Silver and his men hunt for Flint on Skeleton Island.  Madi is made an offer.  Rogers struggles to hear Eleanor.  Billy casts his lot.

(Summary provided by starz.com)

BEST FLINT MOMENT

I don’t WANT to be the sort of person who is aroused by Flint singlehandedly murdering three people at once, but.  Here we are.

The man is unstoppable.

TODAY’S RUNNER UP

Madi!  She isn’t given a lot of screen time, but what she has is incandescent.  She refuses to play Woodes Rogers’s game, confident that her fight for her people is more important than any personal desire she might have.  And just so he’s very clear, she refuses to play the bad guy, insisting that he alone is responsible for his wife’s death, not her, not Flint, not the war.  I LOVE HER.

LOL MOMENT

“He just dropped.”
“Mmhm.”
*foot nudge*
“Mmhm.”
“Should we…”
“Mmhm.”

LOL, poor Jack.  He was so close to living in a drama, but life keeps insisting that he’s in a comedy.

WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS

I am far less invested in Flint and Silver’s relationship during this rewatch than I was the first time through, but WOW did this episode bring all the feelings back.  Their flashbacks remind us of their early season 4 friendship while simultaneously framing their central conflict of the season (“What are you looking at?”  “Nassau.  Can’t you see it?”)

Throughout the series, we have built their partnership into something supernatural, something that, when united, can accomplish anything.  The crew members of the Walrus also believe in this supernatural relationship, assuming that Silver can intuitively divine which way Flint went in the forest.  But theirs is a relationship as human as any other, and these flashbacks reveal the cracks that will eventually split their trust in each other.  Not all of the supernaturalism is removed, however, since the breaking of their partnership really does have catastrophic effects upon their world (RIP Walrus).

Flint can never fully trust Silver’s lack of a backstory.  Not only is he saddened that Silver would continue to lie to him, he realizes that Silver sees the world in a fundamentally different way than he does.  Silver wants to remake himself as though the past has no influence, and for Flint, the future he is trying to will into existence is entirely influenced by the past.  They are both storytellers, but only one believes in the power of story.

Silver can never fully trust that Flint will see beyond his war.  He is the more subtly emotional man, desperate for attention and affection.  His greatest betrayal by Flint is from his captain’s “arrogance” and “indifference” when he thought they’d been equals.  He, more than Flint, values individual relationships, and while he mostly talks about his fear of losing Madi, it is clear that some part of him is hurt that Flint will always choose the war over him, too.

No matter how close they were, no matter what they accomplished together, Flint and Silver’s partnership was always doomed to falter at some point.  Their complementary skills (visionary/practical, idealist/realist) are what made them so powerful together, but under the strain of war and lost lives, these differences prove to create mistrust between them.

Despite how dark this is, there is hope.  Flint still believes in reconciling with Silver, seeing in Silver’s grief and desperation an echo of his own season 3 rage.  He knows it can pass, and he believes that if Madi is saved, his partnership with Silver can be restored.  In fact, he believes this so strongly that he kills Dooley, a man wholly committed to Flint, so as not to lose Silver, who is actively trying to kill him.  One side of the partnership is committed – we have one final episode to determine if this feeling will be reciprocated.

FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS

• FLASHBACK #1
• These are filmed surreally, both in lighting and music.  It’s almost dreamlike, but everything in the episode encourages us to read them as true memories.

“The men, I have to manage how they see me.  I understand that’s part of my job.  But for pride to be an issue between you and I, well, I think we’re plain past that by now, don’t you?”

• Silver shows more vulnerability in front of Flint (by taking off his artificial leg) than anyone else, but future flashbacks will force him to take that vulnerability to uncomfortable levels.
• Flint’s enemies talking about how unkillable he is is very erotic.

Rogers:  Which one of them is going to prevail?
Billy:  Silver has the men, and Flint is on his own out there and disadvantaged.  That said, Flint’s been on his own and disadvantaged countless times since I’ve known him.  And here we are.

