You have been lying to me.
I wanna know everything.
The whole truth involves lost pages
from The Book of Names and your family.
If The Book of Names is still out there,
that's not just more spells, that's instructions
on how to cast them.
Christina's going after the pages.
We're gonna get the whole damn book.
What the fuck are you doing in my city, unannounced?
You think you can find your stolen pages?
I just want Hiram's Orrery.
That's the key to unlocking his time machine, isn't it?
Somethin' doesn't feel right.
I have to get answers.
Mom, I don't think we're supposed to be here!
Hippolyta's had Hiram's Orrery the entire time.
If she's going where this thing's leading her,
she's in danger.
Everyone out of the street!
Please!
Move out of the street!
We don't wanna have to shut this down.
All we can do is pray
for the Lord to protect us from this evil.
They are butchering our children
without consequence!
My brothers and sisters,
I say no more!
No more!
We are all angry over Emmett Till's murder,
but we must organize
and fight using the law.
What's that smell?
It's gotta be one of the hottest days
of the year, and...
It's him, isn't it?
You wanna rest for a minute?
We gonna be waiting for a while.
- I'm fine. - Excuse me.
You sure? You wanna sit?
I'm fine, Tic.
- Hey. - Oh, thank you.
Hey, boy.
Here, take mine.
Ruby.
Maybe it wasn't a good idea to bring Dee.
Ain't no getting around this.
Every Negro's rite of passage in this country,
child or not.
Uncle George would've wanted her to see Bobo.
No more! No more!
This is a war, and we gonna win!
No more! No more!
She's seen too much death already.
We should be protecting her.
Leti, this is not the place
to have this conversation again.
- It's been a week. We need to tell her.
Her best friend just died.
Murdered. He didn't just die.
- Someone did this to him. - Okay, murdered, yes.
I'm sorry. Murdered. I know that.
And as long as we wait to tell her,
her mother's not coming back.
- We don't know that for sure. Leti...
You said there was a flash of light from Hiram's machine
and then Hippolyta disappeared.
Now, what makes you think she's coming back?
Where's Diana?
Shit.
She must've snuck off some place.
My brothers gonna stand right here,
and I'ma stand right here!
We don't want her roaming the streets alone today.
- Go see if she's at the house. - Okay.
I'll check mine.
I'll stay in line in case she comes back.
Okay.
Tic.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'll check the five-and-dime.
Sorry, excuse me. Excuse me.
- 'Scuse me. 'Scuse me. - Sorry. 'Scuse me.
Make a hole, please.
Huh?
There ain't nothing to laugh about!
Diana Freeman?
I said, are you Diana Freeman?
- Yes. - This yours?
Captain won't ask you again, girl!
Uh-huh. Yes, it's mine.
Where's your mother?
She's on a trip for her job.
What's your mother's name?
What's her name?
It's Hippolyta.
Hippo-what?
Niggers and these African names.
Where'd she go on this trip?
She, um...
didn't tell me.
Your mother been acting strange lately?
Kind of.
What do you know about magic?
Like in fantasy books?
Help! Help!
Let me go!
I can't... I can't bre... I can't breathe!
Dee?
Diana!
Are you looking for a room?
I'm looking for Atticus.
Can't remember the last time someone made me wait.
At least I had family to keep me company.
Teach me how to cast a spell.
You had my card for a very long time.
Why now?
It's my birthright.
You don't have enough whiteness in you
to sell that entitlement.
No. Something's changed.
You're desperate now. To do what?
To... protect yourself?
You managed to get Titus's pages.
Congratulations.
I wasn't sure you could pull it off.
People have died trying.
I hear Hiram lost an arm.
Horatio's stolen pages are still out there.
I'd give you the orrery, but...
I think what you really want is this.
An incantation isn't a spell.
The words aren't enough.
To cast, you need energy,
intention,
and a body.
That's how you upset the balance of nature
without a disaster.
Perfect alignment.
What is that?
Protection symbol.
Trace it around the location
you're going to cast the spell in.
Geometric pattern.
What, in chalk?
Or in your blood.
Either is preferable to dust.
Good luck, cousin.
The autumnal equinox.
What's going to happen?
I'm going to achieve what no one in the Order,
not even the all-powerful Titus Braithwhite, could.
