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“Black Sails” recap (1.05): Eleanor Guthrie vs. The World

Previously on Black Sails, Max and Eleanor learned that they don’t shine as bright when they’re apart, and Mustachio Jack learned that LadyPirate is not all that pleased with the fact that her crew has been holding Max hostage.

We open with Flint asking Billy if he trusts him. He asks for Billy to be honest, and Billy laughs in his face. A dishonest man doesn’t get to demand honesty. Billy asks Flint who Mrs. Barlow is, and he tells him that she is a Puritan woman he met who is simply a fellow book nerd.

Across the island, LadyPirate is chiding Mustachio Jack because he has a horrible idea. He is grasping at straws to survive and cannot be convinced to drop his plan, so he goes up to the matron of the brothel and tells her that Mr. Noonan sold the inn to Mustachio Jack before running off to Port Royal. The matron is doubtful, but tries him for a raise instead of flat-out refuting one.

When he happily agrees, she says she’ll turn a blind eye to this shady turnover.

Mustachio Jack, upon realizing that they officially own a brothel, and constantly being a touch of comedic relief, says, “Let’s hope no one notices.”

Meanwhile, poor Eleanor is still reeling from Mr. Scott’s betrayal. When she gets into her office, she finds Silver and Randall (the old cook) chained to each other on the couch. Flint had put them there before their mission to retrieve the guns, since he’s the man with the map and won’t be much use if he’s dead. Eleanor unchains Silver from Randall…then promptly re-chains him to the couch. It’s awesome.

Silver asks Eleanor where all the hostility is coming from. She tells him that she blames him for Max getting tangled up in all this – if it hadn’t been for him, they could still be tangled in her bedsheets.

Their chat is interrupted by the sounds of Mr. Guthrie talking to the masses outside. He admits that he’s a fugitive marked for execution, that he has liquidated his holdings, and all he has is what’s left in the warehouse. After that, the Guthrie trade is donezo. Eleanor is less than pleased with this turn of events. Out on the water, Flint’s ship is in high pursuit of the gun ship. Flint says they need to be moving faster, and that they should put another said up. DeGroot, carpenter pirate, says that the masts won’t hold if they do that. Billy, torn between logic and loyalty, starts to agree with DeGroot, but ends up siding with Flint.

They raise the extra sail, all while yelling things at each other like football players at the start of a play. Luckily, they reach their desired knottage (yes, I made that word up) without disaster, so Billy and Flint exchange joyful looks, and I wonder how many more episodes we have to wait until Billy confesses his love for his captain.

Back in Nassau, Eleanor is fuming. Her father walks in and wishes her a good morning and you know she must be raging because she doesn’t even laugh at the absurd wig on his head. Mr. Guthrie accuses Eleanor of being seduced into Flint’s madness. He mocks her authority and calls her a child. He knows full well that Flint went to retrieve the guns and is quite sure that this adventure to the treasure galleon is as good as over.

Like a good villain, he tells Eleanor his whole boring plan. When he’s done, she has one question-how did he get Scott to betray her?

His literal answer: “We talked like men and he saw reason.”

Eleanor’s (and my) literal response: “Fuck you.” Outside, because Eleanor wasn’t having a shitty enough day as it was, a pirate rebellion begins. (Which seems like a bit of an oxymoron if you ask me.) A man lunges at her, so she decides she’ll be safer inside. She is determined to continue on doing business and sends for some very specific men so she can hold an emergency meeting.

This causes the Rapist to call Eleanor the c-word, and LadyPirate hates him with her eyes.

The Rapist, Hamund (who I am naming because I don’t like writing/reading the word “rapist” over and over, not because he earned it-and he certainly doesn’t deserve to get a fun nickname) tells Mustachio Jack to find them a ship. MJ says they should lay low for a while, so Hamund turns to Vane, since he IS the captain and all. Vane doesn’t say anything and just skulks off upstairs.

When they’re gone, LadyPirate helpfully suggests killing Hamund, but Mustachio Jack says their crew is small enough as it is, they can’t afford to off someone. He tells LadyPirate to have the nurse of the inn tend to the “whore on the beach” and LadyPirate gives him some EPIC eye-roll and storms off.

When LadyPirate goes off to the beach with the nurse and finds Max, she’s still chained, despite having chosen to be there. Then the nurse starts doing something horrible to Max that might as well have involved a wire hanger. Max is in obvious pain, and LadyPirate doesn’t seem all that unfamiliar with this form of Plan B, so she sends the nurse away and takes over. She uses more lotion and is surprisingly gentle and kind.

