Underground Recap: Rosalee + Ernestine Find Inner Strength in Near Death Experiences

Daniel is now able to read the newspaper.

Daniel’s reading skills continue to improve and now he is able to read the newspaper. In particular, he reads an article which features the transcript of Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech.

When his daughter asks him what the speech means, he tells that black women can be strong in both beauty and mind.

This perfectly summarizes the remainder of the episode.

Ernestine is visited by Sam’s ghost and has completely broken down.

Ernestine appears to have reached her breaking point. She is no longer answering to the overseer, so he lashes out at her and slaps her. Her boyfriend, Hicks, prevents her from getting a beating and tells the overseer that she has been sick.

However, Ernestine is not impressed that Hicks covered for her, and lets him know she didn’t ask to be saved.

Hicks believes Ernestine is still angry about him getting another woman, Clara, pregnant but Ernestine’s troubles are internal and much greater than him.

Rosalee is badly hurt with a gunshot wound by the hands of Patty Cannon.

Since Rosalee is unable to get around much, she stops moving and tends the gunshot wound in her shoulder. She removes the bullet, and throws some dirt on it. She then decides to shoot her gun so she can burn the wound shut, therefore cauterizing it. However, when she shoots the gun, it causes her to lose her hearing.

She has flashbacks to happier times with Ernestine as a little girl. In one memory, the both of them have a fun moment jumping on one of the master’s beds together and being carefree.

After thinking of her mother, she then stabs herself with adrenaline and gets up to continue fleeing from Patty Cannon in the woods.

It’s clear one of the things keeping Rosalee going is finally locating her mother and saving her.

Clara is shamed.

Ernestine watches on as the woman who was knocked up by her boyfriend is shamed and screamed at by her father and other elders at the plantation.

Her father tells her that this is a spiritual tradition she must endure because she sinned.

Ernestine has a flashback to when she was pregnant with Sam. In this tender memory, she discusses possibly baby names with French. We also learn her first baby was taken away from her and French promises that it won’t happen again.

Clara walks away from Clara’s shaming and self medicates by inhaling poison again. Clara’s father walks over to talk to Ernestine about embracing the religion of her ancestors. But Ernestine doesn’t think religion and the belief in different spirits can save her.

There’s then a flashback of her cleaning French’s wounds. A young Sam asks her if she will do the same for him one day. She cries.

Ernestine cleans herself up and puts on one of her best dresses. She’s going to the big house with Hicks to entertain Master Matthew and sing. Sam’s ghost tells her she’s at her best when she’s in the big house. She questions why he feels she was at her best while being the master’s whore.

She tells him that she never loved her former slave master, Tom, and only slept with him to have security for her and her children. But Sam tells her she failed to save him.

Things are getting really bad for Rosalee.

She’s having to fight off leeches and she’s struggling to stay on her feet and cannot hear very well thanks to the gunshot.

However, when she is shot at, she takes off running. She hides in the plant life in the woods as she is chases. One man catches her and begins beating her. But Rosalee uses her knife to kill him after ripping off is ear.

Ernestine’s big house performance goes left.

While singing, Ernestine decides to switch things up and start singing about killing her last master. This makes Master Matthew uncomfortable, but before Ernestine began singing, he discussed being uncomfortable with slavery with his friends.

Hicks is just as uncomfortable as Matthew, but Sam’s ghost laughs and claps as he watches on.

She laughs with him and bangs on the table, scaring everyone.

When they return from the big house, things get violent between Ernestine and Hicks.

They argue after they leave the big house (luckily they weren’t punished), and he screams at her for what she did.

“You want to be the master’s b*tch, you go ahead and leave me out of it!” – Ernestine

He begins beating her, but when Ernestine hits him and herself and tells him to keep beating her, he stops and tells her he doesn’t want to hurt her.

They have s*x, and as they do, Ernestine has a flashback scene in which her mentor (played by Angela Bassett) tells a much younger version of herself that it would benefit Ernestine to use her body to survive the slave life. Ernestine was also pregnant at this time of her life and she’s seeking help to terminate the pregnancy, which is identical to her interactions with Clara.

“Your body ain’t never been yours and will never be. But looks is all you got so I suggest you use it. Cut out your guts, it’s the only way.” – Ernestine’s mentor

Nature catches Rosalee off guard.

To survive the night and prevent form being caught, Rosalee buried herself under the dirt.

She rises from the dirt to get some water from the pond, but gets bitten by a snake and kills it with a rock. She eats a nearby leech to counter the poison, and passes out in the open.

Hours later, she wakes up at the pond, and the journalist who has been interviewing Patty Cannon, Mr. Donahue, finds her. He notices she’s not doing good, so he leaves her his water. He then quietly walks away, telling no one he saw her. Rosalee takes the water and drinks.

She later finds the horse and carriage Harriet left for her and gets in.

Ernestine has a close call.

Ernestine wavse off the ghosts of Sam, French and Pearly as she walks in the ocean with a large rock. She holds on to the large rock as she sinks to the bottom of the ocean.

However, Hicks and other slaves work together to pull her out before she can drown. The whole experience has a spiritual feel to it. Could it have been a ritual in which Ernestine has a rebirth?

Patty Cannon enlists help in catching Rosalee.

She locates August, who is in jail, and plans to use him to find “The Black Rose.”

What are your thoughts on the episode?