Summary
Episode 6 shows that Lucky and Henry are well and truly exhausted from the events surrounding them.
This recap of Amazon’s Them season 1, episode 6, “DAY 7: MORNING”, contains spoilers.
As the series progresses, it’s interesting to see how Henry and Lucky move further apart from each other. Their experiences separate, not shared, yet the power of togetherness is lost — it’s their horror. There’s a vacuum between them as they continue to be disturbed by racist and paranormal events.
Episode 6 opens up with Ruby waking up, and she sees her mother looking over her with an axe. She tells Ruby to go back to sleep. The next morning, Lucky wakes up with bloody feet, and she is heavily breathing. Meanwhile, Henry slowly shaves his beard in the mirror. Their state of minds seems to be based on trauma — their thoughts lucid. As Lucky does Gracie’s hair with straighteners, she imagines her hair is on fire; she burns her neck by accident — it’s “DAY 7: MORNING”.
Dropped from the pentagon project
And it doesn’t get better for Henry, who has to endure another day at work as a black man in a white systematic workplace.
Henry is asked technical questions by his boss. His boss gets agitated with Henry and takes him off the Pentagon project. He’s taken him off because employees get a percentage of the profits. Henry is furious and does his utmost best to contain his anger, but he makes his hands bleed. The boss tells him he owns more than any other “negro” he knows.
The Beaumont family
While Henry slowly retreats to his own demise, Lucky is adamant that she still needs to investigate East Compton.
Lucky meets Hazel for a conversation regarding her experiences. Hazel tells Lucky to get out of Compton and live near her instead. She tells her about the Beaumont family — they were killed.
Lucky meets Mrs Beaumont in a mental facility and explains she lives in East Compton. Mrs Beaumont tells her to think about how much she’ll miss her children when they are gone; she explains to Lucky that they hadn’t left the house in days on the night of the incident. Scenes show Mrs Beaumont pouring bleach all over her family. Mrs Beaumont tells Lucky about “The Man with the Black Hat”.
Rinsing the account
Betty learns that there’s no money in her account when she goes to the bank. The bank manager tells her that a husband and a wife have a sacred bond. Her husband has taken money out, and there’s less than $400 left.
Meeting at the gymnasium
While the parents are burdened by their experiences, it’s easy to forget the children.
At school, Ruby talks to Doris and asks why she wants to be friends. Doris tells Ruby that she “sees her”. She invites Ruby to meet her in the gymnasium after school. When she heads to the gymnasium, she watches the cheerleaders perform. She joins in on the dancing. The more they dance, the girls’ bones crunch and do horror-like positions. The camera then focuses on Ruby; she’s dancing on her own. There are no cheerleaders with her.
“What you gonna do?”
While watching TV, Henry sees a man with a top hat doing “Black Face”. He asks why he’s in his house because he pays for everything. He states that profit sharing is earned, and “Black Face” laughs at him, stating he sounds just like his boss. Henry gets increasingly angry as “Black Face” repeatedly sings, “What you gonna do”. Henry gets in his car and leaves the house.
“Cat in the bag”
At school, Gracie stands up to recite the declaration to America, but she sees a scary figure outside the window. She keeps repeating “cat in the bag” — in the previous chapter, the woman who sings “Black Joe” swung baby Chester while repeating “cat in the bag”. When Lucky picks up Gracie from the school, the teacher asks her about the phrase “cat in the bag” and tells her it isn’t the right place for her daughter.
The ending
The ending of Them season 1, episode 6 shows that Lucky and Henry are well and truly exhausted from the events surrounding them.
Henry looks around a neighbourhood, and a man passing by asks what he’s doing. As the man walks away, Henry punches him from behind, and the man collapses.
When Lucky returns home with Gracie, Betty asks her when she’s going to clean up her mess and calls her family “niggers”. Lucky stops and asks Gracie to go inside. She walks up to Betty, and she backhand slaps her and walks inside her home. Betty returns home furious, repeating that Lucky is a “black bitch” before grabbing a knife. She then tears down her wallpaper and starts trashing the house. Betty then rings up someone and asks for a “favour”.
