S01.E06: Meet Me in Daegu

[Scarlett45]

1 hour ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

I got no problem buying that he was virgin when he went to Korea. At that time a lot of young men who went off to war were basically blank slates, especially if they'd grown up in relatively insular environments like rural areas or deeply religious families. Plus, if they'd been drafted they could've been barely out of high school. What stretches credulity IMO is that Tic hadn't been with any women between Ji-Ah and Leti.

Yes I agree. Plenty of attractive intelligent men (like Tic) graduated HS as virgins- especially in a time before oral contraceptives when their female peers had more serious social reasons to delay sex until marriage or at least engagement. Plenty of attractive young men in 2020 are virgins at 18. 
 

I think many keep seeing Jonathan Majors as a 30years old man (which he is), but in the scenes with Ji-Ah he was recently enlisted. 18, maybe 19 years old. And he’s 23-24 in the “Chicago” scenes. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

1 hour ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

If that were the case one would think his stroke game with Leti would've been better. He didn't even last 60 seconds the first time. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for her, she had no previous experience to compare it to and then feel disappointed.

I got no problem buying that he was virgin when he went to Korea. At that time a lot of young men who went off to war were basically blank slates, especially if they'd grown up in relatively insular environments like rural areas or deeply religious families. Plus, if they'd been drafted they could've been barely out of high school. What stretches credulity IMO is that Tic hadn't been with any women between Ji-Ah and Leti.

And there's one reason why I may not want to see a second season for this series. The LC producers, writers, and actors have set their own bar pretty high. I wouldn't want the show to turn into a basic sci-fi/horror soap opera because they couldn't sustain the quality level.

Even the best of us have their off-days.

Tic grew up in Chicago, and was as far as we have seen, did not have a particularly religious background. But also, Tic was presumably a soldier for basic training somewhere, and in Korea for a while before his injury. I'd expect that, particularly while in Korea, he would have been with prostitutes.

I could buy that if your first time was with a nine-tentacled monster, it might take a while to build up the trust to go for a romantic/sexual relationship with anyone for a bit.

TPTB have bought a lot of goodwill. Especially with short HBO seasons, I imagine that it will be years before they start phoning it in.

 

[luckyroll3]

19 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Wait, what? Has Tic only been with two women, and Leti was the second one? Well that explains a lot, if so. (But that body though. He should've literally been fighting the women off. 😻)

I could have sworn that in Ji-Ah's flash forward, there was a clip of Tic having sex with a darker skinned woman. It went by really fast, but I noticed it because I immediately thought, who the hell is that?

[DearEvette]

38 minutes ago, luckyroll3 said:

I could have sworn that in Ji-Ah's flash forward, there was a clip of Tic having sex with a darker skinned woman. It went by really fast, but I noticed it because I immediately thought, who the hell is that?

Yup.  Saw that too.  Had the same reaction:  "Harpo, who dis woman?'

[shoetingstar]

1 hour ago, Scarlett45 said:

Yes I agree. Plenty of attractive intelligent men (like Tic) graduated HS as virgins- especially in a time before oral contraceptives when their female peers had more serious social reasons to delay sex until marriage or at least engagement. Plenty of attractive young men in 2020 are virgins at 18. 
 

I think many keep seeing Jonathan Majors as a 30years old man (which he is), but in the scenes with Ji-Ah he was recently enlisted. 18, maybe 19 years old. And he’s 23-24 in the “Chicago” scenes. 

I agree - it happens. Men just don't advertise it because it's embarrassing for a man to admit for some reason, especially to other men. 

I LIKE that Tic was a virgin - it plays with the tried and true "virgin or virgin blood" trope and is usually women. The only time I've seen it be a male is that vampire movie Jim Carrey did way before he was famous LOL. 

[Scarlett45]

2 hours ago, luckyroll3 said:

I could have sworn that in Ji-Ah's flash forward, there was a clip of Tic having sex with a darker skinned woman. It went by really fast, but I noticed it because I immediately thought, who the hell is that?

Yes I saw that too! That wasn’t Leti. 

3 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

I'd expect that, particularly while in Korea, he would have been with prostitutes.

If the prostitutes had been willing to serve him, AND he wanted to lose his virginity to a prostitute. Tic being Tic I can’t see that. And if a sex work balked at serving him I don’t think he would’ve made a stink about it, he would’ve been very embarrassed. 

[Cotypubby]

So Atticus is a piece of shit and I’m rooting for his death. (Which won’t happen because he’s the “hero.”)

