S01.E02: Whitey's On the Moon

[TexasGal]

Well, that was...a lot.  How will they keep up a pace like this for 10 episodes?

[EarlGreyTea]

I didn't see the preview for next week, but previous posts say we're going back to Chicago, which is what I want. I wasn't a fan of this episode, as I dislike episodes mostly contained in one space. I loved the supporting characters left behind in Chicago and, while I realize this is a horror/thriller/etc., I prefer it to be in Chicago or somewhere else real to ground it. Having said that, it was very, very difficult to see our heroes in Jim Crow America, so I'm not sure what it is that I really want.

I was very happy to see Michael Kenneth Williams as Montrose. I've seen him in so many things over the years, and this seems like it will be a meaty role.

I feel like I've seen too many horror films, because many of the twists I saw coming - Leti with fake!Tic, Tic's possible paternity, and what was going to come out of that cow.

 

[AnimeMania]

2 hours ago, EarlGreyTea said:

I didn't see the preview for next week, but previous posts say we're going back to Chicago, which is what I want. I wasn't a fan of this episode, as I dislike episodes mostly contained in one space. I loved the supporting characters left behind in Chicago and, while I realize this is a horror/thriller/etc., I prefer it to be in Chicago or somewhere else real to ground it. Having said that, it was very, very difficult to see our heroes in Jim Crow America, so I'm not sure what it is that I really want.

Looks like they are going to buy a house in a white neighborhood. This is probably going to be pretty rough.

[vibeology]

19 hours ago, sempervivum said:

What Big Bad Braithwhite organ was being removed and sliced up for lunch, and how does he get along without a liver, or whatever?

It was his liver and a person can donate a piece of their liver while alive and be fine. (Normally there's more recovery time but wizard?)

[kay1864]

1 hour ago, vibeology said:

It was his liver and a person can donate a piece of their liver while alive and be fine. (Normally there's more recovery time but wizard?)

My thoughts exactly. But why was he  having it done without a local anesthetic? 

[edhopper]

I have no idea where they are going, I just hope we see Cthulhu again.

[Joimiaroxeu]

The Movin' on Up intro was fantastic, especially with Leti trying on those beautiful bespoke clothes.

An old mansion out in the middle of nowhere with no phones. Cue the Get Out "stay woke" song. (Yes, I know the song is actually titled "Redbone." 🙂)

FFS, if a clearly racist person tells you you might not want to be out after sundown, why are you moseying your way back home at dusk through some thick woods?

Comparing Black people to black bears is new one to me.

Wait, it's Fitz? Aw man. That's a disappointment for me. And he's playing some kind of Aryan nutbag? Sigh.

I could've done without seeing that disgusting thing the cow gave birth to.

The literal trouser snake imagery was a bridge too far AFAIC. Was that supposed to represent Leti's fear of being raped?

"Just because they don't want you here doesn't mean you're not supposed to be." Truer words, though they might be dangerous in the hands of a sociopath.

Whee, Tic's great-gran said, "Not today, Satan!" But so much for Tic's birthright unless that house was just a fantasy.

I didn't understand any of that stuff with Samuel Braithwaite and I hope that's the last we've seen of him and his weird racist secret society based on cherry-picked religious concepts.

[Dev F]

I was surprised to see so many people confused by the ending, because to me it seemed pretty straightforward. But maybe I was primed for it by the way I read Christina's line "Our destinies are not decided by our fathers"; I assumed the implication was that Tic's destiny was determined by his mother. So that was my initial read on why the ritual failed -- because the blood of the woman who survived the last attempt to open the portal was more powerful than the blood of the man who died trying to open it, and when Tic realized that he was able to channel her strength to counteract Titus's.

Which, come to think of it, reflects one of the many absurdities of the white supremacist worldview: Do you really think your slaveholding ancestors were stronger than the people who toiled day and night for them while they sat on their privileged asses?