Immortality.
Dee, where the hell you been?
Everybody's out looking for you.
I ain't gotta tell you nothing!
You ain't my pops! He's dead!
So is my mama dead too?
Dee, your mama's on a "Guide" trip.
Where is she?
On a "Guide" trip!
You're lying.
She has to know about Bobo. She'd come back.
She will, Dee, soon.
Stop fucking lying to me!
You're all lying to me!
Hey.
Dee.
Open this damn door, Dee!
Get your ass out here now!
Dee!
Diana, I know how you feel.
When I was your age, they took my best friend too.
Thought that was the worst of it, you know?
But white folks, they just keep coming.
More vicious and evil than the last time.
You know, your pops and I, we learned early on.
No matter what you do or how well you do it,
they always take it from us.
It doesn't mean you have to give it to 'em easy.
They come for you,
you damn sure make 'em work for it!
Dee?
I'm coming in, okay, baby?
Hey!
You the maid?
No, I'm not the damn maid.
What'd you say?
Answer me.
Is everything okay here?
You know her?
Yes, I do. Is there a problem?
Not if you know her.
That mess on the other side of town's got everyone
up in arms.
Just making sure none of it's finding its way
to our neighborhood.
- Thank you. That's very much appreciated.
He looked like a monster.
What the hell?
Do you see that?
See what?
Rolling blackouts due to the heat
have delayed all southbound trains.
Move! Move! Come on!
You're a succubus.
In Korea, we call it a kumiho.
A nine-tailed fox spirit.
And you killed 100 men.
It is my nature.
What is your excuse?
When I have sex
and my lover climaxes,
my nine tails attach to him, taking his life force.
That is how I am able to see their entire lives
up till their deaths.
The last time with you, when my tails came out...
When?
When am I supposed to die?
- I don't know. - But it's gonna happen soon?
Right? That's why you're here.
- I'm not sure. - But you saw how it happened.
- Right? - No.
I'm sorry.
This has never happened before.
No one has ever survived my tail...
Shit!
Ji-Ah, why are you here, then?
If you don't have any fucking answers,
why are you here?
Because she loves you.
Our shit wasn't real.
And I'm not dying.
Now get the fuck out.
What are you doing?
She needs to get the fuck out of here.
- Leti, Leti, Leti. Leti, she's gone. She's gone.
- She's gone. - Good. I'm glad.
- Go with her. - Leti, stop.
- I'm sorry. - No!
I understand why you wouldn't say anything when you got back,
but all the shit we done been through,
I had to hear it from her?
Leti, I didn't know what to tell you, okay?
Or anybody!
You tell me the fucking truth!
I didn't know!
Leti, Leti, I didn't know what she was
or what happened to me that night.
I didn't... I didn't believe what she said, Leti.
Well, a part of you believed it.
That's why you kept it from us.
I thought I was protecting everyone.
Well, you done fucked up!
'Cause everybody but you done died
since you been back.
Where are you going?
I'm going to make it right.
What does that mean?
Atticus!
What does that mean?
I'm gonna cast a spell.
Wait, what?
When did you finish?
The night we found out about Emmett.
But you don't know how.
I met with Christina today.
I gave her the orrery key. She told me how to cast it.
- Have you lost your damn mind? - Leti, move!
You can't trust Christina!
And what if Ji-Ah's right?
What if this is the way that you die?
Leti, I've already made up my mind, okay?
You don't get to make those damn decisions
by yourself anymore.
There's too much at stake.
You don't think I know that?
I'm doing this for us. To protect us.
Our future.
We're surrounded by monsters, Leti.
I don't have a choice.
Tic, please.
Tic.
We can figure this out together.
Of course.
I'll be there soon.
A 14-year-old boy
was beat and shot to death,
then tied with barbed wire by the neck
to a cotton gin fan
and cast into the Tallahatchie River.
I know.
But do you care?
At all?
You want me to say yes.
I don't want you to say anything.
I want you to feel
what I feel right now.
Heartbroken.
Scared.
Furious.
Tired.
So fucking tired
of feeling this way over and over.
And I want you to feel alone
and shameful,
'cause I'm here, feeling this,
and you will never understand it.
I want you to feel guilty 'cause...
