“Jig-A-Bobo” starts with tragedy: the death of Emmett Till, one of the most horrific murders in history where a young 13-year old black boy was murdered for allegedly whistling at a white woman in the south. A “crime” that she’d later admit he never did. While this was an especially impactful death on the country’s conscience, it’s personal for Diana (Jada Harris).
Emmett Till or “Bobo” as he was referred to in episode 3 was Diana’s best friend. If you can remember, when they played with the Ouija Board, Bobo asked if he’d have a good time on his vacation and the board answered no.
The first scene is the funeral, all of our main characters are there and Diana’s frustration is overwhelming. She just lost her best friend, father, and Hippolayta (Aunjanue Ellis) is still missing and presumed to be dead. She angrily storms away from the funeral, going to the other side of town where she’s ambushed by the evil police chief, Seamus (Mac Brandt), who casts a curse on her.
The curse forces her to be chased by two evil spirits, dressed like evil pickaninny caricatures who chase her around the town. The curse prevents her from talking about it and it causes her problems throughout the episode.
Diana isn’t the only character affected by Till’s death. It has a profound effect on Ruby (Wunmi Mosaku) as well. Unlike the other characters, she sees his deformed body and it mentally shakes her so much, that she returns to the only place she feels comfortable: Christina’s (Abbey Lee Krenshaw) mansion.
There’s a powerful scene where she drinks the potion to turn into Hillary and she has sex with William, changing back into herself halfway through. It was gorey, but symbolic. For once, she says she didn’t want to feel like a black woman having sex with a white man.
Later, she asks Christina if she feels anything about Till’s death. She replies no, but towards the end of the episode recreates his death on herself to feel empathy.
Tic has an impactful episode because Ji-ah (Jamie Chung) arrives in Chicago at Leti’s (Jurnee Smollet) house. Ji-ah explains her vision of Tic’s death and Leti gets angry at him for not saying anything about her, though this was done a bit poorly -- it feels rushed. Tic tells Ji-ah to kick rocks and decides that he’s going to cast a spell, sacrificing himself before Christina can do it.
Tic and Montrose (Michael K. Williams) reconnect over this. It’s revealed in “I am” that Tic went to the future and grabbed his copy of Lovecraft Country from his future son. It’s with him in mind that both men begin a ceremony to cast a spell, though, it doesn’t end up working.
The finale of the episode is a battle between the police chief who tries to enter Leti’s house. He’s repelled by the spell set in the haunted house episode and soon, the police set up a blockade and shoot into the house. It’s unknown if anyone dies but Tic shows up and as an officer shoots at him, a Sloggoth rises from the earth to protect him.
His birthright is finally paying off.
The Sloggoth tears the policeman apart, killing the chief and saving our heroes. But on the other side of town, the evil spirits have finally grabbed Diana and begin their curse on her, setting up a new complication for next week’s episode.
Overall, this episode wasn’t as ambitious as the last few weeks but did a brilliant job of relating the problems of 1955 to 2020. This episode was showrunner’s Misha Green’s first directorial debut for the series and it did not disappoint.
