It wasn't until the day after I watched this episode that I discovered that I'd been labouring under the misapprehension that there were 8 episode in this season and that I'd not just witnessed a season finale that was a bit of an anti-climax. With that in mind, episode 8 was another in the long line of fractured storytelling that, for me, has undermined this series - but it did have, comfortably the season's most unsettling characters.
With Chicago's residents reeling from the horrific murder of a young black child, racial tensions are again raised. Both Leti (Jurnee Smollett) and Atticus (Jonathan Majors) have their minds on using the magic they know to defend their family, but the cost for either of them may be costly. Diana (Jada Harris) having seemingly now lost her mother, falls foul of Captain Lancaster (Mac Bandt) who puts a curse on her, and makes her the target for two horrific creatures, that only she can see.
It's hard not to start with the pair sent to stalk Diana, played by Kaelynn Harris and Bianca Brewton, a creepy (and offensive) make up and costume effect does some of the work, but mostly it's the actors using their dance backgrounds to create the inhuman movements for the twin monsters that is the most unsettling. The show has been gory before, and utilised jump scares from time to time, but this is some genuine horror and their appearances are a shuddering highlight of the episode.
Less successful is still how all of what we're seeing ties together. Though this was one of the better episodes overall, it was more in the visuals of the conclusion and the creepy pair than it was in cohesive storytelling. It took me a while to work out that the funeral at the top of the episode wasn't related to something that we'd already seen. Plot points such as the totem that Ruby dropped in Lancasters office, Montrose murdering Yahima, the whole storyline with Ji-Ah don't feel (at the moment) like they've contributed to the season arc.
The power and relevancy of its themes have always been undeniable ("I can't breathe") but it's a show of good moments, rather than a good story.