Lawd! Ten slave catchers got our boo Rosalee in the back of a wagon transporting her to God knows where.
They take her to a slaughterhouse and try to strip her of her "white woman's dress". It seems like they're gonna rape her. We're what? Forty seconds in and I can't take this.
Stabler walks in and tells the men to leave Rosalee alone. She's another man's property and he intends to return her in good condition, i.e., un-raped. It's the most decent thing he's done the whole series.
Rosalee snatches off her dress and throws it into a nearby fire. She's practically nekkid by the standards of the day, but still fully covered by ours. As Baby Stabler looks on, Stabler takes Rosalee to another room and ties her to leg of a table so she can't escape. She asks Stabler why he's protecting her. He says her Daddy aka Massa Tom, is paying the same amount for her as the others combined. Does he mean in total, or the remaining survivors?
Stabler tells Baby Stabler to keep an eye on Rosalee. Something tells me he's gonna free her.
Slave catcher Jeremiah Johnson says Rosalee reminds him of a dog he had once that wanted to rip his throat out. He's not sure Baby Stabler can handle her. I ain't sure either.
Stabler warns Jeremiah that the other two aka Noah and Cato are coming for Rosalee. Jeremiah ain't worried, but he should be.
Elsewhere, Noah and Cato are taking down two white men. They got two horses and broken carriage that's full of money. Cato wants to take the money and run. He ain't feeling this Save Rosalee plan that Noah's hatched up. He ain't Henry and he ain't tying to take orders from Noah. He says a much. Noah punches him. Predictably, Cato punches him back.
Sigh. Testosterone.
Men? Focus, please.
They go back to talking. I'm always amazed by how men can fight and then act like nothing happened. Anyway, Cato's in, if only because Rosalee knows where the next stop is on the other side of the river. One of the Native American helpers told her before he put her in a casket and shipped her last episode. I also think he has a thing for Rosalee, especially after the way he was looking at her play the piano last episode, that he'll never admit. A woman on my FB page once described Cato as being like that fussy Uncle who complains about everyone and everything. all the time, but is always early for every family event. He loves and hard, but just doesn't know how to show it right.
Noah says as much to Cato. "There's somebody out there you care about, just holding on to hope you gonna see em again soon... I see you.". Lawd. I hope Cato finds that person.
Elsewhere in the South, John is at plantation where there's an auction ring held. He purchases a woman who's never been touched by a man, which can be verified by a doctor, for $700.
After the sale, John chats up the plantation owner and slavetrader, who is a legendary auctioneer. They're discussing the trader's gambling habit and the business of making money off slaves. In short, find a slave with a special skill, but never let them know their worth. He's got a butler who ran once, now he wears a uniform covered in bells so he can be heard anywhere in the house. That Butler is Clyde, who John once helped in the Underground, but he was recaptured.
Trader says he places a very high value on black lives. It's made him a rich man. John has a proposition. He'll wager his new acquisition, the pretty virgin slave, over a few games of darts. If he wins, he gets enslaved butler with the bells too.
The men are revving up for Round 1 when the Trader suddenly stabs John in the hand with a dart. Trader says he knows John is Massa Tom's abolitionist brother and sucker punches him. Butler with Bells jumps in to fight his Massa, but her gets punched down too. Trader dude is a d---, but is nice with his hands.
John gets a second wind and starts whooping Trader's ass, pulling a gun on him. He's ready to shoot until he's stopped by Butler with Bells. "It'll look like a slaved got loose and killed his Massa", Bells cautions. John doesn't shoot.
Along the Ohio River, Elizabeth is at home reading to Boo, who's cuddled in her lap, when there's an urgent knock at the door. It's Kyle, showing up for more bribery sex with his ex fiancé. Lawd! One time wasn't payment enough? He's pressing like he's gonna rape Elizabeth, so she knocks him upside the head and clean the f--- out.
