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Lovecraft Country Episode 9 “Rewind 1921” followed in the footsteps of fellow HBO show Watchmen by taking us back to the horrific Tulsa Massacre. While the Emmy-winning limited series kicked off its drama by following the atrocities through the eyes of a little boy, Lovecraft Country sends its three leads — Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors), Leti Lewis (Jurnee Smollett), and Montrose Freeman (Michael K. Williams) — through a “multiverse machine” on a daring mission to recover the family “Book of Names.” Less of an adventure and more of a journey through familial trauma, Lovecraft Country‘s look at the Tulsa Massacre was nonetheless as horrifying, tragic, and infuriating Watchmen‘s take on the events.

The Lovecraft Country/Watchmen connection aside, last night’s episode also featured a number of clever callbacks to the show’s own cold open and the original source material. We finally understand the message that Jackie Robinson was trying to give Tic in his Episode 1 dream, Ruby (Wunmi Mosaka) cleverly winks at a subtle difference between her character in the show and book, and Christina (Abbey Lee) might have inadvertently teased way more drama in Lovecraft Country‘s future.

However the real element driving this week’s episode was the quest to save Diana (Jada Harris) from the curse inflicted upon her in Lovecraft Country Episode 8 “Jig-A-Bobo.” As it happens, the Topsy and Bopsy monsters after her were aiming to turn her into one of them. Christina is able to slow this process down, but Hippolyta (Aunjanue Ellis) rallies everyone to stop it completely with…yep, a trip back to 1921. And to honor the Tulsa Massacre, Lovecraft Country not only used a Sonia Sanchez poem, “Catch the Fire,” but made a damn opera out of it!

With that all that being said, here are five things you might have missed in Lovecraft Country Episode 9 “Rewind 1921.”

You've Seen a Show at the Dreamland Theater

Okay, let’s get this out of the way…

Yes, both Lovecraft Country and Watchmen reconstruct the abysmally evil events of the Tulsa Massacre on their programs, and honestly, the more popular TV can teach modern audiences about this hitherto next-to-unknown sin the better. HBO has been running better point on educating us about Tulsa 1921 than most history courses. So, good for them.

One key difference, though? They cover different days of the Massacre. While Watchmen visits one of the later days, Lovecraft Country gives us the moments violence broke out. The show also presents us with the lives of the victims in vivid color, stark in their relative ordinariness.

However, Lovecraft Country lingers on a few storefronts careful Watchmen audiences will recognize. Most notably? The Dreamland Theatre, where a Buster Keaton flick, and not the Bass Reeves short from Watchmen, is playing. The Dreamland Theatre is not only where Watchmen starts, but arguably where its narrative ends. The show opens on young Will Reeves watching a show and ends with Angela Abar (Regina King) finding cover in a modern-day version of the theater.

"I Got You, Kid"

Lovecraft Country opened with a radically wild dreamscape populated with Jamie Chung’s Ji-Ah as Dejah Thoris and Jackie Robinson coming to save Tic from Cthulus. While at first Tic’s dream seemed only to set up the pulpy vibe of Lovecraft Country, it’s now clear it was also foreshadowing a key moment in his family’s history.

Tic was the mysterious savior who rescued his mother, father, and Uncle George from death during the Tulsa Massacre this whole time. He came out of nowhere, swinging a baseball bat “like Jackie Robinson” to save the younger versions of his parents. The one thing this mystery man said to young Dora, George, and Ambrose? The same thing Jackie says to Tic in the dream: “I got you, kid.”

Not all of Lovecraft Country‘s attempts of foreshadowing come across upon first viewing…but some do?

Oh, Ardham is Just a SUMMER Estate? Is That So?

Maybe this is nothing, and it could be nothing, but I was a little taken aback to hear Christina refer to Braithwhite Estate in Ardham, Massachusetts as her father’s “Summer Estate.” While it’s true the family owns a great house in Chicago, it’s hardly a match for the mansion we saw in Episode 2 of Lovecraft Country. You know, the one that Tic and magic destroyed.

Which led me to wonder…where do the Braithwhites actually call home? It’s worth noting that they are affiliated with the New England chapter of the Sons of Adam and “Lovecraft Country” refers to a large area in that region associated with H.P. Lovecraft’s stories.

Should Lovecraft Country return for Season 2, it will have narratively exhausted the plot of the Matt Ruff novel. Meaning, it will need to find a new central storyline…perhaps focused on one ofthe Braithwhite’s other strongholds?? AM I CONJECTURING TOO MUCH?!?

Yeah, Ruby Should be a Redhead!

In another off-hand remark in last night’s episode, Ruby says that when she imagined herself as a white woman, it was always a redhead. This is a fun little wink to a change from the novel…where Dell…and Ruby’s alter-ego Hillary…are redheads.

In fact, the book puts a bigger emphasis on redheads than the show. Even Caleb Braithwhite, Christina’s alter-ego, is a redhead in the novel. However the HBO show has ignored this in order to present Team Braithwhite as eerily Aryan. White blonde hair with pale skin.

So, yeah, Ruby ought to be a redhead and the show knows it.

"Catch the Fire": From Sonia Sanchez Poem to OPERA

Still haunted by the one-two punch of that Sonia Sanchez spoken word poem and glorious dirge at the end of last night’s Lovecraft Country? Well, wouldn’t you like to know that the aria sung by Janai Brugger, titled “Tulsa 1921: Catch the Fire” was written by Lovecraft Country‘s own composers, Laura Karpman and Raphael Saddiq. The lyrics? Sanchez’s own poem, “Catch the Fire,” remixed as a Samuel Barber-esque requiem

In a piece for the LA Times, the creative team behind the show reveal that Karpman came to showrunner Misha Green with the idea. After that, it took a lot of makeshift recording in closets and online coordination. The song/poem’s main refrain goes “Brother/Brotha, Sister/Sista, Here is my hand. Catch the fire / and live.”

Of course, the original opera isn’t the first time we hear Sanchez’s poem in the show. Before that, we get the original musical arrangement of “Catch the Fire,” by Rob, called “Don’t Kill Dub.”

It’s just another way Lovecraft Country is weaving together contemporary Black art with real history and balls to the wall pulp fiction.

Where to stream Lovecraft Country