The Underground Railroad (2021) s01e01 Episode Script

1
[wind whooshing]
♪
[exhaling]
Ah!
[baby crying]
[crying continues]
♪
♪
[Cora] The first and last
thing my mama gave me
was apologies.
[birds singing]
[water rippling loudly]
[people singing in distance]
What?
Expect me to howl?
I hadn't had that much
moonshine, no.
I want to talk to you.
Well, we talking.
Now what?
What can I do for you,
Caesar?
I'm heading back north.
Soon.
Running away, and
I want you to come with.
You heading north?
And I'm gonna eat.
[scoffs]
No, please, Cora.
I don't want you to tell on me.
Have to trust you on that.
But I'm getting on away
from here; I have to.
Well, what you want me for?
Good luck.
Good luck?
Now you listen here, Caesar.
I know you ain't been
on this plantation long at all,
but one thing you gots to know
by now is I ain't nobody's
"good luck."
Ain't nobody's
[sighs]
- [rhythmic clapping]
- [tambourine jingling]
[happy shouting and whooping]
[indistinct singing]
[singing continues]
[singing continues]
- In that old field ♪
- [indistinct shouts]
In that old field ♪
In that old field
Now, Jockey, you got to eat
something, you hear?
Mabel?
No, Jockey, it's Cora.
Mabel, where you been at?
Easy. That's good.
- Can you handle it?
- Mm-hmm.
- Okay.
- That's good. Mmm.
Mmm.
In that old field ♪♪
[dogs barking]
[horse whinnies]
- [singing stops]
- [shouting stops]
[low chatter]
- [insects trilling]
- [quiet whispers]
[clears throat softly]
[exhales sharply]
Master James.
Master Terrance.
Oh, don't let us bother you.
My brother and I were
discussing business
and heard the music.
I told him, "Now that is
the most god-awful racket
I ever heard." [laughs]
God, what a ruckus.
We's sorry to disturb
you, Master Terrance.
Oh, no, no, no. No, no.
No disturbance at all, Jockey.
No disturbance at all.
You sure have a peculiar way of
handling your niggers, brother.
I do with my property
as I well please.
And you with yours.
Daddy roll over in his grave,
he saw this.
Let him roll.
Say, Jockey when is
your birthday, anyway?
Uh, I reckon September
September 14.
But it ain't but June,
Jockey.
I reckon you right.
How old about is you now?
I really can't say,
Master Terrance.
That's quite all right,
Jockey, that's
that's quite all right.
I knew you let your slaves
have revels, but [laughs]
I had no idea
they were so extravagant.
You trying to make me look bad?
Do not pretend you care what a
nigger thinks of you, Terrance.
Well, you got me there.
Let's get this parlor trick
over with, dear brother.
I don't care to endure
this stench much longer.
Prideful!
[Prideful] Yes sir,
Master Terrance.
[Terrance] Prideful, my brother
tells me about a nigger
he has down here
this side of the property.
S says the boy can recite
the Declaration of Independence.
Now, I can't bring
myself to believe him.
I thought, perhaps tonight
he could show me,
since everyone is out and about
and engaging in revelry.
Prideful run,
go bring me the boy
who can recite
the Declaration, hmm?
Michael?
The boy with the scar
right about here, huh?
Sorry, sir, but the boy
Michael dead and gone.
Sickness took him.
[Terrence laughing quietly]
When?
Maybe six
six, seven months ago now, sir.
- [laughing quietly]
- I should have been told.
Brother, you need to keep better
account of your property.
Don't meddle.
This boy can do it.
[man] [whispers]
No. Prideful
He and Michael be together
all the time.
Let him do it.
[boy coughs]
Well, come on, boy,
let's hear it.
Do as master say.
[quietly] You gonna get us
all killed.
Wh-wh-when [sniffles]
W-When in in the course of
of main events it begone
[laughs] Well, Lord, I done
seen and heard it all now.
[clears throat]
When in the course
of human events
it becomes necessary
for one people to dissolve
the political bands which
connect them with another,
and to assume amongst
the powers of the earth
the separate and equal station
that the laws of nature
and nature's God entitle them
I's sorry, Master. I's sorry!
Please forgive me.
[cries out]
[cries out]
No!
