Roar Cat Reads

Tag: Jack Rackham

  • Black Sails Season 4 Episode 10 Review – XXXVIII

    Black Sails Season 4 Episode 10 Review – XXXVIII

    Flint makes one last push to topple England.  Silver seals his fate.  Rackham confronts Rogers.  Nassau is changed forever.

    (Summary provided by starz.com)

    BEST FLINT MOMENT

    Literally EVERYTHING.  This is Top Flint, from his insistence upon healing his relationship with Silver, to fighting giant Billy and winning, to seeing through Jack and Silver’s betrayal, to THAT SPEECH THOUGH.  And then, either in truth or in fiction, his absolutely beautiful reunion with Thomas.  God.  This rewatch has only confirmed without question that I love Captain James Flint beyond anything.

    TODAY’S RUNNER UP

    Madi!  She outsmarts a man who would murder her, she is thrilled to see that the revolution she risked death for has survived and even defeated the man who kept her captive, and then…she dresses up like a pirate when her lover betrays her and tries to tell her a story to make it all better.  MY LIFE FOR A STORY WHERE MADI RE-STARTS A REVOLUTION.

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    LOL MOMENT

    Max, about to lockdown a deal with Grandma Guthrie, interrupted by:

    Jack: Just one more thing.
    Max: *eyeroll*

    WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS

    I love this show for presenting two endings and letting its viewers decide which is true, while at the same time telling us that they are both true, though in different ways.  It is my personal reading that Silver killed Flint, but it is my personal belief that Silver sent Flint to reunite with Thomas (and my favorite fanfiction involves James and Thomas either escaping or reforming the prison farm together).  Obviously, both events cannot exist simultaneously…but in story, they can.  That is the beauty of art, that it can create and sustain paradoxes that are somehow bigger and more beautiful in their contradictions than in either version told separately.

    FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS

    • The opening at the Nice Farm Prison opens up SO MANY things to think about, especially that civilization defines itself by the things it excludes, but that it is JUDGED by how it treats those that are excluded.
    • It’s incredibly sad that their idea of “protection” is that a man “must cease to be in order to find peace.”  Silver bought this line of reasoning in his attempt to unmake Captain Flint.  Season 2 Flint would have agreed.  Now, at the end of all things, do we?
    • Billy sees Flint trying to save someone, and shoots the Someone.  Honorable Billy would have shot Flint regardless of the consequences from Woodes Rogers.
    • Sulky Featherstone, pissed that Jack’s drive might be compromised, is so cute.
    • In telling a version of the story to Jack, Flint is protecting Silver (by not saying that Silver was willing to give up the cache) and Madi (by not saying where the cache is until she’s safe).
    • Flint refuses to use the ship’s guns because it puts Madi’s life at greater risk, and only NOW does Silver realize Flint was never betraying him.  The difference between them is that Silver cannot stop being a pirate – betraying and assuming betrayal.  The irony is that Captain Flint, Pirate of Pirates, really means his offer of friendship to people that he has decided to love and trust.
    • After twelves minutes of silence, Silver’s first sullen words are, “He’s right, and you know it.”  That’s the show!

    “Please know I was so conflicted about all this when it began.  I knew it would be difficult to separate them, Flint and Silver.  They’d grown so close, it was hard to know where one ended and the other began.  I worried that the act of separating them might destroy them both when what I wanted was to remove Flint.  And I saw no other way.  But the things I’ve done in the pursuit of it were intended to honor my oath.  But somehow, here I am now.  What I’ve just done, there’s no coming back from that.“

    • Poor Billy.  He got caught up in something much bigger than himself, and he wasn’t emotionally strong enough to either fully adapt or to keep himself away from it all.
    • Madi’s dead stare as she is forced to listen to her would-be murderer monologue about his problems is haunting.  But in the midst of it, she’s thinking faster than he is.  

    “I do not wish to board her.  I wish to cause confusion and terror amongst her men.  I wish to shatter their spirits.  I wish to break them.  And then I wish to board her.”

    • Just in case we needed one last reminder of how evil civilization can be when it decides to use its power against its enemies!
    • Flint using the mast and sails as cover and giving just enough information to others to prove how brilliant he is EXCELLENT.
    • Flint knowing ships so intimately that he can cut one rope and change the battle entirely is EXCELLENT.
    • Flint fighting giant Billy after four seasons of build up and kicking him off the bottom of his shoe like an nuisance is EXCELLENT.
    • I loved seeing Silver use his crutch as both shield and weapon.
    • When Silver is confronted with his past self/persona in the form of a cowardly cook, he chooses NOT to kill the man.  That feels important.
    • MADI’S ALIVE, and the twist in the music from tragic to romantic is stunning!
    • I love Jack, but I’m glad Flint had to help him defeat Woodes Rogers.  There’s no way it would have been realistic otherwise, and anyway, Jack’s strength has never been in his physicality.
    • Madi comes out of the hold and immediately sees Flint.  Silver sees Madi’s helpless smile at Flint’s victory.
    • Jack and Silver are partnering against Flint, and watching Flint’s sad expressions is heartbreaking.  He knows, but he goes along with them.

    “This war.  Your war.  Her war…As long as you and she stand for it, as long as the treasure powers it, nothing can stop it from beginning now…This is what it would be.  Time after time after time.  Endlessly.  The measuring of lives and loves and spirits so that they may be wagered in a grand game.  How much ransom can be afforded for the cause?  How many casualties can be tolerated for the cause?  How much loss?  That isn’t a war.  That is a fucking nightmare.”

    • Silver is tired, of this version of himself he’s created, of this life of pain and struggle.  But he’s tired because he’s seen this as a “grand game” rather than a life or death situation in which the only hope for a better future where black or queer men and women can live without shame and without abuse is by fighting this war.
    • The thing is, Silver CHOSE to align himself with revolutionaries, he is clearly drawn to friends and lovers who are passionate and dangerous.  He could have avoided all this long ago and let them have their war without him.  But he inserted himself into their narrative and then took it apart around them. I love that he is not made villainous in this moment, but he IS made complex and pitiable and small.

    “This is how they survive.  They paint the world full of shadows, and then tell their children to stay close to the light.  Their light.  Their reasons, their judgments.  Because in the darkness, there be dragons.  But it isn’t true.  We can prove that it isn’t true.  In the dark, there is discovery, there is possibility.  There is freedom in the dark once someone has illuminated it.  And who has been so close to doing it as we are right now?”

    • GOD, THIS SPEECH.  Everyone (rightfully) loves it, but I am continually struck by the beauty of Flint’s hope.  He has now fully abandoned his shame, confident that the worst of him, whether that be the love society condemned or the rage inspired by their punishment, is all part of a greater story that can illuminate the darkness.  Stunning.
    • Both Flint and Silver had no real vision of a better world, but they both fell in love with people who were Visionaries.  James was changed by Thomas, but Silver was not changed by Madi.  Another fundamental difference between the two men.

    “All this will have been for nothing.  We will have been for nothing.  Defined by their histories, distorted to fit into their narratives until all that is left of us are the monsters in the stories they tell their children.”

    • Is there a more tragic moment in this episode than when Mrs. Hudson reads “General History of Pirates” to her children, thus confirming Flint’s greatest fear?
    • Framing Treasure Island Long John Silver as a man haunted by regret is masterful.  “Someday, you will [care].  The comfort will grow stale, and casting about in the dark for some proof that you mattered and finding none, you’ll know that you gave it away in this moment on this island.”
    • Jack says, “Captain Flint is gone,” as a candle is extinguished.  WOW THE METAPHOR, because Flint was a light to illuminate civilization’s created darknesses, but no more.  It is very hard not to see Jack and Silver as the bad guys here!!
    • The show makes it explicit that it is the former slaves who would have been emboldened to fight for freedom by a story of Flint’s death, and Jack and Silver took even that away from them.  They are…super selfish.
    • And then Madi is reduced to being “a few scattered objections” to the treaty with England that she repeatedly felt was worth dying to oppose, and UGH.  I’m very unhappy with Jack and Silver (and to a lesser extent, though it’s very much in her characterization to do so, Max) taking the easy way out.
    • After the emotional devastation of the showdown between Flint and Silver, it is such a palate cleanser to experience uninhibited joy at Anne and Jack’s reunion.
    • And it is lovely to see that Jack’s victory comes by writing Woodes Roger’s story.
    • How much of Silver’s story about Flint’s fate for Madi, and how much is him trying to make himself feel better?
    • You can see Madi want to believe him, and hating herself for wanting to believe him.
    • However you see the ending, as truth or fiction, watching James realize he is seeing Thomas is So Fucking Beautiful.
    • AGGGHGHHHHH.  I always cry at their reunion.  It’s just stunning.

    “You didn’t just betray my trust.  You have planned to betray it all that time.  Get out.”

    • Silver’s final story is ineffective.  The show ends with the unmaking of both Flint and Silver.
    • Madi returning to Silver, albeit at a significant distance, says a lot about love overcoming pain and betrayal.  But clearly their relationship can never be what it might have been, and I like to think this is also the regret that motivates Silver to return to his past in Treasure Island.
    • Jack, interviewing a new pirate:  And that’s my whole life story!  Wait, what did you ask?
    • The fact that the pirates are allowed to continue because their existence lines the pockets of civilization is…super disappointing.  They’ve given up their power and their honor.  Can’t help thinking Charles Vane would be super disappointed in Jack…
    • Anne’s look from “Mark” to Jack is 100% “Are you shitting me?  You don’t realize you just invited another woman on our ship?”

    “What’s it all for if it goes unremembered?  It’s the art that leaves the mark.  But to leave it, it must transcend.”

    • Black Sails definitely transcended.  I’m so grateful for the True stories it tells, and I can’t wait to rewatch it a third time.
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    Not done reliving the episode?  Listen to Daphne and Liz’s podcast at Fathoms Deep!

  • Black Sails Season 4 Episode 9 Review – XXXVII

    Black Sails Season 4 Episode 9 Review – XXXVII

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

    (Summary provided by starz.com)

    BEST FLINT MOMENT

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

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    The man is unstoppable.

    TODAY’S RUNNER UP

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

    LOL MOMENT

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

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

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    WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS

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

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

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

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

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

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

    FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Black Sails Season 4 Episode 8 Review – XXXVI

    Black Sails Season 4 Episode 8 Review – XXXVI

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

    (Summary provided by starz.com)

    BEST FLINT MOMENT

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

    TODAY’S RUNNER UP

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

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    LOL MOMENT

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

    WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS

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

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

    FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Black Sails Season 4 Episode 7 Review – XXXV

    Black Sails Season 4 Episode 7 Review – XXXV

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

    (Summary provided by starz.com)

    BEST FLINT MOMENT

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

    TODAY’S RUNNER UP

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

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    LOL MOMENT

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

    WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS

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

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

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

    FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    “Eleanor died fighting.  As will I.”

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

    FINALE SPOILER WARNING

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

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

  • Black Sails Season 4 Episode 6 Review – XXXIV

    Black Sails Season 4 Episode 6 Review – XXXIV

    Nassau is delivered.  Silver makes a painful amends.  Flint and Madi are separated.  Rogers searches for Eleanor.

    (Summary provided by starz.com)

    BEST FLINT MOMENT

    Flint’s last moments with Eleanor is one of my favorite Flint scenes in the entire show.  Despite earlier trying to convince Eleanor that Woodes Rogers was likely responsible for the Spanish invasion, he lies and tells her it isn’t true.  Flint is not one to lie in order to provide comfort, and that he does so here shows just how much he loved Eleanor.

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    TODAY’S RUNNER UP

    Eleanor!  She became one of my favorite characters during this rewatch, and if she had to die, I’m so glad it was a death like this that perfectly showcased her desperation, quick thinking, and resourcefulness.  She is a messy character, but she tries so hard, and I love her for it.  RIP, Eleanor.

    WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS

    I’ve been going on about the cycle of vengeance in all its iterations this season, and in this episode I find that they’ve tricked me!  Silver gives Billy to the slaves to be beaten within an inch of his life in repayment for Billy’s betrayal of their partnership with the slaves.  And…I love it?  I’m so GLAD that Billy is paying for his sins.  This is why vengeance always endures.  No matter how right we may think forgiveness is, there is something so entirely appealing about making someone suffer for their crimes.

    I really love that this show dives into emotional and moral complications, insisting that the cycle of vengeance is inherently unhelpful while also reminding us why it is so attractive.

    FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS

    • Slaves being freed from their shackles is a needed bright spot in a very dark season.
    • Another show would make the relationship between Eleanor and Madi a simplisticly happy reunion.  Black Sailsforces us to consider how privilege and inequality impacted their relationship in profoundly deep ways.

    “My father didn’t mistrust Flint.  My father mistrusted all of you.”

