Underground... Let's Make a Season 3 Happen!

I dedicated most of my Memorial Day to binge watching season 2 of Underground on Hulu (having reduced my cable to basic, I was thrilled when season 2 hit Hulu)! And then a day later, today, I learned that it's been cancelled by WGN! How can this be?! This is one of the best shows on TV! Season 2 was even better than the last. It shared our history in a way that was inspiring, enlightening, and still relevant to issues of today.

To be honest, some of us saw this coming. Sinclair Broadcast Group has acquired WGN for $3.9 billion, and the station had already cancelled Outsiders, its top-rated drama. So it became clear the station will no longer focus on scripted shows.

However, I know I can't be the only one who wants to see John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, and more of Harriet Tubman (Aisha Hinds) and Georgia (Jasika Nicole). I want to see Ernestine (Amirah Vann) reunite with her family. I need to know if Cato (Alano Miller) is really going to take over Patty Cannon's (Sadie Stratton) gang. And I have to see how Noah (Aldis Hodge) finds Rosalee (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), or more likely how she saves herself! All that to say, I'm invested in this show, aren't you?

We've seen shows be revived by other stations, or even Hulu and Netflix. And if any show is deserving, it is certainly Underground! I am disappointed to have heard that both OWN and BET may have already passed on the opportunity due to the $5 million an episode cost. But perhaps if enough of us speak up someone will answer the call!!

After two seasons, it’s time to say goodbye to #UndergroundWGN. We hope you keep the spirit inspired by these incredible characters & stories alive!

A post shared by Underground (@undergroundwgn) on May 30, 2017 at 3:41pm PDT

Listen, we love you all. We hear you...we have the best fans in the world. Y'all been running with us for 2 seasons and are the reason we even got this far. Unfortunately, it's true, WGN America cancelled #underground today. They were bought by Sinclair. Google them. They are going in a different direction and want to become the next Fox News. Arg. I wish I was telling you different news but just know we love you all and are grateful to everyone that has been running with us. Playing Rosalee has been the privilege of a lifetime. If you want a season 3, feel free to let the world know...✊🏽✌🏽😘 #riseup #TheBlackRose

A post shared by Jurnee Smollett Bell (@jurneebell) on May 30, 2017 at 5:29pm PDT

After two seasons, it’s time for #UndergroundWGN to say goodbye. Unfortunately we will not be coming back for a 3rd season on #WGNAmerica I understand that this is tough news for a lot of people to hear and I know many have personally expressed their anger. But I encourage you to repurpose your anger in a positive way by sharing your passion for this show by reaching out to the network you would like to see us on. Thank you all so much for being so supportive over these two seasons. It's been a fantastic ride and I can't thank you enough for all of the love. ✊🏿❤️🙏🏿✌🏿😁

A post shared by Aldis Hodge (@aldis_hodge) on May 30, 2017 at 4:44pm PDT

WGN America's Underground Season Two Full Length Trailer

Underground Season 2: Rescue Teaser

WGN America’s Underground Season Two “Teaser"

Underground Season Finale Recap S. 1, E. 10 ("The White Whale")

Wow!! So sad I won't get more of Underground this coming Wednesday. 2017 can't come soon enough!! 

At the Macon plantation, Ernestine is seemingly trying to cope with the fact that Tom hung her son Sam. Tom begs for her forgiveness, calling himself a coward who doesn't even have his own last name, taking responsibility for the death of Sam (well duh!), and offering to take Ernestine with him to Washington (including shopping and dinners in private clubs along the way). Ernestine says she blames herself, because she feels its punishment for having killed Pearly Mae to protect Rosalee. She says all she feels is pain, to which Tom says he can make her feel something else as he puts his hand up her dress (really??). I was less than pleased when she went for it, though the show redeems itself later on this front. And later she finds Tom talking to James as he is teaching him how to be a carpenter. James says Sam was going to teach him and asks if Tom thinks Sam will be coming back soon. Tom asks him where he thought Sam was, and James says his mother told him Sam was in the city making furniture for rich White people. Tom says he thinks Sam is probably really busy, and James asks if Tom thinks one day he'll be able to go to the city to make furniture too. Tom says he doesn't see why he couldn't. Ernestine is listening this whole time, and I can only imagine she is thinking the two things I'm thinking. One, yet another empty promise from Tom to one of her sons (he promised Sam he could buy his freedom) and also that it really symbolizes Tom saying what really happened to Sam could happen to James too!!!

Back at the Hawkes' home, John returns with news that everyone knows the remaining members of the Macon 7 have crossed the river and it's a free for all trying to capture them, with all roads blocked. So they come up with a plan to get Rosalee, Boo, and Noah to Ripley (an abolitionist area). While John and Rosalee are out digging by the side of a house at night, Noah and Elizabeth discuss Noah not knowing if he could and would do what Elizabeth is doing to help runaways and Elizabeth questioning if she would do it again if she knew what she knew now (that they will either end up captured or dead). While Elizabeth tells Noah he's run 600 miles so he can do anything, including what she's doing, he tells her he knows she would do it all over again based on how she looks at Boo. Then they both agree it is all worth it if Boo gets to freedom!

Rosalee and John have a conversation of their own after they finish digging. After Rosalee says Sam probably decided not to run with them because he was scared and thought Tom would let him buy his freedom, adding she hoped he would someday, John revealed to her that Sam was dead. As she cried in the bathtub after returning to the house, Noah brought her a change of clothes and prepared to leave until she asked him to stay. He came in and without speaking, washed her back, held her, and kissed her on her forehead. They looked into each others eyes for a moment, and they kissed and he lifted her up and took her to their bedroom. Later, they discuss the fact that the others didn't make it and pondered why they deserved to have freedom. At one point Noah even said Cato may have been right about him picking everyone just to use them to help him make it to freedom. But they concluded it's not about deserving freedom. It was bigger than that. For one, they all had a right to freedom, which is beyond some deserving it and others not. And finally, they concluded none of them are truly free until they are all free!!

Meanwhile, when August meets back up with Jeremiah and a few of his men (they just dragged in a number of their men who died), August shares the news that Ben didn't die but has to have surgery. Given it became clear that August now had the idea to kill Rosalee after what she did to his son, and given Patty will be pretty upset about Jeremiah losing so many men, Jeremiah tells August they need to renegotiate their deal (aka...we are going to kill you now, and then capture Rosalee alive to keep the reward for ourselves). And there's Augustine in the middle of Jeremiah and 3 other guys. The camera takes us outside the building. It's quiet for a moment, and then Jeremiah comes out the building bloody. But then he falls down, clearly having been on the losing side of the fight. Then out comes August, also bloodied but standing strong and with a gun in his hand. Then he shoots Jeremiah.

Later, Noah, Rosalee, John, and Elizabeth come up with a plan to cause a distraction with all the locked up runaways so they can get to Ripley. Elizabeth walks into the marshal's office requesting to speak with Kyle. They tell her Kyle has been missing for days but offer to speak with her instead. She says she'd rather speak with Kyle and that it is information he may find useful about some runaway activity. Then she requests to leave a note on his desk. Then Noah comes in and holds a gun to Elizabeth's head, telling all of the marshals to drop their weapons.  He also delivers a speech about how slaves built this country and that it is the blood of slaves that keeps the country's heart pumping, making slaves more American than any of them!! When one of them shoots him, Noah shoots him down. Then he puts all of them and Elizabeth into the cell, and let the runaways out. He gives them the guns he collected from the marshals, tells them to shoot if they have to because they won't hesitate to shoot them, and tells them if they get caught to ask for a lawyer and one particular man who can help them (we don't hear who he names since they are walking out of the marshal's office). 

Meanwhile, August approaches John outside of his house, saying Tom told him to reach out to his brother if he needs anything and is in the area. He says he needs to get a wire to Tom for more money for his son's surgery. So John invites him into the house. Rosalee and Boo are in the hideaway with Kyle (who is still tied up). While John goes to get something, Kyle begins banging his head against the block he's tied to, and August hears him. But Rosalee knocks Kyle out with a rock when he won't be quiet. When John returns, August comments on the draft from the fireplace. When John says it's an old home, August comments that the room had clearly been remodeled. To which John says it was remodeled when they were expecting a child. August then asks him if he knows that one of the Macon 7 is kin to him, and then tells him Rosalee is Tom's daughter. Then he adds that Rosalee is the one that stabbed his son, who will never be able to walk again.  Elizabeth runs into the house proclaiming, "It worked!" But then she sees August, and John tells her August is the slave catcher Tom hired to catch the runaways. So Elizabeth asks August what he's doing at their house when one of the Macon 7 just held up the marshal's office. August leaves, and Elizabeth and John tell Rosalee they have to leave with Boo now, because August may be on to them. So they can't wait on Noah. But then August comes into the hideaway from the outside, with a gun aimed at Rosalee. John is able to make part of the top of the hideaway come crashing down on them, as he yells for Rosalee to run! John and August are both knocked out, as Rosalee, Elizabeth, and Boo get away. 

