I’m trying to be as non-spoilery as possible in my episode reviews, but I needed a place to vent all my James/Thomas feelings, for they are many. Organized by episode, these are the fragmented thoughts that I wanted to share, but couldn’t before 205’s revelation.
Episode 201 – IX
Thomas is HARD CORE checking James out when he first sees him, and combined with the fact that we later learn he’s already done research on James and heard about his brilliance, I can only assume his brain is screaming, “He’s talented, literate, AND HOT? OMG OMG.” Same, Thomas, same.
Thomas: You are a rising star with a bright future in the Admiralty. You can understand my concern. James: Not really. Perhaps my lack of education is showing.
Thomas’s face when James cracks a joke!! He is so smitten.
At the hanging, we see the attraction is returned when Thomas says, “I’ll assume that was a no” and James smirks in appreciation.
Love is founded on a shared sense of humor and an alliance to solve the problem of Nassau. ❤
Episode 202 – X
James looks DECIDEDLY uncomfortable when Thomas stands and walks around his desk to speak more closely. Hot man approaching, alert! alert!
James’s conversation with Hennessey in the tavern ONLY reads as “Dad, I can’t wait for you to meet this boy that I met!” to me.
“He isn’t mad. He’s just bright, determined, wealthy, all at the same time.”
Careful James, your swoon is showing!
I mean, really, as he’s talking about Thomas’s salons, and he accidentally lets slip the first name faux pas, but even that just leads him to talking more about how awesome Thomas is?? GAH.
Episode 203 – XI
This episode is light on Thomas and James, but what we get is indicative of the things that knit them together – changing the world for the better and snarky humor.
We already knew that Marcus Aurelius = Flint, and now we know that Don Quixote = Thomas. I need to read both of these classics immediately.
I cannot understand the part of fandom that hates on Miranda. She is so smart and sexy in this episode. It’s clear that James is attracted to people who see and accept the dark wildness within him. Right now, that’s Miranda, and I am here for it!
Episode 204 – XII
I assume James’s arrival at the Hamilton’s estate is his first visit after sleeping with Miranda, because he seems VERY worried that this will have negatively affected his relationship with Thomas.
James does the same eye-flicking all over Thomas that he did with Miranda.
I am so in love with how much Thomas values James as a complementary partner – he trusts that James will talk him out of any bad ideas until his plan is perfect. AND SPEAKING OF TRUST.
Thomas: These past few months, I have come to trust you. *meaningful look* Very much.
James’s eyes are screaming NO as Thomas lays out his plans to his father. He knows this will end badly, and he wants to protect Thomas but respects him too much to contradict him.
Lord Hamilton is trying to come in between Thomas and James, but every time he tries to drive a wedge between them, it just bolsters James’s irrational desire to DEFEND THOMAS NO MATTER THE COST.
James: I support it. I find his argument persuasive. I find his intent to be good and true, and I find yours wanting, sir.
THOMAS’S EYES ARE FULL OF HEARTS.
James: People can say what they want about you, but you’re a good man. More people should say that, and someone should be willing to defend it.
No WONDER Thomas felt the need to make out with James immediately. But we don’t see that until the next episode!
Episode 205 – XIII
Since it was no longer spoilery, I fangirled hard in my official review of Ep 205. But let’s relive the highlights, shall we?
THAT KISS.
The way James shies away, looking up in confusion because is this really happening?? Thomas is so gentle, giving James enough space to pull away, but NOPE IT’S HAPPENING, and the slow way they give themselves permission to touch each other’s jaws and waists.
The flashback within a flashback as James remembers the best times he had with Thomas, and by best times I mean reading to each other in bed!!! THESE TWO. It still hurts to think of how happy they both look, how peaceful.
I don’t want to talk about how it all falls apart. THIS IS A HAPPY ONLY POST, I’ve just decided.
“People can say what they want about you, but you’re a good man. More people should say that, and someone should be willing to defend it.”
I’M FOREVER SCREAMING INTO THE SUN, byyyyye.
TODAY’S RUNNER UP
Thomas! He is, I believe, the best example of a “good person” we’ve had on this show. He is so driven by his beliefs in the inherent goodness of humanity that he refuses to take an easier path to success despite knowing his ideals could potentially cause himself and his loved ones great harm. For the previous three episodes, he was mostly an affable man, inspiring but kind of soft. When he confronts his father, however, he is STEEL.
Reader, I love him.
LOL MOMENT
Everything about Max’s description about the difference between fucking and seduction is comedy gold, from her earnest delivery to Idelle’s confused assurance to Jack’s certainty in the world crumbling around him.
WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS
In this episode, we get two people caught in the middle of a messy situation. Eleanor must decide whether to side with her partner (Flint) or the safest/smartest option (Vane), and in flashback, James must decide whether to side with his partner (Thomas) or the safest/smartest option (Lord Hamilton).
Eleanor does her best to reconcile the two warring pirate captains, to no avail. It is really wrenching to see her real fear at the possibility of a destabilized fort opening Nassau to another Spanish attack. She knows that Flint knows it is a dangerous move, but she can’t convince him to change, so she sides with Vane.
James spends the entire episode counseling Thomas to abandon his plan to pardon the pirates, both for communal and personal reasons. He’s genuinely frightened of what may happen to Thomas if he were branded a coward for suggesting forgiveness for traitors. But when it comes down to it, and he SEES someone attacking Thomas in just the way he feared, James stands (literally, oh my heart) and sides with his partner despite knowing it is not the safe or smart option.
It is parallel storylines like these that make me really adore Black Sails. We get to see two people making opposite decisions, but we feel for both of them. There is clearly no easy answer for either of them, and though we might wish they chose differently, we cannot blame them for their decision.
FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS
Abigail! Vane is shit for leaving her only maggoty bread, but she is awesome for eating it after only a moment’s hesitation. Vane continues to show that he does not know the meaning of “good host” when he says, “My name is Charles Vane, and you are now my guest. As such, no harm will come to you so long as you do exactly as I say.” Um, OKAY, Charles. Although it is rather lovely when they bond the tiniest bit over their shared satisfaction that Ned Lowe’s head is on a pike.
Anne, Jack, and Max wake in a pile, but Anne is snuggled up close to Jack. She makes her alliance to Jack very clear throughout the episode, and I love her self-awareness that she needs him with her in the bedroom because her mind isn’t clear there. She’s exploring a new part of her sexuality, and it scares her. She wants her partner there with her, and god bless Jack for supporting her.
Anne: I’ve put a lot of bodies in the ground for you, haven’t I? Jack: Excuse me? Anne: Watched your back. Cleaned up your messes. Carried out your plans. I didn’t always understand, didn’t always agree, but I did it. Some fucked-up, awful shit ’cause I knew you needed it done. I don’t think the night you had last night comes even close to something to bitch about. Jack: I know you know this is significantly more complicated than the quantity of tits I have access to at any given moment. Anne: I know she’s dangerous, especially to me. I ain’t in my right head about her. She knows it. And it ain’t hard to imagine her intent is to play us off one against the other. But I’m asking you to do this for me. I’m asking you to watch my back on the other side of that door. ‘Cause I know as long as you are, there ain’t shit she can do to get between us.
Is this the first time we see Eleanor on a ship? I love Flint’s ingrained manners when he stands as she enters, and even more I love that he insists on talking alone with her. I am in love with watching a young woman and an older man going head to head with equal respect and frustration.
This scene between Flint and Silver is FORMATIVE. It’s the first time Flint is the tiniest bit vulnerable with Silver, and it’s therefore the first time Silver sees beneath Flint’s aggressively brilliant exterior.
Silver: It’s possible this has nothing to do with the fort, nor with Vane. Perhaps it’s just them expressing their opinion about you. Flint: So you think that they see me as the villain in this particular story? Silver: I think that would explain their decision, yes. Flint: And you? What do you think? You see me as the villain here? Silver: I see you as the agent most likely of securing my share of the gold on that beach. As long as that remains true, I am not bothered in the least by whatever labels anyone decides to affix to you. Why? What do you think about it? Flint: I’m sorry? Silver: It bothers you, doesn’t it? What they think. With the things you’ve done–My God, it must be awful being you.
This scene is even more heartbreaking after Flint’s explosive defense of Thomas: “People can say what they want about you, but you’re a good man. More people should say that, and someone should be willing to defend it.” Silver has been Flint’s defender, so it makes sense that Flint wants Silver to also see the good motives beneath his actions. But that is not what drives Silver to support Flint – it’s his honest using of Flint to get the Urca gold. It is so painful to watch Flint realize Silver is not that person for him.
It’s hard for me to completely understand just how dangerous Thomas’s idea was for its time and place. I need to learn more about British empire culture/politics.
Billy is back in our story, and looking real rough! It’s all kinds of heartbreaking that his first words are “Get Gates.”
Miranda blowing up at Eleanor is very illuminating. Miranda has definitely lost her passion for Nassau, because all she sees is the place that cost her everything, and keeps costing her (in encouraging Flint’s violence and leading him further from the man she knew). Which is why it’s so great to see her mind formulating plans when she learns from Pastor Lambrick that Abigail Ashe is in town. Perhaps there’s a way for her to put an end to all of this AND honor Thomas and Flint’s plans.
Max is so fascinating. She’s definitely out of sorts now that Anne has brought Jack into their bed. I still don’t think Max loves Anne, and this is more fear of losing her power and influence. She tries to intimidate Jack (who is entirely confident in his relationship with Anne – awww), and when that doesn’t work, she bribes him with Featherstone and a crew. She’s a very smart woman, and I respect her, but I don’t really LIKE her for it just yet.
And then that pivotal flashback scene!! It is perfection. Thomas’s father is immediately dislikable, Thomas is glowing with passion and certainty, Miranda and James are trying to stay out of it UNTIL.
James: I support it. I found his argument persuasive. I find his intent to be good and true, and I find yours wanting, sir. I will be relaying my findings to Admiral Hennessey in short order. And now I think it’s time you left, sir. Thomas: Did you just ask my father to leave his own house? Right now he will be dispatching messages to the Sea Lords, the Southern Secretary, his friends in the Privy Council. He will stop at nothing to ensure that this plan never sees the light of day, and now you’re in the line of fire. James: People can say what they like about you, but you’re a good man. More people should say that. And someone should be willing to defend it.