[insects trilling]
[coughs]
[bird squawks echoing]
- [whip cracks]
- [Cora groans]
[ragged breathing]
[Cora sobbing]
[whip cracking loudly]
[birds squawking]
[heavy breathing]
- Easy.
- [shuddering]
Drink some of this.
Easy now, child. Easy.
[Ruth] She ain't right,
you know?
When Mabel run off and left,
I feel like
something broke in her heart.
Ain't been right since.
[Cora groans softly]
[whispers] She can still
hear youse, you know.
How y'all talk so bad
about a girl right in her face?
If Mabel was here,
she'd knock all hell out y'all.
[door creaking open]
[Agnes] Ain't supposed
to be in here, now.
Ain't she been beat
near to death already?
♪
[horse neighs]
[sheep bleating]
[door creaks closed]
[Caesar] The air
is better in here.
It's good for you.
What if Connelly come looking?
[Caesar] Don't you worry.
Won't nobody come in here.
"But this, I conceived, was to
be the least of my misfortunes.
For as human creatures are
observed to be more savage
and cruel in proportion
to their bulk,
what could I expect,
but to be a morsel
in the mouth of the first
among these enormous barbarians
that should happen to seize me?"
Master cut out your tongue
and pour poison down your
throat, he know you can read.
What is it?
It's called
Gulliver's Travels.
It's about
a man on a trip.
He's lost
and trying to get home.
In this part,
he talking about
giants like Goliath.
And how, on account of them
being bigger and more powerful,
they must also be more evil
and more cruel.
Like white mens.
Cora, will you come with me?
It is past time to go.
There is nothing here
but suffering.
Pain and suffering.
You're wrong about me, Caesar.
You think I'm some kind of luck
because my mama got away,
but you wrong.
You wrong.
I ain't no kind of luck.
Only kind I had was rotten.
The kind that cause a woman
to run away
in the middle of the night,
and leave her only child.
Leave her to bleed and rot
on this damn plantation.
That the kind of luck
you looking for?
I'm not supposed to be here.
But I am.
♪
[Francis] Something wrong
with you.
Nothing's wrong with me.
[Francis] Master says we lie
down, that means we lie down.
Ain't no other way about it.
Listen here.
I know about men like you.
You want to sneak off
in the night
and roll around the swamp
with other mens on your back,
that's your business.
But here? Between us?
Master put a man
and woman together
because he aims to produce.
And if that man
and that woman don't produce,
it's for sure
gonna be a reckoning,
you understand me?
I won't be bred like cattle.
You got a mighty fine heart,
Caesar.
Pure, like Jesus Christ hisself.
But this ain't Virginia.
And if you don't use your sex,
Master Randall will take it.
He take it right off
and put it somewhere
you won't ever have
to bother with this no more.
You ain't no better
than the rest of us.
And I won't suffer for you.
- [dog barking in distance]
- [sheep bleating]
[grunting softly]
Grab your things.
Why?
Come on now, grab your things,
don't make a ruckus.
Come on, Prideful, set that
nigger right! Let's go!
Yes, sir, boss. Come on now.
- Please
- Come on, child.
Please. I was born in this room,
my mama born in this room.
- Tell him
- Goddamn it.
- Come on!
- No, no! No, no
- Grab her legs.
- No, no, no. No, no, no!
No. No. No. No
- [crying] No, no!
- Grab her legs.
No! No!
No, no. No, no!
No! No. No.
No! No! N-No!
- No!
- Come on. Get up.
No! No! No!
- No! No!
- Come on.
- Get on.
- No! No!
Y'all get in there,
clean that mess up.
I don't want none of that
hoodoo black magic mess.
- Now, come on!
- [claps hands]
You, go!
Hurry up!
Make it shine!
[panting echoing]
[clears throat]
Run along, Hezekiah.
- Yes, sir.
- Go on back to your mammy.
Yes, sir, boss.
[clearing throat]
[coughing]
[groans]
[fly buzzing]
[Connelly] Hold, now.
[Prideful] Niggers, hold.
All you niggers, hold!
Y'all bow your heads, now.
Bow your heads
for my brother, James,
succumbed to illness,
gone on to be with God.
Like my mama and daddy
before him,
and like all great masters
blessed to have received
God's grace.