I’m sorry, but crying and saying you feel bad about what you did means shit when you murder innocent people in cold blood and torture women by ripping out their teeth. How is he any different from concentration camp guards who shot and tortured Jews because they were just “following orders”? You think there’d ever be a TV show where the hero used to do that and then we’re supposed to root for him? Hell no!

[shoetingstar]

3 hours ago, Cotypubby said:

So Atticus is a piece of shit and I’m rooting for his death. (Which won’t happen because he’s the “hero.”)

I’m sorry, but crying and saying you feel bad about what you did means shit when you murder innocent people in cold blood and torture women by ripping out their teeth. How is he any different from concentration camp guards who shot and tortured Jews because they were just “following orders”? You think there’d ever be a TV show where the hero used to do that and then we’re supposed to root for him? Hell no!

My one pet peeve with the show is how it will show Tic and Montrose doing something horrible. But then the next beat pulls for us to be sympathetic and feel sorry for them.  But without context or insight into the previous horrible act they committed. My wish is that the conclusion will shed some light. My goodwill towards Tic is fading, after rooting for him since the moment we saw him. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

10 hours ago, Cotypubby said:

So Atticus is a piece of shit and I’m rooting for his death. (Which won’t happen because he’s the “hero.”)

I’m sorry, but crying and saying you feel bad about what you did means shit when you murder innocent people in cold blood and torture women by ripping out their teeth. How is he any different from concentration camp guards who shot and tortured Jews because they were just “following orders”? You think there’d ever be a TV show where the hero used to do that and then we’re supposed to root for him? Hell no!

I think one of the themes of the series is the search for a return to innocence, safety and grace. Whether it is in the biblical story/the Sons of Adam's version of it, the introduction of magic or just dealing with racism, power structures and the other harsh realities of life, the characters (and we) get warped and twisted into something different than we were or what we were meant to be. Can we figure a way back? If so, how? What is the cost? Is it worth it?

For Ji-Ah's mom, the price of getting her daughter back (potentially) is 100 dead men. Samuel thought it was using Tic to do a ritual. Tic still is trying to determine what it might be for him.

We know that Tic joined the Army over opposition from his dad. He tells us he did so (at least in part) because books were no longer providing enough of an escape for him. We don't know why that was, or a lot of details about how he came to be what we saw in this episode.

Which is not to say that anything he experienced will justify his being a cold-blooded murderer, but maybe it will make it more understandable. Maybe the information leaked by the spy caused the deaths of dozens, making rooting out the spy more imperative. Maybe someone else refused to participate in the interrogations and was killed for it. Maybe there is not even an attempt at justification and Tic simply is (or was) a POS. 

Even though Tic is the protagonist, he really hasn't done anything truly noble yet. He has been about seeking protection and rescue for himself and those close to him. I am hopeful that the series will achieve a redemption arc for him. If not, well....he is prophesied to die what looks to be a not-so-pleasant death.

In terms of other TV shows, we definitely have had ones with unrepentant and unredeemable murderers as the protagonists, such as The Sopranos, the Shield, Bates Motel, Hannibal, Dexter. So it's not impossible that someone would try to tell a story about a former concentration camp guard or its equivalent...just unlikely. 

Edited September 23, 2020 by Chicago Redshirt

[Scarlett45]

19 hours ago, Cotypubby said:

So Atticus is a piece of shit and I’m rooting for his death. (Which won’t happen because he’s the “hero.”)

I’m sorry, but crying and saying you feel bad about what you did means shit when you murder innocent people in cold blood and torture women by ripping out their teeth. How is he any different from concentration camp guards who shot and tortured Jews because they were just “following orders”? You think there’d ever be a TV show where the hero used to do that and then we’re supposed to root for him? Hell no!

When you’ve got “red in your ledger”, in fiction (because we know real life is never fair), the only redemption is death for a greater cause. Will Tic be able to pay retribution for the nurse he shot and killed- who did nothing but their job? There was no struggle, no fight, no accident- they were kneeling and crying and he pulled the trigger. 
 

I don’t know. 

[paigow]

2 minutes ago, Scarlett45 said:

When you’ve got “red in your ledger”, in fiction (because we know real life is never fair), the only redemption is death for a greater cause. Will Tic be able to pay retribution for the two nurses he shot and killed- who did nothing but their job?

Technically, he only shot the second nurse. His superior shot the first one but ended up with a jammed pistol. Tic was ordered to continue killing the remaining prisoners.

[Scarlett45]

13 minutes ago, paigow said:

Technically, he only shot the second nurse. His superior shot the first one but ended up with a jammed pistol. Tic was ordered to continue killing the remaining prisoners.