She asks Max why she didn’t leave when she could have. She tells her, from what sounds like might also be experience, “If you take it, they’ll give it.”

Max’s expression is cold and she asks LadyPirate why she even cares; she was the one who turned Max over to the crew in the first place.

LadyPirate simply says that she had just hoped they’d kill her. Which is sort of sweet, in her own twisted way. She wouldn’t have wished this fate on anyone, and is maybe even feeling guilty about landing Max in this situation. Keep this up, LadyPirate, and I might just have to start calling you Anne Bonny.

In Eleanor’s office, a still-handcuffed Silver is giving unsolicited advice, telling Eleanor to be more aware of the mob outside. Hamund tries to go inside to confront Eleanor himself, and Eleanor grits her teeth and inches toward him. He lunges, and she flinches, but then she decides to take the high road and starts to head upstairs. Hamund mentions Eleanor’s “friend on the beach” and calls him “resilient” and Eleanor stops and stares with tears of hatred in her eyes. I really hope her and LadyPirate team up to free Max so the three of them can kill him so dead.

On the Walrus (I somehow missed that was the name of Flint’s ship until this episode…not the MOST intimidating name…), Billy gives a coach’s pep talk to the crew. Their plan of attack isn’t a normal one, and the crew is hesitant, but Billy does his best to assure them it will be fine.

The nerdy accountant-you know the one, he looks like the lovechild of Harry Potter and Ron Weasley – is given a gun. Dufresne (that’s a name, not a keyboard smash) tells Billy he’s not a fighter, he’s a numbers guy, but Billy can’t get him out of it – everyone fights this time.

Back at the brothel, Vane is brooding in the dark when a prostitute comes in with water and rags, saying she was sent by Mustachio Jack. She was told to not take no for an answer, but while she tends to his wounds, they bond over their hatred for Eleanor. Vane says Eleanor is strong and the prostitute asks him if he’s strong enough to beat her. Vane says it’s time he found out and there’s no way this ends well for anyone.

Out at sea, the Walrus attacks the Andromache. Billy gives the accountant a final push of encouragement, promising you can’t die your first time (which is about as logical as “you can’t get pregnant your first time”).

The fighting begins, and we it through Dufresne’s eyes, all chaos and confusion. He almost immediately is spattered with blood of men in his own crew, he gets shot at by a gun that thankfully malfunctions, and makes his first kill by VAMPIRING OUT A MAN’S JUGULAR. It’s insanity. After the fighting is done, Billy finds him in a heap of bodies, covered in blood that’s not his own.

At Eleanor’s meeting, she basically says, “Fuck. This. Shit.” She says she’s taking over – everything will get back to the way it was, with one important change – no more Mr. Guthrie. One man calls her mad, because they’re hunters, but she promises a higher profit. Eventually, they agree, some reluctantly, some enthusiastically.

However, there’s a caveat. The deal will only go through if she lifts the ban on Vane and his crew. One man says the ban makes her look young and rash (YOU PRONOUNCED “FIERCELY LOYAL” AND “A DECENT HUMAN BEING” WRONG, SIR) and that she needs to lift it to prove she’s trustworthy. She stands her ground even though he says he’ll make her boss. He says she has until dark to “come to her senses.”

Silver, still issuing advice he wasn’t asked for, agrees that Eleanor should lift the ban. But Eleanor can’t, for Max’s sake. Silver tries to argue some more, but Eleanor finally lets out what’s holding her back. She says, “Convince me I should betray her a second time, because that’s what it feels like I would be doing.” (Here, you can borrow my hanky.)

Silver assures her that her guilt is natural but that making her choices based on Max’s is not OK, and gives her too much power over her life. He says feelings go OK, but losing her life’s work won’t.

Eleanor looks conflicted. Once Flint’s crew is aboard the Andromache, with the first line of sailors down for the count, they suspect something suspicious is afoot. They haven’t seen the captain, and it feels a lot like a trap.

That’s when we find out that Mr. Guthrie had arranged for Mr. Scott to be on the ship, being held a slave, and forced to witness a random murder.

Topside, Flint goes into full CSI: Seven Seas mode while Dufresne and Billy flirt a little over some inventory. Billy finds a letter from Miranda Barlow on board, but secretly pockets it. Suddenly, one of the slaves is let loose on the deck, and asks a Flint. He has a message: Scarborough is on their way. That’s when he reveals his bomb. Billy’s quick as a whip, though, and shoots him before he can toss it, so the bomb only kills him, and none of Flint’s crew.

What did you think of “V”? Do you think Anne Bonny and Max could team up to overpower Vane and his crew? How many times did you just want to hug Eleanor in this episode alone?

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