This review contains all types of spoilers. If you have not seen this episode you should probably stop here.

Or here.

Are you still reading? Damn you, continue on then…..

The episode begins in the midst of a praise break in a black church. The narrator begins to read a letter Leti has received from her dead mother encouraging her to be free. Attached to the letter is a large inheritance. Where Leti’s mother got this money from? We don’t know. A tear falls down her face as Leti reflects upon the words.

Then we get a black screen and the caption, “In the summer of 1955, a group of Negro men and women moved into a house on the North Side of Chicago. Ten days later three people went missing inside the house, never to be seen again.”

We are introduced to a new time technique. Time progression is marked in chronological order in cutscenes.

Day 1- Leti has just bought a house and is convincing Ruby to live with her. A couple of weeks?? have passed since George’s death. The house is huge, 13 bedrooms, an elevator and looks haunted as fuck. Ruby and the audience are all wondering how Leti got the money to buy this mansion but she veers around the topic when probed. Leti wants to turn the property into a boarding house for “colored folks in need”. There’s only one problem, this house is in an all-white neighborhood and they are not warm or friendly to the idea of integration. Leti convinces Ruby to move in and the adventures begin…

The next scene introduces a widowed Hippolyta, staring into the mirror, channeling her grief in an unusual way, completely ripping up Brian Stoker’s print version of “Dracula”. It’s powerfully symbolic. George’s daughter Dee and Tic are in the kitchen, cooking breakfast, and George’s absence is noted throughout the scene, the missing spot at the dining table and the uneasy tension between Hippolyta and Tic. Hippolyta has taken the reins on The Negro Guide and the stress of it all seems to consume her spirit. This episode really leans on the talented female actresses, Aunjanue Ellis is outrageously gifted at her craft and shows such a deep understanding of her character’s innermost conflicts.

We continue to Tic’s father’s, Montrose residence. We see a female face in a picture, the same hallucination that George was dancing with in the previous episode! I believe it’s Tic’s mother, which opens up a whole can of worms! Maybe George really is Tic’s father…. Montrose is passed out drunk the floor, he is also seriously grieving his brother. Tic wakes him up with a charming glass of water to the face and they begin to reminisce about George. From the tension between the two we can tell that their relationship isn’t the best, but they both absolutely admire George. We also learn that Tic and Montrose have been keeping the truth (lying) about what happened to George from Hippolyta, and the guilt is eating away at Tic. Tic feels like he’s worn out his welcome at Hippolyta’s and requests to stay over his father’s place. That request is ignored. Montrose changes into a perigold bowling shirt and things begin to get heated. Tic wants to tell the truth, at least to Hippolyta, and Montrose wants nothing of it. Both characters toss volleys of charged words and accusations until finally Montrose slams his fist of the table, Tic bolts up in a mixture of anger and retaliation, eliciting an equally intimidating physical response from Montrose. We can see that these two clearly have some unaddressed issues and co-habitating would not be a great idea. Tic storms out visibly angry.

Day 2. Leti is setting up her boarding house, taking pictures of the people moving in, and the elevator is being fixed. Tic enters and the sexual tension is palpable. They haven’t seen each other since George’s funeral which we learn was a few weeks ago. Leti mentions that she’s having a housewarming party that night and she wants Tic to come. Tic uncomfortably confesses that he’s going back to Florida that evening. We then begin to hear the long continuous noise of a car horn. The camera follows Tic and the residents outside and we see whose responsible for the sudden irritant, three white guys, scowling looking very menacing. They are obviously there to intimidate and terrorize. Ruby is shook, she doesn’t want to be on the frontlines of another Tulsa. Tic then decides to stick around a little longer.

Day 5- We have a scene straight out of The Grudge. Leti is sleeping peacefully with her hair wrap tied on perfectly, although i’m sure it slipped off at least once while she was sleeping (my experience.) As Leti is sleeping peacefully we see the corpse of a black woman at the foot of her bed, slowly pulling the covers off of Leti, while giving her resting face the death stare. It is horrifying yet I can’t look away. Leti tosses and turns, the corpse edges closer to her face, we see the corpse is missing her jaw! And boom the covers are snatched off Leti, suddenly waking her, but the corpse is gone.

Leti goes to the basement because the boiler is running hot. As she explores the dark cement box, she notices that the house is haunted as fuck. Spirits are all up in that bitch. She calls Tic to “help”, he brings a fucking baseball bat…to fight spirits. They luckily dont find any but get the chance to bond about all the craziness that is going on. Leti is convinced that it’s the racist neighbors that are messing with the boiler and Tic agrees. Something about the way Tic delivers his lines with Leti always stands out, he is incredibly distressed. Every sylabble Tic utters around Leti is laced with conflict. She is his arsenic and his antidote.

It is Day 8. Leti is throwing her housewarming party. Her sister is performing (with a full band) and everyone is having a great time. We have our first scene with Leti and Hippolyta, they seem to share a sisterhood even though Leti is also concealing the truth about George.

We then we have a cliche oouji board scene in the basement of the house during the party. Nothing to see here folks we already know this house is chock full of angry ass spirits.

We return to Tic and he catches a long glimpse of Leti grinding with a very overzealous stranger. He’s clearly jealous. Leti becomes flustered and bolts off to a room to freshen up. As she looks down and wipes the sweat off her forehead we see a glimpse of another corpse in the mirrow, this one a black man. Tic rushes to join her in the room and we have our first sex scene with Leti and Tic. It is very…quick and awkward.

