle]
But you asking about
your mama's people, huh?
Lord, Ethel loved
to talk about them.
They were so close growing up.
So close.
- She ever...
say anything about
the Book of Names?
- I don't recall that.
Oh, wait.
You know, I do think there was
some kind of family book,
but from the way
Ethel talked about it,
I thought it was something
like a photo album.
- Mm-hmm.
- Or a family Bible
or something like that.
- That might be it.
I've been trying
to track it down.
I was wondering, did she
tell you anything about it?
- I'm sorry.
It's gone, baby.
It's gone.
Those white folks
burned up everything
in the massacre.
You ever saw a photo
of your cousin Ethel?
- No, ma'am.
- Well, let me get that
photo album then.
Uh-uh, don't get up.
Don't get up.
f
♪ ♪
[laughter]
- That's ten.
- Ooh!
- Y'all didn't even make board.
- Ha ha!
- When's Bobo coming back?
'Cause he know how to play.
- Damn, I can't concentrate.
I'm hungry.
- Mm-hmm.
- When's dinner?
- Let me check.
Don't want you two
to have any excuses
next time we kick your asses.
[laughter]
- Don't you dare ask me
when dinner's gonna be ready.
- All right, fine.
[chuckles]
But you... you never told me
where you've been staying.
- I'm still on the North Side.
- Hmm.
With a white man, then?
- Seems to me
you oughta be concerned
with your own love life.
Your boyfriend
paying you rent yet?
'Cause Atticus seems
to be the only man
from the South Side
without a job.
So what does he do
to keep himself busy?
- Oh, he's a big help
around the house.
- [chuckles]
That house needs
as much help as possible.
- [laughs]
- It looked like you
and Mr. Fix-It
were trying to hit
the road earlier.
- Tic just had family business
in St. Louis.
- Why didn't you go?
- Because I had my own
family business here.
- [scoffs]
- What?
- Get over here.
Taste this.
Tell me what it's missing.
- Ooh.
What's in there, garlic?
- What is wrong with...
You love garlic!
- I might be developing some
of your allergies or something.
- That or you're pregnant
with Junior Mr. Fix-It.
d
[uneasy music]
- Oh, Jesus.
[mechanical clicking, whirring]
♪ ♪
- Oh, that's the church's
woman's retreat
I was telling you about.
Guess who that is.
[phone rings]
Who could that be
at this hour?
[ringing continues]
[ominous music]
♪ ♪
Hello?
One moment.
For you, baby.
- Hello?
- Hippolyta's had Hiram's
orrery the entire time.
She must've taken it
from the house.
- How you know that?
- I'm looking
right at the damn thing.
It has, like,
a set of coordinates
engraved in the top.
The way she was
acting earlier,
I think she knows we lied
to her about Uncle George.
- Shit.
d
She ain't on a guide trip.
- If she's going where
this thing's leading her,
she's in danger.
d
♪ ♪
[machine whirrs]
d
[mysterious music]
♪ ♪
[energy pulsating]
- Mass, rotation,
velocity, and radius.
Mass, rotation,
velocity, and radius.
The length of time it takes
for each planet
to travel around two suns.
433, 124...
d
♪ ♪
d
- Captain Lancaster
appreciates it a lot,
keeping an eye
on this place.
- Hey, sir, what makes
this machine so special?
- How the hell
did it get turned on?
d
♪ ♪
Over there.
Let's go.
♪ ♪
Speak up, gal!
Who are you?
- Sir, I-I just
got lost on the road.
- Don't lie to me.
How'd you know
how to turn this thing on?
d
- Larry, is that you?
- Atticus!
[gunshot]
- Oh, shit.
[machine sparking
[and whirring]
- No!
[gunshot]
d
♪ ♪
[screams]
f
[screams]
d
♪ ♪
Tic?
Atticus?
[bright chimes]
d
♪ ♪
d
[gasps]
[mysterious whirring]
Who are you?
What are you?
- I am.
- Where am I?
What are these things
in my arms?
You can't keep me here.
- You are not in a prison.
- No, no!
No, let me out!
Let me out!
Somebody help me!
Somebody!
Somebody help me!
[gentle electronic whooshing]
Salt in the air
on the beach.
Sufficient oxygen.
I didn't get dizzy
when I wasn't in the ship.
Is it a ship?
Am I on another planet?
The sand was
strangely springy.
No, I was lighter.
Not like Orithyia Blue on Mars,
but just enough to feel it
in my tendons.
Gravity turned
down just a notch.
Come on, come on.
What would Dad say?
Gustav Mie.
He warned of gravity shifts
in the future.
There's no known planet
with sustainability.
Was she human?
64 number settings.
From zero, zero, zero
to 999.
d
♪ ♪
Makes the total
possible combinations...
[grunts]
[gasps]
Ten to the 192nd...
power.
63 trillion
celestial...
panoramas.
♪ ♪
[yells]
d
♪ ♪
[yells]
[electronic whooshing]
Let me go!
