Lovecraft Country: Everything you need to know about Atticus Freeman

Who is Atticus Freeman? Learn all about this Lovecraft Country character! 

Warning! Spoilers for Lovecraft Country episode 1 follow below.

HBO’s Lovecraft Country is based on the novel of the same name by author Matt Ruff. In this weekly series, we’ll breakdown all the main characters in Lovecraft Country as we learn more about who they are and what they do.

Coming up first is Atticus Freeman, the character who most of the story revolves around. Get to know who he is, his friends and family, and what

Lovecraft Country

entails for him. Read on to find out more about the character (who was originally named Atticus Black in the book). But be warned that this story contains

spoilers

for episode 1 of

Lovecraft Country.

Atticus Freeman Lovecraft Country character profile

Atticus Freeman: Introduction and overview

When we’re first introduced to Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors) in HBO’s Lovecraft Country, Atticus “Tic” Freeman is having vivid dreams full of monsters, the Korean War, and adventure. He returned from fighting overseas in Korea and travels to Chicago in search of his missing father, Montrose. Tic decides to take a road trip from Chicago to Massachusetts in search of his missing father with his Uncle George and Letitia “Leti” Lewis, his childhood friend.

Atticus Freeman is a character who’s quiet at times and wears his heart on his sleeve — despite the horrors of living in Jim Crow America — and is a huge fan of pulp fiction novels, particularly the work of H.P. Lovecraft. After watching the first episode, you can tell what kind of character Tic is. Tic dreams of being the hero in his own saga but has to deal with the demons of his past first.

Relationships

Atticus has a very complicated relationship with his dad Montrose and looks up to his Uncle George as a father figure. As the book tells, Atticus’ enlistment in the army drove a wedge between him and Montrose. And as the series goes on, his relationship with his dad is explained more in-depth and makes you see why their relationship is estranged. The dynamic between Uncle George and Atticus’ relationship is an enjoyable one because of their love of pulp fiction books and talks shared between the two. It even seems Atticus turned to his Uncle George more after going into the army since he came to stay with him and his family.

As for Leti, Tic seems to have a sweet and adorable crush on her, his childhood friend who comes on the road with him. He has a romantic side to him that hopefully gets explored in the series when it comes to her.  Tic gave her a rose to her after one of their visits to a small town. And even when Leti was arguing with her brother, Tic wanted to step in to have her back. When they’re in the woods after the monsters, Tic makes sure to tell Leti to run as far as she can, even if she’s absolutely terrified. And when she notices how Tic isn’t scared, she uses his words of advice to find strength from. Throughout the episodes, you’re definitely rooting for them to be together.

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Motives

Atticus’ goal from the start is figuring out where his dad, Montrose, is.  He gets a weird letter from his dad saying he has a secret legacy that has been kept from him, and it is in Ardham, Massachusetts — which leads us to the story now, in which they’re on an adventure to find his dad and see what’s this big secret. He doesn’t know what the search for his father will bring, but he’s willing to discover what’s going on.

It’s revealed that Tic was a child who coped with his strained relationship with his father by escaping into the pages of sci-fi fiction. He goes to war against his father, but now that he’s older, he’s hoping to make things right. The road to get there is filled with redemption, forgiveness, and a lot of responsibility, and it leads Atticus to follow the hero’s journey he envisions in his favorite sci-fi books.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Atticus is not the hero who sacrifices his body to save others but the person who sacrifices his heart — he allows his heart to be broken so everyone can stay intact.

He’s also goal-oriented and can be observant when it comes to certain things — ror example, after like figuring out the significance of the white walls in the diner, remembering what Uncle George explained to him about the burning of The White House. It goes without saying, Tic is very responsive to protecting the people he cares about and loves, and hopefully, we’ll see more of that in the upcoming episodes.

The other side of Atticus’ personality is his willingness to overlook the good within the bad — mostly in order to enjoy his fiction stories. When traveling from Florida to Chicago, Tic was reading one of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars, and a black woman expressed her disapproval of such a work with an ex-Confederate for a hero. “Stories are like people,” he said. “Loving them doesn’t make them perfect. You just try to cherish them and overlook their flaws.” While it was just an example pulled from his book, we may see this kindness displayed to others in future episodes.

And, finally, Atticus has one more secret side to him. He struggles with the trauma of the war, especially being a Black man. He seems scared of what he did back in Korea because he looked terrified when calling a mystery woman on the phone. And it looks like what became of that woman will have to remain a secret until further episodes.

Atticus’ future

Tic is a smart and inventive character who adapts to the supernatural pretty quickly, especially after he meets the Braithwhite family, which full of dark magic users. There is still so much to learn about Tic, but it’s exciting to see how his character grows through his relationships and learns how to deal with past mistakes. Tic may even have some magic in him that may be the secret to saving his family.

For more character profiles and Lovecraft Country spoilers, updates and news, follow the Lovecraft Country category on FanSided.com