When August comes to, he gets out and goes after Rosalee, Elizabeth, and Boo. Rosalee decides to get out of the wagon to get August to come after just her. As he runs after her, she stops and turns around. When he gets to her, she tells him Ben set her free and that it was his fault Ben was stabbed, because Ben shouldn't have been there and didn't want to be there. She said she's done running. And August walks up and puts the gun to her head, but then he hears a gun cock behind him. He turns around and there's Elizabeth aiming a gun at him. So he drops his gun. But then he throws his knife at her hand, making her drop the gun. But before he can pick up his gun, Rosalee picks it up and shoots him. He falls down, and Rosalee tells him, he hunts runaways like they are animals and now she's going to let him die in the woods like he's an animal. And they leave. Now when he comes to, he's in a jail cell with Patty Cannon standing over him. She tells him there's a lot of things you can do as a slave catcher, but killing White people, especially her men, isn't one of them. 

That's not the only one Patty brought to the jail. In the cell next to August is Noah. While Noah was heading back to the Hawkes' house, he saw a White man trying to capture a young runaway. He began to fight the man, as he told the runaway to run away. Then he got knocked out with a blunt object that kind of looked like a big hair brush, by Patty Cannon. Patty told him she realized a runaway can't know where a marshal office is to hold it up without the help of a White person, and demands he tell her who helped him. She tells him she can help him and Rosalee, who she knows he loves. At first he says he can't, but then he gives her a name. MARSHAL KYLE RISDIN!! (Yes! I was hoping he would do that!). 

Back in the hideaway at the Hawkes' house, John comes to and reveals to Kyle their plan after responding to Kyle's offer to help them if he let's him go by asking if Kyle meant to help him the way he helped Elizabeth (BOOM!). When John and Rosalee were digging by a house, they were digging a hideaway under Kyle's house. And when Elizabeth went to leave a note on Kyle's desk, she was leaving letters from William Still, among other things that will make it look like he was helping slaves run away. And the name Noah told the runaways he set free to ask for if they got caught, Kyle Risdin. Which means, every time one got caught, Kyle's name came up!! Kyle said he would clear up his name as soon as he gets out, because he knows John wouldn't kill him because of his respect of the law. To which John said the Fugitive Slave Act gives him not only the right, but the duty to kill Kyle!! And he suffocates Kyle, and then he and Elizabeth bury him. 

Now back at the Macon Plantation, in the cellar, Tom and Ernestine are having a drink and discussing Tom's plan for when they leave for Washington. But Ernestine has plans of her own. After telling Tom she's realized why Rosalee ran, and that there's no such thing as safety, who seems to be the Reverend's slave, pulls rope over Tom's neck and hangs him from it! Then Ernestine winds a contraption that lifts Tom off the ground hanging him to death (similar to the contraption she was winding when the Reverend and his slave left the house earlier in the episode, I guess to raise and lower the chandelier), after telling him he won't be judged because they are both going to hell!!! She then throws a chair down under him to make it look like he hung himself!! 

And later, when Ernestine is riding in a carriage with Suzanna, Suzanna decides to tell Ernestine what bothered her most about Ernestine. But she started with what didn't bother her. She said it didn't bother her that she was sleeping with Tom, because they all slept with her kind (even mentioning having slept with a stable boy when she was Mary's age). She said it didn't bother her that she had children with Tom, because they were just free labor! But what did bother her was that the one thing Tom promised her was hers, her children, looked to Ernestine like a mother (laughing with and crying out for Ernestine when they needed something)! Should have seen this coming, as it was Ernestine's interaction with Mary in the very first episode that revealed Suzanna's dislike of Ernestine! Suzanna said now that Tom is gone, it is her chance to pay Ernestine back for her relationship with her children. Then Suzanna opens the curtains of the carriage to reveal she is putting Ernestine on the block for sale!! She adds that she plans on bringing James into the house and raising him as her own, giving him a better life than Ernestine ever could (the one thing Ernestine prided herself on)!!!

As for Rosalee and Boo, they made it to freedom and are with William Still. William asks Rosalee about the Macon 7, and she tells him a little about each one. And then she reveals she has to go back and help others get to freedom!! O by the way, in a small scene, we see Cato is alive and why he was probably running late picking them up last episode! He's gone to where he hid the box of money from the carriage!! Not sure how he got away and survived, but that explains why the men told Jeremiah the dead men didn't even have any of the money on them! Cato, Cato, Cato!!! 

O...as I'm sure you've heard by now, Rosalee is connected with Harriette Tubman! Harriette says she heard Rosalee wants to steal slaves. To which Rosalee says you can't steal what's not property!! And Harriette tells her she's going to teach her how to help other slaves reach freedom!!!!!! 

Ugh...why must we wait until 2017??!!!!

Underground Recap S. 1, E. 9 ("Black & Blue")

John has returned home after attending a Bazil Abbott slave auction at Bazil's home. John outbid Bazil for a young woman slave, which afforded him the opportunity to sit and talk with Bazil after the auction. Given his bloodied wrapped hand and bruised face when he returned home, it was clear something happened at the auction, and it was slowly revealed throughout the episode. As John was talking to Bazil about Bazil's interest in making wagers and success at buying and selling slaves, Bazil speaks on his recent encounter with one of his own runaway slaves that he's recaptured. And that slave is Clyde! So now we know why John is really there! So John decides to make a wager with Bazil, the young woman slave he just purchased up against Clyde for a game of darts. But when preparing to shoot the dart, Bazil stabs John's hand with the dart, telling him he knows John is Tom Macon's abolitionist brother!! A fight ensues, and John nearly beats him to death, with Clyde pulling him off saying they'll think he was killed by a runaway slave.

But back at home, John has yet been able to share the full story with Elizabeth, because Elizabeth has a revelation of her own to share after Boo walks in. She introduces Boo and then tells John that Kyle found Boo in their hideaway, which also means that Kyle now knows they're a station. She reveals that he won't tell, because ...well... Kyle never stopped loving her after she called off their engagement...and well...and in not so many words, John realized she slept with Kyle! John was of course very upset, and to add to that, Kyle had just come by that day trying to force himself on Elizabeth! Elizabeth ended up knocking him out with a candlestick holder and tying him up in the hideaway, where he is still tied up. John is so upset about the entire situation, asking Elizabeth to tell him everything that happened, pointing out she slept with Kyle during their engagement and with John before they were married. He says he wants to slap her and kill John, and at this point, Boo shoots a gun that barely  misses John's head!! Elizabeth runs to her, and Boo says she was trying to stop the bad man from hurting Elizabeth. To which Elizabeth says he's not the bad man and hugs her. Then there's a knock on the door! More on that in a moment.

So meanwhile, Cato and Noah have fought two men and taken their horse drawn wagon full of money, as part of their plan to save Rosalee. As the two go back and forth up until they locate where Rosalee is being held, we learn a few things about Cato. He supposedly isn't doing this for Rosalee, but only because she knows where the next station is. And he has a bonnet Noah has seen him with that belongs to his daughter. It turns out Noah HAS (he corrected Noah who said he "had") a wife and daughter that were sold from the Louisiana plantation when the area transitioned from cotton to sugar. Cato ran away, tracking the wagon they were in for days, until he was dragged back. 

Their plan is for Cato to ride along the building throwing out money as a distraction, while Noah saves Rosalee and meets Cato in the wagon on the other side. And this turns out to be a good plan. After August has to stop Jeremiah's men from possibly attacking and raping Rosalee, the two had a discussion about those men being focused more on satisfying their current pleasures than long term goals (which makes them prime for Cato's distraction). Which led to Jeremiah asking August to join Patty Cannon's gang, as he is a smarter catcher than the other men. August declines, saying he only plans on keeping his word of helping them find the last two of the Macon 7, and then he and Ben are returning home to his wife. Jeremiah makes a comment that implies Ben knows they do not need the money to save the land, and August goes along with it knowing he hasn't told Ben the bank is offering to pay them money, not take their land away. 

Now when August stopped the men from attacking Rosalee, after they were yelling for her to take off that "white woman's" dress, Rosalee went ahead and yanked off the dress and threw it in a near by fire. August then took her into another room where he tied her to a table and left Ben to watch her. Before August walks out the room, Rosalee asks August why he protected her, and August says thanks to her dad, who's paying for her what he's paying for the other 6 combined! She asks him if Tom said she was his daughter, and August says no but the money says it all. 

