Hey guys, Pete here. today i'm going to explain the ending of Lovecraft Country
season 1 episode 2. to do that i'm going to rely heavily on
the book of the same name that the show is based on. there was a lot of
information crammed into the second episode which was titled "whitey's on the
moon" and based on the reactions i've seen it
was confusing for some viewers. having read the book i didn't really
have trouble following along with what was happening but there were some big
changes between the book and show that got me thinking.
so i thought doing an explainer video to fill in some details from the book
while looking at the changes that were made would be the best video to make
this week. as far as spoilers this video will
discuss everything that happened in the first two episodes
and the book up into that same point. i won't spoil the ending of the story
or any of the major plot stuff that happens after the trip to Ardham
to rescue Montrose. episode 2 picks up right where episode 1 left off
Tic, Leti, and George made it to Ardham in one piece and we
learned that this giant estate they arrived at
is owned by the Braithwhite family we meet two members of the family
Samuel and his daughter Christina we also learned that the Braithwhites are
tied to a secret society and that Atticus
is a distant relative of theirs through one of his mother's ancestors named
Hannah. William the mysterious manservant of the
house explains the history of it all like this.
a distant cousin of Samuel's, Titus Braithwhite
built the original estate which burned down during the autumnal
equinox of 1833. the fire killed Titus and everyone inside
except for one of his slaves. that slave turned out to be Hannah who was pregnant
with his child and that's how Tic ended up being a
direct descendant of the Braithwhites this is largely the same as what's in
the book but things play out differently in the show.
the main difference being that Tic already knows about Hannah
in the book rather than George playing a key role and figuring out what's going
on from there we get a lot of changes.
Christina is actually gender swapped. in the book her character is Samuel's son
who's named Caleb. this changes the tension she has with
her father but beyond that it doesn't make a big
difference at this point and the character seems like it works pretty
well with abby lee in the role so i think it's fine. her
father is the current leader of a sect of the order of the ancient dawn. this
name is slightly different as it includes the word adamite in it - the
adamite order of the ancient dawn. the adamites were a real group of early
christians you can look up if you want to
but i think the explanation samuel gave to atticus is all you need to know.
he wants to return to paradise or regain the primeval
innocence of man and in the process achieve immortality. this was the same
thing titus was trying to do when he burned down the original lodge.
titus used spells from the book of names to make his body more powerful.
since tic is his last remaining blood heir he's a reservoir of that power.
samuel thinks he can step into the garden of eden and achieve immortality
using that power as part of his spell. as far as the other
men we see at the dinner george explains that the order of the
ancient dawn has lodges all across the country. the brathwhites lodge
is called the sons of adam and samuel has basically called in all
the other leaders of all the other lodges to be there
to witness this ceremony. christina's remark that her father's associates
would never fraternize with the klan because they're too poor gives you an
idea of how rich and powerful the members of this order
are. they're able to cast spells which we see several examples of in the episode
and naturally they believe they are superior to normal people.
this extends to white supremacy as george mentioned they don't accept
non-whites into the order as well. the ceremony and the lead up to it is
different in the show and to be honest i'm not sure it's entirely clear what
happened. christina mentions the language of adam
and her father uses it during the ceremony to cast his spell.
in the book tic is told that he's going to have to speak the language of adam
even though he's never heard it. samuel explains that everyone knows it we just
don't remember that we do. once things get started it does come to
him and as he starts to speak it he starts to understand what's happening.
he realizes that he will stop existing as he is
once he's done his part in the ritual. basically that they want to use his
power and it will use it up and he'll just sort of transfer over
into oblivion. this isn't something he's interested in doing
and the twist is that he received a note with writing in the language of adam on
it earlier in the day that said to read it once he could. he
does that and in the process he's protected from
the light that kills everyone else in the room and turns them to ash.
more or less what we saw happen on the show only it's not clear how or why
he was protected there. what we see in the show is that samuel is speaking the
language of adam and things seem to be working until
something happens with tic's ring. christina gave him that so she may have
put a spell on it and this would make sense
since the note with the language of adam he got in the book came from samuel's
son. it's not clear though and to make things
more confusing he sees a pregnant hannah in the portal
after it opens up which didn't happen in the book either.