Yes you’re right. I will amend. 

[TV Anonymous]

I just wanted to comment how ineffective was the method to weed the spy out, morality aside. They wanted the spy alive so they could interrogate her and gain intel, did they not? What if the first woman shot was the spy? Then either they had to kill everybody or someone might falsely claim to be the spy, in that case the intel would be garbage.

Edited September 24, 2020 by TV Anonymous

[AnimeMania]

53 minutes ago, TV Anonymous said:

I just wanted to comment how ineffective was the method to weed the spy out, morality aside. They wanted the spy alive so they could interrogate her and gain intel, did they not? What if the first woman shot was the spy? Then either they had to kill everybody or someone might falsely claim to be the spy, in that case the intel would be garbage.

Yes, I was thinking that Young-Ja might have confessed to being the spy (even if she wasn't) because she was in love with Ji-Ah and Ji-Ah was the next one in line to be killed.

I didn't like that Tic is wearing glasses all his life except when he joins the military, you would think that would be the time when being able to see things clearly would be the most important. 

I am an expert in tentacle porn (don't believe me look at my name) and

Spoiler

it is the man that usually has the tentacles, it doesn't right the other way around.

 

[Scarlett45]

1 hour ago, AnimeMania said:

I didn't like that Tic is wearing glasses all his life except when he joins the military, you would think that would be the time when being able to see things clearly would be the most important. 

Werent those reading glasses?

[Cornhusker12]

On 9/22/2020 at 10:26 PM, Cotypubby said:

So Atticus is a piece of shit and I’m rooting for his death. (Which won’t happen because he’s the “hero.”)

I’m sorry, but crying and saying you feel bad about what you did means shit when you murder innocent people in cold blood and torture women by ripping out their teeth. How is he any different from concentration camp guards who shot and tortured Jews because they were just “following orders”? You think there’d ever be a TV show where the hero used to do that and then we’re supposed to root for him? Hell no!

I was curious if anybody would bring this up, I was super turned off by that and really the entire presentation of the war made me confused and a little queasy. I know a lot of what we're told in the US about the Cold War era is the product of some propaganda and there is a lot more relativity and gray area in what happened in those days than what we were told in school, and I know this show is obviously showing a lot of harsh truths about America's past, but this seemed to paint all US soldiers and US involvement as basically Nazi-adjacent trash while sympathizing with the few characters who were communists.

I am definitely no Korean War scholar, but wasn't North Korea already a murderous totalitarian government at that time, who then invaded the South to initiate the war? Am I totally offbase? Again, I appreciate that one of the points of the show is that America has done "monstrous" things, and I know forces on the South Korean side committed atrocities during that time as well, but I don't think I needed to see something slanted in a pro-North Korea direction to make that point haha. I'm not sure revealing our protagonist was a murdering torturing war criminal was a great idea, regardless of whether he was "just following orders."

Overall I really enjoyed Ji-Ah and Tic's story, and the fox tails were truly horrific (that's a compliment) but this is the first episode that didn't really land for me. I also hope they start to pull everything together more soon. The "Tales From Lovecraft Country/Every Episode Is Its Own Thing" approach has been cool and interesting but I'm still not sure how much I should be trying to make sense of all the deep mythology and stuff yet haha.

[Scarlett45]

4 hours ago, Cornhusker12 said:

I was curious if anybody would bring this up, I was super turned off by that and really the entire presentation of the war made me confused and a little queasy. I know a lot of what we're told in the US about the Cold War era is the product of some propaganda and there is a lot more relativity and gray area in what happened in those days than what we were told in school, and I know this show is obviously showing a lot of harsh truths about America's past, but this seemed to paint all US soldiers and US involvement as basically Nazi-adjacent trash while sympathizing with the few characters who were communists.

I saw the point of that narrative was to show that in war, innocent people (who have done nothing and have no “dog in this fight”) that are just trying to live their lives (like the nurses) are hurt and killed; and that atrocities are committed by even the “righteous” side.
 

At the end of the day those nurses are dead. Their lives are gone and their families will mourn them. Whether they were killed by the soldiers acting for North Korea, US soldiers or some other group doesn’t change the horror at their death. 
 

Does every single solider do things like that- no of course not, but it’s common to leave a war with “red in your ledger”. 

[paigow]

21 minutes ago, Scarlett45 said:

Does every single solider do things like that- no of course not, but it’s common to leave a war with “red in your ledger”. 

There is a broad red spectrum.. from friendly fire / collateral civilian casualties to crimes against humanity. 