When Ben and Rosalee begin talking, Ben tells her his name, but when she tells him her name he says he knows because it's on the slave bill. So Rosalee begins to tell him things about her like her favorite color is yellow, to ultimately tell him in the end she's more than a runaway or $5000. In the conversation Ben also tells her he's sorry, offers her water a few times, and tries to explain they are doing it because they need the money so they won't lose their land. All the while, Rosalee is trying to get loose unsuccessfully. Later, Jeremiah comes in to give Rosalee some of Ben's clothes to put on, and gives Ben a book to read about a hunter who loses everything due to his obsession with hunting (Rosalee later asks if that hunter represents Ben's father).

Now, at some point Rosalee hallucinates Tom walking by, and it's clear it has something to do with that burning dress and the smoke it's filling the building with. Well the hallucinations continue to intensify, after Cato blows money in front of the men and Noah sneaks into the building. The men run after the money (except for two who follow Cato on horse, but when they come across the wagon pulled over and open the wagon door Cato shoots them dead with a shotgun). Even after August tells Jeremiah it's a distraction and it means Noah is about to try to take Rosalee, Jeremiah goes out to get the money leaving August to try to stop Noah from taking Rosalee by himself. 

The next one to begin feeling the affect of the smoke is Ben, who starts reading the book Jeremiah gave him slower until a letter falls out of the book. Turns out it's the letter from the bank telling August they want to pay him for the land. Ben hazily begins to realize his father lied to him and pulls out a knife walking towards Rosalee. Rosalee thinks he's going to stab her, but instead he cuts her loose to let her run away. 

Meanwhile, August finds himself hallucinating that Ernestine is in the building with him talking to him about how he's a hunter and will never stop even if he's in denial about being a wolf when he really is. She's slapping him with a knife in a kind of erotic fashion, to the point where the two (August and his hallucination of Ernestine) begin kissing. But more importantly, Ernestine tells him how smart and strong it turned out Rosalee is, and that she was picking Devil's Snare when August first encountered her and put it in that dress that is now burning in the building! Yep, they are on a Devil's Snare trip. Ernestine also tells him his son sees what he is doing and doesn't like it. She says his son will change him. At this point, Noah is in the room with August watching him talk to himself, but just as he is about to attack, August snaps out of it and a fight ensues between the two.

In another room, Rosalee is trying to escape the building without being seen, but when she walks into a room she hallucinates it's Tom's office and Tom's there. She goes back and forth with Tom about her being his daughter, with him yelling she can't have freedom because she's his daughter!! After she yells at him about just sitting their reading a newspaper while her arms were being whipped, the overseer who whipped her and ultimately tried to rape her before she stabbed him in the neck with a broken bottle (ultimately leading to her running away when she did) appeared in the hallucination, as well!! At one point the wounds on her arms started opening and bleeding profusely. And as Tom approached her, she ended up stabbing him. But remember this is all a hallucination she is acting out on. It turns out, she stabbed Ben!!! (I yelled out "Nooooo!!!" and even shed a tear). Ben calling out, "Pa...pa..." led August to leave his fight with Noah to find his son. And Ben was laying there with a knife in him dying in August's arms!!  

Rosalee runs out of the building, and Noah runs out from the other side. They run out to find Cato, but he's not there! They're thinking he left them with the money, but he ends up riding up, though at this point Jeremiah and his men are coming towards them. Rosalee and Noah get in the wagon and they ride off, while Jeremiah and his men go to get their horses to follow after them. They come to a block in the road and have to get out and go by foot, but Cato gets his leg caught in a trap and gets hung from a tree by his leg. Rosalee has told them they have to look for a bridge, and they hear water nearby. With Jeremiah and his men approaching and shooting guns and arrows, Noah sends Rosalee ahead to find the bridge while he works on getting Cato down from the tree. With Cato shooting, Noah manages to get Cato cut down, but then Cato gets shot in the thigh with an arrow. With it seeming more likely he won't be able to make it (I had a flashback to what he did to Zeke!), Noah drops Cato's knife in front of him, and they exchange looks (I think Cato looked like he knew Noah was going to leave him but was still upset he wasn't going to try to help him, while Noah had a look like this is pretty much what you get for what you did to Zeke and pretty much his attitude the whole time). Then Noah leaves to meet up with Rosalee. Rosalee asks where Cato is, and Noah looks at her and then there's a final gunshot (there's your answer...maybe...). And the two run off to the bridge with the plan to cut the bridge down once they get over so they can't be followed.

So now, back to the knock at the Hawkes' door! It's Rosalee and Noah! Boo runs to Rosalee! 

Underground Recap S. 1, E. 8 ("Graves")

Cato and Rosalee, with the help of the Native American man and the White man who was helping them to the next station, managed to get themselves and a delirious Noah into the coffins to be taken to the next station, which would have been the Hawkes' home. After being unloaded in a small town, Cato and Rosalee get out of the coffins. Cato thinks they should go on without Noah, who is dying and having hallucinations of Henry. But Rosalee insists they go to the home of the doctor they overheard the drivers mention while they were in the coffins in the wagon. Rosalee convinced Cato to do it when she pointed out she was given the information about the next station, not him. So he could either go along with her plan to get medicine for Noah, or try to unsuccessfully make it on his own. 

So Rosalee and Cato go into an abandoned store to steal nice clothing, and then go to the doctor's home and pretend to be free. The doctor checks her vitals, and says she is fine. Using her knowledge about decor from her life in the big house, Rosalee is able to extend their stay in the house and get them invited to dinner with the doctor and his brother. While Cato is quick to want to resort to killing the doctor, after they find the medicine cabinet is locked, Rosalee suggests the house girl probably has a key. So she goes to speak with the house girl and eventually shares with her that they are runaways and need to get to the medicine for Noah. The house girl is hesitant, and Cato is closing in on her prepared to stab her for the key, but she ends up giving the key to Rosalee, never having noticed Cato was about to stab her. 

Meanwhile, Jeremiah is beating the White man that helped Cato, Rosalee, and Noah get into the coffins. Jeremiah knows that the system is broken up into units so no one man can take the whole system down, but he also knows each man has to know who's in the system after him. But the man refuses to give information about the next station. After seemingly knocking him out with the butt of his rifle, Jeremiah walks away from the man. But the man gets up and is about to stab Jeremiah, when August comes into the doorway and throws a knife into his back, seemingly killing him. Jeremiah and August agree to be partners, with Jeremiah getting Cato and Noah, and August getting Rosalee. They make it to the town where Rosalee, Noah, and Cato were dropped off and ask the sheriff if they could look around for some runaways. They soon realize Rosalee and Cato took clothes from the abandoned store, due to prints in the dust and finding their old clothes. 

Later, Ben confronts his father about his choice to be a slave catcher, asking him if he caught Jay too. August shows him a letter from the bank, and says, slave catching isn't personal but it's the only way to keep their home for them, Jay, and his mother who was on her way to the house. Ben stands his ground and asks his father if it's the only way or just his father taking the easiest way! And later, recall from episode 1 August cannot read, August has Jeremiah read the letter from the bank to him. Jeremiah tells him the letter says August's land is full of mercury, which means it's hard to grow crops, and the bank would like to buy it back at a premium. August questions the use of the word premium, and Jeremiah tells him mercury is used to mine for gold. He adds, if he knew August was rich he wouldn't have let him get Rosalee out of the deal. So...August may not need the money after all. When he tells Ben to get the horses ready, Ben asks if they are going home, and August doesn't give a clear answer. 

Back at the doctor's house, it turns out the doctor's brother is the sheriff! The sheriff begins a game of 21 questions with them after dinner, asking Cato how he burned his face (he says from lye, as he claims to be a soap maker) and Rosalee about her background and if she is an octaroon. His brother chided him for calling her an octaroon, but she says it's alright and makes up a story about who her parents are. The sheriff tells her she talks like she went to finishing school, and she says as an octaroon she couldn't go to school so she had a tutor where she learned etiquette, how to play the piano and so on. So the sheriff asks her to play the piano. She seems a little shocked by the request, but gets up to play and plays well. So well, Cato almost seemed enchanted by her (he was certainly a bit enchanted by how she cleaned up in their new clothes). He stood up and went to stand next to her by the piano. I almost thought he would give them away, because as her husband he shouldn't be that in awe of her ability to play the piano. The doctor steps out the room, having something in his eye. And the sheriff is straight forward with them. He tells them he doesn't think it's a coincidence that he's told there are runaways in his town and the same day his brother has them in his home for dinner. He basically tells them that they seem very cultured, but he still thinks they are the runaways. So he asks to see their papers. Rosalee seemed a bit worried, but Cato pulled papers out of his coat (phew!). But then he seemed nervous as he went through them, and the sheriff asked if something was wrong. Rosalee said no and took the top two papers and placed them on the table. The sheriff asked her to push them closer to him, which is when we see the top one has Pearly Mae's name (not the name Rosalee gave them, and everyone is familiar with the Macon 7 now and thus Tom's name). Luckily, a man runs in to tell the sheriff they are about to catch a runaway in the cane field (Noah followed his hallucination of Henry into the cane field), and the sheriff jumps up to follow the man. Rosalee tells Cato to go help Noah while she gets the medicine. 

