Last week, we were taken through an emotional roller coaster that ended with the big reveal that Rosalee (aka “Black Rose”) was pregnant.
[READ: RECAP: Underground Season 2, Episode 2 “Things Unsaid” + Watch Full Video…]
This week’s episode is titled, “Ache” and the synopis states:
Unbearable complications threaten to break both Ernestine and Rosalee?s will to live.
Recap + watch full episode below…
VIDEO: Underground Season 2, Episode 3
Daniel reads the words of “Truth”…
Daniel (Bokeem Woodbine) has been featured in each of the past two episodes and this week, he’s continuing his quest for knowledge with the help of a few discarded news clippings even though his wife warned him of the consequences of getting caught.
This week, Daniel is shown reading an article from the newspaper to his daughter, but it’s not just any article. Coincidentally, it?s a transcript from Sojourner Truth?s speech, ?Ain?t I a Woman?”.
I could work as much and eat as much as a man ? when I could get it ? and bear de lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen chilern, and seen ’em mos’ all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?
Daniel’s daughter is surprised to hear how Blacks are able to speak out like that up north, and while Daniel only has snippets to read from, it’s his take from the speech that gives us a sense of what this episode is really about.
Daniel tells his daughter that as a woman… as a STRONG BLACK… she’s not only strong in her body, but also in her mind.
“The Negro woman has an almost supernatural ability to endure pain.”
I just want to personally thank everyone involved in Underground for this heart wrenching episode because if this ain’t a quote to remember, I don’t know what is!
Patty Cannon?s gang may have hit the “Black Rose” but she has still eluded their capture.
Now their traveling historian, Mr. Donahue is more intrigued in Rosalee than he is in the legendary slave trackers.
It’s also Donahue who acknowledges the ?scientific? concept that ?it’s widely believed, in some scientific circles, that the negro woman has an almost supernatural ability to bear pain”… as a Black woman, I can personally attest to his statement… but I digress.
Rosalee and Ernastine (Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Amirah Vann) are both shown during this episode going through some things that would clearly kill a lesser woman… hell, ANY woman, but I am going to stick with the ‘scientific’ assessment that Black women have the strength and the power to endure almost anything.
This episode specifically shows the parallels between mother and daughter, as well as where they diverge.
Ernastine Wants to Die, Rosalee Fights to Live…
Ernestine seems to have lost all of the strength she held during season one of the popular scripted series, but it’s not lost on Rosalee.
The former house slave/master’s mistress is now in the fields sniffing ether to get through her days. She’s also having visions of all the people who lost their lives due to her actions.
In previous episode’s it was ‘Stine’s first husband, and Pearlie Mae and this week, it’s the ghost of Sam.
“I thought you said Massa Tom was the last one,” Sam’s ghost states.
The last what? The last person to die? The last man to be manipulated? I’m confused but it becomes clear soon as Ernastine has chosen to take one last life… her own.
Meanwhile, Rosalee is doing whatever it takes for her and her unborn child to survive.