Black Sails: Penultimate

The high point of the next-to-last ever episode of Black Sails last night was when Flint shoots the guy who was about to shoot Long John, who was in the process of demanding that Flint give him the treasure, or fight with Flint to the death over it.

As in many decisive acts in this rich, multi-layered tapestry of a story, there is more than one interpretation or explanation for what Flint did.

Maybe it was out of love and admiration for Long John, which certainly had to have been a part of it.

And/or maybe it was Flint, ever quick and incisive in his calculation, knowing that Long John was of much greater value in the fight that loomed ahead, against the British and the Spanish, in Flint's attempt to create a new civilization of freedom.

In any case, it's the British attack on the pirate ship that causes Flint and Long John to halt in their duel, with an eye towards the common enemy.   This creates the right backdrop for the final episode next week.

Of course, as I've been saying all season and earlier, history and Robert Louis Stevenson dictate who will survive and not survive this last battle we'll see in Black Sails.  But I'm very much looking forward to seeing it, anyway.

See also: Black Sails 4.1: "True Friends and Mortal Enemies" ... Black Sails 4.2: Bones vs. Flint ... Black Sails 4.3: Decisive Victories and Losses - On Both Sides ... Black Sails 4.4: Chess Game ... Black Sails 4.5: Bold Moves ...Black Sails 4.6: Spanish Horsemen with Lances ... Black Sails 4.7: Jack Rackham and Fake News ... Black Sails 4.9: Flynt vs. Long John

See also Black Sails 3.1: Restored ... Black Sails 3.2: Flint vs. Sea ... Black Sails 3.3: Gone Fishin' ... Black Sails 3.4: Mr. Scott's People ... Black Sails 3.5: Alliance ... Black Sails 3.6: The Duel ... Black Sails 3.7: The Blackening of John Silver ... Black Sails 3.8: Whether Vane? ... Black Sails 3.10: Wither Vane ... Black Sails Season 3 Finale: Throckmorton

And see also Black Sails 2.1: Good Combo, Back Story, New Blood ... Black Sails 2.2: A Fine Lesson in Captaining ... Black Sails 2.3: "I Angered Charles Vane" ... Black Sails 2.4: "Fire!" ... Black Sails 2.5: Twist! ... Black Sails 2.6: Weighty Alternatives, and the Medium is the Message on the High Seas ...Black Sails 2.7: The Governor's Daughter and the Gold ... Black Sails 2.9: The Unlikely Hero ... Black Sails Season 2 Finale: Satisfying Literate and Vulgar

And see also Black Sails: Literate and Raunchy Piracy ... Black Sails 1.3: John Milton and Marcus Aurelius ... Black Sails 1.4: The Masts of Wall Street ...Black Sails 1.6: Rising Up ... Black Sails 1.7: Fictions and History ... Black Sails 1.8: Money

 

pirates of the mind in The Plot to Save Socrates 

Black Sails 4.7: Jack Rackham and Fake News

Another really excellent Black Sails last night - 4.7 - with my favorite part being Jack Rackham giving a little exposition on fake news in newspapers versus truth in books, in Philadelphia.

It was great to see the Caribbean pirate in Philadelphia anyway, coping with the cold and snow on the ground, on a mission to see Eleanor's grandfather.  But his denunciation of false stories about his friend Charles Vane to a wide-eyed young woman, and her response that the truth is less captivating, was just perfect.

Also in Philadelphia, the revelation that Eleanor's grandmother wields the power was a good twist, and consistent with the ease of power exercised by her granddaughter.  And it also sets one of the powerful pieces against Flint, with Rackham off to kill him against all odds.  History says Rackham won't survive and Stevenson says Flint will, but you never know.

And Rackham is just one of the big players now suddenly arising in an alliance against Flynt.  Billy and Rogers are now working to together towards this end, and even Long John could (but likely won't) pivot away from Flynt.  Madi surviving has changed Long John again (a reader pointed out to me that in Treasure Island, Long John is said to be married to a woman of "color," so it looks like Stevenson's story holds sway again as a postscript to Black Sails).  As we see in coming attractions, if Flynt's plan to rescue Madi doesn''t succeed, then Billy's plan to use Madi to divide Flynt and Long John may well pay off.  (But there was something thrilling in hearing Flynt talk about "sacking Boston," wasn't there?  Or maybe that's just me as a New York Yankee fan talking.)

But back to Jack - that kiss he gave Ann sure looked final, didn't it?  I hope not, but ...

