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[alexwatchesshows]

update: I'm still doing this

Hey all, just thought I'd drop in to give a little update given that it's been more than a month (possibly more than 2) since my last post. I promise that I'm still alive and well and actively working on my Black Sails S2E4 post. It's just taking a while because I've been very busy with uni and other life stuff.

As I work on my analytical TV reviews, I also like to watch some shows and films for fun. 2 that I've particularly enjoyed recently have been Nimona and The Bad Batch (Star Wars).

You can also see my pinned post for other socials where I may or may not be more active. Please stick with me-- I promise I'm not deserting this account, it's just tricky to write 2000+ word episode reviews on top of my actual 2000 word essays for my degree.

[alexwatchesshows]

Black Sails XI (S2E3) review

Spoilers for up to and including E11.

"You'll either be the death of each other or we'll all end up working for you someday."- Charles Vane

Finally the end of Ned Low, thank fucking god. Vane's reasoning for the whole endeavour is a little all over the place. Max isn't exactly wrong in calling him out on being motivated by his feelings by Eleanor and using the "prize" to explain his moves to his men. I also get the sense that neither of those are what he uses to justify the efforts he went through to himself, though. There was something about Ned Low that felt a little like Charles Vane going completely off the rails and seeing his worst aspects reflected back couldn't have been fun. Still, maybe he's more at peace with his feelings for Eleanor than he normally seems, as he doesn't accept Max's offer of teaching how to stop caring about her (it would be interesting to know what exactly Max would have said if he'd said yes, though). Speaking of Low being Vane's worst traits reflected back at him, that whole interaction between them is unhinged. Low wants a partnership with Vane, as he can only see and appreciate the physical power that Vane holds in having control of the fort, a crew and being a strong fighter himself, and not the type of tactical, political power that Eleanor holds, and thinks that with the might of the two of them combined they'd have no issues whatsoever. Normally this would sound like Vane's kind of reasoning, but, whether it's because of his feelings for Eleanor or him maturing in his reasoning, he doesn't take him up on the offer. Instead, we get an absolutely feral fight between the two of them, which really emphasises the "two sides of the same coin" thing, alongside Vane's crew swimming up to Low's ship with fucking knives in their mouths and then killing the rest of his crew. Honestly, by the time Low's head ends up on a pike in the middle of Nassau, I'm not sure whether Vane was a better option.

Whatever it means for Nassau, Vane killing Low definitely gets him back in Eleanor's good books (jesus christ those two just keep making each other worse). I love that he still insists to Eleanor that he didn't kill Low for her. I'm not even sure what he was trying to achieve by telling her that, regardless of what his intentions were. Honestly, maybe he's just a man. And he has Abigail Ashe now. Great.

One upside of the whole Vane/Low/Eleanor debacle is that, as a favour to Max, Vane publicly forgives Anne and Jack. He didn't even seem that bothered by what they'd done to his crew so he was either a) faking nonchalance so they don't know they've gotten to him, b) only pretending to be mad at them because condoning killing your crew isn't a good look, or c) he is literally incapable of holding one opinion or feeling for more than a week. Honestly, I'm leaning towards c, given what we've seen so far, although he does make sure Jack and Anne know that he's only forgiving them as a favour to her, I guess just to keep us all guessing.

Regardless of their career prospects, all is not well between Jack and Anne (but, honestly, when is it ever). Anne is spending more and more time with Max and, as a result, less time with Jack. In return, Jack is going out looking for a crew (albeit unsuccessfully, prior to Vane's intervention) without Anne. Despite this, they actually end up communicating (a rare win)! Anne knows that Max might be manipulating her, Jack knows that Anne can't help her feelings for Max (and is shockingly relaxed about the whole situation), and Anne decides that the solution to this whole dilemma is for them to all sleep together, and, honestly, it seems to work? Good for them. It's also worth noting that this is the first time that Anne is actually undressed around Max, and honestly the connotations of Jack being the only one she feels safe around are both heartbreaking and heartwarming. What a trio, I'm sure nothing will ever go wrong with this.

Meanwhile, over on the Walrus, an equally complicated partnership seems to be forming between Silver and Flint. Dufresne is still quartermaster, which is honestly a very smart and Flint-like move, both in the "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" sense and also because Dufresne did actually make a decent quartermaster, but Silver now holds equal, if not greater, power with the crew. His reports have continued and, as the whole crew now joing in with the foot stomping thing, we can see that, as he predicted, him and his reports are now both needed and appreciated. He's no longer just talking to the crew about the crew, though-- he's also passing down messages from Flint. Against all odds, he's managed to make himself valuable to both crew and captain. In this sense, he definitely holds more power than Dufresne, and is possibly heading towards rivalling Flint. For Flint, all this change is something that he knows he'll have to explain to Eleanor, and, as Dufresne points out, he'll have to, one way or another, justify Gates' death, whether he tells the truth or not. What Flint doesn't expect, however, are the changes that have happened in Nassau since he left (he still references Hornigold controlling the fort, taking for an unchangable fact, as it has likely been the case since he came to Nassau).

We also see that Miranda has not been idle since Flint left (good for her). She seems to have given up on any hopes of getting out of Nassau for the time being and has instead turned to the inner islanders for some level of community. This, of course, is something that Eleanor knows and wants to exploit. Look, I really want to like Eleanor as a character, but it's hard. She starts her conversation with Miranda by implying that she is unremarkable, and that Flint doesn't see her as important, then tries to leverage Miranda's relationships with the inner islanders, then starts questioning Flint and Miranda's relationship. Like Pastor Lambrick, she assumes that Flint and Miranda must hold some kind of leverage over each other that forms the basis for their relationship. Unlike Lambrick, however, she doesn't assume that Miranda is a passive victim in this situation. Somehow, people seem to be incapable of believing that Flint and Miranda just care for each other, or whatever more complicated variation of that that we're slowly learning about through the flashbacks. For her part, Miranda lends weight to the suggestion that it is their shared past that brings her and Flint together. As she tells Eleanor, we, as the audience, and the pirates on Nassau "perceive the effects of Captain Flint's demons, echoes of their voices [but she] know[s] their names. [She] was there when they were born" and, as a result, she knows more of Flint than Eleanor could even understand. Eleanor, after all, doesn't even seem to recognise who Miranda is talking about when she first refers to Flint as James, and apparently has no idea of what his past (the past that we are starting to learn about) might include. So, Eleanor leaves the interaction with very little gained in terms of political power, but potentially more knowledge of Flint (insofar as knowing that there's stuff she doesn't know can be counted as knowledge) and, as Flint arrives in Nassau, she's about to learn a whole lot more.

Flint now trusts Silver enough to make choose him to acompany him into Nassau to get provisions. Almost immediately, they notice that things have changed as Hornigold's flag is now on the beach, but, at least from my perspective, very little of Nassau itself has changed. We are reminded of just how much has happened since they left when Flint arrives to Eleanor looking for a new bodyguard (the Walrus crew were away for more or less the whole Ned Low situation). Honestly, as this series continues, the Eleanor/Flint dynamic really grows on me, and I love that hug between them. They (at least to an extent) trust each other and were evidently worried about each other as they were managing their respective crises, but neither of them is entirely happy with how those crises were managed. Flint is just generally bitter about anything that Vane does (and vice versa) because of the rivalry they just keep up because they can. Eleanor tries to convince Flint that he's being a little bit dramatic about the whole thing, but, as we all know by now, once Flint's made his mind up about something, nobody can convince him to change it. I can sympathise much more with Eleanor's concern about Flint's story-- I don't doubt that she knew he could be violent (he is a pirate captain after all), but murdering his second in command and best friend to pursue a course of action that was evidently a bad idea to begin with is a new level even for Flint. Even turning her use of "what was necessary" back on her doesn't reassure her or convince her that it was the only reasonable course of action, and, even by the end of the conversation, she still seams much more wary of Flint than she was when they were first reunited, a wariness that remains when she later tries to confront Mr Scott about him. She sees that "something is different about [Flint]" from when they last talked and, in all fairness, killing his best friend, surviving a mutiny and a shipwreak and then retaking his position as captain really has taken a toll on him. Flint is, somehow, even less trusting, and even more haunted. Eleanor also tries to talk to Flint about Miranda, but, as we've seen before, getting this man to open up about his past is basically impossible.

While Flint and Eleanor are discussing Gates' death, Hornigold and Silver are having a very similar conversation. Hornigold points out, not incorrectly, that Flint seems to be very good at getting rid of anyone who gets even remotely close to him, but Silver is unbothered. Despite his growing connection to the crew, he still argues that he's only in this whole thing for the money, and that, so long as he doesn't start to believe in Flint, he's safe.

Despite Eleanor's reassurances, when he and Silver reunite, Flint's still pretty mad about Vane holding the fort. Even Silver tries to talk him down, trying to remind him of the irreversable changes he could bring about by directly confronting Vane and so obviously aligning himself with Hornigold. Really, when Silver tells you you're going too far, you should know there's a problem, but Flint decides to go ahead and make another one of his speeches. Ending the episode on "I will rain holy hell down upon him" can't be a good sign, can it?

Then there are the London flashbacks. James and Thomas are getting close and are working better and better on trying to resolve the Nassau problem. Meanwhile, things are developing between James and Miranda. It almost looks like the backstory that Richard Guthrie gave is coming to fruition, but, while the actions by themselves match up with his story, the attitudes of the three of them don't. When the three of them are in a room together at the beginning of the episode, it doesn't seem like James and Miranda are somehow keeping secrets or even considering anything like that. Instead, we see the easy companionship between Miranda and Thomas that they are both inviting James into, in this case, through books. It's worth noting that Don Quixote, the book that Miranda gives James, saying that it might help him manage Thomas, is about a man who goes mad and decides he's a knight on a mission to vanquish some vague evil (this is a massive oversimplification, but I read it a while ago and can't remember a whole lot). Essentially, I think Miranda is joking that Thomas will fight for what he thinks is right, regardless of whether it's achievable or what other people think is happening. Given the nature of their relationship, I don't think she's maliciously implying that he's wrong/mad, more just affectionately teasing him about his "impossible" mission. It's also a sweet but also painful parallel to Flint saving La Galatea (another book by Cervantes) for Miranda. They just really love to draw comparisons between those two time periods just to make us hurt, don't they?