One of the slave catchers reaches Noah and punches him down. He seems to be out, until his hallucination of Henry tells him not to quit, because he has to help the others. And with that, Noah fights back and is able to take the catcher out. Cato later finds Noah laid out next to the catcher. Which surprised me, because knowing Cato's history I didn't expect him to actually go help Noah. Meanwhile, when Rosalee runs out the house with the medicine she is caught by Jeremiah and August! They force her out by the cane field as they call out for Noah and Cato. Surprisingly, it is Cato who heads to run for her, and it is Noah who stops him, telling him they can't help her if they get caught too! Cato has definitely taken a liking to Rosalee, and Noah has somehow went from practically dying and hallucinating to walking on his own and thinking logically (don't know if I buy this swift recovery). August seems to be walking ahead of Jeremiah, who is holding Rosalee. When Jeremiah says he guesses they don't care about Rosalee, August tells him they're just waiting for the right time and will be after Jeremiah and his men. So maybe August is going back home. He's letting Jeremiah hold Rosalee, and he says they will be after Jeremiah and HIS men. Hmmm... I honestly for a moment thought he might help Rosalee get away, with the knowledge that he may be into some money and may not have to resort to catching slaves.  But I guess not. And I also wonder if Jeremiah lied to him about the mercury on his land and the bank wanting to pay him a premium, just to get him to go back home so they don't have to split the money with him. We'll see on the next episode.

Now back on the plantation, John is in town for his brother's big political event. While Ernestine is serving him, he confirms that her daughter is one of the Macon 7 and tells her he heard they made it to Kentucky. Later, when the reverend and Tom join him at the table, the reverend comments on John being a sympathizer. John ensures him that his brother Tom never listens to him anyway. Then he leaves to handle business in the city, ensuring his brother he'd be back in time for the event. Later, Tom and Ernestine agree to keep Sam's running away just between the two of them, as it would make Tom look bad. However, later, a man arrives to the Macon plantation, not early for Tom's event like Tom thought, but to deliver Sam back to Tom. He tells Tom Sam tried to bribe him to help him, and he adds that perhaps if Tom had hung the other runaways (I suppose he means Noah and Pearly Mae) his other slaves wouldn't try running away. With the reverend there, it seemed Tom's only option was to hang Sam, but he says he thinks he wants Sam to be a living example of why they shouldn't run away. So he makes plans to have Sam's heel cut off, crippling him! Ernestine goes in to see Sam, and tells him she asked to do it, because if it's done too deep it won't heel correctly. Though her position is at least he's alive, Sam doesn't understand why she and Tom seem to think it's better to be alive. When Tom and the reverend come in, Sam says he's ready and goes to lay on the table. He looks Tom in his eyes as he waits for his mother to chop his heel off. As she's preparing to do it, Tom tells her to stop and says he won't do it. Which of course seems to damage the likelihood of the reverend backing him. 

Later at the event, Ernestine approaches Tom before he heads into the room with the other men. She tells him not to worry about what happened and to just be him and show them he's the best candidate. But when he goes in there, all they talk about is slaves and how slavery is a benefit to slaves. The reverend asks him if he wants it bad enough. And later, when Ernestine doesn't find Sam in his quarters, she runs around looking for him and asking the other slaves if they've seen him. Then the overseers grab her. Then we see Tom giving a speech to the men from his balcony, and as the camera zooms out we see Sam hanging from the balcony!!! And Ernestine is naked in the same hole in the ground they had Zeke in!!! 

After the event, John returns to the Macon plantation. Tom points out John missed it, and John asks if him being there would have stopped Tom from killing Sam. Tom tells him he doesn't have the moral legs John and their father has. 

Underground Recap, S.1, E.7 ("Cradle")

via GIPHY

This was an especially hard episode to watch, as it focused on the children. My eyes watered, and before long I couldn't hold back the tears. 

On the plantation, the scene opens up with Sam and Ernestine preparing James to go out into the fields. He's picking cotton with his little hands, which eventually becomes bloodied despite the salve Sam tells him to put on his hands every hour. The first day is especially hard, with him not wanting to drink the water, cutting eyes at the overseer (who won't take his eyes off of him), and not making weight. Before he goes up to have his cotton weighed, Sam switches bags with him. So he's able to make weight, but Sam gets lashes for being under. Pretending to sleep, James listens to Sam and Ernestine talk as she tends to Sam's wounds. Sam tells her James isn't drinking the water, because he's used to the clean water in the big house. He tells her James is cutting eyes at the overseer, and that he's probably not going to make weight the next time. He asks her why Tom sent James to the field after telling him he would be sending James to work with him in the shop (Ernestine says it's because of the reverend), and then he asks her if she can do something to help James get out of the field (I assume he meant either talking to or sleeping with Tom). Ernestine tells Sam James is so small she can't see him from the porch, and that Sam looks like his father when he's out there. To which Sam tells Ernestine what happened to his father won't happen to them. She also tells Sam not to switch bags with James again, noting he can't be soft after earlier saying it's her fault he doesn't know he's a slave (Sam says it's Tom's fault). After overhearing this, James goes out the next day singing the song his mom taught him the day before to stay on tempo and pace, and drinks the water. He ends up making weight, but later he pours out some dirt from his bag that probably helped him make weight. In a conversation with Sam, he tells Sam their mom brought him some food. When Sam asks if he told her he made weight, he says yes. He says she said she was proud of him but looked sad. Then he says he thought they didn't want him to be soft. 

When T.R. sees James at the weigh-in, he always yells out to James, as if they are still friends, and James looks at him and forces a wave. While running around the house, T.R. accidentally runs into the reverend, who tells him he's too old to be playing with toys and offers to take him to the stable to ride a real horse. Out at the stable, T.R. sees a slave whipping a horse and asks his father why the horse is being whipped. He's told the horse is being whipped to train him so they can ride him like the one T.R. is sitting on. When he says it looks like it's hurting him, the reverend tells him it's a "her" and goes on to say why it's more worthwhile to train the women so they can train up the others, and that if it starts at a young age you can get them to do whatever you want...all the while looking at Ernestine! Tom then decides to teach T.R. about running the plantation and how it will be his one day. He takes him to the weigh-in, where T.R. does another awkward greeting exchange with James, and then his father tells him to look as far as he can to his right, left, and in between. He tells him all that will be owned by him someday. T.R. asks if it includes the slaves, and Tom tells him it does. 

Back in Tom's office, Sam comes to speak with Tom. Tom tells him he's teaching T.R. about the operations of the plantation, so he can say whatever he has to say in front of him. Sam comments on how nice Tom's desk looks in his office, and Tom agrees recalling Sam made the desk. Sam then mentions that that was the first time Tom paid him, and that Tom told him to save his money. He goes on to say Tom even mentioned he might be able to buy his freedom one day, placing his jar of saved money on the desk, noting it's at least $100. Tom tells him he's worth at least 5 of those jars and it would be an unwise business decision to let go of his best slave, to which Sam says he was not being clear. He said he wants to buy James' freedom. Tom tells him James is just a boy and asks what would he do without a family. Sam offers up having James stay with him, noting others who have paid him for his work and the possibility of him working in the city part-time. Tom is pretty much not hearing it, and just says he'll move James into the shop with him, and Sam takes his money back. 

Later that night, T.R. goes to visit James in the field, and witnesses Sam running off. Inside James living quarters, T.R. tells James his father told him he can't see James anymore, Then he adds that his father also told him he would own everything one day, and that means he can do whatever he wants like his dad does. He tells James he'll make things better. James asks him if he thinks so and asks how long he'll think it'll take after T.R. says it may take some time. T.R. says ten years maybe more. He then reminds James that they promised to share everything and offered James half of his candy. James told him he didn't want his candy and then turned back towards his bed to tend to his bag for the cotton. So T.R. leaves, and James cries a little after T.R. leaves. T.R. then goes to his father to tell him he saw Sam running away!

