- [birds singing] - [insects chirping]
- [low rumble] - [creek running]
[insects chirping]
[muted train whistle]
[train chugging]
[horse neighs]
- [insects buzz] - [horse snorts]
[Ridgeway] Unchain her.
[Homer] Sir?
[Ridgeway] I want her unfettered.
[horse snorts]
[shackles jingle]
Don't do anything foolish.
♪ ♪
- [sighs] - [footsteps approach]
[door opens]
[clock ticks]
[door opens]
Follow me.
[horse neighs in distance]
- [cow mooing] - [Mack] I'll be.
I know good and well that ain't who I think it is.
- [laughs] - [Ridgeway] Hello, Mack.
- Lord, have mercy. - [Ridgeway grunts]
Old Mr. Ridgeway.
[Ridgeway] Long time.
Yes, sir. Yes, indeed, indeed.
Hmm.
Mean a lot to him, you being here, though.
- Mm. - Yes, Lord.
You the, uh, the boss now, huh?
Oh, no, sir.
Hardly that, uh...
[sniffles] I, uh...
I got to stick around here, watch over things
best as I can, you know.
Can't see him trusting nobody else.
[Mack chuckles]
Uh...
Gonna introduce me to your family there?
Ma'am, little sir. [chuckles]
Won't be staying long.
Yes, sir.
Okay, well, uh, reckon I'm gon'
I'm gon', uh, yeah,
I'm gon', I'm gon' make haste, get on up here
- and check in on... - Yes, very good.
Yes, yes.
- Good to see you. - Yes, sir.
[match strikes]
[insects chirping]
[indistinct howling]
[horse neighing]
[sheep bleating in distance]
[Ridgeway exhales]
Now, you, uh...
...mind yourself.
And...
I'll be back.
[door shuts]
[lock clicking]
[Ridgeway] Get the horses some feed.
[Homer] Yes, sir.
[Ridgeway] Make the cart ready.
[Homer] Yes, sir.
[Ridgeway sighs]
♪ ♪
[insect clicking]
[clicking intensifies]
[birds chirping]
- [mooing] - [bleating]
[keys jingle]
[door opens]
[Ridgeway sighs]
[grunts]
[sighs]
You put that on.
And, uh...
This is to... to, uh...
- [grunts] - [cow mooing]
- [sheep bleating] - [splashing]
...clean yourself up.
And do something with your hair.
Well... [clears throat]
- [keys jingling] - [lock clicking]
[metal squeaking]
[sniffs]
[clang resonates]
- [low rumble] - [muted echoes]
[metal clanking]
♪ ♪
- [low rumble] - [muted banging]
♪ ♪
[horse neighing nearby]
♪ ♪
[horse neighs]
[indistinct chatter]
- [horse neighs] - [muffled ringing of bell]
♪ ♪
- [laughter] - [lively chatter]
[coughing]
[piano playing lively tune]
[lively chatter continues]
[sighs]
You, too, Homer.
Hat off at the dinner table.
[man clears throat]
Let me guess.
No niggers allowed in this here saloon.
Uh, nah, sir, I don't give a damn who you are
long as you spending.
Just wanted to make sure
wasn't none of you carrying the pox or...
...fever.
- Marisol! - [snaps fingers]
We got a girl here, she'll, uh...
she'll fix you up.
All right. What will it be?
- [Ridgeway] Well, depends what... - [Homer singing quietly]
- What y'all have? - [Marisol] Real simple, sir.
Stew with beef and potatoes, whiskey, beer.
[Ridgeway] Well, three of those.
The stew, whiskey or the beer?
Three stews,
- a whiskey bottle... - [Homer continues singing]
and two glasses, please.
Something for the little boy?
Sarsaparilla?
[Homer stops singing]
[Ridgeway] Excuse me.
[Homer resumes singing quietly]
[Ridgeway] Come on.
Now, you stay right here
until you better your manners.
- Uh, just the whiskey. - Hmm.
[laughter nearby]
[Ridgeway sighs]
[Ridgeway] I wanted us to have a proper supper.
Shoes weren't my first choice, but...
