UNDERGROUND: Tune Into WGN America’s New Slavery Drama Tonight!
In the premiere episode, “The Macon 7,” written by series creators and executive producers Misha Green and Joe Pokaski and directed by Anthony Hemingway, Noah is determined to escape from the Macon Plantation. After his first attempt to run is disguised as getting lost, despite traveling a route he had been on many times before, he begins to collect crucial information as well as brings together a team of fellow slaves to join him on his next attempt. Meanwhile, Tom (Reed Diamond) and Suzanna Macon (Andrea Frankle), owners of the Macon Plantation, plan a lavish party to celebrate their daughter Mary’s (Mary Duhon) birthday and to launch Tom’s senatorial campaign. John Hawkes (Marc Blucas), a frustrated abolitionist lawyer, is approached about joining the group coordinating the Underground Railroad activities, but he and his wife Elizabeth (Jessica de Gouw) are hesitant to become involved. A tragic event on the plantation and a desire to see life beyond the main house walls, motivates house servant Rosalee (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) to consider joining the other runners. During his travels just beyond the Macon Plantation, August Pullman (Christopher Meloni) hides a runaway slave from patrolling bounty hunters, but his intentions are unclear; and Noah finds himself at odds with Cato (Alano Miller), the plantation’s cunning slave driver.