[Prideful] Amen,
Master Terrance.
Amen.
Now
previously, my brother and I
shared ownership
of this fine land,
like our great country,
divided into north and south.
Henceforth
there will be
no north and south parcels.
We will be one plantation.
And I shall have say
over all slaves who dwell here.
If you wish, you may confer
with your brethren
from the southern plantation,
but, uh
[chuckles] my brother and I
have a very different approach
to the conditioning
and coordination of slaves.
Accordingly,
there will be no more parties.
Wages earned in town
on Sundays
will be subject to a tariff.
And, to ensure the propagation
of the best stock,
I will personally oversee
the pairing and practices
in the ways of breeding.
For too long, the best stock
has been reserved
for recreational and
[chuckles]
not vocational use.
Some of you bucks
ain't been living
up to your billing!
[chuckles]
[insects chittering]
[Prideful] E-Everything
all right, Master Terrance?
Everything is just fine,
Prideful.
Everything is just fine.
[muffled] Come on!
Come on, now!
[boy] Come on!
[whinnies]
[boy] Come on, now!
Come on!
[boy] Come on, now!
Get in there!
[whinnies]
Hallelujah.
The Lord hath smiled
on the house of Randall.
Water the horses
before we get to the books, sir?
[Terrance] That'll be fine,
Homer.
Mm-mm-mm.
Shall we?
Oh, boy.
We shall.
Please inform Mr. Connelly
that the prodigal
son hath returned.
[Terrance] Best you ran on.
[Ridgeway] Do you have ears
amongst your niggers here?
[Terrance] Can't say
that we do.
There are niggers
in the house, of course,
eager to gain favor
by airing grievances
against those
in the fields, but
Well, you would do well
to place some there.
There's talk.
There's word
of an underground railroad here.
[chuckling] I-Impossible.
[chuckles] Indeed.
And yet, where do they go?
The ones that run away and
never return?
It is as though a nigger escapes
and slips through
to a different world.
[Terrance] Have you seen it?
A man working as-as you do,
do you believe
the underground railroad
is true?
[Ridgeway] I have not seen it.
But the nigger is
a mighty cunning breed.
Nothing about the world tells me
it is impossible.
When I see it, I'll believe it.
Now, to the matter at hand.
I will not accept payment
for the property's return.
Consider it a recompense.
For fulfillment of my debt
to your house.
Good day.
I'm sorry, I
I don't follow.
Property that took
leave of here,
many years ago
before your father passed.
The only property
to have absconded
and not been returned.
I consider it
my sincerest failure.
[Terrance] I know the nigger
you speak of.
The worst kind
it must be said
heartless, even for a nigger.
[Ridgeway] Is that so?
It is very much so.
The nigger you speak of,
in leaving, appears to have
left behind her seed.
A nigger girl whom, even
amongst the niggers themselves,
is considered a monster.
I would like an audience
with this girl.
And a
an audience you shall have.
[door creaks open]
[exhales softly]
[clock ticking loudly]
You feel betrayed.
As you should.
[Cora inhales deeply]
Oh, there's anger in you.
Best find a way
to do away with that.
It'll eat you alive
if you don't.
See, the heart has a way
of working through the body.
It'll fuel you, yes, but
well,
it's the worst kind of fuel.
The worst kind.
Oh, she is within you.
I can feel it.
And you will run yourself
into the ground
just to be rid of her.
Yes, you will.
Yes, you will.
By God, you will.
[sighs]
Sorry for the intrusion.
[door creaks open]
[door closes]
[insects trilling]
[distant owl hoots]
[man panting]
[rhythmic thudding]
[panting]
♪
♪
♪
"I had often read of some
great services done
to princes and states."
[exhales]
"And desired to see the persons
by whom those services
were performed.
Upon inquiry, I was told
that their names were
to be found on no record.
Except a few of them,
whom
history hath represented
as the vilest rogues
and traitors.
As to the rest,
I had never once heard of them.
They all appeared
with dejected looks,
and in the meanest habit.
Most of them telling me
they died
in poverty and disgrace,
and the rest on a scaffold
or a gibbet."
[door closes]
- ♪
- [laughter]
You've hardly touched your food,
Mr. Churchill.
[Churchill] Oh.