...the dress suits you.
[Cora] It's clean.
[chuckling]
[Ridgeway] It's new.
Now, we can't have our Cora dressed like
the floor of a butcher's shop, can we?
This where you used to come with your daddy?
If we ever shared a meal outside the house,
I fail to recall.
- What happened to your mama? - What happened to yours?
Hmm?
Mine stayed.
Your mama stayed.
I know your daddy stayed.
Sounds like the only one to run away was you.
- [Ridgeway] Thank you. - [Marisol] Mm-hmm.
Why'd you bring me here?
Why go through fire and brimstone to...
I didn't come here for you.
Not everything's about you.
[Ridgeway sighs]
Near on two months ago...
...my father took ill.
He collapsed right there...
on his shop floor,
and I was told the man was on death's door,
which now I can confirm.
Has one foot firmly inside that door...
...by the look of him.
Oh, yes.
I came here to...
[chuckles]
...uh, pay my respects.
So Arnold Ridgeway
is human after all.
And here I thought you were just some demon
who murders folk in cold blood.
You're a murderer, too, Cora.
Yeah, or did you forget?
Georgia? Little boy?
- He wasn't little. - [Ridgeway chuckles]
[laughing] "He weren't little."
Well, yeah, well, there's always...
...always unexpected expenses.
Jasper, for example.
You go on about reasons.
Calling things by other names as if prettying them up
will change what they is.
That's not exactly what I'm talking about.
You and your friend killed a little boy.
Yeah. You do what you have to do to survive.
I ain't nothing like you.
[Ridgeway chuckles]
[Ridgeway] Hmm.
True enough, true enough.
You was right what you said before about...
[clears throat] how we make up all sorts of fancy talk
to hide things.
All the smart men talking about...
[chuckles] manifest destiny
like it's some new idea.
You don't know what I'm talking about, do you?
Homer!
Manifest destiny.
[Homer] Manifest destiny:
taking what is rightfully yours,
your property,
whatever you deem it to be, sir.
[Ridgeway] And all the others
taking their places
so you can do such taking.
- Very good, Homer. - Thank you, sir.
Very good.
Now, whether it be the-the red man
or the African or-or the Mexican...
giving up themselves,
giving of themselves so that we can have
what is rightfully ours.
Uh, the French setting aside their territorial claim,
or the English and Spanish slinking away.
Now, my father liked his Injun talk
of the Great Spirit.
The only spirit worth its salt
- is the American spirit. - [bangs table]
The one that called us up from the Old World to the New,
to conquer and build
and civilize.
And lift up the lesser races...
Well, if not lift up, subjugate.
If not subjugate,
exterminate, eliminate.
Our destiny by divine prescription.
The American imperative.
Yeah.
We all have our place.
And you and me,
slave and slave catcher,
the master and the colored boss,
everyone from the politicians all the way down to the...
the new arrivals flooding into the harbors.
The weak of your tribe,
they're already weeded out.
I mean, they die on the slave ships, they die...
of our European pox,
or in the fields working indigo or cotton.
Yeah, but you...
[chuckles]
You and your mother...
You and your mother
are the best of your race.
It's true.
Your mother...
Now, I kept my eye out for her this whole time,
turned Boston and New York upside down,
all the colored settlements-- Syracuse, Northampton.
But, no. She's up there somewhere in Canada
laughing at the Randalls. Yeah.
Laughing...
...at me.
Yeah, laughing at you.
[sighs]
I see it as personal injury,
and so should you.
[sighs]
But I won't allow it.
No, I won't.
Cause if I allow it,
then I acknowledge that there's a flaw
in the imperative.
Yep, and I refuse.
I refuse.
And that is why I bought you that dress.
[piano continues playing lively tune]
[Ridgeway] So I could picture your mother all dressed up
like a present for her master.
[footsteps approaching]
[sighs] Well. Well, well, well.
Oh, that looks good.
[groans]
Don't know about you, but I am famished.
I need to relieve myself.
Or do you want me to ruin this fancy dress?
[Ridgeway sniffs]
Well...
Come on, then.
Nope. Stay where you are.
