The Underground Railroad: 10 - Mabel
Amazon StudiosAfter a gut-churning crescendo of tears and gnashing of teeth where the Valentine community was brutally exterminated by their white neighbours, the story of The Underground Railroad comes to a close by revealing the show’s long-running mystery of what happened to Cora’s mother.
Up until now the viewer was led to believe – mostly thanks to Cora’s and Ridgeway’s second-hand accounts – that Cora’s mother, Mabel (Sheila Atim) executed a successful escape from the Randall plantation and disappeared into thin air. Thus, she was a bit of a superhuman figure both to Cora, whose entire journey towards freedom was propelled by her mother’s mysterious disappearance, and to Ridgeway, for whom Mabel’s escape was a personal failure. The final chapter of the story gives a detailed account of what happened to Mabel in addition to reminding the viewer of the inhumane treatment black slaves in The Deep South received from their cruel overlords on a daily basis.
Mabel is introduced as a self-assured and courageous young woman who – above all else – looks out for the well-being of her daughter and people around her. Having delivered her friend’s stillborn child, Mabel takes care of the would-be mother who is unshakably distraught. However, a chain of tragic events is set in motion which lead Mabel to the absolute brink and the viewer to a realization that the myth of the one who successfully escaped was nothing more than a pipe dream.
Even though the dramatic climax of this entire narrative has been reached in the previous chapter, the filmmakers do not relent and devote what essentially is an epilogue to this odyssey to drive the knife even deeper while twisting it slowly, so as to ensure the audiences would be left with a powerful take-home message. Because – as it is eventually revealed – Mabel's ultimate fate was completely different and randomly tragic, it seems as though both Colson Whitehead (author of the original novel) and Barry Jenkins were intending from the very beginning to leave this story unresolved; bittersweet and drenched in ambiguity.
Naturally, this can be read in a number of ways, one nihilistic and one hopeful. On one hand, the newly acquired knowledge of what happened to Mabel and how it projects onto Cora’s predicament – who has emerged from the seemingly never-ending tunnel and found herself in a carriage riding towards the setting sun – is an invocation of the generational doom bestowed upon every African American. It might not matter what catalyzes their journey and what forces propel their plight for freedom because the future is always in flux. It is unpredictable, chaotic and perilous. However, by the same token it might not matter one iota because the past does not decide the future. It informs the present, but it doesn’t define it. Therefore, Cora’s actions, resolve and tenacity – which she clearly inherited after her mother – will decide her future.
Thus, The Underground Railroad comes full circle and delivers its final message, which has been lying dormant in between the frames and carefully dosed all throughout this magnificent series. Although a lion’s share of what is actually captured in camera is best described as an unyielding account of historical trauma whose effects reverberate to this day, the thematic core of the story is defined by one word – freedom. Freedom from oppression. Freedom from persecution. Freedom to self-determine. Freedom to decide one’s future. Freedom to live. Freedom to prosper. Freedom to die on one’s own terms. Freedom to exist.
It would have been nearly impossible to deliver this message without amassing thematic momentum the way the filmmakers chose to; without going the roundabout way. But in doing so they also managed to evolve this archetypal odyssey into something greater than the sum of its parts. Thanks to its carefully-paced structure, adherence to history despite occasionally veering into veritable fantasy, and most of all Barry Jenkins’ unmatched acumen to film with a combination of tenderness and grit, The Underground Railroad is nothing short of a masterpiece. It is a great American epic that interrogates the country’s troubled history, projects its ramifications onto modern audiences and – most importantly – incites reflection and cultural rejuvenation. It is likely one of the most important stories for the post-Trump world, an epic poem to help the world galvanize against oppression and re-contextualize the past so that it would cease to be a yoke defining the future, and become a tool to shape that future with.
Chapter 2 - South Carolina (Review)
Chapter 3 - North Carolina (Review)
Chapter 4 - The Great Spirit (Review)
Chapter 5 - Tennessee: Exodus (Review)
Chapter 6 - Tennessee: Proverbs (Review)
Chapter 7 - Fanny Briggs (Review)