We then get a little bit of just James and Miranda. To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about this whole scene (for now I'm shutting off the gay part of my brain that short circuitted seeing shirtless McGraw). On the one hand, Miranda, as a woman, seeking out a relationship and taking that initiative is subversive, and, especially given the historical context of this show, it doesn't have the same dynamic as it would if a man sought out a woman's house and showed up unannounced, but there's also the class element to the power dynamic. As someone from a working class background, whose career is more or less dependent on being on good terms with the aristocracy, McGraw doesn't necessarily hold all the power in this situation, and Miranda showing up at his place without warning could actually put him at a very real risk. There are always two sides to a situation, and Miranda isn't wrong when she tries to convince James that "there is an inverse relationship between the degree of one's happiness and the concer one suffers for what the neighbours think", and making him aware of the less traditional relationship structures that can exist with the consent of all parties is well-intentioned and has the potential to be a really valuable thing for James, but what she doesn't fully recognise is that, while she and Thomas are okay with rumours, as they can ignore them, James has every reason to be more wary. Ultimately, quietly taking Miranda back to her house was probably the most tactful response to this situation. During this, Miranda takes the opportunity to read him like a fucking book. I don't have a neat way to integrate all these quotes but I feel like they need to be included: "I imagine there are two kinds of men who make their life at sea. Those whose sense of duty forces them to leave any snese of permenance or identity behind them and those for whom that is the attraction"; "I think you're someone who's very good at managing how you're perceived and perhaps getting what you want without anyone ever knowing that you did it or perhaps even if it ever happened". Like, damn, she can just read him like that. It also emphasises a number of similarities between James as McGraw and James as Captain Flint, suggesting that maybe he hasn't fundamentally changed as a person in the years between these two plotlines, but more that different situations have brought different aspects of his personality out. Ultimately, Miranda does seem to figure out the source of James' reluctance to enter into any kind of relationship with her (once they'd both established that Thomas is okay with it), that "[he's] more concerned with whether or not people talk about what [Miranda and James] are doing behind closed doors than with what [they] actually are doing", even if she maybe can't fully grasp the reason behind him feeling this way. Then there's the kiss, suggesting the beginning of their relationship. As I wrote earlier, the external situation seems to be set up as what Richard Guthrie recounted, but what the characters themselves have said doesn't match up-- especially the care that both James and Miranda have for Thomas, and his acceptance of any kind of relationship they might have.

But clearly something happened, as we now see Flint and Miranda in Nassau. Although Miranda has now found some kind of community among the inner islanders, it's a big difference from what we see of her life in London.

Then there's the inscription in the book Flint leaves for her. It's so soft and intimate, and yet it also reminds us of their fight in season one. Miranda is happier, but Flint wouldn't get them out of Nassau, and now Miranda is building a kind of life wihout him, much like he did with his life as a pirate.

We can see the beginning and the end now, but not how the two link up.

[alexwatchesshows]

So, I'm watching Black Sails with some friends starting tomorrow (this has no bearing on my rewatch and reviews for this acc) and I wanted to make a Black sails bingo that could be used for each episode. It would include things like "fuck you Jack" and "Flint gets covered in blood". Has anyone got any other ideas for things I could include?

I'll post the final version if I can piece one together.

[alexwatchesshows]

Black Sails X review (S2E2)

Spoilers for up to and including E10.

"Strange pairs, Lieutenant, they can achieve the most unexpected things."- Thomas Hamilton

Billy's back! I mean, he's being tortured, but he is still technically back. Unfortunately, because my brain only ever wants to cause me pain, my first thought was of what he's going to go through when he finds out Gates is dead.

We go from that awful biblical torture, to Thomas Hamilton reading the Bible (I want to say Genesis, but I truly know so little about it), and I'll get to the flashbacks later but the way the camera pans over to Flint as Thomas reads "it is not good that he is alone" just breaks my heart.

Anyway, first to Nassau, where shit's getting real. Ned Low's quartermaster is mad at him because he did massively fuck up with the blood on the crates and all that, but Low's violent, vulgar humour and whatever the hell that personality is has somehow won over his men. It's a bit like the season 1 Flint/Gates dynamic, in that Low has convinced his men to go along with his bullshit under the promise of some kind of passive payout, while painting the logical quartermaster as some kind of villains for pointing out flaws in the plan. In this situation, however, the captain seems to be completely irredemable and his plan for massive riches is to endanger and exploit a teenage girl. It's a much harder sell for the audience than attacking an empire. Missing the support of his crew, Meeks seeks support from Eleanor, who is less than happy about her reputation as someone who "(deposes) captains", given what it did to her the last time she did it. I mean, as it was with Vane, it would probably be a good idea to get rid of Low, just on the basis of him being kind of evil and also a massive dickhead, but, again, looking at where Vane is now, I can see why she wouldn't want to risk it. Speaking of Vane, he has somehow been talked into attending the consortium meetings, even if all he does during them is smoke and look general detached from everything. Baby steps, I guess.

Vane's attendence is the only thing that's going well for Eleanor and the consortium, though. The whole shipping plan that was presented as the solution to everything last season is barely working, and, even worse for Eleanor, it's her family name that's the problem. Vane's reputation is proving useful, but, as he (at least feels that he) holds all the power, it's down to him to decide whether Eleanor and her consortium can coninue to hold any power in Nassau, which is not ideal, because he's unreliable at best. Still, he's not entirely wrong when he refers to Eleanor as "a tyrant too weak to enforce her own tyranny". It's a harsh interpretation, sure, but it's not necessarily fully incorrect. Maybe it's this accusation of weakness that pushes her to take a harder stance with Ned Low. That was probably a bad place to start, though, because that man does not care about anything and angering him only results in further violence. Like, a lot of violence.

This level of violence is probably what causes Eleanor to relent and go to Vane for help. She knows that she can't appeal to him with her power, as he's already expressed his disdain for her "tyranny", so she appeals to his "concern" for her. Honestly, these two just keep making each other worse, but maybe if Ned Low's downfall can be brought about as a result of their dysfunctional relationship, maybe it's worth it. And then there's the "prize" Eleanor mentions. Poor Abigail Ashe.

And while violent shit is going down at Eleanor's bar thing, soft, romantic shit is going down at the brothel. I love this plotline so much-- the way it shows Anne slowly coming to terms with her sexuality and processing what it means for her and Jack is just so well-done in all its complexity and,,, emotion. Oh god I love them all so much. This is also possibly the first relationship in the show that is portrayed in a genuinely romantic way, and it's a sapphic relationship, which is one of the many reasons I love this show. It would also have been so easy to just take this whole Anne/Max/Jack dynamic and just put Jack in the role of jealous boyfriend and portray Anne and Max's relationship as just cheating, but my beloved Black Sails had better plans than that. Instead, we show Anne's internal conflict between her feelings for Jack and what she feels she owes him and her feelings for Max-- ones she probably hasn't let herself acknowledge before. Similarly, we all know by now that Jack isn't the kind of person to cause a massive scene and confront the other two, nor does he necessarily even want to. Instead, he just turns up to talk about his business plans. I mean, those are some good ideas, but there's a time and a place. They could also have had Jack go down the route of just completely ignoring the relationship, diminishing the importance/significance of sapphic relationships, but instead we get his wonderful reaction: "Darling, I can understand why you wouldn't want to tell me about this, but please know that all I have ever wanted is for you to be happy. Come to bed when you're through." Just everything about it, from the tenderness of the darling, to the acknowledgement of the conflict Anne must be feeling, and the way his love for her just radiates off him. I don't think I've ever loved Jack (or Anne for that matter) as much as in this moment.

Now to the Walrus crew (technically not on the Walrus but I can't be asked to differentiate at this point). Our unlikely couple are finally getting their shit together and making each other worse. Silver is still asserting that he does not want to be a pirate, and is simply sticking with the crew for the sake of Flint's get rich quick scheme. Flint is so committed to being a pirate that he's going to take down the british empire... somehow. These two are obviously going to work so well together. Both of them are using manipulation as their tactic of choice, but on different levels. Flint knows what he wants and goes directly for leadership. He starts with a slightly misguided attempt at small talk about books with Dufresne (he's so me fr), then turns the conversation into a confession, as if he believes that he can convince Dufresne that he's really really sorry and then Dufresne will just let him be captain again. Don't get me wrong, I do believe Flint when he says the guilt is killing him, but I just don't thing D is the best audience for this. Flint also knows this, as he (maybe) goes for a different tactic. It's never made explicit whether Flint meant to deceive or advise Dufresne. I'm sure his intentions weren't purely to help Dufresne, but he might have genuinely been advising Dufresne for the reasons he believed-- that if Dufresne had successfully taken a prize, his position would have been much more secure. I think it's much like the scene with Billy, neither we nor, possibly, Flint, know what his intentions were. Either way, Dufresne goes ahead with Flint's idea, one that De Groot approves of from a sailing perspective, which really says something about Flint's talent not just as a leader of men, but as a sailor. It really makes you think about what would have happened had he not had to leave London for whatever those reasons were.

As Dufresne's mission to capture a merchant ship goes on, it becomes harder to believe that Flint has the crew's best interests at heart. He narrates the whole thing to Silver and clearly knows what Dufresne should be doing, but makes no effor to advise him on this. As a result, the attack quickly goes downhill. Dufresne also runs into another problem-- aside from his lack of experience-- which is that he doesn't have Flint's notoriety and nor does he have the charisma to make up for it. It's probably this that tips the merchant captain off and gives him the confidence to call for his crew to resist. Then Dufresne's lack of experience also comes through as he doesn't know how to handle the crew in such a situation. Controlling a crew under fortunate circumstances is one thing, but, as we've seen with Flint, retaining their loyalty under hardship and chaos is something else entirely. Dufresne took control of the Walrus crew after a patch of difficulty under Flint, then found fortune under his time as leader but, as soon as he has to deal with something like this, he crumbles. As Mr Logan points out "no one is in fucking charge" on the ship-- Dufresne is too stubborn to give up on a mission that the rest of the crew have lost faith in, De Groot, voice of wisdom though he may be, doesn't hold much authority as a leader, and Flint is still disgraced. Ultimately, Flint is essentially decided as the best option, helped by his willingness to immediately order an effective retreat. Then he heads off to the captain's quarters with all the confidence in the world. The vote hasn't even happened yet, but he knows how to lead well enough to know exactly what he's just done.

At the end of the day, he's still nice to Dufresne, reassuring him that the vote was close-- Flint isn't the type to gloat, at least not in such an over way, and Dufresne could still be a powerful ally. And, most importantly, Flint has a new jacket.

Silver, meanwhile, is taking a different approach to winning back his position on the crew. Honestly, this showcases what I love about S1/2 Silver: he's scrappy. He's not necessarily inherently a team player, but he knows how to work with and against people to ensure his own survival, and, unlike (sorry) Flint, he does it in such an entertaining way that he also ensures that he's well-liked. Flint, god bless his autistic heart, has absolutely no idea what the hell Silver is playing at, and Silver gives him some kind of story about his past. Now, given Silver's track record of lying his ass off, we have no idea whether or not this is true, but, regardless, it's the only insight we've got into his life pre-merchant vessel. Honestly, it doesn't tell us a whole lot that we don't know-- well-off men were rarely conscripted onto merchant vessels as crew members-- but it still fleshes out the sense of powerlessness and potential tragedy in Silver's past. Either way, as the days go by, Silver's ploy of playing the men off against each other starts yielding some results, and, as Flint-- who he has formed an uneasy alliance with-- comes back into power, his survival becomes almost guaranteed.