Back at the slaughterhouse, Rosalee is struggling to free herself and engages Baby Stabler in some convo. She wants him to know she is a full person. "I ain't just a name on a slave bill", she says. Jeremiah shows up with Baby Stabler's clothes to cover Rosalee, who he clearly doesn't trust. And he's got a book for Baby Stabler about a hunter who becomes obsessed with the hunt, aka about Stabler.
After Jeremiah leaves, Rosalee starts telling Baby Stabler about her dad, who she never talked to and who never noticed her. Baby Stabler starts talking about his dad who used to leave and hunt and Baby Stabler always used to want to go with him. Now he wishes he was back home. Rosalee says he'll get his wish now that they have her. Baby Stabler says he's sorry. He sits on the floor and reads to Rosalee, who has a hallucination of Master Tom. She tries harder to free herself.
Cato and Noah are in the woods watching the slaughterhouse where Rosalee is being held. They're trying to figure out the best way to attack when Cato confesses he has-- present tense-- a daughter and wife. "They both had a smile that would stop your heart." They were sold from Louisiana. He ran the night they were taken and follows the slave wagon for days before he got caught and dragged back to the plantation. He said he doesn't plan on seeing them again. "A heart is made for pumping blood. That's the only thing it needs to survive," Cato says.
Oh, God. He needs a hug-- and a therapist-- bad. Please, Lawd. Let him find his family before this series ends. It's a long shot. But it's also TV.
But enough talk. It's time for action. Noah sneaks off towards the slaughterhouse, and Cato goes riding by the lookouts making it rain aka distracting them. A couple of them chase after Cato. One of the guys runs inside to tell Jeremiah it's money everywhere. He runs out. Stabler ain't moved or moving. He knows what's up.
The guards followed Cato's money trail to an abandoned coach in the woods. They open the door to the coach and Cato's sitting in there with a double barrel shot gun.. They dead. Rest in Hell, Muthaf---ers!!!!
Inside the slaughterhouse, Noah's creeping thru the building looking for Rosalee while Stabler looks for Noah. He comes up on... Ernestine? Now, he's hallucinating!
"Ernestine" explains why he and Rosalee are hallucinating. Rosalee had Devil's Snare in the white woman's dress she ripped off, and burned. It's giving everyone a contact high. She's smart like her mama, Ernestine says. Yes. Yes she is.
Ernestine also tells Stabler that Ben ain't looking at him the same way anymore and more or less, he's a bad father. "Blood stains everything," she says." You can't get it out for nothing."
Noah runs up on Stabler talking to himself, trying to explain to Ernestine that he's done with the hunt after he takes Rosalee back. Ernestine doesn't believe him, but I do. He catches slaves for the money, not because he believes in slavery as a way of life. Now that he can not just save his land, but earn good money off it, I don't see him running after slaves anymore. I could be wrong.
Noah's had enough of watching Stabler talk to himself. He attacks, and Stabler knocks Noah to the ground, swiftly pulling his gun... then pocketing it? He's gonna let him free Rosalee and go?
Nope. Stabler wants to have a knife fight instead. Huh?
Elsewhere in the slaughterhouse, Baby Stabler is still reading to Rosalee when he gets bored-- or high-- and stumbles off with his book. A letter falls out. It's that letter from the bank, saying, "you're rich, bitch!" (Dave Chappelle voice.) Baby Stabler thinks his dad, who has been over, lied to him. He tells Rosalee they don't need her anymore and walks toward her with the letter opener.
She thinks Baby Stabler is about to shank her. I ain't worried. Baby Stabler's heart ain't never been in this hunt of humans. He frees Rosalee and tells her to run.
Good job, Ben!!!
Rosalee takes Ben's knife and she would run off, but she's high as hell and doesn't know where she is. She's hallucinating that she's back on the plantation and confronting her father for never treating her like a daughter. Then the overseer she tried to kill shows up. Massa Tom aka Dad starts yelling about how he owns her and she's not built to run. She gets so mad she stabs him with a pen... in her head.
In real life, she's standing in the middle of the slaughterhouse and she just stabbed poor Ben. She comes to, realizes what she's done and runs off.