- You are not in a prison.
Where do you want to be?
- [groans]
- Name yourself.
- [laughs]
- Name yourself.
- What the fuck
are you talking about?
- Where do you want to be?
Name it.
Who do you want to be?
Name it.
- I want to be dancing
on stage in Paris
with Josephine Baker.
[whooshing]
- Go. Go.
[jazz music playing]
- Ahh. Ah.
♪ ♪
- Presenting
Miss Josephine Baker!
d
♪ ♪
[applause]
♪ ♪
[whistling, applause]
- Stop your gawking
and do the moves.
♪ ♪
[applause]
d
d
See, go!
d
- We rehearse for 12-hour days,
and for what?
You make us all look bad.
- The manager must stop
with the American girls.
They always make us look bad.
- And this one's the worst.
Clearly not ready
for the big time.
- Ha, you ought
to take your ass
back to wherever
you came from.
- Listen, cheri!
Cheri.
Now, we've all had
those nights, even me.
Lord, you should've
seen my ass
back at Old Chauffeur's
in St. Louis.
But you've got to come
correct tomorrow.
Now, here's the step.
[scatting]
[giggling]
Yes.
Ah.
You're not in America anymore.
You've got to loosen up.
[scatting]
- [gasps]
Loosen up.
♪ ♪
["Lady Marmalade"
[by Patti Labelle playing]
♪ ♪
- ♪ Hey sister, go sister ♪
♪ Soul sister, go sister ♪
♪ Hey sister, go sister ♪
♪ Soul sister, go sister ♪
♪ He met Marmalade
down in old New Orleans ♪
♪ Struttin' her stuff
on the street ♪
♪ She said,
hello, hey Joe ♪
♪ You wanna give it a go? ♪
♪ Mm-hmm, gitchi gitchi,
ya ya, dada ♪
♪ Gitchi, gitchi ya ya here ♪
♪ Mocca chocolata ya ya ♪
♪ Creole Lady Marmalade ♪
♪ ♪
- [speaking French]
- Salud.
All: Salud.
[applause]
- Salud.
- Got a match?
Oh.
Hmm.
- Got that look again.
- Nights like this,
I burn so bright,
I feel like a star.
- You are a star.
- No, no, cheri,
not like a movie star.
Anyone can be that.
Me, I feel like the stars
in the black of space...
Magnificent, ancient,
and already extinguished.
Most of the girls never notice
when I get like this.
You know just where to look.
You've found that same thing
in yourself, haven't you?
- Being here has
only shined the light
on that old dead feeling.
- Hmm.
They don't call it
the City of Lights for nothing.
[somber music]
♪ ♪
- Now that I'm tasting it...
freedom...
- Hmm.
- Like I've never
known before,
I see what I was robbed of
back then.
All those years,
I thought I had
everything I ever wanted,
only to come here and discover
that all I ever was
was the exact kind
of Negro woman
white folks wanted me to be.
I feel like they just found
a smart way to lynch me
without me noticing the noose.
- Don't it just
make you angry?
- Furious.
Sometimes, I just...
I want to kill white folks.
And it's not just them.
I hate me.
Hate me
for letting them
make me feel small.
And I hate...
[melancholy music]
♪ ♪
- Who else do you hate?
So...
Miss Hippolyta,
what are you gon' do
with all that anger?
- I am Hippolyta.
I am Hippolyta.
I am Hippolyta!
[whooshing]
[screaming]
- All that screaming
won't save you now.
You're not making a baby.
You're in a fucking fight.
- [breathing heavily]
[yelling]
- When you fall
to the ground in defeat,
you may find yourself asking,
"Why am I here?
"Why should I bother
getting up when I know Nawi
is a great warrior,
and I cannot win?"
Well, I will tell you
why you're here
and why you must get up.
You are here because
you did not believe them.
Your whole life,
they told you you were free,
and when they said that,
they meant you were free
to cook their food,
free to raise children,
their children,
free to work for them.
They even lied to you
and told you
you were free
to run the world.
- [yells]
[groans]
- But it is still their world.
You are here because you knew
that all they offer
was the freedom
that a well-kept slave
could ever ask for.
Now, I cannot tell you
what true freedom is.
You have got to find that
for yourself.
But today, you are still
too afraid to go looking.
But I, Nawi,
will strip that fear away
one blow at a time.
Now get the fuck up!
[all grunting]
And raise your sword!
d
- [yelling]
♪ ♪
- [inaudible]
♪ ♪
[both grunting]
♪ ♪
[triumphant music]
♪ ♪
[fighters pounding spears,
[chanting]
["Fire" by
[Mother's Finest playing]
♪ ♪
[all yelling]
- ♪ You can run
to the jungle ♪
- ♪ You can't hide ♪
- ♪ Run to the mountain ♪
- ♪ Oh, you can't hide ♪
- ♪ Run to the sea, yeah ♪
- ♪ You can't hide ♪
- ♪ Brother man we gotta
be free now from the fire ♪
- ♪ From the fire ♪
♪ From the fire ♪
- ♪ Fire ♪
- ♪ Fire ♪
[vocalizing]
♪ ♪
♪ Well, you better be careful
'bout the things you do ♪
♪ 'Cause somebody's watching ♪
[vocalizing]
♪ ♪
- [grunts]
- We are here
because we did not
believe them
when they told us
our rage was not ladylike.