And now we get more London flashabcks, i.e. backstory of Flint's previous unlikely partnership. In this partnership, however, Flint/McGraw is the realist, and Thomas is the dreamer. He's the one who tells McGraw that, in approaching Nassau, he should forget the pirates. Sure, he's not necessarily wrong in framing piracy as a symptom of a wider issue, but very few men, let alone members of the nobility, would have had the optimism and insight to take that approach. McGraw still tries to point out the flaws in the rest of the plan, listing the extensive resources that would be needed to establish stability on Nassau, and still Thomas is unfazed. I'm not sure whether he's being incredily smart or incredibly stupid about this, but honestly I support him.

Then we get a little insight into the other side of McGraw's life-- his relationships within the navy. It's clear that Admiral Hennesy holds him in some regard, and sees his potential (honestly, he's giving father-figure vibes in this scene, not necessarily good ones though), but, because of his class status, his peers don't hold him in that level of regard. This is yet another problem with the empire/civilisation that we haven't explored much yet, but classism is clearly a massive problem in both James' life and British society as a whole. Then, as the taunting continues, we see what we recognise as Flint's kind of passion and violence arise in McGraw, and a fight breaks out. Hell, he even looks more like the man we know as Flint as he gets roughed up and even gets some blood on him (a key aspect of Flint's appearance). I don't blame him for reacting, but Hennesy isn't wrong when he expresses about "the thing that arises in (James) when passions are aroused [where] ... good sense escaped [him]", and what it could become when "exposed to extremes", which we have already seen with Gates, and which I can't help but think is going to make some kind of comeback in episodes to come.

[alexwatchesshows]

I'm watching 1.7 and the break in Flint's voice when Gates is questioning him in the stable and he's like "I'm trying to answer the question" is devastating. The facial acting that Toby is doing here is like, he does great body language here and the trembling voice and nervous swallowing and darting eyes, you can see him trying to stave off some kind of extreme anxiety attack. Because. Like. God the flashbacks he must be having to London and Hennessey and Alfred Hamilton. Anyway, what he is saying just gets more and more desperate throughout the exchange, but legit he is trying to level with Gates the only way that he can in this moment. There is no version of Flint right now who could tell the whole truth, bc of his background, bc of the trauma, bc of what happened last time he trusted someone like that. So when we see what appears to be a mental BREAK, and he tells Gates his vision of sequestering a portion of the Urca gold for the future of Nassau and their men, that's him trying to explain his motivation the best way he can.

And the worst part is, he just sounds crazy and meglomaniacal and Machiavellian and DERANGED. It's exactly the wrong thing to say to Gates at that moment, they have already broken apart, it's too little too late, it's ten years too late!! Gates is hearing a lying maniac being conniving and cold and awful about Billy. But tbh, when I hear Flint say "He fell. Why? What do you think happened?" I just hear someone that WE KNOW doesn't know in his heart of hearts WHAT HE DID, WHAT HAPPENED, and he just... it would be easier if someone just told him.

I know we joke about Flint being full of SHIT, and he is in MUCH of the show, he does SO MUCH LYING. But this entire exchange doesn't feel like that. It feels like he's cracking and reaching and grasping and trying. And he has no earthly idea what path he would even take to get Gates back on side.

Gates says, "This is what we do. You orate and you dissemble and I look the other way..."

And the saddest fucking part, the most tragic of the tragedy is that HE'S NOT WRONG. That is what they do!! and it's. It's over! It's too much!

But poor fucking Captain, he just... He doesn't know how else to be.

And with regard to SilverFlint, and their arc... I've been thinking this go round about why it's different from Flint's relationship with Miranda or with Gates or with anyone...

And, well... It really is just a case of finding deep understanding from a person you never expected, isn't it?

At first it is extremely begrudging, because he doesn't have another choice, unwilling allies due to strife. But eventually it does becomes voluntary.

At its core, I think the reason that relationship is different, is because that becomes clear to Flint over time, and then he is able to offer up all the sides of himself to be further collated and understood.

And then faster than the speed of fucking light we get to 3.10 and 4.9: "You asked me where I began, and I felt that you were entitled to an answer. To the truth." and "I cannot do it without you." Silver says, "We might be friends by then" and by fuckin god they ARE. "As my partner as my friend" and "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." So, what I've been circling is... sitting down in the woods and just telling Silver everything that happened in London is exactly what he can't do with Gates in 1.7 :////

[alexwatchesshows]

Disovered you thanks to Black Sails post. Love it <3 2 shows I will recommend to add for future polls. Galavant - comedy musical - 18 eps total Wynonna Earp - think Supernatural but with badass ladies instead - 49 ep total

Tsym! I'm still surprised that there are people reading my posts lmao.

I haven't watched either of those shows but they both sound great. I like to watch shows at least once before covering them on this account as a) it gives me a chance to see if I think I can write enough about them/if I want to write about them and b) I can just enjoy my first watch without thinking about what I'm going to write about it. I've added them both to my to-watch list and, once I've watched them once, I'll add them to future polls.

Thanks so much for the recommendations :)

[alexwatchesshows]

Black Sails IX (S2E1) review

Spoilers for up to and including E9.

"Great men are made great by one thing and one thing only— the relentless pursuit of a better world. They don't give up that pursuit; they don't know how, and that's what makes them invincible"- Miranda Hamilton/Barlow

We start with a cold open, much like the beginning of E1, with a pirate crew boarding a merchant ship. The captain of the merchant ship is a bit of a pirate stan, and also basically runs us through all the stuff we thought we'd learnt about pirates in S1: "these are men not monsters", fear is only used as a tool for surrender, if they surrender easily they shouldn't be hurt, etc. Basically all the stuff that proved that pirates were just men forced into a violent job and further demonised by "civilisation"'s propaganda. Then that's all turned on its head by Ned Low. To be honest, I don't like Ned Low (obviously not as a person, but even as a character), he does nothing for me. I guess he's useful to add some complexity to the whole pirates thing, but inherently bad/evil characters do very little for me personally. Then we get a little hint of plot with Abigail Ashe, a girl presumably of the british upper class, who was drugged and kept on board the merchant vessel. Nothing's come of that yet, though.

Then Ned Low heads off to Nassau, which could honestly already do with less of whatever the hell he's trying to sell. I feel like Ned Low would be a customer service worker's nightmare. He gets fined for blood-soaked property, then goes to flirt with Eleanor to get a refund or whatever. Eleanor, meanwhile, is a bit done with men. Vane seems to be loving the idea of having control of the fort and, therefore, Nassau, but, as we saw with his crew in S1, he can't actually be bothered to do anything to, you know, control it. He's got his power and now he's happy to let the world fall apart around him. Then he goes on a random rant comparing himself to Eleanor and just making a bunch of assumptions that don't necessarily ring true. Eleanor is not having a good day with men imposing their emotions/experiences on her, so it tracks that when Ned Low comes and tries to do basically the exact same thing she tells him to leave. I've never loved her more.

Over in the brothel, Jack is having a shit time of it. The one thing he truly cares about is his name, and Vane has well and truly ruined that for him. Anne is sympathetic, but unfortunately the only form of comfort she knows how to offer is murder, which wouldn't really work in these circumstances. It probably also doesn't help that it was partially her murdering that got Jack into his current situation. Max tries to smooth things over with both of them, which doesn't really work to begin with, and is definitely worsened by her just fully owning up to selling leads without Jack or Anne's knowledge (even if her reasoning was sound), then we get that scene with Max and Anne. We had hints of this coming up, and anyone who knows much about Anne Bonny as a historical figure knows that she wasn't straight, but I didn't fully expect this specific relationship. I also didn't fully trust Black Sails to do such beautiful queer representation (the only previous sapphic relationship felt very directed towards the male gaze and generally pretty awkward, not quite forced, but it didn't feel natural like this did). This, though, is emotional and beautiful and soft. The way Anne goes from holding the knife to Max's throat to dropping it as the kiss goes on, the way Max doesn't seem worried by Anne's holding the knife. This is quite possibly the most romantic show of intimacy on the show so far.

The main focus of this episode, though, was the Walrus crew and their attack on the Spanish warship. Flint looks like he's had a haircut, which is a very relatable way of responding to his life falling apart, but is also unlikely given that this picks up right where season 1 left off, so it's probably just the good old nearly drowning treatment. Silver still calls him captain, which is interesting, but maybe that's just how he sees Flint or he's trying to stay in the man's good books; to be fair, Dufresne calling him "Mr. Flint" just sounds wrong. Dufresne's logic, combined with Flint's ability to manipulate people (the whole "fucking warship" speech was very effective) manage to win him and Silver a loose kind of pardon. Obviously being executed isn't ideal, but Flint clearly hates the idea of being removed from the crew of the Walrus (or I guess the unnamed Spanish warship now) almost as much. Silver, on the other hand, is just happy to take any chance at survival that anyone offers him, much to Flint's anger.

I'm going to be honest, I didn't really expect Flint and Silver to just... swim out to the ship. I guess if it works, it works, but something about the simplicity of it took me by surprise. To be fair, I guess the virtue of that whole plan was that it was so simple that there was little room for it to go wrong. It's also a fun little moment for the development of Flint and Silver's relationship. Although Silver has recognised Flint as the one person who doesn't want him dead (and tells Flint that the reverse is also true), he's also one of the few people who hasn't really fallen to Flint's bullshit yet. He even goes as far as fully calling Flint out on his tendency to control everything he can when he tells him "we're both better off now than we were two minutes ago, yet you're angry about it because it didn't happen your way", which does, unfortunately for everyone probably, ring very true. Still, the two of them muddle their way through the taking of a massive fucking warship surprisingly well (honestly, parts of that scene feel almost like a comedy), and the rest of the crew comes to the rescue just as things are starting to properly go to ship.

Then we get my favourite new aspect of the show: Flint's backstory (or, as I coined it at some point in season 1, Flintsight*). In this one episode, we learn more about him than we did over the entirety of the first season. We learn that he's a rising star in the navy, despite his working class background (which would have put him at a massive disadvantage). We see the beginning of his friendship with Thomas Hamilton, and Miranda even comes onto the scene towards the end. This is also the first time we actually see civilisation first-hand, and, I'm going to be honest, it's not a good look. It says something that the second civilisation scene we get is a hanging, complete with McGraw's "civilisation needs its monsters" moment. I'm glad to see that the disillusionment remains consistent across his timeline. Anyway, the key players are all set up in London. We know (roughly) where this ends, now we'll see how they get there.

*I'm not proud of that, but I do like it

[alexwatchesshows]

Black Sails season 1 wrap-up

Spoilers for all of season 1.

What a season. To be honest, season 1 is by far my least favourite season of Black Sails, but it's still quite a bit better than most of the other shows I've watched.

