There is a whole lot more to Atticus than meets the eye.

But what happens now that Tic has discovered that fact on Lovecraft Country Season 1 Episode 2?

A better question might be, who was left standing since Ardham has proven to be a place of magic?

It's was a shame, really, because Ardham Lodge seemed like such a luxurious place for Tic, Leti, and Uncle George to recuperate after their terrifying battle with monsters on Lovecraft Country Season 1 Episode 1.

It was a hilarious opening scene, with Leti and George happily dancing in time to the classic Jeffersons theme song!

Too bad their joy was so short-lived.

Since we've met him, Tic has shown himself to be a philosophical brooder. I blame all that on his father Montrose, who revealed himself to be something even worse, an angry brooder.

Thank God for George's influence, introducing Tic to the escapism of pulp fiction. That background certainly helped to prepare them for the magical fantasy of Ardham.

That's why Tic was able to determine that they were being detained at the lodge for some unknown reason. William, the only evident staff, certainly was no help to them.

Also, there was the small catch that a spell, which didn't work on Tic, had wiped Leti and George's short-term memories.

So they decided that Tic was suffering from shellshock (PTSD) to account for the horror stories that he was telling them.

But at least Tic was able to convince them that they needed to locate Montrose and get the hell out of Dodge.

That meant them heading into the Puritan-y town of Ardham, which was no more welcoming to them that the racist sheriff had been the night before.

Del and her snarling dogs should have told them all they needed to know about Ardham, which had been established by a racist order.

Still, that enabled them to find where they believed Montrose was being held, in the basement of the stone tower.

Of course, they managed to trip the perimeter alarm for the lodge on the way back, bringing on more monsters.

That's when we finally met Christina, daughter of Samuel, the current male in the Braithwaite lineage.

She rescued them from the "guard dogs" but forced them to go back to the lodge.

Also she brought together Tic and Samuel. The Braithwaites had used Montrose as bait to get Tic to Ardham.

What made Tic so special? Other than bravery and killer abs, nothing that we had seen previously.

But George suddenly recalled that an ancestor of Tic's mother Dora had been a slave named Hanna, who runs away from Ardham after being impregnated by Titus Braithwaite, the line's founder.

So, by virtue of being male, Tic was already more valuable to Samuel and his brothers in the Order of the Ancient Dawn than Christina had ever been.

That had to piss off Christina. Maybe that's why she rescinded the memory spell on Leti and George.

Then again, she still allowed the three of them to be trapped by wards inside their rooms with their imagining lovers, amusing the brothers at their dinner.

This series of scenes revealed key information about the trio.

Leti has fallen for Tic. But he's still hung up on Jai, who he must have met in Korea.

George had an affair with Dora. So is George Tic's biological father? That would explain a lot.

And based on the later scene between the brothers, this possibility has come up and been buried before.

Might Christina be a potential ally in the future?

Fortunately, George earlier found the secret passage behind the bookcase (don't all old houses have them?) which allowed him to learn about the order and its rules.

That meant that Tic, as a Braithwaite descendent, could pull rank on all the believers. Except for Samuel, who was just using the order for his own purposes.

The trio almost escaped, recovering Montrose but running smack into more wards on the bridge. They really have to gain a better understanding of the magic they're up against.

Then the coldblooded Samuel shot Leti, then George, to force Tic's cooperation with his ill-conceived ceremony before Samuel would heal them.

The ceremony, with Gil Scott-Heron's "Whitey's on the Moon" as an appropriate soundtrack, was a frightening monument to Samuel's hubris.

It rang true when Hanna appeared to lead Tic to freedom, with Samuel and the rest of the brothers turned to stone, then dust, as the lodge collapsed from the eldritch energies unleashed.

But another victim appeared to be George.

Everyone who seems to be dead can't be dead. Courtney B. Vance can't be gone after two episodes and Tony Goldwyn and the others at the Ardham Lodge can't be written off after one episode, right?

This is a series filled with magic so no death necessarily is permanent.

After all Tic's been through, what powers has he developed or have been activated?