Tic could have fragged his commander and faced military justice to protect his conscience... but an unlikely option

[Scarlett45]

53 minutes ago, paigow said:

There is a broad red spectrum.. from friendly fire / collateral civilian casualties to crimes against humanity. 

Tic could have fragged his commander and faced military justice to protect his conscience... but an unlikely option

Yes we are in agreement. 

[Cornhusker12]

1 hour ago, Scarlett45 said:

I saw the point of that narrative was to show that in war, innocent people (who have done nothing and have no “dog in this fight”) that are just trying to live their lives (like the nurses) are hurt and killed; and that atrocities are committed by even the “righteous” side.

At the end of the day those nurses are dead. Their lives are gone and their families will mourn them. Whether they were killed by the soldiers acting for North Korea, US soldiers or some other group doesn’t change the horror at their death.

Does every single solider do things like that- no of course not, but it’s common to leave a war with “red in your ledger”. 

Oh yeah I agree and that all definitely came through, I'm just not a fan of the creative decision to turn the main character into a war criminal torturer in order to nail that point home unfortunately.

[Cotypubby]

20 hours ago, Cornhusker12 said:

Oh yeah I agree and that all definitely came through, I'm just not a fan of the creative decision to turn the main character into a war criminal torturer in order to nail that point home unfortunately.

Exactly. And the fact that the one officer called Tic over and he immediately shot the nurse with no hesitation makes it extremely likely that this was something he had done multiples times before and didn't give a second thought. It looked like Tic was the go-to guy for executions and torture.

Edited September 25, 2020 by Cotypubby

[ShellsandCheese]

I'm still enjoying the show myself but I feel like something is missing and I can totally see why some critics said that what you think the show is changes drastically after episode five. I enjoyed Meet Me in Daegu, however, it still felt a bit out of place or like I was watching a different show. I'm guessing they provided the backstory about Tic because it's important to what plays out in future episodes; but it was a choice to provide Tic's backstory in this fashion. I still hate the version of Sinnerman that plays over the end credits.   

[Chicago Redshirt]

On 9/24/2020 at 6:33 AM, TV Anonymous said:

I just wanted to comment how ineffective was the method to weed the spy out, morality aside. They wanted the spy alive so they could interrogate her and gain intel, did they not? What if the first woman shot was the spy? Then either they had to kill everybody or someone might falsely claim to be the spy, in that case the intel would be garbage.

I think that the Army could have been fine with plugging the leak, as opposed to getting intel as to what the spy might have known, who her contacts were and that sort.

But taking the approach of shoot-em till someone confesses doesn't really handle false confessions or no confessions. It's possible that the spy just keeps her mouth shut and then you have to kill every person on the shift. And it's possible that even though whatever got leaked happened during that particular shift, it wasn't a nurse who leaked it.

It also doesn't deal with the problem of alienating other nurses. By killing women in cold blood, it seems like at least one nurse might want to throw the Americans under the bus the first chance she got.   

On 9/24/2020 at 7:40 AM, AnimeMania said:

Yes, I was thinking that Young-Ja might have confessed to being the spy (even if she wasn't) because she was in love with Ji-Ah and Ji-Ah was the next one in line to be killed.

I didn't like that Tic is wearing glasses all his life except when he joins the military, you would think that would be the time when being able to see things clearly would be the most important. 

The Tic we've seen in 1955 seems to only use glasses for reading. It appears that was the case in 1950 as well, only he lost his pair in the explosion that he was in.

[kay1864]

On 9/24/2020 at 8:40 AM, AnimeMania said:

I am an expert in tentacle porn

 These were fox tails, not tentacles.

[rollacoaster]

That was such a tender, passionate and gorgeously lit and shot love scene between Ji-Ah and Tic. On a bed and with foreplay everything!

I would like that, or something better, for Leti and Tic. 

Edited September 30, 2020 by rollacoaster
Spelling matters

[ShellsandCheese]

On 9/29/2020 at 5:45 PM, rollacoaster said:

That was such a tender, passionate and gorgeously lit and shot love scene between Ji-Ah and Tic. On a bed and with foreplay everything!

I would like that, or something better, for Leti and Tic. 

That would be nice but it appears that Lovecraft is another show that can only show black love when it's struggle love. SMH. 

[AnimeMania]

9 hours ago, ShellsandCheese said:

That would be nice but it appears that Lovecraft is another show that can only show black love when it's struggle love. SMH. 

So George and Hippolyta's love scene was struggle love?

[Chicago Redshirt]

2 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

So George and Hippolyta's love scene was struggle love?

We didn't actually see them do it.