See also: Black Sails 4.1: "True Friends and Mortal Enemies" ... Black Sails 4.2: Bones vs. Flint ... Black Sails 4.3: Decisive Victories and Losses - On Both Sides ... Black Sails 4.4: Chess Game ... Black Sails 4.5: Bold Moves ... Black Sails 4.6: Spanish Horsemen with Lances

See also Black Sails 3.1: Restored ... Black Sails 3.2: Flint vs. Sea ... Black Sails 3.3: Gone Fishin' ... Black Sails 3.4: Mr. Scott's People ... Black Sails 3.5: Alliance ... Black Sails 3.6: The Duel ... Black Sails 3.7: The Blackening of John Silver ... Black Sails 3.8: Whether Vane? ... Black Sails 3.10: Wither Vane ... Black Sails Season 3 Finale: Throckmorton

And see also Black Sails 2.1: Good Combo, Back Story, New Blood ... Black Sails 2.2: A Fine Lesson in Captaining ... Black Sails 2.3: "I Angered Charles Vane" ... Black Sails 2.4: "Fire!" ... Black Sails 2.5: Twist! ... Black Sails 2.6: Weighty Alternatives, and the Medium is the Message on the High Seas ...Black Sails 2.7: The Governor's Daughter and the Gold ... Black Sails 2.9: The Unlikely Hero ... Black Sails Season 2 Finale: Satisfying Literate and Vulgar

And see also Black Sails: Literate and Raunchy Piracy ... Black Sails 1.3: John Milton and Marcus Aurelius ... Black Sails 1.4: The Masts of Wall Street ...Black Sails 1.6: Rising Up ... Black Sails 1.7: Fictions and History ... Black Sails 1.8: Money

Black Sails 4.5: Bold Move

The chess game intensified in Black Sails 4.5, with a truly bold move by Rogers: sail into Spanish Havana, and enlist the aid of England's sworn enemy, in an active state of war with England as almost always in those days, against the pirates in Nassau.

At this point there's no point in consulting real history, which tells us the Spanish did indeed try to conquer Nassau at various times, if not precisely this one.   For Rogers, it's a dangerous but logical move - the most or only reliable way of crushing the pirates for good.

The scene on the beach with Rackham and Flynt was excellent, too.   In this narrative, Rackham has in effect lived so he can deliver that crucial message to Flynt: there's no way, given the blood lust that Rackham has witnessed first hand in Rogers, that the Governor could accede to Eleanor's deal, as much as he does love his wife.

And so a battle of battles is shaping up in Nassau.  Flynt was even concerned that the pirates could beat the English.   They certainly can't beat the fleet of Spanish ships of war that are approaching the harbor.

The only question left is who will live and who will die in this battle.  Again, real history and Robert Louis Stevenson have given some of the major characters a lease on life (that's how I knew that Billy wouldn't be killed Sunday night).   On the other hand, who will complain if Black Sails takes a liberty here and there?

I'm awaiting the next episodes.

See also: Black Sails 4.1: "True Friends and Mortal Enemies" ... Black Sails 4.2: Bones vs. Flint ... Black Sails 4.3: Decisive Victories and Losses - On Both Sides ... Black Sails 4.4: Chess Game

See also Black Sails 3.1: Restored ... Black Sails 3.2: Flint vs. Sea ... Black Sails 3.3: Gone Fishin' ... Black Sails 3.4: Mr. Scott's People ... Black Sails 3.5: Alliance ... Black Sails 3.6: The Duel ... Black Sails 3.7: The Blackening of John Silver ... Black Sails 3.8: Whether Vane? ... Black Sails 3.10: Wither Vane ... Black Sails Season 3 Finale: Throckmorton

And see also Black Sails 2.1: Good Combo, Back Story, New Blood ... Black Sails 2.2: A Fine Lesson in Captaining ... Black Sails 2.3: "I Angered Charles Vane" ... Black Sails 2.4: "Fire!" ... Black Sails 2.5: Twist! ... Black Sails 2.6: Weighty Alternatives, and the Medium is the Message on the High Seas ...Black Sails 2.7: The Governor's Daughter and the Gold ... Black Sails 2.9: The Unlikely Hero ... Black Sails Season 2 Finale: Satisfying Literate and Vulgar

And see also Black Sails: Literate and Raunchy Piracy ... Black Sails 1.3: John Milton and Marcus Aurelius ... Black Sails 1.4: The Masts of Wall Street ...Black Sails 1.6: Rising Up ... Black Sails 1.7: Fictions and History ... Black Sails 1.8: Money

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pirates of the mind in The Plot to Save Socrates 

Black Sails 4.2: Bones vs Flint

You can feel the players moving into final place, the characters coalescing one last time, as befits the final season of Black Sails.  What interested me the most was what we see in episode 4.2 between Flint and Billy Bones.