I'm not really sure how to structure this, so I guess I'll just start with looking about the shift of power in Nassau. At the beginning of the season, Richard Guthrie arguably holds most of the power, with Eleanor as his proxy in the town. Hornigold has the fort, which means... something, I guess. As Richard Guthrie's tenuous connections to civilisation are severed (and he is injured in a fight with the British troops), he loses his power, but Eleanor (and to an extent, Flint), takes over fully, still acting in his name, and continues to run Nassau relatively well, until Richard Guthrie comes back to fuck shit up even more. He isn't content with just trying to sabotage Flint's plan with the Urca, and decides that announcing his arrest is the best next step, ultimately creating more chaos. Despite some people's claims that this will also be the end of Eleanor's claim to the island, she manages to (quite quickly) regain her standing and power, by collaborating with influential captains (most notably Hornigold) and creating a shipping consortium that seems to be running successfully. Once again, a level of order is returned to Nassau and, once again, someone comes along to disrupt it. This time, it's Vane, with his hired pirates from the mysterious island, who reveals the power of the fort, taking it from Hornigold, but ultimately (I think) leaving most of the rest of Nassau's power structure in place, just putting himself a little above everyone else, because he can.

The crew of the Walrus spends most of the season on the verge of a similar power upheaval, but doesn't actually undergo one until the last episode. Flint, with the help of Billy and Gates, and a whole lot of lying and manipulation (and a little murder), manages to cling onto his role as captain for about seven and a half episodes. Killing Billy (or at least, letting Billy die, or not doing much to dissuade Gates that he did that) was what ultimately led to his downfall as it turned Gates, his most loyal man, against him, allowing him to unite the crew, but this time against Flint. Maybe if he'd accounted for the weather in his navigations and had found the Urca sooner, a complete mutiny would have been avoided, but, given how close he was to it throughout the season, it was probably going to happen at some point.

I can't figure out how to smoothly transition into this, so we're just going to look at some of the characters now.

Flint remains somewhat of a mystery to us. Over the course of the season, we see how he is driven by an ambition to make Nassau something more through the Urca gold. He's presented as almost being separate from the other pirates, furthered by the fact that he spends time living with Miranda on the inner-island. He knows how to captain a ship, motivate a crew, and spice a pig. He's well-read. He's an emotional wreck. The only insight we have into his and Miranda's backstory is Richard Guthrie's likely warped, gossipy account of Flint having an affair with Miranda, driving Miranda's husband mad with grief. It's clear that Miranda never wanted to be in Nassau, but there's no way in hell Flint will accept a pardon that will allow him to return to civilisation with her. Aside from Miranda, he was clearly good friends with Gates, but I doubt that Gates ever knew as much as Miranda about his history. He also has some kind of friendship with Eleanor, based on their shared borderline-obsessive motivation to make Nassau more powerful. Mostly, he just seems angry, sad, and traumatised, but remains a mystery.

Silver, similarly, remains a mystery. We learn almost immediately that he's quick, smart, and independent. He came from a merchant vessel (which he possibly wasn't employed on willingly) and is only working with the pirates for as long as it will take for him to get his gold. He's earned some of Randall's loyalty, and has wormed himself into Flint and Eleanor's lives, but doesn't seem particularly attached to any person or crew. Honestly, he hasn't changed much as a character yet.

Vane has not had a great time of it, and it is partially his fault. He took quite a detached approach to his crew and general leadership, which resulted in him having little to no control over how his men treated Max, causing him to fall way out of Eleanor's good graces. His complete fall from power led to him having some kind of soul-searching mental breakdown and eventually going back to somewhere where he was enslaved(?) at a younger age. On this mysterious island, he fights the demons of his past, and emerges stronger, both in terms of men and in terms of his sense of self. He is truly reborn when he rises from the literal grave. Then he retakes Nassau and can face Eleanor once again, but allows her to retain some power.

Jack and Anne are basically joined at the hip, no matter how much they may resent each other at times. Jack's mistake with the pearls gets them (and Vane) into trouble and the situation with Max is the closest they come to breaking, but, whatever happens, they go through it together. They go from being valued crew members, to disgraced crew members, to brothel owners, to (briefly) Eleanor's murder accomplices, to generally much more successful brothel owners, to incredibly disgraced brothel owners. They barely communicate, they seem to have very different goals and values, but they stick together.

Eleanor, much like Flint, is constantly fighting to stay in control. Unlike Flint, she still holds some control by the end of the season. Through her ambition, she loses a lot of people: Max, her father, Mr. Scott, but she stands pretty strong throughout this. The main development we see is her learning to swallow her pride to "forgive" Vane publicly, and her generally becoming a little less impulsive. There's also that lovely moment of understanding that her and Max come to at the end. Neither of them are in ideal positions, but they're still standing.

Speaking of Max, she's gone through hell. More than any other character so far, she has suffered for her ambition (probably as she is more vulnerable because of her race, class and gender). Despite this, she maintains her dignity and uses her intellegence and dedication to not only regain her old position at the brothel, but to rise up and become its new madame. Her outfit in the last episode shows just how much she's risen in the world. God, I love her.

We haven't necessarily had much time to explore many themes in a lot of detail yet, but we've seen the beginnings of a lot of them. Power is a big one, but I feel like I've written enough about that in regards to Nassau, the Walrus, and the individual characters. We see that there are lots of different types of power a character can hold such as, money/privilege, the regard of others, strategic power, and we see that all of these are very prone to change. Empire/civilisation is another key theme. Pirates exist outside of mainstream civilisation, allowing for those who may have been powerless within it to hold some degree of power. We see the democracy of the pirate crews as an example of this, as well as Eleanor, a woman, holding one of the main positions of power. Despite this, Nassau is not a safe haven, and, especially through Max and Mr Scott, we see that many forms of discrimination still thrive, even if there aren't any laws to uphold them.

I'm sure there's more to say about this season that I'll remember as soon as I post this, but this still feels like a servicable wrap-up, so enjoy, I guess. I'll be back very soon with my season 2 episode wrap ups.

[alexwatchesshows]

Black Sails VIII (S1E8)

Spoilers for up to and including E8.

I forgot that all this happened in one episode, but then again it's Black Sails, and this is the first of four amazing season finales.

Silver is somehow still alive and on the Walrus, although given that his position currently relies on Randall, he's probably not as secure as he'd like to be. To be fair, those 18th century prosthetics don't look fun and I'm not sure I wouldn't feel the same if someone tried to make me wear one. Either way, Silver somehow has less problems than the rest of them. His schedule was actually correct (can we just take a moment to appreciate that this man held a full fucking schedule in his head for weeks after having it for one day), Eleanor's still protecting him (I assume), and he may be about to come into a lot of money. He clearly wants some clarity in terms of what Flint's plans for him are, which Flint absolutely will not give him, but, honestly, things could be worse. He could be Gates.

Flint and Gates are just a complete mess at this point. A bunch of people are expecting Gates to kill Flint whilst Gates, the wonderful man that he was, was going to help Flint escape but even then would definitely end his career as a pirate. Flint, meanwhile, would never let anyone get in between him and the Urca. I'm pretty sure they put that drinking scene in there just to hurt us even more, to show us that a) Flint and Gates are actually really close friends and b) Gates is (was) a gem of a human being. Seriously, who else would spend weeks trying to deliver a letter to a friend's sister? And all that just makes the events of the following day even harder. After everything that's happened, the Urca isn't there. I can't explain why, but something about that just feels so fitting. It's not good for Flint though, as it brings all the tensions between him, Gates, and the rest of the crew to boiling point. De Groot wants Flint tried then and there, Flint wants to go after a literal man o' war (I don't know much, but it having "war" in the name is generally a bad sign), and Gates, oh poor old Gates, just wants to get everyone back to Nassau before shit hits the fan, but I think he knows that that won't happen. Him handing Dufresne the letter with his confession was him admitting that to himself, and letting himself believe, for the first time, that Flint might rather kill him than give up on his dreams. This realisation is, for him, the breaking point that brings all the other realisations crushing down, and he loses it with Flint. He finally tells Flint that "(his) duty is to the (crew) not you", something that Flint had convinced both of them wasn't true, and Flint can't recognise that Gates is beyond believing in anything he says, I don't think he realises the extent to which he's grasping at straws until he accuses Gates of muntinying and Gates reveals everything he's been doing to manage the actual muntiny but, at this point, I think he's too far gone to actually act rationally on it. The final straw for Flint, though, is Gates' crushingly well-meaning plan to get him and Miranda to safety. The second he heard the word pardon, it was over for Gates. Whatever the backstory is between Flint and Miranda, I don't think he knows all of it, because, unlike Miranda, he didn't even try to sugarcoat the suggestion of taking the pardon. I think the worst thing is, neither of them could have stopped what was going to happen. Gates couldn't have prevented a mutiny for any longer, and Flint couldn't have let Gates take his life as a pirate away from him. Despite, or because of, its inevitability, that scene is the most emotional one in the show so far. It really showcases what Black Sails is becoming and the direction that it's heading in (more on that in my season 1 wrap-up probably). And the most Black Sails thing about it is that, as Flint is killing one of our most beloved, genuinely kind-hearted, characters, we feel more sorry for him than ever before. I can't express or describe the emotions that watching Flint choke his best friend to death, all while crying and apologising again and again evokes, but oh boy are those emotions powerful. This is definitely some kind of turning point.

Then, as Flint is processing what he's just done, holding Gates' body, Silver comes in. These two are a match made in hell, we can be sure of that. Flint has just killed someone, acting on emotion and impulse, and now Silver is coming in with little to no emotion and immediately treats the situation like a crime scene, all while Flint is collapsed like a cornered, dying animal. Flint tries to stop Silver but quickly gives in, whether because he sees the logic in it or just because he can't fight anymore (probably a bit of both). Then, just as a new sort of equilibrium has been achieved in this moment of absolute chaos and upheaval, Dufresne also comes to shake things up. At this point, it's probably good that Silver's also present, because Dufresne hasn't always been the best at acting on what's smartest, as opposed to what feels best. Silver is possibly too good at talking people into being what he wants, because Dufresne ends up giving Flint important advice, reaching some kind of uneasy truce.

As such, they go into the confrontation with the spanish ship with some kind of (not necessarily firm) footing, which Flint immediately tests with his ploy to prove that the man o' war is there for the Urca, and then going to attack a ridiculously overpowered ship. Also, Silver speaks Spanish? Anyway, this proves to be too much for Dufresne who shows more awareness of other people's perceptions of him than I maybe gave him credit for and choses the right exact moment to call Flint out. De Groot, meanwhile, is being the grumpy and prophetic old man we all know and love (I mean, seriously, "Time and time again he gambles with our lives. That is, when he's not taking them in cold blood." this man could make a killing as a writer of some sort, along with Mr "there are not legacies in this life ... just the water. It pays us, then it claims us" Gates, grumpy prophetic old men rise up I guess). For the second time in one day, Flint is having his power, future and dream taken away from him at the last moment. There's a moment where everything comes full circle as Logan(?) confirms the evidence condemning Flint is true, much as Billy confirmed Singleton's "theft", except, this time, it's likely that the evidence is true (although we never see the letter). Flint can see he's lost, but he keeps screaming for the guns to fire, then tries to fire them himself, only stopping when Dufresne literally shoots him.