    • Jack threatens to kill Eleanor and/or Flint, but Eleanor cannot be bothered to take him seriously and just walks away.  I feel like this perfectly summarizes the entirety of their relationship.
    • Silver giving Billy to the slaves to be tortured is…super dark.  Like, darker than anything Flint has done, right?

    Silver:  I did not want this.  Flint is my friend, but I know what he is.  I have no illusions about it.  But for all the dangers he presents, for all his offenses, the one thing he’s never done is force me to choose between him and you.  That, you did.

    • Billy responding to Silver’s patronizing speech of ‘forgiveness’ with “You chose.  Live with it” makes me like him more than I have in a long time.
    • I would love to see this episode from Julius’s POV.
    • I continue to be fascinated by Max and Jack’s relationship.  They are business partners, sometime lovers, partners to the same woman.  Their reunion is gut-wrenching because Jack is all emotion, and Max is all logic.  Still, he rescues her (for the first of two times this episode).
    • Flint and Eleanor talking about their former partnership is my everything!!!

    “You know, there was a time not so long ago when you shared their concern, when you saw what I saw.  The benefits of being free of British rule.  To make the new world something more than just an extension of the old.  Is it so unthinkable that that might happen again?  You were a pirate once.  Stranger things have happened.”

    • Although Flint has been betrayed by Eleanor just as much as Jack has been betrayed by Max, their reunion has had SUCH a different tone.  They are still civil, and they seem to still respect each other.  Why is this?  Because they always knew who the other was – someone ambitious and cunning and not above changing sides for a better outcome.  Flint and Eleanor knew each other so well that their relationship could survive betrayal.
    • Speaking of changing sides, in an instant pirates and British soldiers must work together to defeat the new Spanish enemy.
    • Silver needs to learn to read a room:  sitting in a throne in ominous lighting is not a great way to propose partnership with newly freed slaves.
    • Woodes Rogers gets on land, sees destruction, murder, and rape all around him…but it’s not until he learns that Eleanor is at risk that he actually begins to care.  What an asshole.
    • I will forever love Jack for deciding to wait for his former partners despite recently learning that they were willing to give up his cache without his knowledge or assent.
    • Max reunites with Anne.  Max is so defensive, but when she sees Anne’s brutalized face, she sees the full ramifications of her decision.

    Max:  I loved you, and I betrayed you.  But I cannot apologize for it.  I did what anyone would have done when confronted with the same impossible choices.  If I apologize, you will know it is a lie, and I do not wish to lie to you ever again.
    Anne:  Leave.
    Max:  No.  I am going to stay with you.  I want to take care of you.
    Anne:  Get the fuck out.

    • No, Max, you didn’t do what anyone else would have done.  PLENTY of people did the exact opposite, in fact.

    Eleanor:  One can be happy that way, can’t they?  A life of isolation and uncertainty, as long as it is lived with someone you love and who loves you back.  It is possible, isn’t it?
    Madi:  It is.

    • Who is Madi talking about here?  Her mother, and the life they had on Maroon Island?  Or Silver, and the life they might have in the future?  If it’s Silver, that seems to contradict her earlier silence when he asked if he was enough for her.
    • Silver hears the Spanish coming around the back over the din of battle?  Um, okay.
    • Madi and Eleanor share a smile, which is so great but FUCK FUCK FUCK you can see the Spanish soldier standing in the background flexing his hands and it’s so creepy!!!
    • Eleanor’s final fight is so desperate and beautiful.  She survives so much, and if that isn’t a symbol of her entire life, I don’t know what is.  I also really admire the show for how sexual assault is depicted:  we keep the female POV and never disempower her.
    • When she kills the Spanish soldier, she immediately goes to Madi, MY HEART.
    • Flint sees Miranda’s house on fire and Eleanor’s body.  The two most important women in his life.  😦

    Eleanor:  Was he with them?  My husband?
    Flint:  No, he isn’t.

    • MY HEART.  Flint cradles Eleanor’s face as she dies, and his own face is just utter devastation and hopelessness.
    • Eleanor’s last words are: “Madi.  I tried to save her.”  But it doesn’t look like Madi made it out of the burning house.
    • In the wake of Madi’s death, Silver says of the rebellion, “It’s over.”  But Flint orchestrates a tactical retreat, insisting upon saving everyone.  They’re acting as good partners here, even if they are not in emotional agreement.

    “It wasn’t supposed to end like this.  How can we all have sacrificed so much and none of us has anything to show for it?”

    • Finally, some emotion from Max.  I think her fierce adherence to calm logic is why I have felt so disconnected from her.  Now that she’s drowning, I like her a little bit.
    • Continuing with the theme of “emotional investment changes everything,” Max finally sees civilization’s true face and wants revenge.  But…by going to a different version of civilization.  What makes her think this time will be any different?
    • Honestly, I understand and almost agree with Max’s “fight civilization from the inside” philosophy.  But…it didn’t work.  Not that fighting from the outside worked either.  The moral of the story?  Changing society for the better is messy and complicated, and it takes all kinds of people fighting all kinds of battles.
    • Woodes Rogers finds Eleanor’s corpse.  By bringing Spain to Nassau, he murdered his wife, and none of his enemies were killed.  YOU IDIOT.
    • Silver is absolutely gutted and is grieving for Madi.  Flint puts his hand on Silver’s shoulder.  I can’t read whether or not Silver’s “It wasn’t your fault” is truthful or just a means to get Flint out of the room.  My poor babies!
    • BUT THEN.  The pirate revolution has grown enormously on Maroon Island!!  The first time I watched the series I was SUUUUPER depressed by this point, and seeing all these pirates determined to join the cause gave me hope so intense it felt physical.

    “They came from other islands, the colonies, maroons from camps like this one, pirates from as far away as Massachusetts.  They heard that Nassau had fallen, and they came to join us.  The revolution you promised has begun!”

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

  • Black Sails Season 4 Episode 5 Review – XXXIII

    Black Sails Season 4 Episode 5 Review – XXXIII

    Silver takes Flint’s life in his hands.  Billy drives a wedge.  Eleanor risks everything.  Rogers makes a stunning appeal.

    (Summary provided by starz.com)

    BEST FLINT MOMENT

    What does Flint do while locked up in prison?  Read!  The fact that he keeps his finger in his place while talking with Eleanor proves that he is a true Reader, and my love for him therefore increases immeasurably.

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    TODAY’S RUNNER UP

    Eleanor!  She is losing everything she worked so hard to achieve, and here at the end of all things, she’s acting more like a leader than ever before.  She’s level-headed, self-aware, and confident in a way that is truly beautiful to see.

    WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS

    FINALLY we get a break from the relentlessly gruesome violence of the last two episodes.  But our meditations on revenge continue, seen especially in Woodes Rogers’ meeting with Governor Raja in Havana.

    In previous episodes, we learned Rogers’ tragic backstory about his brother dying, and this is the fuel that enflames his bloodlust.  But without all the drama Rogers demanded for his big reveal, Raja admits that he shares the exact same story, but worse – Rogers personally killed his brother under a flag of surrender.  Yet instead of becoming a blood thirsty maniac, Raja makes a calm decision for the good of his country.

    Everyone has trauma in this story.  It’s what they allow that trauma to drive them to that really matters.  The fact that Rogers is wallowing in his is why he’s stuck in this desperate cycle of vengeance that actually leads to his betrayal of his own country, partnering with an enemy empire out of a misshapen pursuit of justice.

    FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS

    • Silver is pissed after Flint made a deal with Eleanor in 404, and this entire episode is one huge question:  How will Silver react to Flint making a decision without him?
    • Eleanor refuses to allow Mrs. Hudson to tell Rogers about their baby.  She doesn’t want to use it as a pawn in this power struggle, which seriously shows how much she’s grown.

    Billy:  Guaranteed?  When is anything ever–?  And you agreed to this?
    Silver:  I didn’t agree to anything.  The offer was put to Captain Flint.  He had little time to decide.  I trust his judgment.

    • The crux of everyone’s relationship with Flint is whether or not they trust his judgment, but my favorite example of this is not with Silver.  It’s when Eleanor asks Flint how to fire warning shots at her husband’s, his enemy’s, ship.  Now THAT is trust.

    “She says she knows that you will be angry, and that this will be hard for you to understand.  But she said…she said you should trust that her commitment to you remains inviolable and that this is no betrayal but an act of love.”

    • It seems as though Rogers stops his mania when reminded of Eleanor’s love for him.  It almost makes me like him, but then it’s revealed that he didn’t stop his attack but instead went for the kind of backup that literally haunts his wife’s nightmares.  What an asshole.  His arrogance and desperation have made him dangerously reckless.
    • I love how Silver talks to Billy carefully, but when relating everything that’s happened to Madi, he allows himself to be emotional.

    Madi:  You know as well as I Billy cannot exist alongside Captain Flint for long.  Sooner or lager, one or the other must go.
    Silver:  If we win Nassau even through surrender, we are still going to have to control it.  Without the resources afforded by the cache or the force supplied by Billy and his men, how the fuck do you imagine we’re going to do that?
    Madi:  We will struggle through it, train men, gain strength through numbers, hunt for that which we need.  It will be difficult, but since when did we expect this would be anything else?
    Silver:  Jesus.  You sound exactly like him.

    • #TriumverateWatch:  MADI SIDES WITH FLINT, MADI SIDES WITH FLINT, I’M IN LOVE WITH THEM BOTH BECAUSE THEY ARE THE SAME PERSON.
    • Silver also loves them both because they are the same person, but unlike me, he is just now realizing that he’s fallen in love with a female Flint.
    • Actually, Madi is better than Flint.  She’s able to bring empathy and emotional connection to her cold-blooded tactical decisions, and this is what makes Silver trust her.

    “If this goes away, Flint’s war, if it all ended and we had to walk away from it, would I be enough for you? … You know what?  You don’t have to answer that.”

    • Silver wants to be someone’s everything, but he keeps being drawn to people with big ambitions and ironclad wills to pursue them.
    • My love for Eleanor skyrockets when the first thing she asks Flint is to tell her about Mr. Scott.  And then I’m devastated as she realizes her father figure was using her.  And then I’m even more emotionally destroyed when Flint calmly reaffirms her.  And then I love Eleanor for her new self-awareness, and then Flint challenges her to look even harder, and GUYS THIS IS SUCH A GOOD SCENE.

    Eleanor:  For so long, I thought I knew what I was.  A daughter who usurped her father.  A woman who had taken control of a wild place.  Scott was proof of that, the one who saw me that way too, who substantiated it.  And all that time, all he saw was a girl so ambitious she would never doubt his story.
    Flint:  You did do all those things.
    Eleanor:  I know I did.  But always with a man behind me doing his damnedest to bend it all to his benefit.  My father, Scott, Charles you.  So many goddamned men here.  Too many goddamned men here.
    Flint:  Woodes Rogers.  He’s really so different from the rest of us?

    • Billy appeals to Silver’s self-importance by claiming he is a “rational man to lead Nassau.”  What?  I would never think that “rational” is Silver’s primary characteristic.  Billy doesn’t know Silver, which, uh, is going to be made even more evident very soon.
    • Silver sees through this, however, and calls him on it.  Everybody wants Silver on their side because while he’s still not a very good leader, he’s an incredible quartermaster.
    • Israel Hands is out to make him a better leader, though, taking a much more Tough Love approach than Flint ever did.  “I don’t give a shit what you choose, but fucking choose!  And don’t make me suffer the thinking,” is SUCH a great line.  Poor Silver, though.  He’s so conflicted.  He just doesn’t see what Flint and Madi see. (“The road they intend to travel is one I’m losing the ability to understand.”)
    • Rogers keeps talking about disorder in Nassau, as though that is its primary sin.  But I suppose that makes sense, because it clearly isn’t the murder or greed that offends him.  He knows civilization is built upon murder and greed, but disorder is one step too far.  I mean, he’d never do something so disordered as ask his country’s enemy to raze his citizen’s land to the ground, right?  UGH, you fucking hypocrite, Rogers.

    “Flint will just keep pushing for these things, costly things that we pay for with our own suffering, with our own lives.  You know this.  You’ve always known this.  Sooner or later, it has to end.”

    • Billy isn’t exactly wrong, but what he doesn’t see is that Flint entirely believes in his vision to the point of suffering and offering his life along with his men.  He wants them to share in his dream and willingly give up their lives too.  In season 1, he hid his true motivation from his crew.  But now he’s a (mostly) open book.  He wants to lead an army of pirates and slaves to rebel against a corrupt empire that they all hate.  Billy is a few seasons behind.
    • But Silver isn’t.  He just doesn’t know if he hates England the way Flint does.  And I honestly wasn’t sure what was going to happen the first time I watched this.
    • BUT IT’S MADI WHO GREETS FLINT!!!  And it’s Billy who is betrayed!  This was all so well done, wow, A+.
    • Billy created “Long John Silver” and this was his own undoing.  Poor Billy only has one (1) supporter.  After Israel Hands is done, Billy has zero (0) supporters.
    • Jack’s on the beach instead of the cache, which is confusing for everyone involved.  Max appears in the fort and I realize that I completely forgot about Jack, Anne, and Max.