Mr. Scott tries to convince Flint not to attack the fort. Flint gives Mr. Scott the due he deserves by acknowledging the Mr. Scott’s invaluable role behind the Guthries. Mr. Scott gives excellent advice, but to no avail.
Once again, Flint makes a decision that I disapprove of, but he’s so conflicted about it that all of my emotions are only for him.
Worst dinner party ever.
Not done reliving the episode? Listen to Daphne and Liz’s podcast at Fathoms Deep!
Flint faces a dilemma upon his return to Nassau. Eleanor needs help from an unlikely source. Rackham seeks to repair his reputation. Vane uncovers an unexpected prize.
I’m starting to slow down in my rewatches, because even though the show gets better and better, there are so many betrayals and heartbreaks to watch again, and my heart hurts in anticipation! I’m actually missing the days of season 1 when we were too busy being introduced to characters to kill them off (mostly).
BEST FLINT MOMENT
Just, every look he gives Miranda while flirting and realizes she sees beneath his proper exterior is. so. hot.
TODAY’S RUNNER UP
Eleanor! This is such a good episode between her and her father figures. The scene when Flint arrives, and she rushes to him with a genuine smile on her face in order to publicly embrace him? MY HEART. Even when she realizes he doesn’t have the gold, she says, “I’m so very glad you’re alive.” Later, she sneaks a message to Mr. Scott so that they can talk, and for a few lines they are genuinely happy to see each other and catch up.
As lovely as it is to see Eleanor happy, she earned her spot here for how she stands up to Flint. Lesser men and women would cower beneath his fury, but she defends her actions in giving up the fort to Vane. When Flint realizes she’s strong enough to oppose his strength, he switches tactics and goes for vulnerability. Kudos to him for being honest about killing Gates (“What did you do?” “What was necessary.”), but it doesn’t work. He wants her to make the same decision, to kill someone she loves for the sake of their mission.
But the person he wants her to kill is doing a lot toward showing his own love for her…but more on Eleanor and Vane in the Fragmented Thoughts section.
LOL MOMENT
This episode starts with a joke, when Thomas shows James a pamphlet about piracy and says the problem in Nassau is “a problem most insidious.” James looks for a moment, then suggests, “Illiteracy?” I love these boys and their shared subtle humor!
WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS
Miranda: In my experience, there is an inverse relationship between the degree of one’s happiness and the concern one suffers for what the neighbors think.
Miranda: I think you’re someone who’s very good at managing how you’re perceived, and perhaps getting what you want without anyone knowing how you did it, or perhaps if it ever happened at all. Perhaps– James: Don’t tell me propriety has worked its evils on you too, now. Miranda: I was going to say that perhaps you’re more concerned with whether or not people talk about what you and I may be doing behind closed doors more than with what we actually are doing.
Thomas and Miranda offer James a world in which one can take the things that make one happy without worrying if it is the “proper” thing to do. At that time (and this time, honestly) an open marriage was something to be feared, scorned, or punished. Yet Miranda knows James well enough to see that he isn’t as interested in social conventions as his naval uprightness implies. She sees some of the “darkness” and “wildness” that was shown to us in the last episode.But where those qualities were condemned by Hennessey, Miranda encourages them. She invites him to leave propriety behind and take what will make him happy. The fact that we see them so unhappy together in the present day makes us ask all sorts of questions that I cannot wait to see answered.
FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS
I’m still in love with Thomas’s confidence that the problem in Nassau is not the pirates but the corrupt governors. His idealism is so sexy!
James’s realism is also sexy, but that’s because James is still looking so good in these flashbacks.
James: Put a man on an island, give him power over other men, and it won’t be long before he realizes the limits of that power are nowhere to be seen.
Silver is officially popular! The scene where Dooley insists that they return to Nassau despite the incredible danger of sailing into harbor in a Spanish ship seems to imply that the democratic pirate government is flawed. A popular vote, after all, allows dumb men to make potentially devastating decisions. If their captain were anyone but Flint, I think I’d be suspicious of this. As it is, I’m all for Flint as Pirate King…it’s a little unnerving how much I’ve drunk from his Koolaid.
Vane’s men need better wigs.
I loved seeing Miranda and Eleanor together! It must be weird for Eleanor to see evidence of Flint’s domesticity and to hear him called “James.” She’s SUPER suspicious of the power Miranda seems to hold over Flint, and while that’s warranted, I’m still annoyed at how rude she was to imply Miranda is unremarkable.
Miranda: Every man has his torments, demons born of past wrongs that hound and harass him. You perceive the effects of Captain Flint’s demons, echoes of their voices. But I know their names. I was there when they were born. I know the things they whisper to him at night. So you can believe me when I tell you that within his chorus of torments none of them look or sound like me.
The scene between Max and Vane is beautiful. Her suppressed fear of him is so sad considering the last night she saw him, he was letting his men abuse and assault her. Max seems to be implying that it is weak of Vane to want to protect Eleanor from Ned Lowe, but like, Ned is a brutal psychopath? I don’t think you have to still be hopelessly in love with someone to not want to see them raped and tortured (though…he totally is). “I found a way to stop caring about her. Would you like to know how?” “No.”
❤ Eme and the other former slaves are working and finding places in Nassau!
UM, I too would invite myself into James’s apartment if he answered the door shirtless and with messy hair. This is a painful scene in some ways, though, as the power dynamic between James and the Hamiltons is driven home. He is so obviously pained at her attempts to compliment his small and undecorated room. Later, we see class rearing its head again when he says the Hamiltons are wealthy and secure enough to scorn propriety – James doesn’t have that luxury.
They are SUPER good at flirting. Wow, their faces!
Fandom seems very married to the idea that Vane is Loyalty Personified, but I don’t really see it. In this episode, he restores Jack and Anne to influence, abandoning loyalty to the crew they murdered, and NOT because of loyalty to them, but because he got what he wanted from Max. Which! I love! Because I like my Black Sails characters morally complex. But why is fandom so determined to see a Vane that I cannot?
As Flint remembers his past with Miranda, it inspires him to make a gesture of reconciliation by bringing La Galatea to her. But when he arrives at her house and sees her giving piano lessons, it’s clear that there is no place for him there. He leaves the book instead, and my heart breaks because he cannot have everything that he wants.
Ned Lowe is DEAD, and I rejoice! Vane is such a badass, and I was very impressed by his subtle dig implying that Ned not only will submit to Vane (“you know your place”), but that he’s one of the only captains that will do so. This scene plays out so beautifully, leading us to assume that Ned has the upper hand, but Vane was playing him all along! I’m so impressed that this show had the balls to kill off such a charismatic, terrifying character after just three episodes. It shows that they know how strong their central characters truly are.
After seeing Ned’s head on a stick, Eleanor goes to Vane to reward him with sex. Half of me is annoyed by this trope, but the other half of me is genuinely touched. This is the most intimate they’ve been during and after sex, and the fact that Vane watches her sleep does things to my heart. I am NOT a believer in their relationship as something healthy, but there’s just enough good there to convince us why they would keep returning to each other.
Speaking of surprisingly lovely sex scenes, Anne’s mostly unspoken invitation for Jack to join her and Max is really sweet. Despite Max wanting to get between Anne and Jack (“did he see you come up?”), Anne refuses to play these power games and asks for everything she wants. And in asking for everything, she gives up everything, disrobing for the first time. It’s a vulnerable moment for anyone, but especially for Anne, who lets Max (and us) see her back full of scars for the first time.
Flint’s final speech resonates VERY hard after knowing some things that are going to happen to him in the near future: “I know how you must feel, how desperate you must be to go home and be embraced by Nassau again. But I’m here to tell you, that place no longer exists. It has been taken from us by a madman, held hostage by threat of force that no one on the island seems able to resist…Nassau was unable to resist him, but we have yet to have our say.”
Not done reliving the episode? Listen to Daphne and Liz’s podcast at Fathoms Deep!
This episode IS Flint. We see him at his most brilliant and most ruthless, and we learn from the flashbacks that he has always held these two traits. It’s hard to remember that his actions intentionally resulted in the death of a LOT of innocent men when it is so damn satisfying to watch this play out:
DeGroot: What are we waiting for? Why aren’t we moving? Give the order, Mr. Dufresne. Logan: Why the fuck are we waiting for him? DeGroot: Because he’s in charge here. Logan: No one is in fucking charge here! Flint, coming from nowhere: You have to sink her.
It is GLORIOUS to watch him step into command, bringing order to the chaos. The men hesitate only a moment before obeying. Captain Flint is back!
TODAY’S RUNNER UP
Jack!!! This is one of my all-time favorite moments of his, and honestly, favorite moments of the whole show. It is our first real glimpse at how complexly Black Sails is going to handle love, sex, and romance, and my first time through I was completely blown away. In a lesser show, Anne’s confusion, Jack’s insecurity, and Max’s ambition would have led to a power struggle that would destroy them all. Instead, Jack defuses the situation and basically says, “Alright, if there’s to be a threesome, let’s make this threesome legitimate and profitable to all of us.”
Not just profit, though. His love for Anne runs deeper than sex or jealousy, and it’s so so beautiful.
“Darling, I can understand why you wouldn’t want to tell me about this, but please know that all I have ever wanted for you is to be happy. Come to bed when you’re through.”
My heart. ❤
LOL MOMENT
I didn’t laugh at loud in this episode, but I did find Silver’s first failed attempts at ingratiating himself into the crew, and Flint’s subsequent confusion/concern, quite amusing.
WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS
The theme of the episode (and show, really) is “strange pairs” that can “achieve the most unexpected things.” Thomas is the one who says this, referring to himself and James. Thomas sees their vastly different worldviews as an asset, something that will make their combined efforts stronger.
