I've been waiting on Underground since last December, and WGN did not disappoint! The channel that gave me a full hour of reruns of one of my favorite TV shows every day after school (Saved by the Bell) just gave me what is sure to be another favorite show of mine for a full hour with NO COMMERCIALS!! Underground, which was picked up for a 10 episode season, set a WGN record last night by becoming WGN's highest performing original series, with 2.5 million viewers on its premiere night.
The episode starts in Atlanta with Noah (Aldis Hodge) running away from a slave catcher, but he gets captured. And then we are taken to the plantation, where we see Cato (Alano Miller), a slave driver in the field, though we don't meet him just yet. The scene is interrupted by Henry (Renwick Scott) running across the field towards the big house. I didn't know what was going on. Was he attempting to runaway in broad daylight? Was he being chased by slave catchers? Was a slave uprising about to begin?? I mean, the music completely changed and went into a high tempo. But it turned out he was running to get Rosalee (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), a house slave, to help deliver a baby. Zeke's (Theodus Crane) baby. With the help of her mother, Ernestine, Rosalee was able to deliver the baby despite the troubled delivery. However, later in the episode, the baby's mother will drown the baby in order to keep the baby from having to be a slave. Zeke takes this pretty hard, and it seems to play a large role in him deciding to join the others in running away. In a later scene we see Rosalee, Ernestine, and others serving dinner to the family that owns them. As they discuss the upcoming birthday party for their teenage daughter we learn the father, Tom Macon (Reed Diamond), is running for the Senate, and that the show will not be shying away from the use of the n-word.
Meanwhile, back in D.C., John Hawkes (Marc Blucas), an attorney, is on the steps of the Supreme Court of the United States speaking against the Court's upcoming decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford (the case where SCOTUS decided African-Americans weren't American citizens, whether they were free or enslaved). But no one was paying him any mind, though he would later learn he did indeed have an audience of one, William Stiller, a freedman who asks John to consider allowing his house to be used as a safe house for runaway slaves. John declines, and he returns home to find his wife, Lizzie, taking a sledgehammer to the walls. We learn what starts off as her saying she's doing some home demolition/renovation to a nursery, is really her taking out her frustration in the would-be nursery for a child they can't seem to conceive. But John goes along with it, and the two begin to discuss the injustice of the Dred Scott case. Later, while traveling, John brings up the proposition from William Stiller to Lizzie, who declares they can't be a part of such a thing and must think of their family. She storms out when John insensitively asks her, "What family?" Obviously, a sore subject given their inability to conceive.
Back in Atlanta, we are introduced to August Pullman (Christopher Meloni), as he has a postman read him a letter from the hospital regarding his wife and gives the postman money to send to the hospital for his wife's care. He then has the postman write a letter back to his wife for him, mentioning their young son. I am making a mental note that August cannot read or write, as this may come into play later in the season. We then see him come across a group of slave catchers with runaway slaves, including Noah, as he is riding along. He notices a piece of fabric stuck on a branch, and down the road stops as if to let his horse get water, but he actually begins to speak to a hidden runaway slave that we have yet to see. He tells her slave catchers are coming and they already have the men she was with. When she comes out, rock in hand as a form of protection, he begins to give her directions on how to get north. But then they hear the slave catchers approaching, so he tells her to carefully rub against a tree, walk towards the stream, and then walk backwards to his wagon being sure not to make new footprints. He then hides her in his wagon. When the slave catchers approach him and ask him if he's seen any runaways, after noting it was a strange place for him to stop for his horse to get water, he simply tells them if he did see one they know he wouldn't tell them. One of the slave catchers, sensing he may be trying to pull one over on them, says he's going to look in August's wagon. But as soon as he touches the wagon, August slings a knife dead center in the man's hand attaching it to the wagon. He then pulls his guns out on them, directs the other slave catcher to drop his gun, removes the knife from the other one's hand, and then leaves. In a later scene, when the woman asks August why he helps runaway slaves, he says he's thinking about his 12-year old son's future in such an unjust world (in a later scene, he even distracts his son by sending him up to the house to play the newly invented game of baseball, as he and his helper? slave? friend? partner? puts a diseased horse out of its misery). And this may or may not be relevant later in the season, but it stands out to me that he drinks from the same water bottle he gave the runaway slave to drink out of. More on that later.
Meanwhile, Noah and the other captured slaves are thrown into a locked cabin with other captured slaves. While there, Noah encounters a man who tells him he can see the fire of freedom in Noah's eyes, despite Noah's claim that he wasn't running away. The man then reveals to Noah a fatal wound and tells Noah he carved the words to a map to freedom on the wall and tells Noah to have faith and run to freedom. The man then passes away, and Noah looks at the words carved on the wall where the man was sitting. There being so many words, I would have found it a bit unbelievable that he would memorize it all. And indeed, Noah did not attempt to memorize it all. Rather, he made the wound on his leg bleed, and spread the blood over the words carved into the wall. He then took some of the fabric from his clothes and pressed it against the wall to get the imprint of the words.
On the plantation, we begin to see how disconnected Rosalee is from the field slaves, though not of her own doing. One woman tells her they don't get to see her that often, but then she's called in for prayer with others, but Rosalee is not called in to join them. When Rosalee's little brother asks Sam (Johnny Ray Gill), a skilled carpenter, if the toy he is carving is for him and expresses excitement about showing his new toy to Tom's son, T.R., Sam tells him he can't have it if he wants to take it to the big house. And when Rosalee tells Sam her mom is making dinner, he says scraps from the master's table might be good enough for her but he's no dog.
