“They don’t have to understand. Even the games they play are preparing them for their future — and that future will come whether they understand it or not.” — Octavia Butler, Kindred.
During the Weylins’ Christmas party, Margaret has to improvise entertainment since she and Rufus can’t do the dance they planned (I imagine it would be an antebellum Buster and Lucille from Arrested Development). Instead, she gathers a few of the Black children on the plantation to perform for the guests in makeshift tribal costumes. Kevin watches on, uncomfortable, his white guilt weighing on him more than ever. They dance and skip together, chanting, scrambling on their hands and knees for the small oranges thrown at them by the audience. Kevin is disgusted with their actions, but I don’t know if he realizes that what he just witnessed is a predecessor for the greedy consumption of Black culture as entertainment that still exists today. Or if he connects it to his own hobby of enjoying deep catalogues of Black music.
I don’t believe that Kevin’s interest in Black music is in any way malicious or racist, but it falls in line with a long history of Black culture being merely a toy for white people to play with when they feel like it without respect or true advocacy for the people who create it. I think about it with the sports fanatics who could care less about being Black off the field, the white hip-hop bros who speak boldly and confidently on a culture they’ll never truly understand, the white girls who know the City Girls’ lyrics by heart but kiss their racist relatives on Thanksgiving, and everyone else between. The people who devour Blackness as a commodity, just like the Weylins. Rufus tells Dana that his father used to whip him, but Margaret made him stop as he shouldn’t treat his flesh and blood the way he treats his slaves. Because how can Black flesh and blood be treated the same when we’re considered livestock?
For the kids, I’m sure the dance and oranges were a highlight of their day — a moment to be children, a moment to be adored instead of neglected. Regardless, from a young age, they learn quickly what their role in life is: to serve. On the flip side, young white kids learn their role fairly quickly, too, something we see with Temperance, Isador’s daughter. When she ventures upstairs during the party, she looks like a miniature version of any other white society woman of the time. After seeing Rufus with the doll Nigel and Carrie made for him she patronizingly asks if he still plays with his slaves and proceeds to assert her dominance by trying to order Dana around. Dana refuses, snapping back by asking out loud if Temperance can slap her face can she slap Temperance back? Cue the white female hysterics from Temperance that she’s been witnessing her whole life. Her dad is outraged and tells Kevin to punish Dana but he refuses, confusing everyone.
It reminds me of role theory, a psychological concept that posits that everyone plays a role assigned to them based on sex, race, age, socioeconomic status, etc., and that there are expectations of behavior on those identities. People who stray from that “role” are considered incongruous with acceptable society. The belief that Temperance, a child, has an inherent right to have power over Dana is not just something that she was taught but is the role she’s been assigned as a white woman, designed to perpetuate white supremacy.
Dana and Kevin struggle to adjust to their new roles in this different time. Kevin, specifically, fumbles when it comes to adhering to the expectations of being a white man while he socializes at the Weylins. For their Christmas party, Tom’s late wife Hannah’s sister Isador and her husband Charles come down from England to visit and check out the house that was once Hannah’s. As Kevin gets to know the couple in the library, he tells them he isn’t married, which is odd for a man of his age and status. Charles straight up asks him if he’s a “libertine,” something I assumed was a political affiliation, but Google tells me it’s “a person, especially a man, who behaves without moral principles or a sense of responsibility, especially in sexual matters.” Goodness gracious. Kevin doesn’t know what the word means either but they all awkwardly laugh it off. Had I known what that word meant I wouldn’t at all have been surprised when Charles comes onto to him later in the episode. Needless to say, none of this was in the book, but I appreciated seeing how 19th-century closeted men picked each other up.