We did not believe them
when they said our
violence goes too far.
We did not believe them
when they said
the hatred that we feel
for our enemies is not godlike.
They say that to women like us
because they know what happens
when we are free,
free to hate when we must,
free to kill when we must,
free to bring destruction
when we must.
That is our freedom,
that is our prayer,
no matter what they think of us
after we grind
them into the dust.
That is our love!
[all cheering]
[sweeping music]
♪ ♪
d
♪ ♪
I am Hippolyta.
George's wife.
d
[gentle music]
[whooshing]
♪ ♪
What are you looking at,
George Freeman?
- My wife.
- But it was when I was
trying to escape
that white room
I told you about
that I realized that it wasn't
another planet at all,
and it wasn't a time machine.
Remember, I read you
some of that one article
about the many worlds.
- Mm-hmm.
- That's when I knew
that the equations
in the many worlds theory
had to be accurate.
I certainly thought they
might be before, but never,
never could I have imagined
anything like this.
Baby, a world
where I can name myself
anything.
- So is... is this real then?
If you're on
another planet Earth,
am I still here right...
Right now?
- I don't know what...
exactly it all means.
But...
God, it feels real.
That's what matters.
- Yes.
And after all your adventures,
everything you saw,
you still named
yourself my wife.
[gentle music]
♪ ♪
What's wrong?
♪ ♪
- I think now I can name
this thing that's been
eating at me quietly,
so quiet.
Sometimes,
I thought I was... tired,
Sad, or...
missing you when
you were out on the road,
but really, I was...
I was angry.
So angry.
Because for so much of my life,
I've been shrinking.
When I was a kid,
I thought I was big enough
to have every right to name
something out of this world,
and then I just
started shrinking myself.
By the time I met you,
I'd already gotten so small.
And I thought you knew
how big I wanted to be.
I thought you saw me.
But you just stood by
and let me shrink myself
more for you.
- Hey, uh, Hippolyta...
Hippolyta, why didn't you...
You tell me you felt this way?
- I tried.
I tried so many times.
I tried.
You... you had to see that.
- May-maybe I did, but I-I-I...
I fell in love with you
because you were so curious,
and I knew deep down inside,
there was a...
There was a discoverer
in you, but...
[pensive music]
♪ ♪
You're right.
I led you,
helped you shrink
so we could have a family,
so that I could go
and do what I had to do
and know that you were safe
at home, waiting for me.
♪ ♪
I'm so sorry.
I see now what that cost you.
d
♪ ♪
I see you now,
Hippolyta Freeman.
And I want you to be
as big as you can be.
- I am Hippolyta.
Discoverer.
d
♪ ♪
[whooshing]
- I'm not real.
I'm just like you.
You don't exist
in this society.
[aliens chirruping]
If you did,
your people wouldn't be
seeking equal rights.
[aliens chirruping]
You're not real.
If you were,
you'd have some status
among the nations
of the world.
[beeping]
So we're both myths.
I do not come to you
as a reality.
I come to you as the myth.
[warm music]
♪ ♪
Because that's
what Black people are.
Myths.
♪ ♪
- I got curious.
- Now that
you've named yourself,
we can fully integrate you
into our society.
You no longer need
the devices on your wrists.
- Is the change permanent?
- Yes.
- And if I don't change,
can I go back through
that portal
that brought me here,
back home?
- Yes, we can send you back
to your Earth.
- Hmm.
Home.
Feels like the wrong word.
How can I fit in everything
that I am now...
[laughs]
...into that place?
That Hippolyta.
She was so small.
But Dee...
She needs me.
Hmm.
[whooshing]
d
♪ ♪
- [grunting, gasping]
[crackling]
Aunt Hippolyta?
[electricity sparking]
d
Aunt Hippolyta?
[siren approaching]
Come on!
d
[siren wailing]
d
♪ ♪
d
♪ ♪
[Alice Smith's "Sinnerman"]
♪ ♪
- ♪ Oh, Sinnerman ♪
♪ Where you gonna run to ♪
♪ Sinnerman ♪
♪ Where you gonna run to ♪
♪ Sinnerman ♪
♪ Where you gonna run to ♪
♪ All on that day ♪
♪ Well, I run to the rock ♪
♪ Please hide me ♪
♪ I run to the rock ♪
♪ Please hide me ♪
♪ I run to the rock ♪
♪ Please hide me ♪
♪ All on that day ♪
♪ But the rock cried out ♪
♪ "I can't hide you" ♪
♪ The rock cried out ♪
♪ "I can't hide you" ♪
♪ The rock cried out ♪
♪ "I ain't gonna hide you" ♪
♪ All on that day ♪
♪ I said, "Rock ♪
♪ "What's the matter
with you, Rock ♪
♪ Can't you see
I need you, Rock" ♪
♪ Devil was waiting ♪
♪ All on that day ♪
♪ Power ♪
♪ Power ♪
♪ I cried power ♪
♪ I cried power ♪
♪ I cried power ♪
♪ I cried power ♪
d
[bright tone]
[gentle music
[playing distantly]
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- Come on, light up.