For feeling safe
next to you and your privilege.
I should be on the South Side
with my people,
mourning a sweet little boy
who was taken from us.
You wanna know why I took that potion?
Because today of all days,
I didn't wanna be a Black woman
fucking a white man.
No.
What?
I don't care about Emmett Till.
I don't care about Roy Bryant
or J.W. Milam,
who'll never see justice for what they did.
I don't care
that half this city's on the brink because of it,
and I don't think that you really do either.
Pain.
"It's like being unmade."
That's what you said about the transformation,
but that's not what I saw when I was fucking you.
I saw someone being reborn.
You took that potion
because you wanted to hide from the fact
that even on today of all days, you were a woman
who wanted what she wanted.
Leti! Where's Tic?
I don't know.
When's he coming back?
I don't know, Diana.
Go inside. Call your uncle. Tell him you're here.
Wait.
Leti?
- What? - Behind you.
There's... there's...
You okay?
Get some water from the kitchen.
I'll be back soon.
Dee was here, but she snuck out again.
Did you cheat on my mama?
I had desires, but I never acted on 'em.
Not until after she was gone.
When I was a boy, 8 years old,
pastor of my church, he...
Got caught with another man in the park.
He said it was just a rumor.
Palm Sunday morning,
police came in there
and snatched him off the pulpit in handcuffs,
like he was some perverted demon or something.
Next thing we hear, they done put him in some asylum
and cut out half his brain.
I chose a life over a damn asylum.
Or a jail cell, or being found dead
in a bathroom of some public park.
Your mama lost everyone in the riots.
Massacre, really.
We both just wanted a family.
That's what our love was built on.
A'ight, yeah, it wasn't romantic,
but familial love is the strongest kind.
Well, you'll see one day.
God bless you to have kids.
Leti's pregnant.
She hasn't told me yet.
Aunt Hippolyta's not the only one
who went through the portal.
I went to the future.
That's my son.
Heavenly Father...
I know You said
we were all meant to go through trials
and tribulations.
But this magic...
That's haunting us...
and testing us...
it's like the devil.
That part, You left out.
And now, God,
the man that I love...
I'm begging You, God.
I'm begging You.
Please, God,
please...
protect him.
Put Your shield of armor around him
as he says that spell, God.
And please, God,
extend Your grace to Emmett's family.
To Mamie.
In Your mighty name, I pray.
Amen.
I didn't figure you as a woman of faith.
I wasn't.
But I died
and was resurrected.
That wasn't a miracle.
It was magic.
Are they really so different?
Walking on water, curing the blind,
raising the dead.
Perhaps my father considered himself godlike
when he resurrected you, but he was just a mortal,
confused that being powerful
and being able to manipulate those around him
made him more.
Most men with god complexes wanna live in heaven,
but not hell,
failing to understand that God is both.
Is that what you want?
To be God?
I'm sure you didn't summon me here
to find out what I want.
These are negatives of Titus's pages.
- They're yours. - If?
If you make Atticus invulnerable.
No.
Not for Atticus.
For you.
Wait.
Mark of Cain.
My father's invulnerability spell.
I was the first to realize
you could use it to heal someone.
Should've never gave Christina
the keys to Hiram's machine.
It doesn't matter.
She can't use it.
It's broken.
So what? Hippolyta.
What, she trapped in the future?
Maybe.
It was chaotic.
White folks were rioting.
I was only there for a second
before the woman in the hood came in,
shoved a book in my hand,
pushed me back through the portal.
With the robotic arm.
"George Freeman's writings were inspired
"by his heroic father,
a Korean War vet."
You read it?
It's our family story.
Some of the details are different.
Christina's a man.
Uncle George survives Ardham.
And Dee's a boy named Horace.
But there's enough similarities to it,
makes me think there's some truth to it.
Please tell me there's a happy ending.
Christina sacrifices me
to become immortal
on the autumnal equinox.
That's in five days.
I know casting a spell can kill me,
but I also know I gotta take every chance I can
to live for my son.
What should I do?
You know, son...
I always thought my death would come
at the end of a white man's bullet or a rope.
Magic's so much more jazz.
Didn't you tell me that part of casting was intention?
Yes, sir.
Well, it's my intention to do whatever I can
to save my son and my grandson.