    Flint:  It’s already agreed to.
    Jack:  She agreed to it.  Her people agreed.  You’ve agreed.  But it’s all meaningless until he agrees.  Woodes Rogers.
    Flint:  He left the island for Port Royal, as she asked, to await her arrival with the money.
    Jack:  No, he hasn’t.  I watched him defeat Edward Teach in battle outnumbered and through sheer force of will.  I saw his bloodlust with my own eyes.  That man will never surrender his position here.  He will never allow himself to be defeated by you or I. Not because we bribed him, not because Eleanor Guthrie told him so.  He simply will not allow it to happen.  I don’t know where that man went or what designs drew him there, but this I know.  Woodes Rogers will be returning and this fight isn’t nearly over.

    • Flint trusted in civilization AGAIN, and once more it fucked him over.  Even when he gives it a cache of money and simply asks, “Go away,” civilization refuses to compromise.
    • THAT SPANISH FLEET THOUGH.  *covers eyes*
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    Not done reliving the episode?  Listen to Daphne and Liz’s podcast at Fathoms Deep!

  • Black Sails Season 4 Episode 4 Review – XXXII

    Black Sails Season 4 Episode 4 Review – XXXII

    Violence engulfs Nassau.  Silver demands answers from Billy.  Eleanor comes to Max’s aid.  Bonny and Rackham endure hell.

    (Summary provided by starz.com)

    BEST FLINT MOMENT

    This episode gives us two of my favorite Flints:  Grumpy Flint (“Is there a point you’re trying to make?” to Israel Hands) and Enigmatic Flint (“Trust me.”)  I continue to love him, even when the episode is not focused upon him.

    TODAY’S RUNNER UP

    Silver!  Poor guy is feeling the burden of leadership, playing the growly pirate theater and throwing his weight around.  But everywhere he goes there is complication, and he does not seem comfortable with it in the way that Flint is.  This is also the episode that reveals most fully Silver’s emotionalism.  Until now he’s been very rational, choosing partners based upon what is best for him.  With the recent events threatening Flint and especially Madi, Silver’s logic is unraveling fast.  At this point, he’s secure enough to see it for the liability that it is, but should something more drastic occur…who knows what he will do?

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    LOL MOMENT

    Billy, after being chastised for his very bad actions:  “Is everyone feeling better?”

    WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS

    If ever there were an episode that wanted to drive home the theme about the futility of a cycle of vengeance, this would be it.  The fact that this show is not interested in glorying in revenge is most obviously shown in how we see the retaking of Nassau.  Instead of something glorious, it is a violent and chaotic scene, shot in such a way that we as viewers are emotionally distanced from it.

    From there we get example after example of how futile revenge is.  We open on a horrific scene of a plantation owner beating a slave woman for the actions of slaves on another plantation…but his actions are soon answered by Julius’s slave revolt.  The guy Rogers leaves in charge of Rackham’s crew has one job: to deliver the captured pirates to Port Royal.  Unable to resist the allure of revenge, he instead makes them fight to the death, a choice that ultimately leads to his death and the death of his remaining men.

    Billy wants to make a public example of Max in the same way that public examples were made of Charles Vane and other pirates.  He fails to see that this act will fail in the same way that their acts failed:  vengeance (even coded as “justice”) only leads to more violence.  Silver highlights the limitations of this idea by pointing out that there is no definitive action that can end the totality of what has been done.

    Billy:  One would think we could go a long way towards soothing all that chaos out there, and the anger driving it, if we could draw everyone together to see justice done to the one responsible for all of it.
    Silver:  All of it?
    Billy:  Enough of it.

    It’s fitting that they are discussing Max, since she is the one who has so often spoken against the cycle of vengeance.  And it seems as though Eleanor is beginning to see things in a similar light, especially now that she is pregnant and must reconcile her life with what is best for a new generation.  She knows she is drawn to Nassau and its unending power struggle, but for the first time, she sees how her actions might place her child in the same position she was in as a child: “amongst all this brutality.”

    In a bid to end the cycle of vengeance and leave all parties satisfied, Eleanor summons Flint and Silver to discuss an exchange:  the pirates can have Nassau, and she will leave with the British and the cache.  Future episodes will reveal if she will be successful.

    FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS

    • Listening to a white man verbally chastise kneeling slaves while a woman shrieks in pain behind him is suuuuuuper disgusting.  In a show that asks us to sympathize with multiple viewpoints, I’m very glad that we are meant to see this as a completely evil act.
    • Eleanor’s escape to the fort is very badass.  I especially love that she is leaning over the other passengers to protect them, immediately followed by her barging up to a crowd of men and telling them what to do.  She is regaining a lot of her agency, and I am reminded of why I love her so much!
    • Flint reforms a system of land-based pirate crews, which is a stroke of brilliance that shows how flexible his strategies are.

    “The more they realize there is no daylight between you and I, the more they will learn to accept our shared authority.”

    • I love so much Flint and Silver’s unified public front (“You heard him.”) that still allows space for Silver to privately challenge Flint.
    • Flint is very confused about why Eleanor wants Max, and it made me wonder:  does he know about their former relationship?  Was he too busy pursuing the Urca gold to keep track of his partner’s love life?  I kind of love the idea that he notices everything except for this.
    • #TriumverateWatch:  Flint and Silver fawn over Madi.  “A wise woman recently told me…”  “Sounds like good advice.”  SHE DESERVES ALL THE COMPLIMENTS.
    • The standoff between our #Triumverate and Billy is VERY satisfying.  It feels very much like three parents chastising an errant child, and Billy only regains a sliver of power because he knows he has something they want.

    “Of course Billy would never violate the trust I place in him as a brother, as a friend, to allow harm to come to those closest to me.  For if Billy were to do something as disloyal as that, he knows I’d stop at nothing to see that offense repaid against him.”

    • Wow, does Silver know exactly what to say to shame Billy.
    • Of course, Billy knows exactly what to say to push Silver’s buttons too.  When appealing to their former fear of Flint upon them doesn’t work, he shifts the object of Flint’s consumption to Madi, and Silver is shook.

    “How long ago was it that the two of us agreed that Flint threatened to be the end of us all?  That he would find ways of driving us over and over again into that storm till there was nothing left of us?  We survived him, you and I.  And now you want to follow him into what?  A massive slave revolt?  A war against the British Empire?  How is this not just the next storm in a very long line of them?”

    • The Awful British Guy forces Jack to pick who will fight to the death, which echoes how the plantation owner forced slave women to hold down the woman being beaten.  As if violence weren’t enough, Civilization makes things even worse by forcing the oppressed to feel responsible for the violence themselves.
    • Israel Hands says he knows Flint was at the previous rebellion, though he was British Navy at the time.  Does…everyone know Flint’s past?

    “I am right back where I started.  Every fight I have ever won, every death I have escaped, every sacrifice I have had bled out of me, it will all have to be repeated just to get things back to where they were a few hours ago.”

    • I cannot help but imagine Flint, ten years ago fleeing London, thinking the exact same thing.  He rebuilt himself into something even more formidable.  Eleanor, on the other hand, seems to want to take this opportunity to get out.  What’s the difference?  Eleanor still has a husband and future child to cling to.  Flint lost the lover/partner that made getting out seem possible.
    • Mrs. Hudson says she is fond of Eleanor and wants to protect her, and my heart is dead!!  Has anyone ever truly wanted to take care of Eleanor in a way that was this unselfish?  I think this is the closest Eleanor has ever been to a mother’s love.
    • Anne’s fight!!!  Oh my God, it’s awful to watch, but wow, is she the very epitome of tenacity.  There is no way she should win this fight, but she’s smart and determined and holy shit.  Honorable mention goes to Jack who fears very much for her but chooses to trust that she is capable.
    • Max brings up “a reform-minded man” who takes prisoners from wealthy families in England and puts them to comfortable work out of sight, out of mind.  Silver perks up, and SO DO I.
    • The whole scene between Flint and Silver watching the prisoner exchange is SO GOOD.  Silver, against all my assumptions, confesses to Flint what Billy said about Madi.  Their emotional honesty with each other is truly beautiful.

    Silver:  If we assume that we are on the verge of some impossible victory here, a truly significant thing, if we assume that is real and here for the taking, wouldn’t you trade it all to have Thomas Hamilton back again?
    Flint:  I think it he knew how close we were to the victory he gave his life to achieve he wouldn’t want me to.
    Silver:  I see.  Though, that wasn’t really what I asked, was it?  Assume his father was just as dark as you say, but was unable to murder his own son.  Assume he found a way to secret Thomas away from London –
    Flint:  He didn’t.
    Silver:  Would you trade this war to make it so?  It is some kind of hell to be forced to choose one irreplaceable thing over another.

    • Flint’s eyes and mouth get all twitchy talking about Thomas, and I AM DEAD.
    • I love Partners Flint and Silver a lot, but I love a little bit of manipulation between them even more.  I can’t help but feel like Silver is bringing Thomas up mostly as a way to even the emotional playing field between them.  He feels weakened by the revelation of Madi being his vulnerability, and he wants to remind Flint that he has a vulnerability too.
    • Love the eye contact between Flint and Eleanor, and her deep nod as the fort’s door closes.

    “Reprisals were visited upon our loved ones on the Edwards estate.  Reprisals of the cruelest kind intended to instill fear, break spirits, reassert control.  It did not have the intended effect.”

    • We learn that Julius’s plantation revolt was successful!  I really love that we got to see slaves fighting back on their own, instead of always relying upon the help of predominantly white pirates (although I think I’ve already made my love for this partnership clear).
    • Madi is advised by the former slave from the Underhill estate (anyone know her name??) to “find a place you can protect, build a wall, and save who you can” like her mother.  Everyone’s motivations and desires are becoming muddier!  I both love it and hate it.
    • Max is pissed because everything she feared would happen HAS happened.  When apologizing, Eleanor goes all the way back to episode two, apologizing for not leaving with Max when she offered.  I love that she knows that this is the apology Max needs to hear most.
    • Woodes Rogers returns on The Revenge (thematic much?), and I feel nothing for his and Eleanor’s distant reunion.
    • Eleanor comes faces to face with Flint, and I feel EVERYTHING for their reunion.
    • Silver has come a long way in this show, but in this final scene, he is desperate and flailing where Flint and Eleanor are powerful and calm.  As much as he wants to be a big dog, he has still not yet matched the major players of Nassau.
    • Flint says, “Trust me” to Silver.  Will their partnership survive this disagreement?
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    Flint:  Trust me.  Me:  OKAY.

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

  • Black Sails Season 4 Episode 3 Review – XXXI

    Black Sails Season 4 Episode 3 Review – XXXI

    Max runs afoul of the law.  Rogers reckons with his past.  Flint and Madi reach an understanding.  Long John Silver makes his return.

    (Summary provided by starz.com)

    BEST FLINT MOMENT

    Season Four, while incredibly dark and depressing, gifted us with Toby Stephens frequently saying “Yep,” and we get two of them in this episode in quick succession.

    “Billy?”
    “Yep.”
    “Tried to kill you?”
    “Yep.”
    “And Madi?”
    “Her too.”

    It’s the small things.

    TODAY’S RUNNER UP

    Teach!  It is fitting that this pirate of pirates is only taken down once surrounded by 5+ men with guns.  It is excruciating to see the pain on his face when he realizes that Jack has ruined his reputation by surrendering, but um, he more than makes up for his badass-ness by refusing to let his death bolster an Englishman’s ego.

    RIP, Edward Teach.

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    LOL MOMENT

    Teach:  Ever captained a ship of this size before?
    Jack:  God, no.
    Teach:  Have you captained a ship this size before?
    Jack:  …Sure.

    WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS

    I love this show for refusing to allow viewers to make monsters out of any of our characters, despite HOW MUCH I want to villainize Berringer.  First we get him looking at pictures of his wife and child, and honestly, that doesn’t move me.  He could be reunited with them if he wanted.  He’s only stayed in Nassau to pursue a course of revenge, committing treason even to do so.

    What DOES bother me is his speech about dark men doing dark deeds, and how easily I can imagine the same words coming from Flint’s mouth.

    “You’ve given me good men to lead.  I’ll do my best by them.”
    “There isn’t a good man among them.  Not anymore.  Some of them may have been, before all this.  Some of them may be again on the other side of it.  But right now, good men are not what the moment requires.  Right now, the time calls for dark men to do dark things.  Do not be afraid to lead them to it.”

