February 27, 2025 • 40 mins
Join me for a riveting journey through Colson Whitehead’s poignant narrative of “The Underground Railroad.” As we peel back the layers of this complex story, listeners will discover the stark contrasts between the original novel and its breathtaking miniseries adaptation. Reflecting on the harrowing experience of Cora, a slave escaping from a Georgia plantation, we unpack how Whitehead transforms the metaphor of freedom into a literal Underground Railroad. The transformative journey sheds light on resilience, hope, and the unyielding spirit of those who fought for liberty.
In this episode, I guides you through an in-depth examination of the themes that resonate throughout the story. With keen observations on character development, I dive into the backstories of Cora, Ridgeway, and Mabel, illuminating their motivations and struggles. The miniseries—a visual spectacle crafted by the talented Barry Jenkins—expands the narrative, and I discuss how these adaptations enrich our understanding of their journeys while enhancing the emotional weight of the themes.
The discussions raise critical questions about the representation of trauma in storytelling, and how both adaptations serve as powerful reminders of past injustices. With engaging comparisons and personal reflections, listeners are invited to reflect on which medium they prefer and why.
This episode is more than just a discussion on two works of art; it’s a conversation about history, identity, and the ongoing fight for justice. Tune in for a thoughtful exploration that promises to enlighten and stir your understanding of the human experience. As always, I encourage my audience to engage, share their perspectives, and reflect on the lessons that resonate in today's context. Don't forget to subscribe and leave me a review to join this ongoing conversation!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Books vs Movies, the podcast where I set
out to answer the age-oldquestion is the book really
always better than the movie?
I'm Yuvia, an actress and booklover based out of New York City
, and today I will be discussingthe Underground Railroad by
Colson Whitehead and its 2021miniseries adaptation.
The Underground Railroad Hieveryone, I am so sorry.
(00:23):
I did not mean to leave youwithout an episode for this long
, but it kind of just happened.
I watched so many things inlike December and early January
and everything I watched justpiled up and I could not read
the books fast enough and I gotbacked up.
So I'm so sorry.
(00:43):
I didn't mean to leave youwithout content for so long, but
I apologize.
It was never my intent to leaveyou without an episode this
long, but I'm excited to finallybring you back a new episode
and, as I said, I'm going to betalking about the Underground
Railroad.
Now I do want to say I know Ikind of touched up on content
(01:06):
warnings and things like that inmy top 10 least favorite films
of 2024, but I do want to saythat I mean you can probably
tell by the name, but this doestake place during the 1800s, so
we're going to be talking aboutpeople that were enslaved and
(01:27):
I'm not going to go into toomuch detail, but I am going to
touch up a little bit on some ofthe details in the book and the
miniseries.
Like I said, I'm not going togo into too much detail, but I
have to give some stuff away.
So completely understand ifit's a little too distressing to
listen to and, other than that,you know, spoiler alert a lot
(01:51):
of these things that I talkabout.
I have to spoil things in orderto fully comment on what it is
that I'm trying to pinpoint foreach aspect of the book or the
miniseries.
So just, I'm getting it outright off the bat.
I always forget to give spoiler, like I started forgetting to
(02:12):
give spoiler alerts like midwaythrough my episodes last year.
So let's get into it.
The Underground Railroad byColson Whitehead was first
published in 2016.
It follows Cora, who is a slaveon a cotton plantation in
Georgia.
She is an outcast, even amongsther fellow enslaved people, so
(02:37):
she has an even more difficulttime being an enslaved person
than most, and when she meetsCaesar, he tells her about the
Underground Railroad and theydecide to take a risk and escape
.
Unfortunately, things do not goas planned.
Cora kills a young white boywho tries to capture her, and,
(02:57):
though they do manage to make itto the Underground Railroad to
head north, they are hunted fromthat moment on.
The Underground Railroad is a2021 miniseries that you can
find on Amazon Prime, and itfollows a young woman named Cora
, who makes the discovery of theUnderground Railroad during her
attempt to break free fromslavery in Georgia.
(03:20):
So I will say there are a lot ofsimilarities and there are some
major, major differences, asalways, and we are going to get
into them.
So, yes, so Cora and Caesarescape, and I want to say that
the Underground Railroad in thisuniverse is a literal
(03:43):
Underground Railroad in thisuniverse is a literal
underground railroad.
So, instead of being like thenetwork of houses and families
and people that work together tohelp enslaved people escape
from slavery in the South byhelping them head North, this is
a literal railroad.
So you go there's still likeyou still have to go to certain
houses and there are certainpeople that are involved, and
(04:05):
but once you go underground,underneath these houses, you're
going to find an actual railroadtrack with a train that takes
you to different parts up north,and I do want to say that it
does take you north, but itdoesn't necessarily mean you're
out of the south completely,necessarily mean you're out of
(04:26):
the South completely.
So along the way, cora travelsto South Carolina, north
Carolina.
We know that these areas werestill had enslaved people in
reality, but in this versionthey well, we'll get into it,
but yeah, so it's just know thatwhen I'm, when we're talking
about the underground railroad,I am referring to a literal
Underground Railroad in thisuniverse.
So in the TV show, when Cora andCaesar escape and they make it
(04:51):
to the first safe house with theentrance to the Underground
Railroad, it's that safe housethey arrive, it's that safe
house, they go underground andthey get the Underground
Railroad and they go to whereverit's going.
One important thing I shouldmention also is that this
Underground Railroad is kind offlawed in that you have no way
(05:11):
of choosing where to go.
So like you show up to the safehouse and you there's also no
like set schedule, which kind ofmakes sense.
But so you show up and you,like the people that the allies
that are in charge of these safehouses will kind of say, hey,
there's a train scheduled for amonth from now If you want to
catch it, like make sure you're,you're at my place at this by
(05:35):
this day and this time.
So if you do not catch thattrain, you might be SOL because
the next train may not beavailable until the next month.
But each train takes yousomewhere like you have no way
of knowing.
So they just know when thetrain's going to arrive, but
they have no way of knowingwhere the train's going to drop
you off.
So they say, if you want tocatch this train, you need to be
(05:56):
at my house this day, this timeyou get on that train and it'll
drop you off, for example,south Carolina, however you
could.
If you miss that train andthey're nice enough to let you
stay in that safe house forhowever long, until the next
train and you get on the newtrain, that train might be going
to Virginia.
So you have no way of knowing.
So it's a literal undergroundrailroad and you don't really
(06:17):
know when it's going to getthere.
The train conductors, which isthe name of the people leading
these safe houses, will say,like I said, meet at this day
and this time be here, but theycan't tell you where you're
going to go.
So if there's a place youreally, really want to go to.
You kind of just have to hopethat you're being taken there or
just take your chances and gowherever the train takes you.
(06:38):
But wherever the train takesyou is theoretically taken to a
place where you will be safe,either forever hopefully, of
course, as you can probablyguess, most of the locations are
not safe forever or you'regoing to be safe for at least
until the next train arrives.
So yeah, anyway.
So in the TV series they get tothe safe house.
(06:58):
The Underground Railroadentrance is there.
That's it.
They made it.
They get on.
The episode ends.
We move on to episode two Inthe book.
They actually get to the safehouse and then from there they
have to travel to a secondlocation, and the second
location is actually where theentrance to the underground
railroad nearest undergroundrailroad is to them.
(07:19):
So that adds a little bit oftension because, great, they
made it to the first location.
Now they have to try to make itto the second location, and
there's like one of thelocations is there's not as much
cover, like they're able to bein the cover of the woods for a
while and then, once they getnear the location, it's like an
open field, so they kind of justhave to run and hope they make
(07:41):
it without anyone seeing them,and yeah, so that ups that
tension there.
The most important characters inthe well in both really is Cora
, who is our who's the leadshe's the one that escapes the
plantation and Ridgway Ridgwayis the is the slave catcher.
Who is who has a personalvendetta against Cora.
(08:04):
Cora's mother escaped 10 yearsprior to the events of the book
and the TV series and sheescaped.
Ridgeway catches every singleenslaved person that he is hired
to catch.
Mabel, who is Cora's mom, isthe only one that has ever
gotten away from him.
So he has a personal vendettaagainst Cora, since her mother
(08:27):
was never captured by him.
So he's trying to prove thatit's not going to happen a
second time.
So we get a little bit ofRidgeway's backstory in the book
.
However, the miniseries has anentire episode dedicated to
Ridgeway and we get his entirebackstory.
(08:47):
So it goes much more in depthin the miniseries than it does
in the book, and one of thethings we learn in the
miniseries is that his father isagainst slavery.
He hires free black men andgives them jobs at his smithy.
He's a blacksmith Is that whatthey call it Smithy?
His smithy?
He's a blacksmith.
Is that what they call it,smithy?
Whatever it's called, he's ablacksmith.