• Silver knowingly sends three men to their deaths solely to discover Flint’s whereabouts.  The apprentice has truly matched the master, huh?
• FLASHBACK #2
• Flint trusts Silver so much that he forgot he doesn’t know Silver’s past!!  And the annoyance and heartbreak that flashes across his face when he realizes that Silver is STILL lying to him!!
• In the midst of this emotionalism, I have to admire Flint’s ability to subtly throw shade by saying, “I assumed if you ever became someone worth knowing…”  But isn’t that the whole thing?  Silver tried so desperately to be a person worth catching Flint’s attention.  Now that he has it, he doesn’t want to risk it by revealing anything Flint might dislike.
• Flint takes down the first three men in a scene that VERY MUCH sets up the ominous Flint Ghost of Treasure Island.
• I have to imagine that Flint was rolling his eyes and muttering, “oh, come ON” at having to pretend not to hear these bungling idiots snap tree branches as they sneak up on him.
• Madi, a captive, utterly showing up Woodes Rogers, a governor, is BEAUTIFUL.  She is unimpressed by his White Man Pain, giving one of the best speeches of the series that is, tellingly, audibly punctuated by Eleanor’s ghost.

“But I hear other voices, a chorus of voices.  Multitudes.  They reach back centuries.  Men and women and children who lost their lives to men like you.  Men and women and children forced to wear your chains.  I must answer to them, and this war, their war, Flint’s war, my war – it will not be bargained away to avoid a fight, to save John Silver’s life or his men’s or mine.  And you believe what you will, but it was neither Flint nor the Spanish raider who killed your wife.  That, you did.”

• Madi is put in the exact same situation Silver was in, but her decision is the exact opposite.  She has a vision of a world that is worth fighting for, even at the cost of the person she most loves.  Silver has only followed that vision because the people he loved believed in it; once they are threatened, his true loyalty to individuals rather than a hoped-for future is revealed.  Just as this difference between Flint and Silver is exposed in this episode, we are led to question how Madi and Silver’s relationship can survive such differing values.
• FLASHBACK #3

“”The truth is there is no story to tell.”
“No one’s past is that unremarkable.”
“Not unremarkable, just without relevance.  A long time ago, I absolved myself from the obligation of finding any.  No need to account for all my life’s events in the context of a story that somehow defines me.  Events, some of which no one could divine any meaning from other than that the world is a place of unending horrors.  I’ve come to peace with the knowledge that there is no storyteller imposing any coherence, nor sense, nor grace upon those events.  Therefore, there’s no duty on my part to search for it.  You know of me all I can bear to be known.  All that is relevant to be known.  That is to say, you know my genuine friendship and loyalty.  Can that be enough and there still be trust between us?”

• Silver believes that his past is “without relevance,” which just sounds to me like the hope of a hurting man.  Much has been made of his comment about the world being full of “unending horrors,” and I lean toward the camp that believes he perpetuated many of those horrors (remember his 105 comment to Eleanor:  “Guilt is natural.  It also goes away if you let it.”).  As much as he wants to be who he is right now without acknowledging the past, Flint and I agree that the past will exert its influence, with or without his consent.
• Jack is SO CLOSE to having everything he’s ever wanted, a “true victory, freedom in every sense of the word.”  But because he is our only bastion of comic relief in a very emotional episode, his beautiful speech is cut short by the death of the only man who can get him his victory.
• Ben Gunn looks at his future island prison.  Mr. DeGroot gets a really beautiful line before all hell breaks loose: the Walrus is set on fire, he calls for the men to abandon ship, and then he’s shot in the head while trying to escape.  Dangers in the dark, indeed. 

“There are no monsters in the dark, though there are dangers.  Let’s take care to tell the difference.”

• Nooooooo Joji!!  Flint’s facial twitches reveal that he too is saddened by the fact that he has to kill him.  I love that their fight is so close, and then Israel Hands comes in, and Flint takes him down with very little effort.  RIP Joji.  You were amazing.
• Flint is so confident that if Silver will just trust him, they can both save Madi and continue the war.  Silver is still annoyed with the same thing that frustrated him in 201, that “right now it matters far less to you whether she lives or dies than it happens your way, on your terms.”  They’re both right, and that is why this can only get worse.

“Even if you could kill me, even if that somehow helped you see her alive again, how are you going to explain it to her?  She believes in this as much as I do.  You know this.  If it costs the war to save her, you’ll have lost her anyway.  Even you cannot construct a story to make her forgive you that.”

• If this were another show, Silver would have immediately replied, “Challenge accepted!”
• But it’s a horribly depressing show, because instead Flint kills Dooley to prevent his loyal crew member from killing the partner who is trying to murder him!!  AHHHH, why can’t Silver see that Flint really values him??
• And oh shit, DOOLEY IS THE SIXTH MAN.  We know from Treasure Island that Flint killed six men, but in the last episode Israel Hands was one of the six going ashore.  We know he has to live because he’s in the book, and I thought it was just a little hand-wavey, but NO, IT’S DOOLEY!!!  Agh, this is so sad.
• Flint and Silver fight, and the Walrus explodes!  And DeGroot dies!! And Billy spares Ben Gunn but shoots another former brother.  THIS IS TOO MUCH.
• FLASHBACK #4
• Silver tries to convince Madi to trust Flint, and it’s so crazy to remember how skeptical she used to be of the pirate alliance.  Now the triumvirate has switched, and no matter how much Silver believes he’s helping Madi, we know she is very much on Flint’s side.