Later, Noah is returned to the plantation he ran away from, which turns out to be Tom's plantation. The overseer had a hot branding iron pointed towards Noah's eye, as he and Noah disagreed on whether Noah got lost or was attempting to runaway. Tom then goes into a spill about the natural barriers surrounding the plantation that would prevent anyone from successfully running away and how in the 20 years he's owned the plantation he's never had a runaway, essentially conceding that Noah wasn't trying to runaway. It is in this scene that we are truly introduced to Cato, who seems to disagree with the master letting Noah go unpunished. To which Tom says Noah won't be running away anytime soon, given his leg injury. But then, Tom adds that he had to pay the slave catcher $5 for Noah's return and instructed the overseer to whip Noah 5 times.
Rosalee is sent to tend to Noah's wounds. Noah makes a remark about wondering what it was like to be in the big house with the nice comfy beds, to which Rosalee says you're still a slave no matter where you sleep. And then she soon discovers his wound isn't that bad, and that Noah is pretending to be in pain. We later learn it's to make them think he's not a threat. That evening he and Henry begin to discuss their plan to escape, as Noah shows him the words from the wall and tells him all the slaves that were caught were alone, hence they have to put together a group to be successful. They consider Moses (Mykelti Williamson), because Noah believes the preacher can read, though we'll learn it's not him that does the reading. They also consider Sam, because he is smart and a good carpenter, but they are unsure of whether they can trust him given his tendency to follow the rules and the fact that he gets money here and there from the overseer for his work. And then there's Zeke, the brawn. Their discussion is interrupted by Cato, who seems to get a kick out of giving Noah a hard time. He gets a rise out of Noah after calling him "boy," and seems to relish in it.
Back by the big house, the overseer drops and damages items for the birthday party from the wagon when he nearly hits T.R., who was playing and running from Rosalee's baby brother. Despite the fact that the overseer wasn't looking where he was going, and it was T.R. who ran out in front of him, the overseer decided to blame Rosalee's baby brother who is only 7. Rosalee, Ernestine, Tom, his wife, and his daughter are all on the porch as this is happening. The wife, who is clearly displeased by how much appreciation her daughter has just shown Ernestine for helping her with her hair (you know this story, the whole slave/maid/nanny replacing the mother syndrome), she makes Rosalee go get the boys, despite Ernestine offering to do so (earlier in this scene she also began to discuss with Tom, in front of Rosalee and Ernestine, putting Rosalee's baby brother in the field and then selling him...clearly to bother and upset Ernestine). Seeing that the overseer was preparing to whip her baby brother, Rosalee proclaimed it was her fault for giving them sugar. And after expressing disdain for her speaking to him however she wants, he whips her arm several times, in lieu of whipping her brother; only stopping after Tom tells him it is enough.
Later, John and Lizzie arrive at the plantation for the birthday party! Yep, it seems John and Tom are brothers! That evening the birthday party takes place as the slaves sing and bury Zeke's baby. When the other slaves leave, Noah, Moses, Sam, Zeke, and Henry begin discussing the plan to runaway. Noah asks Moses to read the words he imprinted from the wall, and Moses tries to tell him he can't read. But since Noah doesn't believe him, essentially calling him a liar, Moses agrees to take it back to his cabin to read. And the whole time Cato is in the background looking on. A bit later Noah and Rosalee have a conversation, where she asks him about his earlier comment about them all pretending. He says they are all pretending like they don't know they are supposed to be free. He then begins to talk about how life would be up north, bringing Rosalee to tears.
Back at the party, in the cellar, John and Tom are discussing Tom's run for the Senate. Apparently he was approached by the democrats to run, because he's from the north. Tom also tells John he wants him to be his campaign manager. Upstairs, Lizzie, has an awkward conversation with Tom's wife and her friends, reflective of the north vs. the south during that time period, and jabs were thrown (with an exceptionally low blow regarding Lizzie not having any children). It is this conversation, followed by Lizzie looking up and seeing Rosalee's brother on a swing high up on the ceiling waving a fan, as if a part of the furniture as Lizzie will later mention to John when she says she's the reason they can't have children, that leads Lizzie to tell John this is not the type of world she wants to bring children into and then declare they have to change it. Prior to her statements, John tells her he's going to be Tom's campaign manager and they were going to have to move to Atlanta, noting having ears in the Senate could be helpful.
Later, Moses takes the cloth with the words to freedom to his wife, Pearly Mae (Adina Porter), who quickly recognizes it as a song her mother used to sing to her but with different words. So Moses asks her to sing it to him. Sam begins gathering his coins. And Noah is brought into the big house by the overseer, where Cato tells him they found Tom's wagon. Cato then reveals he knows they are planning to runaway, and then throws a curve ball by saying he plans on running away with them. To which Noah says, "Ain't no chance in hell." Yea, I wouldn't trust him either, though he could probably be useful. He could also be setting them up and/or spying for Tom too though. And when Cato and Noah are in front of Tom, and Tom asks where they found the wagon after Cato says they found it, Noah gives Cato a tense look but then nods. The episode ends there, so we won't find out until next week if Cato throws Noah under the bus or attempts to win Noah's trust by protecting him.
And if you thought Tom and John being brothers or Cato saying he wants to runaway with Noah and crew was a twist, what about August's final scene!! The slave catchers lie and say the slave August helped to escape fell off a cliff, in an attempt to get the money for her. But they were caught in that bold-faced lie. Unfortunately, it was because the man paying out the money knew she was alive, because August brought her in for the reward! Yep, August is not an abolitionist, he's a slave catcher. And he stole her from right under their noses! But seeing him drink after her, his relationship with the Black man at his home who seemed to have autonomy, I suspect there's more to his character and story. I wouldn't be surprised if he turns out to be a help to runaway slaves after all. With a twist like this, I could easily see another twist where they switch his character back to someone who does actually help runaways. Maybe he uses the reward money to buy their freedom...or he gets the reward money to fund the cause and then helps them escape again. We shall see.