We've seen this before.  But tonight was the closest to all-out break, and fight to the death, interrupted only by the attacking redcoats.  Of course, as I keep saying, it can't be a fight to the death - not between characters for whom either real history or Robert Louis Stevenson's fiction has ordained will live a good somewhat longer. But it's still fun to see.

The thing about Bones vs Flint is that neither is wrong.   In their confrontation, we have a classic case of two lines of logic, both of which have merit.  Flint, as always, is the superior global theorist.  But Bones' more immediate strategy has its points, too.

This is the problem with all the pirates.  The leaders are keenly intelligent in their own ways.  But they can never quite agree on the crucial moves.  Even Teach and Rackham and Bonny can't agree on how to best avenge Vane.  And, usually, the decision is forced by some event that is beyond their control.

But if Black Sails is constrained by history and Stevenson, it does have some compelling original elements.  Woven into the story is not only the power of women, but the alliance between the pirates and slaves.   I'm hoping that, however this fine series ends, we'll see some benefits, real or fictional, from that alliance.

See also: Black Sails 4.1: "True Friends and Mortal Enemies"

See also Black Sails 3.1: Restored ... Black Sails 3.2: Flint vs. Sea ... Black Sails 3.3: Gone Fishin' ... Black Sails 3.4: Mr. Scott's People ... Black Sails 3.5: Alliance ... Black Sails 3.6: The Duel ... Black Sails 3.7: The Blackening of John Silver ... Black Sails 3.8: Whether Vane? ... Black Sails 3.10: Wither Vane ... Black Sails Season 3 Finale: Throckmorton

And see also Black Sails 2.1: Good Combo, Back Story, New Blood ... Black Sails 2.2: A Fine Lesson in Captaining ... Black Sails 2.3: "I Angered Charles Vane" ... Black Sails 2.4: "Fire!" ... Black Sails 2.5: Twist! ... Black Sails 2.6: Weighty Alternatives, and the Medium is the Message on the High Seas ...Black Sails 2.7: The Governor's Daughter and the Gold ... Black Sails 2.9: The Unlikely Hero ... Black Sails Season 2 Finale: Satisfying Literate and Vulgar

And see also Black Sails: Literate and Raunchy Piracy ... Black Sails 1.3: John Milton and Marcus Aurelius ... Black Sails 1.4: The Masts of Wall Street ...Black Sails 1.6: Rising Up ... Black Sails 1.7: Fictions and History ... Black Sails 1.8: Money

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pirates of the mind in The Plot to Save Socrates 

Black Sails 3.9: Wither Vane

I entitled my review of last week's episode of Black Sails "Whether Vane".  This week's review - of episode 3.9 - is entitled "wither Vane," because--(spoilers follow)

Black Sails 3.6: The Duel

What an excellent Black Sails 3.6 last night - an excellent episode in this excellent season - which features a duel to the death between Flint and Teach.

Of course, neither one can die - Flint because he needs to live long enough to appear in Stevenson's fictional Treasure Island, Teach because he definitely didn't die on that beach according to real history - but like all good docudrama story telling, knowing the ending didn't get in the way of watching a great story.

It's not a surprise that Flint is a good shot, having been trained in the Royal Navy. He grazes Teach, which Flint hopes kills him, but no such luck.   Flint is adept at swordplay, but he's been weakened by his ordeal at sea, and therefore it's also no surprise that Teach bests Flint in their sword fight.  But Vane leaping in to save Flint is a great surprise, and speaks to the loyalty that Vane has to the pirate dream  - the "pirate republic" (I love that phrase) - superior to Vane's loyalty to Flint the man, and even to Teach, whom as Vane later laments, Vane has now betrayed twice.

This piratical answer to the British Empire has always been, for my money, the best part of this story. It also is behind what Scott tells his daughter in another fine scene, back on the escaped-slave island. People who believe in freedom - whether for plunder as pirates, or just to live their lives without toiling for a master you can't leave - have a powerful, noble common cause in this story, whatever the profundity of their other differences.

It's also gratifying to see Rackham and Bonny fighting in their own way to wrest Nassau from Rodgers.   I'm looking forward to seeing how Eleanor manages to do the same in this continuingly compelling, swashbucking story.