“Can’t you see it?  It isn’t utility that’s behind his investment in me nor necessity, nor dependency.  I understand you fear a false motive.  But this much is clear to me now:  I have earn his respect.  And after all the tragedies that man has suffered, the loss of Thomas, the events of Charles Town, I have earned his trust.  I have his true friendship, and so he’s going to have mine.  As long as that is true, I cannot imagine what is possible.”

Not done reliving the episode?  Listen to Daphne and Liz’s podcast at Fathoms Deep!

A rescue plan threatens to divide Flint and Silver.  Max learns the true price of freedom.  Rackham seeks his prey.  The Walrus enters uncharted territory.

(Summary provided by starz.com)

BEST FLINT MOMENT

Oh MAN is it rewarding to get back to basics – Flint telling a story and earning himself an ally.  It’s fitting that here at the end of the show, Flint gets explicit about his storytelling habit.  By spinning a story, fictional or true, the storyteller can control a situation while being above the influence of the story itself.  This is Flint at his best, controlling the narrative and getting shit done!

TODAY’S RUNNER UP

Max!  She gets everything she has wanted – a partnership with a powerful woman that guarantees her control of Nassau.  But she rejects it, realizing that it isn’t, in fact, everything that she wants.  Power without love turns out to be more hollow than she expected, and she gives up the most powerful position in her world on the off chance that she might someday reconnect with Anne.  I can’t think of anything more romantic, and it’s no wonder that Anne extends her hand to Max, both symbolically and physically.

LOL MOMENT

Grandma Guthrie asks Max, “How well did you know my granddaughter?” and you can literally see the panic cross Max’s face as she imagines their more elicit activities being made known to Eleanor’s grandmother.

WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS

Israel Hands explicitly tells Silver that “the crown cannot be shared.”  Although Silver initially denies this, the episode itself seems to support this claim.  We’ve been led to believe that Flint and Silver are equal partners, but until this point, they’ve never really disagreed.  Now that their goals are diametrically opposed to each other, it seems that their partnership was just another iteration of Flint as captain and Silver as quartermaster.

The deeper question is this:  does the show want us to believe that this is inevitable?  Can any partnership truly be equal?  To be sure, the most reliable relational characteristic of this show is that partners will betray one another.  There is, however, one glaring exception to this pattern:  Jack and Anne.  Every time one of them “betrays” the other (Anne sleeping with Max, Jack accepting a captaincy without Anne on the crew), they forgive each other, accept their new reality, and recommit themselves to the other.  But this kind of partnership is extremely rare, both in Black Sailsand in real life.

FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS

• Billy told Woodes Rogers that he would find Avery’s journals in Flint’s cellar.  How in the world did Billy know they were there?  Never mind, I can imagine that the MOMENT Billy had control of Flint’s house as a home base, he scoured through every single one of his possessions.
• I do admire Rogers for making his ambivalent feelings for Billy very clear by almost shooting him in the head.
• Silver asks Flint what lies beyond the war, afraid that, “What if the result of this war isn’t beyond the horror?  What if it is the horror itself?”  The answer Flint gives is one of the most beautiful lines in the show.

“If we are to truly reach a moment where we might be finished with England, cleared away to make room for something else, there most certainly lies a dark moment between here and there.  A moment of terror where everything appears to be without hope.  I know this.  But I cannot believe that that is all there is.  I cannot believe we are so poorly made as that, incapable of surviving in the state to which we are born, grown so used to the yoke that there can be no progress without it.”

• Flint is, at heart, an optimist.  This is why he is so compelling a protagonist.  Even when he’s doing horrible things, even when he loses his hope, we know that it’s there – a belief that something better than what currently exists can be attained.  God, I love him.
• Flint has no aspirations to be king, making explicit his apparent lack of concern about Silver’s new title.  He sees Silver and Madi as leaders of the New Nassau, leaving us to understand that perhaps he is once more dreaming of walking inland to a place in which oars are mistaken for shovels…or dying in the process of getting them their power.
• Which, okay.  Is Silver the best of them?  Really?  I’ve never really been a huge Silver stan, so…am I missing something?  The Madi love I entirely agree with (“She’s as wise as her father, she’s as strong as her mother”), but this statement about Silver seems hyperbolic.