At some point in the middle of all this, De Groot stops being a pessimistic prophet for a moment to actually do something. It's a good move, because Silver is one slippery man, and De Groot almost has him when we get one of the plot twists of all time: Randall, the man who, as far as we've known so far, has barely any awareness of his situation and little to no loyalty to Silver, fucking knocks De Groot out with his prosthetic leg, and follows that up with "you're welcome". What a guy. He remains a mystery to me-- this only complicates things-- but what a character. Silver then uses this opening to just shake shit up, I guess maybe because he thinks that starting a battle is one way to avoid immediate execution. We get a few moments of not quite calm, but organisation, as the Walrus crew accept that they're in battle and now need to win. Flint gets some semblance of control back as he advises/commands Dufresne, moving round the ship freely again, despite having recently been shot. The pirates have momentary victory thanks to the element of surprise. Then, in a moment of incredibly cinematography, the man o' war's gun ports open, audio becomes distant for a moment, then all hell breaks loose.

At this point, we should probably admit that Gates, Dufresne, and everyone who said that firing on a man o' war would be a really, spectacularly, bad idea were probably right. The Walrus is met with pure destruction. At some point, Flint is knocked overboard into the water. Whether he's unconscious or just letting himself sink is unclear but that shot of calm amidst the destruction is eerily beautiful.

Meanwhile, on Nassau, things are not going a whole lot better. At the beginning of the episode, it does look like Jack has some level of control over his new (not necessarily ideal) situation. He's firing Mapleton, he's working well with Max, he's got the merchants on his side, things are the best they've been for him for the best part of this season so far. Anne is not happy about any of this, but doesn't really say why. There's also a moment of her just... looking at Max in a moment of yearning(?) that breaks her general grumpiness for just a second. Eleanor, too, has got her shipping consortium more or less sorted. Sure, Mr. Scott is leaving her and she has no idea what's going on with Flint, but, like Jack, she's made the best of a bad situation and has more than found her feet

Then, just like with the Walrus, everything comes crashing down around them. Vane has returned with a vengance, a new crew, a shockingly effective plan, and a flare for the dramatic. Immediately, he sews as much panic and confusion as is humanly possible and, in doing so, effectively asserts his power. Mr Scott, despite his increasingly complicated relationship with Eleanor, immediately goes to protect her, making him possibly the only helpful person in this situation. Vane doesn't seem to have much of a goal beyond the ever-elusive ideals of power and strength, and all Hornigold cares about is his fucking chair. Vane then comes fully onto the scene with a slightly out of place story about Eleanor being fearless in Nassau, then claims to know her. Honestly, a lot of this seems like a massive ploy to get Eleanor to talk to him, but I guess it has worked a little. Eleanor is, for once, incredibly pragmatic about the situation, switching loyalties from Hornigold to Vane very quickly. That definitely won't have any negative consequences. Vane, too, adjusts very quickly to his new situation and immediately goes around to tie up his other loose end. As Anne predicted, he's suitably mad at (what he thinks was) Jack killing the remainder of their crew, and has found the worst possible punishment for a man obsessed with his name and reputation. At least, while all this is going on, Max and Eleanor come to some kind of agreement. Max is dressed spectacularly, and they're both stood in a secure position, looking out over Nassau. Max has come to appreciate Eleanor's point of view (and also possibly enjoys showing Eleanor how well she's doing without her) and each one seems to appreciate and respect the other's position and perspective. Yay for communication and emotional maturity!

Then we get our last moments on Nassau, after Max's "on sand, nothing is fixed" speech (prophetic women! yay!), with Vane in Hornigold's damn chair and Eleanor on the beach, just like in Vane's memory of her. It's a cool way to show how the power has shifted in Nassau, all whilst Flint and co. are off dying elsewhere.

Flint is, once again, absolutely covered in blood and sand and just general grime. Silver has pulled him out of the ocean, probably because he's recognised that Flint is the only guy who might not want to kill him immediately. He also seems to have mostly undressed Flint and given his bullet wound the school nurse treatment (wet paper towel). Silver is, once again, looking shockingly unaffected by everything, even maintaining some kind of optimisim that James "why am I still alive" Flint has long since given up on. Then we get yet another stunning shot of Flint and Silver on the beach, looking very small in the space of everything. It's an interesting perspective to just throw in there, even for a moment. Flint also gets an answer to his question pretty quickly as he (now with crumpled shirt) is shown the Urca. That sure is some painful irony-- that, if they had taken one piece of information into account, none of the past episode might have happened. Now, he and Silver are being kept alive as likely sacrifices for the process of getting the gold. What a way to end the season. I'm glad that all the seasons were released by the time I started this.

[alexwatchesshows]

Black Sails VII (S1E7)

Spoilers for up to and including E7.

We're getting towards the end of season 1 and things are really ramping up.

We start with Pastor Lambrick having a crisis of faith. Honestly this man is the stale white bread of characters and I couldn't give less of a shit about him. Let him preach to the cornfields or whatever.

Flint has returned to Nassau to find that things are just as chaotic as they were on board the Walrus. This man can't catch a break and honestly maybe that's a little bit on him. He seems to be trappen on all sides. Eleanor's mad at him because Miranda let Richard Guthrie escape, which he doesn't know about (and also struggles to accept the Miranda would go against him like that). Silver's back on his bullshit and, honestly, good for him, but that's the last thing Flint needs right now. Silver's really clawed himself up into a position of some power (or at least protection) as he's now in the room with Eleanor, Flint, and Gate (i.e. the people in charge). Gates is also now calling Flint out on his bullshit. Mark Ryan does such a good job of acting in this episode-- I can see all the emotions he's going through as Gates fights between his loyalty to Flint and his love for Billy. As he says, I don't think anything else would have made him confront Flint, but whatever might have happened to Billy was a step too far. The emotion in his voice when he says "Billy wasn't expendable to me. He was a son to me" just kills me. Needless to say, Flint's response of "you should've acted as a better father to him" does not put him in my good books. Generally, I spend most of this show supporting Flint in whatever morally reprehensible shenanigans he gets up to, but for this first part of the episode at least I struggle to find redeeming qualities. He can't tell when to just let something be or maybe offer comfort, and uses this moment and Gates' vulnerability to go back to talking about his wider vision of what to do with the Urca gold. I'm not going to lie, he does start to look a bit mad at this point. There's a kind of look in his eyes when he gets caught up in his visions, and it's in full force right now. Unfortunately for Flint, Gates is in a kind of pain that puts him beyond manipulation right now, and the more Flint talks the more he sees through him to the point where he knows he can't stand by Flint any more. The pain. They care about each other so much but Flint's too messed up to realise what he's doing to his friend. He calls Gates Hal. I'm sad.

While Flint tries to get at least a fraction of his shit together, Silver has somehow already got himself into some fresh shit, this time with Randall. It's been hinted at before, but this is the episode where we all really begin to wonder how aware of his situation Randall really is. Some of his scheming suggests that he's actually quite coherent and smart, but maybe he just has moments or maybe Silver is just really good at getting through to him and the rest is chance. It's too soon to tell but it's definitely worth bearing in mind. As we see at the end of the episode, Randall definitely isn't going to give us any answers himself. Whatever his intentions (or lack thereof), he's certainly causing some challenges for Dufresne in his first day as quartermaster. Honestly, even post-throat tearing, I still love Dufresne. He still gives off panicked nerd slightly out of his depth vibes which I massively relate to. De Groot, Dufresne and that other random guy are trying their best, but they're no Flint or Gates and this is all a bit much for them. Silver's gaslighting for his life and he's too good for them and Dufresne & De Groot's weird test. Silver keeps asserting that "he's not a joiner", but at this point he learns that sometimes he has to join to survive. Both he and Randall live another day, but Dufresne's faith in Flint has been brought down a notch. I don't think De Groot's ever had much faith in him, but nobody seems to listen to that ship wizard.

Eleanor has managed to more or less get things functional with her shipping consortium. I'm not entirely sure why anyone gave Naft any power, but I guess they are where they are. And now, to shake things up, Mr. Scott's back! You'd think that this would maybe help clear up some misunderstandings between the two of them, but their relationship is too complicated for that at this point. Eleanor is tired of being controlled by all the different men in her life, of whom Mr. Scott is admittedly one, but Mr. Scott is also right when he points out that Eleanor's family does literally own him. It's hard to work around either of those facts. At least, between the two of them, they manage to more or less free the slaves, but beyond that it's clear that they're at a point of fundamental disagreement and, although it's not exactly going to help things, Mr. Scott probably made the best decision in joining Hornigold's crew and just getting out of the way for the time being.

Speaking of interpersonal emotional pain, Flint now has to confront Miranda over the letter that put him in deep shit. I think the source of the problem is that the two of them are living very different lives and, as a result, have very different outlooks on their situation. Flint is out there doing things and interacting (however badly) with people, whilst Miranda has been shut in that house with only Pastor Lambrick for company for god knows how long. As a result, she's willing to make more sacrifices than him, because, for her, it's true that "(they) have no life (in Nassau)". Or, possibly, asking for forgiveness from England would be more of a sacrifice for him (we still haven't got the details of their backstory yet). This is possibly the first Flint monologue that has made me want to cry. I mean, just, "It requires an intolerable sacrifice. To apologise ... to England ... They took everything from us and then they called me a monster." The emotion reaches through the screen and chokes me every time. It's also worth noting that he says "they called me a monster", not "us", which feeds back into the whole asking for forgiveness being harder for him than for Miranda. It feels like Thomas is almost in the room with them, like whatever happened between those three is really the topic of their discussion, but that they can't talk about him and, when Miranda does break this unspoken rule and just mentions "him", it's enough for Flint to storm out.

So Eleanor and Flint come together in their repective lonely miseries. Flint is once more showcasing some healthy coping mechanisms, winning us back onto his side by embodying wet cat energy. The dynamic between the two of them is a bit weird for a moment there, and I'm beyond Flint goes for a forhead kiss. God knows we've had enough awful heterosexual sex this season.

Eleanor is probably the only person who trusts in Flint at this moment, though. Gates has not only given up on Flint, but actively betrayed him (understandable, given Flint was planning on stealing a bunch of the gold). Dufresne trusts Flint even less than Gates, and, between the two of them, things are not looking good for Flint. Also, secrets between anyone probably won't help any of their situations given what they're going in to. As if taking a Spanish treasure galleon wouldn't be hard enough.

