User Reviews

A lot of the points and themes touched on in this episode, along with the entire mood/vibe, feel like the quintessential episode of Lovecraft Country so far. It wasn't the best episode out of the 5 released so far, but the elements of the show are all there. The acting is fine as always, and so is the production value/quality. Now for the actual content of the episode: the entire struggle between Ruby choosing to be white or stay colored was portrayed very well. I felt myself almost slipping into the delirium of, "what's the choice to make" with her. The way it's delivered through grotesque metamorphosis is very graphic and gory and turned my stomach inside out in the best way possible. The show turns something as simple as "switching bodies" persay and makes it very interesting. There is one scene in particular, and if you have seen the episode you know what I'm talking about, that I feel may be a bit controversial. I felt it had its place in the story, as hard as it was to watch, but I think it went on just a tad too long and pushed it. Moving on to the parts of the episode that focus on Montrose, they needs a little more explanation (along with the rest of the show, but especially this). I'm not homophobic before anyone jumps to that, but I feel needless forcing of representation does more harm than good, although I assume it plays it's role as a plot device. On the off hand that it doesn't, I feel that it does more harm to the show as a distraction rather than help. Overall the episode was good... Odd, but good nonetheless if you're willing to overlook a few things. The writers and producers perfectly captured the spiral into minor madness that is so classically Lovecraftian as Ruby tests her boundaries as a white woman.

This week's episode of Lovecraft Country, titled Strange Case, has finally answered my storytelling prayers. Hallelujah. The ever-spinning wheel of dressing Lovecraft Country with a different pulp genre every week has paused (temporarily I presume) and this latest episode lets the story regroup itself and do some much-needed character building.

What is unexpected is the supporting characters' stories have completely taken over the frat house and are calling the shots. Yes, the supporting characters get all the character-building!

Montrose, having committed an unspeakable act at the end of A History or Violence, spirals into a sex-infused free fall like Michael Fassbender in Shame.

The more fascinating story belongs to Ruby, who wakes up after a night of passion with William and is presented with a magical potion that allows to metamorphosize into a white person. In perhaps is what the show's most entertaining storyline so far, Ruby uses the potion to becoming a white woman named Hillary to reap all the white privilege within her reach and scores a job as the associate manager at the department store we saw last episode, like the Eddie Murphy "White Like Me" sketch from Saturday Night Live but played straight.

What happens next with Ruby/Hillary is satirically entertaining and this is the first episode to really answer to the promise of the pilot where social commentary is being given through sci-fi fantasy elements.

It's head scratching that the supporting characters are more engaging and have the better stories. I don't know what to make it now and it would require finishing the entire season to access if this was an innovative out-of-the-box writing decision from the writers or just a miscalculated fumble.

Why couldn't this metamorphosis storyline have happened to Letitia or Atticus? Letitia and Atticus's story haven't progressed at all. Why haven't they gotten to the backstory with Ji-ah, Atticus' girlfriend from South Korea, yet?

Lovecraft Country has to stop trying to shock us. To use a Dragonball metaphor, you can only turn into Super Saiyan so many times. You can keep writing new levels of Super Saiyan and slap a new number to add tension but the impact on the audience's part weakens exponentially every time. Now the writers stuck in this trap of having to escalate something every week with a new reveal. Just tell the story, fellas.

I really loved the show up to this point! I'm angry at how bad the episode was created - no real plot apart from a touch of Ruby's storyline, unnecessary cheap violence, and thoroughly inelegant. Skip this and you'll save yourself an hour of your life.

I liked the previous episodes but this one I hated. Let me rephrase. I liked it for the most part but then came the rape scene. God. It ruined everything for me. A rape is never justifiable, even for a would-be rapist. Like another review said, if you miss this episode, don't worry; you didn't miss much. Except maybe the reveal that William is really Christina, but come on, we suspected that already; they'd never been in a room at the same time before and, you know, they look so much alike.

This episode STRANGE CASE was a strange one indeed, but no less fascinating. This is the first episode of the show's freshman season to focus on the supporting cast, in particular Ruby and Montrose take lead honors here while Atticus and Leti are in the background. Unpopular opinion, but I frankly believe Montrose to be a much more interesting character than George, who was just a pile of exposition and plot force. With Montrose as Atticus' father figure (even if he's not his real father), the story feels truly mysterious and deep. Michael K. Williams is exceptional, but I think this episode belongs to Jamie Neumann, who brilliantly essayed the white version of Ruby, perfectly capturing the actress' mannerisms, attitude, and speech pattern. Her physical acting was award worthy and the gross transformation special effects were like something from the 80s. I can understand why a lot of fans might have cringed at all the sex and violence in this one, but the acting on this show continues to be superb.

Not sure why it's being ranked so low on here, I thought this episode was great. Fantastic acting, great production, music is amazing, the story plot is superb. Yeah it's gory in some parts but it's a horror show, named after HP Lovecraft, what do you expect? Pretty sure the 1-star reviews are coming from homophobes that didn't like the gay character reveals and that arc. I thought the whole episode was great, looking forward to next episode. And how about Shangela and Monet for those cameos! 10s across the board.

Cinematography and acting earn it a 4, everything else was painful or seemingly pointless.

The vast majority of the time in this episode was spent (or wasted as many of feel) on delving deeper into the characters of Ruby and Montrose. It felt like it was all secondary storylines and pointless "revelations". Ruby reveals that she is just as ugly on the inside and when given the freedom as she pleases, goes ape with murderous rage. In a single episode, she went from being a rather annoying, preachy but principled character to being irredeemably awful.

Montrose is revealed to be a closeted gay man when seeks comfort in the arms (and more) of his gay, drag-queen lover, ultimately feeling free and alive during a drag show at a gay club. O...K. While I certainly welcome any chance for an actor who's work to have some meat scenes to flex, this just felt out of place and unrelated to the rest of the story. Still not entirely sure what the point of this is and I found myself more bored than anything.

And then we have the "reveal" that the two freakish albinos are one and the same person, which I had strongly suspected since the last season and which became apparent with the hastily tacked on talk of the two of them coming in and out of the locked basement door and Christina's many hints. By the time it was revealed, my only reaction was "Obviously...". (Not even warranting an exclamation point)

Then there was the seemingly random, tacked on bit at the end with Tic's murderous fling in Korea, which appears to be the setup for the next episode.

The only bone, pardon the pun, they threw fans to keep those put off by these storylines was an extra love scene and nudity that didn't really further the story, IMO.

Both in terms of social commentary and Lovecraftian body horror, this is easily the strongest episode of LC to date. Much like Hillary, the gooey gory genre trappings are a second skin, hiding a much more complex and nuanced tale of racial inequality under the surface.

Week by week, Lovecraft Country continues to raise the bar on itself. Can't wait to see where this wild story and it's amazing cast of characters go next!

William's big reveal really took me by surprise. I guess I should have guessed as there were clues all along.

If you miss this episode, you miss nothing that moves things forward. Just another "white people are all horrible and not a single one has any redeeming qualities" story with some LBGTQ thrown in that doesn't actually move the character involved along on any path that has to do with what this show started out as. There is no thread that is holding things together. The "pages" subplot (and it is a subplot rather than the focus) can only hold you for so long; especially when it's little more than a side note.