While all of this is happening on the plantation, August and Ben are at the hospital where August's wife was before she ran away. Ben waits outside the office while August speaks with the doctor and overhears that his mother underwent a lobotomy! The doctor said she was violent at first, but more recently had become very calm and quiet, to which August said she was planning her escape. Having heard enough, and hearing the screams from below, Ben storms into the office demanding to see his mother's room. The doctor tried to prevent him from seeing it, but Ben grabbed the keys and ran down to see the room. In the room he found his mom had been writing songs she taught him all over the wall, which he told his father when he came down. His father was upset by the living conditions, a cell with a small mattress, despite all the money he'd been sending the hospital. Ben laid on the mattress and looked out the window, and then he proclaimed they needed go to the woods straight ahead to find her, noting that's the stage. He found her first with his lantern, but he saw her singing and looking almost like an angel. Until his father came, and told him to watch out, and went towards her. Then Ben saw how she really looked, lost, dirty, and out of it. She was singing though, and August began to sing with her. She realized it was him, and said his name, then they sang together as he guided her back to the hospital. As Ben sat with his mother outside the office, he asked if she remembered him. She said he looks just like his father. When she tried to touch him, Ben moved back. Then he asked if she remembered Jay. She said she did, and so he asked her if Jay ever told her the story of the two wolves. She chuckled and said he did. Then he asked her if his dad was the good wolf or the bad wolf.

Back near the Hawkes' house, while John is out of town, Elizabeth encounters Boo hiding in the trees. She talks to a scared Boo, and says she'll sit there and wait until Boo feels safe enough to come out. But then a man approaches and asks if she's seen a small girl runaway. Elizabeth says she hasn't, and the man says if he finds out she's lying he'll have to get the Marshall. After he leaves, Boo goes with Elizabeth to her house. Elizabeth attempts to bathe Boo, but Boo lets out a yelp when she was approaching the tub full of water. She had a flashback of her father holding her up in water. Throughout the episode she has several flashbacks of her father, including him telling her how God parted the Red Sea to help Moses and the slaves get away, and ultimately a scene where she sees Moses die from what looks like arrows in his back, as she hides in the bushes and men seem to be approaching. Elizabeth wipes her down and puts her in the bed. The next day she puts ribbons in her hair and they prepare to have tea. She asks Boo where she got the yellow ribbon from, and Boo says from Rosalee after the scary man took her mother. Boo asks her why God didn't split the water for her father like he did for Moses at the Red Sea and why God didn't help her mom and dad. She tells Elizabeth the scary man got her mom. Elizabeth asks her who the scary man was, and she tells Elizabeth it's the man Tom sent after them. Elizabeth asks her if her master is Tom Macon, and Boo confirms it is. So now Elizabeth knows this is a slave belonging to her brother in law. 

Then, there's a loud banging at the door. Elizabeth hides Boo under the floor, and goes to the door. It's Kyle. He asks her if she's seen the small runaway girl. Elizabeth says she hasn't. Kyle confirms that John is out of town, and then asks her why there are two tea cups out if it's just her. Elizabeth tries to make an excuse, but Kyle confronts her on her lying, saying others already told him they saw her with the runaway. Then he looks down into the floor and sees Boo who let's out a scream. He pulls her out, and then proceeds to tell Elizabeth he doesn't know what John has her involved in but that if she was his he would protect her. He then says he would even hide her secrets, drawing close to her. Getting what he was hinting at, Elizabeth walks over to Boo and tells her she will be right back. And then Elizabeth leaves the room with Kyle. Hours later, Boo goes to find Elizabeth, and finds her sitting in the tub and proceeds to try to comfort her. Yes, that's right...Kyle made Elizabeth sleep with him in exchange for not arresting her and taking Boo away!!

As for Henry, Noah, Cato, and Rosa Lee, they are hiding out with one of the Native Americans, who's mother was a runaway slave. He takes Henry with him as they set up the marker to let the person who will help them get away know how many of them there are. Back at their hide out, the man has to leave, and Henry is left alone. He had mentioned to the man that he probably had several siblings, because he was born on a breeding farm, but that he did not know them and did not have any kin. With the man leaving, he was left alone, as Noah was spending all of his time with Rosalee. So he goes to see Cato, who is hiding something and goes off on Henry telling him not to come try to hang with him because Noah left him for Rosalee. He goes so far as to tell Henry that he wouldn't know anything about being with a woman, because he's a boy. It was sad to see how alone in the world Henry seemed to be in that moment. He went back to the location where they set up the markers, and there were sounds of horses in the background. 

He returned to the hideout, and Noah asked him why he didn't tell him he was going so he could have gone with him. Then he told him he got some things to make ink to give Henry a tattoo, because he said he wanted one like Noah. As Noah tattooed him, he began to talk to Henry about thinking of a last name, because last names carry weight like Macon. Henry comes up with Henry Hamilton, and Noah responds, "Henry and Noah Hamilton." Later, Henry goes to the fireside by Rosalee who is cooking. He tells Rosalee she doesn't have to cook for them, and she says she likes to because it reminds her of home. He asks if she means the big house, and she clarifies she means her mother. Then there's a shot, as the bullet hits Henry someone yells out it's a warning shot and begins counting down, as they run into one of the shelters. Initially, I thought maybe the Native American man set them up, but now I'm thinking maybe they followed Henry back to the hideout after he went alone to the markers (explaining the horses that were heard). They couldn't think of how they could get away, because there were so many men. Henry mentioned there was gunpowder in one of the other shelters near the men and with fire they could blow them up. Noah goes out to attempt to get fire to the gunpowder, but is shot and falls. Henry then runs out and grabs the fire and takes it to the gunpowder. He's shot and very close to the explosion he's able to set off!!

Underground Recap - S.1, E.6 ("Troubled Water")

Reverend Willowset and his slave, Herman, is staying at the Macon plantation, and Tom is trying to convince the reverend that he's a moral man. Herman seemed to have possibly caught Ernestine taking a sip of whiskey while preparing it for Tom. Tom passes on the whiskey, likely because he was meeting with the reverend. Meanwhile, Suzanna is upstairs giving birth to their son. She let's out a profanity that can be heard downstairs, shortly after Tom tells the reverend he reads the Bible to his family every Sunday. When Tom's response to the reverend's question about whether he reads the Bible to his slaves was every once in a while, the reverend tells him perhaps seven of his slaves would not have run away if he read to them every Sunday. And when Tom learns Suzanna is finished giving birth to their son, the reverend asks him what they'll name him. Tom says they'll name him Samuel, a biblical name, to which the reverend said it would be even better to baptize him Sunday. Probably caught off guard that Tom would give his son her son's name, Ernestine chimes in telling Tom the river may be too cold for the newborn. Tom says the baby is a Macon and is strong enough for it, but the reverend gave Ernestine a look suggesting he thought something may be going on between Ernestine and Tom. His suspicions are amplified in a later scene when he sees Ernestine leave a room, followed by Tom opening the door looking out at her and then going back into the room and closing the door.

What just transpired in the room was an interesting power play. Ernestine went into the room to tidy it up (or something like that), and Tom who was already in the room, locked both doors to the room. He tried to initiate sex, but she told him they should go down to the wine cellar and not do it in the house. He still tried, until she said she decides when and where assertively. To which Tom yelled it's his house and his rules. But then he apologizes repeatedly and asks her to allow themselves to let go in the moment, because the reverend is stressing him out. So she gives in initially, but then she asks him to please stop, and he does. She then leaves the room. 

In a later scene that evening, Herman comes into the kitchen, where Ernestine is slumped in a chair drinking from a bottle. He doesn't say anything, only proceeds to make some sort of concoction that includes some drops of his blood. I initially thought it might be some type of voodoo,  especially with him not saying a word, but it seems he was just making paint for the reverend. Meanwhile, Ernestine proceeds to tell him how she was jealous of Pearly Mae, because she was a field hand. She said Pearly Mae was owned during the day, but in the evening she could be with her man and her baby; and could even runaway. They on the other hand, Ernestine and Herman, as house slaves always had to be with their owner and could never get away and be alone. She even went so far as to tell him she killed Pearly Mae! But he still said not one word! In fact, the only sound he made was towards the end of the episode when James and T.R. were making funny faces at him. After not responding to their faces, he let out a yell, and they ran off. 

In a later scene, where Reverend Willowset is baptizing the slaves, he whispers in Ernestine's ear, before putting her under water, "I see you Jezebel," and holds her under for quite some time. 

Meanwhile, John and Elizabeth write to William Still, about how their "nursery" was coming along. The nursery of course being their holding space for runaways. Given what occurred in the last episode, Kyle Risdin has been keeping an eye on the Hawkes house. When Elizabeth answers a knock at the door, Kyle asks if he can come in while simultaneously letting himself in. He asks Elizabeth how she is holding up, and she says she's been having nightmares. She says home is the one place you should feel safe, to which he tells her he's been keeping a watch on the house for them. John comes down, and Kyle shares with them that a runaway has been spotted in the area. Kyle goes on to say there are only a few places runaways can hide in the area, a couple of barns and the Hawkes house. He then tells John they have been told they must compel all citizens to help them with runaways. John inquires on what that means, and Kyle tells him it means they are making John part of the U.S. Marshall! He then makes John go with him and other men to search for the runaway. Before leaving, John tells Elizabeth he's questioning if he should not just refuse to go and pay any fine if arrested, also mentioning Elizabeth had not told him about her nightmares. Elizabeth told him he has to go, so as to not further any suspicions Kyle may have and to protect their "cargo." 

