'The Good Lord Bird' Episode 2 Preview: Redshirt brags about killing John Brown, Onion befriends a prostitute
Showtime’s seven-part limited series, ‘The Good Lord Bird’, created and executive produced by Ethan Hawke and Mark Richard, based on the 2013 novel of the same name by James McBride, began with a bang. The first episode introduced Brown (Hawke) as a religious fanatic who thinks he is fulfilling God's duty by freeing people of color. Brown, in the story narrated by Onion (Joshua Caleb Johnson), talks to rabbits, kills with fervor and prays long enough to annoy everyone in his religious militia.
The first episode saw many a conflict and how Onion (who Brown mistook to be a girl) was “saved” (although the word snatched is more appropriate) from White slavers by Brown and his rag-tag band. The episode ended with Brown’s son Frederick (Duke Davis Roberts) being killed by a former ally, and the abolitionist taking off when his other sons and followers say that they are tired of the struggle.
So, what to expect ahead. As per Showtime, in the second episode, titled ‘A Wicked Plot’, we will see Onion and fellow slave Bob (Hubert Point-Du Jour), now separated from Brown’s army, leave the fight in Kansas only to cross paths with pro-slavery “Redshirts” who escort them to the slave-trading town of Pikesville, Missouri. The Redshirts were several paramilitary white supremacist groups in the South.
Onion is taken under the wing of Pie (Natasha Marc), a mixed-race prostitute working out of the local hotel, who instructs him in the ways of the world despite her discovering his dangerous secret. Onion soon finds himself enmeshed in a mounting slave insurrection where he learns the consequences of his own actions.
In the promo for the episode released by Showtime, we see a Redshirt called Chase (Steve Zahn) brag to a bar about how he killed Brown (already a notorious legend in the South) with his bare hands. But as we see in the promo, Brown is definitely alive.
One of the most striking moments of the original trailer for the show is Brown screaming in absolute rage, “My name is Captain John Brown! And I am here in the name of the great King of Kings! The Holy Redeemer, the Man of Trinity! Because He is on the side of Justice! And you are on the side of chains!” The promo for the episode shows that we will finally get to see that scene in the context of the story.
The promo also sees large-scale carnage in what is presumably Pikesville, Missouri, when Brown and his militia strikes. While the promo offers no explanation, it will be interesting to see what exactly Onion did that would force him to learn the consequences of his own actions.
More than that, we will also hopefully learn if Brown’s sons and other followers really abandoned him or if they just wanted a bit of a break. ‘The Good Lord Bird’ is all about Hawke’s energy. But the show hopefully will focus on other characters as well, especially Onion and Bob.
'The Good Lord Bird' airs on Sundays on Showtime at 9 pm ET/PT.