“Why are you doing this?  Talking about us like it’s a thing?  A future?  I don’t know who broke it first, but it broke.  And there ain’t no putting it back together again.”

• I love Anne’s honesty, and later we learn that Max does too!
• “The defense of civilization is not your responsibility, sir!” shouts government lackey, which made me realize that Woodes Rogers and Flint are fighting a war of ideals, while people like this dude and Max are all, “Okay, but what about making money and just staying alive?”
• I love Flint’s eye twitches as he evaluates Billy’s survival and what this means for him.
• By openly defying Flint’s orders, Silver is testing whether or not Flint actually trusts Silver the way Silver has trusted Flint.  Based upon Flint’s infinitesimal head shake and body scan of disgust, things don’t look good.  Kudos to Silver, I guess, for really believing that Flint will eventually come to see his side of things because of their partnership and friendship.
• The minor characters are getting some extra time!  We’ve got Mrs. Mapleton, Mrs. Hudson, Ben Gunn, Mr. DeGroot, Idelle, and even a mention of Charlotte!
• Anne being unable to slice bread on her own is such a perfect scene of a powerful person made weak.

“Despite the world reminding her every day of her life that she’s undeserving of being given anything by it, that she was unworthy of what little she’d managed to take from it – despite all that, she never believed a word of it.  That woman has been fighting the whole goddamn world since the day she was born.  She’s a breath away from winning that fight.  For whatever reason, she wants to share the spoils with you, and you’d walk away.”

• Idelle puts her hatred of Anne away because of her love of Max.
• Grandma Guthrie and Max have the same conversation James and Thomas once did about civilization needing the pirates.
• Max has officially replaced Eleanor, even if this is “the wrong river, the wrong woman.”  She has everything Eleanor fought for.  How lovely that later, Max doesn’t boast of this to Anne, but admits that Eleanor tried to teach her one final lesson – that all the power in the world isn’t worth anything if there is no love.
• Grandma Guthrie lays out the profound limitations of a woman’s power in this world, that even the most intelligent woman has to hide herself behind a man in order to wield it.  But being reminded of all “the humiliations and the sacrifices and the defeats and the illusions maintained at so great a cost to your sense of self” inspires Max to make a bold decision – she says no, because she doesn’t want to risk being unable to be with Anne.

“You are the bravest person I have ever known.  The truest person I have ever known.  And I betrayed you, and it sickens me.  I am so sorry for working so hard to protect the wrong things, for failing to see that there is nothing important that does not include you.”

• Now THAT is an apology.  Every episode makes me like Max more and more!
• When Anne extends her brutalized hand toward Max, she is offering her the most vulnerable part of herself.  Reminds me of season 2, when she bares her scarred back to both Max and Jack when asking them to join in a new relationship with her.  She leads with vulnerability, which is amazing for such a taciturn, gruff woman.
• TREASURE ISLAND!!  It’s getting piratey up in here!
• I love that Silver tells Israel Hands that there is no hidden message about not killing Flint – he learned his lesson from season 2 when he accidentally ordered his fellow plotters to murder someone.
• And Israel Hands obeys, even saving Flint and Dooley when they steal the cache, because he wants Silver to see Flint for what he is.  What he is is a mastermind, WHY DOES ANYONE STILL QUESTION HIM?  He’s made it clear that he will save both the cache and Madi, and why does Silver feels this is so unlikely?  C’mon, keep up your blind trust!
• I’ll give Silver this, though.  He’s brave to offer himself to Woodes Rogers in order to protect Madi.  Even if I hate that his admission that he’s sent men to kill Flint must make Billy feel so smug.

Not done reliving the episode?  Listen to Daphne and Liz’s podcast at Fathoms Deep!

Flint urges caution on an enraged Silver.  Max leads Rackham and Bonny up river.  Billy finds a survivor.  Rogers learns the truth.

(Summary provided by starz.com)

BEST FLINT MOMENT

When Silver finds out Madi is alive and emotionally believes that he can give up the cache for her without undoing the revolution, Flint steps in and confidently claims that they will get everything that they want.  And like, I GET why Silver has trust issues where Flint is concerned, but I trust him 100%!!

TODAY’S RUNNER UP

Jack!  He is so good in this episode!  He’s caring and tender with Anne, proud and then disappointed about the reality of the pirate legacy he has so long pursued, respectful of Grandma Guthrie, and humble and smart enough to invite Max back into the game.  He really shines when paired with women, huh?