Ben moans in agony and Stabler, who has knocked Noah down and pulled his gun again, hears him. He flees to another Pom in the slaughterhouse tom find Ben, who is lying on the floor dying.
Oh no. No!! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Noah seizes the opportunity to jump up and keep looking for Rosalee. They find each other and run for a field to meet Cato, who ain't where he said he would be. The slave catchers are coming and they're about to run, thinking Cato left them when he rolls up in the coach. The pair hop in and ride out until they encounter a felled tree. They'll run the rest of the way, looking for the water and a bridge that looks like a crooked smile, on foot.
They take off, when suddenly Cato steps into a trap and is strung up in a tree. Lawd. I can't take this damn show. My nerves are bad between the white men trying to rape Rosalee, Kyle trying to rape Elizabeth, the hallucinations, the child being stabbed, Noah's fight with Stabler and now this?
Rosalee has a knife and climbs in a tree to cut Cato down. The slave catchers are approaching, so upside down Cato starts shooting at them. An arrow aimed at Rosalee hits the tree. Now Noah's in the tree to cut Cato down. Now Noah's shooting. And Cato has two guns and is shooting both of them when he's struck in the leg with an arrow.
What the f--? Arrows? Is this The Walking Dead?!?!
Cato's hurt and can't make it without help. And the slavecatchers are approaching. Noah doesn't know what to do. As arrows whiz by, he stands frozen in indecision about whether to risk his own freedom to help Cato or run with Rosalee.
I like Cato. He's horrid. But he's a victim of his circumstances. Some folk can be in horrible situations and still have their humanity. And some folks have it robbed from or beat out of them. Sigh. I don't want to see him caught and back at the plantation, but really? It would be karma for what he did to Zeke a few episodes back if that happened. And he wouldn't help Noah if the roles were reversed.
Noah's a better man than Cato. But he's also a survivor. He throws down his knife so Cato at least has some chance at fighting off the catchers. Then he runs after Rosalee, who says she found the bridge. They dip.
John finally returns home to Elizabeth, who brings him up to speed on the newest member of their household, Boo. "You wouldn't believe what she's been thru to get from the South to here," she says. Lady. That's an understatement.
And she's got some bad news. Elizabeth fesses up that she slept with Kyle, who knows they are running an Underground station. It's the right thing to do. But... Oh, and he's bound and gagged in the basement.
John loses it. I can't blame him. He also says some pretty awful things to his wife about how she shared some with her ex-fiancé and with him before they were married. In short, he calls her fast and loose.
But Bruh? Was Elizabeth your first or only? I mean, when she pumped, you pumped it back, right?
Elizabeth says she didn't ask for this life. It was John's idea to be all up in the Underground Railroad. Of sex wit Kyle, she says, "I did it to save us". John says "us? Or that little girl", pointing to Boo.
John says he's so mad he wants to slap his wife. They're both so caught up that they don't see Boo standing there with a revolver.
Oh, sh--.
John begins ranting about his encounter with the Trader after the slave caution, when Boo lifts the gun and let's off a round. Lawd!
She drops the gun and Elizabeth rushes to her. "The bad man was gonna hurt you," she tells Elizabeth. Lawd! Boo ain't here for anymore dead parents (or parent stand-ins) or angry white men.
Everyone's still reeling when there's another urgent knock at the door. It's Rosalee and Noah looking for the safe house. They made it!!!
Boo gleefully yelps, "Rosalee!" Lawd. That child has the voice of an angel. Rosalee embraces Boo like a mom finding her lost child. Ernestine called it. She told Pearly Mae that if something happened to Moses, Rosalee would take care of her baby. Elizabeth just went down a notch on Boo's Mom figure list. Wonder how that's gonna play out. Hmmm.
I have other questions that need answers:
What the hell are they gonna do about Kyle in the basement?
And who and where is the Virgin Slave that John spent $700 on?
And is Ben alive? If not, Stabler is gonna hunt down Rosalee with a vengeance.
We have more episode to go this season.