[Joimiaroxeu]

Quote

Which, come to think of it, reflects one of the many absurdities of the white supremacist worldview: Do you really think your slaveholding ancestors were stronger than the people who toiled day and night for them while they sat on their privileged asses?

There's physical strength, strength in numbers, and strength in institutional power. Though they were probably outnumbered, the slaveholders et al were the ones with the weapons and whips. I think if the slaves across the south had ever tried to unite against their owners most of them would've been killed just to make a hateful point. Especially the male slaves; the owners needed to keep enough female slaves alive to make more slaves. (Ugh.) The white supremacist wordview is likely based on the same fears of losing status their ancestors had. It's not rational.

[Dev F]

19 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

There's physical strength, strength in numbers, and strength in institutional power. Though they were probably outnumbered, the slaveholders et al were the ones with the weapons and whips.

Oh, absolutely, but conflating the differing kinds of strength is exactly what white supremacy tries to do -- to see it as a personal weakness on the part of enslaved people that they were subject to the institutional strength of their enslavers. And vice versa, as if some lazy-ass plantation owner is the epitome of enlightened society because the strong arm of the state forces other people to do whatever he says.

Edited August 26, 2020 by Dev F

[Epeolatrix]

Quote

The literal trouser snake imagery was a bridge too far AFAIC. Was that supposed to represent Leti's fear of being raped?

I don't think it was her fear of being raped, exactly, but taking advantage of any anxieties she had about Tic. They'd last been best friends when they were young and in their science fiction club, but when he comes back as a man and a veteran, she's wondering if she can trust him like she used to. What if the war changed him and he's not the same as the person she liked / loved? The snake imagery was in her mind because of that biblical painting (hidden below in case someone doesn't want to see snake peen), and the magic of the house used that just to make things worse.

Spoiler

 

[Joimiaroxeu]

Quote

The snake imagery was in her mind because of that biblical painting (hidden below in case someone doesn't want to see snake peen), and the magic of the house used that just to make things worse.

Huh, I didn't look very closely when that painting was shown and didn't register at all that Adam's peen was depicted as a snake. I guess I thought it was a really long fig leaf, lol.

Is that really a thing, that the snake in Genesis is actually symbolism for part of Adam's genitalia? My Sunday school attendance ended at about age 14 so my classmates and I might have been considered too young to get the real nitty gritty. (And no way am I googling it. Who knows what kind of insane porn links might pop up. Oy.)

Edited August 26, 2020 by Joimiaroxeu

[kay1864]

4 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

FFS, if a clearly racist person tells you you might not want to be out after sundown, why are you moseying your way back home at dusk through some thick woods?

This!

And even if she didn’t tell them that, how could they not know to leave on time? They knew how long it took to walk from the mansion to the village.

 Kinda lazy writing there, show.

[AnimeMania]

4 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Quote

The snake imagery was in her mind because of that biblical painting (hidden below in case someone doesn't want to see snake peen), and the magic of the house used that just to make things worse.

Huh, I didn't look very closely when that painting was shown and didn't register at all that Adam's peen was depicted as a snake. I guess I thought it was a really long fig leaf, lol.

Is that really a thing, that the snake in Genesis is actually symbolism for part of Adam's genitalia? My Sunday school attendance ended at about age 14 so my classmates and I might have been considered too young to get the real nitty gritty. (And no way am I googling it. Who knows what kind of insane porn links might pop up. Oy.)

Edited 3 hours ago by Joimiaroxeu

The only thing that would have made that Stained Glass Image better would have been if the Apple had been used as a Ball Gag. I should know, as a connoisseur of the finest pornography.

[Empress1]

Here's an interview with Tony Goldwyn about the episode. He notes the racism of the north - the way our history lessons are often set up, we are taught that the north wasn't racist and the south was, and that has never been true; it remains untrue. (Lots of people on this board assumed the sundown town the group was in was in the South; it wasn't.)