LOL MOMENT

Every time Jack tries to fill in awkward silences and Grandma Guthrie calmly puts him in his place is an utter joy to watch.

WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS

We’ve made an emotional turn in the show.  Although it has always included both of these themes, we seem to be distancing ourselves from the cycle of violence (although it is explicitly referenced in this episode) and instead, my attention is focusing on the theme of Short Term vs. Long Term planning.

This is seen most easily in two scenes, one between the Maroon Queen and Julius, and later it is mirrored in a conversation between Madi and Woodes Rogers.  In the first, both the Queen and Julius have security as their goal.  But whereas Julius is satisfied with months or years, the Queen is willing to sacrifice personal happiness if it ensures long term security for her people and their descendants.  Similarly, Woodes Rogers offers freedom to the current escaped slaves if Madi promises that any future refugees to their island are returned “to the law.”  She refuses this offer, knowing it will likely lead to her death, because she will not accept short term freedom at the expense of broader, long term freedom.

It is fitting then, that with the philosophical divide thus established, our leading men are beginning to have the same conversation.  Silver is willing to give up the cache to save Madi, whereas Flint admits he is willing to give up her life to pursue a greater victory.  As the episode ends, we see they have created an uneasy and untruthful compromise, but where it will go from here remains to be seen.

FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS

• For an episode all about grief, it is a refreshingly light episode after six hours of dark material.
• The scene between Silver and the Queen is so lovely.  They are both grieving Madi, and her mother knows she can trust this boy who claimed to love her because he describes her as, “curious and strong, not made to be hidden away from the world.”
• Flint is so tender with Silver!  “How is she?”  “Breathing.”  “How are you?”  It is continually astounding to realize that the rage that drove Flint through the first two seasons and especially the third has vanished.  He has a purpose now, has allies, and this has freed him to care for and trust the people around him.
• When Julius balks at the idea of their Caribbean revolution expanding to include all of the New World, Silver is the one to go Bad Cop.  This is the exact opposite of the Quartermaster we used to know who could make Flint’s crazy plans palatable to the crew by selling it with a smile.
• Part of me is annoyed that the only female pirate is the one who can’t seem to recover from her wounds, but it also gives us Jack the Nursemaid, so I can’t be mad for long.
• Anne is pissed that Max wouldn’t apologize, but also admires her for not pretending.

“You have plenty of time to murder her another day, but right now you need to rest.”

• Woodes Rogers is interrupted in blaming Mrs. Hudson for Eleanor’s decision by realizing that Eleanor was pregnant.  I would be sad for him, but he remains an asshole.
• Jack mimicking Max’s French accent is A+ delightful.
• Featherstone claims that Max hasn’t crossed anyone who didn’t cross her first.  Is this true?  Did Jack and Anne cross her?  Can someone rewatch the whole series real quick and validate this statement?

The Queen:  I once thought like you.  That because I had reason to mistrust the pirates, that it necessarily followed that I must mistrust them.  But it is not so.  For there is also reason to see common interest with them.  I have fought alongside these men.
Julius:  I have fought alongside these men, but I did it so that I might find security.  What they are now arguing for does not sound like security to me.  There is no lasting security to be had here.
Q:  We’ll fight to change that.
J:  Nothing is lasting.  But months, years, that is meaningful, and it can be had here.  …
Q:  No one has ever been this close, this near a chance to change the world.
J:  No one changes the world.  Not like this.  Not all at once.

• I love this conversation between the Queen and Julius! They both make good points, but I have always been, and still remain, Team Long Term Planning.  And the Queen is sounding quite a bit like Flint at the end there, huh?
• Silver is emotionally where Flint was last season, and it’s beautiful to see their roles reversed.  Flint is such a good partner to Silver, laying out their past and their present, warning him that his emotions will cloud his judgment (is he remembering a certain storm?) but that Flint will be there beside him, guiding him.  And when Silver regrets his harsh words to Julian, Flint calmly reassures him that it’s alright.  There’s obviously going to be a significant turn in their relationship by episode’s end, but this moment is really beautiful.
• Flint says multiple times, “Trust me.”  Is it crazy that I do?  He’s ambitious, determined, and unafraid to change allies at the drop of a hat.  And yet, if you believe in the same thing that he does, he is hard to resist trusting.
• Jack enjoys the notoriety of being identified as a pirate in Philadelphia by a wide-eyed teenager, especially when his name is listed right after Edward Teach.  But his mood quickly sours when he realizes the world wants to sensationalize their stories rather than seeing them as human beings.

