WARNING! Spoilers for Lovecraft Country season 1, episode 8, "Jig-a-Bobo" ahead. 

In Lovecraft Country season 1, episode 8, "Jig-a-Bobo," the characters mourned the tragic murder of Emmett Till while Christina Braithwhite (Abbey Lee) recreated it. Misha Green's HBO series deals with the racism that Black people experienced during the 1950s in Chicago, Illinois and across the nation. The TV show has established itself as an important presence in modern horror by taking moments from Black history and weaving them into the story of Lovecraft Country. 

In "Jig-a-Bobo", Lovecraft Country included the historical events surrounding the brutal lynching of an innocent Black boy from Chicago named Emmett Till, who died at the age of 14. His killers, J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant, were acquitted by an all white jury despite admitting to a portion of their guilt. After a large funeral, Ruby Baptiste (Wunmi Mosaku) returns to the home she shares with William, who is also Christina. The two have a conversation about race relations in Chicago and how Christina will never understand what it is like to be a Black person in America. She responds by telling Ruby that she does not believe Ruby actually cares about Emmett Till's death, and neither does she.

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This is a gut-wrenching moment where a white woman explains to a Black woman how she believes that she feels as well as expressing that she is devoid of any sympathy. In this instance, the writers established that Christina can recognize her inability to relate to Black people's experiences in America, but add that she also doesn't appear to care. It begs the question, why did Christina Braithwhite choose to recreate Emmett Till's brutal murder and make herself the victim if she couldn't conjure up any empathy for the Black community? There are a few reasons why Christina might have made this decision.

Lovecraft Country

One explanation is for Christina's decision could be that she wanted to be able to relate to Ruby's experiences and feelings. This reasoning could add a new layer to Christina's characterization where she cares more about others than she does herself. At the end of the day, she has proven to have her own goals set in stone, and will not allow anyone to stand in her way. Despite the fact that she initially cries when she crawls from her watery death, her tears turn to laughter. Christina can cheat death, and she's laughing about her ability to rise when Emmett Till could not. In this regard, her reasoning for recreating the murder was to prove she's invincible — she, Atticus (Jonathan Majors), and Leti (Jurnee Smollett) all spoke of protection spells and their efficacy throughout episode 8.

Lovecraft Country is full of social commentary, as well as larger conversations on race relations in America in the 1950s and now. Christina expresses that she feels a sense of camaraderie with Ruby and Atticus due to the fact that she is viewed as lesser than among the Sons Of Adam, based on her gender. While she is impacted by 1950s patriarchal America, she does not experience racism. Therefore, she can never truly relate to either character. There is speculation that Christina may have recreated the murder in order to perpetuate the ideology that white women are always the victim. Emmett Till was murdered because he interacted with a white woman at a grocery store who over-exaggerated the encounter, resulting in his murder. He was viewed as a predator, but he was really an innocent child.

The bloody depiction of this crime on Lovecraft Country can also function as a way for the audience to directly witness the brutality that Emmett Till faced at the hands of Milam and Bryant. After Till was murdered, his mother had an open casket funeral so that the world could see what racism did to her son and mourn the lack of justice he received. It's plausible this reenactment could serve as a way for contemporary audiences to witness the methods used in Till's death, and their brutality; Christina, in that sense, was just a catalyst.

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