Meanwhile, the remainders of the Ranger crew are scattered and struggling. Anne is generally not happy, though I'm not sure why. Jack is being robbed left right and centre by the prostitutes he's supposed to be in charge of. For some reason, Max has a problem with this. Max has a very strong moral code that I can't quite figure out-- it goes beyond being self-serving, but she's also not clearly loyal to any one person or ideal. Either way, she prompts Jack to sort his shit out, which he does actually begin to do.

Vane, meanwhile, has reached his destination. I've watched this episode quite a lot of times, and I'm still not sure exactly what's going on there, but the best conclusion I can come to is that there's some kind of logging business going on, which that man (Albinus, according to Black Sails Wiki) is running using what is almost definitely slave labour. Vane knows about this place because he used to be enslaved (?) there, hence the matching scars, and wants to use the labour to take back Nassau. Something about being back there, however, flips something in his mind and, presumably being faced once again with the cruelty of Albinus, decides that, if he is to be "strong" (whatever that means to him), he needs to kill him. (We also get what I think is the first use of the term "proper pirates" in this scene, which is just generally an interesting theme to follow) Ultimately, we get Vane rising from the fucking dead, naked, covered in blood, and looking like some kind of monster. That is a truly spectacular way to end an episode.

[alexwatchesshows]

Black Sails VI (S1E6)

Spoilers for up to and including E6.

Today on: why everyone should really listen to Gates.

Billy had questions. They were the right questions to ask, and he had every right to ask them, but he was asking them at the wrong time. Gates kept saying this and he wasn't wrong. It was too late to change their course of action, and Billy would only make things more complicated. As far as the audience are concerned, we know that Flint doesn't know anything about the letter, so there's no immediate concern, but Billy's concern doesn't seem irrational, but Gates has been the voice of reason throughout the show so far, and when he speaks, we listen. It's good to see Billy gaining the confidence to stand up to Flint and start to come into his own as a leader, but, as I keep saying, he's not the captain, he's the quartermaster, and in their situation, the best thing not just for him and Flint, but for the survival of the crew, is to keep them all on one side so they can win the battle. Gates clearly knows this, which is why he takes over when Logan is arguing.

I don't have much to say about the battle itself, but the slaves bring a whole new perspective to piracy and Nassau. So far, Nassau has been presented as a place of freedom and personal liberty, free from the oppression of the various empires, but, given what we know of Mr Scott, we can't really argue with him when he says "(slaves) are cargo, in Nassau or otherwise". The pirates are not morally pure just because they resist empire, and I'm glad we're adding this level of complexity to the discussions around empire in this show. Also it breaks my heart to see Mr Scott doing everything he can to protect Eleanor while she thinks he betrayed her.

Meanwhile, all is not well on Nassau. Eleanor needs to lift the ban on Vane, which she does do (because she doesn't really have a choice), while the captains resent her for not doing it sooner because nobody seems to have a problem with what's happening to Max. I've said it before, but it's absolutely worth noting that the only characters who actually care about Max's wellbeing are the women. Anne's still watching over her, but can't do much by herself. Whether E's reluctance to lift the ban on Vane is out of pride or empathy for Max (I'd guess a combination of the two), the fact that she has to do it to hold Nassau intact doesn't make it easier for her as, even when she does do it, she doesn't say anything, just nods. Honestly, as I've said before, I really don't like this plotline and one of the reasons for this is how much screentime we get of people arguing that Max should be kept in the horrible situation that she's in. I understand the complexity of the situation and how the complications around it do fit into the general vibes and themes of the show, I just personally really struggle with it I guess.

The conflict between Jack and Anne over Max continues. Jack is just oblivious to why this is bothering Anne and probably how and why this is affecting her so much. He, like most of the men, is struggling to see Max as anything other than "the whore", where Anne sees her as a woman in a rough situation who's suffering. Anne and Jack should probably communicate more, but going to Eleanor was actually a pretty smart move. It's also nice to see someone hating Eleanor for a reason that isn't her being a woman (I mean, I know the other pirates have other reasons, but a lot of the time it does come back to that). Anne basically accused Eleanor of being a pirate nepo baby and was actually kinda right, but they're still each other's best options and, between the two of them, they provide a refreshing view of the whole situation. Anne basically toasts Max for telling Eleanor to fuck off, and is honestly right when she says that the male pirates would have done so too and that "if she had a cock we probably would have", because, again, a lot of people just seem to hate Max purely because she's a woman who tried to bring herself even close to their level and, in Nassau, just like everywhere else, there's a level of pervasive violent misogyny that goes beyond whatever laws there are, just like how Mr Scott tells the slaves that they won't be better off there either. Even though neither of them likes each other, Eleanor and Anne come up with a very effective plan and talk Silver into joining them.

Jack's redeeming quality in all this is that, however outraged he is, he still goes along with Anne. Sure, he complains, but Anne's right when she tells him he's had his say, and his decision to keep things as they are isn't working very well, nor is it the right decision morally. Also Anne seems to know more about what's going on with Vane than Jack does. I'm not sure why, but that sheds an interesting light on the dynamic between the three of them.

Speaking of Vane, he's clearly about to go through some shit. Not sure what yet, but the scary man from his hallucinations is sitting by a fire in the middle of nowhere, which is never a good sign really.

The last of the Jack/Anne/Max situation that we see is Anne dropping Max off back at the brothel. Max thanks Anne, as you would, and Anne responds with "I didn't do it for you" which is... confusing. As always, I've got a number of possible interpretations of this: a) Anne genuinely did it for some bigger reason (to stop conflict between E and the pirates? something like that) b) Anne did it because she couldn't stand feeling guilty c) she absolutely did do it for Max and doesn't want her to know that because,,, reasons d) a secret fourth option. Unfortunately, Anne isn't the most emotionally communicative character so we'll probably never fully know.

We also get more Miranda/Flint backstory/insight. Pastor Lambrick just kind of turns up at Miranda's house in the middle of the night which is... strange, and she calls him out on it. Whether he's genuinely completely clueless or just not good at lying on the spot, Lambrick really does spout some absolute bullshit about Flint killing Miranda. We've seen Flint do a lot of fucked up shit so far, but it's already clear that that's probably the one thing he'd never do. I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but Lambrick has a very black and white view of the world, and honestly I don't think anyone can convince him that the pirates aren't all absolutely evil. In exchange for Lambrick's weird excuses, Miranda actually gives us some really interesting insight into her old life with Thomas. We've heard Richard Guthrie's gossipy, third-hand version of it, but this is possibly the first time we've heard much from Miranda herself. She talks of how her and Thomas' house used to be a place of discussion and intellectual insight, which only makes her exile to Nassau more tragic (and also explains why she's been seeking these verbal spars with Lambrick and R Guthrie). She describes Thomas as "a man of ideas" who wanted to "see the yoke of shame lifted from (people's) shoulders" which is honestly a beautiful description that creates such a clear image of who this man we've never met was. It also suggests that maybe RG's version of events wasn't exactly what happened, as Miranda very clearly loved Thomas. Then after that very emotional moment we get more awful heterosexual sex. Yay.

To end the show we get some lovely pain. Flint does actually leave (some of) the guns so they can escape, so he's not necessarily fully down the path of obsession. We never actually see the moment Billy falls into the ocean, in typical Black Sails style, which means we can never know what happened. Again, there are a number of possibilities in terms of what happened: a) Flint pushed Billy in (i.e. Flint is fully responsible for Billy's death) b) Billy was already falling and Flint could have stopped him but didn't or c) Flint genuinely did all he could to stop Billy from dying but couldn't stop him. At this point, I'm not sure whether I can fully believe that Flint would go so far as to just push Billy in, but he's clearly becoming obsessed, even if he isn't that far yet. Flint going to tell Gates himself that Billy has died killed me, but I'm mad that he didn't let Gates drop the sword himself in the sea burial. Honestly, I'm just sad for Gates. Pain. Pain everywhere.

[alexwatchesshows]

Black Sails V (S1E5) review

Spoilers for up to and including E5.

The plot is really picking up now.

Flint is starting to really show why he's a captain. I mean, sure, we've seen his big speeches and all that, but he's also quite good at the day-to-day stuff. He can see that Billy doesn't trust him and knows exactly how to get his support (or at least enough of his support to get them through the next few days). It's also interesting to note that he describes Mrs. Barlow as "a nice puritan woman who shares his love of books" given that a) I'm not exactly sure that she's even puritan and b) there's definitely more to it than that, but I guess that also goes into what will make Billy happy, even if it doesn't give a huge amount of insight into their relationship. We also see that Flint really knows his shit when it comes to the technical side of running a boat. He's willing to (literally) take the wheel and can hold his own against De Groot when arguing about what the ship is capable of doing (and he's right). At this point it also becomes clear that Flint has won Billy's trust (at least for the time being) as he sides with him over De Groot on the whole t'gallants thing (don't ask me what any of this stuff actually means). Also, as an unrelated sidenote, it was cool to see what "knots" actually means in terms of boat speed.

This episode also gives some interesting insight into different styles of leadership. Flint, although he keeps himself apart from the crew, is absolutely willing to get involved in the nitty gritty of managing the ship. This is especially pronounced in comparison to the other captain (Bryson?) who is more concerned about the china than anything else, and won't even see to that himself. Then we have Billy, who's very hands-on. To be fair, the difference between Billy and Flint is possibly also due to the difference in the roles of captain and quartermaster, but still, Billy is absolutely there for the crew (more so than Gates even), he's on their level, giving that very helpful explanation of tactics with the brushes (which also gave me a fighting chance of understanding what the hell was going on), he's there with them. Then there's Vane, who's aloof in a different way. He's going through his own shit (more on that later), but even without that, the fact that he responds to the loss of his crew by just leaving Jack to deal with it is a different thing altogether. Then there's the shitshow that is the Guthries. I wish I knew what Richard Guthrie was thinking because, even when I factor self-preservation in, I can't fully see the logic behind his decision. Eleanor, on the other hand, really shows her full potential as a leader in this episode. She clearly knows the various crews/captains very well and comes up with an effective solution very quickly.

Billy is starting to realise the responsibility that he holds as quartermaster. There's the discussion with Flint, where he acknowledges that although Flint has command over him, his main responsibility is to the crew, which I think more or less sums up Billy as a character so far. He's dedicated to nothing more than his crew. Then there's also the Dufresne plotline. I'm going to put myself out there and say that I actually like Dufresne. I know a lot of people feel either neutral or negative towards him at this point but honestly I think more brutal pirate shows just need the one nerd who's also there because he's good with numbers. I respect him for that. But also Billy's perspective of needing every man he can get is true and he's evidently really good at reassuring Dufresne. We see him try multiple approaches to convince him and he does ultimately succeed (maybe a little too well), and Dusfresne thanks him for it. This does mark something that's not yet a theme but still a little more than coincidence for Billy. He's lied about the note, keeping Flint in power and, in doing so, put the crew on the hunt for the Urca. Now, it was his words that got Dusfresne to fight, putting him in the position where he went (for lack of a better word) completely feral. Billy's good at determining the course of events, but maybe he's a little too good.