“Charles Vane was my closest friend in the world.  He was the bravest man I ever knew.  Not without fear, just unwilling to let it diminish him.  And loyal to a fault.  And in a world where honesty is so regularly and casually disregarded–”
“I heard he cut off a man’s head and left it as a marker in the sand to anyone who would cross him.”
“It was a little more complicated than that.”
“I heard he sometimes butchered his enemies for amusement, made stew of their flesh.  He was truly an animal.”
“Stew?  For what possible–I beg your pardon, but do you believe this?”
“I read it in a newspaper.”
“Charles Vane was a good man.  What I told you was the truth.  Put down the newspapers and read a book.”

• This is the whole points of Black Sails, adding layers of depth to the hype of a Pirate Show.
• Grandpa Guthrie is dismissive of Jack’s plan, BUT GRANDMA GUTHRIE.  She and Jack immediately bond because they both know what it’s like to be underestimated and to use that to their advantages.
• Eleanor fought to create space for her family, but Woodes Rogers destroyed it because he didn’t trust her.  Even if it feels a little out of place for this show, I’m glad Eleanor’s corpse is supernaturally judging him and crying because of him.  It is Very Effective, and he deserves it.
• Billy is alive and a defector.  It made me think of Baby Billy who was tortured by the British and swore to fight against them as a result.  I suppose it must be very painful that his own allies wound up doing the very same thing to him.
• Jack bought a fancy new coat while in Philadelphia.
• Although Jack shows a lot of respect for Max by bringing her to meet Grandma Guthrie, GG demands more when interrupting his introduction with, “Does she speak?”  I cannot believe that this television show about pirates thought, “You know what we should do now that we only have four episodes left?  Let’s introduce another awesome female character!”
• I have thoughts about the Cat Cycle at the end under spoiler warnings.

Max:  In Nassau, slaves have seen too many of their own find freedom amongst the crews.  It costs less to pay wages than to replace defectors, or worse yet, to pay guards to watch my door as I sleep.
Grandma Guthrie:  That isn’t the only reason, though, is it?
Max:  No, it is not.  In my life, I have been bought and sold.  And as I would be no slave again, nor would I be a master.

• Max shows both logic and emotion in her decision to pay former slaves wages.  She’s also learning that there is value in vulnerability, and I like her more than ever before.  (Relearning?  It’s possible that she stomped down her vulnerability after asking Eleanor to flee with her in the series beginning and being refused.)
• We learned earlier in the episode that the cache no longer matters to Spain, yet Rogers demands its return in order for Madi’s release.  Why?  Out of spite?  Oh wait, he super needs the money.  It’s personal now.
• Silver is blinded by his emotion, but the Queen can see through hers. Both she, Flint, and Madi agree that one life, however beloved, is not worth forfeiting the cache and their revolution, but Silver…he just wants her back.  Hmm.
• Woodes Rogers goes to Madi for comfort, which is gross.  He tries to convince her to sign the agreement by being monstrous, which is ineffective.  Dude is flailing.

“Eleanor died fighting.  As will I.”

• YEESSSSS, Madi!!
• Jack and Anne’s separation is so sweet.  In exchange for her alliance, Grandma Guthrie has demanded that Jack kill Flint.  When Anne asks how he’ll do it, he lays out a litany of physical obstacles.  But she presses him, asking, “How could you be someone who would do that?”  Anne has been the secret heart of this show!  And this is so sweet, but Jack answers her concerns with the equally sweet, “I do it for us.  That’s how it started.  That’s how it’s going to end.”  I LOVE THEM.
• Silver says, “He’s confident in his plan, as am I.”  He’s got a backup, because of course he does, and what’s going to happen next???

FINALE SPOILER WARNING

• While I love the connection that the Cat Cycle story creates between Grandma Guthrie and Max, it strikes me as odd that their solution to the cycle of violence is…one final act of violence.  And if we fast forward to the finale, it seems to be that the dual ending engages with this problem.  The easiest solution to stopping everything is undoubtedly to kill Flint, and that is one way to read what happens.  But what if someone were to catch the cat and send it somewhere else where love would heal the wound it’s trying to heal via violence?  That’s the other way to read the finale, and I like that we are offered one final philosophical question:  Which value do we want to believe in most?  Ending the cycle of violence with violence or with love?

Not done reliving the episode?  Listen to Daphne and Liz’s podcast at Fathoms Deep!

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