We cut immediately from this flashback conversation to Flint and Silver. Silver reveals that his only interest is in the gold, and that he doesn’t like being on the crew or being at sea even. His motivations are selfish, but his goal of walking away from piracy is exactly Flint’s dream of leaving the sea behind until he finds someone who thinks an oar is a shovel. Flint sees this, and pushes Silver to be better, to prove his usefulness to the crew. Throughout the episode we see their differences – Silver explicitly says he doesn’t care if people hate him so long as they need him, whereas Flint desperately cares what others think of him (this will be revealed even more fully in future episodes). Silver will put up with being ridiculed, but FlashbackFlint gave men a beatdown for insinuating an insult. They are very different men, but strange pairs can achieve unexpected things.
I also think we see in this episode how “strange pairs” applies to Eleanor and Vane (though they share characteristics and have different goals, which makes me skeptical of their partnership), Silver and Randall (same goal of surviving, different ways of doing so), and Jack/Anne/Max (same goal of profit, confusing sexuality issues to be navigated).
FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS
Billy is alive! And being tortured very dispassionately by a British officer. Civilization hurts you with a polite smile on their face. This is, I think, more cruel.
Thomas is a dreamboat, insisting that the pirates of Nassau are merely a symptom of systemic problems in the British empire. He is a man of deeply held values, and I love him. He’s also clearly impressed by Flint’s ability to immediately list the numerous changes necessary to make Nassau a healthy colony. And Flint, in turn, is stunned by Thomas refusing to be intimidated by this list (“Are you sure three ships would be enough?”)
We’ve long known that Flint is brilliant when it comes to manipulating battles, but we see in this episode that he is equally as good at manipulating people. When he asks if Dufresne has read any of the books in the captain’s quarters, I think this is his last attempt to see if there is any reason to respect the man. Dufresne fails, and Flint takes him out. It is so satisfying to watch Flint tell him how “lettered men are harder to keep in line and more resistant to persuasion” WHILE he is manipulating and persuading him. He uses flattery, vulnerability, and subtle criticism (they’ve been losing wind for hours and Dufresne hasn’t noticed) to thoroughly ensnare Dufresne’s pride.
The best thing is, Flint’s advice is sound. Dufresne SHOULDN’T have attempted to take a prize. If he’d gone back to Nassau to regroup as Flint suggested, he would still be captain. But Flint knows that Dufresne’s pride will win over his good advice. God, he’s brilliant.
In the tavern flashback, we learn that no matter how far James has fought his way up the ranks, his Navy peers still see him as a social climbing son of a carpenter. It’s especially ironic to hear them talk about his supposed selfish motivations for keeping his assignment when we’ve just seen him try to talk Thomas into firing him.
It’s very interesting to me that Max implies that Jack has long known that Anne is attracted to women. I didn’t notice this the first time through, and it helps explain why his later acceptance of their being in bed together, though still difficult for him, is not quite as shocking as it might have been.
Flint: What was that? Silver: I am convincing the crew to allow me to remain with them. As we discussed. Flint: Is that what you’re doing?
In an interesting flip, it is Flint who assumes his crew are too adult to fall for Silver’s ploy, and it’s Silver who cynically assumes they’re little better than boys.
I skipped Mr. Meek’s beheading this time through. It is one of two violent acts that are just too visceral for me to watch.
The Vane/Eleanor stuff is very interesting this episode! He shows up to a meeting, and he constantly tells her that “If you aren’t strong enough to protect your own interests, then I urge you to stop behaving as though you are.” I’m a little confused by this. According to his role in the Consortium, isn’t he SUPPOSED to be the muscle? Why does he keep acting as though he’s doing them a favor? Or is it her personal power, as shown in her bodyguards, one of whom is murdered by Ned Lowe?
I did really love their last scene together in which Eleanor is vulnerable with Vane. She admits that everything she has, personally and professionally, is very fragile. “You want me to believe that you have some manner of concern for me. Then show it.” But along with the vulnerability, she also offers Vane the “mysterious asset” on Ned’s ship, thus insuring that she can never be sure if his actions are motivated by love for her or for profit.
“If you’re trying to impress me, it isn’t working.” Liar! Flint is attracted to nothing more than persistence. Silver stands up for the fourth time, accepts a beating, and finally finds the line in the sand…the poor dairy goat.
In the moment of Silver’s triumph, he looks to Flint for validation. Later, when the merchant ship strikes a flag of surrender, Dufresne also looks to Flint in his moment of triumph. Whether positive or negative, everyone wants Flint’s approval.
I love Flint teaching Silver the intricacies of piracy. It’s good exposition for us, but I think it also shows that he now sees Silver as someone deserving of instruction.
“My concern for you is over that which cannot be known. That thing which arises in you when passions are aroused – good sense escapes you. All men have it. But yours is different. Darker. Wilder. I imagine it’s what makes you so effective as an officer. But when exposed to extremes, I could not imagine what it is capable of. And of greater concern, I’m not sure you do either.”
Civilization sees darkness and wildness and says to suppress it. Pirates (as embodied in Ned Lowe) say to embrace it. Is there a middle way? **
Dufresne realizes that he was played by Flint too late – he’s lost the captaincy. As much as I enjoy Flint’s success (that jacket!), Dufresne isn’t wrong. Flint chose to put his crew in danger, and he chose to slaughter an entire ship full of innocent merchants and sailors in order to retake control of his ship. This is…not good. Again and again, the show asks us this question: “What level of loss is acceptable as you fight to achieve your dream?”
** SPOILERS FOR SEASON FOUR
Any character talking about darkness makes me think of Flint’s speech in 410: “In the dark there is discovery, there is possibility. There is freedom in the dark when someone has illuminated it.” I think this is the middle ground. Avoiding the dark and wallowing in the dark are both unhealthy. Wading into the darkness with the goal of illuminating it? That is where change is possible.
Not done reliving the episode? Listen to Daphne and Liz’s podcast at Fathoms Deep!
Season two is my favorite, and rewatching its first episode only reminded me of how right I was to think so!
BEST FLINT MOMENT
Annoyed that Silver of all people volunteered to take the ship with him, Flint insults his only partner, takes off his shoes, and starts swimming to take the Man O’ War all by his goddamn self. His insane determination is so charismatic, and no one can resist its pull. Least of all Silver, who sighs and takes off his jacket to follow.
TODAY’S RUNNER UP
Silver! The partnership between Flint and Silver that began in 108 is flourishing here. They are SUCH a great team. Despite being so different (or because of it), they work together incredibly well, filling in each other’s weak spots and pushing each other to do more and be better. For MUCH more flailing about their scenes together, head down to the Fragmented Thoughts section.
LOL MOMENT
This is such a funny episode! The dynamic of Desperate Silver trying to win over No Fucks Left to Give Flint is constantly hilarious, culminating in the truly masterful scene in which both of them are caught by the Spanish crew. Just minutes after assuring Flint that he has no reason to distrust him, Silver sells him out in exchange for gold and freedom. Flint’s face goes gloriously twitchy as he chair-hops over to murder Silver with…his face?
Silver bails, and then RETURNS TO THE RESCUE! Flint gives Silver a quick strategy lesson, at which point:
Silver: So I actually have to fight him? Flint: Well, what the fuck did you think was gonna happen?
Silver’s face, and Flint’s voice crack of exasperation KILL ME. Like, mad cackling into my hands at these fools. I love them so much.
WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS
We get our first flashbacks to Flint’s past, and I am here for it. Finally, after a season of watching a man pursue a vision so fiercely that it compels him to murder his closest friend, we are starting to find out what led him here.
It is in these flashbacks that we see a very different Flint – in fact, in 1705 that’s not his name at all, but James McGraw. He’s very cleaned up and VERY attractive, and in his conversations with Thomas Hamilton, we see his role reversed. Thomas is the idealistic one with plans for redeeming Nassau, and James is the one declaring how impossible that plan is.
We also get our first glimpse at Civilization proper, a London of beautiful buildings, clean clothes, and nice manners. As per the show’s theme, the ugly underbelly of this facade is quickly revealed when James takes Thomas to view a pirate hanging. He knows that piracy flourishes because it benefits the British empire to create a monstrous enemy to fight against (“Civilization must have its monsters.”) In order to eradicate piracy, the empire must change, and James doesn’t believe this is possible.
Their conversations reveal another theme: complementary partners. Thomas is idealistic but with no experience (he’s never even been to a pirate hanging before, despite his deep interest in the pirates of Nassau). James has a lot of experience, but no ideals. Time will tell how this partnership will work out, as it will also address the success of the present-day complementary partnership between Flint and Silver.
FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS
Another season opener, another pirate boarding from the perspective of the boarded merchant vessel. Contrasted with season 1, however, this one is very ominous and silent, since the merchant captain is prepared to surrender peacefully. I love his assertion that pirates are “men, not monsters,” and in most cases he would be right. But unfortunately this episode introduces us to Ned Lowe, a madman who terrifies me and slaughters everyone for the prize of a mysterious woman connected to “Lord Ashe.”
I love the look of annoyance on Flint’s face as he stares at the Man O’ War. You can literally see him thinking, “Well, shit, I’ve just had a brilliant idea. I guess I can’t let them kill me just yet.”
“Even if it weren’t for the soldiers, even if it weren’t for the guns, there’s a fucking warship watching over every inch of the bay. A fucking warship that has already killed half your number, a fucking warship that would prevent any approach to that beach via the sea. There’s simply no way of stealing that gold. But there might be something else you can steal. The fucking warship.”
Everyone HATES Flint, and it is amazing to watch them fight against how annoying it is that he is still so brilliant.
In our first flashback we get so much information about James McGraw/Flint! He’s “a son of a carpenter. No record of any formal schooling and yet, more literate than any three boys I knew at Eton. You are a rising star with a bright future in the Admiralty.” Our man James is meritocracy personified, fighting his way up the ranks through sheer brilliance.
Eleanor and Vane are still trying to prove who’s on top. Vane’s line about “If your friends aren’t capable of protecting themselves, I’d argue that they aren’t worth protecting” is VERY essential to his character. He’s attracted to strength, and has no time for weakness.
I’m less enamored with his constant attempts to make Eleanor see how similar they are. While they definitely share strength and an attraction to it, he’s wrong about her priorities. He wants her to be as in-the-moment and selfish as he is, but her desire for profit includes a desire for peace. I love her outburst, “Stop telling me what you think I think!” Yeah, girl. Be your own self.