[groans]
Goddamn it!
- Mama!
- Pumpkin, I asked you
to stay in the car.
- Mama, I don't think
we're supposed to be here.
What does this have to do
with Pop's death?
- He was here.
[light music]
♪ ♪
[sighs]
I'm sorry.
I just can't figure it out.
♪ ♪
They need to tilt based on
how they rotate on their axis.
[curious music]
♪ ♪
f
[sweeping music]
♪ ♪
[eerie music]
♪ ♪
d
- Did you kill them?
- No, they were already dead.
I just... transformed
their blood into a potion.
- [exhales deeply]
- Ruby, it's okay.
- You have been lying to me
this entire time.
Nothing that has happened
since I met William...
Shit, you... has been real.
- What you know of William
is true.
Captain Lancaster
did try to kill him,
and in fact he succeeded.
- So this has...
This has been about revenge
for your dead lover?
- Yes.
I want revenge for William.
But I want so many
other things too.
- [scoffs]
- Just listen, please.
Please.
My father was a leader in
the Order of Ancient Dawn.
- What the hell is that?
- It's a group of powerful men
who wield magic.
They don't allow women to join.
I begged my father to teach
me anyway, but he refused.
I sought William out to seduce
him into being my teacher,
to prove I could be better
than the son
my father wished he had,
but the more William taught me,
the more I realized
how silly it was
to limit my pursuit of magic
around impressing my father.
William's spell,
which I completed,
was the beginning
of bigger ambitions.
I could be so much more.
Do things most people
couldn't even imagine.
- Like fuck me.
As a man.
- I never lied to you.
The words may have come out
of William's mouth,
but they were mine.
- I wanna know everything.
Right now.
No more secrets,
no more half-truths.
Every fucking thing.
- The whole truth
involves lost pages
from the Book of Names
and your family.
d
♪ ♪
- [screaming]
[breathing heavily]
d
You been up here all night?
- I translated
about half the pages.
The ceremony at Ardham
was complicated.
They had this symbol,
written in chalk
all over the lab,
which makes me think
it's important.
And then they had all these
weird mechanical elements
I-I've never seen before.
- It's not as simple as
just saying the words.
- Titus and Samuel
and that entire lodge
spent decades
studying this stuff,
and they all died
in failed attempts
at casting these spells.
- Not you.
Not Hanna.
She managed
to escape the fire,
ran right out the front door.
- How you know
she ran out the front?
[curious music]
- [sighs]
I don't, not really.
This'll probably sound crazy,
but...
I think I had a dream
about her this morning.
- Were you in the lodge
while it burned around you?
♪ ♪
I might've had
the same dream.
- Uh, Hanna's standing
in the doorway.
I felt like I'd been
chasing after her, and I'm...
- What?
You're what?
- I'm, um, not scared.
Even though the house
is burning around me.
How are we having
the same dream?
- I think Hanna might be
trying to tell us something.
Warn us maybe.
But I can never hear her.
Could you?
- She doesn't
say anything in mine.
She's just standing
in a doorway
smiling with that book.
- What book?
- All the things to take
when you're pregnant
and running out of your
master's burning house,
and you stop to grab a...
- The Book of Names.
- No, it can't be.
If Hanna escaped
with the book,
wouldn't there be magic
in your family?
- I barely know anything
about my mama's side.
She's the only one who survived
the riots in Tulsa.
- [exhales deeply]
If the Book of Names
is still out there,
that's not just
some more spells.
That's instructions
on how to cast them.
- Christina's
going after the pages.
We gonna get
the whole damn book.
♪ ♪
- ♪ Listen to me, honey,
listen to me ♪
♪ I, I need your lovin',
oh, can't you see ♪
♪ Let's do it ♪
- ♪ Let's do it ♪
- ♪ Let's do it ♪
- ♪ Do it, do it ♪
- ♪ Let's do it ♪
- ♪ Let's do it ♪
♪ Ah, baby,
let's make some love ♪
- ♪ Baby, let's make
some love ♪
- Oh, come on, baby.
Love me tonight.
- Well, good morning.
- Morning.
I figured since
I spent the night,
I could at least
make breakfast.
- No, what you figured,
since this was the first time
I let you spend the night,
you would make a big old
production out of breakfast.
- Drop the needle
in that record for me.
- Yes, sir.
- [chuckles]
- [soft vocalizing]
♪ ♪
- There's nothing in your
cabinets but whiskey,
so I went to the store.
On the way,
I ran into this woman
with this cute little
African scarf.