Even if it kills me.
We don't know how much magic they know.
We can't just come at them.
And her pioneering has made this bitch a local celebrity.
Is my mama dead?
Probably.
What did you do to me with your spit?
Couldn't have you telling anybody
about our little chats.
What happens if it gets me?
I can remove it.
The curse.
But you have to do something for me first.
You know what an orrery is?
Yeah, I know what an orrery is,
and my mama's name is Hippolyta!
It's Greek, asshole.
You bring me the one from the Winthrop house,
and I'll save you from whatever's following you.
Fuck you, pig.
And it fucking stinks in here!
To hell with the girl.
She's already dead.
It's time to get what belongs to me.
I am here today to acknowledge and represent
the African-American girls
whose stories don't make the front page
of every national newspaper.
Whose stories don't lead on the evening news.
I represent the African-American women
who are simply statistics
instead of vibrant, beautiful girls
full of potential.
For far too long, these names, these Black girls and women,
have been just numbers.
I'm here to say "Never again" for those girls too.
I am here to say
that everyone should value those girls too.
To honor the girls, the women of color,
who are murdered at disproportionate rates
in this nation.
I urge each of you
to help me write the narrative for this world
and understand so that these girls and women
are never forgotten.
"In flood, he water
shall be reprieved from death."
That don't make any sense.
Let me see.
Where?
"In flood water,
he shall be reprieved from death."
You switched up the words.
Yeah, I tend to do that sometimes.
What you mean, "sometimes"?
I'm dyslexic, boy.
Since when?
Since I've been a boy.
Shit, any other secrets you keeping from me?
Jeez.
Come on, man, let's just do this
before I lose my damn nerve.
Amen.
Well, shit, it can't hurt!
You feel anything?
No.
You?
Fuck.
Didn't work.
You ever done anything like this before?
No. It's my first time.
You sure?
You have your money.
Get her up! Get her up.
Why would anyone wanna die like that?
Are these from Emmett's wake?
Did you see him?
Mamie was brave enough
to show the world what they did to her son,
and I wasn't even brave enough to take a few damn pictures.
Choosing what was best for yourself in that moment
was a different kind of bravery.
You can't feel guilty for protecting yourself first.
I'm pregnant.
Oh.
Damn it, Leti.
Oh, you've really gone
and gotten yourself into it now.
Don't even know the half of it, Ruby.
You should've stayed your ass at Marvin's
instead of following that man to Ardham.
Yeah, I know all about magic
and how George really died.
That white man you staying with?
Only a man some of the time.
Christina Braithwhite.
She got you spying on us or something?
How can you even ask me that?
Because she came to me
and tried to get me to do the same damn thing.
She's playing you, Ruby.
No, I'm getting exactly what I want.
And what is that?
Magic.
She gave me a potion that can turn me into a white lady.
Yeah.
And I finally got that job at Marshall Field's,
and you know what I learned?
I don't wanna be white.
I'm just sick of forgiving every space that I enter
'cause it's not for me.
I wanna create my own space.
I can do that with magic.
Christina's gonna teach me.
Ruby...
Leti, you need to get up here now!
Letitia Lewis.
We have a warrant to search the premises.
What the fuck?
Go back to your rooms.
Leti, let me handle this.
I don't want your baby born in jail.
Shit.
What is this about, Officer?
- We got a tip... - Move.
That known Nation of Islam radicals were organizing here
in retaliation for Emmett Till.
- That's bullshit. - Leti.
Let's go.
What the hell just happened?
- Our house is protected. That motherfucker knows magic.
Well, now he knows that you do too.
Get down!
Leti! Get down!
Dee!
I'm coming!
Dee!
Let me go!
What's wrong, baby?
Get your fucking hands up!
Hey!
I said get your fucking hands up!
Get your hands up, boy!
No!
No! No!
- Leti! - What the hell is that?
Leti!
Oh, God!
Tic!
Go back!
No! No!
Go! Go!
The spell worked.
Something's wrong.
She's been cursed.
Christina will help D...
for me.
You can't trust her.
Every step to my ascension...
has been meticulously planned out.
Can you remove it?
On one condition.
Promise me you won't hurt my sister.
There's no making this right.
You have no idea what you're walking into.