The scene between Flint and Silver alone on the beach is one of my all time favorites! “You shit.” “Um. Beg pardon?” LAUGHING FOREVER. Silver’s genuine surprise that Flint intends to singlehandedly take a Spanish Man O’ War, and Flint’s genuine surprise that Silver is surprised. I love them!
During the flashback to the pirate hanging, Flint gives his oft-quoted speech that ends with “in most cases a man trying to change the world fails for one simple and unavoidable reason: everyone else.” Which makes me wonder: SHOULD a person change the world if no one else wants it? Who gets to determine which causes are worth changing the world for?
Poor Jack. “I used my wits to build the name. Jesus Christ, what’s become of my name?” He’s being beaten, pissed on, and called “Jack Rackham, Crew Killer.” Poor Jack.
Flint: You almost got us killed! Silver: Almost. Almost! … Silver: You are truly amazing, you know that? We’re both better off now than we were two minutes ago, yet you’re angry about it because it didn’t happen your way. Might you consider for a fucking moment that your distrust of me is completely unwarranted? I warned you about Billy. Was I right? I found you over Mr. Gates’s body, and did I do anything but defend you? When you were sinking to the bottom of the sea, who do you imagine it was who dragged you onto that beach? Brace yourself, but I’m the only person within a hundred miles of here who doesn’t want to see you dead.
Eleanor is such a good businesswoman, dealing with bloody cargo and unhappy quartermasters, confronting the brothel crew about leaked information. Max super doesn’t care, and I think enjoys showing Eleanor how much power she now has.
Max is hella brave. She’s obviously genuinely afraid of Anne, but she trusts her instincts enough to know that Anne’s anger is rooted in something deeper than resentment. The confidence it must take to kiss someone who has you at knifepoint on the assumption that they are secretly attracted to women is amazing. It’s also super hot.
The FANTASTIC scene where Silver rescues Flint through being a coward! And after they save each other back and forth, they barricade themselves with three pistols, Flint’s sword, and Silver’s…tiny knife. Hahaha, this episode is seriously so funny!
And then the Walrus crew comes to their rescue! Yay! And they sail away in their fancy new Man O’ War.
Ugh, I hate that Ned Lowe is actually pretty charismatic. AND TERRIFYING, YIKES, that speech about how he feels no remorse about the horrific things he does? Yikes yikes yikes, I don’t like him.
Another flashback, and we see James meet Miranda for the first time! They form the Thomas Appreciation Club while watching him give money to a poor mother and son. Flint is still unsure whether Thomas’s amazingness is for real, but Miranda assures him it is.
“Great men aren’t made by politics, Lieutenant McGraw. They aren’t made great by prudence or propriety. They are, every last one of them, made great by one thing and one thing only: the relentless pursuit of a better world. The great men don’t give up that pursuit. They don’t know how. And that is what makes them invincible.”
Flint is seeming pretty invincible in this episode, surviving a crew’s rage and taking over an enemy ship. Does this mean he’s a great man?
The last scene between Flint and Silver is one of my favorite things that they do: honestly tell each other their motivations and concerns about the other. Silver tells Flint that he would have betrayed him had their interests not aligned. He is clearly in awe of Flint, but he doesn’t pretend that this makes him a blind follower. And I think Flint appreciates this, both the being known (hell yeah, he’s going to take back his captaincy) and the being honest.
Not done reliving the episode? Listen to Daphne and Liz’s podcast at Fathoms Deep!
This episode is FANTASTIC, and my notes while rewatching it become increasingly caps lock-y, culminating in a brief mental breakdown because of my love for Flint.
BEST FLINT MOMENT
Literally every scene with Flint in this episode is Top Notch, but I’ll highlight one in particular:
After aligning the ship to fire on the Spanish Man O’ War, Dufresne accuses Flint of “tyrannical crimes” against his crew. When no one will obey Flint’s orders to fire, he strides down the stairs to light a cannon himself. Dufresne SHOOTS HIM, at which point he CRAWLS along the deck to light the cannon. Even though the fuse is taken from him, it does not stop this from being the sexiest display of determination I have ever seen.
TODAY’S RUNNER UP
Silver! I suppose it is fitting that in Gates’ last episode (RIP), we see Silver stepping up to be Flint’s right hand man. Their partnership is the show’s central relationship, and I think this is really the first time we see how powerful they are when acting together.
It’s just one thing after another: When Silver walks in on Flint after he’s just murdered Gates, he immediately sides with Flint, no questions asked about what has just happened. Then Flint hides and tells Silver what to say to the Spanish ship. Silver later tries to talk Dufresne into being calm, and when that is unsuccessful (leading to the aforementioned Flint being shot and unable to light a cannon), it is SILVER who shoots at the Man O’ War and makes the fight inevitable. Finally, when Flint allows himself to sink, it is Silver who pulls him out and makes sure his wound is bandaged (this is explicitly addressed in episode 1 of season 2, but it’s implied here).
In the previous episode, we saw how desperately Flint needed an ally that shared his vision. Although Silver shares this vision only so far as it pertains to him acquiring some gold, they are undeniably a good match. Both smart men who can create new plans in an instant, they are formidable when working together.
LOL MOMENT
Jack’s finally got the brothel in order thanks to Max, and Mrs. Mapleton is unhappy to see her profits decreasing. When she threatens to expose his past misdeeds, Jack pauses before saying, “Well, Mrs. Mapleton, that sounds like gross insubordination to me. That, coupled with the graft you’ve been responsible for, leaves me with no choice but to terminate your employment here.” And later, when he and Max are basking in their victory, he says, “Please don’t judge me, but I really enjoyed that.”
WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS
We’ve got to talk about Flint murdering Gates, yeah? WOW, is that not any easier to watch, even knowing it’s coming. This is mostly because the previous scene between Flint and Gates, in which they share a drink and laugh about old Craig who drank a bottle of piss, is so much weightier when you know what’s about to happen. I love the ambiguity of the scene: does Flint think things are okay between him and Gates? Is he hoping a boy’s night drinking will MAKE things better? Or do they both just truly realize that they might die the next day, so they may as well set politics aside and have a good time?
But it’s not enough. When Gates sees that the Urca isn’t where they thought it would be, he’s done. Flint is mad, thinking that Gates means to see him hung as a pirate. But he is FURIOUS when he realizes that Gates wants something worse for him: to be sent with Miranda to Boston. This is DEVASTATING to me, because in his attempt to do something “better” for Flint, it shows just how little Gates understood him.
As Daphne and Liz always say in their podcast Fathoms Deep, this is the scene in which people really get sold on Black Sails, because how can a show present us with a scene of a man murdering someone he called friend…and we’re left pitying the murderer?? God, Toby Stephens is amazing, and the writing is just gut-wrenching. “Please, please don’t do this.” “This is not what I wanted, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” And after it’s done, he is so protective of Gates against Silver, and even strokes his cheek!
All this, and we’re left wondering, “What could POSSIBLY be fueling this man to do such heinous things that even HE obviously finds heinous?” Hehehe, we’ll have to get there in season two!
FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS
Just in time for the season finale, we’ve got a ton of boobies again. I guess this is meant to show us that Jack is running the business well again?
I want more scenes of Silver as Caretaker for a curmudgeonly Randall.
After Silver successfully tells Flint the final piece of the schedule, he says: Silver: Now that I’ve fulfilled my end of our bargain, I’m just wondering where you and I stand. Flint: Keep wondering. Silver leaves, and then FLINT GRINS. I am so in love with this Flint who enjoys messing with his crew (see also: “Billy, who?” which I think I have successfully proven had to have been a joke).
Eleanor is still surrounded by men, but instead of them fighting against her, they’re all on her side. It’s very cool to see her varying reactions to their praise: With Hornigold, she couldn’t care less. With Vane, she is mildly impressed by his observations (but not fully – I think his assertion that she doesn’t want fathers telling her what to do should be enlarged to include MEN telling her what to do, which includes you, Vane!). But with Mr. Scott? She’s genuinely touched. And that’s because Mr. Scott knows her and validates her. That scene between them is entirely lovely.
“There are no legacies in this life, are there? No monuments. No history. Just the water. It pays us, and it claims us. Swallows us whole, as if we’d never been here at all.” This is a gorgeous observation by Gates, though it unfortunately only highlights how different his perspective is from Flint’s. While Gates lives in the here and now and expects nothing different, Flint is determined to live bigger and bring about change for himself and everyone else.
Runner up for the LOL segment: Jack and Anne saying, “Fuck you, Jack” in tandem. Poor Anne has caught FEELINGS for Max and doesn’t even know what they are yet. I can’t wait to find out with her!!
Flint’s inspirational speech is so great, and when they see the empty bay, the disappointment is heart-wrenching.
During this rewatch, I’ve been able to be more objective about my feelings for Flint (this might not be obvious, but trust me). Honestly, I can see why people are terrified of him. Beloved, powerful people keep dying around him. I mean, Dufresne and DeGroot were scared Gates would betray them, but then Flint CLEARLY murders him and carries on as though nothing has happened, and they’re left believing that no one is sacred to that man. They don’t know Flint’s history or plans. I get why they want him gone.
HOWEVER, Dufresne really has the most appalling timing.
I think his decision to read Gates’ letter is half sincerity, half annoyance that Flint took his information (don’t say tobacco from St. Augustine) and twists it to his own purposes.
Vane is a selfish bastard. The loyalty he extols (poor Jack and Anne!) is very small – it doesn’t extend to anyone beyond his crew even while the rest of Nassau is learning to band together.
I do love the ambiguity of why he took the fort. Is it to prove his power? Is it to piss off his enemies? Or is it to give Eleanor the defense she needs to run Nassau effectively? Because this is Black Sails and our characters are wonderfully complex, I think it’s all three.
RANDALL SAVED SILVER AND IT WAS SO GOOD.
Dufresne is an idiot!! It is physically painful to watch him make decisions too slowly.
OH SHIT, that is the only reaction to watching the Man O’ War turn and open her gunports, and OH SHIT OH SHIT that is carnage like we have never yet seen.
Oh my GOD, the sadness of Flint watching his ship and his crew be destroyed, slowing fixing his hair, letting himself be blasted overboard and then sinking, sinking, sinking.
