WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Lovecraft Country Season 1, Episode 7, "I Am," which aired Sunday on HBO.
As supernatural forces have targeted Atticus Freeman, his family and friends have been drawn irrevocably into the crossfire leading to some tragic losses across the inaugural season of Lovecraft Country.
One of the earliest was Atticus' uncle George Freeman, brother of Atticus' father Montrose, who took on a more loving paternal role in Atticus' upbringing than his actual father. Atticus' love of reading and classic fiction was influenced by growing up with his uncle George while Montrose had been more distant and abusive to his son. While George had been killed in Atticus' cross-country adventure to rescue Montrose from the Sons of Adam, the kindly man makes a surprise return from the grave as only the HBO series can pull off.
George's wife Hippolyta quietly stole a golden orrery from the Winthrop House that was left in the house when it fell under Letitia Lewis' ownership. Featuring a recreation of an alternate solar system, the device appealed to Hippolyta's lifelong love of astronomy, and she brought it back to her home while Christina Braithwaite, who had been looking to recover it, suggested it possessed an otherworldly power. Managing to open it, Hippolyta discovered the location of a planetarium outside of town apparently connected to the Sons of Adam, with the cult's symbol seen engraved into the orrery itself.
Breaking into the planetarium one night, Hippolyta is accosted by two armed men, likely in service to the Sons of Adam like much of the Chicago Police Department. Saved only by the timely arrival of Atticus, an advanced bit of machinery is shot in the ensuing scuffle, with one of the men and Hippolyta drawn into a strange vortex generated by the device. Regaining her senses on a distant planet, Hippolyta is taken in by an advanced race and fitted with strange implants into her wrists. Realizing the implants will take her through time and space wherever her subconscious desires, Hippolyta visits 1920s Paris and sub-Saharan Africa while it warred against Boer invaders before finding herself back home with a very much alive George.
As Hippolyta overcomes the initial shock of being reunited with her deceased husband, she shares her theory that the advanced race and their device has given her the ability to travel to different dimensions, including the one she shares with this version of George. Just as the main universe's well-read George had been able to follow along with the bizarre sights he encountered alongside Atticus before his death, the George with Hippolyta is able to understand and go along with her theory. The two decide to accept the advanced race's offer to explore the cosmos together, like the pulp science fiction heroes Hippolyta had grown up fantasizing about.
Hippolyta has finally been given the happy ending she and George could never have back on her Earth. And while a confused Atticus has been left behind before being forced to leave the scene at the sound of approaching police, the possibility of his aunt's return remains open as Hippolyta reflects that she left her and George's daughter back in Chicago. Still, the latest episode of Lovecraft Country is its surprisingly most upbeat yet, trading the usual supernatural horror for hard science fiction to great effect.
Starring Jonathan Majors, Jurnee Smollett, Aunjanue Ellis, Abbey Lee, Jada Harris, Wunmi Mosaku and Michael K. Williams, Lovecraft Country airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO.