| “ | What I know is, our destinies are not decided by our fathers or grandfathers or, in your case, great-great-great-great grandfather. The smallest, most inconsequential thing can take you on a new course. You just have to see it... and seize it. | „ |
| ~ Christina to Tic, "Whitey's on the Moon". |
Christina Braithwhite is the main antagonist of the HBO horror series Lovecraft Country.
She is played by Abbey Lee in her normal form and Jordan Patrick Smith in the form of William.
History[]
Christina is the daughter and only child of Samuel Braithwhite, a descendant of Titus Braithwhite, and a distant cousin of Atticus "Tic" Freeman. Raised by a distant father and shunned by the Order of the Ancient Dawn for her gender, she becomes bent on power and vengeance.
She follows Tic, his friend Leti Lewis, and his uncle George Freeman to Simmonville. When the trio are being chased out of town by a lynch mob, she drives her car between Leti and the mob, causing the mob to mysteriously flip over her car without touching it. She then steps out and looks at Tic before he drives away. In Ardham, she saves Tic, Leti, and George from being attacked by monsters in the woods, and brings them to her father’s nearby mansion. There, she introduces Tic to her father. As Samuel talks about the Biblical Adam, Christina remarks that Eve brought entropy and death into the world. She also believes that Tic can help in her father achieve immortality.
Christina warns Tic that Samuel, along with the other members of the Order of the Ancient Dawn, can be very dangerous, and suggests that he make friends with them. When Tic accuses her of casting a spell to make George and Leti forget what they saw the previous night, Christina explains that the spell wasn’t specifically targeted towards them but anyone who encounters the monsters (which are actually guardian creatures controlled by the Order) and lives to tell about it. When Tic persuades her to lift the spell from George and Leti, she complies but also uses a spell to lock him in his room, preventing him from checking on Leti and George when they scream for him. Christina then assists a cow in giving birth to a newborn guardian monster.
The other Order cultists arrive and create illusions for Tic, Leti, and George, but Christina appears unwanted by them. After Tic, Leti, George, and Tic’s father Montrose crash into an invisible barrier while attempting to flee, Christina accompanies her father as he confronts the group. She watches as Samuel shoots Leti and does nothing as Tic calls to her for help. Back in the mansion later on, she informs Tic of her father’s plan to open a portal to the Garden of Eden using Tic’s blood, since Tic is Titus’s direct descendant. When asked why she helps her father when he doesn’t care about her, Christina explains that while the things they’ve done are unforgivable, she still comes running whenever they need help. After Samuel resurrects Leti, Christina assures Tic that her father will heal George, but only after Tic helps Samuel. She then hands over the Order’s official ring and tells Tic that their destinies aren’t decided by their fathers or grandfathers.
Christina arranges for Leti to receive a large sum of money which Leti uses to buy the Winthrop house. When confronted about this by Tic, she tells him about Horatio Winthrop, the former owner of Leti’s house who was banished from the Sons of Adam after stealing pages from the Book of Names. Tic attempts to shoot Christina, but she immobilizes him with magic and explains that every spell created by the Sons of Adam come from just one deciphered chapter of the Book of Names. She informs Tic that Titus locked his pages in a vault that only he could access, and Winthrop’s pages can decode the Language of Adam. Christina tells Tic to call her when he’s ready to discuss their family’s legacy and departs. She later pays Leti an unexpected visit, but is blocked from entering her house by an invisible barrier. She tells Leti how Tic tried to kill her and that she’s come for Hiram Epstein’s orrery. She is then ordered by Leti to leave.
Christina charges Ruby with hiding a mysterious talisman in Captain Lancaster’s office during an Order meeting. She explains to Ruby that she helped William survive a murder attempt by Lancaster. Later, she exits the basement and locks the door behind her. Christina is revealed to have been William the entire time by use of a metamorphosis potion. In response to Ruby’s realization that white people want to be black people and vice versa, Christina concedes the truth of her words and explains that the currency of magic is absolute freedom. She then shows Ruby what’s in the basement: William and Hillary’s real bodies, their blood being harvested for the metamorphosis potion. She explains that the Order doesn’t accept women and that she seduced William to learn magic. The more she learned, the more power she craved. Christina tells Ruby that she never lied to her, even in William’s form. When Ruby demands the entire truth, Christina reveals that it involves lost pages from the Book of Names and Ruby’s family.