Max and Eleanor finally have a real conversation, and it is so sad.
Max: You have nothing to be sorry about. I was standing between you and your dreams for this place. You did what you had to do. Eleanor: I thought you said this place was just sand. Max: Sand has its virtues. On sand, nothing is fixed. Nothing is permanent. Fates change so quickly.
And then we get Flint, alive and shirtless, wondering why this is so. It’s because the Urca crashed in a storm the night before, and everyone is at least smart enough to realize that FLINT IS THE BEST and they need him if they’re going to get their gold.
He is looking SO GOOD standing there in his tight black pants, billowing shirt, and loose hair. Toby Stephens has ruined me.
That’s the end of the first season! Shaky at first, steadily better, and ending with SUCH a great twisty finale! Can’t wait to keep going – season 2 is my favorite!
I MEAN. I am HERE for this outfit,
RHETORICAL QUESTIONS
What happened to Gates’ body? 😦 I hope they went back to the Walrus to find him and give him to the sea.
Not done reliving the episode? Listen to Daphne and Liz’s podcast at Fathoms Deep!
This whole episode is Best Flint Moment!! I’m going to discuss what we learn about Flint in more depth in the Well-Formed Thoughts section, but his conversation with Miranda deserves to be here. He is at his most vulnerable with Miranda (consider this scene compared to his tightly-wound conversation with Gates), and it’s beautiful to watch him fall apart.
Flint: What was your intent? What was it? To destroy everything we have tried to build here for the last ten years? Or was it just to embarrass me? Miranda: To show you a way out of all this. To free you. F: A way out? Have you no memory of how we got in? Of what they took from us? M: What does it matter now? F: What does it matter? (Sidenote, HIS FACE HERE) M: What does it matter what happened then if we have no life now? Because there is no life here, there is no joy here, there is no love here. F: WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? What do you think I’m out there fighting for but to make all those things possible here? M: You’ll fight a war so we can make a life? F: You don’t get one without the other, my sweet. M: No. You’re wrong. I sent that letter to show you that you’re wrong. There is a life in Boston. There is joy there, and music, and peace. The door is open. I’ve opened it for you, and it requires no war, no blood, and no sacrifice. F: It requires an intolerable sacrifice! M: To accept a pardon? F: To apologize! M: Apologize? Who will you be apologizing to? F: TO ENGLAND. They took everything from us, and then they call ME a monster? The moment I sign that pardon, the moment I ask for one, I proclaim that they were right. This ends when I grant them MY forgiveness, not the other way around. M: This path you’re on, it doesn’t lead where you think it does. If he were here, he’d agree with me.
Oh my GOD, this scene is devastating. It was beautiful the first time I saw it, intriguing with all my confusion, but now that I know what Flint is talking about, WOW. Wow wow wow.
Wow.
TODAY’S RUNNER UP
Silver! From his reunion with Flint (coughing to Eleanor to remind her to be his defender) throughout his almost-accusal by Randall, he is scrambling to stay alive. I continue to enjoy his unsuccessful attempts to charm Randall, and it is very telling that it is only when Silver is vulnerable, honest, and thinking of someone else’s benefit that Randall sides with Silver and takes back his accusation. This is Silver’s first opportunity to grow past his compulsive selfishness!
LOL MOMENT
Definitely Silver’s wondering aloud at whether Randall is a half-wit or a genius, only to be answered with…a massive fart. LOL, Randall. I love you.
WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS
We get so much good Flint material here, both in revelations as to his motivations and in revealing his vulnerabilities. In three scenes (with Gates, Miranda, and Eleanor), we see him searching for a partner who shares his vision.
First, with Gates:
Flint has kept many secrets from Gates, and now that Billy is a casualty of those secrets, Gates is done. It’s telling that for as close of friends as they seem, Flint hasn’t told Gates much of his story. In a last ditch attempt to win Gates to his vision, Flint tells him of his plan to sequester part of the Urca gold so that Nassau can be stable.
Flint: I’m quite serious. Who loses? Absent their worst instincts: their pride, their greed, their suspicion, in the light of pure reason, who says no to this? They’ll be rich men in a safe place rather than dead thieves on a long rope.
But it’s too late. Flint opening up about a piece of his grander plan is just one more secret Gates doesn’t want to hear.
Second, with Miranda:
I quoted the whole scene above, and I love it all. Contrasted with Gates, Miranda KNOWS all of Flint’s plan (though we still don’t), and apparently shared it at one time. The fact that she has given it up and wants to move with him to Boston is therefore a much bigger betrayal. While Miranda has emotionally moved on to the point that she can say, “What does it matter?”, Flint is still living in the trauma of what happened ten years ago. This too feels like abandonment and betrayal to him. Flint is overwhelmed by all this, so he goes to the tavern to get drunk. It is there that he finds a new visionary partner.
Lastly, with Eleanor:
These two betrayals by his closest friends has led Flint to doubt himself, and it must be bad because he opens up about it with Eleanor.
Flint: Tell me we’re not crazy, you and I. Eleanor: Crazy? Flint: To put ourselves through all of this, when the outcome’s so uncertain. Eleanor: The outcome is only uncertain for those who disbelieve. I believe in this place, and I believe if there’s anyone who can do what’s necessary to make it something better, it’s you.
This is exactly what Flint needs to hear. He needs someone to believe in him and to stand beside him. His reliance upon a partner is his greatest weakness and greatest strength, and I’m so excited to watch the series while tracking Flint’s highs and lows as compared to the state of his partnerships.
FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS
So far we have seen people question Flint’s loyalty (as it pertains to his crew), but he’s clearly VERY loyal to Miranda at least. He consistently defends her against those who want her to answer for her letter. She wasn’t wrong in a previous episode when she assured Lambrick that Flint would never hurt her.
My favorite sex scenes in this show are the ones with really bad sex! Love the mundane relationship sex between Anne and Jack, who can’t keep it up because he’s busy worrying and thinking.
Dufresne was elected quartermaster by the crew, and it was so cute watching Gates and Flint giggle together about Dufresne “chewing a man’s throat out.”
Mr. Scott and Eleanor reuniting was bittersweet. Eleanor is so self-focused on what seems like his betrayal that she doesn’t even show concern that he was sold as a slave. When he points out his true relationship to her family, she is touched. So much so that she manages to free all of the slaves from the Andromache and find them paid work. Yay Eleanor! It is tragic that now, when they best understand and support each other, they must part ways. Eleanor is pissed, but I think Mr. Scott is right. They can’t sustain this healthy relationship if they continue to work together.
Flint does NOT handle being accused by Gates very well. It was totally uncalled for when he, in turn, accused Gates of being a bad father to Billy. It was a low blow to hurt Gates, though I also think he was displacing the blame he feels himself.
Flint really is shocked that his crew would think he sees them as expendable. This makes what will happen in the next episode extra heartbreaking.
Also re: Flint’s lack of self-awareness, he extols “the light of pure reason” with Gates, but his conversation with Miranda reveals that he operates almost entirely upon emotion. I don’t think he realizes that about himself.
Flint kisses Eleanor on the forehead, just like he did to Miranda a couple episodes ago. Hm!
Um, also, while Flint is being accused of keeping secrets “for the good of the crew,” Dufresne, DeGroot, and Other Guy are doing the exact same thing! They know that if they brought Silver before the crew, he would be hung and the Urca location would be lost. So instead they act alone! Which is, I think, the right decision. So why are they all so hard on Flint? Because they don’t trust him. 😦 TRUST HIM, YOU FOOLS.
Jack is really bad at running a brothel, so Max steps in to show him how it’s done. While this ought to feel empowering and awesome, I don’t love how she goes about it. In an attempt to distance herself from her past and her shame, Max 1) slaps a coworker and 2) says, “In my experience, if you do not discipline a whore she will always take advantage.” Which is just…very dehumanizing? I’m all for Max rising in station, but I don’t love that it comes at the expense of others.
There’s a mutiny against Flint, not just to oust him as captain, but to kill him!! NOOO.
Finally, Vane! This episode gives us a fascinating glimpse into his past, and while I don’t fully understand it, it’s clear that he’s conquered his demons and literally risen from the grave a stronger man. It was bizarre to see him stutter and avoid eye contact, and I love the vulnerability that returning to the place where he was a child slave brought out of him.
This is the first we see of Vane’s lack of self-preservation in the face of a cause he believes in. Even when the slave master knows Vane was a slave, he gives him the men Vane needs to take Nassau. This could be enough, but a “good” slave master is still a slave master to Vane, so he gives a rousing speech of freedom to the men and is “killed” as a result. But not for long.
He looks really good for a recently dead guy.
Every episode is stronger than the one before it, but this is where I get REALLY emotionally involved in this show. It’s full-blown obsession from here on out, and I can’t WAIT to rewatch it all again, though hopefully at a slower pace than my first time through!
Not done reliving the episode? Listen to Daphne and Liz’s podcast at Fathoms Deep!
Q: Why doesn’t Mr. Scott help the slaves on the Andromache?
A: He says it’s because Flint’s plan to pursue the Urca gold and establish a self-ruling Nassau will lead to Eleanor’s death, and I think he’s telling the truth. But I also think he’s hurt by Mr. Guthrie’s betrayal, and feeling rather hopeless.
“I know what he says. He says in Nassau a slave can be free, get a job and a wage. Maybe for him, he’s strong. A few others. The rest of you, don’t kid yourselves. You are cargo in Nassau or otherwise.”
BEST FLINT MOMENT
Flint didn’t really have a fists-in-the-air moment this episode, but he did look HELLA FINE when he went to investigate the slaves’ secret flag message.
TODAY’S RUNNER UP
Anne!! FINALLY our girl gets her moment to shine. From the first time we see her guarding Max’s tent against Asshole Pirate (I accidentally learned his name this episode, but I refuse to use it) until she jerks her hand away from Max and says, “I didn’t do it for you,” she gets some CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! She feels so strongly about protecting Max from further rape that she even teams up with Eleanor, a pairing that is quite formidable.
Why did she do it? We know from a previous episode that Anne has experienced sexual assault in the past (and Jack warns her that her actions might end with her in the tent being abused with Max), and she likely feels guilty at her role in putting Max there in the first place. Is there something more? Time will tell, and I’m thrilled to finally know her a little bit more.
