Lovecraft Country, Episode 7 (“I Am”) opens with Hippolyta looking over the charred remains of the Winthrop House in Ardham, Massachusetts. She has Diana with her. She recognizes a pattern from the orrery in a part of the house (indicating a connection between the orrery and the house) and sees finds a page from the comic book that Diana had drawn (confirming that George had been there).
Upon further inspection of the orrery, she finally manages to unlock it. It reveals a key and an inscription that reads “Every Beginning is in Time and Every Limit Of Extension in Space” along with a set of latitude and longitude numbers (38.805499, -95.159492).
Back at Christina’s place, Ruby has recently discovered Christina’s secret that she can transform into William (in Episode 5). Christina is still covered in blood from her recent transformation. They are standing in the basement where the bodies of William and the white woman that Ruby transforms into are laying in cots with tubes running out of them. Christina says she didn’t kill them (). They were already dead and she is using their blood to make the potions.
William was killed by Captain Lancaster, and Christina admits that she wants revenge against Lancaster for William’s sake. But she also wants much more than that. She is frustrated by the Order’s unwillingness to let women in, and she knows she is capable of so much more than them.
Lettie has a nightmare where she has a vision of herself running after a vision of Hanna (the slave that Titus Braithwhite impregnated and Atticus’s ancestor) out of the burning Winthop mansion. Lettie then looks down and sees that she’s pregnant and catches on fire. She wakes up. She goes to talk to Atticus and they find out that they’ve had similar dreams. They both see Hanna running out of the burning mansion and standing at the doorway.
Lettie also recalls that in her vision, Hanna is holding a book, and they realize that it’s likely the Book of Names (the book contains spells and directions for how to cast them). Christina has been looking for a few pages that were stolen out of it, but they wonder if the book is still out there somewhere in Atticus’s family’s possession.
At Montrose’s place, Sammy is cooking breakfast after spending the night at Montrose’s place for the first time. Montrose tries to pick a fight with Sammy, and Sammy gets frustrating, saying that each time George feels they are getting too close, Montrose starts acting crazy. Sammy runs out, and Montrose follows him, grabbing his arm. It happens just as Atticus and Letitia are walking up. Atticus is upset and asks if his mother knew, and Montrose says yes.
Atticus does not know much about his mother’s side of the family, and she was the only surviving member of her family of the Tulsa riots (where a black community was wiped out). However, Atticus and Letitia have tracked down a friend of Atticus’s late mother’s who also survived the riots and now lives in St. Louis. He goes to see Hippolyta to ask to borrow Woody (the car), but Hippolyta is headed back out on the road and needs the car. Hippolyta is strangely antagonistic towards them as she leaves.
Atticus goes by bus to St. Louis and sees Ms. Bertie Osberta, an old friend of his mother’s relative Ethel. Their husbands had been friends, and they ended up as two widows hanging out together. Atticus asks about a “Book of Names” and Bertie says that there was a family book that Ethel had mentioned. However, Bertie thinks that whatever it was, it was likely destroyed in the riots where everything was burned up.
Meanwhile, Letitia and Ruby have been distant since their fight (in Episode 3). Lettie finally apologizes to Ruby, and she wonders where Ruby has been staying (at Christina’s place, but Ruby dodges the question). Ruby is also staying at Hippolyta’s place to watch Diana while Hippolya is out of town. Lettie decides to skip the St. Louis trip to patch things up with Ruby. As Ruby cooks dinner for them, Lettie feels sick from the smell of garlic, and Ruby jokes that Lettie might be pregnant.
Lettie also discovers the orrery at Hippolyta’s place. She calls Atticus. She also pieces together that Hippolyta must have taken it from the house and that Hippolyta must know that she hasn’t been told the full story about George (they told her he was shot by a racist sheriff, which is a lie) which is why Hippolyta was being so antagonistic. They figure that she must be trying to investigate this thing. Lettie worries that Hippolyta will be putting herself in danger by following this path.
Hippolyta drives out to (the location of the coordinates she previously found, I think) and finds a planetarium. There’s a strange contraption where the key she found fits in. She puts it in and it starts spitting out data. As she fiddles with it, two security guards walk in on her and are concerned to see the machine working. As the men hassle Hippolyta, Atticus bursts in, who tries to rescue her from the men. The machine gets jostled and starts displaying portal-like glimpses of far-away places. One of the guards gets tossed into one portal, and Hippolyta accidentally gets sucked in as well.
Hippolyta ends up in an unrecognizable place where two large android-like machines capture her. She wakes up naked, in an all-white room, and with some type of technology embedded into her wrists. Another woman in a strange spacesuit walks in briefly and leave again. Hippolyta assesses her surroundings and wonders if she’s on a different planet. She notices the significantly smaller gravitational force.
When Hippolyta finally figures out how to escape the room, the woman shows up to force her back in. The woman insists that she is not in a prison and demands to know where Hippolyta would like to be. Hippolyta frantically states that she’d like to be dancing on a stage with Josephine Baker. Suddenly, she’s transported onto a stage show in France where she is a showgirl on a stage with Josephine Baker.
After the show, the other girls chide Hippolyta for her dissatisfying performance. However, time passes, and she gets better at it. One night as she chats with another showgirl about their dissatisfactions in life.
Hippolyta suddenly screams “I am Hippolyta”, and then she transports to a different time. She is suddenly a part of some type of tribal setting where she is engaged in a violent fighting match with another woman warrior. She has become “Hippolyta“, a figure from Greek mythology. Hippolyta manages to win the match, and she approaches the leader who gives her a golden helmet. She then leads the other warriors in a battle against what appears to be white settlers of some type.
As clash is about to happen she says “I am Hippolyta, George’s wife” this time, she is transported once again. She is back to being herself, in a time when George is still alive. They are happily in bed together, and she explains to him what is happening to her. She says the Theory of Many Worlds is true and that the machine has transported her to a world where she can “name myself anything” and become that person. (So, it’s not a time machine, as Christina believes, but transports you to another reality completely.)
Hippolyta also has a chance to tell George that a part of her has always felt, and now she’s able to recognize it, that she shrank herself in order to fit into George’s life. George admits that he let her do that so that he could live the life he wanted. He apologizes and encourages her to live the life that she wants. Hippolyta then says “I am Hippolyta, discoverer” and takes George’s hand. They are both transported into a spaceship where they disembark in a strange place with unrecognizable vegetation and aliens. She is now the character from Diana’s comics (Orithyia Blue), a space explorer who was based after Hippolyta.
After some time, the woman from the white room appears again. She says that now that Hippolyta has “named herself”, she gives Hippolyta to be integrated into their society or to be returned to earth. She thinks about the person she’s become, but she also thinks about how Diana needs her.
Back on earth, Atticus manages to shut down the machine, grabs the key and runs out. However, one of Diana’s Orithyia Blue comics (which Hippolyta had brought with her) gets left behind.
Go back to the Lovecraft Country: Episode Guide
Or, compare this with the book version by reading the Summary & Synopsis of Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft Country.