Christina meets with Tic, who shows her the key to Hiram’s time machine to persuade her to teach him a protection spell. After receiving the key, she tells him she’s going to achieve immortality during the autumnal equinox. She returns home as William and sleeps with Ruby. Afterward, Christina is asked by Ruby if she cares about Emmett Till’s brutal murder, to which she replies that she doesn’t, nor does she care about other victims or the tension gripping the city in light of Till's recent murder. She says that, while she was having sex with Ruby, she saw someone being reborn and remarks that Ruby took the potion to hide from what she was. Christina later meets with Leti, who offers her photos of Titus’s pages in exchange for her placing the Mark of Cain, an invulnerability spell, on Tic. She declines to place the Mark of Cain on Tic and instead places it upon Leti. She later brands the Mark of Cain upon herself and pays two men to kill her in the same fashion as Emmett Till. She emerges from the water seconds later, bloodied, wet, sobbing, and laughing.
Christina is called in to help Dee, who has been cursed by Captain Lancaster. She finds out Lancaster’s curse is a combination of Titus’s and Horatio’s pages, but can’t remove it without the Book of Names. She agrees to magically reset the curse’s cycle, buying Dee more time, if Tic comes back with her to Ardham on the night of the autumnal equinox. She returns later on and performs the spell. Later that evening, she is questioned by Ruby about her father’s groundskeeper Dell and reveals that Leti hit her with a shovel and put her in a coma. When Ruby suspects that she was merely Christina’s backup plan, Christina assures her otherwise but doesn’t tell her she plans to kill Tic during the autumnal equinox. She is then made by Ruby to promise she won’t hurt Leti.
Sometime later, Christina crashes into a light pole when Titus appears in the middle of the road. After recovering from crashing through the windshield, she learns from her ancestor that Tic has the Book of Names. She thus goes to Tic and asks for the book, telling him his death at her hands is nothing personal and simply a consequence of her immorality spell. She promises to leave Tic and his family alone if they hand over the Book of Names, but Tic refuses. As she leaves, she removes the Mark of Cain on Leti. She later tells Ruby that if her spell doesn’t work, then she will have killed Tic for nothing. After she catches Ruby trying to steal her blood to hijack her spell, she kills Ruby and poses as her to accompany Leti and Tic to Ardham.
Her ruse is uncovered by Leti as they draw symbols on the watchtower to complete the binding triangle. The two women engage in a vicious fight, and Christina throws Leti to her apparent death. Back in her normal form, Christina arrives with the Book of Names and begins the immortality ritual. She cuts open Tic’s wrists and bathes in his blood, gaining the immortality she has sought. She is then stabbed from behind by a recovered Leti, but is unharmed. Nonetheless, Leti, with the help of Ji-ah, renders Christina mortal and powerless. Christina is left alone under the rubble from the leveled area. She is found by Dee, who crushes her throat with her robotic arm, killing her.
Quotes[]
| “ | Challenging entropy is perilous work, and the Language of Adam is a tricky thing to get right. Many men have suffered greatly trying to wield it. But the spilled blood of the man who wielded it best might just give my father’s spell the advantage it needs. | „ |
| ~ Christina to Tic, "Whitey’s on the Moon" |
| “ | Call me when you’re ready to learn more about our family legacy. And Tic, really, you... Have to be smarter than this. You know you can’t just go around killing white women. | „ |
| ~ Christina to Tic, "Holy Ghost" |
| “ | You’re right. We want to be you and you...you wanna be us. But you misunderstood William’s invitation. It wasn’t just to be white. It was an invitation to do whatever the f--k you want. That’s the currency of magic. Unmitigated freedom. Who are you really, uninterrupted? | „ |
| ~ Christina to Ruby, "Strange Case" |
| “ | 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 f--king 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. | „ |
| ~ Christina to Ruby, "Jig-A-Bobo" |
| “ | 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 want to live in Heaven, but not Hell, failing to understand that God is both. | „ |
| ~ Christina to Leti, "Jig-A-Bobo" |
| “ | Going over the details of my spell. Intention, location, the body combined with an incantation...those are the elements of magic. First time I created the potion was on the bridge Lancaster shot William on. I used the energy of his death for his rebirth. For the body, I combined parts of my blood, hair, and nails with his. That’s why I have to keep William in a comatose state. | „ |
| ~ Christina to Ruby, "Full Circle" |