Would you believe, she said
she got it at Marshall Field's.
[laughs]
I ain't never seen
not one colored
go into that store.
♪ ♪
- That was Bernice.
My neighbor.
- It was at the bus stop.
She didn't see me come in
or out of here.
♪ ♪
- What's this, pork?
I don't eat pork.
They ain't have no
beef sausage down there?
- The Queen of Sheba herself
don't eat beef sausage.
When'd you get off of pork?
- Why are these grits
so runny, Sammy?
I-I like my grits firm.
You... you know this.
- What you gonna moan
about next,
that the coffee is too wet?
- Too much sugar in it.
- Why is it
that every time
you feel like
we're getting too close,
you make it a point
to show me
you don't care about me?
- Did I say that, Sammy?
Don't put no goddamn words
in my mouth.
- No, I'm not gonna let you
play me crazy this round.
- Hey, Sammy.
Wait.
I'm sorry.
♪ ♪
- [softly]
Excuse me.
- So it is true.
You are a faggot.
- I'm still
your goddamn daddy!
And you'll respect me!
Get outta here!
You get out!
Don't you ever call me out
of my fucking name!
- Did Mama know?
- Yes.
[somber music]
♪ ♪
- Why y'all come here?
- [huffs]
[grunts]
[breathing heavily]
- I, uh...
I asked him how he found out
about your mama's family.
He said she had a cousin
that survived the riots too.
He tracked a friend
of hers down in St. Louis.
We get Woody, yeah?
It's only a three-hour drive.
- Okay, yeah.
He said he had to whup my ass
so I wouldn't be soft.
[chuckles]
That's not the real
fucked-up part.
The fucked-up part is
I told myself it was because
he cared about me.
Wasn't never about me.
He was beatin' my ass,
whuppin' my ass,
beatin' my ass
'cause he's a...
[ragtime music playing]
- Thank you for babysitting,
Ruby.
I know it was last-minute.
- No, it's no big deal.
I had to get out of the place
I was staying for a bit anyway.
- Dee, you ready
to go over the checklist?
- It's all there.
Don't need to go through
this stupid checklist.
- This was a tradition
with her father.
Checklist topped off by
a travel comic for the road.
- Well, I'll get her
to invite some friends over,
have a party
while Mom is away.
Pick up her spirits.
Oh, right.
- Thank you, Ruby.
[engine starts]
- Hey, Aunt Hippolyta,
you heading out someplace?
- A guide trip.
- We were hoping we could
borrow Woody for a day or two.
- Well, obviously you can't.
- It's important.
- So is my trip.
- We just sent out
a new print,
and Uncle George would not
want you driving around here...
- Did George put you
in charge of the guide
before that sheriff
you say shot him?
- No.
- Then I sure as hell
don't need your permission
to do guide work.
Back up.
[tires squeal]
- Looks like we're taking
the bus to St. Louis.
- Shit, yeah.
If we leave now and get
to the house and pack a bag,
we can maybe get there on time.
- Yeah.
- Or I can go by myself,
if you want to stay,
talk to your sister.
d
- So where have you
been staying?
- How many days
after I moved out
did you start to care?
- Ruby.
Things have just gotten away
from me a little bit lately.
- Do tell.
- Doesn't matter.
It's no excuse.
Our last fight
was one of our worst,
and it was my fault.
I should have told you about
the money coming from Mama.
All these time I've spent
thinking about all the things
I hated about her,
it never occurred to me that
I could actually become her.
I may not be
a hustler like her,
but I tried to hustle you.
For that I'm sorry.
[gentle music]
♪ ♪
- I never heard Mama apologize
in all her life.
So maybe y'all aren't
exactly the same.
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
- [singing in French]
♪ ♪
- [singing along in French]
♪ ♪
Hi.
Ah.
♪ ♪
d
♪ ♪
- Let me get you some more
macaroni and cheese, baby.
[chuckles]
- Excuse me.
- Ms. Osberta.
- Hmm?
- How'd you know
my cousin Ethel?
- Our husbands served
on the deacon board
at First Baptist Church.
Sherman and I were married
for 30 years.
- So y'all met at church
and just stayed friends?
- Mm-hmm, yes, oh, yes.
[chuckles]
Not long after Sherman
went on to glory,
Ethel's husband passed too.
It was hard,
and we just didn't want to be
two lonely widows anymore.
So one day Ethel said to me,
"Bertie..."
that's what
she always called me...
Said, "Hey, Bertie,
I don't know what's left
"for two old gals like us,
but this sure ain't it."
[both chuckle]
But you asking about
your mama's people, huh?
Lord, Ethel loved
to talk about them.
They were so close growing up.
So close.
- She ever...
say anything about
the Book of Names?
- I don't recall that.
Oh, wait.
You know, I do think there was
some kind of family book,
but from the way
Ethel talked about it,
I thought it was something
like a photo album.
- Mm-hmm.
- Or a family Bible
or something like that.
- That might be it.