    When Flint uses theater and leads his men into horrific atrocities, I support him because I support his end goal – overturning a corrupt empire and establishing a free world.  But when Berringer uses theater and leads HIS men into horrific atrocities, I am livid.  Granted, this is because he’s supporting that corrupt empire.  And in some ways, the ends definitely do justify the means.  But if we look beneath their political worldviews, in actuality they keep fighting because the world keeps fighting them.  It’s the cycle of vengeance I’ve been talking about.  The truth is, I support Flint because I like him, because I’m invested in his story.  If we’d had three seasons of Berringer’s story, would I emotionally support him in this moment?  Probably.

    I do think the show wants us to support Flint, and I do think that Flint’s motivations are deepening beyond revenge to a more genuine desire to create something new.  BUT it is unquestionable that the showrunners want us to remember the power of narrative in shaping our allegiances, and to question why we see some people as good and others as bad, when really, they might not be so different.

    FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS

    • Berringer basically tells Woodes Rogers that darkness is inevitable, and we shouldn’t be afraid to use it.  It is SO hard not to think Flint would agree with him.
    • Mrs. Hudson asks to go home after they’re done in Philadelphia.  Eleanor says yes and they’re both super happy before IMMEDIATELY finding out they aren’t going to Philadelphia.  This is about how everyone’s happiness goes in this show, huh?
    • Max is losing her power, exemplified by how men can burst into her room while she’s lounging naked in bed.

    Maroon:  Whatever slaves are still alive on this island will never fight alongside a pirate again.  Not after last night.
    Madi:  Last night, there were also pirates who fought alongside us, against terrible odds and at great cost.  Billy and his men are our enemies now, but these men are not.

    • #TriumverateWatch:  Madi defends Flint!!  And as if the show doesn’t realize that my heart has already burst, the two proceed to have an inspiring conversation as equals and I loooooove them!!!

    Madi:  You truly believe it is possible?  That as disadvantaged and disabled as we are, that anything we do here is going to make the least bit of difference to the men in London?
    Flint:  Well, that’s the trick, isn’t it?  If no one remembers a time before there was an England, then no one can imagine a time after it.  The empire survives in part because we believe its survival to be inevitable.  But it isn’t, and they know that.  That’s why they’re so terrified of you and I.  If we are able to take Nassau, if we are able to expose the illusion that England is not inevitable, if we are able to incite a revolt that spreads across the New World then, yeah, I imagine people are gonna notice.
    Madi:  “Too much sanity may be madness, and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.”

    • Madi just used Don Quixote to describe Flint, AND THAT IS THE BOOK MIRANDA USED TO DESCRIBE THOMAS, byyyyyyye.
    • It is impossible to be reminded of the amazing partnership between James and Thomas and not see Flint and Madi having equally amazing potential.
    • Poor Anne.  She just wants to get away from all of this and have a boring life, but she’s chosen to partner herself to a man who can’t stop following giants in hopes of influencing them and thus feeling meaningful.
    • I love Idelle being the level-headed one to Featherstone’s panic.  She trusts in Max’s loyalty and stubbornness before saying they have to help her from the outside.  Eleanor then bursts in to help Max – are we to assume that Idelle told Eleanor what was going on?
    • THAT REUNION THOUGH.  Silver is about to die, but Flint comes to the rescue!!  There is so much contained emotion going on in these two men, and I can’t even.
    • Jack has to watch Teach and Anne lead the vanguard onto a spookily “empty” ship.  Why did no one notice that everyone hid themselves?  I’m so upset about everything here, I hate it, stop please.

    Max:  You think you can control him.  And by the time you realize he has been controlling you, it is going to be too late.

    • Max is talking to Eleanor about Berringer, but it’s hard not to imagine she’s also talking about Woodes Rogers.
    • We know Eleanor is cultured now, because she says, “I beg your pardon, but what the fuck have you got to lose?”
    • THAT OTHER REUNION THOUGH.  Silver and Madi running to each other, kissing, staring into each other’s eyes!!
    • Flint is happy for them, but there’s a definite flicker of sadness in his expression.  Whether he’s sad because he loves Silver or because he wishes he had someone like they have each other, I honestly don’t care.  It’s compelling either way!
    • Eleanor now agrees with Max that the theater of power only exacerbates problems.  I like this questioning whether power exists to uphold order or to boost someone’s ego.
    • Berringer’s power play of reading the black spot aloud is actually VERY good, and I love how he becomes an interesting villain just before dying.  Because he’s too obvious.  The REAL villain is revealed in this episode to be:  Nice Guy Rogers.
    • Reader, I HATE HIM.
    • In flashback, he reveals his dark side to Berringer, telling the story he didn’t share in his book because he didn’t want the world to know what he is capable of.
    • The real evil here is not what he did in the past, because as despicable as it is, I can forgive a lot that is done in grief (see: my enduring love of James Flint).  What is horrible is that he is committed, rationally, a day before it happens, to doing the exact same thing to Teach and his crew, simply to prove a point.  I HATE HIM.
    • An admission:  I’ve never actually watched the keelhauling.  The first time I saw this episode, Rogers’ creepy voiceover and the music cued me in that something truly horrible was about to go down, so I Googled what happened to Teach and promptly skipped ahead.  Having listened to other people’s reactions to the scene, I’m super glad I did, and so I did the same again.  I’m so glad Teach stuck it to Rogers by refusing to die, but I do not need to let those images exist in my brain, thanks ever so much.
    • Berringer refuses to use Eleanor as an ally.  He ignores her suggestion to ambush Silver, thus ensuring his own death!!  What an idiot!
    • But also thank God.
    • BECAUSE HERE COME SILVER AND FLINT.  I love the look Flint gives Silver when the guns come out.  This is Silver’s first time fighting on the front line, and as a target, and Flint is concerned.
    • They seem alone in a small group, but suddenly slaves and maroons and pirates join them!  And there’s a fight!  And soldiers appear on the roofs but they are killed by Billy’s men!  I temporarily forgive Billy, but I’m glad Flint gives him a look during the battle because this isn’t over yet!!
    • Israel Hands takes out Berringer, which is fitting because he doesn’t deserve a death by one of our heroes.  What purpose does Hands’ long look at Silver/Flint serve?  Is it like, look at me, see my value?
    • Our last shot is of Berringer’s wife and child, and while I don’t have empathy for HIM, I do for those two.  It’s a good reminder that in all the passion and righteous anger that creates and perpetuates violence, the real victims are civilians.  But…I don’t want the fighting to stop until Flint and Madi’s vision of a free Nassau is realized.
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    I have a type and it is: Intellectual Revolutionaries!

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

  • Black Sails Season 4 Episode 2 Review – XXX

    Black Sails Season 4 Episode 2 Review – XXX

    Flint acedes to Billy’s authority.  Eleanor has a plan for Rogers.  Silver seeks help from an unlikely source.  Max is put on notice.

    (Summary provided by starz.com)

    BEST FLINT MOMENT

    If I thought it was fun to see Flint scream at Giant Billy in the last episode, WOW it is great to see him defeat a man seemingly three times his size in one-on-one combat.

    TODAY’S RUNNER UP

    Billy!  I don’t actually like him in this episode, but he deserves some credit for FINALLY standing up to Flint after 30 episodes of doubt and distrust.

    “I’m through following you down a path only you seem able to see towards a victory only you seem able to define.”

    LOL MOMENT

    Israel Hands:  You talk too much.
    Silver:  *keeps talking*

    WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS

    Anne once again shows us a way out of the cycle of revenge, and this time Jack listens and passes her wisdom on to Teach.  What is especially interesting is that she articulates why choosing not to pursue vengeance is for her own good.

    “I go looking for Eleanor Guthrie, you know I’m gonna find her too.  Max.  Said if I turned over the cache, you’d be safe.  And it ain’t just the lie.  She tried to take you away from me.  When I left that island all I could think about was having a chance to make her pay for what she done.  Now that we’re here it would be so easy.  And I don’t wanna do it.  Don’t wanna live with it after.  The sight of her hurt in that way.  Just don’t want it.”

    Anne has every reason to wish pain on Max, even more than Teach or Jack with Eleanor, because her reasons are personal.  But she is able to think beyond the anger to what will come after: the regret, the images she can’t forget, the knowledge of what she’s capable of.

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    FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS

    • The Wrecks look a million times better than in season 1.
    • Israel Hands’ character is a fascinating glimpse of a possible future for Silver.  He is also smart and opportunistic, but as a result of being passed over by a captain he admired, he has turned bitter, hardened, and ruthless.
    • When Max confronts Featherstone and Idelle with their treachery, she is SO calm and powerful.  Unfortunately, we just learned that she is the reason the amazing s4 opening attack failed, so I have no positive feelings for her.  She is merciful to her people, but she doesn’t care about the bigger picture.  I don’t find an attitude of “This will all pass soon enough if we let it” admirable at all.
    • Eleanor straight up says that the only difference between pirates and powerful men of civilization is time.
    • Holy shit, Teach’s ship of hanged men is a very effective scare tactic.
    • I like that in the pirate world, Eleanor is held accountable for killing Vane, when civilization’s story is that Woodes Rogers is responsible despite being unconscious.
    • #TriumverateWatch:  Flint calls Madi out on her claiming to know the location of the cache.  Madi calls Flint out on his tendency to overlook Billy.  They are clearly equals at this chess match, and I love them.
    • Max is saddened that everyone else in Nassau won’t roll over and submit to English rule like her.  Oops, is my bias showing?

    Max:  When you condemn a dozen men in as many hours, perhaps remorse is a bit much to ask.
    Berringer:  You object to these trials.
    Max:  I do not object to trials, I do not object to hangings.  What I do object to, however, is spectacle, certain to increase defiance and anger rather than sooth it.  We should be moving past this, not wallowing in it.

    • I can see the appeal of her strategy, though it is steeped in privilege.  With England in control, she maintains power and influence.  But people JUST LIKE HER remain slaves, and that disconnect feels awful to me.

    Eleanor:  We are so very close to winning this war and finally bringing Nassau out of the dark.

    • THIS LINE.  First of all, it directly compares to Flint’s similar line in 401 about being so close.  This puts the two of them as the true opposing strategists here, which I have been screaming about ever since I realized every one of Rogers’ good ideas was actually Eleanor’s.  But the thing about bringing Nassau out of the dark?  I’m trying to make these spoiler free, but those who have finished the series know why I am flailing with emotion.
    • Eleanor thinks that Nassau needs someone to be in terror of (Berringer).  It strikes me that this has always been her strategy, using men like Flint and especially Vane to be big enough and bad enough to defend her plans.
    • Silver is so smart for figuring out who Israel Hands is, and for telling his story in such a way as to get what he wants.

    Hands:  Who are you that I ought to pay you any mind?
    Silver:  I’m no one from nowhere belonging to nothing.  I’m a wretch like you.  And yet mountains of gold have changed hands because I chose it.  Thousands of men in Nassau are living in fear of my return because I decreed it.  Hundreds of dead redcoats in a forest not far from here because I made it so.  I’m the reason grown men lie awake at night.  I am a new beginning for Nassau.

    • This is a very good self-promotion, much like Flint’s “I survived everything in the world” speech in 310.  But I’m struck by how many of the things he lists as his accomplishments are actually the result of Billy and Flint’s work.  Silver’s tragedy is that he’s struggling to live up to the fiction other people have created for him.
    • I like that we see the plantation owners being tender and humorous while also very much relying upon slave labor, even in the same scene.  They are humanized, which reminds us that in this show, there are no cartoonish villains.
    • Flint spares the mother and child, which is in direct contrast to his actions in 301.  He is no longer a broken man.  He’s found a purpose, and with it, his moral compass.
    • Woodes Rogers looking at his own book, contemplating the story he told about himself, about who he wants to be, would be really moving to a viewer who is not adamantly opposed to him.  Ditto for his goodbye with Eleanor.
    • Although…is that the first time we’ve seen Eleanor cry?  Surely not, but I can’t think of another moment.

    “That fucking island.  Makes you do shit you don’t wanna do.”

    • What is it about Nassau that makes people do “shit they don’t wanna do”?  I think the stakes are so much higher there, the possibility of so much available.  Whether it’s a life of freedom or a prosperous trade route, Nassau is valuable, and people will do terrible things to capture or keep something they value.
    • If anyone was in doubt as to the goodness of civilization, now we know that slave families have been torn apart and threatened should anyone help the revolt.  Gross.
    • Billy wants to take the plantation despite the implications for slave families and against Madi’s wishes, which shows he values the rebellion over the partnership with the Maroons.  Which is understandable, I guess, since he wasn’t there for most of the partnering.  But still, it’s not a good look for him.
    • #TriumverateWatch:  Madi is the one to call men to Flint’s defense, and I’m DYINGGGG.  She thought Silver and then Billy was the one to trust, but Flint has proven that his values align with hers:  this actually is a revolution to free oppressed people, and she is here for it.
    • Billy is not playing around when he fights Flint, even aiming a shot directly at his face.  I mentioned this above, but I LOVE watching Flint take down Billy the Giant.  And notably, he doesn’t kill Billy even though he could.
    • Love the comparison between Anne and Vane who share a “mistrust of sentimentality” to Jack and Teach, who could sit and talk about symbols and memories for days.
    • “He and I were somehow fated to matter to each other” is an absolutely LOVELY statement.
    • Jack and Teach bonding over Vane’s memory is a far healthier grieving tactic than vengeance.  It’s fitting that, having let go of their anger for a moment, they are both able to see that killing Eleanor is the exact last thing Vane would have actually wanted.
    • Max watching Eleanor be in love with someone else is a little bit heartbreaking.  I really like their relationship dynamic – I never get the feeling that they’ll wind up back together, but their past is layered into everything they do together.
    • Then Max slips away to meet up with Silver, and their simultaneous familiarity and unfamiliarity is gorgeous to watch.  They’ve both grown so powerful since last they worked together.
    • God, I wish Max would join the pirate revolution and be a voice of reason for them rather than for England.  She is SO great when she interrupts Silver’s intimidation tactics with a firm “no.”