[laughter nearby]
- [indistinct chatter] - [shackles jingle]
[laughter]
[Ridgeway] Go on.
[Ridgeway sighs]
[sniffs]
[shackles jingle]
[Ridgeway] You know...
all this time,
you never asked about your...
blue-eyed companion, Caesar.
You, uh...
Did that make the papers up there in North Carolina?
Huh? Do they even have newspapers up there
in that abomination of a state?
Do they?
[sniffs]
Oh, it's...
so strange going to South Carolina
these days with that,
you know, new civilized system.
I'll tell you, it is the same hungry place
that it-it ever was.
See, we... [sniffs]
we caught up with it in its dormitory.
All those big colored bucks gathered around it.
They were rediscovering their old fear
that they thought that they'd left behind.
But they just watched as we dragged it,
marched it out to the wagon.
At first, just a small crowd gathered.
You know, it was no big fuss.
Just a...
just another runaway caught.
But then word spread...
...that Caesar was wanted in Georgia
for the murder of a white boy.
Ooh.
It spread quicker than I could ever imagine.
Yeah.
Well, the word came down from the mayor, you know,
"Just p-put it in jail."
[sniffs] And we waited, but...
[spits] they broke in.
Uh, it was a large crowd, you know, 40, 50 strong.
Oh, to... to be fair...
[chuckles]
...it was the sheriff that unlocked the door.
Yeah, so they just stormed the jail...
...and they ripped him apart.
Yeah.
The sheriff, he just watched.
And old Caesar, you know, he...
he-he put up a hell of a fight.
[crying softly]
♪ ♪
Those civilized,
decent people from South Carolina
with their schoolhouses and their...
Saturday night socials just...
...tearing apart a grown Negro.
Mm-hmm.
See, in the end...
...it turns out they ain't no different
from their neighbors to the north.
- [sighs] - [footsteps approaching]
You okay, mister?
[Ridgeway sniffs]
You okay, miss?
♪ ♪
Yeah.
Just like I said:
plucked those blue eyes right out of his head.
While he was still breathing.
[Cora gasps]
[muffled sobbing]
♪ ♪
[sniffles]
[Ridgeway sniffs]
[Ridgeway sighs]
[exhales] Look.
[sniffs]
[sighs] What do you think of that?
[sighs]
Huh? [sniffs]
[Ridgeway chuckles]
Yeah, I didn't think much about it, neither.
[sniffs]
But... but it's on the table.
- [shackles jingle] - Come on.
[clock ticking]
[Ridgeway] Mack.
Mack. Are you in there?
[groans]
There he is.
[snapping fingers]
Hey.
[sniffs]
Hey.
- Hey. - [snaps fingers]
[Ridgeway grunts]
[inhales deeply]
[Ridgeway exhales]
[Ridgeway sighs]
[breathing heavily]
Just want you to admit one thing.
[sighs]
The Great Spirit.
The Great Spirit... ain't no such thing.
You made it up, didn't you?
Huh?
What's it matter?
Hmm? Say it.
Just say it.
Come on, say it.
I'll be your priest.
And I'll give you absolution.
Admit it.
Say it.
Just say it.
Admit it wasn't there.
Just say it.
- [bed rattles] - Just say it.
Hmm?
Ain't no such thing. Say it!
Goddamn you!
[voice trembles] Goddamn you!
Just say it!
[sighs]
[labored breathing]
I wish I had done more...
...to shape the boy...
...into the man.
[long exhale]
[gasping]
[Ridgeway gasps]
- [shuttered breathing] - [indistinct muttering]
[Ridgeway sniffs]
[groans]
[indistinct muttering]
[shackles rattle]
[Cora mutters indistinctly]
- You'll wake him. - [muttering]
- You'll wake him. - [indistinct muttering]
- No, please, please. - [Cora pleads indistinctly]
- [Ridgeway mutters] - [Cora moans]
[Cora] Please, please, please, please, please.
- [Ridgeway] Shut up! - [Cora cries]
- [hushes] Please. - [muffled cries]
Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't.
- You'll wake him. - [muffled crying]
You'll wake him.