LOL MOMENT
No real laugh-out-loud moment in this episode. It was excellent, but pretty bleak.
WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS
From my actual notes:
YASS slave revolt!!!
YASS pirates helping!!!
YASS awesome slave woman!!! (later discovered her name is Eme)
This episode gave us smart, ambitious, fierce African men and women! I loved the conversations between Mr. Scott and Eme as she tried to convince him to help their efforts to escape. I loved the reality of his hopelessness, but more than that I loved Eme’s insistence that even if they are not all free in Nassau, it is still a better option than remaining chained.
The fake-out (“Mr. Scott NO – Mr. Scott YES”) was handled so well, and it pained me to realize that this was probably the first time he’d ever killed a man. Later when Eme is given the narrative privilege of killing Captain Bryson and she exchanges a look with Mr. Scott? WOW. She is everything.
I also really loved the unspoken cooperation between pirates and slaves, beginning with a white flag, then a dropped iron peg. The scenes in which the pirates rhythmically chop the hull to pieces to cover the sound of the slaves escaping their chains actually made me cry. And although the pirates could have left the slaves to fight the Andromache crew alone, they burst in to fight together!! It’s SO GREAT, and I *ahem* am so excited for similar events in the future.
FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS
This episode is DARK – thematically and visually. It all takes place at night, and the scenes’ darkness feels pretty oppressive at times. I’m ready for some sparkling blue water again, please!
I didn’t realize in the last episode that one of the pirates Eleanor chooses for the consortium is Tits Pirate, and I love it. He is excellent in this episode, countering everyone’s pessimism with a bleary, “I don’t know. Perhaps you need to have a little more faith in people.” And he’s proven right!
We get a real sense of what kind of couple Jack and Anne are in this episode, and the kind they are is Awesome.
Anne plans to murder eight of their crewmen without Jack’s knowledge, but her plan includes him backing her up. This is the first instance of the blind faith they have in each other, and it never fails to make me feel all the Feelings.
“When you and Miss Guthrie were plotting this little coup, when she asked you, ‘Well shit, Anne, what makes you think old Jack will go along with this plan of ours and not plead the truth to his men as he’s most certainly going to feel duty-bound to do?’ What did you say?” “I told her given the choice between them and me, you’d choose me.” “That’s very fucking touching.”
Jack/Anne, proving you can be touching and sweet without being sickeningly sentimental.
Miranda and Pastor Lambrick talk again, and we get more information about her life with her husband. It’s also super interesting that she’s betrayed Flint but is completely sure that he will not harm her. And then, you know, the sex. I still don’t know how to read this. Is she trying to shame him? Free him? Is she just lonely? Her face as she holds him looks pretty happy, but I just can’t understand why she wouldn’t go for literally anyone other than him.
The melody that’s been paired with Max several times throughout this season sounds so much like the hymn “What Wondrous Love Is This” which includes the really haunting verse: “When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down / When I was sinking down, sinking down / Beneath God’s righteous frown, Christ laid aside his crown for my soul, for my soul.” The imagery definitely fits Max’s story so far, but I’d love to know if Bear McCreary intentionally chose this melody to be her song!
Silver realizes that Eleanor helped Anne for two reasons: to rescue Max, and to reassure the pirates revolting against her that she is not to be taken lightly. I’m appreciating Eleanor so much more during this rewatch!
Flint shows that he definitely does know the names of his crew members, which means that scene in episode 1 where he said “who’s Billy” was indeed just him fucking with Billy.
Speaking of Billy. RIP. I would feel worse about it, but he doesn’t know how to leave well enough alone! Gates was COMPLETELY right that this was neither the time nor place to be investigating a mysterious letter whilst in battle.
POOR GATES. Billy was a son to him, and his face during the burial at sea definitely showed he has his doubts about Flint’s role in Billy’s death. Flint’s face is giving nothing away, but we have to wait to know how this will all pan out!
ACCUMULATING QUESTIONS
Who was that other man (not Jack) with Anne when she murdered Asshole Pirate and friends?
Not done reliving the episode? Listen to Daphne and Liz’s podcast at Fathoms Deep!
Flint and the Walrus crew play a deadly chess match on the open sea. Richard forces Eleanor’s hand. Rackham makes a career change. Bonny confesses to Max.
Q: Why is Mr. Scott on the Andromache? A: Because Mr. Guthrie betrayed him!! How did I not understand this the first time through??
BEST FLINT MOMENT
The show starts out VERY strong with a conversation between Flint and Billy discussing both trust and leadership. They walk such an interesting and fine line between admiration and suspicion!
Billy: How can you pretend you don’t have any doubts about this? Flint: Years of practice. There’s always doubt, Billy. No sane man would deny that. No good captain would acknowledge it.
And then Flint proceeds to lay out every possible outcome of their chase, assuring both Billy and us that yes, he is in fact a tactical genius.
TODAY’S RUNNER UP
I would give this to Billy for his brilliant turn as quartermaster (especially in using Positive Manipulation to empower Dufresne), but I’ve got more to say about Eleanor, so I’m going to give it to her.
When her father cuts his ties with their business in Nassau and runs, Eleanor refuses to let her life’s work go to waste. She forms a consortium, choosing the exact right people who are low enough on the pirate totem pole to be grateful for the chance to serve her. And in diffusing power, she also diffuses responsibility the next time a mob appears on her doorstep.
I also adore her defense of Max. Everyone insists it was Max’s choice to stay with the Ranger crew, and I earlier defended this viewpoint, but Eleanor is totally right when she says, “She chose it. She chose it. I’ve been repeating those words to myself for well over a week and I find them wanting.” Who expected Eleanor to be the voice of morality on this show, huh??
Finally, in the wonderful words of Jack Rackham, “To assume we’ve seen the last of Eleanor Guthrie is, well, not to know her.”
LOL MOMENT
There was no true laugh-out-loud moment in this episode for me, but I do love Jack’s conversation with Mrs. Mapleton and especially the camera-pan to his scruffy puppy friends lounging in the background.
WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS
This is our first real look at pirate boarding strategy, and BOY IS IT GOOD. Even better on rewatch when I could finally understand everything that was going on. There’s so much! It’s wonderful to see the roles of every crew member, from Captain Flint, who plans the strategy, to Quartermaster Billy, who explains it to the crew, who carry it out. AND WHAT A STRATEGY. Using a sharpshooter to make the Andromache’s helmsman lose grip on their wheel so that the current will bring their ship alongside theirs so that they can board? IT’S BEAUTIFUL.
Alongside the strategy, we get to see the crew up close as they prepare, putting on their Pirate Outfits and Paint, looking fierce but hiding from gunshot until the time to board has come. We see how they psych themselves, and others, up, whether that means lying about being invincible or kissing their sword for good luck. And then, WOW, is it such a good move to have us board the Andromache with Dufresne. It’s his first time experiencing the fear and the chaos and the bloodlust, and we truly get a sense of how kill-or-be-killed the experience is.
After all that…the quiet aftermath, and PART TWO because this is secretly a two-parter and we have to wait until next episode to find out how Flint will finish taking over the Andromache!
FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS
“Who’s Mrs. Barlow?” “You’ve heard the stories, haven’t you? She’s a witch who pledged my soul to the devil, and anoints me with the blood of infants to keep me safe in battle.” “Come on, I’m not stupid.” “No, you’re not. So you can probably guess it isn’t as much fun to tell stories about how your captain makes a home with a nice Puritan woman who shares his love of books.”
Jack Rackham now owns a brothel! This is problematic, but less so than Noonan, who was AWFUL. Also, Jack is either a terrible or a genius negotiator, giving Mrs. Mapleton a raise from 3% to 40%.
It is SO REWARDING to see Billy and Flint working together successfully and nodding in happiness at each other.
The Asshole Pirate is truly reaching new heights of Assholery, and I hate him. MAJOR PROPS to Eleanor for powerfully walking towards him as he threatens her.
This is the episode when Anne becomes a fully-fledged character! First she and Jack have a lovely moment where she wants to kill her problems and Jack is all, “darling, no,” and then we get her coming to help Max. When she takes the horrific 1700s abortion machine away from Mrs. Mapleton and does it herself, we see a gentle Anne for the first time. When she shares with Max a story of her own reaction to sexual assault (cutting off a dude’s balls), you see just how brutal you have to be to survive as a woman during this time period. And WOW, the sadness of this: “You were the one who threw me to them in the first place.” “I only thought they’d kill you.”
Flint and Gates are Billy’s dads.
Vane loves that Eleanor is stronger than him, and this will never not be attractive to me.
And now we get to see “civilization”s true face: the respectable Andromache is actually a slave ship. As if that weren’t dehumanizing enough, Captain Bryson is willing to kill women in order to force a man to go above decks on a suicide mission. Grossness on top of grossness.
Speaking of grossness. Mr. Guthrie SOLD MR. SCOTT INTO SLAVERY because he sided with Eleanor, and this is The Worst.
Before realizing there are slaves aboard, Flint wonders why Captain Bryson wouldn’t fear them burning the ship and killing everyone aboard. It’s because Bryson (who represents Civilization and England) knows that Flint (who represents Piracy and Self-Rule) would never massacre slaves. 😦 I am dead now, RIP me.
Silver does not know how to shut up, even when cuffed to a couch, to everyone’s benefit.
I’m not sure what to do with this: “Guilt is natural. It also goes away if you let it. But losing your life’s work, that doesn’t go away.” It is definitely a very Silver thing to say, but I can’t tell if the show wants us to agree with him. What do you think?
RHETORICAL QUESTIONS
Is it TRULY so important to have an extra pair of (unskilled) hands boarding an enemy ship that they’d risk their only crewman who is good at maths? Hmm.
Not done reliving the episode? Listen to Daphne and Liz’s podcast at Fathoms Deep!
An undertaking by the Walrus crew ends in disaster. Silver warns Flint about Billy. Rackham and Bonny try to regain their livelihood. Eleanor needs help from her father. A figure from Vane’s past pays a visit.