I've been trying
to track it down.
I was wondering, did she
tell you anything about it?
- I'm sorry.
It's gone, baby.
It's gone.
Those white folks
burned up everything
in the massacre.
You ever saw a photo
of your cousin Ethel?
- No, ma'am.
- Well, let me get that
photo album then.
Uh-uh, don't get up.
Don't get up.
f
♪ ♪
[laughter]
- That's ten.
- Ooh!
- Y'all didn't even make board.
- Ha ha!
- When's Bobo coming back?
'Cause he know how to play.
- Damn, I can't concentrate.
I'm hungry.
- Mm-hmm.
- When's dinner?
- Let me check.
Don't want you two
to have any excuses
next time we kick your asses.
[laughter]
- Don't you dare ask me
when dinner's gonna be ready.
- All right, fine.
[chuckles]
But you... you never told me
where you've been staying.
- I'm still on the North Side.
- Hmm.
With a white man, then?
- Seems to me
you oughta be concerned
with your own love life.
Your boyfriend
paying you rent yet?
'Cause Atticus seems
to be the only man
from the South Side
without a job.
So what does he do
to keep himself busy?
- Oh, he's a big help
around the house.
- [chuckles]
That house needs
as much help as possible.
- [laughs]
- It looked like you
and Mr. Fix-It
were trying to hit
the road earlier.
- Tic just had family business
in St. Louis.
- Why didn't you go?
- Because I had my own
family business here.
- [scoffs]
- What?
- Get over here.
Taste this.
Tell me what it's missing.
- Ooh.
What's in there, garlic?
- What is wrong with...
You love garlic!
- I might be developing some
of your allergies or something.
- That or you're pregnant
with Junior Mr. Fix-It.
d
[uneasy music]
- Oh, Jesus.
[mechanical clicking, whirring]
♪ ♪
- Oh, that's the church's
woman's retreat
I was telling you about.
Guess who that is.
[phone rings]
Who could that be
at this hour?
[ringing continues]
[ominous music]
♪ ♪
Hello?
One moment.
For you, baby.
- Hello?
- Hippolyta's had Hiram's
orrery the entire time.
She must've taken it
from the house.
- How you know that?
- I'm looking
right at the damn thing.
It has, like,
a set of coordinates
engraved in the top.
The way she was
acting earlier,
I think she knows we lied
to her about Uncle George.
- Shit.
d
She ain't on a guide trip.
- If she's going where
this thing's leading her,
she's in danger.
d
♪ ♪
[machine whirrs]
d
[mysterious music]
♪ ♪
[energy pulsating]
- Mass, rotation,
velocity, and radius.
Mass, rotation,
velocity, and radius.
The length of time it takes
for each planet
to travel around two suns.
433, 124...
d
♪ ♪
d
- Captain Lancaster
appreciates it a lot,
keeping an eye
on this place.
- Hey, sir, what makes
this machine so special?
- How the hell
did it get turned on?
d
♪ ♪
Over there.
Let's go.
♪ ♪
Speak up, gal!
Who are you?
- Sir, I-I just
got lost on the road.
- Don't lie to me.
How'd you know
how to turn this thing on?
d
- Larry, is that you?
- Atticus!
[gunshot]
- Oh, shit.
[machine sparking
[and whirring]
- No!
[gunshot]
d
♪ ♪
[screams]
f
[screams]
d
♪ ♪
Tic?
Atticus?
[bright chimes]
d
♪ ♪
d
[gasps]
[mysterious whirring]
Who are you?
What are you?
- I am.
- Where am I?
What are these things
in my arms?
You can't keep me here.
- You are not in a prison.
- No, no!
No, let me out!
Let me out!
Somebody help me!
Somebody!
Somebody help me!
[gentle electronic whooshing]
Salt in the air
on the beach.
Sufficient oxygen.
I didn't get dizzy
when I wasn't in the ship.
Is it a ship?
Am I on another planet?
The sand was
strangely springy.
No, I was lighter.
Not like Orithyia Blue on Mars,
but just enough to feel it
in my tendons.
Gravity turned
down just a notch.
Come on, come on.
What would Dad say?
Gustav Mie.
He warned of gravity shifts
in the future.
There's no known planet
with sustainability.
Was she human?
64 number settings.
From zero, zero, zero
to 999.
d
♪ ♪
Makes the total
possible combinations...
[grunts]
[gasps]
Ten to the 192nd...
power.
63 trillion
celestial...
panoramas.
♪ ♪
[yells]
d
♪ ♪
[yells]
[electronic whooshing]
Let me go!
- You are not in a prison.
Where do you want to be?
- [groans]
- Name yourself.
- [laughs]
- Name yourself.
- What the fuck
are you talking about?
- Where do you want to be?
Name it.
Who do you want to be?
Name it.
- I want to be dancing
on stage in Paris
with Josephine Baker.
[whooshing]
- Go. Go.
[jazz music playing]
- Ahh. Ah.