(09:08):
So he hires them to work withhim and Ridgway grows up feeling
as though these Black men arefavored by his father more than
he is, and so he grows to resentBlack people.
For this reason, and as a wayto get revenge on his father and
the Black people that hisfather hires, he becomes a slave
(09:29):
catcher.
So we get his backstory.
It's much, much, much morein-depth in the miniseries than
it is in the book and it's justa really good episode.
It's obviously really darkbecause we're getting the
backstory of this awful, awfulman, but it's a good episode and
I really liked that they wentmuch more in-depth because when
I got to his chapter in the bookI was kind of disappointed that
(09:59):
we didn't get as much backstoryinto Ridgeway.
So the first stop that Cora andCaesar end up at, they escape
the plantation in Georgia.
They board the undergroundtrain and they make it to South
Carolina and they stick aroundfor a while.
The train conductor of SouthCarolina lets them know hey,
there's a train coming.
You might want to think aboutgetting on it, but at this point
Cora and Caesar are veryenamored with the life that
(10:21):
they're leading in SouthCarolina.
Everything is not as it seems,that's all I'm going to say
about that, but yeah.
So they decide that they'regoing to stick around in South
Carolina.
However, in the book, gossipstarts spreading in this little
South Carolina town that they'rein that Ridgeway is in town and
he's looking for them.
Cora hears this gossip andimmediately she wants to look
(10:46):
for Caesar.
But she heard rumors thatRidgeway was close to the
factory.
Caesar works at the factory.
She wants to get word out toCaesar, but she also wants to
keep herself safe Completelyunderstandable.
So she goes to location of theUnderground Railroad and she
tells the he's a bartender, buthe's also the train conductor.
So she goes to the trainconductor's bar and she says hey
(11:08):
, ridgeway is in town, he'slooking for me and Caesar.
Can you please warn Caesar?
And the bartender's like, ofcourse you go to the Underground
Railroad immediately, wait forme, wait for us down there, and
I, like I will go to the factoryand warn Caesar that he's being
the slave catcher's looking forhim.
So Cora does that and she waits.
(11:29):
Caesar never appears and she'swaiting for a really long time.
Eventually she hears someoneenter the safe house and a lot
of ruckus and things beingthrown about, and she realizes
that people have discovered thatthis is the safe house and
they're looking for the entranceto the railroad.
(11:51):
So she knows that she can't goback out.
So she is stuck in thisunderground railroad.
She and Caesar had just missedthe train, so she has no way of
knowing when the next train isgoing to arrive and so she's
kind of stuck.
She can't go back out becausethey've completely ransacked the
place, but she also can't stayhere because she has no way of
(12:11):
knowing when the train is goingto arrive and she also has no
food and she has no water.
So that's the struggle there.
In the miniseries, ridgeway andHomer who is I don't know how to
refer to Homer Homer is alittle boy.
He is a little black boy thatRidgway bought and set free, and
(12:33):
Homer just decided to stay withRidgway so he's not enslaved,
he is a free child.
But he is extremely loyal toRidgway and assists Ridgway in
finding the enslaved people thathe's looking for.
So in the miniseries Ridgwayand Homer show up in South
Carolina and catch Cora andCaesar by surprise.
(12:56):
So Homer and Ridgway separate.
Homer actually goes to themuseum where Cora works and sees
her working and chases her, andit's one of those really gross
parts of the book and theminiseries because this happens
in both.
But she works at a museum andshe's essentially a live exhibit
.
So they have this museum thatfor white people and they have
(13:21):
actual Black people hired towork and be part of this live
exhibit and they show the lifeof an enslaved person in this
museum.
They're like live peopleworking out what it's like to
work on a plantation while thewhite people come and gawk at
them and it's one of thosethings that's like, but it's for
education.
But it's also like well, thisis also really.
(13:42):
Yeah, you can imagine how it isto like see this happening.
So Cora is acting out what it'slike being on that plantation.
When she sees Homer, she endsup running away.
And it's really cool in theminiseries how, you know, she
sees Homer, she leaves theexhibit and she starts running
away.
And the really cool detail isthat, like the live announcer
(14:05):
who's like and this is how theenslaved people pick cotton on
the plantation Like he's tryingto play it off, as like this is
all part of the show and he'slike, oh she's.
I don't remember exactly how hetries to play it off as, but
it's a really cool detail, butit's just like really gross to
think that like this ishappening.
But anyway, so Cora's discoveredby Homer.
She starts running away and sheruns away, homer ends up losing
(14:29):
her and she actually ends upmaking it to the Underground
Railroad.
Meanwhile we see Ridgewaycorner Caesar at the factory.
Where or not the factory?
It's like the dormitory wherehe's staying and they have, like
, all the people in thisdormitory lineup.
So Ridgeway can essentiallyexamine all of them.
And then he sees Caesar andthat's the final image we see is
(14:52):
like Ridgeway cornering Caesarin this dormitory.
And then we cut to the nextepisode.
So Caesar does not make it tothe Underground Railroad and we
don't find out his fate untillater in the book, in the
miniseries.
But yeah, so that's what happensin South Carolina.
So Cora makes it to NorthCarolina now all by herself.
(15:13):
So eventually she in in boththe book and the miniseries.
She starts walking along therailroad tracks and then a train
approaches.
It's not a passenger train sheshould not be getting on this
train but because it's like a.
It's just like a train that'spassing by for maintenance and
so she's not supposed to be onthere.
But she convinces the driver tolet her get on as a stowaway,
(15:34):
essentially Cause she's like Idon't know when the next train
is coming and I'm going to dieif you don't take me.
It doesn't matter where youtake me, but you need to take me
somewhere.
And the driver's like okay, andso he does, and eventually she
gets to North Carolina.
Now this is a station that isnot actually running anymore.
It's officially shut down.
So this is a town in whichthere are no, no black people
(15:58):
allowed.
Like, if you are a black person, the minute you step foot in
this town, you're dead.
You're not going to becomeenslaved, you're not like,
you're dead, they're going tokill you on the spot.
If you are harboring a blackperson, same thing You're killed
on the spot.
And so this station has beenclosed down ever since this town
essentially outlawed Blackpeople.
But this is where the driverdrops her off and she happens to
(16:22):
be found by the train conductorof this particular station.
His name is Martin and he'skind of like I guess I'll help,
I also don't just want to leaveyou here to die, so, but like
you cannot be seen, and he likereally emphasizes that and so he
takes her into town.
He like puts her in the wagonand he covers her up and he
(16:44):
takes her into town.
So in the book, so Martin islike happens to be checking up
on the underground railroad whencora shows up.
He's not expecting anyone toever be coming out of the
station because, like I said,the station's been closed for a
while.
So it's just like completecoincidence.
And so he leaves cora therebecause he has, like he walked
there and then he's like youcan't walk back with me, like
(17:05):
that we're both gonna get killed.
If so, you have to wait herefor me.
And Cora just kind of has totrust that he's going to come
back for her.
And he eventually does and hecomes with the wagon.
So in the book, his wife, ethel,is very much aware that Cora is
on her way.
Like when he left Cora to go tohis house to get the wagon, he
mentions to Ethel like hey,we're going to be harboring
(17:25):
someone that could get us killed, essentially, and his wife's
not happy with it, but she's agood wife, she goes along with
it.
In the miniseries she's caughtcompletely unawares.
He manages to get the wagon andbring Cora home and while his
wife is out, he allows Cora amoment to take a bath.
But he's telling her you needto hurry up, my wife will be
(17:46):
home soon, you need to hurry up.
And then his wife ends upcoming home and catches Cora
taking a bath.
She's incredibly pissed offbecause he's putting their life
in danger and they already havesomeone that they're hiding
illegally in their attic.
So she's beyond pissed that nowthat there's two more mouths to
feed and two more ways ofgetting caught and losing their
(18:09):
lives.
So in the book she's awareshe's not happy with it, but
she's aware in the miniseriesshe's caught by surprise.
But I was very surprised.
I saw the miniseries first.
So, as I said, in theminiseries Cora's up in the
attic with a little girl thatthey call Grace and she's up
there with Grace.
And in the book I was surprisedto find out that there is no
one else being hidden here.
(18:31):
Cora is by herself in thatattic for seven months.
There is no other child, noother person that they're hiding
in this house.
So that is a major, majordifference and we will get into
who the second character is alittle bit further down.
But in the so Cora ends upgetting very, very sick and she
(18:53):
becomes so sick that there's noway she can stay up in the attic
.
They have to bring her out andnurse her back to health.
So Martin and Ethel have aservant named Fiona.
So they say oh, martin's sick,you need to stay away for a week
while he feels better.
So they bring Cora down fromthe attic and they put her in
the spare bedroom and they nurseher back to health.
(19:15):
So in the miniseries what endsup happening is Ridgeway comes
into town and he says I'mlooking for a runaway slave.
