(Warning: This post contains spoilers for the series premiere of “Lovecraft Country.”)
“We’ve been expecting you, Mr. Freeman. Welcome home.”
Those are the final words uttered during the series premiere of HBO’s “Lovecraft Country” on Sunday and if they don’t make any sense to you right now, well, don’t worry, because they don’t make any sense to our protagonist, Atticus “Tic” Freeman (played by Jonathan Majors), either.
The warm-yet-confusing welcome is delivered to Atticus by an unnamed blonde, white man who opens the door to the giant mansion in Ardham, Mass. that Atticus, his uncle George (Courtney B. Vance), and his friend Letitia (Jurnee Smollett) arrive at early in the morning, covered in blood following their late-night battle with racist-police-turned-monsters.
“What’s going on in Atticus’ mind [right then] is, things are not what they seem. And s–t is about to get funky,” Majors told TheWrap during an interview with reporters ahead of the “Lovecraft Country” premiere. “And I hope my uncle’s knee holds up, because we’re in trouble.”
Tic, Uncle George and Leti spent the better part of “Lovecraft Country’s” first episode road-tripping across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of Tic’s missing father, Montrose (Michael Kenneth Williams), who went off looking for answers about Atticus’ late mother’s ancestry and wrote to his son that he believes he found them in Ardham.
Now, there’s no sign of Montrose yet, but if this man welcoming Tic into a big fancy house is calling it his “home” and says he’s been “expecting” Atticus, then maybe the group has come to the right place. But based on Majors’ comments, we don’t think you should take any of this at face value and should definitely be ready for more to be revealed on “Lovecraft Country” in the coming weeks, as the Misha Green created-series has nine more episodes left in its first season.
“Lovecraft Country” airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.