Also interesting that Goldwyn is playing this "aristocratic blue blood," as he puts it, when he is something of one himself. (See also: Fitzgerald Grant.) 

[EarlGreyTea]

30 minutes ago, Empress1 said:

Here's an interview with Tony Goldwyn about the episode. He notes the racism of the north - the way our history lessons are often set up, we are taught that the north wasn't racist and the south was, and that has never been true; it remains untrue. (Lots of people on this board assumed the sundown town the group was in was in the South; it wasn't.)

Also interesting that Goldwyn is playing this "aristocratic blue blood," as he puts it, when he is something of one himself. (See also: Fitzgerald Grant.) 

Yes, that's a good point about the north. I remember reading a book called Up South in grad school that examines how and why the strategies of the civil rights movement  weren't as effective in northern states precisely because the racism in north was much more institutionalized and systemic than in the south. Not that it wasn't systemic in the south too, but it tended to be subtler and the north was still seen as having "solved" racism.

I appreciated that Anna, Illinois, was name-dropped in this episode as a sundown town, because that was one of THE most notorious sundown towns (AND it's not in a southern state). Its name was rumored to be an acronym for "Ain't no n-words allowed."

Yeah, you really can't get more Hollywood blue blood than Tony Goldwyn. The second he showed up, I was like, yeah, that was some good casting right there.

Edited August 26, 2020 by EarlGreyTea

[Joimiaroxeu]

Quote

(See also: Fitzgerald Grant.) 

Can we not and say that we did? I still loathe that guy.

Quote

Yeah, you really can't get more Hollywood blue blood than Tony Goldwyn. The second he showed up, I was like, yeah, that was some good casting right there.

Was the character in the book actually named Samuel or was that a nod to Tony's grandfather (and father)? Apologies in advance if I'm not supposed to ask that in this thread.

[larapu2000]

On 8/24/2020 at 12:27 AM, FlowerofCarnage said:

I think Christina and William are the same person. 

I agree!!!  I think William was her creation in order to allow her to take part in the "ONLY MENZ ALLOWED IN THE DINNER" event, probably for a very long time due to her father's racist/sexist rules & mentality.  

 

Me:  Hmm, I wonder how/when they're going to get back to Chicago, Atticus needs to learn about his family history/horror show....

Show:  HOUSE GO BOOM FALL DOWN.  

Me:  Well played, show.

[MerBearStare]

7 hours ago, EarlGreyTea said:

I appreciated that Anna, Illinois, was name-dropped in this episode as a sundown town, because that was one of THE most notorious sundown towns (AND it's not in a southern state). Its name was rumored to be an acronym for "Ain't no n-words allowed."

I hadn't heard of Anna or sundown towns until this ProPublica article from a couple months ago - https://features.propublica.org/illinois-sundown-towns/legend-of-anna/. 

And as someone from Chicago, which is one of the most segregated cities in America, it's ridiculous when people from the north talk about racism like it's just a southern thing. I heard a good summary years ago about how racism in the north differs from racism in the south (speaking in monolithic terms of course): In the south, they don't care how close you get as long as you don't get too big. In the north, they don't care how big you get as long as you don't get too close. 

This show seems like it could go the way of many American Horror Story seasons where they throw everything at the wall to see what sticks and it goes off the rails quickly, but so far I'm enjoying it and I trust Jordan Peele.

[AnimeMania]

1 hour ago, MerBearStare said:

This show seems like it could go the way of many American Horror Story seasons where they throw everything at the wall to see what sticks and it goes off the rails quickly, but so far I'm enjoying it and I trust Jordan Peele.

I am not sure but to seems to me that every episode is a different horror genre and a different type of racism. I don't have many episode data points to support this theory.

[kieyra]

(Between Whole Lotta Shakin last week, and the Movin on Up sequence this week, I’m totally smitten with Jurnee Smollett. I don’t remember ever seeing her before, although apparently I would have in later seasons of True Blood.)

