Working on the Railroad

Working on the Railroad is the second episode of season one of Greater Boston, and the second episode overall.

Interviews
At the top of the episode, Jeff Van Dreason asks Greater Boston residents what could make Boston greater. In between segments, he asks about the weirdest thing they've ever seen on the T.

Charlotte on the MBTA
A Red Line train passes by with a series of advertisements.

Charlotte, heavily pregnant, wakes up with her wife Gemma's alarm clock. The two of them get ready for their respective days together: Gemma at work, and Charlotte to stay at home.

The night before, Charlotte had a dream that she had to carry her baby to safety on her own. She'd been cursed by a witch to wander in a valley, but would either starve her baby or curse it. Disturbed, she decides that she can't stay at home and decides to ride the Red Line. She notices posters of a married couple going up at the Alewife station, but can't find out why.

At Harvard, the Mayor boards the Red Line and greets Charlotte. She signs his petition for the Red Line to secede and begins to wonder if the Red Line could actually manage it.

The Mayor of the Red Line
The Mayor begins giving an impassioned speech to recognize the importance of the Red Line and calls for people to support the line seceding and becoming its own city. He mentions Leon Stamatis as a frequent commuter and decries his death at Wonderland.

He asks for passengers to speak about their experiences on the Red Line, and begins talking to Charlotte. She tells him that she used to work in an independent animation studio that shut down, and now she rides the subway back and forth. In return, the Mayor tells her that he used to be a professor, but panicked when he was offered tenure. On his way to accept the offer, he fell onto the tracks in front of the Red Line and was pulled away by a commuter, leading him to reject the tenure offer. He encourages Charlotte, and she begins to tell the train about her dream.

Red Line Wedding
Louisa is taking photos for the wedding of Ethan and Emily Bespin, who are holding the wedding on the Red Line. She has a difficult time getting good non-posed shots of the wedding party. They hold their reception on a Red Line train. She reviews several of her photos in the middle of the reception, debating which ones to show Emily and Ethan.

Exhausted at the end of the night, Louisa notices a newspaper headline about a death on a roller coaster. She reads the article and discovers that the death was her ex-boyfriend Leon.

Cast
In order of appearance:
 * Narrator - Alexander Danner
 * Gemma Linzer-Coolidge - Lydia Anderson
 * The Mayor of the Red Line - James Capobianco
 * Charlotte Linzer-Coolidge - Summer Unsinn
 * Louisa Alvarez - Julia Propp
 * Red Line advertisements - Laura Cunningham, Alexander Danner, Ben Flaumenhaft, Marck Harmon, Jim Johanson, Mike Linden, Sam Musher, Julia Propp, Jeff Van Dreason

Trivia

 * The speech delivered by the Mayor in this episode also appears in the first series trailer, We Believe.
 * Charlotte mentions that she visited Wonderland and rode the Whirlodon, much to Gemma's distress.

Content warnings

 * Strong language
 * Prenatal depression
 * Discussion of death
 * Ostentatious displays of wealthy