And the townspeople are likethere's no runaway slaves here,
like if there had been one, shewould have been killed
immediately.
And Ridgeway's like no, no,like she's here, I just she's
(19:37):
here.
And he's like really insistenton searching the houses.
And when he gets to Martin andEthel's house, they're like
Martin at this point is sittingoutside on the porch to get some
fresh air, to help him feelbetter.
And Ridgeway's like I need togo into your house.
And Martin's like well, I'vebeen sick this whole week.
It's I don't want you to get.
Like it's very contagious.
(19:57):
I don't want you to get sick soyou can't go into my house.
And so, like, ridgway andMartin start arguing.
While they're arguing aboutwhether or not they're going to
let Ridgway into the house,ethel runs in and like, starts
trying to get Cora back up inthe attic.
And as they're doing that,homer goes into the house and
sees Ethel pushing Cora up thestairs trying to get her into
(20:19):
the attic.
And so immediately he alertsRidgeway and then the whole town
is like what You've beenharboring, this illegal black
person this whole time.
And so Fiona, at this point islike I knew you all were liars
and she sets the house on fire.
In the book there's likepatrolmen and they've visited
the house before, but at thispoint Cora was healthy, so she
(20:41):
was in the attic and they camereally close to finding the.
So it's like a cross space inthe attic.
So it's like attic proper.
And then there's a little crossspace where Cora lives for
seven months.
Can you imagine living in alittle cross space in the attic?
So it's like attic proper.
And then there's a little crossspace where Cora lives for
seven months.
Can you imagine living in alittle cross space for seven
months?
And the only I don't know.
This part was inspired byIncidents in the Life of a Slave
Girl, which I've read Verydifficult read, but that's where
(21:04):
the author that's essentiallywhat happened to the author of
that book she had to and this isa true story, like this is her
autobiography.
So she had to live up in acrawl space like that for, I
want to say, years, and ColsonWhitehead was inspired by this
book, and so this is what Corahad to do to survive.
(21:26):
Except she was only up therefor seven months.
And yeah, so Cora's up therefor seven months and the
patrolmen are looking, they lookeverywhere, they look in the
attic, they come really close tothe entrance of the crawl space
, but they don't discover theactual entrance.
So Cora's safe, and then,however, fiona starts getting
suspicious.
There's been like rules ofthree.
(21:47):
There's like one incident thathappens and then there's a
second incident and by the timeshe's sent away because Martin
is sick, she's like no,something suspicious is going on
.
So she alerts the patrolman andso, while Cora is in the guest
room, she hears the patrolmancome in.
She hides under the bed becauseby the time she finds out
(22:08):
they're there, it's too late forher to make it to the attic
without them seeing her.
So she crawls into the bed andkind of just hopes for the best.
And they discover her underthere.
And then Ridgeway is there withthe patrolman, for whatever
reason, and he's like I'll takeher now.
And the citizens of this townin North Carolina are like you
can't do that, we have to killher, it's part of our law.
(22:29):
And he's like no, I'm takingher.
And that's the only reason Corais not killed along with Martin
and Ethel.
So, as I said, in this seriesFiona ends up setting the house
on fire and in doing so she endsup like the houses are all made
out of wood and they're allreally close together.
So she inadvertently burns theentire town to the ground, is
like it feels kind of good andfiona gets punished for that.
(22:52):
So everyone gets theircomeuppance.
But in the book she doesn't setthe town on fire.
She is paid a sum by thepatrolmen for tipping them off
and letting them know that corawas there.
But martin, and after ridgewaytakes cora and she is saved from
the noose, martin and Ethel areboth hanged.
(23:12):
In the series.
Ethel is hanged, but Ridgway Idon't remember exactly what he
does, but he convinces the townto let him take Martin to show
him where the entrance of theUnderground Railroad is, and
then Ridgway ends up killingMartin after Martin blows up the
entrance to the UndergroundRailroad.
So Ridgway now has no way ofaccessing this Underground
(23:33):
Railroad.
So in the miniseries, as Fionaburns the town down, we're led
to believe that Grace is killedin the fire.
But then we end up getting theshortest episode of the series.
All the episodes are about anhour long.
This is only a 30 minuteepisode and we find out what
(23:53):
happens to Grace.
She survives the fire.
So, while everyone is obviouslyin a panic because the whole
town is burning down and they'retrying to put the fire out, she
manages to go like, come downof the attic and escape through
the back part of the housewithout anyone seeing her and
since she's still a little girl,she makes it to the entrance of
the Underground Railroad andeven though Martin blew up the
(24:15):
entrance, like there's a littlehole big enough for a child to
fit through.
So she enters through there andshe makes it down into the
Underground Railroad and sheends up getting on a train and
we end up finding out that hername isn't Grace.
Her name is actually FannyBriggs.
Now I had no idea who Fanny likeI was like.
(24:36):
Is she based on a real person?
No, this is part of the ColsonWhitehead extended universe.
Barry Jenkins wanted to throw alittle Easter egg for Colson
Whitehead fans, so Fanny Briggsis actually a character in one
of his other books.
I don't remember off the top ofmy head what the name of that
book is, but she's a characterin that book and so it's just a
(24:59):
fun little easter egg of likewhere she was before she ended
up in the events of that book.
So yeah, that's who Grace endsup being.
I didn't recognize that easteregg but I haven't read that book
.
But if you're a ColsonWhitehead fan you might
recognize that name.
So after Cora is taken byRidgeway from the town in North
(25:21):
Carolina, she is beingtransported back to Georgia and
it's Ridgeway Bozeman, who'sanother slave catcher and Homer,
and they have an enslaved manwith them named Jasper.
So as they're traveling fromNorth Carolina back down to
Georgia, in the book Jasper iskilled by the men for
(25:43):
essentially being annoying.
He is singing hymns.
He sings hymns all day, everyday, and finally finally they
just decide that the sum thatthey're going to get paid for
Jasper is not worth hearing himsing hymns all the time, and so
they decide to just kill him.
In the series he actuallydecides to starve himself to
(26:04):
death and ultimately settinghimself free from enslavement in
that way.
But in the miniseries, afterJasper starves to death and
they're on their way to Georgiabut they're actually on their
way to Tennessee.
Before going back down toGeorgia, because Ridgway gets
notice, ridgway finds out thathis father's on his deathbed and
(26:25):
so he goes to pay respects tohis dad one last time.
And it's actually here thatCora is rescued by Royal.
And this is a group of likeBlack men that essentially go
out to these parts and rescueenslaved people from slave
catchers and take them back toIndiana, which is where they're
(26:48):
based out of.
So yeah, they go on these raidsrescuing enslaved people.
So in the miniseries they're inTennessee visiting Ridgway's
father as he's on his deathbed.
In the book Cora is actuallyrescued in the woods.
In the book they are on theirway to Georgia.
They're not making a pit stopin Tennessee.
Ridgway's father is actuallydead by the time the events of
(27:11):
this book happen.
So in the TV series they addedthat little.
By this point we have gottenRidgway's backstory.
So we're seeing kind of that.
I don't want to call it closurebecause it's definitely not
closure for Ridgway, but I'mjust going to call it that
because I don't want to call itclosure because it's definitely
not closure for Ridgeway, butI'm just going to call it that
because I don't know what elseto call it.
But we get Ridgeway is there toget that final moment with his
father, pay his respects and sayF you, I hate you.
(27:35):
And it is while they're here inhis father's house in Tennessee
that Cora is rescued by them,by these Robin Hood-esque
thieves.
But instead of stealing richesthey are freeing enslaved people
.
And in the book they're just inthe woods on their way to
Georgia when Cora is rescued.
So Cora does live in Indiana fora little bit and she's happy
(27:58):
there.
She's kind of nervous aboutmaking a life there, which is
completely understandable.
She has no way of feeling safe.
In the mini-series she actuallybegs the men rescuing her to
kill Ridgeway because if theydon't kill him she's never gonna
be safe.
But they end up not killing himand she goes to Indiana with
them and this is the happiestshe's been in a while.
She starts having a romancewith one of the men that rescued
(28:22):
her and yeah, unfortunatelythere is an ambush and it is
during this Ridgeway, of coursehas found his way to Cora again
and happens to be a part of thisambush.
So this is in Indiana, slaveryhas been outlawed, so they it's
like this community of blackpeople that live on this farm
(28:42):
and they all contribute to.
I guess it's kind of like acommune, but they all contribute
to life on the farm and they'retechnically safe from slave
catchers because slavery isillegal and slave catchers
aren't allowed to come into thispart of the country and bring
an enslaved person back to theSouth, like that's not allowed.