Meanwhile, Jack has somehow managed to just about save his, Vane's and Anne's situations by obtaining a brothel. His ability to bullshit is impressive, but Mrs Mapleton clearly couldn't care less. All within the group is not well, though: the rest of their crew are leaving them, there's tension between Jack and Anne, and Vane's going through god only knows what. Max is still a topic of conflict between them and I think, for the first time in the show, Anne's gender is becoming a point of internal conflict for her. She's the only female pirate that we've seen in the show, and one of very few women who holds any kind of position outside the brothel. Jack expects this to be all that matters and for her to share his priorities (keeping as much of the crew as possible, Max paying of her "debt", etc.) but evidently her experience in this world as a woman is making her much more aware of Max's suffering than Jack or Vane are. Vane is also going through some shit (probably linked to that man he kept seeing) and ends up disappearing off into the night without telling anyone anything in a way that's quite reminiscent of Sophie in the opening scene of Mamma Mia.

I do like that we got much more of Anne as a person in this episode. We've absolutely established her as a skilled fighter and recognised-- if not respected-- pirate, but we've seen very little of her internal world. Following her argument with Jack, she evidently goes to get Mapleton, but still stands over them like a guard, and stands up for Max when Mrs Mapleton is being too harsh on her. She's then very gentle with Max as she uses what I can only assume is some strange yet moderatley affective (otherwise they wouldn't be using it) form of 18th century contraception. We get a brief conversation between them, in which we see the clear difference between their views of the world-- Anne can't see why Max wouldn't just leave while she could, whilst Max (once again) asserts her own moral code in which she owes the crew something because she was partially responsible for the loss of the pearls. There's also Anne's comment of "I only thought they'd kill you" in response to Max pointing out that she helped capture Max, which I think shows both what she'd do and a sense that, while she has experience sexual harassment before (as she tells the story about cutting a guy's balls off), she hasn't in a while and hadn't considered that the people she lived around were capable of the levels of violence that they showed, but also shows to us as an audience that Anne wasn't being as callous as we may have assumed in handing Max over.

Eleanor is not having a great time. After RG's dealings with the pastor and whatever the hell kind of change of heart he's had, he gives a long, very misguided speech essentially just screwing everything up and leaving. It's very clear that he doesn't know or care about his daughter very much, especially giving the subtly misogynistic language he uses when talking to her later (claiming she was "seduced" by Flint, talking with Bryson "like men", etc.). He hasn't played a very active role in Nassau in years and hasn't been around to see how much work Eleanor has put into it and how much she cares about it. I think there's also a level of ignorance on his part, as a man, in that he doesn't understand that maybe the reason E cares so much about Nassau is because it's one of the few places in the world where she can hold authority and autonomy, and that maybe she likes being in this kind of position of power. After RG fully fucks off we also see that E's actually a pretty talented leader. Hornigold does sort of help whilst being pretty condescending about it, but it's E who comes up with an effective (and clever) solution. She also proves that she can hold her own in a room full of older men, despite her father's utilisation of her youth and gender to belittle her. Her "strong and stable" thing was giving me Theresa May flashbacks but I must remember that this season was released in a blissfully pre-Brexit world. We also see other people's views on Eleanor's power, and her father seems to be the only one underestimating her, showing just how out of touch he is (I mean, seriously, when fucking Hornigold knows more about your daughter than you do you know you've failed as a parent). Admittedly "tyrant in a petticoat" isn't a glowing endorsement of how she's been running things, but at least he recognises the power (however abused) she holds. Vane probably comes the closest with his idea of "power that just is", power that he seems to be aiming for on his voyage of self-discovery, and Jack is also right in his cautious statement of "to assume we've seen the last of Eleanor Guthrie is not to know her". She, Silver and Jack are currently vying for the prize of Scrappiest Nassau Inhabitant and it's a close battle. We also see that Mr Scott still believed in Eleanor and actually allowed himself to be captured into slavery rather than betray her. There's a father.

Then, to make matters worse for Eleanor, she has fucking John Silver tied to her sofa. He's trying to make the best of a bad situation by giving random unsolicited advice and, admittedly, does actually have some success, but still can't fully get past the barrier of Eleanor blaming him for Max's situation. It seems like Eleanor just can't figure out what she feels about the whole thing-- she blames Silver, she blames herself, she's mad with Max for not accepting her safety, she thinks she made the right decision-- it's all a bit of a mess, and John Silver isn't the guy to help her figure it out.

Then we end with more plot twists. Dufresne being in complete shock, still covered in blood, turning to accounting to calm himself down is honestly why I love S1 Dufresne. Unfortunately, his organisation is going to raise some questions for Flint. Everyone's covered in blood and things are only getting worse.

[alexwatchesshows]

I've also seen people take these archetypes(?) and compare them to their equally queer, more serious/dark/emotionally devastating counterparts: Pirates: OFMD/Black Sails Vampires: WWDITS/Interview With the Vampire (Not exactly biblical) Immortal figures of human nature: Good Omens/Sandman

Essentially, is there one for Ghosts, and also when will we get our cowboy show?

Ok so the way I see it, we have funny, queer, sort of historical retellings for ghosts, pirates, vampires, and biblical figures… where tf is my emotionally devastating, but extremely hilarious gay cowboy show??

[alexwatchesshows]

Black Sails IV (S1E4) review

Spoilers for up to and including E4.

Boat episode! Boat episode! Boat episode!

But more on that later. We start with Gates having a little bit of an identity crisis with the whole "captain Gates" thing. Honestly, the past few episodes have shown that he's a really good quartermaster, but might not be quite cut out for being a captain. It's clear that Flint trusts him and believes in him, but I think a lot of the decision around putting Gates in charge comes from the fact that he's unquestionably loyal to Flint, not in his potential as a captain. On the plus side, Billy does seem to be doing very well as a quartermaster. It's clear that he's popular with the crew, as they all cheer for Gate's suggestion of him. Unfortunately for Billy, this whole promotion has come at a bad time for him personally, as he's just been told about the whole Maria Aleyne thing (maybe not the whole story but still concerning) and he's still feeling conflicted about the note (even if it worked out in the end). He'd clearly make a good quartermaster on the working with the crew side of things, but it'll also be his job to hold Flint accountable, which he's maybe less prepared/equipped to do. Also, there are maybe some things he can never change about the crew, like the "fuck tent" (an unnecessary detail imo, but I guess it helps with that point), but he still ends up getting them to do the job very efficiently, according to De Groot, which is saying a lot (De Groot has evidently Seen Some Shit and also doesn't seem very easily impressed). Speaking of De Groot, he is one of the only people who sees right through Flint. Flint's able to whip the crew up into a frenzy, talk Gates and Billy onto his side and also convince Eleanor that his wild idea could be profitable, but he can't convince De Groot to care about anything other than the ship and the safety of the crew which, honestly, good for him. I do wish we got a little more of De Groot's general practicality because it provides an interesting contrast to Flint's dreams and manipulation/motivation of the crew, but I guess his POV would be a lot less interesting for just that reason.

The careening of the ship was a very interesting way to both really involve the physicality of the ship and the practical elements of working it and to show the crew on a day to day basis. We see the crew just hanging out, something that we don't see a lot of but really helps to emphasise that these pirates, who have been painted as "monsters" by mainstream society, are really just people. I especially liked the detail of Morely (who's previously just been an obstacle to Flint's plans) getting on well with Randall and going to bring Betsy some barnacles. Unfortunately, another painfully human element of these pirates is that they slack off sometimes and that even Billy can't talk them out of it and, when dealing with something as physically massive as the ship, it can have fatal consequences. The ominous creaking was a nice touch, and honestly the whole scene was very well-done, but I also have to add that I genuinely couldn't watch it the first time. For those who may be worried, or who didn't notice, Betsy does escape and is seen running off across the beach. We never see her again, so I like to imagine she got adopted by a fishmonger and lived happily ever after.

Before I get into the rest of the whole ship scene, I need to cover the little bit of Flint and Silver development that we get. Silver is starting to struggle with his whole cook facade, something that I think we can assume Flint knows about, given that he figured out the stolen page thing, but that Flint needs to help him maintain so that Silver can keep giving him the schedule's info and nobody ever realises that Flint framed Singleton. As a result, Flint needs to help Silver cook the pig. Silver also has a point about Flint, a pirate captain, somehow knowing how to cook a pig (more on that later sort of), but Flint is not willing to give Silver any information on anything, or to let him give any advice on the crew (probably a smart move at the moment). Silver's got to learn that his regular tricks just don't work with Flint (I think it's the autism).

In light of this, Silver's move when it comes to the ship tipping is interesting. Flint's willingness to immediately put himself in danger (even going as far as to tell De Groot to save the ship even if it means killing him) to save members of his crew does shed an interesting light on his character too, but it feels like more of a confirmation of something (like he was kind of on the fence in my mind and this just brought him down on one side), not a genuinely out of character moment. Silver, on the other hand, is yet to show any signs of caring about the crew or the ship besides what they can do for him. It is, therefore, interesting that he also brings himself into that whole conflict. In my mind, there are multiple potential reasons for this, and honestly, even knowing the full range of what happens to this character across the whole show, I still can't decide what his motivation was. The ideas I've come up with (ranging from least to most critical of Silver) are: a) he knew he could help (note him looking at the cleaver) and genuinely wanted to save a life, b) he was worried that someone else would notice the cleaver and call him out on his inaction, c) he knew that Flint dying would make his position more precarious, so only did what he did after Flint put himself in danger so he wouldn't die, or d) he knew that putting himself in such an emotionally intense moment with Flint would make him more likely to trust him and help the crew feel more positively towards him. It could be any combination of those things, or something else I haven't thought of, I genuinely don't know. It's also worth noting that, even if Silver did what he did for a genuinely selfless reason, he still wasn't willing to get too involved or put himself in too much danger, as he just threw down the cleaver and stepped away (I mean, maybe he didn't feel qualified to make that decision, but still). Then there's the question of Flint and Morely: did he choose to save Randall over Morely, not realise Morely was there, or deliberately push Morely under? Again, I'm not sure about this one, but I also don't know if I saw everything so if someone has any information I'm missing, please let me know. It's also worth noting that Billy is the one who goes looking for Morely, as he is potentially the only one who knows both the full extent of M's distrust for F, and also knows of F's willingness to kill people who get in his was (and in the way of his mission). On a more positive note, at least this time Flint was dressed for getting covered in blood.

Also, we need a moment of appreciation for Gates and Billy's father/son relationship. The fact that it's implied that Gates talked to De Groot before he even talked to Billy because he knew that Billy would be feeling guilty about it and also just generally him calling Billy son. I honestly just love them. There's also some insight into how both of them see Flint. Gates seems resigned to having little to no control over him, as he just tells Billy that "nobody could have done that" when Billy suggests he might have been able to convince Flint to careen the ship somewhere safer, whereas Billy, although he feels more of a responsibility to stop Flint than Gates does, is more afraid of him than Gates is. Between the two of them, I think we're just learning that no one can control Flint. In fact, the only person who ever seems to have gotten Flint to do what they want is Silver (by burning the page and forcing Flint to keep him alive). This definitely won't go wrong at all.