Q: What happens to Randall’s cat, Betsy? A: She is seen running away unsquished, so I choose to believe she found a new home in the Nassau interior and is being treated well there. Sad that Randall doesn’t get to keep her, but honestly, having a cat on the ship would have stressed me out any time there was violence.
BEST FLINT MOMENT
I love that he steps up as captain to risk being crushed in order to save his crew, but even more, I love his mini-speech to Eleanor. Big picture, idealistic Flint is my favorite!
“Nobody will believe that it’s possible until we show them. But when that day comes, you know what they’ll say? They’ll say that it was inevitable.”
Oh Captain, my Captain!
TODAY’S RUNNER UP
Miranda! I’ll talk more about her under “Well-Formed Thoughts,” but I love this passionate, sad woman that we are slowly getting to know. Especially heartbreaking was her kindness toward a little boy who then threw rocks at her and called her a witch. Dangerous era to be a woman with secrets.
LOL MOMENT
Silver can’t cook a pig, must take lessons from pirate captain on the sly. ❤
Flint: What the FUCK did you do to that? Silver: I…cooked it? Flint: You absolutely did not.
WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS
I really love the slow reveal of Miranda and Flint’s backstory, and it’s a testament to the show’s brilliance that it’s even more compelling on rewatch. Let’s review some of the things we learned about them in this episode, shall we?
We know that Flint hunted the Maria Aleyne in order to murder two people, and that when he returned to Nassau, he told Miranda it was “done.” We know that they have sex together, and that it is pretty spectacularly bad. Flint is a non-participant, and when Miranda finishes and lays against him, his eyes are dead and hers are teary. We know that after they are dressed, they show astounding vulnerability and intimacy toward each other.
Miranda: That book is something I shared with Thomas. I just – missed it. Our life then, when he was alive. I can feel myself forgetting it, and I don’t want to forget it. This place, this life that we’ve been living here, it doesn’t feel like living anymore. I can’t be alone in feeling this way. Some part of you must feel it too. *Flint holds her face* Flint: Things will get better here. I promise you they will. *Flint kisses her forehead*
These mixed relational signals are further confused when Mr. Guthrie confronts Miranda with his knowledge that she is not Mrs. Barlow but Mrs. Hamilton. The mystery deepens!
“The portrait in your room depicts you alongside Lord Thomas Hamilton, son of Alfred Hamilton, the lord proprietor of these Bahama Islands…You see, I’ve had extensive dealings with the earl over the years, and so I’d long heard of the tragedy that befell his eldest son. But Thomas’s wife, long rumored to be the cheating sort, had begun a torrid affair with her husband’s closest friend, a promising young officer in His Majesty’s Navy. Upon discovering the affair, Thomas went mad with grief. His despair was so great, even the asylum couldn’t protect him from himself. As for Thomas’s wife, she’s said to have fled London along with her lover, partly out of shame, partly to escape retribution. Given the facts at hand, I am forced to assume that the lover is none other than our friend Captain Flint.”
FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS
Gates and Billy are two of the only non-ambitious characters in this show, and they both receive promotions in this episode with the blessing of the crew. This contrasts quite nicely with John Silver and Captain Flint, both of whom have to scheme and lie in order to find/keep power.
I do not enjoy the “fuck tent,” and I’m happy that this is the last time we ever have something like that.
In a similar but even worse circumstance, we find Max making the best of a horrible situation. I love that she uses her captivity to try to teach pirates the joy of good, consensual, gentle sex, but Asshole Pirate ruins everything by being an Asshole. Anne has Feelings about this, but she is not yet a character that says or does much.
Eleanor’s actions in taking away Vane’s ship and crew are starting to have significant repercussions re: her power in Nassau. The other pirates are resenting her and even calling her “Queen Eleanor” – a dangerous title in a democratic pirate republic.
Mr. Scott is trying to be the voice of reason, but both Eleanor and Mr. Guthrie are using him. I liked that they finally addressed the fact that Mr. Scott is the Guthrie’s slave – this serves to make their relationships even more twisted, and his power and gravitas even more impressive.
Also, Mr. Guthrie’s wig is hella awful.
“Trust me. I am purely in this for myself and you know this. I have no reason to tell you anything other than the truth. Both our futures depend on this.” Flint doesn’t want to be won over by Silver, but he can’t help but listen!
Jack is so impotent this season, and he’s far from the joy he will become, but this exchange with Noonan was a DELIGHT. “Then I believe we are at an impasse.” *blank stare* “A disagreement without prospect of resolution.” “Fuck you, Jack.”
Vane’s having a trippy episode, high on opium and envisioning Eleanor and a Mysterious Bearded Man. His dream of Eleanor is especially revealing of his inner world, something we needed to see. I’m impressed by his knowledge of Eleanor and her ambition, as well as the revelation that this is exactly what attracted him to her. It’s also a joy to see him vulnerable, weeping, grieving, and fearful. He’s a human now!
RIP Morley
RIP Noonan, no wait, you can rest in agony for making a living off abused women.
“You know that she will stop at nothing to save this place. A place where she matters. A place where you matter. Except that in your heart, you know the truth – places like this aren’t meant to last.”
ACCUMULATING QUESTIONS
Why is the Guthrie family repeatedly said to live in Boston when later they are said to live in Philadelphia?
Someone befriend this woman! No, not you, Mr. Guthrie.
Not done reliving the episode? Listen to Daphne and Liz’s podcast at Fathoms Deep!
Flint and Gates seek a partner to hunt the Urca d’Lima. Silver helps Billy with a morale problem. Vane impressed Eleanor by being reasonable. Gates gets a promotion.
Q: Now that I know the characters and plot, does the rape scene serve any real narrative purpose?
A: I’m going to have to say yes, even though I still truly hate this scene. On rewatch, without the shock value, I can even appreciate that they made clear what was happening without lingering on Max’s pain or turning it into rape porn.
But the thing that really stood out to me this time was how much this was of Max’s choosing, and what this reveals about women’s options during this time period. Eleanor keeps trying to save her, but Max’s relationship with Eleanor has always had skewed power dynamics. First Eleanor is paying for the privilege of sleeping with Max, and it seems that also being rescued is too much for Max. By saying, “My actions cost you your pearls. Until my debt is paid, I am yours,” Max is asserting what little control of the situation that she can claim. I really think the show is trying to highlight just how shitty it was to be a woman at that time while allowing her some agency.
BEST FLINT MOMENT
We are introduced to Unreasonable Rage Monster Flint in this epsiode! We saw him rage in episode 1 when he fought Singleton, but that was strategic. Here he is just pouty and furious and I love it! It is also a wonderful glimpse of Flint’s relationship with Gates (father and emo teenager), and honestly, the comedy in this moment is just delightful.
TODAY’S RUNNER UP
Gates! He is a first-class quartermaster in this episode, conferring with Hornigold and Jack, negotiating, appeasing Billy, and ultimately being handed captaincy of Ship #2. He really is the only reasonable person in the show right now who’s focused on doing his job. I love Gates!
LOL MOMENT
Randall’s scream!! “That’s what I’ll do if he should wander.”
WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS
Let’s talk pirate alliances!
It’s clear now that although each pirate captain is fiercely ego-centric, they must rely on each other in order for Nassau to survive. There’s so much that must be navigated: captains, crews, ships, supplies. As Flint, Gates, and Eleanor plan to take the Urca gold, they must form alliances with first Hornigold and then Charles Vane in order to have everything necessary. It is fascinating to watch their negotiations, and to take note of whose decisions are based in reason, whose are based in emotion, and whose have a little bit of both. I love watching these fundamentally different people try to find a way to work together…at least until it all falls apart.
FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS
We see a lot of Miranda Barlow this episode, though we don’t actually learn all that much about her yet. She’s clearly very intelligent, and she seems rather sad. Her relationship with Flint is a Mystery: she’s comfortable seeing him half-naked and bleeding, he’s making intense eye contact, and she seems very familiar with his plans to take the Urca gold. Just when she starts to open up and admit she’d hoped to spend more time with him, they’re interrupted and we must wait for more information until another episode!
Silver is still being smart, revealing only part of the schedule and helping Billy ferret out potential mutineers.
Flint: And when the Urca’s ours? What’s to stop me from killing you anyway? Silver: Well, it’s a few weeks from now. We might be friends by then! Flint: *smirk* Silver: *face falls* Me: Hehehehehe!
Speaking of Silver’s attempts to win people over, his trying to charm Randall is so rewarding.
More statements on women’s roles during this time period when Eleanor talks to her dad: “We made you into the man you always insisted to us that you were.”
Hornigold wants so badly to be important, but he’s just, like, sitting in a tent.
“No matter how many lies we tell ourselves or how many stories we convince ourselves we’re part of, we’re all just thieves awaiting a noose.” (Callback to previous episode when Flint says the pirates are men in need of hope.)
FLINT’S LAUGH WHEN GATES SUGGEST THEY WORK WITH VANE! I tried very hard to find a video clip of this, but failed. Anyone who can will earn major brownie points with me!
This is the episode I started to like Vane, first with his “Be honest. Are you as surprised as I am that I’m the only one here behaving myself?” and then with his empathetic talk with Max. Although I don’t love his assertion that he had no choice in letting his men assault her while she’s chained up. YOU HAD A CHOICE, VANE. Sexual assault should never be a form of debt payment.
“You’re too clever for your own good, Jack.” Truer words.
There’s a lot going on with Miranda and Pastor Lambrick, but I’ll stick with this: Lambrick’s assertion that “It is Christ’s love of sinners that gave him strength to endure his agony” sounds a lot like Flint, and it’s telling that Miranda takes issue with this!
Eleanor rewards Vane’s good behavior with sex. Vane continues to grow on me as he makes it clear that he wants to cuddle with her afterwards.
“How should you be? You should be like a rocky promontory against which the restless surf continually pouds. It stands fast while the churning sea is lulled to sleep at its feet. I hear you say, ‘How unlucky that this should happen to me.’ But not at all. Perhaps say instead, ‘How lucky I am that I am not broken by what has happened, and I’m not afraid of what is about to happen. For the same blow might have struck anyone, but not many who would have absorbed it without capitulation or complaint.”
