Warning: Spoilers for season 1 of Them ahead.
Amazon Prime's social horror series Them, created and written by Little Marvin, has taken horror audiences by storm. Even horror author Stephen King has said the first episode "scared the hell out of him." The series follows the trend of social horrors like Us and Get Out, where the true hellish nightmare of racism in America are told through the lens of the supernatural.
The first season of the anthology, "Covenant," tells the story of the Emory family as they leave behind North Carolina for East Compton, a suburban paradise in Southern California. Unfortunately, Compton becomes hell for the family of four in a matter of days. Their new neighbors have made it their personal goal to keep Black families from moving into "their" neighborhood.
More than just racist neighbors haunt the Emory family in Them season 1, though; real ghosts call East Compton home, too. All of the entities are manifestations of The Black Hat Man as he targets each member of the Emory family in an attempt to "break" them. The Black Hat Man himself mainly targeted Lucky Emory, Da Tap Dance Man haunted Henry Emory, Doris attempted to befriend Ruby Lee, and Miss Vera plagued Gracie Jean. In the end, it's the family's love for each other that helps them overcome their demons. Here are all the ghosts of Them.
The Black Hat Man is the paranormal ringleader of Them. He is the spirit responsible for corrupting the minds of Black families that move to Compton. Ella Mae and Arnette Beaumont, two Black women who moved to Compton with their families before the Emorys, both cited The Black Hat Man as the reason for maiming and murdering their families. When The Black Hat Man comes for Lucky, he tries to convince her to "send her children to Heaven" to spare them from the hatred of white society, preying on her love for her family and her faith; he almost compels her to kill her daughter, Gracie, with an ax she'd purchased for protection, but the cries of her children pulled her from his compulsion.
In season 1 episode 9, "Covenant II," the reasoning for The Black Hat Man's terrorizing the Emory family and haunting their house throughout Them is revealed. The Black Hat Man, whose true name is Hiram Epps, made a deal with the devil in the 1800s when a community called Eidolan stood where East Compton stands now. Epps was a godly man, and the community was convinced Epps was a prophet with the ability to communicate with God, even as his eyesight dwindled. He cares for an orphan named Miles after the loss of his family, and it's Miles who begins to corrupt Epps, as the boy was the devil in disguise. When a Black couple— Martha and Grafton— joins the community temporarily after their wagon broke down, Miles slowly convinces Epps to treat these outsiders cruelly, citing the Bible.
What began as a friendly gesture towards the couple turns to enslavement— until the community accuses the couple of theft and Hiram decides the two must be blinded. After Martha curses the community for their treatment, the couple is lynched and burned. The fire, however, begins to burn the church, ultimately trapping and killing the community. As the building burns and his entire community lies dead, Hiram is offered a choice; he can die with his community, or gain vision and immortality. The price? He must "break" any Black person who moves to Compton. If he fails, he'll pay with his soul. When the Emorys refuse to break and Hiram ultimately fails, his soul is sent to Hell.
Da Tap Dance Man is a spirit that primarily shows himself to WWII veteran Henry Emory. He first appears in Them season 1 episode 3, "Day Four," at Henry's workplace party. His face is covered in a dark and dramatized blackface in the stylings of the minstrel performers he's based on. Da Tap Dance Man is a manifestation of Henry's rage, designed to tempt Henry back into the violent outbursts he experienced after returning from the war. He's the physical embodiment of a stereotype Henry is desperately trying not to be — a novelty that white men look down on as an entertaining fool.
Anger is Henry's weakness, and testing Henry's anger and insecurities are Hiram's best chances at drawing him into madness. Da Tap Dance Man slowly pokes and prods at Henry's insecurities and doubts: How his coworkers should treat him better as the only Black engineer in the company, how Henry failed to protect his wife and children, and how his neighbors disrespected him. The more Henry gives in to his anger, the further he falls into dancing with the devil. While Henry did give into the anger multiple times, he rejects Da Tap Dance Man's rage and denies him power. He even finishes the ghost off with his very last bullet, representing the end of his violent streak. When Henry wiped away the defeated Tap Dance Man's makeup, he reveals that the ghost is really just another white man, hoping to tempt him into being everything Henry's white neighbors wanted him to be; an angry, violent beast. Instead, Henry chose the love of his family over anger.
Doris represents everything that Ruby Lee wants to be: beautiful – at least in the Aryan, all-American sense – blonde, blue-eyed, and white. Doris is the first person in Ruby's school to be nice to her – if her backward compliments can be considered nice – and Ruby quickly comes to spend time with her at school, stolen away in closets and basements. However, Ruby seems oblivious to the discrepancies that surround Doris, such as how she disappears when other people appear and her lies around the cheerleading squad. Instead of leading Ruby outside where the real cheer squad waited in season o1 episode 6 "Day 7: Morning," Doris draws her down to the basement, where a ghostly squad eagerly waits to invite Ruby in with open arms, which was easily one of the eeriest scenes in the Amazon TV show.
Slowly, Doris starts to tempt Ruby with what she wants the most— to be beautiful like the others instead of ugly, like her family. She's even able to give Ruby a hint of how "beautiful" she could be, showing her how she could look with white skin and blue eyes. After driving her to cheer alone on the football field covered in white paint, Ruby begins to realize Doris isn't everything she appears to be. Ruby's greatest fear is ending up like her mother, and Doris preys on her insecurities in an attempt to convince her that Lucky killed her little brother. It's hard to blame Ruby for this fear, as the scene depicting Chester's death in the Amazon horror was controversial in its level of violence— and will hurt her, too. But, with Lucky's love and reassurance, Ruby is able to cast Doris aside and take away her ghostly powers.
All little Gracie Jean wants is to go to school and be a teacher, just like her momma. But, after the traumatic death of her little brother and her mother's downward spiral, being like her mother becomes her new nightmare. That's when Hiram creates Miss Vera, straight from Gracie's favorite book. Miss Vera is a spindly old woman who shows herself only to Gracie, though Lucky admits that she could smell her. Miss Vera preys on Gracie's biggest fears: disappointing authority figures and becoming like her mother.
Miss Vera does her best to drive a wedge between Gracie and her mother; she teaches her the "Old Black Joe" song and the phrase "cat in the bag," both of which harken back to the attack on their family in North Carolina. When Gracie goes to kindergarten, Miss Vera sabotages her into misbehaving during the Pledge of Allegiance, and when Lucky tells Gracie they're leaving Compton, she fears it's because she misbehaved at school.
In the final episode of the season, Miss Vera has Gracie trapped in her "classroom," set to scold and lecture her for eternity— and when Lucky comes to save her, Miss Vera almost triumphs against her. Fortunately, Lucky's intervention gives Gracie a chance to escape to her bedroom, where she destroys the image of Miss Vera from her book while telling the ghost she'll "never be like Momma." Gracie has come to realize that it's her fear of Miss Vera that gives the ghost her power. If she doesn't fear her, Miss Vera has no power against her. She also remembers why she wanted to be like her mother when she grew up in the first place. After Gracie destroys her image, Miss Vera is destroyed once and for all.