(29:04):
However, the white people inthe surrounding, in the town
adjacent to the farm, arestarting to get frustrated with
the success of the Black peopleon this farm, so they decide to
essentially kill everyone out ofjealousy and envy and all the
(29:26):
negative things, because this isa prosperous Black community
and they hate to see that.
So they have an ambush.
Ridgeway is a part of thisambush and a lot of people in, I
think most of the communitygets killed, but of course Cora
is captured by Ridgeway becausehe's there a part of this ambush
(29:47):
.
There's nothing better to do atthis time.
And he says you're going totake me to the entrance of the
Underground Railroad.
And she's like fine, and in thebook the entrance of the
Underground Railroad is so likeyou get to the entrance and
leading you down are stone steps.
And she actually ends uppushing Ridgeway down the stairs
.
She tackles him essentially andsince she tackles him, she's
(30:11):
unable to let go.
So she goes down the stairswith him and she's a little bit
injured, but she's okay, she'sable to get up and keep going.
Ridgeway is mortally wounded andhe gets like the brunt of the
force of the fall and he'smortally wounded.
And so when he reaches thebottom of the stairs, like it's
the end, it's over for him andboth his legs are broken.
(30:32):
So there's, he can't, there'snothing he can do, he's going to
die In the series.
It's actually a rope ladder, sothey're going down the rope
ladder.
Ridgway tells Cora to go downfirst.
So she's going down the ropeladder.
Ridgeway is following her andas they're coming down, cora
actually grabs Ridgeway and withall her strength it just like
pulls him down from the ropeladder.
(30:54):
So he loses his grip obviouslyand starts falling.
And as he's falling he grabsher, so she falls down the rope
ladder but he falls, gets thebrunt of it.
She falls on top of him, soshe's still injured, but she
landed on top of a more cushionysurface than Ridgeway did.
So she lands, she's slightlyinjured, but Ridgeway is still
(31:14):
screwed.
But after, to ensure that he'snot coming back from that, she
also ends up shooting him and wedo end up finding out what
happens to Mabel.
So, as I said, mabel is Cora'smom and in the miniseries again
we get a lot more of a backstoryto Mabel than we do in the book
.
Again there was I did find thata little bit disappointing, but
(31:37):
so she's kind of like themidwife of all the enslaved
people and there is a woman whoends up giving birth to a
stillborn child and she alreadyhas some sort of mental
disability and so giving birthto a stillborn child just really
really exacerbates that and shehas like severe postpartum
depression.
So this woman is not doing wellat all and Mabel is like she
(32:00):
keeps telling that woman'spartner and she keeps telling
the owner of the plantation likethis, this woman is not well,
like she needs to rest, and ofcourse they're like no, a
different woman ends up givingbirth to twins but she dies in
childbirth and you know they'relike perfect.
So they're like perfect.
We'll give the twins to the onewho gave birth to the stillborn
(32:20):
child because she still, shejust lost her stillborn child.
She, the one who gave birth tothe stillborn child, because she
still, she just lost herstillborn child, she still has
breast milk.
Blah, blah, blah.
She can nurse the twins.
All that and Mabel is like she'snot mentally stable enough to
handle that.
This is very dangerous, notonly for her, but it's also
dangerous for the children.
And everyone ignores Mabel'swarnings.
And Mabel at one point, likeshe sees this woman getting
(32:44):
really attached to thesechildren and Mabel's like those
children aren't yours andthey're just essentially using
you to make these babies strongso that they can take them away
from you.
And the woman's like no, theseare, these are my children.
And later that day she ends upcommitting suicide and killing
(33:05):
the babies.
Again, she's just not mentallystable at that point with
everything that life threw ather and postpartum depression.
And yeah, so Mabel like the onewho finds this woman is the
woman's partner, but Mabel walksin after him and she's.
They remove the bodies andMabel's tasked with cleaning the
(33:27):
mess.
And she, she just can't like,she's cleaning this mess, she
can't take it.
And so she kind of just shecan't take it anymore.
And she, just, she leaves, shestarts walking away, she leaves
and she makes it to the swamp.
And while she's at the swampshe comes to her senses and
realizes she left Cora behind,and so she starts making her way
back to Cora, but she's notable to make it back to her.
(33:52):
I'm not going to say why, forthat you will have to read the
book or watch the miniseries.
In the book it's kind of.
It's kind of more of like aftereverything she's experienced as
an enslaved woman, aftereverything she's seen on the
plantation, she just decides oneday she doesn't want to do it
anymore and she runs away andshe experiences freedom for a
brief moment and she trulyappreciates that moment of
(34:15):
freedom.
But then it's like but I can'tleave my daughter behind, and
she heads back to cora and againis not able to make it back to
her.
So so I did like what theyadded to the miniseries.
I just thought it was becauseshe ends up essentially running
away for the same reason.
But again, this is one of themore distressing aspects of the
(34:36):
show that might make itdifficult to watch.
So just throwing that out there, but anyway.
Going back to Cora, so after sheshoots Ridgeway in the
miniseries she goes back up therope ladder and discovers Molly.
Molly is another little girland her parents were killed, so
she has no one.
So Cora takes her on and theyescape using the railroad.
(34:56):
There's no train.
At this point they use one of Idon't know what they're called,
but it's like one of those,that like of those crank
thingies.
So you crank it up and down andit moves down the railroad
tracks one of those thingies andthey use that to go down the
railroad.
And then when they come out onthe other side, they come out of
the railroad, exit on the otherside and as they exit a black
(35:18):
man appears driving a coveredwagon and he says that he's
going to California and theydecide to go with him.
They get a covered wagon and hesays that he's going to
California and they decide to gowith him.
They get in the wagon and theminiseries ends In the book,
cora's by herself.
I don't know what happened toMolly.
After Cora realizes Ridgway isdead and his legs are broken,
there's no way he's coming afterme.
She gets on the prank trackthingy and leaves by herself,
(35:39):
but when she comes out, on theother side there's actually
there's like a white couple thatpasses by her and then another
white couple that passes by her,and then, after those two white
couples pass, then the blackman appears and he says I'm
going this way, and Cora's likedo you want it, can I go with
you?
And he's like sure, and shejoins him by herself.
There's no Molly in the book.
(36:00):
So that is it for that.
So a little bit more about thebook.
The book actually won the 2016Goodreads Awards for Favorite
Historical Fiction.
It is very good, and theminiseries first episode, as I
was watching it, there's justmind you, I know that there's no
(36:22):
way to tell the story ofenslaved people without showing
violence, and graphic violenceat that, because that's
literally what they experienced.
But it's also one of thosethings that like there's one
really, really, reallydistressing image.
So I would say the most, eventhe episode with Mabel.
It is distressing because youknow what happened, but you
(36:42):
don't actually see the events.
You see the aftermath and yousee glimpses of the bodies,
which can be distressing in itsown way, but you don't actually
see the act happening.
In the first episode there isan enslaved man who ran away,
who's captured and brought backto the plantation and he is
punished for everyone to see andthe way in which he is is
(37:04):
punished, like I was watching itand I was like this is really
hard for me to watch.
I can only imagine how muchmore difficult it would be for a
black person to watch.
So it is.
I do just want to put that outthere.
If you decide to watch the miniseries, the rest of the
episodes are fine.
I don't think any of the.
(37:24):
Obviously it's going to bedistressing because of the
subject matter, but in terms ofviolence, that is the most
graphic episode, so everythingelse is a little bit easier to
watch.
In that sense, I will say it isalso very graphically discussed
in the book and there's alsoone more detail in the book that
is not included in theminiseries, so just throwing
(37:46):
that out there.
So I will say that was verydistressing and again, if it was
distressing for me to watch,just be aware of that.
But other than that, like theminiseries had a lot of gorgeous
shots.
I mean, it's it's Barry Jenkins, he's an Oscar winner, so it is
.
It does have some really,really beautiful shots and I
mean, it's it's Barry Jenkins,he's an Oscar winner, so it is.
It does have some really,really beautiful shots and I
really really liked how theyexpanded Ridgeway and Mabel's
(38:10):
storylines and really reallyadded so much detail.
So I did really, really likethat.
That being said, I did findboth to be slow in moments and
like there were parts in thebook in which I would zone out a
little bit and be like no, youneed to focus.
So I did like both, but yeah, Idon't know, let's get it, let's
get into it.
(38:30):
I rated the miniseries three anda half stars and I rated the
book three and a half, maybepushing it to a 3.75 stars.
So even though I rated it justthe tiniest bit higher, the book
is the winner.
So let's see who the winner is.
The winner is the book theUnderground Railroad.
(38:52):
However, I do think theminiseries is still worth
checking out for the expandedstorylines of Ridgeway and Mabel
and also the performances andjust the cinematography and
everything.
Just gorgeous when people arenot being hunted or experiencing
the things that an enslavedperson experiences, so not too
(39:14):
many.
But when that's not happening.