ACCUMULATING QUESTIONS
Are men ever forced to repay their debts through sexual favors? I thought not.
A rare Smiling!Flint appears ❤
Not done reliving the episode? Listen to Daphne and Liz’s podcast at Fathoms Deep!
Flint unmasks a thief on his crew. Rackham chases a score over Vane’s objection. Silver hides with Max in the brothel. Eleanor faces an impossible choice.
A: NOT THIS EPISODE, that’s for sure. Despite the intriguing hints of his past with Eleanor, he is AWFUL here: nearly murdering Max and actually murdering his second innocent black man in as many episodes. Booooo!
BEST FLINT MOMENT
“They’re not animals. They’re men starved of hope. If you give them that back, who’s to say what could happen?”
Idealistic Flint is my favorite Flint!
TODAY’S RUNNER UP
Eleanor! During my first time through the show, I was too annoyed by her male-gazey big dick energy to pay attention to her character (this is why exploitative nudity and poor writing for women is so damaging), but this time I finally noticed how amazing she is.
Her first scene finds her comparing herself to her father, who saw the pirates as animals. She, on the other hand, saw more in them and did more for them when she took over the island’s business. Of course, she does later calls Vane’s men animals, so there’s also some interesting hypocrisy going on.
I also really like her conflicting motives about siding with Flint to pursue the Urca gold and remake Nassau – I’d wager she’s about equally motivated by communal good (Flint’s dream) and personal good (reassuring herself that her work there is not in vain). I like a character with conflicted motives!
LOL MOMENT
Silver’s belly flop, and especially the groan-scream he makes when he resurfaces.
WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS
The conversation between Flint, Eleanor, and Mr. Scott is the most important of the episode, the season, and perhaps even the entire show. As such, I want to quote it in full!
Eleanor: Why return at all to Nassau? With money like that and my father out of business, why not run? What’s coming our way can’t be outrun.
Flint: But with the money I strip from the Hulk, we could add fifty guns to the fort. We could build ships to defend our shores and train new men to sail them. We could work the land, grow crops and raise cattle. Then whoever arrives on our shores first, be it England or Spain, will be in for a most unwelcome surprise. A nation of thieves. …You have your doubts?
Mr. Scott: Of turning pirates into farmers and soldiers? Of fighting a war against Whitehall from a sliver in the Atlantic? Doubt, Captain Flint, does not begin to describe how I am feeling.
Flint: They’re not animals, Mr. Scott. They’re men starved of hope. Give that back to them, who’s to say what could happen?
Eleanor: Why do this? Why here?
Flint: Odysseus, on his journey home to Ithaca, was visited by a ghost. The ghost tells him that once he reaches his home, once he slays all his enemies and sets his house in order, he must do one last thing before he can rest. The ghost tells him to pick up an oar and walk inland and keep walking until somebody mistakes that oar for a shovel, for that would be the place that no man had ever been troubled by the sea. And that’s where he’d find peace. In the end, that’s all I want. To walk away from the sea and find some peace.
This is the moment when Flint gets Eleanor on board with his plan for a stronger, securer Nassau. A Nassau so strong and secure that pirates can settle down and become farmers. All Flint wants is to be free enough and secure enough that he can leave the sea behind him, and he assumes that everyone else feels the same way. It will be fun to see whether or not he is correct!
I had a hard time believing that the pirates of these first few episodes weren’t animals and did, in fact, deserve Flint’s vision for them. After all, in just this episode we see them pissing on corpses, beating prostitutes, and murdering innocent men. I think we’re meant to have this visceral reaction to the crudeness of the pirates we’ve seen so far, because that is how “civilization” sees them. It’s only as our story continues and we get various characters’ backstories that we understand what pain, trauma, and abuse led them to a life of debauchery and cruelty. A good reminder that first impressions are often only part of the story.
FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS
That’s a lot of nudity. As I mentioned earlier, it still feels exploitative and cheap.
I would love to know more about the history of Flint and Vane’s rivalry!
I don’t know how to feel about Eleanor’s relationship with Max. Apparently, she only recently split from Vane, so they can’t have been together long. And can someone truly be together when one party is paying for the company of the other? I do believe Max loves Eleanor, but I don’t really believe it’s fully reciprocated.
Silver is seriously so smart, both with his misdirection on the beach and with his memorizing the contents of the page.
Max is also so smart, making the evaluator inspect every single pearl.
Flint: “I never much liked your father; too caught up in appearances.” LOL, okay, James.
Silver: “Do you have a candlestick or…perhaps a heavy shoe? Idelle: *pulls out sword*
I think that might be our first hint that background prostitutes are also real people with lives and intelligence (and not just Max as the token Special Prostitute). Also, hello Idelle! I didn’t realize you were a part of the show since the beginning!
It’s only episode two and we already have lovers being torn apart by the consequences of their own choices. Friendly reminder that this show is a tragedy 😀 This is one of my favorite things, though, that relationships are rarely broken because of outside influence or lack of interest, but because of fundamentally different worldviews and goals. Far more nuanced and interesting!
Honestly, what even is Jack’s hair?
Ninja!Flint makes his first appearance when he goes to the house of a Mysterious Woman and collapses. He’s so tired! If I hadn’t already fallen in love with him before, I would now.
Let me take care of you!!
ACCUMULATING QUESTIONS
What is Mr. Scott’s plan for Nassau if he’s opposed to Flint seeking the Urca gold?
Not done reliving the episode? Listen to Daphne and Liz’s podcast at Fathoms Deep!
The once powerful Captain Flint faces mutiny by his own pirate crew. John Silver joins Flint, hiding something of great value. On New Providence, Eleanor Guthrie keeps order in the face of a resurgent Royal Navy.
Q: When is the exact moment that I fell in love with Captain James Flint? A: Other Captain: “I won’t give you the satisfaction of crying out.” Flint, walking away: “Good for you.” Me: Oh, he’s SASSY.
BEST FLINT MOMENT
I’ve got to go with Flint’s first real power speech, given only to Billy, nicely outlining the thematic plot of this show.
Flint: There’s a war coming, Billy. Billy: One ship isn’t a war. Flint: One ship isn’t what’s coming. That man Hume, captain of the Scarborough, told you as much. When the king brands us pirates, he doesn’t mean to make us adversaries. He doesn’t mean to make us criminals. He means to make us monsters. ‘Cause that’s the only way his God-fearing tax-paying subjects can make sense of men who keep what is theirs and fear no one. When I say there’s a war coming, I don’t mean with the Scarborough. I don’t mean with King George or England. Civilization is coming, and it means to exterminate us.
(Side note, this is VERY fun to read in light of what we later learn of Flint. If only he had kept what was his and feared no one. *sob*)
TODAY’S RUNNER UP
Max! From the very beginning she’s presented as intelligent, which is something considering her first appearance is in the middle of an orgy. *eye roll* Even there she is noticing where Silver’s attention is, and after that she is everywhere, talking to everyone, holding her own and making sure people know she knows what’s up.
LOL MOMENT
When Joshua, the fearsome pirate with terrifying jagged teeth, jumps out at Gates to scare him, then giggles and takes his teeth out.
FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS
WATER! SHIPS!! I’m so excited to re-watch all of this!
The Other Captain IS urged to surrender, but refuses. I’m glad that is established early on, though I missed its significance the first time through.
We meet Silver before Flint – interesting.
“So you’re a coward, then.” “Yeah, and you?” LOL Silver, you’re so delightfully selfish.
Me in a pirate fight = the guy sitting in the corner with his arms wrapped around his legs, screaming.
In our first sighting of Flint (“It’s done”), he’s showing mercy. INTERESTING.
Shirtless Billy does not want to be Silver’s friend, lol.
Why are they torturing the Other Captain? This is not something that ever happens again and it only makes our pirates look like the monsters Flint later says they aren’t.
Flint’s earrings, Flint’s sleeves!
Randall and his cat!
Flint definitely thinks he’s better than everyone, and usually he’s right.
NASSAU!
Ugh, except this is not the Nassau that I’m actually in love with. This is Edgy Nassau where boobs are everywhere and all anyone talks about is sex and Eleanor LOVES saying the word fuck while being sexually inappropriate toward her subordinates. WE GET IT, this is an adult show. I wonder when exactly they stopped this nonsense and let the story’s awesomeness stand on its own?
Mr. Scott, already establishing himself as the knowledgable one!
The first thing we see inside of a “civilized” home is a painting of Judith beheading Holofornes. SALIENT.
Flint does know who Billy is (says he’s the bosun), so the whole “who’s Billy?” thing was just to fuck with him? I like this even more than arrogant, distracted Flint.
Once Flint knows that his crew thinks he’s weak, the devastating beatdown is inevitable.
Love seeing Billy realize that Flint has a method to his madness, but still not sure if it’s enough to justify the madness.
“Gossip is what holds civilization together. It reinforces shame, and without shame, well, the world is a very dangerous place.” IMPORTANT QUOTE ALERT.
Jack, Anne, and Vane, how did you become three of my favorite people? I don’t like you here.
“I am your king.” LOL, okay, Tyrant Flint.
I still don’t get the feather thing.
“The most important thing in a ship is trust between captain and crew,” says Flint as he lies to his crew.
If I have a type, it’s people getting beat down and then raging back to a win.
But also, ewwww.
I LOVE the power play of Flint putting Billy on the spot like that.
Flint sounds craaaaazy, but let’s see where this story of a Spaniard named Vasquez leads us next!
Mother, Father, this is the man I have chosen to love.
WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS
Everything makes so much more sense, from the pirate codes (valuing freedom, democracy, loyalty, and equality) and roles (captain, quartermaster, bosun) to the politics of trade in Nassau. I was so confused the first time through! However, none of the characters really feel settled into who they are yet. I enjoy them, but I don’t quite feel like I know these pilot-versions of people I love. I know I soon will, though!
Other than that, I don’t have a lot of thoughts about this episode, because it’s mostly introductions and setups and not nearly as rich as the ones that are coming.
ACCUMULATING QUESTIONS
Who is Flint’s spy in Port Royal who first heard about the Urca gold?
Not done reliving the episode? Listen to Daphne and Liz’s podcast at Fathoms Deep!
Roar Cat Reads 