So John goes with Kyle in search of the runaway, the others had gone ahead while John was speaking with Elizabeth. Kyle told John he knows he may have principles, but those principles don't necessarily apply on the ground and he hopes John wouldn't let his principles put Elizabeth in danger. He goes so far as to say that they noticed there was no forced entry the night of the incident, making it seem as though they might have been invited in. John put on an act of seeming appalled by the implication that he would endanger his wife in such a way. Kyle then suggested they look into a barn they were passing. When they went in the runaway attacked them, and Kyle was knocked out. John realized it was Clyde, the man that had been helping he and Elizabeth build their space for runaways in their home. Clyde asked John to help him, and in the next scene Kyle is waking up on the wagon with Elizabeth and John. John asks him if he remembers what happened and then tells him the runaway got away. So Kyle goes to continue the search with the others. When he leaves, they open the enclosure in their wagon, where Clyde was hiding. In the house, Clyde explains that he ran into his master, and though he thought about what he would do if he ever ran into his master, he never thought he would runaway like he did. When John told Clyde he always assumed he was a freedman, Clyde stated he is a free man. Clyde and the other man who had been helping to build out the space for runaways in the Hawkes home, set out, but to no avail. The other man returns to the Hawkes home bloodied and tells them they captured Clyde!

Meanwhile, Rosalee, Noah, Henry, and Cato have been on the run without food for weeks! They are nearly shot at by a White man Henry apparently asked for food. August and Ben are on their trail too. When they hear some men with prostitutes on a boat, they decide to take the boat from them, despite Rosalee saying they hadn't done anything to them. They forced everyone on the boat to get off the boat and jump into the water. But shortly thereafter, August and Ben arrived at the banks. August shoots at them and makes them throw their weapons to the side as he gets on the boat. Rosalee is in the back continuing to untie the boat. August asks where she is by name, but then the boat moves when Rosalee gets the boat untied. A scuffle ensues, and after spotting Rosalee, August jumps overboard with her in his arm. Cato yells at Noah to shoot at August, but Noah doesn't commenting that Noah is the only thing keeping Rosalee a float, because she can't swim. Rosalee puts up a fight, but eventually falls under the water and seems to disappear. Then she pops up in the water closer to the boat and begins to swim!! And it seemed like Cato gave a look of disappointment that Rosalee got away from August. Noah shoots August in the back, as the boat continues to go along. And August swims back to shore. 

 Rosalee later tells Henry about the time Tom taught her to swim by throwing her in the water, to get Mary to learn to swim. When Henry asks if she was afraid, she says no, because Tom was holding her the whole time and she knew he wouldn't let her go. While looking for clothes on the boat, Rosalee lets out a yelp while looking under the bed. It turns out there was a man hiding under the bed on the boat. He offered to connect them with a Native American that could help them get away, and Noah agreed to give it a try. Cato however was not a fan of the idea, and was even over the song that was supposed to be getting them to freedom but had not panned out. And later, while debating this point, Cato actually went over and pushed the man out of the boat! In another scene, with Rosalee, Cato tells her she's holding them back and useless like the man he pushed over the boat, pointing out August asked for her by name and that she's clearly Tom's daughter. He tells her they'll never stop coming after them as long as she's with them. And the next morning, Noah discovers that Rosalee isn't on the boat! He blames Cato and attacks him, adding he knows Cato's also responsible for what happened to Zeke and never believed Cato's story! Cato whips back that Noah wanted someone to be sacrificed so Moses and Boo could get away. 

Now onshore, August had swam back and told his son he was fine. They encountered one of the prostitutes from the boat who offers to show them where the river bends (August broke the rudder of the boat, so it wouldn't get further than the river bend) in exchange for allowing her to ride with them, because they were in Indian territory. August agrees, and has her ride with Ben. As they leave they encounter Seminoles, and August approaches them speaking their language and takes his shirt off. They approach him and slash him with their spears and then leave them alone. August tells the prostitute and Ben that it's a ritual to show them he's not an enemy. Then they go to the brothel/bar, and Tom tells Ben he's going to get shut eye and that that would give Ben enough time to get to know her. I was in shock, and yet not surprised, that August paid a prostitute to sleep with Ben. But later the prostitute comes to August's room, and when he asks what she's doing there, she says he paid him. She says she talked to Ben like he asked, so I guess he paid her to talk to Ben and not sleep with Ben, and then proceeded to talk to him about his sick wife (Ben had shared this info with her). She told him about her sick mother, and how her dying was the best day of her life. The two had sex, and when she left the room in the morning Ben went inside after waiting outside on the hallway floor. He tells his father he's going to the post to send off his letter to his mother. And later, at the bend, August is approached by Jeremiah Johnson and a gang of other men with guns. It turns out they knew about August, and learned even more about what he was doing from the prostitute. They gave him two options, have a shoot out and inevitably die or let them join him in capturing the runaways and split the bounty. But then Ben rides up and tells August they received a telegram that his mother had runaway from the hospital, to which Jeremiah said it looks like a third option has presented itself. And August rides off with Ben to the hospital.

The gang of men wait on the banks of the river bend, and Henry, Noah, and Cato spot them as the boat approaches. As they stand on the boat seemingly ready to fight, having nothing to lose, gunfire is heard and the men are shot. Henry proclaims what luck, but Noah says it isn't luck. Then the Seminoles come out, along with Rosalee, who is dressed in Seminole attire. Guess she wasn't as useless as Cato thought!!

Underground Recap, S. 1 E. 5 ("Run & Gun)

It never ceases to amaze me how unpredictable Underground is! Wow! Moral of this week's episode, no one is to be trusted (well maybe just a few). If you haven't started watching Underground, do yourself a favor and tune into WGN tomorrow morning at 11am ET for the 5 episode marathon! 

Tom has put a bounty out for all 7 runaways. $1000 dead or alive, double for Rosalee if she's alive! He describes each slave, calling Rosalee a mulatto. Which made me 95% sure he's Rosalee's father. Who knew hers wouldn't be the most interesting paternity revelation of the episode! More on that later. 

August and Ben are on the heels of the runaways, and they come across some tracks. Teaching Ben how to interpret the tracks, August tells Ben they show 1) there was a fight and 2) they changed directions. While he's explaining this to Ben we got flashback scenes showing how it all went down. The fight ensued, because Moses was upset that they were wondering around unsure of where they should be going, because they left early. And he's even more upset that they had to leave early, because Noah ran off with Rosalee without them before they were all supposed to leave. And most upsetting, because of Noah running off with Rosalee, his family got split up with Pearly Mae stuck back at the plantation. They changed course, because after the altercation Cato reveals that Ernestine told him about the train in Atlanta. Noah wanted to stick to his plan, which isn't much of a plan since the song hasn't been fully interpreted, but Cato pulls rank. While Noah tells Cato they aren't at the plantation anymore and he's not the overseer, Cato tells him he's the one who got most of them off the plantation! Touche! So the group follows Cato, and Noah follows along. 

Noah points out it's not exactly easy to just get on a train. So Moses suggests they go to the home of someone he knows, the white man who was selling stuff from his wagon (including the paper and pen Noah got) a few episodes ago. When they find the home Moses, Noah, and Cato go inside, while Zeke, Henry, Boo, and Rosalee stay behind. They get the man to help them plan how to get on the train in exchange for their revolver, which Cato and Moses offered against Noah's will. While they are discussing the plan, August and Ben locate the home. August instructs Ben to shoot through the front door 3 times, standing as far away from the house as possible. The plan was to have them run out the back door, where August would be waiting. August told Ben if they come out the front though, he is to shoot them in the chest. As Ben sets up to shoot, he is spotted by Henry. Then Ben shoots three time. As Moses, Noah, and Cato begin to run out the back, Henry yells to them that they are being flushed out. So they go back in. But not only is August shooting at them, the man in the house with them is shooting at them too, as they hide behind boxes. He tells them there's a $1000 bounty on each of their heads, when they ask why he's shooting at them. Noah asks Moses to tell them what's in the boxes, to see if there's anything that might be useful. But Moses reveals he can't read, and that it was Pearly Mae who could read. And of course Cato commented on the team Noah picked out. 

Well while August is shooting at the house, he gets attached by the three slave catchers he fooled in the first episode! They beat him pretty bad, until Ben pulls a gun on them. The ring leader tells Ben he can't shoot all three of them, but Ben says he's not planning on shooting all three of them, just him! So the man says they've gotten their payback, especially including getting the 7 runaways August was going for. But while this is going on, Zeke grabs the man in the house through the window and pulls him out. And then the seven of them run off!

