In Review: Lovecraft Country (S1 – Ep 6) – Meet Me In Daegu

Synopsis: In a flashback to Atticus’s time in Korea. We learn about  Ji-Ah. A young woman with a dark secret.

The Story

This week flashes back to Atticus’s time in the Korean War and focuses on a young woman called Ji-Ah who works at the hospital that is treating the casualties of war. Ji-Ah is a fan of Judy Garland and loves films, which are her escape from reality and respite from her dark secret. You see Ji-Ah carries within her the spirit of a kumiho, a nine-tailed fox creature from Korean folklore. In order for the Kumiho to leave Ji-Ah it must feed on the souls of 100 men. Having allowed the monster within her to feed on 99 souls. Ji-Ah sets her sights on the G.I. who shot her best friend but runs into trouble when she falls in love with Atticus who feels himself to be a monster for many of the horrible things that war has made him do. Both Atticus and Ji-Ah fall hard for each other, but Ji-Ah dare not allow her lover to know her secret.

The Acting

Jamie Chung puts in a mesmerizing performance as Ji-Ah who has a tragic backstory and finds herself in a relationship that can never really bring her happiness. The scenes between Ji-Ah and her mother are brilliantly done and play a vital part in revealing the complexity and horror of Ji-Ah’s backstory. The scenes between Chung and Jonathan Majors as Ji-Ah and Atticus slowly fall for each other and sensitively done and are very believable.

Overall

This was a departure from the main storyline between Atticus and the Braithwhites and answers the question of who it was that Tic was speaking to on the phone in the closing moments of last week’s story. The change in location was a breath of fresh air. I really likes how the production team and writers on the show chose to show the brutality of war and the things soldiers were ordered to do. The scene where Atticus and Ji-Ah meet is particularly brutal given that he shoots one of her friends in the head in order to flush out a communist spy, which unfortunately turns out to be Ji-Ah’s best friend. I liked how Ji-Ah initially sets out to kill Atticus out of revenge but finds that she cannot do it once she learns that he is just as messed up inside than she is.

The visuals on this episode were really solid and the Kumiho, which shoots out of Ji-Ah when she is having intercourse with the men that she is intended to feed to the monster is really freaky.

I like how the episode made you feel sorry for Ji-Ah who turns out to be just as much of a victim than the unsuspecting souls that she is bringing home for her Komiho monster to feed on.

Overall. A solid episode.