Oh, pardon me, but
I don't understand
how one can eat
while such a display
is taking place.
Rather peculiar, wouldn't you
say, to eat a-and to drink
while a man's flesh is
being ripped from his body.
[Terrance] Well
Mr. Churchill,
your first mistake,
uh, a nigger and a man
[laughs]
are two entirely
different things.
A man can think,
reason and love.
Niggers simply do not have
the capacity for such things.
As such, it is important
to provide them
with restrictions
and-and directions
on how to comport themselves.
And when these restrictions and
directions are not abided by,
it is just as important
to make an example of them.
[Big Anthony screams]
[Prideful]
Y'all come on in, now.
Master Randall
want everybody come in.
Y'all niggers, come on.
Leave them sacks where they lay.
Come on, now.
Leave them sacks where they lay.
Come on.
Y'all hands, over there.
Y'all niggers, come on.
Come on, Lovey.
Ruth, let's go.
All right.
Keep moving.
[whip cracking]
[Big Anthony moaning]
- Y'all niggers, come on.
- [whip cracking continues]
[moaning continues]
[groans]
Gather round, my little sheep.
Gather round.
Today
I wish you all to bear witness
to this lesson.
[Big Anthony moaning]
[Terrance clears throat]
"Let all who are
under a yoke as slaves
regard their own masters
as worthy of all honor
- [moaning weakly]
- so the name of God
and the teachings
may not be reviled.
Those who have
believing masters
must not be disrespectful
on the ground
that they are brothers;
rather they must serve
all the better
since those who benefit
from their good service
- [Big Anthony] No more!
- are believers and beloved.
Teach
teach and urge these things."
[Big Anthony] No more mercy!
No more slaves!
[Terrance] "Regard their own
masters
as worthy of all honor."
This is the word of God.
- See?
- [Big Anthony] God damn you!
God damn you!
- What is the penalty
- [Big Anthony] No
for disobeying
the word of God?
No!
No!
Damnation
[Big Anthony grunting]
and eternal fire.
[Big Anthony screaming]
[upbeat dance tune begins]
♪
[whispering] It's time.
[Prideful] All you niggers
get back to work.
Quit your lollygagging.
Back to work!
[fire crackling]
[music continues playing]
Back to work!
Now!
♪
♪
♪
♪
♪
♪
[creaks softly]
♪
[people snoring softly]
[insects trilling]
[insects trilling]
[leaves rustling in distance]
[rustling]
[bird calls]
♪
♪
- [insects trilling]
- [birds calling]
[rustling]
[rustling continues]
[Lovey] Cora?
[Caesar] Lovey.
[Cora] Lovey shh!
[Lovey] I knew you was
up to something.
Sneaking around with him
and not talking about it.
And then you dig up them yams,
not even ripe yet.
Lovey, get you back
before you ruin us.
I'm going where y'all going.
He ain't gonna
take three of us.
[Cora] He know I'm coming?
Well, then two surprise
as good as one.
We got enough food, anyway.
Come on.
[insects trilling]
[rooster crows]
[urinating]
[exhales]
[Lovey humming a tune]
[Cora] Shh!
- Gonna give him ♪
- Shh.
All the beauty in the world
[Caesar] Lovey
[Lovey stops singing]
- [humming a tune]
- [Cora] Uh.
Hog trail.
Boar.
I'm gonna check this out
right quick.
[Cora] Maybe you make use
of that whittling knife
and catch us some dinner.
[Lovey resumes humming]
[Cora screams]
[both screaming]
- [Lovey screaming]
- [man shouting]
[all shouting]
[grunting]
Come here, you son of a bitch.
[Lovey screaming]
[screams]
[screaming]
[Cora shouting indistinctly]
[man shouting]
[Cora] No!
- No!
- [man yells]
[both yelling]
[Cora yells]
[panting]
[whimpering, panting]
[insects trilling]
♪
Hold up.
Where are we?
[panting heavily]
I don't know.
Are we going the right way?
I don't know.
Did you tell Lovey
where we going?
- Did you tell
- No.
We were foolish
not to think on this.
Hounds be on us soon.
Every white man with a shotgun
within a hundred miles gonna
[shouts]
[whimpers]
We must keep going.