    Silver:  No?
    Max:  I am tired of this.  This thing that perpetuates itself with anger and bluster and blood.  I do not want to be your friend.  What I want is for all of this to end.  For it to end, you must end.

    • Why am I so enamored with Anne’s desire to stop the cycle of vengeance, but I can’t stand Max’s similar desire?  I think it’s because Anne wants peace by escaping from the chaos, while Max wants peace by getting rid of people.
    • Silver and Hands make a formidable team, and Max flees from the massacre with a look of “oh shit, I just made it worse.”
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    Not done reliving the episode?  Listen to Daphne and Liz’s podcast at Fathoms Deep!

  • Black Sails Season 4 Episode 1 Review – XXIX

    Black Sails Season 4 Episode 1 Review – XXIX

    The invasion of Nassau meets with catastrophe.  Teach and Rackham seek revenge for the death of Charles Vane.  Eleanor adjusts to her new role.

    (Summary provided by starz.com)

    BEST FLINT MOMENT

    Flint prepares for battle by ruminating on Scripture and the nature of man.  Reader, I LOVE HIM.

    TODAY’S RUNNER UP

    Anne!  She is the voice of reason in an increasingly emotional cast, standing up to both Teach and Jack when she thinks they’re acting irrationally.  She is just astoundingly grounded in this episode, confident in who she is and what she should do, and she seems flabbergasted that no one else is as evolved as she is.

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    LOL MOMENT

    There are two excellent moments at the beginning of the episode before all hell breaks loose, and I refuse to choose just one.

    Flint:  Here I sit at the head of an army of men, each of whom, present company included, has probably at some point considered killing the man he now fights alongside.  Each of whom, present company included, has certainly considered killing me.
    Silver:  If it makes you feel any better, I haven’t considered killing you in months.
    Flint:  A little bit.

    AND the tiny moment after Jack goes on and on when Teach looks back at Anne and says, “It’s no wonder you don’t say much.”

    WILL WE EVER LAUGH AGAIN??

    WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS

    bs401_0091If season three was about leadership and darkness, season four is about friendship and revenge.

    Flint and Silver (and Madi) will be the main friendship pairing to watch this season, as already a lot happened that we didn’t see.  Post-coitus, Madi tries to remind Silver that he once feared being close to Flint, but Silver is unconcerned now, insisting things are different.  They are now secure in their friendship and the power they wield together, no matter Madi’s warning, “When a man first needs you and thereafter calls you a friend, a little suspicion is a healthy thing.”

    Silver is presumed dead, but we must wait and see whether or not the “loss” of their friendship will compel Flint toward revenge, which is what we see literally everyone else doing.

    Jack and Teach are making rash decisions (personally, for Jack, and communally, for Teach) to seek vengeance for Vane’s death.  Berringer commits treason to stay in Nassau and kill pirates to seek vengeance for the death of his comrades at arms.  It would seem that intimate relationships would equal a thirst for vengeance…were it not for Anne, who calls bullshit on the whole thing.

    “Fuck Charles Vane.  I know how you felt about him.  I felt the same way, and you know it.  But he’s dead, and I can’t see what fucking sense it makes to keep trying to make him happy.  All it’s actually gonna lead to is you joining him.”

    She sees past the cycle of vengeance, giving us a glimpse of a friendship that can end with grief but not violence.

    FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS

    • Flint quoting the Genesis passage about warring twins, the younger of which will defeat the older, seems to be about his hope of a new pirate nation conquering the English empire.  But he’s talking to Silver, and it’s hard not to remember Silver’s speech about successors from the season 3 finale.

    Flint:  We’re so close.  So very close.  If we can just hold this alliance together just a little longer, if we can just will it forward just a little more…
    Silver:  Nothing will ever be the same for anyone ever again.  You and I have willed our men through unthinkable things to get this far.  Why not one more?  To call Nassau home again.

    • Silver saying, “our men” is ruining my heart.
    • Silver has convinced Flint and, more importantly, himselfthat they share the same goal.  But when has Silver ever called Nassau home?
    • #TriumverateWatch:  Madi doesn’t trust Flint despite Silver’s persuasion.
    • Jack understands the power of speeches:  “We are emotional beings, after all, and rhetoric is the fuel that feeds the fire.”
    • Flint has A+ instincts, but the glorious assault ends before it can begin.  I seriously hate England being smart, but I love Flint being smarter.  When he orders the sails moved so that the ship can tilt at just the right angle to fire at the fort, providing enough cover for some of them to escape??  SO GOOD.
    • #TriumverateWatch:  It is no coincidence that when Silver falls in the water, we cut between Madi and Flint’s horrified faces and helpless reactions.

    Eleanor:  The world is changing so rapidly and we with it.
    Max:  We are who we are.  Nothing so important changes so quickly.

    • Eleanor is moving up in the world now that she’s married to Woodes Rogers, but “moving up” means that she’s hidden from battle, embroidering.  When she reunites with Rogers, I got the feeling that the underwater barricade was her idea, but she is willing to give up her power and status in order to boost Rogers’.  It is VERY disheartening, but she says “fuck” a couple times, so I know her ferocity is still in there somewhere.

    Flint:  Here I must be careful.  I have well over two hundred men unaccounted for.  Those who remain, it will be very hard to explain to them why, with all I have to attend to, I choose to stand here hanging onto the fate of just one of them.  I know that you and he had been working closely together of late, become friends even.  I don’t know what I’m trying to say.  Perhaps just that he is my friend, too.

    • #TriumverateWatch:  Flint and Madi bond, both over their love for Silver and, more importantly, over their shared understanding of the heavy crowns they wear that prevent them from mourning the man they love in the way they would prefer.
    • The RAGE with which Flint greets Billy is 100% more vicious because he thinks Silver is dead.
    • Billy has spent his time on New Providence Island perfecting a wardrobe that shows off his arms to best effect.
    • Now that Billy must wrestle with the fact that the pirate king he created to supplant Flint is seemingly dead, we flashback to Silver learning of his new role, worrying how it will affect his relationship with Flint.
    • Despite that, Silver is VERY turned on by Madi calling him a pirate king.

    Anne:  It ain’t fear to want to do a hard thing smart.

    • Even though we later find out Jack’s motivation, in the moment of his fighting and looking to Teach for guidance/approval, it definitely feels like he’s just discovered a male role model and realized that men can be good fighters too.
    • A small hope:  no one in Nassau is willing to help England any more.
    • Rogers understands that this is a war against civilization itself.  He will later insist that civilization is courts and fair trials, but right now, civilization is a ruthless monster who, when its power is threatened, will abandon all morals and values.  Rogers won’t directly approve of Berringer cutting off DeGroot’s ear (RIP DeGroot’s ear), but he’s definitely not stopping it.  THE TWO WORST SIDES OF CIVILIZATION, I see you, overwhelming force and silent complicity.
    • Flint seems perturbed by Billy going dark and hanging traitors, and honestly, if you make FLINT uncomfortable?  Yikes.
    • Miranda’s house is a war room, and my heart is soooooo sad.
    • Flint started his journey hoping for domesticity for all where shovels replace oars.  As he picks up a shattered teacup, you can see him wondering if he has destroyed the thing he sought in a vain effort to attain it.
    • Max is both pissed and scared when she realizes that the English are just as ruthless as the pirates.  I would feel bad except I’m still mad that she sided with them in the first place.  (I GET IT, but I’m still mad.)
    • In Silver’s absence, Billy is making a play for power.  Madi is having none of his pissing contest with Flint, insisting that there will be no pirate king (without Silver).
    • Flint is not power hungry.  He doesn’t care about power in its own right.  But he IS control hungry.  He doesn’t trust anyone else to accomplish his goal.

    Anne:  I came here cause we all agreed we had a chance to take Nassau back, have a place of our own.  I ain’t here to prove anything!  I ain’t here to figure out who I am.  And I sure as shit ain’t here to pretend a dead man might think better of me for it.

    • Anne is on another level from literally every other character.  Flint almost matches her in those first two assertions, but he is DEFINITELY trying to get a dead man’s approval.  Anne is the queen, all hail the queen.  Speaking of queens, maybe Madi matches her?  No, even if it’s healthy, Madi is trying to prove she can be the leader her people need.
    • IN VERY MUCH CONTRAST:

    Eleanor:  I did all of it, contorted myself into the role, mutilated myself so that it would fit because I believed as long as you believed I was your partner, it didn’t matter what anyone else believed.

    • Um, Eleanor?  I’m worried about you.
    • “You are not a compromise to me.”  UGH, please stop making me like Eleanor/Rogers.  I DON’T WANT TO.
    • Poor Silver.  He escapes the ladder and finds air in the ship.  Then the ship sinks and he has to struggle to find another pocket of air.  Then he crawls onto shore only to find someone rummaging through the bodies to kill any survivors!  A literal nightmare.

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

  • Black Sails Season 3 Episode 10 Review – XXVIII

    Black Sails Season 3 Episode 10 Review – XXVIII

    Rogers and his forces come for the pirates.  Rackham and Bonny face impossible odds.  Silver demands answers from Flint.  Billy crowns a king.

    (Summary provided by starz.com)

    BEST FLINT MOMENT

    Flint stares down a charging horse, kneels, reloads his gun, and shoots Hornigold dead.  This is just so perfectly symbolic of how unstoppable he is despite the odds being staked against him.

    TODAY’S RUNNER UP

    Anne!  It is so satisfying to see her being her best piratey self, swimming with the vanguard to board an enemy ship.  And SHE’S the one to call out the order for one English ship to fire on the others.

    LOL MOMENT

    Cannonfire hits Teach’s ship, who stands at the bow unmoved.  Jack, meanwhile, ducks beside him, then quickly stands and glances at Teach to see if he noticed.  I adore the big dog/little dog relationship these two have.

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    WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS

    Season three spent a lot of time showing us varying styles of leadership as we watched Silver struggle with his newfound authority.  We’ve seen him learn from both Flint and Madi, and in this episode, it seems clear that he has tried to carve out a path that incorporates the best of both of them.  Essentially, if Flint is feared and Madi is liked, Silver believes (based on his interactions with Dobbs) that he is both feared and liked.  Put this way, I almost believe that his leadership style is the most effective.

    But there is another angle worth exploring.  In his conversation with Flint, Silver explicitly states what emotions he and Flint inspire in the men, and I will add my own thoughts about Madi.  Flint inspires resentment in his crew, likely because he withholds his intentions and affections.  Silver inspires shame in his men, explicitly because they’re desperate to please him.  Madi, I believe, inspires loyalty in her people, because they trust her family’s ruling ability.  In this light, Madi’s leadership style clearly seems the best option.  We’ve seen Flint lose and regain his position multiple times because of an ongoing cycle of silence and resentment.  The shame that Silver inspires immediately sounds like civilization’s ploy of offering comfort with the threat of punishment looming overhead.  Madi is the only one that seems even remotely healthy.

    In summation, everyone should be like Madi.  Obviously.

    FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS

    • Flint/Silver/Jack is a great trio that I wish we could have more of.

    “You [Silver] they trust above any of us not to betray for money.  The irony wasn’t lost on either of us.”

    • Literally every line between Flint and Silver during these late night flashbacks deserves to be over-analyzed, but I’ll try to just pick and choose a few of the highlights.
    • Silver is having second thoughts as he thinks about the blood that’s about to be spilt.  Flint sincerely but kind of carelessly says that he just wishes it weren’t necessary.  This seems to me another example of Flint’s enormous experience with making life or death decisions, which just highlights Silver being new to the role.  Or looked at another way, Flint is so focused on the big picture that he doesn’t see individual lives lost, while Silver can.
    • Indeed, Hornigold says much the same thing to the English officer who asks, “Am I to believe he sacrificed over fifty of his men, led them into a massacre deliberately, just to entice us to chase him?”  “He’s quite capable of what you suggest and more.”
    • In another man, these decisions would seem reckless or evil, but Flint’s redeeming quality is that he never puts someone in danger without being in similar danger himself.
    • The partnership between Eleanor and Max is breaking down after the events of the last episode.  Max doesn’t want to make enemies if she doesn’t have to, but Eleanor is buying into England’s belief that making concessions equals weakness.