♪ ♪
- Presenting
Miss Josephine Baker!
d
♪ ♪
[applause]
♪ ♪
[whistling, applause]
- Stop your gawking
and do the moves.
♪ ♪
[applause]
d
d
See, go!
d
- We rehearse for 12-hour days,
and for what?
You make us all look bad.
- The manager must stop
with the American girls.
They always make us look bad.
- And this one's the worst.
Clearly not ready
for the big time.
- Ha, you ought
to take your ass
back to wherever
you came from.
- Listen, cheri!
Cheri.
Now, we've all had
those nights, even me.
Lord, you should've
seen my ass
back at Old Chauffeur's
in St. Louis.
But you've got to come
correct tomorrow.
Now, here's the step.
[scatting]
[giggling]
Yes.
Ah.
You're not in America anymore.
You've got to loosen up.
[scatting]
- [gasps]
Loosen up.
♪ ♪
["Lady Marmalade"
[by Patti Labelle playing]
♪ ♪
- ♪ Hey sister, go sister ♪
♪ Soul sister, go sister ♪
♪ Hey sister, go sister ♪
♪ Soul sister, go sister ♪
♪ He met Marmalade
down in old New Orleans ♪
♪ Struttin' her stuff
on the street ♪
♪ She said,
hello, hey Joe ♪
♪ You wanna give it a go? ♪
♪ Mm-hmm, gitchi gitchi,
ya ya, dada ♪
♪ Gitchi, gitchi ya ya here ♪
♪ Mocca chocolata ya ya ♪
♪ Creole Lady Marmalade ♪
♪ ♪
- [speaking French]
- Salud.
All: Salud.
[applause]
- Salud.
- Got a match?
Oh.
Hmm.
- Got that look again.
- Nights like this,
I burn so bright,
I feel like a star.
- You are a star.
- No, no, cheri,
not like a movie star.
Anyone can be that.
Me, I feel like the stars
in the black of space...
Magnificent, ancient,
and already extinguished.
Most of the girls never notice
when I get like this.
You know just where to look.
You've found that same thing
in yourself, haven't you?
- Being here has
only shined the light
on that old dead feeling.
- Hmm.
They don't call it
the City of Lights for nothing.
[somber music]
♪ ♪
- Now that I'm tasting it...
freedom...
- Hmm.
- Like I've never
known before,
I see what I was robbed of
back then.
All those years,
I thought I had
everything I ever wanted,
only to come here and discover
that all I ever was
was the exact kind
of Negro woman
white folks wanted me to be.
I feel like they just found
a smart way to lynch me
without me noticing the noose.
- Don't it just
make you angry?
- Furious.
Sometimes, I just...
I want to kill white folks.
And it's not just them.
I hate me.
Hate me
for letting them
make me feel small.
And I hate...
[melancholy music]
♪ ♪
- Who else do you hate?
So...
Miss Hippolyta,
what are you gon' do
with all that anger?
- I am Hippolyta.
I am Hippolyta.
I am Hippolyta!
[whooshing]
[screaming]
- All that screaming
won't save you now.
You're not making a baby.
You're in a fucking fight.
- [breathing heavily]
[yelling]
- When you fall
to the ground in defeat,
you may find yourself asking,
"Why am I here?
"Why should I bother
getting up when I know Nawi
is a great warrior,
and I cannot win?"
Well, I will tell you
why you're here
and why you must get up.
You are here because
you did not believe them.
Your whole life,
they told you you were free,
and when they said that,
they meant you were free
to cook their food,
free to raise children,
their children,
free to work for them.
They even lied to you
and told you
you were free
to run the world.
- [yells]
[groans]
- But it is still their world.
You are here because you knew
that all they offer
was the freedom
that a well-kept slave
could ever ask for.
Now, I cannot tell you
what true freedom is.
You have got to find that
for yourself.
But today, you are still
too afraid to go looking.
But I, Nawi,
will strip that fear away
one blow at a time.
Now get the fuck up!
[all grunting]
And raise your sword!
d
- [yelling]
♪ ♪
- [inaudible]
♪ ♪
[both grunting]
♪ ♪
[triumphant music]
♪ ♪
[fighters pounding spears,
[chanting]
["Fire" by
[Mother's Finest playing]
♪ ♪
[all yelling]
- ♪ You can run
to the jungle ♪
- ♪ You can't hide ♪
- ♪ Run to the mountain ♪
- ♪ Oh, you can't hide ♪
- ♪ Run to the sea, yeah ♪
- ♪ You can't hide ♪
- ♪ Brother man we gotta
be free now from the fire ♪
- ♪ From the fire ♪
♪ From the fire ♪
- ♪ Fire ♪
- ♪ Fire ♪
[vocalizing]
♪ ♪
♪ Well, you better be careful
'bout the things you do ♪
♪ 'Cause somebody's watching ♪
[vocalizing]
♪ ♪
- [grunts]
- We are here
because we did not
believe them
when they told us
our rage was not ladylike.
We did not believe them
when they said our
violence goes too far.