Before Leti can wallow too long in her embarassment, the participants of the party all realize that a cross is burning in the yard. Dorinda Clark Cole’s upbeat gospel anthem “Take it Back” begins playing, Leti picks up a baseball bat in rage and begins to violently smash all the cars of the racist neighbors. Watching her smash these vintage cars in a turquoise flapper style dress is wonderfully empowering. It doesn’t really make sense but I don’t question her intentions too much.

The cops arrive immediately and Leti surrenders peacefully. Leti’s trip to the precinct is violent, she is physically intimidated and interrogated as to where she got the funds to buy the house. The director is hinting towards something insidious about the house, the house has a deeper meaning than what we have been led to believe. The cops tell her that there has been a long string of deaths and that house and that she won’t last very long.

Day 9- Leti has established the basement as a darkroom. Questionable choice being that the house is haunted but Leti ain’t scared of no ghosts. The negative from the darkroom allow her to see images of the ghosts, one even communicates with her, saying “GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!”. No room for interpretation there, Leti runs out in fear.

She runs upstairs and we find out that the tenants are moving out. Leti is bringing too much attention with her Black Panther tactics. Ruby is trying to convince her to tone it down when Leti lets it slip that the money for the house came from their mother. She had been keeping that bit of information a secret. Ruby rips into her (as she should have) for not splitting that money with her siblings, especially when she didn’t even go to her mother’s funeral. This whole episode took me in alot of directions but Jurnee Smollett-Bells’s acting is truly phenomenal, her intensity and distress when she says “I’m TIRED” is palpable.

The next scene is our first with Montrose and Hippolyta. Her black woman spidey senses are tingling and she’s explaining to Montrose how something just doesn’t feel right about George’s death. Montrose looks guilty as fuck and we just want him to tell her the truth! Of course he bullshits and lies.

Day 10- Leti has turned into an amateur detective to try and figure out what’s going on with the spirits in her house. She once again recruits Tic to help her defeat the spirits. This time Tic brings his brains instead of a baseball bat. Through research Leti has discovered, the ghosts of certain deceased persons were trapped in the house. The ghosts were the result of a fucked up scientist taking black people from Chicago’s south side and experimenting on them against their will. Really dark stuff. The conflict arises because these ghosts are cohabiting with their killer, who also died in the house. Leti concocts a plan to free these ghosts from their captors, also she confesses her encounter with Tic the night before was her first time having sex. Whoops

Thier plan involves calling Ms.Cleo, or whoever the local voodoo woman is to come cleanse the house of spirits. The woman sports a strong caribbean accent and plays every part of the role. She begins the ritual by sacrificing a goat on Leti’s porch and dousing Leti and Tic’s forehead with the blood of the dead animal for ‘protection”.

The medium begins to feel a presence in the darkroom. The three of them join hands and the medium begins a chant to remove the spirits from the house. That’s when shit hits the fan. The lights begin to flicker and a strong window appears in the room. Simulataneously, we see the three of the racist neighbors are breaking into the house during the ceremony. The house murders them rather quickly and unceremoniously.

As the purge picks up the pace the roof and floorboards begin to shake and then we have a brief moment of serenity before the water pipes explode. The jets of water cause the trio to release their circle which gives the malevolent spirit the opportunity to possess the medium. The possessed medium begins to choke the living shit out of Tic while Leti watches in horror. Leti gains the courage to call on the dead spirits of the black victims of the house which temporarily releases the medium from the possession. The spirit decides Tic is a better candidate instead. Possessed Tic begins to lurch towards Leti while frothing at the mouth and screaming, “GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE”. I am literally scared shitless and so is Leti. She pleads for help from the black spirits to protect her against their murderer. “You are not dead yet. You can still fight!” Leti screams into the spiritual abyss. Once again Smollett’s acting here is stunning and spectacular. The collective spirits heed Leti’s call and slowly materialize, joining together to protect Leti. Shirley Caeser’s “Satan, we’re gonna tear your Kingdom down” plays in the background. The entire scene is powerful, seeing the forgotten victims of racism get revenge post mortum. They join together and cast 1940’s David Duke out of Leti’s house.

The next scene we see Tic has been doing some investigative work of his own. He has tracked down Christina Braithwaithe at bank downtown. She is dressed in a wonderfully tailored two piece blue mulitcolored pantsuit. Tic confronts Christina and we find out that the money Leti inherited wasn’t from her mother, it was from Christina. Christina goes into a long history lesson about the Sons of Adam and is interrupted when Tic pulls out his revolver, apparently he is there to kill her. As soon as he attempts to pull the trigger he is frozen by some type of magic. Christina continues to explain her families magic, her father’s power was invulnerability which lapsed when he used Tic to open the door to Eden. Tic remains paralyzed by this spell as Christina kindly tells Tic that he should try a better approach next time, killing a white woman in broad daylight will be hard to explain. She leaves and Tic regains control of his body, marking the end of the spell.

I found this episode a bit disorienting. The new technique of adding specific time progression erased some of the mystery regarding this new whole we are a part of. I think the story of the trapped black spirits in the house was powerful and relevant. Medical racism is real towards black people and we were the victim of American government experiments (Tuskegee study). Too much of that story got lost in that episode by the bs with the racist neighbors. I can not overstate how amazing Jurnee Bell-Smollett’s acting was in this episode. If you don’t watch for anything else, watch for her because she really is superb. Her ability to portray heightened emotion for extended amounts of time is remarkable. I give this episode 8/10 stars.