Underground - Black and Blue - Review

This week’s episode gave us another unexpected death. It was more shocking to me than Sam’s death. I’ll just dive right in.

Rosalee is taken to, what seemed to me to be, a warehouse. August is certain that Noah and Cato will come for her and, of course he’s right. They are on their way. The thuggish slave catchers want to rip the “white woman’s” dress off her. (To this day there are that certain jobs attract bullies and thugs; people who like to hurt others. Makes perfect sense that ‘slave catcher’ would be one of those jobs. ) August stops them. I smiled when I realized that this is not the shy and diminutive woman we met at the beginning of the season. She looks these men in their eyes, defiantly takes the dress off and tosses it on the fire.

We soon discover her ulterior motive. She still has Devil’s Snare in the pockets of the dress she threw onto the fire. When these leaves burn, they cause hallucinations. Another decision not too well thought out. Yes, the other men in the building (particularly August, who has a conversation with Ernestine) suffer from hallucinations, but so does Rosalee and with devastating results.

This episode, if I am remembering correctly, is the first time we’ve ever heard Rosalee consciously acknowledge that Tom is her father. It gives her something in common with Ben. I was expecting this emotional connection to lead to Ben letting Rosalee go. But it wasn’t an emotional connection between these two, it was Ben reading the latest letter from the bank. The one in which the bank offered to purchase the property. Ben is angry that his father lied to him. This is what prompts him to cut Rosalee free.

I was looking forward to the confrontation between Ben and his father. I wanted to know what Ben thought about Moby Dick. I was looking forward to the scene where Rosalee intercepted Noah and Cato on their way to rescue her, and she could proudly announce that she’d gotten herself out of that jam.

You would think I’d learned my lesson about assumptions on this show. Rosalee hallucinates a confrontation with her father who sets Bill to whip her. Rosalee declares that will never happen again and stabs Bill….only to discover that it is Ben. That compassionate, inquisitive, intelligent boy, one of the few good souls on this show is gone.

The show has frequently had people question the wisdom of August’s decision to bring Ben along on this trip. Even August questioned this decision. Though August’s biggest concern was losing his son’s love. Never did it occur to me (or August) that it would be the loss of Ben himself. I fear next week’s finale. I don’t know that anything will stop August from getting to Rosalee. Will any of the runaways survive?

Noah and Cato come up with a pretty good plan. They’ll create a distraction by throwing money in the streets; if they can stop bickering. Noah tells Cato that he doesn’t buy that Cato cares for no one but himself. We find that Cato has a wife and daughter out there somewhere.

The money being used as a distraction came from a wagon transporting what looked to be some company’s payroll. Noah and Cato toss some money in the street and all but August head off looking for more.

Noah gets Rosalee out of the warehouse. Cato meets them and they take off. They are forced to abandon the wagon when they find a tree lying in the middle of the road. They take off on foot, but Cato is caught in a snare. Rosalee and Noah struggle to cut him down while under fire from men with guns and other men with bows and arrows. Initially I thought they were the Native Americans returning to help them, but it wasn’t. Noah manages to cut Cato down, but Cato takes an arrow to the leg. He can’t run. Noah realizes this and realizes that if he stops to help Cato or tries to carry him, they’re both dead. Cato was about to get a taste of his own medicine and he seemed to know it too. Noah as least left Cato with a weapon. I confess. I smiled. After what Cato did to Zeke. I was okay with it.

I was pretty confused by John’s auction/wager experience until I glanced back at the “previously on” segment. It was then that I realized that John was still looking for Clyde, the slave that was recaptured two episodes ago, and had found him. Unfortunately, the man John has wagered with in an effort to rescue Clyde knows exactly who he is and plans to kill John. Clyde stops John from killing him; telling John to run.

John returns home feeling guilty about leaving Clyde behind. Elizabeth is feeling guilty about using her body to protect Boo. She confesses to John. The ensuing fight scares Boo so much that she fires a gun at John in an effort to protect Elizabeth. Before the couple can properly deal with this issue (and the fact that Elizabeth has left a US Marshall tied up in the crawlspace reserved for runaways) Noah and Rosalee arrive at the front door. (I’m just going to let that knocking and entering the secret way station on the Underground Railroad through the front door thing slide for now.)

John’s story was less successful for me this week. The sequence felt like filler. What really made an impression on me this week was Ben’s stabbing. I am so sorry that I won’t get to see how this journey with his father changed Ben. I was really curious about whether he would conclude that his father was the good wolf or the bad wolf when the journey was over. I’m not sure how I feel about Rosalee being the one who killed him. Overall though, it was another well-written engrossing episode.

What did you guys think?

About the Author - Prpleight

Prpleight is a screenwriter and senior software engineer with solid geek cred. When not writing code, screenplays, or watching TV (sometimes she does all three at the same time), she uses her broadsword Bessie to battle evil. She's been a frequent contributor to the SpoilerTV discussion boards for several years now.

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