Underground Season 2 Episode 1: "Contraband" Quotes
John: You can not ignore federal law!
Judge: I just did.
Rosalee: You says trust me. You says you can make the law work in our favor.
John: How was I supposed to know that the judge would just bypass the entire legal system?
Rosalee: You open your eyes! This happens all the time in the North and the South. It don't matter. Rules don't apply to black folk!
Rosalee: If any part of this go wrong, we all end up in jail.
John: Well, then we all go to jail.
I tried to draw a line between family and politics, but when he hung that man--Rosalee's brother, his daughter's brother...Why should I? Tom didn't.
John
The system was built with the best of intentions, but those in power have found ways to corrupt it. Rosalee's right. I cannot keep my eyes closed anymore.
John
Elizabeth: John, seeing a problem isn't enough. The system isn't going anywhere. We have to figure out a way to disrupt it.
John: I think that I have. There is an open seat on the court of commons. We go down to the courthouse, and put my name on the ballot, and then I can start making rulings that will help the cause. What do you think?
Elizabeth: I think it's brilliant.
Death been following you all around, and you thought you could beat it. Sacrificed your dignity, me, even your children, at the altar of your privilege. But that's the white in you. The black won't never gon stop haunting you. Tried to forget, and look what forgetting got ya. Little girl run away. And Sam, well, he swung from the porch of that big house you thought you owned. You sad, pretty little thing. I bet you told yaself you was being tough. All those pieces you cut out, just so you could go on. But just because you survived, doesn't make you strong. If you was, you'd just do it. It's what ya want, ain't it? Ever since you hung massa? When you gave up? Because this, you, sitting around, just waiting for him to do it for you...to beat ya to death. It's pitiful. Just kill yourself.
Pearly Mae
Ernestine's lover: Where you at?
Ernestine: Nowhere.
Prisoner: How about you? Where you going when you free?
Noah: It don't matter. It ain't about a place no more.
He was your brother. It's okay to miss him.
Elizabeth
John: There's only three of us against every marshal in that square.
Elizabeth: There's more than three. We're part of a movement now.
So this ya life now?
Pearly Mae