But what about Lovey?
What about Lovey?
[whimpers]
We must keep
we must keep going.
[water sloshing]
♪
[bird chirping]
- [whip cracks]
- [gasps]
♪
[insects trilling]
That's it.
You sure?
See that red roof there?
That's us.
You mean that's you.
Don't nobody know I'm coming.
Well, they do now.
You ready?
♪
♪
[dishes clattering]
[footsteps approaching]
[dishes softly clatter]
How are you managing?
We're fine.
Any word from the third
in our party?
It's the talk of the state.
From the moment you left,
it was the girl who did you in.
They noticed her going
before they did you,
and set out after you
on the very first night.
And I trust that she has
no knowledge of me or our plans.
She does not.
No.
[Fletcher] There's
one other thing.
There was a boy on the trail
with a group of hunters
who lit onto you, and, well,
he has it pretty bad
from the knock you gave him.
They say he's in a sleep
from which he may never wake.
Have mercy.
Mercy for who?
Every white man
for a hundred miles
wants to mount your heads
on a fence.
When the train comin'?
Find a corner.
- We going down there?
- Yes, indeed.
Mind this ladder, now.
After you.
♪
♪
[Fletcher] Now, as the train
will be here shortly,
I just need a word
for the manifest.
[Caesar] I beg your pardon?
All who journey on the railroad
must be documented
in the manifest.
How else will we account
for the souls
entrusted to this campaign?
Now, you may speak as much
or as little as you like,
but you must speak.
Yeah, I'll speak
for the both of us.
Um
Caesar Garner.
Um
Cora Randall.
Born to Virginia.
Upon the death of my massa,
was promised manumission.
Upon my massa dying,
was sold on down to Georgia.
Cora was born
on the Randall plantation.
That's where we met.
Who built all this?
[Fletcher] Who builds anything
in this country?
[Caesar] How far does it go?
[Fletcher] Away from here,
that's all I can tell you.
[distant rumbling]
♪
[brakes hissing]
[engineer] All aboard!
Almost forgot.
[door opens, closes]
I was keeping this for you.
You're so close to finishing.
Be a shame not to see it
to its conclusion.
If you want to see
what this nation's all about,
you got to ride the rails.
Just look outside
as you speed through,
and you'll see
the true face of America.
[engine rumbling]
[Outkast: "B.O.B."]
[whispers] One, two ♪
- One, two, three ♪
- Yeah! ♪
Inslumnational, underground ♪
Thunder pounds
when I stomp the ground ♪
Like a million elephants
or silverback orangutans ♪
You can't stop a train,
who want some? ♪
Don't come unprepared,
I'll be there ♪
But when I leave there,
better be a household name ♪
Weatherman tellin' us
it ain't gon' rain ♪
So now we sittin'
in a drop-top, soaking wet ♪
In a silk suit,
tryin' not to sweat ♪
Hit somersaults
without the net ♪
But this'll be the year
that we won't forget ♪
One-nine-nine-nine,
Anno Domini, anything goes ♪
Be what you wanna be,
long as you know ♪
Consequences are given
for livin', the fence is. ♪
[man] There's word
of an underground railroad.
It is as though they slip
through to a different world.
[man 2] Welcome to your future.
[Caesar] This is real, Cora.
You here.
I'm here.
We here.
[woman] Together,
we are building
a better mind
for the practical betterment
of Negro mind!
[Caesar] There are things
happening here
that we don't really understand.
There's a train coming.
- [man] Your name?
- [Cora] Cora Randall.
I took the Underground
from South Carolina.
Should have stayed there.
[Arnold] The girl
in that bulletin is wanted
for the murder of a child.
I'm gonna get us out of here.
I promise.
♪
Hello, little missy.
We've been waiting on you.
You came all this way
on the Railroad?
And left behind
all those peoples.
I'm still just a runaway
from Georgia.
[man] You're safe here, Cora.
[Cora] Ain't no way he ever
giving up on finding me.
[Arnold] I need you
to be strong, watchful.
Like me.
♪
This wonderful place
built out of Black love
and spirit.
We can escape slavery.
And yet its scars
will never fade.
♪
Everything that you ever knew
told you that freedom
was a delusion.
And yet here we are.
♪
♪
♪
♪