Gorgeous, beautiful shots,beautiful to look at, but, yes,
I would lean towards the book,but that is it for this episode.
I would lean towards the book,but that is it for this episode.
I'm still catching up.
I'm still catching up on thebooks of everything that I saw
in December and early January.
So I do apologize, I don't knowwhen my next episode will be
(39:35):
released, but if you liked thisepisode, please leave it a
rating and a review, and pleasebe sure to follow us, or be sure
to follow me, so you know whenthe next episode comes out.
You can listen to it, and I'mreally excited because we also
have a special episode led byOrlando coming your way, and it
is a horror episode that I'm notbrave enough to watch or read,
(39:56):
so, but I think you'll reallyenjoy it.
So, again, please leave arating, a review, and I will see
you next time.
Bye.
Welcome to Books vs Movies, the podcast where I set
out to answer the age-oldquestion is the book really
always better than the movie?
I'm Yuvia, an actress and booklover based out of New York City
, and today I will be discussingthe Underground Railroad by
Colson Whitehead and its 2021miniseries adaptation.
The Underground Railroad Hieveryone, I am so sorry.
(00:23):
I did not mean to leave youwithout an episode for this long
, but it kind of just happened.
I watched so many things inlike December and early January
and everything I watched justpiled up and I could not read
the books fast enough and I gotbacked up.
So I'm so sorry.
(00:43):
I didn't mean to leave youwithout content for so long, but
I apologize.
It was never my intent to leaveyou without an episode this
long, but I'm excited to finallybring you back a new episode
and, as I said, I'm going to betalking about the Underground
Railroad.
Now I do want to say I know Ikind of touched up on content
(01:06):
warnings and things like that inmy top 10 least favorite films
of 2024, but I do want to saythat I mean you can probably
tell by the name, but this doestake place during the 1800s, so
we're going to be talking aboutpeople that were enslaved and
(01:27):
I'm not going to go into toomuch detail, but I am going to
touch up a little bit on some ofthe details in the book and the
miniseries.
Like I said, I'm not going togo into too much detail, but I
have to give some stuff away.
So completely understand ifit's a little too distressing to
listen to and, other than that,you know, spoiler alert a lot
(01:51):
of these things that I talkabout.
I have to spoil things in orderto fully comment on what it is
that I'm trying to pinpoint foreach aspect of the book or the
miniseries.
So just, I'm getting it outright off the bat.
I always forget to give spoiler, like I started forgetting to
(02:12):
give spoiler alerts like midwaythrough my episodes last year.
So let's get into it.
The Underground Railroad byColson Whitehead was first
published in 2016.
It follows Cora, who is a slaveon a cotton plantation in
Georgia.
She is an outcast, even amongsther fellow enslaved people, so
(02:37):
she has an even more difficulttime being an enslaved person
than most, and when she meetsCaesar, he tells her about the
Underground Railroad and theydecide to take a risk and escape
.
Unfortunately, things do not goas planned.
Cora kills a young white boywho tries to capture her, and,
(02:57):
though they do manage to make itto the Underground Railroad to
head north, they are hunted fromthat moment on.
The Underground Railroad is a2021 miniseries that you can
find on Amazon Prime, and itfollows a young woman named Cora
, who makes the discovery of theUnderground Railroad during her
attempt to break free fromslavery in Georgia.
(03:20):
So I will say there are a lot ofsimilarities and there are some
major, major differences, asalways, and we are going to get
into them.
So, yes, so Cora and Caesarescape, and I want to say that
the Underground Railroad in thisuniverse is a literal
(03:43):
Underground Railroad in thisuniverse is a literal
underground railroad.
So, instead of being like thenetwork of houses and families
and people that work together tohelp enslaved people escape
from slavery in the South byhelping them head North, this is
a literal railroad.
So you go there's still likeyou still have to go to certain
houses and there are certainpeople that are involved, and
(04:05):
but once you go underground,underneath these houses, you're
going to find an actual railroadtrack with a train that takes
you to different parts up north,and I do want to say that it
does take you north, but itdoesn't necessarily mean you're
out of the south completely,necessarily mean you're out of
(04:26):
the South completely.
So along the way, cora travelsto South Carolina, north
Carolina.
We know that these areas werestill had enslaved people in
reality, but in this versionthey well, we'll get into it,
but yeah, so it's just know thatwhen I'm, when we're talking
about the underground railroad,I am referring to a literal
Underground Railroad in thisuniverse.
So in the TV show, when Cora andCaesar escape and they make it
(04:51):
to the first safe house with theentrance to the Underground
Railroad, it's that safe housethey arrive, it's that safe
house, they go underground andthey get the Underground
Railroad and they go to whereverit's going.
One important thing I shouldmention also is that this
Underground Railroad is kind offlawed in that you have no way
(05:11):
of choosing where to go.
So like you show up to the safehouse and you there's also no
like set schedule, which kind ofmakes sense.
But so you show up and you,like the people that the allies
that are in charge of these safehouses will kind of say, hey,
there's a train scheduled for amonth from now If you want to
catch it, like make sure you're,you're at my place at this by
(05:35):
this day and this time.
So if you do not catch thattrain, you might be SOL because
the next train may not beavailable until the next month.
But each train takes yousomewhere like you have no way
of knowing.
So they just know when thetrain's going to arrive, but
they have no way of knowingwhere the train's going to drop
you off.
So they say, if you want tocatch this train, you need to be
(05:56):
at my house this day, this timeyou get on that train and it'll
drop you off, for example,south Carolina, however you
could.
If you miss that train andthey're nice enough to let you
stay in that safe house forhowever long, until the next
train and you get on the newtrain, that train might be going
to Virginia.
So you have no way of knowing.
So it's a literal undergroundrailroad and you don't really
(06:17):
know when it's going to getthere.
The train conductors, which isthe name of the people leading
these safe houses, will say,like I said, meet at this day
and this time be here, but theycan't tell you where you're
going to go.
So if there's a place youreally, really want to go to.
You kind of just have to hopethat you're being taken there or
just take your chances and gowherever the train takes you.
(06:38):
But wherever the train takesyou is theoretically taken to a
place where you will be safe,either forever hopefully, of
course, as you can probablyguess, most of the locations are
not safe forever or you'regoing to be safe for at least
until the next train arrives.
So yeah, anyway.
So in the TV series they get tothe safe house.
(06:58):
The Underground Railroadentrance is there.
That's it.
They made it.
They get on.
The episode ends.
We move on to episode two Inthe book.
They actually get to the safehouse and then from there they
have to travel to a secondlocation, and the second
location is actually where theentrance to the underground
railroad nearest undergroundrailroad is to them.
(07:19):
So that adds a little bit oftension because, great, they
made it to the first location.
Now they have to try to make itto the second location, and
there's like one of thelocations is there's not as much
cover, like they're able to bein the cover of the woods for a
while and then, once they getnear the location, it's like an
open field, so they kind of justhave to run and hope they make
(07:41):
it without anyone seeing them,and yeah, so that ups that
tension there.
The most important characters inthe well in both really is Cora
, who is our who's the leadshe's the one that escapes the
plantation and Ridgway Ridgwayis the is the slave catcher.
Who is who has a personalvendetta against Cora.
(08:04):
Cora's mother escaped 10 yearsprior to the events of the book
and the TV series and sheescaped.
Ridgeway catches every singleenslaved person that he is hired
to catch.
Mabel, who is Cora's mom, isthe only one that has ever
gotten away from him.
So he has a personal vendettaagainst Cora, since her mother
(08:27):
was never captured by him.
So he's trying to prove thatit's not going to happen a
second time.
So we get a little bit ofRidgeway's backstory in the book
.
However, the miniseries has anentire episode dedicated to
Ridgeway and we get his entirebackstory.
(08:47):
So it goes much more in depthin the miniseries than it does
in the book, and one of thethings we learn in the
miniseries is that his father isagainst slavery.
He hires free black men andgives them jobs at his smithy.
He's a blacksmith Is that whatthey call it Smithy?
His smithy?
He's a blacksmith.
Is that what they call it,smithy?
Whatever it's called, he's ablacksmith.
(09:08):
So he hires them to work withhim and Ridgway grows up feeling
as though these Black men arefavored by his father more than
he is, and so he grows to resentBlack people.
For this reason, and as a wayto get revenge on his father and
the Black people that hisfather hires, he becomes a slave
(09:29):
catcher.
So we get his backstory.
It's much, much, much morein-depth in the miniseries than
it is in the book and it's justa really good episode.
It's obviously really darkbecause we're getting the
backstory of this awful, awfulman, but it's a good episode and
I really liked that they wentmuch more in-depth because when
I got to his chapter in the bookI was kind of disappointed that
(09:59):
we didn't get as much backstoryinto Ridgeway.
So the first stop that Cora andCaesar end up at, they escape
the plantation in Georgia.