They get to the tracks, but Rosalee spots the three slave catchers coming their way. So they plan to split up and meet further down the tracks, Cato and Zeke, Noah and Henry, and Rosalee, Moses, and Boo. Cato, Zeke, Noah, and Henry run in plain view of the slave catchers, as a distraction, before splitting up. While Rosalee, Moses, and Boo go through the trees. 

The slave catchers end up on the heels of Zeke and Cato. They get to some water, and Zeke says they can take them on. Cato has other ideas though. Ugh! He tells Zeke there's no we, and then he stabs Zeke in the leg!!!!! Thus, leaving Zeke to get captured while he runs off! The three slave catchers approach Zeke, and Zeke manages to take all three out after getting bullets in his chest and a hatchet in his back (which he pulls out and uses back against one of them)!! But once he finishes them off, he sees August and Ben, who have been standing their watching him take down these slave catchers (Ben will later comment to himself that he and his father should have helped Zeke). August gets off his horse, as Zeke picks up the hatchet and begins walking towards them, until he falls down and dies. August wraps Zeke up, puts him on his horse, and proceeds to find the rest of them. I was totally not expecting any of this!!! 

Meanwhile, Moses has just about given up and won't let Rosalee treat the shot wound he got in his shoulder in the house. Rosalee gets him to look into Boo's eyes and reminds him that Boo has his and Pearly Mae's strength. With a change of heart, Moses asks Rosalee to treat the wound so they can head to meet the others for the train. So Rosalee goes off to get some plants to treat the wound.

After hearing leaves rustling, August spots Rosalee. He pulls the same story he used on the runaway woman in the first episode, and his description of the blue mountains helped Rosalee figure out the "blue haze" portion of the song. He just about had Rosalee convinced, to the point where she told him about the train plans! But then she heard the horses, and he said it was just his son. Realizing he was the man that had the little boy shooting at the house, Rosalee runs off into the trees. August sends Ben after her to flush her out, and she gets caught in some thorns.

Then we see Noah and Henry at the meeting spot near the tracks waiting on the others. Cato eventually comes, and he tells them the slave catchers got Zeke and he couldn't help him. Noah gave him major side eye, knowing there was more to the story. Then Moses and Boo came to the spot. Noah asked where Rosalee was, and Moses told him she never came back. Then there was more rustling from the trees, and Rosalee appears, having ripped a lock of her hair out to get unstuck from those thorns!! She tells them she got away from the slave catcher, but he knows about the train. Cato was upset that she revealed the plan! Now they had to catch the train further down, because August and Ben would be waiting for them.

Sure enough August and Ben were waiting for them at the station. But, Noah had a clever idea of walking on the roof of the station and getting on the train from the top. Unfortunately, August spotted them and began shooting up at them. With little time, Rosalee said they had to get Boo and Moses on the train. So Noah had Moses jump on the train and he dropped Boo in Moses' arms. And now we are down to the Macon 4 on top of a train station!!

Now back at the plantation, Tom is talking to each slave one on one behind a shed as he shoots birds and drinks. When it was Sam's turn, Tom ends up offering to let Sam try to shoot the rifle. On top of that, he stands in front of Sam with his back towards him instructing him on how to shoot a bird. If only he saw the look on Sam's face as he lowered the gun toward's Tom's temple. Wow! But Sam just shot the bird. 

Tom had also enlisted the help of his wife, Suzanna, to get Pearly Mae to tell them where the other slaves were. They had tried everything, but nothing was working. At this point, Pearly Mae was hanging on a cross in the field. Tom tells Suzanna he thought she might be able to relate to Suzanna since they were both mothers and both born there. Suzanna agrees, though she feels Tom is taking the matter a bit too serious. He sees the running away as an attack on the family, whereas Suzanna says when her father ran the plantation slaves ran away and were captured...it was just a part of southern life. 

Just as Sam got up the boldness to go give Pearly Mae water, other slaves were too afraid to give her water (one of the slaves said she didn't deserve water, because what they did is making life harder on the rest of them), Pearly Mae was taken down and brought to the big house. Two of the house slaves were instructed to bathe her, not speak to her, and to not let Ernestine in. But Ernestine replaced one of the house slaves, after threatening to tell Suzanna that she tries on her clothes. Ernestine gave Pearly Mae pointers on what to expect and do with Tom when she goes to meet him...be grateful, eat all of the food, sip the cocktail and ask what's in it, and then tell him they ran away towards the swamp. But when Pearly Mae was taken down for the meal in her dress, it was Suzanna who walked in. Funny thing, Suzanna said the same thing about Tom as Ernestine did earlier to Pearly May, but she said she would be handling it on behalf of her husband. 

Suzanna and Pearly Mae had a very interesting conversation, including Suzanna pointing out what I noted in my last recap, how Moses just left her without seemingly a second thought. And they had more in common than just being mothers and being born on the plantation. They share the same father!! Suzanna even noted that their father gave Pearly Mae a gift when she got married. Then Suzanna offered freedom papers to Pearly Mae in exchange for giving Tom information on how to find the runaways. But the papers were only for Pearly Mae and Boo, not Moses. Then Suzanna left.

And enters Ernestine. Ernestine pours Pearly Mae a cup of tea as she tries to convince Pearly Mae that she cannot trust Suzanna and those papers. Pearly Mae reveals to her that she can read, noting she stole a school book from Suzanna as a child and taught herself to read,  and says the papers are legit, just like the slave bill that has a $1000 bounty of each of the runaways; meaning someone's going to be trying to capture them every step of the way! She also tells Ernestine that Rosa Lee will be fine, because Tom isn't like their former owner (who is also Suzanna and Pearly Mae's father). As an example she said, after Rosalee aged out of playing with Mary Macon, Tom didn't send her to the fields like her father did!! Final confirmation...Tom is Rosalee's father!! Pearly Mae also tells Ernestine she hadn't talked, because at the time Moses was Boo's best chance at freedom. But now that she has freedom papers for her and Boo, that only  need Tom's seal, she's the best chance for Boo's freedom (especially given the bounty on her head). She explained to Ernestine both of their daughters would be fine, and that Ernestine should understand her desire to do what's best for her daughter. And Ernestine confirms understanding such a desire in more than one way. Verbally, and by poisoning Pearly Mae!!!! Yes...Ernestine put poison in Pearly Mae's tea, knowing Pearly Mae was probably going to tell Tom how to find them! Then she slit Pearly Mae's arm to make it look like a suicide!!! 

Underground Recap - S.1, E.4 ("Firefly")

OMG! Underground has no chill, and I'm loving this new slave narrative like none I've ever seen on tv! Roots better come with it Memorial Day! Just when Underground has me wondering how they can top the last episode, they hit me with another great episode! You never know what WGN is going to serve on Wednesday nights!

So the morning after Rosalee and Noah ran away, Cato finds the overseer lying on the ground in his house with a bottle lodged in the side of his throat! But it turns out he's not dead. He starts coughing up blood. Cato pulls the bottle out of his neck and then looks like he's about to choke him to death, until he hears someone coming into the house looking for the overseer. So Cato disappointingly gets up to get something to stop the bleeding and yells out for someone to help. Sure enough the overseer doesn't die, and when Tom has Ernestine come to doctor him up he somehow manages to repeatedly say Rosalee's name, after he hears them all assuming it was Noah who did it to him! 

