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“Black Sails” recap (1.07): Resurrection

Previously on Black Sails, Anne Bonny teamed up with Eleanor Guthrie and they hunted down every man who laid an ill-intended hand on Max, and any man they associated with, and killed them dead. It was amazing.

We open on the pastor, red-eyed and repenting, apparently not pleased with the sinning he did with Mrs. Barlow. He’s out of his goddamned mind, preaching to an empty field about resurrection. (I had hoped this scene was foreshadowing for Billy’s epic return from Davy Jones’ Locker, but it had a different kind of foreshadowing.)

A man rides past him to Mrs. Barlow’s house to tell her that Flint has returned from his voyage.

Across the island, Eleanor is asking Flint how the Scarborough found him. He blames her father, but she blames Mrs. Barlow for even letting him out. She quickly runs down the events of the day before, telling him that she has a new trading system in place now. Flint has a hard time believing this all happened in one day. Before she lets Flint go, Eleanor mentions that Silver was crucial to the events working out as well as they did, and that if Silver doesn’t return from their quest for the Urca de Lima, she’ll have quite the problem with it.

Flint looks curiously at her and says, “What a day I missed.”

In the brothel, Anne Bonny is attempting to have sex with Mustachio Jack, but he’s having a hard time (or, more accurately, the opposite of that). He says he has a lot on his mind, between their captain going missing, their crew being murdered, and his brothel somehow not turning a prophet. She looks incredulous at this last bit, and tells him to figure his shit out. She then storms out of the room, leaving him naked and tied to the bed.

Max is up in her room, looking forlornly out the window. She’s safe now, but she’s certainly not free. Not as free as she wanted to be. A fellow prostitute brings Max some porridge and asks her if she used voodoo to get rid of all of Vane’s men. Max says, “No, I’m not a witch, that was my other show” and simply says they left for Port Royal. The prostitute shrugs and tells Max that if she wants to get back in the hooking game, she better get in now, because Mustachio Jack hasn’t a clue what he’s doing, and they’ve all been able to cheat him out of money. Even the madam. So she better get in while the gettin’ is good.

Out on the shore, Flint walks up to NerdPirate Dufresne, who is getting a tattoo and sporting a very crude crew cut. Flint congratulates him on being elected the new quartermaster, assuring him that Billy (RIP) would have approved of this choice.

In a nearby tent, Randall is freaking the freak out because the pirates of the Walrus decided to vote him off the ship-they’re afraid his wooden leg near the stove would be dangerous. Randall, in his desperation, tells them that he overheard Silver talking about how he stole the page. Unsure what to make of this, the pirates call in their new quartermaster.

Meanwhile, Eleanor has gathered up her men for their first official meeting. The Scottish Optimist is back and calls to order the meeting of the Eleanor Guthrie Consortium for Pirates Who Can’t Trade Good And Want To Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too. First thing on the agenda for the next meeting is to come up with a shorter name.

They go around the table talking about their status, but they’re interrupted by one of Eleanor’s men. She gets up and leaves like she didn’t want to be there anyway, and finds out that Mr. Scott is there. In her office, Scott swears he did what he did with love, not as an act of betrayal. He says he was trying to help, but she tells him it wasn’t his call. “My life is my own,” she says. Because it wasn’t the act itself that was the betrayal, it was making decisions without including her. When Eleanor asks Mr. Scott why he even came back, he reminds her that he’s property of the Guthrie estate. She gets wildly uncomfortable and tells him she’s never seen him that way. In which case, Mr. Scott has a favor to ask.

Still unsure if he’s on an opium trip or not, Vane wakes up on an unfamiliar beach with a little boy staring down at him. The boy has the same weird branding on his chest that Vane does, so Vane follows him to the man with the big-ass black beard-let’s call him Blackbeard for fun-and tells him of a place nearby fueled by plunder. Blackbeard knows about Nassau, so Vane stops waxing poetic and tells him that he wants to overtake it. He says all he needs is some of Blackbeard’s men.

Blackbeard wonders how Vane knew of him, if there was a connection between them, but Vane doesn’t answer, just stares and waits for his answer. After a little bartering, they seem to come to a conclusion.

Gates wants to know about Mrs. Barlow’s letter to Flint, and the supposed impending betrayal, so the two have a heart to heart. Flint keeps saying “it’s complicated” and that she’ll say anything to get him to go to Boston with her.

Gates is at the end of his rope. He tells Flint that he always turns the other way while Flint is doing his madman dance, but he’s done. Not after what happened with Billy. Flint is aghast – Billy fell!

Gates isn’t buying it. He says he knew Flint treated his crew as expendable. He knew that the Maria Elena was a murder quest. He was still willing to follow him blindly on his mad excursions. But Billy wasn’t expendable. Gates loved Billy like a son. Flint is done playing Mr. Nice Guy and tells Gates that Billy was distracted by his paranoia, which is why he was questioning Flint during battle, which is why he fell. Gates is done listening to the lies.