    “You have enemies here.  Let them be my enemies as well.”

    • Okay, FINE, that was actually a really romantic scene between Eleanor and Woodes Rogers.  He supports her, and I’m really glad she has that.
    • Jack is super smart for identifying the pirate fleet.  Teach tells both him and Anne that Charles is dead.  Teach joins the cause, saying, “The governor in Nassau hung him in the square.  On the island I helped build, he thought he could do that and face no consequences.  He failed to account for me.”  *shivers*  I love badass Teach!  Not that there’s actually any other kind.
    • FLINT TELLS SILVER ABOUT THOMAS!!!  My heart explodes from pride at my good boy being vulnerable and my other good boy listening and empathizing and there being no shame between the two of them!!!

    Flint:  So you see yourself as a potential fourth member of this class, concerned that your association with me will lead to your end.
    Silver:  My association with you began out of necessity, but I’ve come to find a great deal of respect for you.  Perhaps even friendship.  Which is why I find myself unnerved by the thought that when this pattern applies itself to you and I that I will be the end of you.
    Flint:  Is that so?
    Silver:  Well, the three who preceded me all had one thing in common: they were vulnerable to you.  Had more to lose than you, less means with which to protect themselves than you.  Until recently, I thought that was me as well, but now I don’t know that it is anymore.
    Flint:  It is natural for men new to power to assume that it has no limits.  Trust me.  It does.

    • God, I could watch entire seasons of these two talking to each other and engaging in sexy sexy power struggles.
    • The whole “is Dobbs betraying them or not” thing is done Very Well.

    Teach:  You can count the things that Flint and I agree upon on one hand.  But among them is the sincere confusion as to why Charles invested any time and energy in you.  I suppose Flint’s come to see that there might be some capacity in you after all.
    Jack:  And?
    Teach:  And what?
    Jack:  “And” as in it sounded as if there was more to that thought.  That you might see yourself agreeing with him again about my capacity.  There wasn’t any more to that thought, was there?

    • Jack’s fanboy adoration of Teach is SO CUTE.
    • And then we get his amazing, “To be underestimated is an incredible gift.”  What a perfect pirate position, to use England’s prejudice against her.  AND Jack gets the added bonus of acknowledging that Teach underestimates him, but that perhaps he shouldn’t.
    • Madi wants to be fighting beside her people, and when she appears next to Silver, he silently hands her a musket.  No trying to protect her bullshit, just respect for her decision and confidence in her ability.
    • Similarly, Jack wishes Anne well as she leaves to take over an English ship.  He knows she’s awesome, and his smile when she successfully uses one ship to attack another!!  He loves his badass partner!

    “See you on the other side.”
    “Always.”

    • Every time Silver talks about being liked and feared, I cannot help but think of Michael Scott’s “Would I rather be feared or loved?  Umm…easy, both.  I want people to be afraid of how much they love me.”
    • Honestly, this whole conversation is Shark Date 2.0 in which Silver is desperate for Flint to take him seriously (much like Jack/Teach).
    • Anne defeats the English ships!!  Flint defeats the English soldiers!!  It’s all so amazing and well planned and I looooove it.
    • Flint kills Hornigold, and no one feels bad about it.
    • “Tell your governor – you tell him I’m coming!”  Me: AHHHHH.

    “In terms of our future and the danger that you believe you may pose to me, bear this in mind.  I have survived starvation, a tempest, pirate hunters, jealous captains, mutinous crews, angry lords, a queen, a king, and the goddamn British navy.  So to whatever extent you may be concerned that some day we will clash, worried that though today we be friends, some day you will have no choice but to be my end, I wouldn’t worry too much.”

    • Me, again:  AHHHHH.
    • I know that Luke Arnold claimed this scene was two friends sincerely concerned for each other, but in context, the whole thing reads as rather sinister.
    • Billy creates the legend of Long John Silver because he doesn’t want to hand any more power to Flint.  Interestingly, he seems to think the problem is Flint himself, when we have seen throughout this season that the problem is in the power itself, and how it forces men and women to make terrible decisions.
    • My bias is showing, but I can’t stop thinking that Silver’s legend is being built for him, whereas James fought to create his Flint persona all on his own.

    “I was no one, and then you came, and my island fell, and I became something else.  On the night I confiscated the pardon rolls, the night I started becoming, I made clear my position that there would be two sorts of men on the island going forward: those like Captain Vane, determined to stand by their oath to the very end.  And those like Captain Throckmorton, happy to be the first to betray it.  Captain Throckmorton’s black spot will not be the last.  Ignore it, and join him.  Heed it, and reclaim your place amongst us.  Until then, I remain Long John Silver.”

    • THAT ROUND TABLE, with Flint, Silver, Teach, Jack, Anne, Madi, and the Queen standing together!!!  Me, again and always:  AHHHHH.
    • And that’s the end of season three!  We started with the lonely Walrus crew trying to survive against the elements and ended with a united pirate alliance with former slaves, determined to defeat the British empire.  THIS SHOW IS SO GOOD.
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    Not done reliving the episode?  Listen to Daphne and Liz’s podcast at Fathoms Deep!

  • Black Sails Season 3 Episode 9 Review – XXVII

    Black Sails Season 3 Episode 9 Review – XXVII

    Eleanor puts everything on the line to save Rogers.  Billy recruits allies.  Flint and Silver prepare for war.

    (Summary provided by starz.com)

    BEST FLINT MOMENT

    Flint parallel parks a ship incredibly close to shore by delivering calm orders to fearful men, then stares down Hornigold with the most badass “you could never” look.

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    TODAY’S RUNNER UP

    RIP Vane.

    Although he went from selfish bastard to martyr for the cause, Vane never lost who he truly is:  a badass.  Who else would say, “Get on with it, motherfucker,” and then walk off the cart to hang himself faster, insisting on being executed on his own terms.

    Oh, Vane.  I didn’t always love you, but when I did, I loved you DEEPLY.

    LOL MOMENT

    Flint and Silver are officially old marrieds.

    Silver:  If you have something to add, you should just fucking say it.
    Flint:  That’s not why you did it.
    Silver:  Really?  Would you like to tell me why I did it, then?

    WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS

    We’ve been circling themes of leadership and darkness this whole season (and series, honestly), and in Flint’s warning/welcome to Silver, we are explicitly told the connection between the two.

    Flint:  I’d hazard the guess that you learned of what had happened, told him how fucking stupid he was, and in that moment, he gave you a look that amounted to something less than contrite.  And in that moment, you felt it.
    Silver:  Felt what?
    Flint:  Darkness.  Hate.  Showing indifference to the authority that you sacrificed so much to acquire, disdain for refusing to acknowledge that his actions, had you not intervened, would have led to an outcome that he would have held you responsible for reversing.  Pride.  Questioning what kind of man you are if you don’t seek retribution for the offense.

    This sounds a lot like Madi’s analogy of the heavy crown.  Flint knows about the crown, but in contrast to Madi, who has been supported by family and community, Flint knows what it is to bear that crown alone.  He knows what it is to carry an enormous weight, and to resent everyone around him for not seeing it, respecting it, acknowledging it.  And he knows that in his worst moments, he can act out of that resentment.

    Flint believes that the darkness isn’t inherently wrong, but he knows that one must have control over it, and not the other way around.  This is where Madi’s analogy of the tether is so important.  In order to endure the darkness, it is essential to have someone with you, supporting you, aware of the heavy crown and its costs.

    This whole show is about the power of partnerships, huh?  God, it’s so beautiful.

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    FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS

    “It is not the treasure that concerns me most.  Charles Vane’s sacrifice is in that box.  If your man is unsuccessful in seeing to his rescue, Charles Vane’s death is inside that box.  Along with my good name.  Along with her lost love. Along with your late quartermaster’s life.  All the awful sacrifices made to assemble that box are now part of its contents, and those things are sacred things that I trust in no man’s hands.”

    • The weight of what they’ve all done is settling in on everyone, and that’s before one of our major characters is executed.
    • The scene between Eleanor and Vane is so good because these two know exactly how best to hurt each other.  Eleanor calls Vane a coward, and Vane tells Eleanor she isn’t loved.  As has always been the case, they’re simultaneously so wrong and so right.  They see some things about each other so clearly, but they are utterly blind to other things.  As they began, so they end:  as a tragedy.
    • Eleanor’s speech to Vane is the perfect summation of how civilization justifies their demeaning hatred of pirates.

    “You’re not a man.  You’re deformed.  Unformed.  Flesh, bone, and bile, and missing all that which takes shape through a mother’s love.  You cannot comprehend what you took from me or why it was good, because there is no goodness in you.  There is no humanity in you, no capacity for compromise, nor instinct toward repair, nor progress, nor forgiveness.  You are an animal.”

    • Woodes Rogers is bedridden with the Nassau disease that is taking down his soldiers, which is a very reminder that even the island itself is trying to expel the English.
    • Eleanor is motivated by revenge, but I believe she also genuinely wants to move beyond both Vane and her hatred of him.  “There is no leaving it behind, but I’m ready to move forward.”
    • Featherstone and Idelle riding in a carriage together makes me very happy.
    • Billy’s job is to make people give a shit, but am I alone in thinking this is a very weird job for him to latch onto?  He’s never been good at convincing anyone of anything, as Flint and Silver consistently and effectively walk all over his concerns.  Am I not giving our tall boy enough credit?
    • I LOVE seeing the reunion of families on Maroon Island.  It’s no wonder Flint regained his desire to live and fight after meeting them – this is the homeland he’s so long envisioned creating.

    Madi:  I stood in Nassau, and I realized when this war begins, it will have many different meanings.  But to you this war is a civil war between two cities you held together for so long with unseen bonds.  You will have people on both sides of it.  You will have daughters on both sides of it.  And I want you to know–
    Mr. Scott:  Only you.

    • This is SO SWEET and makes me cry, but I can’t help but feel sorry for Eleanor.  Vane’s accusations of no one really loving her are not untrue.  She’s never felt secure in anyone’s love, because everyone who has loved her has had multiple obligations.  But I’m making this lovely scene into a white woman’s pain.  More importantly:  How wonderful for Madi to have her father’s full support, and for them to have this moment together before he died.
    • Mrs. Mapleton tells Max that Idelle is the spy, but she won’t tell Eleanor because she believes Eleanor is self-destructive, implying Max is not.  “Some people can only understand themselves through the eyes of those who hate them.”  God, this episode is really making me feel sad for Eleanor.
    • Eleanor says she doesn’t care what anyone thinks about her except for Woodes Rogers, which begs the question: why him?  She barely knows him.  But I think that’s exactly the reason.  She has idealized him to the point that she subconsciously believes he represents everything:  civilization, stability, hope.  If she can earn his approval, then she will feel that everything she has done has been worth it.

    Flint:  The more you deny its [darkness] presence, the more powerful it gets, and the more likely it is to consume you entirely without you ever even knowing it was there.  Now, if you and I are to lead these men together, you must learn to know its presence well so that you may use it rather than it use you.
    Silver:  You have some experience with this, I imagine, living in fear of such a thing within you?
    Flint:  Yeah, I do.
    Silver:  I can’t tell if this was a warning or a welcome.

    • It’s BOTH, because that’s what a partnership is:  Thank God there’s someone here with me, now let’s help each other get out.
    • Silver comforting Madi after Mr. Scott’s death is very sweet.
    • Max tries very hard to caution Eleanor that the people of Nassau tolerate England’s presence because they’re given security and order.  The second she takes away that order, people will question why they should keep England around.  But Eleanor just wants this all DONE, blinding herself to the possible consequences.
    • Lambrick visits Vane, which will be an entire post for my theology section soon!
    • Vane refuses to be enslaved, even to fear of death.

    “These men who brought me here today do not fear me.  They brought me here today because they fear you.  Because they know that my voice, a voice that refuses to be enslaved, once lived in you.  And may yet still.  They brought me here today to show you death and use it to frighten you into ignoring that voice.  But know this:  We are many.  They are few.  To fear death is a choice, and they can’t hang us all.  Get on with it, motherfucker.”

    • Wow.  Just, wow.  I hate that Vane died, but what a way to die.
    • Vane looks into Eleanor’s eyes and walks off the cart to his death.  Even in death, they are playing a game of who wins, and clearly Eleanor’s “victory” doesn’t feel very sweet.
    • Mr. Scott also dies, though in contrast to Vane, he is surrounded by people who love and honor him.  …Also Jack, who takes the opportunity to further his ambitions by requesting command of the ship Vane would have led in the upcoming battle.
    • Flint snarkily saying, “All struggles are uphill, that’s why they’re called struggles” gives me life!
    • Other people talking about Flint’s brilliance is my kink.

