Skip to main content

Lovecraft Country might have provided HBO with its next big event series after the wildly successful Watchmen series in 2019. The show, based on a novel by Matt Ruff, combines Lovecraftian horror with modern social issues in a Jim Crow setting.

Audiences fell in love with the show. However, even the most die-hard fans among us may have missed one particularly jarring Easter Egg in the show’s memorable finale. 

What is ‘Lovecraft Country’?

Lovecraft Country focuses on several Black characters in Jim Crow America as a man named Atticus Freeman embarks on finding his father. Balancing the real-life horrors with those of the notoriously racist HP Lovecraft, the show shows just how different the types of true-life scares black Americans might experience are to the fictionalized ones from a Lovecraft novel. 

The show defies genre and medium, incorporating several real-life historical events to further its plot while calling back to the works of the titular Lovecraft. With an all-star cast that includes Jurnee Smollett, Jonathan Majors, Courtney B. Vance, and Michael K. Williams, the show balances real-life social satire with the type of horror one would expect from the name. 

Like the novel, the show has a narrative plot broken down into several miniature horror stories to show different aspects of the characters’ lives. The show started with a bang from zombie-like creatures to the ever-present Cthulhu and only got crazier with every ensuing episode after.

Much like other HBO series based on established intellectual properties, the show had its fair share of Easter Eggs, too. 

‘Lovecraft Country’ has hidden messages

Jurnee Smollet as Leti and Jonathan Majors as Atticus in 'Lovecraft Country.'
Jurnee Smollet as Leti and Jonathan Majors as Atticus in ‘Lovecraft Country.’ | HBO

Much of Lovecraft Country’s central plot had to do with a mysterious ritual at a ceremony on the Autumnal Equinox. There, several white people tried to draw Atticus’s bloodborne powers and use them to their advantage. It is a science fiction twist on a genuine problem, and much of the imagery and references in the series harkened back to this. 

Those who stuck around until the end got to see the ceremony in its glory. They watched in horror as a group of white people killed off Atticus, but not without causing his brand of chaos, too.

Atticus was helped by his ancestor Hanna, who made sure that he would not do so in vain while he died. Smollett’s character, Leti, was able to complete her spell and ban the show’s magic from future white people. 

In the final scene of the first season, people watched as Atticus’s niece, Dee, reached a mechanical arm to murder the show’s antagonist, Christina Braithwhite. Dee loses her arm due to a spell gone wrong and is upset by the outcome of being cursed. A prior scene showed Dee’s mom giving her a surprise that made the young girl happy, but viewers didn’t know what it was until one of the final scenes when she takes out her robotic arm.

Keen-eyed viewers will recall that, earlier in the show, Atticus spoke to his father about his journey to the future. He says someone with a mechanical arm handed him a book, Lovecraft Country, and tossed him back into the portal. The series finale subtly ties the arc, by confirming that an older Dee is the mysterious individual Atticus briefly interacted with.

Will there be another season?

Related

‘Lovecraft Country’: Is the HBO Series Historically Accurate?

The series ended differently from the book, leaving room for another season to answer some loose ends. By including the book inside the series, however, the makers not only made it all come full circle but added a little treat for fans of both the show and the novel.

Now, they’ll have to wait for a presumed second season when more of these questions will be answered. Or will they? 

HBO has not yet committed to another season of its new hit show. However, unlike Watchmen, which was never meant to be part of a bigger story, the series appeared ready to expand past the book, which only has a single issue. Perhaps that scene of the book being handed to a character is an acknowledgment of this. 

Whatever the case may be, a second season is likely to be years away. However, if and when it premieres, the Easter Eggs and answers to fan questions might be answered with greater detail. 

Best in Entertainment