- [sobbing] - [keys jingle]
- Wait. Wait. - [crying]
Wait. [mutters]
- [heavy breathing] - [grunting]
- [Cora] No. - [Ridgeway] We can't wait.
- [crying, muttering] - Just can't wait, can you?
[moaning]
- [choking] - [low rumble]
[Cora pants]
[Ridgeway mutters]
[choking sounds]
[Ridgeway mutters]
- [keys jingle] - [Cora pants]
[choking sound]
[shushes]
[panting]
[Cora] No.
- [Cora sobs] - [metal rattles]
[choking sounds]
- [Cora] No. - [Ridgeway shushing]
- No. - [Ridgeway groans]
- [Cora cries] - [muttering]
It's...
Yes, close your eyes.
- [Cora cries] - [Ridgeway groans]
Oh, it's not fair.
It's not fair.
[sighs]
It's not fair.
- [Ridgeway sighs] - [Cora panting]
It's just not fair.
[sighs]
It's not fair.
No, he just made it all up.
[sighs]
[exhales]
- [Cora breathes shakily] - [Ridgeway groans]
- [shackles jingle]
[crickets chirping]
♪ ♪
- [footsteps] - [wood creaking]
[doorknob creaks]
♪ ♪
[metal jingles]
♪ ♪
[metal jingling]
[Ridgeway groans]
♪ ♪
[Ridgeway grunts]
♪ ♪
[insects buzzing and trilling]
[horse neighing]
[Royal] Y'all get the horses ready. Ma'am?
Ma'am, ma'am. Hang on, now. Hang on, now.
What you doing?
As long as that man up there is drawing breath,
I'm gonna be running.
And I can't.
I won't.
You know what it mean to kill a white man?
All right.
I'm coming with you.
I can't let you go back up there.
Way I see it, this ain't none of your business, Mack.
I reckon old Arnold deserve all your fury, ma'am.
But this here is a house in mourning.
And his pa was a great man.
I ain't got no choice.
You needs to leave old Arnold behind you
when you gets on that railroad tonight.
Now, don't you let this here old shuffle of mine fool you.
[Royal] That man can't leave this house alive.
You understand me?
Ain't been a man what brought as much pain
upon our folk as him. I need your word.
He won't...
He won't trouble you no more.
I give you my word on that.
♪ ♪
[sniffles]
♪ ♪
[muffled voices shouting]
[Samson] Every time we come down here, something new.
[Royal] Well, the station agent, Mr. Thomas,
he likes to maintain a mood.
♪ ♪
[glasses clink]
[Royal] To friends old...
...and new.
Cheers, everybody.
- [Samson] Cheers. - [Red] Cheers.
[Royal] Mmm.
Mm-hmm.
What do we have here?
[Royal] Oh, Mr. Thomas, How goes it?
It goes. Train should be arriving shortly.
- [Red] Heard that before. - [laughter]
[Gus] Didn't expect a guest,
but...
it's never too late
to welcome another soul into the mission.
Welcome, young lady.
Pleasure to meet you.
Your testimony, please?
- We're gonna give y'all some privacy. - No. Y'all stay.
I can write it myself.
- Thank you. - You're welcome.
[men chattering indistinctly]
[muffled voices shouting]
♪ ♪
[train whistle blows]
[steam hissing]
♪ ♪
- [train chugging] - [muffled train whistle]
- [chugging continues] - [bell clanging]
[clock ticking]
[Ridgeway groaning]
[Ridgeway groans]
[Ridgeway] Mack?
Oh, Mack.
[Ridgeway grunts]
- [bed creaks] - [Ridgeway coughs]
[exhales sharply]
[sighs]
Teach me not to drink a whole bottle of whiskey, Mack.
[laughs]
[sniffs]
[groans]
[Ridgeway] You remember when we...
snuck into Pappy's cabinet?
[Ridgeway laughing]
I do.
Yeah. [groans]
No doubt they didn't leave the key...
lying around, so...
you'll have to go fetch the saw or...
...maybe the chisel and hammer.
You're the blacksmith.