    “He wants the force you bring to bear, he wants it.  I know this enemy, Commodore.  I know his mind.  He took that cache with the express purpose of compelling us to commit your force to a battlefield of his choosing.  Your force is factored into his thinking.  He has planned for it.  And I assure, you, if you allow him to dictate the terms of battle, you court a disastrous outcome.”

    • My heart continues to break at shots of Eleanor and Flint staring across the sea at each other, enemies now instead of partners.
    • And then Teach finds out that Vane is dead, and my heart officially shatters.
    bs309_3455

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

  • Black Sails Season 3 Episode 8 Review – XXVI

    Black Sails Season 3 Episode 8 Review – XXVI

    Rogers comes under attack while moving a prisoner.  Violence erupts on the Walrus.  Silver and Madi are put to a test.  Billy sees a new role for himself in the coming battle.

    (Summary provided by starz.com)

    BEST FLINT MOMENT

    That first scene between Flint and Vane in Miranda’s house is so great.  I love Flint’s growing comfort with vulnerability, first and foremost simply by allowing Vane, Anne, and Billy into his private world.

    TODAY’S RUNNER UP

    Madi!  God, she is such a great leader.  She makes it look effortless in a world in which we’ve seen leaders scrabbling to hold on to any scrap of power.  She’s so regal and confident, but when Silver assumes that is all there is to her, she reveals an undercurrent of deep emotion that she keeps at bay so that she can do her duty well.  I love her!

    LOL MOMENT

    It’s tiny, but I love Flint’s frustrated snap, “Please, don’t touch that,” when Vane plays the same musical note over and over and over.

    WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS

    Here’s a question for you:  At this point in the series, does Flint think of VANE as his primary partner more than Silver?  I joked about Flint wanting his city-sacking buddy in my review of 305, but in this episode we see that he’s invited Vane into his private home.  This is a level of intimacy not afforded to Silver, though that’s arguably because there was never the need or opportunity.  I was also struck by Flint’s insistence on going after a captured Vane by himself and his conflicted decision to let Billy rescue him.

    I don’t know, I just got a real “unlikely pairs” vibe from Flint and Vane discussing domesticity and comfort, and it made me think of their partnership as more significant than I previously assumed.  Maybe it’s not fair to compare Vane and Silver…but it’s kind of fun to!  If forced to choose between the two of them, which do you think Flint would choose as partner at this point in the series?

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    FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS

    • Vane makes a casually sexist comment about how men shouldn’t desire domesticity, and Flint doesn’t have time for that shit.

    Flint:  You have no instinct towards earning for yourself a life more comfortable?
    Vane:  I don’t.  And had I that instinct, I would resist it with every inch of will I could muster.  For that is the single most dangerous weapon they possess, the one they tempt.  ‘Give us your submission, and we will give you the comfort you need.’  No, I can think of no measure of comfort worth that price.

    • Thank you, Vane, for summarizing my conflicted feelings about civilization so well!  YES, England offers comfort (stability, etc), but at the cost of submission.
    • It’s fitting that a former slave would be the one able to see through the lie.  Huh, but it’s interesting that another former slave, Max, very much buys into civilization’s offer of comfort.  Wow, I continue to love how complex this show is!

    Anne:  We miss that caravan, you lose what?  Money?  Your war?  What I got to lose ain’t something so easy to recover from.

    • Whereas previously people partnered because they shared the same immediate goal, the pirates of Nassau have evolved.  Flint says they’re all attacking the caravan for their own reasons, but that they must stay united.  It’s not necessarily unselfish, but it is a new level of trust.

    “There’s a whole world out there that every so often rewards ambition.  Mark my words:  today the crumbs, tomorrow the loaf.  Perhaps someday the whole damn boulangerie.”

    • Jack uttering these words in a prison to a rat is the perfect blend of regret and hope.
    • Silver and Madi almost flirting about Silver’s nautical ignorance is lovely.  I love Madi for asking him about his descent into darkness (stomping in Dufresne’s head) to check in on his mental state.  It’s says a lot about his level of intimacy with both that he tells Madi it’s an experience he doesn’t want to repeat, but he told Flint that it felt good.
    • That scene with Max and the Eleanor surrogate is the most sexually explicit scene we’ve gotten in a good long while.  It’s interesting that this is an Eleanor surrogate and not an Anne surrogate – is that supposed to mean something?
    • Max realizes that Anne must have given up the cache for a reason, and she tells Eleanor and everyone else.  This is, to me, her real betrayal.
    • I am so torn between being mad at Max and Eleanor for trying to frustrate Anne/Flint’s plan and being mad at all the dumb men who don’t listen to them.
    • When Dobbs attacks a Maroon sailor, Silver has three options:  1) kill the Maroon, 2) let the Maroon attack Dobbs, or 3) let Madi decide.  My appreciation of him rises significantly for choosing option 3.  When an oppressed group is oppressed, the privileged people have to step back and let them explain what they want to be done.
    • Jack’s complete confidence in Anne’s love is *Chef’s finger kiss*
    • I just can’t be bothered to care about Hornigold even the tiniest amount.
    • We now know Jack’s backstory, which explains both his proclivity for fancy clothes and his preoccupation with establishing his name.

    “‘You people, incapable of accepting the world as it is,’ says the man to whom the world handed everything.  If no Anne, if no rescue, if this is defeat for me, then know this.  You and I were neck and neck in this race right till the end, but Jesus, did I make up a lot of ground to catch you.”

    • That is, hands down, my favorite Jack speech of ALL TIME.
    • And Rogers’ response about “all you know about me is what I want you to know” is okay, whatever.  You’re scary.  But that does not at all address Jack’s accusation of privilege, you ninny.
    • That whole carriage attack!!  Excellent action!  Excellent tension!  Flint and Billy leave with the cache, assured that the rest will be right behind.  Vane, Jack, and Anne get a lovely triumvirate moment.  Jack and Anne leave, assured that Vane will be right behind.  Vane and Woodes Rogers fight and it is SO desperate and painful.  AUGH.
    • This deserves it’s own bullet point:  Anne’s look of horror when she thinks Jack is dead, and that A+ smooch when she realizes he’s alive.  Jack’s post-kiss “ow” is icing on the cake.

    “You can just imagine what that was like, asking him to accept what was done to him at the hands of men who look so very much like those he watched murder his parents when he was a boy.”

    • I love that this show never lets us forget the risk the Maroons are taking by partnering with white pirates.  But Madi refuses to fight the small battles that will compromise the war despite her fear and anger.  She is the best leader we’ve had on this show.
    • Silver is clearly impressed by Madi, as he ought to be.  But he doesn’t trust his men to obey him with the same level of devotion and loyalty that hers have, so Dobbs is sneak-attacked belowdecks.  In the pirate world, fear is still more powerful than love.
    • Is the Flint/Vane ship tagline “I can’t let someone else hang you” because it should be.
    • Flint is pretty obviously comparable to Madi here, making the hard decision to give up the small battle (rescuing Vane) in order to keep the war going.  I love them both so much.
    • I like that Woodes Rogers knows Eleanor’s worth, but man, it’s annoying that he is still questioning whether or not he can trust her.  Although kudos to his concern:  “I’m asking you to tell me the truth about what you’re capable of right now.”  He’s worried about her power and how she’ll wield it, which earns him a few points.
    • Eleanor admits she first partnered with Rogers because she thought that would get her close enough to Vane to exact revenge for the murder of his father.  I like that she hasn’t forgotten.  So many horrible things happen in this show that it’s easy to think, “But that was last season.”  Let’s be real, though.  Bad father or not, Eleanor’s “boyfriend” straight up murdered her last family member because she rescued a girl who would have made him money.  I think that’s earned her a season’s vendetta.
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    Not done reliving the episode?  Listen to Daphne and Liz’s podcast at Fathoms Deep!

  • Black Sails Season 3 Episode 7 Review – XXV

    Black Sails Season 3 Episode 7 Review – XXV

    Flint and Silver return to Nassau, and a legend is born.  A change in terms put Rackham and Bonny in jeopardy.  Vane’s mission evolves.  Eleanor confides in Rogers.

    (Summary provided by starz.com)

    BEST FLINT MOMENT

    The entire scene in which Flint and Woodes Rogers face off is A+ Excellent, but the part that really destroys my soul is when, ten years after the first Great Defense, FLINT IS STILL DEFENDING THOMAS.  Woodes Rogers claims that his goal is the same as Thomas’s, and Flint is all, “Let me tell you what Thomas wanted!!”

    My heart!

    TODAY’S RUNNER UP

    Silver!  This guy is unraveling as he keeps being thrust into positions of power, but it is so compelling to watch.  It’s especially interesting that as he descends into “Flint’s” darkness, Flint himself is doing much better.

    LOL MOMENT

    When Max tells her that it was John Silver who stomped a dude’s head in and scared a tavern full of soldiers and pirates, Eleanor’s face is so confused!  You can see her flashing back to the man Flint stashed in her office to keep him out of the way and thinking, “That guy??”

    WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS

    I keep wanting to prove that “civilization” is bad and the pirates are good.  And I can definitely make arguments to that effect:  Just this episode, we saw that civilization (personified by Woodes Rogers) is polite and reasonable when everything is going his way.  He’s happy to let Jack go, “no harm done,” so long as he gets his cache.  But as soon as he finds out that Spain wants Jack as well, Rogers easily betrays his promise to Jack.

    There’s also Flint’s line about Rogers keeping the pirates from the beach by “keeping them in line with shame.”  The perks of civilization are upheld by shaming people into submission.  And when Flint refuses to submit to him, Rogers revokes pardons to the Walrus crew, thus explicitly making the pardons a means of control rather than of forgiveness.

    But on the other hand…I don’t think it’s meant to be so simple as “these are the good guys and these are the bad guys.”  I believe Rogers when he accidentally repeats 210 Flint:  “If you insist on making me your villain, I’ll play the part.”  He doesn’t WANT to do bad things, just as Flint doesn’t.  This show is all about putting people into impossible situations so that their true feelings are revealed.

    Perhaps the reason I empathize with the pirates so much is that they wear the worst of themselves on the outside, and slowly we see their goodness underneath, whereas civilization wears its goodness on the outside, and slowly we see its underbelly.  Like Jack said, “We’re all villains in Nassau.  Don’t think because you’re new you’re any different.”  At least the pirates are self-aware about their darkest impulses.

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    FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS

    • Max is once more trying to convince Anne to go with her plan rather than Jack’s, and I GET IT.  She’s scared that Spain is going to destroy Nassau if they don’t turn over the cache.  But I’m totally empathizing with Anne’s pain and confusion here.
    • Flint standing at military attention while reporting to the Maroon Queen is Doing Things to my heart.  Of course, he’s doing less fun things to the Queen’s heart when he suggests turning her home into a battlefield and answers her very good questions with “I don’t know yet.”
    • Madi joins the Walrus crew!!!  But as an equal to Flint!!
    • Woodes Rogers wants to be the good guy so badly.  But Jack eloquently and brutally puts him in his place.

    Jack:  Do you have a wife?
    Rogers:  I do.
    Jack:  How do you imagine she would feel if she were told you were suffering some awful, degrading abuse and that the only way she could end it would be to betray your trust?  How do you think she would feel if she betrayed you, knowing she likely lost that trust forever, and then learned the whole thing was based on a ruse?  And no one was harmed.  We’re all villains in Nassau.  Don’t think because you’re new you’re any different.

    • Max is legitimately upset that Spain now requires Jack along with the cache, meaning she lied to Anne.  Eleanor fights to protect Anne, knowing how much Max loves her.  THIS IS JUST SO GOOD.  This is how exes should treat each other.

    “That fucking chair.  To gain it, it demands you win partners, call them friends, make them promises.  To keep it, it demands you break them all.  One day when all is settled here, we should burn that fucking chair.”

    • Max discusses the cost of becoming Eleanor in the same episode that Silver realizes the cost of becoming Flint!  Good writing.
    • Max warns Eleanor that Rogers will abandon her if she continues to compromise his position with his men…so Eleanor sleeps with him (her go-to desperate power move).  And I just?  I know some people see their love story as great, and I can see that Eleanor does love Rogers.  But this is not real love.  She doesn’t trust that he loves her back.  This is just Vane 2.0!  I don’t ship it.
    • Vane finds Featherstone, who gets Idelle.  I love this new, temporary triumvirate.  Featherstone is worried that Rogers is a shit, and I am too!
    • Madi and Eme!!  I love that Eme is still around, and more than that, that she’s secretly Mr. Scott’s agent!  Black Sails writers, continuing to ask the good questions: “How can we make our female characters even more awesome?”