They board the undergroundtrain and they make it to South
Carolina and they stick aroundfor a while.
The train conductor of SouthCarolina lets them know hey,
there's a train coming.
You might want to think aboutgetting on it, but at this point
Cora and Caesar are veryenamored with the life that
(10:21):
they're leading in SouthCarolina.
Everything is not as it seems,that's all I'm going to say
about that, but yeah.
So they decide that they'regoing to stick around in South
Carolina.
However, in the book, gossipstarts spreading in this little
South Carolina town that they'rein that Ridgeway is in town and
he's looking for them.
Cora hears this gossip andimmediately she wants to look
(10:46):
for Caesar.
But she heard rumors thatRidgeway was close to the
factory.
Caesar works at the factory.
She wants to get word out toCaesar, but she also wants to
keep herself safe Completelyunderstandable.
So she goes to location of theUnderground Railroad and she
tells the he's a bartender, buthe's also the train conductor.
So she goes to the trainconductor's bar and she says hey
(11:08):
, ridgeway is in town, he'slooking for me and Caesar.
Can you please warn Caesar?
And the bartender's like, ofcourse you go to the Underground
Railroad immediately, wait forme, wait for us down there, and
I, like I will go to the factoryand warn Caesar that he's being
the slave catcher's looking forhim.
So Cora does that and she waits.
(11:29):
Caesar never appears and she'swaiting for a really long time.
Eventually she hears someoneenter the safe house and a lot
of ruckus and things beingthrown about, and she realizes
that people have discovered thatthis is the safe house and
they're looking for the entranceto the railroad.
(11:51):
So she knows that she can't goback out.
So she is stuck in thisunderground railroad.
She and Caesar had just missedthe train, so she has no way of
knowing when the next train isgoing to arrive and so she's
kind of stuck.
She can't go back out becausethey've completely ransacked the
place, but she also can't stayhere because she has no way of
(12:11):
knowing when the train is goingto arrive and she also has no
food and she has no water.
So that's the struggle there.
In the miniseries, ridgeway andHomer who is I don't know how to
refer to Homer Homer is alittle boy.
He is a little black boy thatRidgway bought and set free, and
(12:33):
Homer just decided to stay withRidgway so he's not enslaved,
he is a free child.
But he is extremely loyal toRidgway and assists Ridgway in
finding the enslaved people thathe's looking for.
So in the miniseries Ridgwayand Homer show up in South
Carolina and catch Cora andCaesar by surprise.
(12:56):
So Homer and Ridgway separate.
Homer actually goes to themuseum where Cora works and sees
her working and chases her, andit's one of those really gross
parts of the book and theminiseries because this happens
in both.
But she works at a museum andshe's essentially a live exhibit
.
So they have this museum thatfor white people and they have
(13:21):
actual Black people hired towork and be part of this live
exhibit and they show the lifeof an enslaved person in this
museum.
They're like live peopleworking out what it's like to
work on a plantation while thewhite people come and gawk at
them and it's one of thosethings that's like, but it's for
education.
But it's also like well, thisis also really.
(13:42):
Yeah, you can imagine how it isto like see this happening.
So Cora is acting out what it'slike being on that plantation.
When she sees Homer, she endsup running away.
And it's really cool in theminiseries how, you know, she
sees Homer, she leaves theexhibit and she starts running
away.
And the really cool detail isthat, like the live announcer
(14:05):
who's like and this is how theenslaved people pick cotton on
the plantation Like he's tryingto play it off, as like this is
all part of the show and he'slike, oh she's.
I don't remember exactly how hetries to play it off as, but
it's a really cool detail, butit's just like really gross to
think that like this ishappening.
But anyway, so Cora's discoveredby Homer.
She starts running away and sheruns away, homer ends up losing
(14:29):
her and she actually ends upmaking it to the Underground
Railroad.
Meanwhile we see Ridgewaycorner Caesar at the factory.
Where or not the factory?
It's like the dormitory wherehe's staying and they have, like
, all the people in thisdormitory lineup.
So Ridgeway can essentiallyexamine all of them.
And then he sees Caesar andthat's the final image we see is
(14:52):
like Ridgeway cornering Caesarin this dormitory.
And then we cut to the nextepisode.
So Caesar does not make it tothe Underground Railroad and we
don't find out his fate untillater in the book, in the
miniseries.
But yeah, so that's what happensin South Carolina.
So Cora makes it to NorthCarolina now all by herself.
(15:13):
So eventually she in in boththe book and the miniseries.
She starts walking along therailroad tracks and then a train
approaches.
It's not a passenger train sheshould not be getting on this
train but because it's like a.
It's just like a train that'spassing by for maintenance and
so she's not supposed to be onthere.
But she convinces the driver tolet her get on as a stowaway,
(15:34):
essentially Cause she's like Idon't know when the next train
is coming and I'm going to dieif you don't take me.
It doesn't matter where youtake me, but you need to take me
somewhere.
And the driver's like okay, andso he does, and eventually she
gets to North Carolina.
Now this is a station that isnot actually running anymore.
It's officially shut down.
So this is a town in whichthere are no, no black people
(15:58):
allowed.
Like, if you are a black person, the minute you step foot in
this town, you're dead.
You're not going to becomeenslaved, you're not like,
you're dead, they're going tokill you on the spot.
If you are harboring a blackperson, same thing You're killed
on the spot.
And so this station has beenclosed down ever since this town
essentially outlawed Blackpeople.
But this is where the driverdrops her off and she happens to
(16:22):
be found by the train conductorof this particular station.
His name is Martin and he'skind of like I guess I'll help,
I also don't just want to leaveyou here to die, so, but like
you cannot be seen, and he likereally emphasizes that and so he
takes her into town.
He like puts her in the wagonand he covers her up and he
(16:44):
takes her into town.
So in the book, so Martin islike happens to be checking up
on the underground railroad whencora shows up.
He's not expecting anyone toever be coming out of the
station because, like I said,the station's been closed for a
while.
So it's just like completecoincidence.
And so he leaves cora therebecause he has, like he walked
there and then he's like youcan't walk back with me, like
(17:05):
that we're both gonna get killed.
If so, you have to wait herefor me.
And Cora just kind of has totrust that he's going to come
back for her.
And he eventually does and hecomes with the wagon.
So in the book, his wife, ethel,is very much aware that Cora is
on her way.
Like when he left Cora to go tohis house to get the wagon, he
mentions to Ethel like hey,we're going to be harboring
(17:25):
someone that could get us killed, essentially, and his wife's
not happy with it, but she's agood wife, she goes along with
it.
In the miniseries she's caughtcompletely unawares.
He manages to get the wagon andbring Cora home and while his
wife is out, he allows Cora amoment to take a bath.
But he's telling her you needto hurry up, my wife will be
(17:46):
home soon, you need to hurry up.
And then his wife ends upcoming home and catches Cora
taking a bath.
She's incredibly pissed offbecause he's putting their life
in danger and they already havesomeone that they're hiding
illegally in their attic.
So she's beyond pissed that nowthat there's two more mouths to
feed and two more ways ofgetting caught and losing their
(18:09):
lives.
So in the book she's awareshe's not happy with it, but
she's aware in the miniseriesshe's caught by surprise.
But I was very surprised.
I saw the miniseries first.
So, as I said, in theminiseries Cora's up in the
attic with a little girl thatthey call Grace and she's up
there with Grace.
And in the book I was surprisedto find out that there is no
one else being hidden here.
(18:31):
Cora is by herself in thatattic for seven months.
There is no other child, noother person that they're hiding
in this house.
So that is a major, majordifference and we will get into
who the second character is alittle bit further down.
But in the so Cora ends upgetting very, very sick and she
(18:53):
becomes so sick that there's noway she can stay up in the attic
.
They have to bring her out andnurse her back to health.
So Martin and Ethel have aservant named Fiona.
So they say oh, martin's sick,you need to stay away for a week
while he feels better.
So they bring Cora down fromthe attic and they put her in
the spare bedroom and they nurseher back to health.
(19:15):
So in the miniseries what endsup happening is Ridgeway comes
into town and he says I'mlooking for a runaway slave.
And the townspeople are likethere's no runaway slaves here,
like if there had been one, shewould have been killed
immediately.
And Ridgeway's like no, no,like she's here, I just she's
(19:37):
here.
And he's like really insistenton searching the houses.
And when he gets to Martin andEthel's house, they're like
Martin at this point is sittingoutside on the porch to get some
fresh air, to help him feelbetter.
And Ridgeway's like I need togo into your house.
And Martin's like well, I'vebeen sick this whole week.
It's I don't want you to get.
Like it's very contagious.
(19:57):
I don't want you to get sick soyou can't go into my house.
And so, like, ridgway andMartin start arguing.
