This story contains spoilers about the first three episodes of "Underground."

“Underground,” the antebellum-era drama that aired its third episode on WGN America last night, is an unusual creation. It's a period show that is authentic to the period, but not to the genre.

Last night’s episode, “The Lord’s Day,” featured a scene that combines all the show’s qualities together in one four-minute spell.

In it, the house slave Rosalee (Jurnee-Smollett Bell) is attacked by the field overseer, Bill Meekes (PJ Marshall). She fights back, and leaves him for dead, setting in motion a series of ramifications that will affect everybody on the Macon plantation. The scene was originally written for the end of the pilot, show co-creator Joe Pokaski said, but was pushed back as he and Misha Green developed the plot. The original scene had far less nuanced versions of Rosalee and Bill, he said. Having it as the climax of the third episode allowed for the characters and plantation dynamics to grow and better set up the confrontation.

“One thing I told the actors,” director Anthony Hemingway said, “was live on the edge and find the truth in what we’re telling. I wanted to definitely go there.”