See also Black Sails 3.1: Restored ... Black Sails 3.2: Flint vs. Sea ... Black Sails 3.3: Gone Fishin' ... Black Sails 3.4: Mr. Scott's People ... Black Sails 3.5: Alliance

And see also Black Sails 2.1: Good Combo, Back Story, New Blood ... Black Sails 2.2: A Fine Lesson in Captaining ... Black Sails 2.3: "I Angered Charles Vane" ... Black Sails 2.4: "Fire!" ... Black Sails 2.5: Twist! ... Black Sails 2.6: Weighty Alternatives, and the Medium is the Message on the High Seas ...Black Sails 2.7: The Governor's Daughter and the Gold ... Black Sails 2.9: The Unlikely Hero ... Black Sails Season 2 Finale: Satisfying Literate and Vulgar

And see also Black Sails: Literate and Raunchy Piracy ... Black Sails 1.3: John Milton and Marcus Aurelius ... Black Sails 1.4: The Masts of Wall Street ...Black Sails 1.6: Rising Up ... Black Sails 1.7: Fictions and History ... Black Sails 1.8: Money

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pirates of the mind in The Plot to Save Socrates 

Black Sails Season 2 Finale: Satisfyingly Literate and Vulgar

Well, the Black Sails season 2 finale last night was satisfying and everything it should have been and needed to be to offset the punch-in-the-gut depravity at the end of last week's episode.

That ending - the slaughter of Miranda by the Governor's body guard, by a shot to her head as she was passionately remonstrating the Governor - was the worst and most infuriating death we've seen on Black Sails.  True, the shooter had warned Miranda previously not to get so close and voluble to the Governor, but his act was nonetheless an outrageous, horrendous bolt from the blue.

Certainly Flint thought so, and that one act erased once and forever all the good thoughts he had been having about working together with the authorities.   This in turn set up the season 2 finale, in which the two main pirates in our story, Flint and Vane, fight together to destroy whatever they can of the Governor's city.   It was truly a pleasure to behold, from the freeing of Flint by Vane to Flint's ordering a barrage of cannon fire on the city after the two are safely aboard their ship in the harbor.

Lots of good developments on the ship back in the Nassau vicinity, too, with Silver finally getting promoted to quartermaster at the end, and getting set to get his peg leg, for which the character is so renown, if not in the fictional Robert Louis Stevenson history than our ensuing popular culture.  Not that it was good to see Silver lose his leg, but his moving into quartermaster and maybe soon to have a peg leg clicks another piece into place of this pseudo-history that we know so well.

And Max's ascendancy to the Queen of Thieves on the island - great moniker given for Eleanor last week - was also good to see.  Eleanor being brought back to England for trial and who knows what else promises some more colorful scenes in London in season 3.  (The London scenes in season 2 were always welcome.)   Not to mention the glimpse we got of Black Beard - another real pirate, like Vane - in the preview of season 3.

Black Sails at the end of two seasons has done well for itself.   Unpredictable, exciting, literate and vulgar mix of fiction and history - what more could you ask for in a pirate story?

See also Black Sails 2.1: Good Combo, Back Story, New Blood ... Black Sails 2.2: A Fine Lesson in Captaining ... Black Sails 2.3: "I Angered Charles Vane" ... Black Sails 2.4: "Fire!" ... Black Sails 2.5: Twist! ... Black Sails 2.6: Weighty Alternatives, and the Medium is the Message on the High Seas ...Black Sails 2.7: The Governor's Daughter and the Gold ... Black Sails 2.9: The Unlikely Hero

And see also Black Sails: Literate and Raunchy Piracy ... Black Sails 1.3: John Milton and Marcus Aurelius ... Black Sails 1.4: The Masts of Wall Street ...Black Sails 1.6: Rising Up ... Black Sails 1.7: Fictions and History ... Black Sails 1.8: Money

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pirates of the mind in The Plot to Save Socrates 

Rectify 2.4: Jekyll and Hyde

Jekyll and Hyde - from "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," the novella by Robert Louis Stevenson published in 1886, which has become a shorthand in our lexicon for good and consummate evil as alternate personalities of one person - has always been at the center of Daniel Holden's story in Rectify.  But in episode 2.4 last night, it took center stage in a delicate and magnificent performance.

The Jekyll or Daniel-as-good part of the story starts with a brief Odyssey-like trip he takes to Atlanta, and a group of women he encounters and charms with his intellect at an art exhibition.   He discourses with them like a critic for The New Yorker not only about art but music and books, including how reading Tobias Wolff's brutally powerful short story, "Bullet in the Brain," calmed him by "bending time" or his perception of time, which we but the ladies don't know was on death row.  He also tells the women that his name is Donald and he owns a small bookstore, adding to the unreal quality of this whole encounter.  But his gentleness, as it is whenever he displays it in this series, is as real as can be.

