5 biggest moments from Lovecraft Country episode 5: Strange Case

5 big moments from Lovecraft Country episode 5

Here are five of the biggest moments from “Strange Case,” the fifth episode of the HBO horror-fantasy series Lovecraft Country.

Lovecraft Country’s latest twist-filled thrill ride sees Ruby in the driver seat for most of the episode with the usual trio off having their own romantic escapades. After surviving so many harrowing events it’s nice to see the major players in positive situations as opposed to having their lives on the line in a terrifying ordeal.

“Strange Case” takes William and Ruby’s relationship to a fascinating level and unveils all sorts of crazy surprises along the way resulting in yet another exceptional episode of the hit HBO series. Out of all the outstanding things that went down, here are the five that stand out above the rest and significantly set the tone for the rest of the first season.

1. Ruby’s got a brand new look

Ruby wakes up from her night with William to realize that she has become a white woman. She looks just like Dell, the surly Ardham groundskeeper we saw back in episode 2 who gets knocked out by Leti during their daring escape. But it turns out that unlike most fairytales transforming into a new appearance is rather messy where the skin, in an extremely gory fashion, peels right off of the person.

After her first run as a white person comes to a cringeworthy end, William is forced to cut Ruby out of her caucasian shell like a caterpillar out of a cocoon, and eventually, she gets the hang of it on her own. The time she is able to do this is limited, and she must drink a potion to initiate the process.

Ruby takes on the persona of one Hillary Davenport and gets a job as assistant manager at the department store she wanted to work at so badly. But the one thing she truly enjoys about her new look is how people treat her like a human being, something she never experienced from white people before.

2. The Police Captain has skeletons in his closet

Capt. Seamus Lancaster is apparently making a play for power within the order, and at the behest of William, Ruby, in her natural skin, poses as a server for a party he is holding to gain favor amongst his nefarious colleagues. Her task is to place a strange item in his office, and when she does, she discovers more than she bargained for as she stumbles upon a man half-dead with his tongue cut out and his throat slashed in the closet. She is then forced to hide in there with the man who, after being in there for several days, smells horrendous given the fact Ruby holds her nose most of the time while he is trying to cover the man’s mouth as to not allow him to alert the others of her presence.

The man is apparently named Zenone, and he stole some loot that Lancaster would like to know the whereabouts of. Despite the torturous treatment and lackluster living arrangement, the poor fool won’t give up the information and continues to just hang around the corrupt Captain’s closet. Back when Christine visited in the last episode, we heard someone suffering in Lancaster’s closet, and it’s probably safe to assume that his less than ideal ordeal will most likely lend itself to the overall narrative in some significant manner somewhere down the line.

3. Ruby becomes dangerously comfortable in her own skin.

Ruby has been a pretty passive individual that doesn’t show much evidence of being violent that often, if ever. She even showed signs of being done with the potion allowing it to smash as the change wore off. But that all started to change when she saw Tamara get violated by her boss. Combine that with some rage-inspiring magic motivation from Christina, Ruby decides to teach her boss a lesson he will never forget.

She goes into his office as Hilary and begins to seduce him. She gets him tied up and pantsless and then begins to stab him in the bum with the heel of her shoe. Then, to add insult to injury, she allows him to see the caucasian skin peel off her so he would know that a black woman did this to the filthy pig. Ruby is slowly becoming a force to be reckoned with, and Christina would be wise not to underestimate her moving forward.

4. Christina is actually William

After Ruby puts the rune in Lancaster’s desk, she encounters William only to witness the flesh peel off of his body, revealing that he is, in fact, Christina. This had been a popular theory with fans that the two were one and the same, considering they never shared any time on screen together. But before this, Christina revealed that Lancaster shot William in the back and left him for dead because he is the heir to the head of the table when it comes to the Sons of Adam. She did this to motivate ruby, but it might be a clue as to what is in the basement.

Willaim could, in fact, be in the basement plotting out revenge with Christina with some spell or side effects keeping him from carrying out his endeavors forcing Christina to don a William suit to complete the mission. Or William could be dead, and Christina is out for blood for what they did to her friend. Either way, this game-changing reveal is a top-notch shocker, and it will be interesting to see how this whole thing plays out with only a few episodes left of Lovecraft Country’s firsts season.

5. Ji-ah’s warning was right

Atticus deciphered some of the pages from Leti’s pictures to reveal the word DIE. This means that there is apparently a page in the Book of Names that foretells the death of Tic, presenting more questions than answers in this mind-bending reveal. Looking like this isn’t the first time he has received this information, Atticus calls Korea once again, but instead of hanging up right away, he asks the female voice on the other end how she knew and before the episode ends, asks whats she is? All signs point to this being Ji-ah, as she was talked about earlier in the episode.

Lovecraft Country has been carefully crafting the stirring Ji-yah side story since the start with the actress playing her Jamie Chung descending from a UFO as a red space princess, unveiling the fact that her presence will be nothing short of out of this world right from the get-go. Next, we saw her attack Atticus in a soldier’s uniform in Ardham, and now it turns out that she may have told him something he didn’t believe that is coming true. Fans should get more insight on this matter as the preview for episode 6 of the HBO series will have Ji-ah front and center, revealing she may be yet another horrifying creature to add to the already impressive list of Lovecraftian concoctions the show has put out so far.