Meanwhile, let us not forget that Josey (Jussie Smollett) is getting ready to kill John Hawkes for allegedly selling his wife. There is also a second runaway with him, the seemingly more rational one of the pair who's tired and hungry and believes the Hawkes when they say they've never sold slaves. Josey on the other hand has no "you know what" to give! When the other runaway tells him the Hawkes probably have some food they can eat, Josey decides he has always wanted to "eat like the White folk." O but no...he doesn't intend to let the Hawkes off the hook in exchange for sharing a meal with them. He ties John up on the other end of the table, and has Elizabeth serving Josey and the other runaway. He yells at her not to look at him, in the same fashion a slave owner would expect his slave not to make eye contact with him. He even purposefully spills a glass of wine just to make her clean it up! The other runaway tells him he doesn't have to be like that, but this was only the beginning. Josey then ties John up by his arms and tells Elizabeth that she has to whip him with a whip! The other runaway leaves thinking Josey's going too far. Elizabeth refuses to whip John until Josey warns she'll be next, and John tells her to do it. So she whips him, with Josey telling her to whip him again and harder, as he continues to tell John to tell the truth and admit he sold his wife. When Elizabeth begs to stop, Josey goes to slap her, but before he does John confesses that he did sell Josey's wife. He explains that what Josey saw was John handling the probating of his owner's estate, which included him giving Josey's wife to a tobacco plantation owner that Josey's owner was in debt to. He tells Josey he went with them to Kentucky where the plantation was, but he's busted in his lie when he says Josey's wife was in the back wrapped in a blanket to get warm. Womp, womp! Josey says his wife was sold during the summer! Which John should have known after the other runaway asked him at the dinner table where he was a few summers back to try to show Josey it wasn't John who sold his wife. But who can keep track of details like that when you and your wife are being tortured. Now, though he wasn't remembering details, John was maneuvering himself out of being hung by his arms. So when Josey tried to stab him, John was able to get loose and a fight ensued. The other runaway came back and knocked Josey out with a blunt object. He then goes to Elizabeth and apologizes. He says he shouldn't have ever left and that they were good folks. Then...BANG!!  He gets shot in the head right in front of Elizabeth's face while talking. It looks like it's there friend who's the recently promoted marshall. Either way, he saw the runaway going along the side of the house, which is why he came in. And of course they can't tell him the runaway was saving their lives, because then they'd have to admit they are allowing runaways to come to their house. And you would think after this encounter they'd rethink helping runaways, but that isn't the case. After Elizabeth tells John she knows even if it wasn't Josey's wife, she could tell the story was true, John admits it was and that he didn't think anything of it when he was doing it to impress the law firm in his first year. Elizabeth tells him they'll make up for it, and they put the lamp out for runaway slaves to know it's a safe house. 

Meanwhile, Rosalee and Noah are still on the run, and the dogs are hunting them down. Noah gets Rosalee a change of clothes, and the two escape from a shed just before the dogs arrive. They go through the swamp, but the dogs follow after them. Noah tries to send Rosalee on ahead, but she stops to pick some flowers. When the dogs make it on shore Noah yells they have to go, while she's still trying to get the flowers out with bloodied hands. Turns out these weren't just any type of flowers. The flowers were poisonous, and when the dogs got a hold of them they killed the dogs! So the men who were after Noah and Rosalee couldn't catch them, because the dogs were leading them to Rosalee and Noah. Later that evening, while Noah is going over the lyrics to the song with Rosalee, Rosalee asks him why he's going over the song. He reveals to her he's going back for Henry and all of them, and wants her to know the song in case she has to go ahead without him. He explains to her how he's never been the same since he heard about free Black men, and that Henry's fire reignited his desire to be a free man. After listening to him share this part of his story and talk about having to go back for the others, Rosalee kisses Noah before he departs to go back to the plantation.  

Back at the Pullman's, Ben talks to Peter (my name for Clarke Peters' character) about Peter having lived with Native Americans before coming into August's life. They talk about Peter learning how to hunt and trap from the Native Americans and how Peter taught those things to August. Ben then asks Peter if he knows what August does with those skills now, to which Peter tells Ben the story of the two wolves that live inside of everyone (essentially one is a good wolf and the other is bad...they are battling each other, but only one can win...the one we choose to feed). Later, Ben's teacher tells August Ben fought a little boy and that it may be related to August always being gone. So August tells her she won't have to worry about Ben anymore. He tells Peter he intends to take Ben with him to learn a trade, the trade of capturing runaways!

Now back on the plantation, Henry is still optimistic that Noah is coming back for them, but Sam tells him Noah already left them all behind. Ernestine goes to see Sam to find out what he knows about Noah and Rosalee, but instead of telling her what he knows he lightweight goes in on her for having left him behind and going into the big house. But he slips up when he tells Ernestine Rosalee wasn't supposed to runaway anyway! Ernestine caught the "supposed to" part and realized there was some type of plan to runaway. 

Back in the big house cellar, Tom offers Cato a glass of rum (or was it vodka...I digress). After asking Cato how long he's worked for him (which I found to be an interesting choice of words...had me thinking for a second that Cato was an employee not a slave...but then I remembered Cato claimed to need to runaway too...so he was indeed a slave). Cato said 11 years, and then Tom told him he was going to be the new overseer and gave him the whip. When Tom walked away, Cato had a smile on his face that threw me off. Was he excited to be the overseer or excited to be in an even better position to help the rest of them runaway. It would be hard to get away anyway, because the plantation was on lockdown. 

August and Ben came to the plantation for the job of getting Noah and Rosalee back, though Tom decided they would only get the job if his men didn't capture them first before the next morning. August went to pay Ernestine a visit, where he did two things. First, he got Ernestine to confirm that her husband passed away before Rosalee was born and that all of Rosalee's family was on the plantation (further implying my notion that Tom is Rosalee's father, or perhaps Tom's father-in-law is??). He also threatened Rosalee with a knife he used to show Ernestine a better way to cut the pig she was cutting up. He did this by saying he knows what kind of person Rosalee is after seeing what she did to the overseer with the bottle, after Ernestine tried to describe her to him as delicate, as he wiped the pig blood off of his knife on Ernestine's apron. But no worries, you know Ernestine is a mastermind when it comes to her children. When Suzanna was talking with a tailor about making a garment for her baby, and the tailor said it would take six weeks (time Suzanna said she didn't have before the baby would be born), Ernestine suggested a train would be faster. To which Suzanna agreed, and the tailor said it could then get done by the end of the week. Ernestine then took news of the train time to Cato, assuming he was in on the plan Sam let slip out and could some how get word about the train to Rosalee (who surely can't come back to the plantation). But Cato tells her plans change!!

Now prior to this scene between Ernestine and Cato, the plans indeed seemed to change. Cato, as the new overseer, went out into the fields and told the field slaves he expected them to pull double the amount of cotton that they usually pulled. And when Zeke tried to tell Cato that Cato's canister was leaking water as he walked through the fields, Cato angrily took the water bucket for the field slaves, poured the water out of it, and stepped in it, declaring no water for them until they pulled double the amount of cotton. A bit later in the field, Moses and Pearly Mae's daughter came to them and told them she couldn't find the papers Pearly Mae made for everyone. Pearly Mae was convinced Cato took them and planned to use it against them, even though Moses said he would look and find the papers that night. Pearly Mae insisted instead that they all had to leave that night, before Cato used the papers against them.

Well that night, after Cato's conversation with Ernestine, he and two other White overseers line up Henry, Sam, Zeke, Moses, Boo, and Pearly Mae. Cato tells them he knows they were planning on running away with Noah, and then proceeds to tell them a cautionary tale about a slave who kept running away even though he kept getting dragged back and burned with oil. And right when I started thinking to myself, wait, is he talking about himself, he says the slave burned half his face off!! Then he sets one of the overseers on fire, stabs the other, and then throws the fire on the field. And the field catches into crazy flames, because it turns out that "water" that was leaking out of his canister earlier was actually gasoline!!! He then yells for them all to run!!

Now Tom comes out telling everyone to get a bucket and the slaves to put water on the fields. But August tells him this is a distraction for more slaves to get away. Why you ask? Well because as August showed Tom, the bucket didn't have a bottom and therefore couldn't hold water (and here I thought Cato only stepped in the bucket to make it dirty!!) So Tom tells him he's got the job, and August and Ben set out to get the runaways. Then we see Cato, Henry, and Zeke running out, followed by Moses, Boo, and Pearly Mae...with August and Ben not far behind them on their horses. Now my first instinct was, wait, do they have time to get the contraption for Moses to hold Boo. And then when I saw her running on her own, I was like, ummm this is certainly not the time for that. She can walk on her own when you aren't being chased! And sure enough, Boo's foot gets caught right outside the plantation gate! Pearly Mae stops to try to get her out, as Boo calls out for Moses (for someone who said Pearly Mae and Boo was coming with him, he sure was running on ahead of them, I'm just saying). He turns around, and when he sees she's stuck goes back to help pull her foot out. But now August and Ben are at the gate right behind them. Pearly Mae tells Moses to get Boo to freedom no matter what, and then turns towards August and puts herself in front of the gun, only asking that he doesn't shoot her in front of her daughter...as Moses runs away with Boo in his arm. Now I get it, perhaps in the moment they both realized Boo would have a better chance of surviving the journey with Moses, as opposed to with Pearly Mae, but really it just felt like Moses too easily kept leaving Pearly Mae behind. Anyway, though he had the gun aimed at her head, when Pearly Mae asked August not to shoot her in front of her daughter, he looked back at Ben. He did't shoot her, but he did take her back to the plantation, where the other slaves, including Sam (who for some reason didn't run with them) was passing buckets of water to stop the fire in the fields. 

While the others are running, one of Tom's men on a horse stops Henry and points a gun at him. Then...BANG! The man is shot, and Henry looks in the direction of the shooter and smiles. It's obviously Noah. Then Noah, Cato, Henry, Moses, and Boo come to where Rosalee was waiting! And so the Macon 7 begins (well almost...more like Macon 6)!!