Indeed, it is even more in evidence in the second stop in this journey, when Daniel pays a call on the mother and brother of Kerwin, his friend and supporter on death row, who unlike Daniel was executed. Kerwin never wavered in his belief in Daniel's innocence, but as with everything else in Rectify, that question pertains not to what Daniel may have become in prison, but what he was beforehand.  When Daniel talks to Kerwin's family, it is as if they have been visited by an angel.   Daniel maintains his gentle side even in a later scene, when he is accosted by a nuisance in a diner, and tells him he's heard enough of his "boring stories".   And in the final scene in this journey, as Daniel rips apart his kitchen, he's doing this on the side of the good as well, because that's what his mother wants and his stepfather does not - to build a new kitchen.

But the implied aggression in tearing down a kitchen is a good place to segue to the Hyde part of this episode, which in fact is not in the episode at all in real time, but is called into focus when Teddy decides to tell the Sheriff about Daniel's close-to-depraved choking out of Teddy last year (last week in narrative time), pulling his pants down, and giving his ass a plastering of symbolic coffee grounds.   Why Teddy decided to now tell the Sheriff is not clear, but at this point is less important than its reminder that Daniel is capable of doing this.  And lest we thought that that plastering was a result of what Daniel experienced in prison - which I still think is pretty much the case - the Sheriff reminds us that he knew what Daniel "was capable of" 20 years ago.  This is an important statement, because it shows us that the Sheriff, who last week (yesterday in narrative time) was so disappointed that he couldn't get Bobby Dean for beating Daniel, has no illusions about Daniel, and thinks that Daniel was certainly involved in some kind of violent, evil activity 20 years ago, which we may or may not have seen, and presumably having some connection to Hanna's murder.

Sheriff Daggett is in fact at the dead center of this whole story, being the only character I can think of who apparently is not biased for or against Daniel, but only goes on the facts as he knows them.   It will be interesting to see what further of those facts there are, as this unique and riveting story unfolds.


See also Rectify 2.1: Indelible ... Rectify 2.2: True Real Time ... Rectify 2.3: Daniel's Motives

And see also Rectify: Sheer and Shattering Poetry ... Rectify 1.5: Balloon Man ... Rectify Season 1 Finale: Searingly Anti-Climactic

 
another kind of time bending

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Black Sails 1.7: Fictions and History

A good Black Sails 1.7 last night, setting the deck well for the season finale next week.

We still don't know if Flint was in any way responsible for Billy's death - assuming Billy's indeed dead - and or at very least not going back to find him when he fell off the ship, but Gates doesn't like it, whatever actually happened.   In one of the best conversations of the series, he airs his concerns with Flint, and the two are surprisingly equally matched in this exchange.   The later revelation that Gates will go along with the killing of Flint after the pirates finish their business adds the requisite amount of tension for the finale, but when push comes to shove, I think Gates will stand with the Captain, whatever Gates may now think or say.

Speaking of conversations and altered relationships, it was good to see Flint confront Miranda about her "helpful" letter, and, later in the episode, see Flint this close to kissing and then likely bedding Eleanor. Flint elected to kiss her on the forehead rather than the lips - this time - and it will fun to see what more develops between these two next season if not in this season's finale.  Eleanor clearly wanted the kiss.

The other big development that sets up the finale next week is Vane's coming back from the dead - or from being beaten and buried, to be more precise - and his consequent amassing of a cohort to join the fight.   Charles Vane was a real person and pirate, so, depending upon how carefully Black Sails followed history, he couldn't have died in last night's episode.   Flint, of course, is a Robert Louis Stevenson creation, so there's no way of knowing what will happen between Flint and Vane in the season finale - other than Vane not dying, because, again, he didn't die that way in history, and Flint not dying, either, because ... well, there's the second season of Black Sails, and Robert Louis Stevenson's Flint has his adventures two decades after Black Sails, if that counts.

All of which adds up to: the season one finale should be fit to watch, indeed.

See also Black Sails: Literate and Raunchy Piracy ... Black Sails 1.3: John Milton and Marcus Aurelius ... Black Sails 1.4: The Masts of Wall Street ... Black Sails 1.6: Rising Up

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Like historical fiction?   Try The Plot to Save Socrates ...