This episode strays further away from the book. I’ve critiqued some of the changes, but I promise I do not believe an adaptation has to be a direct copy. I love creative liberties when they make sense and uphold the ethos of the original story. The focus on white characters isn’t my speed but Olivia’s character is fascinating. I don’t fully trust something about her. From the first moment Dana enters the cookhouse to the final moments of this episode, Sheria Irving does a great job of exuding the feeling that Olivia is hiding something. Her initial conversations with Dana in the first episode didn’t convey a mother reuniting with her daughter after so many years but I wrote it off as the residuals of the constant state of fight or flight in that period. But her interaction with Dana in the cookhouse after the Weylin Christmas party confirms that her situation is a lot more complex than she’s letting on.
Olivia, Dana, and Kevin are still trying to figure out the mechanics of Dana’s time-traveling capabilities. Dana shares with Olivia what she’s pieced together through her conversations with Rufus: Time moves differently when she’s in the past, Rufus summons her when he feels his life is in danger, and Rufus can see Dana in the future in his mind’s eye as he’s pulling her to him. Olivia shares that the slave patroller disappeared when Dana did. Dana also starts to learn more about Olivia’s time on the Weylin plantation. She and Margaret have a contentious relationship as Margaret says Olivia is a witch who has “brought the devil” upon Rufus twice. Olivia has been helping with childbirth on the plantation and she was assigned to be Margaret’s nurse while she carried Rufus. Before this, Margaret had a slew of miscarriages and Rufus is her only child to survive. Margaret believes that shortly after Rufus was born that Olivia summoned the devil to take him away. As Rufus recounts this story, Dana realizes that he’s talking about the night she turned him over in the crib.
Another revelation for Dana in this episode comes from Olivia. During one of their clandestine conversations in the Weylin attic, Olivia informs Dana that she has ancestors from this area in Maryland on Dana’s father’s side. They’re interrupted before they can discuss further, but this leads Dana to hypothesize that Rufus may be one of her distant relatives and that’s why they’re connected. In the evening, Dana and Kevin go to Olivia’s home so they can speak openly. Hagar’s daughter Alice is there but Olivia tells Dana that Hagar passed from what she believed to be cancer. While Dana is playing with Alice, Olivia cryptically tells Kevin without context that Dana will be okay as long as she drinks water. These seemingly random instructions are to prepare him for the next step in Olivia’s plan. Over tea she prepared, Olivia explains to her daughter that she thinks she might be stuck in this time period and she needs time to think about Alice’s future. Then, she says she feels that like Rufus, Dana has to be more than just scared to time travel — she has to fear for her life. At this moment, the poison Olivia put in Dana’s tea takes effect and her throat starts to close as she convulses on the floor.
Time-Traveler’s Diaries
• The dynamic between Isador and Sarah the cook is extremely complex and deeply interesting. Sarah was Isador’s nurse as a child and when they reunite, Sarah tells her that Margaret sold her sons for new furniture. Isador is extremely empathetic to Sarah’s situation but I can’t help but think of how her own daughter treated Dana. It’s an example of the symbiotic relationship between slave and master — the mutual dependency on each other that results in a deep connection but the overarching rule is that Black people are still not human and are meant to be of service, your love for them doesn’t cancel out their place.
• I am so obsessed with the set design and costume design for the series. The dresses on Isadora and Temperance are absolutely beautiful. Olivia’s cabin and the cookhouse are also cool sets, as I’ve always wondered what my ancestors’ homes and daily lives looked like.
• There has to be more to Olivia not wanting to return to 2016. I understand that a couple of decades have passed since she left, but what Black woman would prefer that time in history to whatever the future holds? Especially since Dana can attest to the better quality of life in 2016. I’m not buying the Alice excuse because why not just take her with them? I have a theory, but it’s based on the book and maybe a bit spoiler-y, so I’ll refrain for now.
• I loved the Pride and Prejudice reference and Kevin almost saying he saw the movie. He might not be as fine as I expected, but he’s funny. His comedic timing also breaks up some of the seriousness of the show. Also, of course, Charles doesn’t like books about women … he doesn’t like women!