Speaking of Flint, we get more insight on him (from here on out, I'm going to commit to calling Flint insight Flintsight). We start with that sex scene that I wouldn't necessarily call emotionless, it's just that the emotions are... not the ones you'd expect. Flint doesn't seem mentally there at all, and Miranda seems like she's looking for some kind of connection with him that she knows she won't find. There's a lot of debate around the nature of their relationship, but I would cite this scene as some fairly solid evidence that there's basically no sexual attraction there. Even afterwards, Flint's obvious hesitance to put his arms round Miranda and the sense that he doesn't really know what to do suggests to me that this isn't something that either of them do often. On the other hand, Flint giving Miranda a forehead kiss felt much more comfortable and natural for them. Now, thrown into the mix, we get Thomas Hamilton, the guy who we don't know and only know of through Richard Guthrie's sensationalised gossip story of what happened. It does provide a somewhat viable explanation for how Miranda, a woman from a fairly obviously upper class background, and Flint, a man who doesn't seem to be from a similar background, ended up on Nassau together, but Miranda and Flint's earlier discussion about Thomas suggests that both of them feel too strongly about their old lives and the role Thomas played in them for the situation to have been both of them just recklessly hurting him and risking their respective social standings. The other thing that this backstory plays into is Miranda's obvious sense of loneliness. When she says "this life we've been living here, it doesn't feel like living anymore", it feels like a confirmation of everything we've seen of her so far, but it's also clear from what we've seen of Flint when he isn't with Miranda that, regardless of what he tells her (or even tells himself), he's now fully entrenched in the workings of Nassau and isn't getting out any time soon. We also see more of her isolation from the inner-islanders with the child throwing rocks at her and calling her a witch, and her sad harpsichord music. In light of all of this, her teaming up with Richard Guthrie feels like less of a betrayal of Flint and more like one last attempt to get her old life back. Richard Guthrie, however, does not have me sold on his whole need to protect Eleanor thing. I don't quite know what his motivations are but I'm not buying parental love as one of them. Regardless of R Guthrie's motivations, we now have another scheme and secret. Yay more secrets! I have no idea how this could ever go wrong!

Richard Guthrie, whatever his motivations, does seem really set on stopping Eleanor, however he does it. We do get a sense that Eleanor is the kind of person who sets her mind on a goal and won't go back on it (see Hornigold's concern about her use of authority regarding Max and Vane), even to the extent of betraying Mr Scott, something that evidently hurts both of them. This does feel like another episode of Eleanor and her fathers. It does look like Eleanor really appreciates her father's praise (and is subsequently really hurt by his betrayal of her) but also isn't willing to afford Mr Scott the level of trust that she wants her father to give her. Then there's the element of Richard literally owning Mr Scott, something that the show will not let us forget (as we absolutely should not), reminding us through Richard's weird monologue about Mr Scott "earning himself an education". Despite this, it is clear that Mr Scott does care for Eleanor, as his backing Richard does eventually hinge on a desire to help her. Flint, on the other hand, is an interesting contrast to RG and MS, as they just start to egg each other on. Flint urges Eleanor to drink to "(their) endeavour" and tells her that "nobody will believe it's possible until we show them", convincing her that the seemingly impossible can be achieved. They definitely make an interesting pairing.

While all this shit is going down, the Ranger crew are having a rough time of it. I don't really want to discuss the whole Max scene in and of itself, as honestly it does feel too graphic and, other than emphasising Max's resilience, doesn't really add a huge amount to the show. It is interesting to see how Jack and Anne respond differently to this, though, as Anne sees the whole situation as fundamentally wrong, whereas Jack seems to be stuck on Max's value as an asset. This is probably the first time I've seen the two of them at odds, and the first time that I've seen Anne's gender become a point of conflict in her life as a pirate. Jack isn't made completely unlikeable, though, as his whole "you'd be an asset to any crew" talk with Anne is quite sweet.

Vane, meanwhile, is really not coping well. Jack notes that he's "graduated to opium", and he's also seeing a random man in places (on my first watch I wasn't sure whether the man was actually there or not, but I'm now fairly certain he's a hallucination). There are hints of his backstory with a particularly distinctive scar also being linked to the man, and hallucination Eleanor's thing with "the weakness behind the mask". We also see him get into shit with Noonan's gang (which we probably should have seen coming), and see that even in the state he's in he's still a formidable fighter, with a somewhat feral style (and also look in his current state). Even in Nassau, though, killing a bunch of people in the street, even if they were going to kill you, doesn't feel like a fantastic move.

[alexwatchesshows]

hey who has a screenshot of that toby stephens tweet about his earring. you know the one,, it contains the words "an old hole, still open, from my youth." i need it for science purposes

[alexwatchesshows]

A moment of appreciation for Jack Rackham's sunglasses, possibly one of the best props to ever exist.

Also a moment of silence for the fact that Toby Schmitz lost them after this episode, which is a tragedy even if it is the most in-character thing he could have done.

[alexwatchesshows]

Black Sails III (S1E3) review

Spoilers for up to and including E3.

Finally some Flint insight (Flintsight?).

They'd already established a level of trust between Flint and Miranda with just the few minutes in E2, but the beginning of this episode really establishes familiarity between the two-- Flint knows about the spies that the pastor keeps posting by Miranda's house, and Miranda knows about Flint's goals with the Urca (which would mean she was one of the first people to know). The exact nature of their relationship is unclear, and is muddied even further by Richard Guthrie (awful houseguest that he is) snooping and finding a painting of "Mr and Mrs Thomas Hamilton", more on that in later episodes I guess. Seriously, though, Richard Guthrie is vying for world's worst houseguest-- Flint and Billy save him from being arrested, then Flint takes him somewhere relatively safe to recover, and he responds to this by ordering Miranda about (in the scene with Eleanor) and just searching the house. Miranda, meanwhile, seems to be wanting to start a book club with almost anyone she meets, which is so valid but also suggests that maybe Flint hasn't considered that as he's been off adventuring or whatever, she's actually been quite lonely (she also expresses disappointment at not being able to have him all to herself for a bit), almost forgetting about her in a single-minded pursuit of the Urca. Bringing her a book was a nice touch, though. We also meet Pastor Lambrick who is a... character. Honestly, I don't really know why he's in this show other than to emphasise Miranda's loneliness. There's a weird flirting via Bible vibe that neither of them seem massively into, especially Lambrick, who seems very big on "love through suffering" and all that shit. I guess he does give some insight into what the other inhabitants of the island think of the pirates (i.e. they aren't they're greatest fans), but his views are very black and white, to the extent that he can't possibly imagine why Miranda, a non-pirate, would willingly live with Flint, and asks if he's holding her captive. We also end on a note of Miranda being very perceptive and intellegent, with her recommendation of Meditations (I think?) to Richard Guthrie, and her reading being used to reflect on where all the characters are by the end of the episode. Flint evidently isn't happy about it though.

Meanwhile, Silver is being a slippery bastard. Somehow, I can believe him when he says "we might be friends by then". He's just very good at manipulating people. Not Randall though. He does begin to uncover a level of dissent within the crew though. I was intially interested by whatshisname saying "you know what he is" instead of who, but it turns out that he just believes Flint is undead. Billy seems to be staying loyal to Flint, despite the whole page debacle, but maybe things will change if he learns more about him. Admittedly, the observation that "to (Flint) we're all disposable. Chits to be used for his own purposes" does ring true, given what we've seen so far. Flint clearly does have big goals that he believes will benefit everyone, but he also believes that his way is best and that he's free to do whatever necessary to achieve those ends.

Gates is also good with people but, unlike Silver, this seems to come from just generally being an alright guy. He's good with Billy, he has a good raport with Hornigold, and he even manages to sort of manage Flint. Hornigold is one of the characters in Black Sails who was also a historical figure (I'll make a post about that maybe later). Gates does reference him having connections to the Scottish aristocracy but I can't find any definite confirmation of that. Either way, it's an interesting way to tie in broader historical context. He also reads Jack like a book and uses this to arrange an actually mildly productive meeting of the captains. Jack, meanwhile, is having a slightly less successful time. Gates feels like a father to maybe half the characters, and him talking to Jack feels like a case of "you got yourself into this mess, you're old enough to get yourself out", leaving Jack to coax Vane out of his weird drugs and sex den (those sure are some healthy coping mechanisms you've got there sir) with promises of getting Eleanor to love him again, then being a weird sort of wingman for him throughout that meeting. Vane surprisingly keeps his shit throughout, unlike Flint, who seems to be lacking his usual reason when it comes to Vane, eventually causing Gates to also lose his shit, which I'd imagine would really take some work. We do get an interesting insight into Vane's mind in this scene though, in that we see that he does genuinely trust (and maybe even love) Eleanor, possibly more than she does, and apparently enough to stake the lives of his crew on it. It's not clear whether Eleanor reciprocates these feelings, but it clearly evokes something in her when Vane stands up for her.

This is a very interesting Eleanor episode too-- we get to see her two dads, the one who effectively raised her and the other one who gave her an island, that's definitely not a complicated dynamic, especially not when you throw in the fact that Richard G. owns Mr Scott. It maybe explains Eleanor's somewhat lack of emotional maturity. RG is emotionally distant, and Mr. Scott has to be more concerned with the prosperity of the island and whatever RG's orders are than with Eleanor. Maybe it is because of this that Eleanor fundamentally cannot understand Max's approach to her situation. All care she has been given is fairly material (control of the island, advice on how to make it prosper, etc.), so maybe this is why she cannot understand Max's more emotional approach, which centres her pride and self-sufficiency over any physical and material wellbeing that Eleanor can offer. I'm going to be very honest and say that I hate this plotline, it does feel generally unnecessary and a little gratuitous in how much is portrayed, but it does reveal a lot in terms of how the characters function emotionally. Max is willing to put herself into a very difficult position to preserve her own pride (and withstands it, as seen in the "rocky promontary" scene at the end). Eleanor cannot see why Max won't accept her help, and is additionally very impulsive and emotionally-driven, doing what feels right for her. Vane defaults to withdrawing from any difficult situation, telling Eleanor that "(he) had no choice" in the situation, instead of maybe taking responsibility for the fact that he doesn't have much control over his crew, something that Eleanor has called him out on before, and pretty much lets them run wild and do shit like this. Still, Eleanor's response does feel like it centres her feelings over anything else, and something tells me that it's just going to add fuel to the fire, especially given that Max is determined to stay until she's worked off her debt.

The ending scene is really beautiful. I actually want to read Meditations, and maybe when I do I'll do a little post about it on here, but it's a really neat way of linking all the characters and plotlines at the end of the episode.