[EarlGreyTea]

1 hour ago, kieyra said:

(Between Whole Lotta Shakin last week, and the Movin on Up sequence this week, I’m totally smitten with Jurnee Smollett. I don’t remember ever seeing her before, although apparently I would have in later seasons of True Blood.)

She has been around for decades. She is best known to me as Michelle's bff in Full House,. I was jealous of her looks back then and I am still jealous. Truly one of the most stunning women Hollywood has ever seen. Glad to see she's getting such meaty roles.

Edited August 27, 2020 by EarlGreyTea

[DearEvette]

1 hour ago, kieyra said:

(Between Whole Lotta Shakin last week, and the Movin on Up sequence this week, I’m totally smitten with Jurnee Smollett. I don’t remember ever seeing her before, although apparently I would have in later seasons of True Blood.)

If you get the chance you should look up the criminally underrated Eve's Bayou.  Young Jurnee was wonderful in it.  And Debbi Morgan should have at least been nominated for an Academy Award (yes, I am still bitter all these years later).  Jurnee was also a high point as Black Canary in the recent Birds of Prey movie.

[grawlix]

12 hours ago, kieyra said:

(Between Whole Lotta Shakin last week, and the Movin on Up sequence this week, I’m totally smitten with Jurnee Smollett. I don’t remember ever seeing her before, although apparently I would have in later seasons of True Blood.)

Don't forget the last couple of seasons of Friday Night Lights.

[AgentRXS]

She was great in the criminally underrated Underground as well.

Courtney B Vance is my favorite part of this show,  so I really hope this isn't the last of Uncle George.  

I have no idea what the hell is going on, and I'm loving it. 

[Penman61]

On 8/24/2020 at 8:55 PM, AnimeMania said:

Looks like they are going to buy a house in a white neighborhood. This is probably going to be pretty rough.

I would love it if the season were structured with that real-world/fantasy alternation:

Episode 1: Our heroes try to have lunch in a sundown town's diner.

Episode 2: Our heroes try to escape the haunted hallucinations of an ancient tribe of liver-eating white supremacist wizards

Episode 3: Our heroes try to buy a house in a white neighborhood

Episode 4: Our heroes try to tame a wild blue-flame-breathing dragon with spells and thunder from heaven

Episode 5: Our heroes try to sit in the whites-only section of a movie theatre 

...and so on

Edited August 28, 2020 by Penman61

[chediavolo]

I"m out. This show is too confusing. I must be missing something. Too bad, if not for all the craziness going on, if it were turned down a tad ( A LOT!) it would be watchable. 

[lucindabelle]

On 8/26/2020 at 5:24 PM, MerBearStare said:

I hadn't heard of Anna or sundown towns until this ProPublica article from a couple months ago - https://features.propublica.org/illinois-sundown-towns/legend-of-anna/. 

And as someone from Chicago, which is one of the most segregated cities in America, it's ridiculous when people from the north talk about racism like it's just a southern thing. I heard a good summary years ago about how racism in the north differs from racism in the south (speaking in monolithic terms of course): In the south, they don't care how close you get as long as you don't get too big. In the north, they don't care how big you get as long as you don't get too close. 

This show seems like it could go the way of many American Horror Story seasons where they throw everything at the wall to see what sticks and it goes off the rails quickly, but so far I'm enjoying it and I trust Jordan Peele.

In fairness that’s not true of every northern town. My 89 year old mom grew up in Stamford Conn and had  Black friends; her school was integrated.

she recalls nobody giving it a thought- but she was a child of course, and her Black friends didn’t live next door to her, so there was absolutely red lining etc.

arillcompared to Montgomery, Ala., where I lived for four years, it was a different universe in the 30s and 40s.

Edited September 13, 2020 by lucindabelle

[Anela]

Erica Tazel! I loved her in "Justified". 

I was comparing this too much to the book, so I just googled to have any differences known up-front. 

Not Uncle George. :(