We did not believe them
when they said
the hatred that we feel
for our enemies is not godlike.
They say that to women like us
because they know what happens
when we are free,
free to hate when we must,
free to kill when we must,
free to bring destruction
when we must.
That is our freedom,
that is our prayer,
no matter what they think of us
after we grind
them into the dust.
That is our love!
[all cheering]
[sweeping music]
♪ ♪
d
♪ ♪
I am Hippolyta.
George's wife.
d
[gentle music]
[whooshing]
♪ ♪
What are you looking at,
George Freeman?
- My wife.
- But it was when I was
trying to escape
that white room
I told you about
that I realized that it wasn't
another planet at all,
and it wasn't a time machine.
Remember, I read you
some of that one article
about the many worlds.
- Mm-hmm.
- That's when I knew
that the equations
in the many worlds theory
had to be accurate.
I certainly thought they
might be before, but never,
never could I have imagined
anything like this.
Baby, a world
where I can name myself
anything.
- So is... is this real then?
If you're on
another planet Earth,
am I still here right...
Right now?
- I don't know what...
exactly it all means.
But...
God, it feels real.
That's what matters.
- Yes.
And after all your adventures,
everything you saw,
you still named
yourself my wife.
[gentle music]
♪ ♪
What's wrong?
♪ ♪
- I think now I can name
this thing that's been
eating at me quietly,
so quiet.
Sometimes,
I thought I was... tired,
Sad, or...
missing you when
you were out on the road,
but really, I was...
I was angry.
So angry.
Because for so much of my life,
I've been shrinking.
When I was a kid,
I thought I was big enough
to have every right to name
something out of this world,
and then I just
started shrinking myself.
By the time I met you,
I'd already gotten so small.
And I thought you knew
how big I wanted to be.
I thought you saw me.
But you just stood by
and let me shrink myself
more for you.
- Hey, uh, Hippolyta...
Hippolyta, why didn't you...
You tell me you felt this way?
- I tried.
I tried so many times.
I tried.
You... you had to see that.
- May-maybe I did, but I-I-I...
I fell in love with you
because you were so curious,
and I knew deep down inside,
there was a...
There was a discoverer
in you, but...
[pensive music]
♪ ♪
You're right.
I led you,
helped you shrink
so we could have a family,
so that I could go
and do what I had to do
and know that you were safe
at home, waiting for me.
♪ ♪
I'm so sorry.
I see now what that cost you.
d
♪ ♪
I see you now,
Hippolyta Freeman.
And I want you to be
as big as you can be.
- I am Hippolyta.
Discoverer.
d
♪ ♪
[whooshing]
- I'm not real.
I'm just like you.
You don't exist
in this society.
[aliens chirruping]
If you did,
your people wouldn't be
seeking equal rights.
[aliens chirruping]
You're not real.
If you were,
you'd have some status
among the nations
of the world.
[beeping]
So we're both myths.
I do not come to you
as a reality.
I come to you as the myth.
[warm music]
♪ ♪
Because that's
what Black people are.
Myths.
♪ ♪
- I got curious.
- Now that
you've named yourself,
we can fully integrate you
into our society.
You no longer need
the devices on your wrists.
- Is the change permanent?
- Yes.
- And if I don't change,
can I go back through
that portal
that brought me here,
back home?
- Yes, we can send you back
to your Earth.
- Hmm.
Home.
Feels like the wrong word.
How can I fit in everything
that I am now...
[laughs]
...into that place?
That Hippolyta.
She was so small.
But Dee...
She needs me.
Hmm.
[whooshing]
d
♪ ♪
- [grunting, gasping]
[crackling]
Aunt Hippolyta?
[electricity sparking]
d
Aunt Hippolyta?
[siren approaching]
Come on!
d
[siren wailing]
d
♪ ♪
d
♪ ♪
[Alice Smith's "Sinnerman"]
♪ ♪
- ♪ Oh, Sinnerman ♪
♪ Where you gonna run to ♪
♪ Sinnerman ♪
♪ Where you gonna run to ♪
♪ Sinnerman ♪
♪ Where you gonna run to ♪
♪ All on that day ♪
♪ Well, I run to the rock ♪
♪ Please hide me ♪
♪ I run to the rock ♪
♪ Please hide me ♪
♪ I run to the rock ♪
♪ Please hide me ♪
♪ All on that day ♪
♪ But the rock cried out ♪
♪ "I can't hide you" ♪
♪ The rock cried out ♪
♪ "I can't hide you" ♪
♪ The rock cried out ♪
♪ "I ain't gonna hide you" ♪
♪ All on that day ♪
♪ I said, "Rock ♪
♪ "What's the matter
with you, Rock ♪
♪ Can't you see
I need you, Rock" ♪
♪ Devil was waiting ♪
♪ All on that day ♪
♪ Power ♪
♪ Power ♪
♪ I cried power ♪
♪ I cried power ♪
♪ I cried power ♪
♪ I cried power ♪
d
[bright tone]