While they're arguing aboutwhether or not they're going to
let Ridgway into the house,ethel runs in and like, starts
trying to get Cora back up inthe attic.
And as they're doing that,homer goes into the house and
sees Ethel pushing Cora up thestairs trying to get her into
(20:19):
the attic.
And so immediately he alertsRidgeway and then the whole town
is like what You've beenharboring, this illegal black
person this whole time.
And so Fiona, at this point islike I knew you all were liars
and she sets the house on fire.
In the book there's likepatrolmen and they've visited
the house before, but at thispoint Cora was healthy, so she
(20:41):
was in the attic and they camereally close to finding the.
So it's like a cross space inthe attic.
So it's like attic proper.
And then there's a little crossspace where Cora lives for
seven months.
Can you imagine living in alittle cross space in the attic?
So it's like attic proper.
And then there's a little crossspace where Cora lives for
seven months.
Can you imagine living in alittle cross space for seven
months?
And the only I don't know.
This part was inspired byIncidents in the Life of a Slave
Girl, which I've read Verydifficult read, but that's where
(21:04):
the author that's essentiallywhat happened to the author of
that book she had to and this isa true story, like this is her
autobiography.
So she had to live up in acrawl space like that for, I
want to say, years, and ColsonWhitehead was inspired by this
book, and so this is what Corahad to do to survive.
(21:26):
Except she was only up therefor seven months.
And yeah, so Cora's up therefor seven months and the
patrolmen are looking, they lookeverywhere, they look in the
attic, they come really close tothe entrance of the crawl space
, but they don't discover theactual entrance.
So Cora's safe, and then,however, fiona starts getting
suspicious.
There's been like rules ofthree.
(21:47):
There's like one incident thathappens and then there's a
second incident and by the timeshe's sent away because Martin
is sick, she's like no,something suspicious is going on
.
So she alerts the patrolman andso, while Cora is in the guest
room, she hears the patrolmancome in.
She hides under the bed becauseby the time she finds out
(22:08):
they're there, it's too late forher to make it to the attic
without them seeing her.
So she crawls into the bed andkind of just hopes for the best.
And they discover her underthere.
And then Ridgeway is there withthe patrolman, for whatever
reason, and he's like I'll takeher now.
And the citizens of this townin North Carolina are like you
can't do that, we have to killher, it's part of our law.
(22:29):
And he's like no, I'm takingher.
And that's the only reason Corais not killed along with Martin
and Ethel.
So, as I said, in this seriesFiona ends up setting the house
on fire and in doing so she endsup like the houses are all made
out of wood and they're allreally close together.
So she inadvertently burns theentire town to the ground, is
like it feels kind of good andfiona gets punished for that.
(22:52):
So everyone gets theircomeuppance.
But in the book she doesn't setthe town on fire.
She is paid a sum by thepatrolmen for tipping them off
and letting them know that corawas there.
But martin, and after ridgewaytakes cora and she is saved from
the noose, martin and Ethel areboth hanged.
(23:12):
In the series.
Ethel is hanged, but Ridgway Idon't remember exactly what he
does, but he convinces the townto let him take Martin to show
him where the entrance of theUnderground Railroad is, and
then Ridgway ends up killingMartin after Martin blows up the
entrance to the UndergroundRailroad.
So Ridgway now has no way ofaccessing this Underground
(23:33):
Railroad.
So in the miniseries, as Fionaburns the town down, we're led
to believe that Grace is killedin the fire.
But then we end up getting theshortest episode of the series.
All the episodes are about anhour long.
This is only a 30 minuteepisode and we find out what
(23:53):
happens to Grace.
She survives the fire.
So, while everyone is obviouslyin a panic because the whole
town is burning down and they'retrying to put the fire out, she
manages to go like, come downof the attic and escape through
the back part of the housewithout anyone seeing her and
since she's still a little girl,she makes it to the entrance of
the Underground Railroad andeven though Martin blew up the
(24:15):
entrance, like there's a littlehole big enough for a child to
fit through.
So she enters through there andshe makes it down into the
Underground Railroad and sheends up getting on a train and
we end up finding out that hername isn't Grace.
Her name is actually FannyBriggs.
Now I had no idea who Fanny likeI was like.
(24:36):
Is she based on a real person?
No, this is part of the ColsonWhitehead extended universe.
Barry Jenkins wanted to throw alittle Easter egg for Colson
Whitehead fans, so Fanny Briggsis actually a character in one
of his other books.
I don't remember off the top ofmy head what the name of that
book is, but she's a characterin that book and so it's just a
(24:59):
fun little easter egg of likewhere she was before she ended
up in the events of that book.
So yeah, that's who Grace endsup being.
I didn't recognize that easteregg but I haven't read that book
.
But if you're a ColsonWhitehead fan you might
recognize that name.
So after Cora is taken byRidgeway from the town in North
(25:21):
Carolina, she is beingtransported back to Georgia and
it's Ridgeway Bozeman, who'sanother slave catcher and Homer,
and they have an enslaved manwith them named Jasper.
So as they're traveling fromNorth Carolina back down to
Georgia, in the book Jasper iskilled by the men for
(25:43):
essentially being annoying.
He is singing hymns.
He sings hymns all day, everyday, and finally finally they
just decide that the sum thatthey're going to get paid for
Jasper is not worth hearing himsing hymns all the time, and so
they decide to just kill him.
In the series he actuallydecides to starve himself to
(26:04):
death and ultimately settinghimself free from enslavement in
that way.
But in the miniseries, afterJasper starves to death and
they're on their way to Georgiabut they're actually on their
way to Tennessee.
Before going back down toGeorgia, because Ridgway gets
notice, ridgway finds out thathis father's on his deathbed and
(26:25):
so he goes to pay respects tohis dad one last time.
And it's actually here thatCora is rescued by Royal.
And this is a group of likeBlack men that essentially go
out to these parts and rescueenslaved people from slave
catchers and take them back toIndiana, which is where they're
(26:48):
based out of.
So yeah, they go on these raidsrescuing enslaved people.
So in the miniseries they're inTennessee visiting Ridgway's
father as he's on his deathbed.
In the book Cora is actuallyrescued in the woods.
In the book they are on theirway to Georgia.
They're not making a pit stopin Tennessee.
Ridgway's father is actuallydead by the time the events of
(27:11):
this book happen.
So in the TV series they addedthat little.
By this point we have gottenRidgway's backstory.
So we're seeing kind of that.
I don't want to call it closurebecause it's definitely not
closure for Ridgway, but I'mjust going to call it that
because I don't want to call itclosure because it's definitely
not closure for Ridgeway, butI'm just going to call it that
because I don't know what elseto call it.
But we get Ridgeway is there toget that final moment with his
father, pay his respects and sayF you, I hate you.
(27:35):
And it is while they're here inhis father's house in Tennessee
that Cora is rescued by them,by these Robin Hood-esque
thieves.
But instead of stealing richesthey are freeing enslaved people
.
And in the book they're just inthe woods on their way to
Georgia when Cora is rescued.
So Cora does live in Indiana fora little bit and she's happy
(27:58):
there.
She's kind of nervous aboutmaking a life there, which is
completely understandable.
She has no way of feeling safe.
In the mini-series she actuallybegs the men rescuing her to
kill Ridgeway because if theydon't kill him she's never gonna
be safe.
But they end up not killing himand she goes to Indiana with
them and this is the happiestshe's been in a while.
She starts having a romancewith one of the men that rescued
(28:22):
her and yeah, unfortunatelythere is an ambush and it is
during this Ridgeway, of coursehas found his way to Cora again
and happens to be a part of thisambush.
So this is in Indiana, slaveryhas been outlawed, so they it's
like this community of blackpeople that live on this farm
(28:42):
and they all contribute to.
I guess it's kind of like acommune, but they all contribute
to life on the farm and they'retechnically safe from slave
catchers because slavery isillegal and slave catchers
aren't allowed to come into thispart of the country and bring
an enslaved person back to theSouth, like that's not allowed.
(29:04):
However, the white people inthe surrounding, in the town
adjacent to the farm, arestarting to get frustrated with
the success of the Black peopleon this farm, so they decide to
essentially kill everyone out ofjealousy and envy and all the
(29:26):
negative things, because this isa prosperous Black community
and they hate to see that.
So they have an ambush.
Ridgeway is a part of thisambush and a lot of people in, I
think most of the communitygets killed, but of course Cora
is captured by Ridgeway becausehe's there a part of this ambush
(29:47):
.
There's nothing better to do atthis time.
And he says you're going totake me to the entrance of the
Underground Railroad.
And she's like fine, and in thebook the entrance of the
Underground Railroad is so likeyou get to the entrance and
leading you down are stone steps.
And she actually ends uppushing Ridgeway down the stairs
.
She tackles him essentially andsince she tackles him, she's
(30:11):
unable to let go.
