S01.E02: Chapter 2: South Carolina

[Door County Cherry]

Premieres 5/14/2021

Quote

Griffin, South Carolina – a seeming paradise of progress and racial harmony that hides dark secrets, especially the secrets of “Bessie" and "Christian." Meanwhile, bounty hunter Arnold Ridgeway begins his pursuit of Cora.

 

[Lebanna]

Really loved the creeping sense of dread in this episode. The feeling of relief, warmth and safety for the characters at the beginning gradually replaced by fear and dread. This episode was a perfect self-contained horror story.

I think just about every woman will empathise so much with Cora in the stirrups on the table. Just about everyone has wondered in that situation, even if just for a tiny moment, if the doctor is going to say or do something horrible. That was such horror. And then for her to disclose her rape and realize he’s only asking because he has something else he wants her to give up.

That moment when Cesar gets the job and is so happy and proud, finally so hopeful. Only to find he is helping to kill his friends.

The guy in the museum, who knows way too much about whips. Who gets off on teaching children how the pain of others is for the greater good.

And of course, this episode was a memorial to the long and terrible true history of never really understanding that free has to mean free, and equal really has to be equal. Not your pet. Not your project, or your experiment or your problem. Because when people become those things, people  stop registering as human and all empathy disappears. And we all know how that story goes. It’s the story of humanity. 

[Ohiopirate02]

I read the book a few years ago and understand what Colson Whitehead was doing with this chapter, and Barry Jenkins knocked it out of the park.  The level of detail is outstanding and I really liked the costumes changes.  In Georgia you see the antebellum silhouettes on the whites, and in South Carolina you get the 1880s.  Seeing the different ways the whites were studying Cora, Cesar and the others works so much better than reading about it.  The whites who run everything sincerely believe they are helping.  I had chills when the museum director was demonstrating using a whip.