In fact, he says something that is probably the most relatable thing any of the pirates have said to date.

“I’m tired of the energy it takes to believe you. To believe in you.”

To stop Gates from leaving, Flint confesses that he was going to take some extra money from the Urca de Lima. He said the men would all still be filthy rich, but he was going to save some that they couldn’t drink away to help make them better. He starts to give this great speech about doing things to protect those in your care-mothers and children, captains and soldiers…

Gates interrupts him. “King?” he asks. He asks if he fancies himself their king now, and considering that’s what he screamed like a maniac at Billy in the beginning of the season, so yeah, I think he fancies himself king.

The crazy thing is, Flint truly believes that he’s doing the right thing, that he’s going to help his crew. Gates shakes his head and says he’s done after this battle.

On Blackbeard’s island, a bunch of men who look like Lost Boy rejects gather to be handed over to Vane. Blackbeard sees the brand on Vane’s chest and says that it couldn’t have been easy for Vane to come back after all this time, and leaves Vane to his quest. However, he stops when he overhears Vane turning to his new crew and telling them that they can be set free.

This does not please Blackbeard, so they fight it out. Eventually, Blackbeard bests Vane and tells him he’s proud of him before smashing in his face and burying him in a shallow grave.

The whole business with Silver and Randall goes on throughout the episode, but it’s sort of unnecessary, because it ends with Randall rescinding his accusation and Silver promising to keep an eye on Randall if they let him back on the Walrus.

One of the captains, Ornegold, the one who once told Mr. Scott to get control of Eleanor, is finally realizing (and possibly accepting) that Eleanor is queen of Nassau. He says, and I quote, “Truth is there is no controlling there, is there?” Took you long enough, sir.

Crazy Captain Flint goes to Mrs. Barlow’s and starts storming around, but she tells him Mr. Guthrie isn’t there. He went to Underhill’s estate for sanctuary (and hopefully a new wig). They fight about the letter she sent and all the trouble it’s caused, but she just wanted him to see that there’s a way out. They then have a vague argument about things “they” took from them in the first place. But Flint won’t let England win. He wants to GET the apology, not the other way around.

Mr. Scott returns to Eleanor’s office to hear what she has decided about the favor he asked of her – which was to free the slaves they had found on the Andromache. She tells him that she can’t afford to buy the slaves’ release outright, BUT – the able-bodied men will go with Captain Lawrence and the six women left will be under her employ. Eleanor tells Scott that she isn’t blind to Flint, that she is supporting him but doesn’t blindly trust him. She’ll be careful. Scott then is like, er, this is awkward, but Ornegold offered me a spot on his crew. Her reaction is immediate and visceral, and she obviously feels quite betrayed.

In the brothel, Mustachio Jack fires a prostitute, but she starts crying. He tries to play it tough and tell her that tears won’t change his mind, but he starts to waver. Luckily, they’re interrupted by another prostitute who puts five pieces down on the table. Max appears behind her and calls her out on the fact that she knows she was just “mothering” (which…EW) and that they always charge 20 pieces for that. The prostitute swears it was just a tug and Max slaps her in her lying face. She tells her to confess and hope Rackham is more forgiving than Noonan.

The prostitute puts the rest of the money on the table and swears it will never happen again. Max leans in real close to Mustachio Jack and says, “Get your fucking house in order.”

In the Tavern, Eleanor is cleaning up, much like she was doing in the pilot episode (there were a lot of call-backs to earlier episodes in this episode, and I liked it a lot), when she sees Flint drunk off his ass. She asks if it’s such a wise idea, considering the journey he has to embark on soon. He’s feeling mopey and wonders if they’re crazy, taking a risk like this. Eleanor says, “The outcome is only uncertain for those who disbelieve” like the magical angel of hope that she is.

She tells him she believes in him and he gets really, really close to her face. I hold my breath and fear the worst, but then he just kisses her forehead THANK GOD.

On the Walrus, Silver and Randall are peeling potatoes (another call-back) and Silver tells Randall he doesn’t think he’s a half-wit at all. He thinks maybe he’s way smarter than he lets on. Randall farts in response. Classy.

Gates and Dufresne have a drink at the Tavern, and talk about their plans to kill Flint as soon as they have the money from the Urca de Lima. Dufresne and his two best friends, like Gates, can forgive a lot, but they can’t forgive the wrongful death of Billy. They would do anything for gold, but they won’t do that.

Across the island, Vane wakes up and claws his way out of his grave like a regular Alison DiLaurentis. Fueled by the promise of defeating Eleanor, he stumbles to the campfire and stakes Blackbeard right in the back.

He stands over Blackbeard’s dead body, naked, filthy, and resurrected.

What did you think of “VII”? What are you predicting/hoping/wishing will happen next week, in the season finale? Will Eleanor and Max ever interact again?

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