So she goes down the stairswith him and she's a little bit
injured, but she's okay, she'sable to get up and keep going.
Ridgeway is mortally wounded andhe gets like the brunt of the
force of the fall and he'smortally wounded.
And so when he reaches thebottom of the stairs, like it's
the end, it's over for him andboth his legs are broken.
(30:32):
So there's, he can't, there'snothing he can do, he's going to
die In the series.
It's actually a rope ladder, sothey're going down the rope
ladder.
Ridgway tells Cora to go downfirst.
So she's going down the ropeladder.
Ridgeway is following her andas they're coming down, cora
actually grabs Ridgeway and withall her strength it just like
pulls him down from the ropeladder.
(30:54):
So he loses his grip obviouslyand starts falling.
And as he's falling he grabsher, so she falls down the rope
ladder but he falls, gets thebrunt of it.
She falls on top of him, soshe's still injured, but she
landed on top of a more cushionysurface than Ridgeway did.
So she lands, she's slightlyinjured, but Ridgeway is still
(31:14):
screwed.
But after, to ensure that he'snot coming back from that, she
also ends up shooting him and wedo end up finding out what
happens to Mabel.
So, as I said, mabel is Cora'smom and in the miniseries again
we get a lot more of a backstoryto Mabel than we do in the book
.
Again there was I did find thata little bit disappointing, but
(31:37):
so she's kind of like themidwife of all the enslaved
people and there is a woman whoends up giving birth to a
stillborn child and she alreadyhas some sort of mental
disability and so giving birthto a stillborn child just really
really exacerbates that and shehas like severe postpartum
depression.
So this woman is not doing wellat all and Mabel is like she
(32:00):
keeps telling that woman'spartner and she keeps telling
the owner of the plantation likethis, this woman is not well,
like she needs to rest, and ofcourse they're like no, a
different woman ends up givingbirth to twins but she dies in
childbirth and you know they'relike perfect.
So they're like perfect.
We'll give the twins to the onewho gave birth to the stillborn
(32:20):
child because she still, shejust lost her stillborn child.
She, the one who gave birth tothe stillborn child, because she
still, she just lost herstillborn child, she still has
breast milk.
Blah, blah, blah.
She can nurse the twins.
All that and Mabel is like she'snot mentally stable enough to
handle that.
This is very dangerous, notonly for her, but it's also
dangerous for the children.
And everyone ignores Mabel'swarnings.
And Mabel at one point, likeshe sees this woman getting
(32:44):
really attached to thesechildren and Mabel's like those
children aren't yours andthey're just essentially using
you to make these babies strongso that they can take them away
from you.
And the woman's like no, theseare, these are my children.
And later that day she ends upcommitting suicide and killing
(33:05):
the babies.
Again, she's just not mentallystable at that point with
everything that life threw ather and postpartum depression.
And yeah, so Mabel like the onewho finds this woman is the
woman's partner, but Mabel walksin after him and she's.
They remove the bodies andMabel's tasked with cleaning the
(33:27):
mess.
And she, she just can't like,she's cleaning this mess, she
can't take it.
And so she kind of just shecan't take it anymore.
And she, just, she leaves, shestarts walking away, she leaves
and she makes it to the swamp.
And while she's at the swampshe comes to her senses and
realizes she left Cora behind,and so she starts making her way
back to Cora, but she's notable to make it back to her.
(33:52):
I'm not going to say why, forthat you will have to read the
book or watch the miniseries.
In the book it's kind of.
It's kind of more of like aftereverything she's experienced as
an enslaved woman, aftereverything she's seen on the
plantation, she just decides oneday she doesn't want to do it
anymore and she runs away andshe experiences freedom for a
brief moment and she trulyappreciates that moment of
(34:15):
freedom.
But then it's like but I can'tleave my daughter behind, and
she heads back to cora and againis not able to make it back to
her.
So so I did like what theyadded to the miniseries.
I just thought it was becauseshe ends up essentially running
away for the same reason.
But again, this is one of themore distressing aspects of the
(34:36):
show that might make itdifficult to watch.
So just throwing that out there, but anyway.
Going back to Cora, so after sheshoots Ridgeway in the
miniseries she goes back up therope ladder and discovers Molly.
Molly is another little girland her parents were killed, so
she has no one.
So Cora takes her on and theyescape using the railroad.
(34:56):
There's no train.
At this point they use one of Idon't know what they're called,
but it's like one of those,that like of those crank
thingies.
So you crank it up and down andit moves down the railroad
tracks one of those thingies andthey use that to go down the
railroad.
And then when they come out onthe other side, they come out of
the railroad, exit on the otherside and as they exit a black
(35:18):
man appears driving a coveredwagon and he says that he's
going to California and theydecide to go with him.
They get a covered wagon and hesays that he's going to
California and they decide to gowith him.
They get in the wagon and theminiseries ends In the book,
cora's by herself.
I don't know what happened toMolly.
After Cora realizes Ridgway isdead and his legs are broken,
there's no way he's coming afterme.
She gets on the prank trackthingy and leaves by herself,
(35:39):
but when she comes out, on theother side there's actually
there's like a white couple thatpasses by her and then another
white couple that passes by her,and then, after those two white
couples pass, then the blackman appears and he says I'm
going this way, and Cora's likedo you want it, can I go with
you?
And he's like sure, and shejoins him by herself.
There's no Molly in the book.
(36:00):
So that is it for that.
So a little bit more about thebook.
The book actually won the 2016Goodreads Awards for Favorite
Historical Fiction.
It is very good, and theminiseries first episode, as I
was watching it, there's justmind you, I know that there's no
(36:22):
way to tell the story ofenslaved people without showing
violence, and graphic violenceat that, because that's
literally what they experienced.
But it's also one of thosethings that like there's one
really, really, reallydistressing image.
So I would say the most, eventhe episode with Mabel.
It is distressing because youknow what happened, but you
(36:42):
don't actually see the events.
You see the aftermath and yousee glimpses of the bodies,
which can be distressing in itsown way, but you don't actually
see the act happening.
In the first episode there isan enslaved man who ran away,
who's captured and brought backto the plantation and he is
punished for everyone to see andthe way in which he is is
(37:04):
punished, like I was watching itand I was like this is really
hard for me to watch.
I can only imagine how muchmore difficult it would be for a
black person to watch.
So it is.
I do just want to put that outthere.
If you decide to watch the miniseries, the rest of the
episodes are fine.
I don't think any of the.
(37:24):
Obviously it's going to bedistressing because of the
subject matter, but in terms ofviolence, that is the most
graphic episode, so everythingelse is a little bit easier to
watch.
In that sense, I will say it isalso very graphically discussed
in the book and there's alsoone more detail in the book that
is not included in theminiseries, so just throwing
(37:46):
that out there.
So I will say that was verydistressing and again, if it was
distressing for me to watch,just be aware of that.
But other than that, like theminiseries had a lot of gorgeous
shots.
I mean, it's it's Barry Jenkins, he's an Oscar winner, so it is
.
It does have some really,really beautiful shots and I
mean, it's it's Barry Jenkins,he's an Oscar winner, so it is.
It does have some really,really beautiful shots and I
really really liked how theyexpanded Ridgeway and Mabel's
(38:10):
storylines and really reallyadded so much detail.
So I did really, really likethat.
That being said, I did findboth to be slow in moments and
like there were parts in thebook in which I would zone out a
little bit and be like no, youneed to focus.
So I did like both, but yeah, Idon't know, let's get it, let's
get into it.
(38:30):
I rated the miniseries three anda half stars and I rated the
book three and a half, maybepushing it to a 3.75 stars.
So even though I rated it justthe tiniest bit higher, the book
is the winner.
So let's see who the winner is.
The winner is the book theUnderground Railroad.
(38:52):
However, I do think theminiseries is still worth
checking out for the expandedstorylines of Ridgeway and Mabel
and also the performances andjust the cinematography and
everything.
Just gorgeous when people arenot being hunted or experiencing
the things that an enslavedperson experiences, so not too
(39:14):
many.
But when that's not happening.
Gorgeous, beautiful shots,beautiful to look at, but, yes,
I would lean towards the book,but that is it for this episode.
I would lean towards the book,but that is it for this episode.
I'm still catching up.
I'm still catching up on thebooks of everything that I saw
in December and early January.
So I do apologize, I don't knowwhen my next episode will be
(39:35):
released, but if you liked thisepisode, please leave it a
rating and a review, and pleasebe sure to follow us, or be sure
to follow me, so you know whenthe next episode comes out.
You can listen to it, and I'mreally excited because we also
have a special episode led byOrlando coming your way, and it
is a horror episode that I'm notbrave enough to watch or read,
(39:56):
so, but I think you'll reallyenjoy it.
So, again, please leave arating, a review, and I will see
you next time.
Bye.
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