Eleanor brokers a peace.  Rackham learns the hard way.  Flint breaks a promise. Bonny loses control.

(Summary provided by starz.com)

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BEST FLINT MOMENT

Daddy Guthrie:  These two plans mutually exclude each other.
Flint:  I will make it work.
DG:  How could you possibly?
Flint:  I don’t know.  Yet.

Flint is a realist because he forces reality to bow to his whims.  Why doesn’t everyone just accept this immediately??

TODAY’S RUNNER UP

Jack!  I’m still mad about him betraying Anne, but it soothes my soul to know that he is aware of just how devastating that was.  He clings to his captaincy partly out of his own pride, but it’s mostly because he knows he MUST fulfill his promise to Anne.  He has to succeed so that he can bring her onto the crew and so that his betrayal will not be for nothing.

And boy howdy.  He’s adorably self-conscious around Captain Harcourt, which gets him taken advantage of in negotiations.  It’s looking bad, but then Jack wins twice through smart thinking.  He would have lost the hand-to-hand combat if he hadn’t held Harcourt’s shirt open to make him bleed out faster.  And then the BRILLIANT manipulation that gets the prize crew to side with his against Harcourt’s crew.  Jack’s got just enough brawn to defend his incredible brain.

NOW GO BACK TO ANNE AND MAKE THINGS RIGHT.

LOL MOMENT

Harcourt:  Captain Linus Harcourt of the Goliath.
Jack:  Your ship is named after the greatest disappointment in the history of warfare?
Harcourt:  They like how it sounds.

WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS

Anne is the new Flint.  She murders innocent people, and yet all I want to do is give her a hug.  And Max is the new Silver, immediately defending her despite dangerous consequences.

I think this is the first episode in which Max begins to really love Anne.  Until now it was one-sided, beginning when Anne saw herself in Max’s sexual abuse.  But now Max sees herself in Anne’s loss of status, and their love equalizes.  And wow, when Max decides to love someone, she goes ALL IN.  She was ready to leave everything behind to run away with Eleanor, and now she’s willing to step between Anne and the consequences of two murders.

Idelle:  She’s gone fucking mad over it.
Max:  Idelle, how would you feel if the one man you thought would never betray you did?  If he purchased for himself a future through that betrayal?  If you were told by a world full of men that that betrayal confirmed for them that they were right to see you as a monster to be shunned.  She’s not mad.  She is adrift, alone in the most terrifying way.  What she will do next, I do not know.  But I refuse to proclaim myself to be yet another one of her enemies by acting like I have something to fear from her.

FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS

• EXCELLENT opening of Flint and Vane rolling around: first heard, then seen through the rafters, then up close and personal.  And Eleanor stopping their fight by firing a shotgun!  Love how this “epic” fight immediately portrays them as naughty schoolboys.
• Vane wants Eleanor to choose him over Flint.  He keeps seeing it as a battle of wills, but it’s a battle of ideals, and his don’t match hers.
• Eleanor asks Flint to do the impossible (convince his men to do the exact opposite of what he most recently convinced them to do), knowing he can do it.  She trusts that he trusts her.  THIS is what a partnership built on mutual understanding looks like.  Sorry Vane, you don’t have this with Eleanor.
• I adore the unspoken conversation between Flint and Miranda in which she insists on being included and he concedes.  It’s even better when the conversation becomes spoken.

Miranda:  You and Peter weren’t the only ones committed to seeing Nassau set aright.  You aren’t the only one who paid a heavy toll toward that end.  I stood aside too long.  If you and I are to be partners, we ought to be partners.
Flint:  Very well.

• Flint has honest to God Heart Eyes as Miranda refuses to exit the narrative and instead knows and asserts her value.  I DO TOO.
• Funny how RIGHT when Miranda and Flint agree to be partners, Silver shows up.  
• Anne is in such a dark place in this episode and I feel so badly for her.  Her whole world is falling apart around her, and she doesn’t know how to handle anything.  I hate that she killed Charlotte, but honestly, Logan was a massive asshole to her.  Not that that excuses murder.  I GUESS.

Anne:  You want me to believe you won’t betray your men?  Your friends?  All men betray when it suits them.

• Billy is back, and everyone wants to know if Flint tried to kill him.  Billy keeps defending Flint despite not trusting him.  He is increasingly resentful of how much he needs this man who does despicable things.
• Hornigold calls for a vote to make him captain instead of Flint, and come on.  Does anyone for a moment believe a man like Hornigold could overthrow Flint?  No wonder Flint is so busy “seeming unconcerned” LOL.
• When Eleanor tries to manipulate Vane, what does she say first?  “You were right about me.  I am like you.”  MM HM.  It reveals how much she knows him while simultaneously revealing how little.  He isn’t going to change his entire outlook on life just because she asks him to.  And neither is she.  It’s funny to think back to how much I rooted for their relationship during the first watch through, and how I now see how obviously mismatched they are.
• Silver and Flint are at their best when they are totally honest with each other about their motives and mixed loyalties.  Silver offers that to Flint, but they both know Flint is not answering honestly.  Their partnership is still uneven.

Silver:  There is one particular vote I’m having some trouble with.
Flint:  Whose vote is that?
Silver:  Mine.
…
Flint:  The gold is still a priority.  There’s been no change in that.  You have my word.
Silver:  That’s all I needed to hear!  I should get to work.

• Silver is impressed by how far Max has risen in status since last they interacted, but unsurprised.  They immediately solve the problem of Logan & Charlotte – they should work together more often!
• Eleanor goes to free Abigail, and I’m reminded of how often this show passes the Bechdel test and how happy that makes me.  But we don’t know what will happen to them until the next episode!

HERE’S ONE MORE BECAUSE THEY ARE PARTNERS AND I LOVE IT.

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