does that mean her presence somehow protected tic? i just don't know.
she does also lead him out of the collapsing house though
so at the very least she was there for that. it should be noted that she's
carrying a book with her as she goes and this is most likely the book of
names which was mentioned a few times in the episode. so
to recap the differences in the book atticus makes a decision to
save himself by reading some words during the ceremony that were given to
him by samuel braithwight's son. there's no ticking clock situation
because george and leti hadn't been shot and hannah doesn't appear during
the ceremony. in the show tic is less of an active
participant. as samuel is opening the door to the garden of
eden the ring that christina gave him seems to protect him while the sons of
adam are killed. hannah appears to him and he follows her
to safety as the lodge collapses. outside he learns that uncle george died
which is the biggest change from the book.
this is actually a real head scratcher because without giving away any details
george plays an important role with things later in the book.
it's also weird that the show decided to add the possibility that george might be
tic's biological father since none of this is in the book. we can
only speculate but my guess is that the show is going to use that connection
to bring george back. i mean i do think he's dead. i think a
resurrection would feel cheap with the way things were left but a ghost version
of his uncle getting involved wouldn't surprise me at all. and that's
the overview of what happened tic's blood relation to titus
braithwhite was what set things in motion. his distant cousin samuel
braithwight wanted to use him and his blood to achieve immortality.
they imprisoned montrose to lure tic to ardham and he
brought his uncle george and his childhood friend letticia into it.
in the end things didn't work out for samuel who died alongside the other sons
of adam at the ceremony but the order of the ancient dawn still has
other lodges throughout the country. his daughter christina also survived and she
may have played a role in the ceremony going wrong
tic leti and montrose will be able to leave artem to return to chicago
but sadly uncle george didn't survive. it might seem strange to have all this
happen so early in the season but for what it's worth this is the way
the book is set up as well. the book is put together like a
collection of stories that are all different but connected and this trip to
ardham is just the first one. the show added a couple of other things
that weren't in the book. christina helping to deliver the baby
shoggoth is something that only happens in the show.
i imagine this is just to make sure you realize that she's not opposed to magic
or the things that her father is involved in necessarily
but on the show at least she's more focused on the fact that she's excluded
from this because she's female. also the spell where tic leti and
george experience visions in their respective rooms while
the order watched on isn't from the book. if you think about
it these all touched on secrets that the characters kept
it might just have been added to open a window in who they are and some of their
fears. we've already talked about the
connection between dora and george letti's provided some depth with her fear
of abandonment around what happened with her mother. it's
interesting that things got intimate with atticus
and i'm guessing that might hint that they're going to turn these two into a
couple in the show. in the book they were just friends and
that was fine but if the show followed that route then tic wouldn't play a
major role in the story for a while. i do think it makes more sense to have
him be more involved in leti's story in the show.
i didn't really love the way the main characters come and go from the
different stories in the book and i think tv viewers would probably
feel the same way. atticus's visit from the korean soldier
is also a bit of a mystery. it's the same actor who played the red
alien in his dream from the first episode
and he also made a call to korea in that. as far as how that relates to his
character and what the others saw well we'll have to wait and see. and with
that i'll leave it there. let me know in the comments what you
thought about episode 2 and how this all came to an end. if you
didn't read the book did you find it confusing?
if you did read the book what do you think about some of these changes that
they made? losing uncle george was a big surprise
and i don't believe they did that just for shock value
but we're entering into uncharted territory because like i said he is
important throughout the rest of the story they could swap him out
that wouldn't be impossible but i do really think that we'll see him be
involved in one way or the other as far as the episode itself i didn't
think it was as strong as the first one but since i'm not doing a review like a
recap and review i really won't get into it i
will say though that if you didn't enjoy it
and you know you're thinking about maybe not keeping up with the show
i would stick around for at least the next episode because it is going
to change quite a bit if it follows along with how the book played out
so yeah just let me know in the comments what you thought please like this video
if you enjoyed it please subscribe to my channel if you haven't already
thanks for watching guys i'll talk to you soon