In the season finale, Atticus Freeman and his family battle against literal and metaphorical “white privilege.”

Spoilers

Lovecraft Country Season One Episode Ten ” Full Circle,” directed by Nelson McCormick, deals with self-sacrifice, legacy, and breaking the chains in our minds. Atticus Freeman and his family cast a spell to bind Christina’s magical powers. Atticus’ ancestors assist them in gaining the knowledge and ability to control magic for themselves. Diana and the unborn Freeman baby boy will have a prosperous future.

” Full Circle” is a dark and emotional episode, but there is one light spot. Atticus, Leti, Ruby, Diana, Hippolyta, Montrose, and Ji-Ah drive down to Ardham together in Uncle George’s car. At first, the ride is somber because Atticus is risking his life to cast a spell to ban all White people from using magic. Then the song “Sh-Boom (Life Could Be a Dream)” comes onto the radio. Ruby, Diana, Hippolyta, and Ji-Ah happily start singing along with the lyrics.  Sitting in the front seats, Montrose, Leti, and Atticus still look like sourpusses. Then Atticus, whose driving, sings along to the deep part of the song. Leti giggles, and Montrose shyly smiles. The whole car breaks into song. They are full of hope that one day their lives can be like a dream. Atticus and his family are fighting to live the “American dream” that White society is hogging for themselves.

Hippolyta helps her daughter Diana break free from “reality.” The group lifts the curse off Diana, but her drawing hand remains all withered up. The young woman lies in bed, heartbroken. Hippolyta’s hair has turned blue like one of Diana’s comic book characters Orithaya Blue. Hippolyta tells Diana that she had to leave to become Orithaya. Diana remarks that she is just a fictional character. The mother further explains how she went to a world where she could become whatever wanted to be but ultimately wanted to be a mother to Diana. Diana doesn’t care because Hippolyta was not there to protect her from the cops.

Later, Diana is frustrated because she can’t draw anything. A published comic book based on Orithaya Blue is pushed through her door. Diana is amazed by how professional her comic book looks. Hippolyta tells Diana that an artist named Afua taught her how to draw. The mother said she learned so he could teach Diana. Crestfallen, the teenager motions at her withered-up arm, saying she will never draw again. Hippolyta promises Diana that she will be able to draw. She explains that sometimes people get stuck in moments, but time is always changing events. Diana is rightfully mad at her mother at this moment, but eventually, that will change too. At the end of the episode, we see that Diana now has a bionic, a.k.a. robot arm that will allow her to draw. Through Hippolyta’s invention, her daughter can now create whole worlds again. The Black explorer teaches Diana and the rest of us that reality is mailable. Everybody has the power to make the worlds that allow us to do anything we want to do. Hopefully, we use this philosophy to create a world where everybody is equal, regardless of gender, race, or sexuality.

Atticus’ ancestors play a vital role in the Lovecraft Country Season One finale. While casting the healing spell on Diana, Leti and Atticus pass out. They wake up in a dream world back in an Ardham lodge that is on fire.  Atticus speaks to Hanna and his mother, Dora. Leti spends time back with Dora’s grandmother Hattie who she met in Tulsa.

Hanna tells Atticus that she knew her unborn child would never be safe since he had the “Master’s blood.” She used a spell to mask the magical power in their bloodline. The night Hanna opened The Book of Names, she unleashed this hellish dreamscape. She thought it was punishment for using the White “devil’s tools.” Hanna was tortured by the flames every night in her dreams. Before she committed suicide, Hanna bound The Book of Names so nobody in her family would suffer as she did. But once the ex-slave died, she realized that the flames were representations of her anger.  Magic was not something to fear but to use to equalize the playing field.

Throughout the episode, the ancestors assist Atticus and Leti’s mission to regain their family’s legacy. Using The Book of the Names, they help the couple cast a spell to destroy Titus Braithwaite’s ghost. The four generations of genetic-based trauma combined are so powerful that they can wipe out the symbol of institutional racism, the White slave master. Titus felt like he had the right to use Black people like tools to gain power, but the ghosts and the couple prove there is no room for racist people anymore.

At the end of ” Full Circle,” Christina Braithwaite and Atticus Freeman are dead. The two relatives are both casualties of White privilege. Christina, because she thought her privilege gave her the right to use her Black cousin Atticus as a tool. The witch believes that the combination of the guilt she feels for killing her cousin, her love for Black woman, and that the patriarchy owes her gives her permission to cast her destructive spell. Atticus sacrifices himself to equalize the field by returning magic to his people and banning White people from using their privilege against Blacks in America.

I hope there will be a second season to continue this fantastical exploration of Blackness in America.