The episode begins on Christmas Eve with the slaves of Selah Strong celebrating the holiday by circle-dancing and singing “Read ’Em, John,” a song actually known from the Sea Islands of Georgia. After reading a notice nailed up by a British soldier, the young teenager Cicero (Darren Alford) brings his mother startling news: the royal authorities have seized all the property of their Patriot master and declared his slaves to be free. And yet, it becomes clear, the former slaves in Turn are still under a master’s control. Despite declaring slavery a sin, Hewlett requires all the “freed” black men to enter the army and Anna’s maid Abigail (Idara Victor) to work for Maj. John Andre (J. J. Feild). This lets the series keep portraying the British as villains and Anna as still sympathetic, despite her voicing the slaveowners’ argument that it’s “cruel” to free people not ready for freedom. Desperate to convince her former mistress to look after her son Cicero, Abigail reveals that she’s seen Anna conspiring with childhood friends Abe Woodhull (Jamie Bell) and Caleb Brewster (Daniel Henshall) to send information to the American army. Since she’ll now be working for Andre, Abigail offers to gather more secrets for that ring. But will Abigail also become prey to Andre’s sexual appetite? Will she come to see her interests lying with him, and decide to share what she knows about the laundry signals back on Long Island? And what about the African-born man Jordan (Aldis Hodge), who’s been pressing Abigail to become his woman and is now also on Manhattan? The start of Turn’s first episode showed a redcoat (Thomas Keegan) living in Abe and Mary Woodhull’s home. I’ve been waiting for that young officer to become involved in the Woodhulls’ strained marriage, and in this episode he does—but not as I expected. Instead, Ens. Baker interrupts Abe and Anna just as they’re about to have table sex. Once again Abe is flopping in every direction, propelled by Patriot politics, passion for Anna, and a combination of respect and resentment for his Loyalist father. In other developments, Maj. Robert Rogers (Angus Macfadyen) identifies his nemesis among the American dragoons as Tallmadge. We’re still awaiting the reappearance of Capt. Simcoe. And the commander of the Continental Army, kept off camera as long as possible, finally becomes convinced of the value of intelligence from Abraham Woodhull.