[sighs]
[chair drags]
[Ridgeway sighs]
Oh, I see.
I see.
Old man's body's not even cold yet.
Have it your way.
Hell, I'll even sign the deed over to you.
Why let my old buddy Mack
go through so much trouble?
It ain't yours to give.
I ain't trying to cause you no pain or nothing.
Arnold.
But it ain't yours to give.
And he...
...he wasn't trying to hurt you or nothing like that.
No.
You know, my father always thought
very highly of you, Mack.
Yeah.
Higher than he thought of me.
I know that.
Hmm. He loved me.
[clears throat] Love...
Love is one thing.
Yeah, love is simple.
But he... he admired you.
He admired you.
Yeah, and I was jealous.
So angry.
Bitterly jealous. I was mad as hell at everything.
And nothing.
The Great Spirit.
[spits]
[sighs]
Couldn't find it in me, see?
I could tell by the way he looked at me,
he couldn't find it in me, but he found it in you, Mack.
[laughs] H-He nearly messed hisself from euphoria,
he saw so much of it in you.
So much.
Mack. Mack.
[sighs]
And yet, here we are.
[sniffs] Old man's son...
...and his favorite nigger.
One chosen, one...
...disgraced.
One with the spirit, one without.
I have committed...
unspeakable deeds...
against your darker humanity.
I've heard...
niggers plead...
...scream and wail...
...in a way no man,
unless he cavort with Lucifer, could compete.
But I have to ask you, Mack.
How many of those niggers
do you think that my father
would've found the spirit that he found in you?
Hmm?
And in seeing it...
...what difference could he have made?
Because, you know, when the light is gone...
...and only the shadow remains...
...that spirit is nothing
compared to the will of a heart that's overrun...
...with hate.
You came to pay your respects?
[Ridgeway sniffs]
- I did. - And have you?
[Ridgeway sniffs]
I have.
[sniffles]
Mack?
I know you don't believe it, but I always felt...
sorry about...
...the well.
[sniffs]
But you seem to be getting on pretty well.
Yeah?
Moving round and...
Can I ask one favor?
Just one whiskey.
I don't know.
For old time's sake.
Your choice.
[clock ticking]
[footsteps departing]
[sniffs]
[sighs]
[cabinet doors creaking]
[whiskey pouring]
[wind whistling]
[matches rattle]
[gunshot]
♪ ♪
[grunts]
[Mack coughing]
[blows]
♪ ♪
I'll go find the saw.
No, no.
Please. Please.
[Homer sighs]
[Ridgeway sighs]
[coughs]
[clock ticking]
[ticking slowly grows louder]
[ticking stops]
[♪ Kendrick Lamar: "Money Trees"]
♪ Everybody gon' respect the shooter ♪
♪ But the one in front of the gun ♪
♪ Lives forever ♪
♪ Me and my niggas tryin' to get it, ya bish ♪
♪ The Slim K Slowdown ♪
♪ Ha-Ha-Halle Berry or hallelujah ♪
♪ Me and my niggas tryin' to get it, ya bish ♪
♪ Ha-Ha-Halle Berry or hallelujah ♪
♪ Me and my niggas tryin' to get it, ya bish ♪
♪ Be the last one out to get this dough? No way ♪
♪ Love one of you bucket-headed hoes? No way ♪
♪ Hit the streets, then we break the code? ♪
♪ No way ♪
♪ Hit the brakes when they on patrol? No way ♪
♪ Uh, me and my niggas tryin' to get it ♪
♪ Ya bish, ya bish ♪
♪ Hit the house lick, tell me, is you wit' it? ♪
♪ Ya bish, ya bish ♪
♪ Home invasion was persuasive ♪
♪ Was persuasive, was persuasive ♪
♪ From 9:00 to 5:00 I know it's vacant ♪
♪ Ya bish, ya bish ♪
♪ Me and my niggas tryin' to get it ♪
♪ Ya bish, ya bish ♪
♪ Me and my niggas tryin' to get it, ya bish, ya bish ♪
♪ Me and my niggas tryin' to get it ♪
♪ Ya bish, get that ♪♪
♪ ♪