    “I undertand this is the place cowards come to beg forgiveness from a king.  Sign your name to sleep easy, thinking all your sins have been absolved.  But some sins even a king can’t make clean.  You, all of you, every last rotten fuck on this island has crossed a man far less forgiving than old George will ever be.  I come as his right hand.  I come on a mission of mercy, to show you a path to his forgiveness.  I come on behalf of Captain Flint.”
    “Captain Flint is dead.”
    “Not anymore, he’s not.”

    • It is VERY GOOD to have Dufresne pop up and remind us of who Silver used to be, right before Silver reminds us who he is now by stomping Dufrense’s head in.  Repeatedly.
    • “Contented men have short memories”  vs. “My name is John Silver, and I’ve got a long fucking memory” is SO GOOD.
    • Caregiver Flint is ALSO my favorite (along with Revolutionary Flint and Strategist Flint, if you’re keeping score), and his going to Silver and asking, “Are you alright?  I wasn’t asking about the leg,” does so many things to my heart!  And just like Eleanor and Max, we get two colleagues discussing the cost of power.

    Flint:  You were right.  About the toll it took, playing this part.  Losing Miranda, the things that losing Miranda drove me to.  So I know what you’re feeling in the moment.
    Silver:  I perceived its effects on you.  What I assumed was sorrow, loneliness, and worst of all terror at the thing you were becoming.  There is an element of this journey into the dark that I’m only now beginning to appreciate.
    Flint:  What’s that?
    Silver:  How good it feels.

    • My question is:  is this true of Flint as it is of Silver?  Did Flint enjoy the darkness?  He explicitly told Miranda that he hated his role as Flint more and more every day.  We’ve seen him do horrible things and then hide somewhere to cry.  On the other hand, I have a hard time believing he doesn’t derive SOME satisfaction in what he does (especially things like destroying Charles Town).  What do you think?  Is Silver misreading Flint and experiencing something separate?
    • Mrs. Mapleton is madam again, and she reveals the origin story of Eleanor/Max!  Which is basically that she suggested Eleanor get her rocks off with no emotional attachment, but then Eleanor got emotionally attached.  This makes me love her even more, actually?  It’s very Moulin Rouge.
    • Flint smiling at Rogers sitting on the beach oozes “Finally, a match for me.”  This is made extra satisfying when we remember that Rogers’ plan actually came from Eleanor!
    • Flint’s FACE when he’s greeted with Rogers saying, “Lord Thomas Hamilton.”  He was NOT expecting that.  But as he is phenomenal, he regains his footing and smirks a, “Clever” at Rogers’ transparent ploy to align Flint with him.

    Flint:  So that’s what this is.  We’re all reasonable men, we all want the same thing?  You offer me a pardon, I accept it, this all ends?
    Rogers:  Maybe.  The pardons are on the table.  No one is being hanged.  No one’s even being tried.  They’ve all been forgiven, just as you wanted.  Just as Thomas Hamilton wanted.  So what is it that you’re fighting for that I’m not already offering?
    Flint:  Thomas Hamilton fought to introduce the pardons to make a point.  To seek to change England.  And he was killed for it.  His wife and I went to Charles Town to argue for the pardons, to make peace with England, and she was killed for it.  England has shown herself to me, gnarled and gray and spiteful of anyone who would find happiness under her rule.  I’m through seeking anything from England except for her departure from my island.

    • FLINT IS STILL DEFENDING THOMAS I’M DEAD
    • It must feel so good to say Thomas’s name out loud, to school some arrogant guy who thinks he understands Thomas and get to say, “I know every nuance of Thomas’s plan, LET ME TELL YOU IT.”
    • I totally forgot how that scene with Anne played out!  I was so upset for her, and then Vane appeared, and I was so relieved!
    • Anne and Vane (and Featherstone and Idelle) are very smart!  Now that Jack and the cache are in the same place, it forces people who couldn’t care less about Jack (i.e. Flint) to rescue him in order to retrieve the cache.
    • It’s VERY enjoyable to see all my favorite pirates on the same ship.  Jack isn’t there, but they’re talking about him, which I feel he would find satisfactory.
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    This whole “Flint jumps into the seafoam and the camera pans up his body” shot was wonderful.

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

  • Black Sails Season 3 Episode 6 Review – XXIV

    Black Sails Season 3 Episode 6 Review – XXIV

    Flint challenges Teach over the future of piracy.  Rogers makes an arrest.  Rackham finds new purpose.  Madi comes to Silver’s aid.

    (Summary provided by starz.com)

    BEST FLINT MOMENT

    His face, I think, just after he’s shot Teach.  He looks so shocked that he might have actually won the duel, and so easily.  Of course, nothing is easy for Captain James Flint.

    Still, it’s a brief moment of vulnerability and hope, emotions he usually has a lockdown on in public.

    TODAY’S RUNNER UP

    Jack!  From deliciously nerdy shade to a sneaky plan to continue fighting England, Jack resists the allure of “order” to continue a fight for freedom…without Flint or Vane (the resistance’s leaders) or Anne (his personal support).  That’s bravery!  And, uh, the usual heavy dose of ambition that we’ve come to expect from Jack.

    “One of two outcomes will result.  Rogers will understand his defeat to be ultimately inevitable and leave this place, in which case I’ll have it back.  Or he’ll stubbornly refuse and eventually Spain will raze this place to the ground.  The English flag will burn, and a second pirate republic will be born from the ashes of the first.  Only this time, every man who calls it home will know it came about because of me.”

    LOL MOMENT

    Idelle and Featherstone are quick becoming the Merry and Pippin of Black Sails.

    Idelle:  Well?  What do you think?
    Featherstone:  You mean aside from the tit curtains?
    Idelle:  It’s called a cravat.

    WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS

    I spent most of this episode frustrated with Silver’s hyper-masculine resistance to showing even the slightest bit of weakness.  It seemed ridiculous, because I have no doubt that the men of the Walrus would be understanding of, and even appreciate, his vulnerability.  “He’s not Flint!” I thought.  Suddenly Silver’s actions connected to his conversations with Madi in a way I hadn’t seen before.

    In their first conversation, Madi realizes that Silver is new to power and doesn’t know how to “wear the crown.”  He has only ever seen leadership modeled by Flint, who is so concerned with creating a mythic character that he refuses to show doubt or weakness.  As an excellent observer, Silver tries to do the same.

    In their second conversation, Silver confesses to Madi his fear of becoming so close to Flint that he is burdened by his descent into Flint’s wants, needs, and fears.  He believes he is becoming like Flint, and that this will be his end (though he doesn’t seem capable of just…NOT acting like Flint).  Fittingly, Madi offers him the thing he’s been denying himself – vulnerability, the admittance that Silver needs a tether to keep himself from getting lost in Flint’s psyche.

    FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS

    • Silver’s forced to stay behind on Maroon Island while Flint and the Walrus seek Charles Vane.  Madi is pissed that he’s missed Mr. Scott’s healing ceremony, but he’s in a lot of leg pain.  I get the sense that there is a TINY bit of that brand of aggressive flirting where the boy you like isn’t where you think he is, so you use your Righteous Indignation to find him and talk to him.
    • Flint:  “If he tied it wrong, then you instructed him wrong.”  I know that his primary motivation in siding with the Maroon guy is to uphold the alliance between pirates and slaves, but it’s also really nice to see him standing against his crew member for a former slave.
    • I am aware that I am giving Flint all kinds of benefit of the doubt when I haven’t shown the same curtesy to other characters, but, well…I LOVE HIM, and love has made me an expert excuser of his potential faults.
    • We know Vane’s conscious is irking him because he’s not participating in the revels on Okracoke Island.  What a difference between this and his season 1 self, always lounging with topless women.
    • Teach at Flint’s resurrection:  “Jesus.”  LOL.
    • Mrs. Hudson explains that she became a spy because her children’s lives were threatened.  So soon after pirate Nassau feared an English invasion, English Nassau fears a Spanish invasion.  Everyone’s enemy has a scarier enemy.  The whole system is broken.
    • “If we can’t find Jack Rackham, we’re finished.”  Cut to:  Jack Rackham walking into the tavern.  LOL.

    “I though as an added prize, I’d at leas be able to see it for myself.  The new governor up to his ears in the very same bullshit in which I’ve been drowning for the past few months.  And what do I find?  The streets are swept, industry is in fashion, you’re dressed like a Turkish whore, and all because a man arrived, stood on the beach, and said please.”

    • What is the show trying to tell us with this?  That people crave order?  That order brings out our better selves?  Or are we meant to see that this IS a benefit of civilization, but (as we have seen and will see), this benefit comes at a significant cost?
    • This scene between Silver and Madi, though!  SHE IS SO GOOD.

    Silver:  For some time now, I have been holding my entire world together with both hands, keeping my men in line, seeing to their needs, and the only way that endures is if I look the part…
    Madi:  No one prepared you for this, did they?  For as long as I can remember, I have been prepared for the day I would take my mother’s place.  To know that from that day forth, I would forever be the one who tends as opposed to the one who is tended to.  You’re frustrated.  You’re angry.  You’re tired.  Perhaps no one else knows why.  I believe that not even you know why.  But I know why.  The crown is always a burden, but it cannot be borne if you cannot stand.

    • A good leader cannot take care of others until they take care of themselves!!  It feels very right that it is a woman who teaches a man that self-care is a necessary part of leadership.
    • I could watch an entire episode of Flint and Teach talking to each other.  And I would give ANYTHING to have a flashback (or entire series!) that shows us Flint arriving in Nassau and telling Teach, Hornigold, Bellamy, and Avery that he’s got a better idea of how to run things.
    • Woodes Rogers and Jack!!! This episode is A++ on incredibly dynamic conversations between two people.

    Jack:  I read your book.  Well, most of it.  I confess, I may not quite have soldiered through to the end.  But, you know, I got the gist of it.
    Rogers:  If you don’t mind my asking, what did you take to be its gist?
    Jack:  Wealthy son of a wealthy man takes to the sea to prove something to the parents, presumably.  Seeks adventure, finds the limits of his own capacity.  Loses everything in the process and then stumbles upon a hell of a story in the process.  Please understand, I’m quite particular about my library, but people seem to have liked it fine, and it seems to have done wonders for you.  So congratulations on all that.

    • BRUTAL, I love it.
    • The duel scene is perfect.  Starting from Billy’s perspective, who is not loyal to Flint (things just keep changing too fast for him to keep up!), then ending with Vane, who is not loyal to Teach.
    • The lack of music throughout is SUCH a good choice.  Even though I’d seen this before, it was still so stressful.
    • TEACH’S FACE when Vane jumps in to save Flint.  Oh God, the utter shock and betrayal.  I mean, I wouldn’t have wanted this to end any other way, but poor Teach!  Uuuugh, it’s so sad.
    • It is VERY interesting to me that Flint convinces Vane to rejoin him, not based on loyalty, but on revenge.  Fandom seems very into making Vane synonymous with loyalty, but here Flint explicitly tells Vane to think beyond loyalty.

    Vane:  I gave you my word, shook your hand, pledged to defend the island with you.  But my pledge to him began a long time before I ever knew your name.  What I owe him –
    Flint:  I don’t care that you shook my hand.  I don’t care what you feel you owe him.  This is too important to be clouded by any of that.  They took my home.  I can’t walk away from that.  Can you?  Forget me, forget Teach, forget loyalty, compacts, honor, debts, all of it.  The only question that matters is this:  Who are you?

    • Silver says that he’s not the first person to have descended into Flint’s depths and never resurfaced.  But is this an accurate reading of reality (keeping in mind that Silver doesn’t know all of Flint’s story).  I assume he is here referring to Gates and Miranda.  Was Gates dragged into Flint’s depths?  Into his orbit, maybe, but I never got the sense that he was emotionally burdened by Flint in the way that Silver is.  And Miranda?  If anything, they were thrown into the depths together, and they clung to each other down there.  If anything, she helped him climb OUT of the depths, if only for a too-brief moment.
    • Again, it’s so fitting that a man consumed in either/or and win/loss thinking is taught to see a gentler, more supportive option by a woman:  “Maybe to go to such a place, one needs another to hold the tether and to find a way out.”  Now that’s both/and thinking!
    • Love seeing Mr. Scott and Madi interact as father and daughter, and I love even more that Mr. Scott knew the best way to prepare her to lead in the New World was to give her stories.
    • Max’s betrayal.    She reasserts her worth to Rogers with, “If you have me, you have the street,” and officially choosing her ambitions above her relationships.  To be fair, while this makes me very sad (and a little mad), she is only joining the ranks of Flint, Eleanor, and many other characters I love.
    • It’s very fitting that as Max chooses her ambition above relationships, Vane does the same, for the very first time.
    • Flint and Vane talking quietly together in the dark, making little jokes, is SO cute to me.
    • Vane has changed so much, and this episode really highlights it.  No reveling, choosing revenge over loyalty, and saying with disdain about other men, “one piece of information everyone else was quick to dismiss as it held no value to them in that moment.”  He’s become a proper revolutionary.

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