UNDERGROUND
Series 1, episode 2
“War Chest”
Rosalee……………………………….. Jurnee Smollett-Bell Cato………………………………………………. Alano Miller
Noah……………………………………………… Aldis Hodge John Hawkes…………………………………… Marc Blucas
August Pullman…………………….. Christopher Meloni Ernestine………………………………………. Amirah Vann
Elizabeth Hawkes……………………… Jessica De Gouw Tom Macon………………………………… Reed Diamond
While he doesn’t admit that his wife Pearly Mae is the one who can read, Moses tells Noah that the “map” he copied is a song whose verses are clues to their escape route. When Cato crashes their secret meeting, Noah calms the situation by explaining how he refused to turn him in to their owner, Tom Macon, and that he’s going with them. As Tom is courting wealthy plantation owners to support his senate campaign, John and Elizabeth Hawkes are in a clandestine meeting with Underground Railroad organizer William Still when they are suddenly enlisted to help an escaped slave found hiding in a shipping crate.
Though bounty hunter August Pullman needs money to pay for his wife’s stay in a mental hospital, when warned that his frequent absence is causing a problem at home, he takes his adolescent son Ben hunting. After Ben kills the wolf that’s been raiding their chicken coop, his dad sends him back home alone while he takes off after an escaped slave – unaware that Ben is following him instead. Though Moses warns against it, Noah makes a deal with the Macon plantation’s storekeeper, Frog Jack, for materials to forge the papers he needs for the escape. When Cato learns that he’s gone to see Frog Jack without telling him, he leads overseer Bill Meekes to Frog Jack’s store to confront him. But after Meekes fails to find anything, Noah tries placating Cato by telling him about a plan to steal a gun from the elderly plantation owner who’s hosting an upcoming slave dance.
Increasingly concerned about her children James and Rosalee’s futures on the plantation, Ernestine corners Tom in the wine cellar and uses sex to get him to intervene with his wife, Suzanna. At the dance, Noah tells Cato that their host, “Bareback” Shaw, uses the events to pick a slave with whom she will spend the night. Because he’s always chosen to be her partner, Noah says it will give Cato time to steal the gun she has hidden in her house. However, when Mistress Shaw picks Cato instead, he realizes he’s been set up so that Noah can get his hands on the gun first. Finally, as Noah returns to the dance to ask Rosalee to join the escape, Elizabeth and John cement their commitment to the Underground Railroad when they manage to get Eli safely out of town.
LOGLINE
As Noah (Aldis Hodge) lays plans for the slave escape, John (Marc Blucas) and Elizabeth Hawkes (Jessica De Gouw) are drawn deeper into the Underground Railroad. Ernestine (Amirah Vann) presses Tom (Reed Diamond) to keep her children safe.
Directed by: Anthony Hemingway
Written by: Misha Green & Joe Pokaski