Previously on Black Sails, Eleanor’s father crawled out of the hole he’d been hiding in to help his daughter, Abigail Ashe had been Ned Low’s prisoner but now belongs to Vane, Max found Jack a new crew to captain, Silver found out Billy Bones was alive but decided to keep him a secret, and Flint decided to attack Vane’s fort even though pretty much everyone told him not to.
What better way to begin an episode than with a little lady lovin’?
Jack is there too, and Max reaches over Anne and touches Jack, completing their circle of sex, which horrifies Anne a bit. This was supposed to be a Jack loving on Anne who’s loving on Max thing, not a full-blown threesome. But, the more limbs and hearts you involve in a relationship, the messier it gets. Before it can turn into a full-on naked brawl, though, they are interrupted by the sound of cannons.
Jack runs out, naked as the day he is born, to see what’s happening, and realizes it’s Flint shooting the Fort.
Mrs. Barlow also knows what’s happening, so she sets off after him. She believes she’s the only one who can stop him, because she’s the only one who truly knows why he’s doing this.
Flashback Miranda Hamilton is feeling a tad dramatic.
Her husband is still fighting to pardon the pirates, but Miranda has more important things to discuss. She’s leaving. When he asks her why, she says it’s because Flint is coming back, and when Flint is back, the rumors about her and him start to flutter. And even though she gives exactly zero fucks about what people think about her, she’s worried that if those rumors turn into prodding, they’ll find more secrets than that, and it would be in everyone’s best interest if those particular secrets stayed secret. Her husband looks concerned but doesn’t argue the point.
In present-day Nassau, Silver is filling Billy in on everything he missed, including about how Flint killed Gates, but felt super bad about it after. Billy is surprised to hear Flint is still captain, and Silver explains that technically it’s captain again, and that it’s because he’s the only way they’re sure to get the Urca gold. Billy is ready to go see his brothers like the prodigal son returned but when he goes to stand up he finds he’s been chained down. Silver explains that he can’t just have Billy going in and stirring the pot, so it’s best if he just stay put for now.
Flashback Thomas Hamilton finds out from Flint that there is no governor in Nassau, that the pirates run it now, and that it’s a lawless land. Pirates have taken the Fort, for what would be the first but not the last time. Flint’s idea is to try to get the Navy on their side.
Miranda asks for a moment alone with the lieutenant, and tells him that if he continues on, he will lead them to ruin, so he should probably find a new road and STAT.
Present-day, everyone gathers in the Inn, worried about all the cannons showering down and making the dust fall from the rafters. Jack is nonplussed; he’s critiquing banner ideas from a prostitute named Charlotte.
He needs it to be perfect, he needs this venture to go well. He wants to be the first boat back in the water after this Flint/Vane pissing match dies down, and he needs everything to go smoothly. Featherstone says that actually, about that, there are a few articles he needs to discuss with Jack before the crew will officially agree to take him on as captain. Jack’s ready to talk, but when Anne appears, Featherstone decides the conversation can wait.
Anne and Jack wonder if Vane is still in the Fort, but Jack actually doesn’t care at all. He’s done with his old captain, he’s going to have his own crew now. Anne changes the subject and is about to bring up what happened between Jack and Max this morning in bed, but thinks better of it. Mentioning it at all probably got her point across.
Flashback Miranda is telling Flint that she loves both her husband and Flint, but that she’s afraid that there is too much danger in them all staying together. She’s afraid they’re risking more than scandal; between the political stands they’re trying to make and these secrets, her favorite men could be in mortal danger. They could be hanged, even. Flint says that Nassau has promise, that they can’t give up on their dreams, but that they have to go there and fix it from the inside out. Miranda doesn’t exactly jump up and down at the thought of it.
Present-day Flint watches his men loose cannon after cannon on the fort, and peers through his telescope as the Fort starts to crumble. At this, Flint calls for a ceasefire and orders his men to move ashore. It’s time to take this fight land ho.
Meanwhile, Vane is down in the dungeons hanging out with his prisoner bff Abigail. Vane reckons they have about two hours before Flint’s men reach the fort on foot, and orders some of his men to keep Abigail safe. Vane says that there’s no way their men will be able to take on Flint’s in a full-on battle, so he’s going to do his new favorite thing: cut off the enemy’s head. Or the head of the enemy’s head.
Eleanor and her father are talking, Eleanor still not believing he dared showed his face in her office, when a man comes in and tells Eleanor about the hullabaloo by the Fort and how it’s dangerously close to some of her powder stores. She orders him to move it and store it nearby, which I’m hoping doesn’t come back to bite her later. She asks the man if it looks like Vane is going to surrender, and the man says he does not.
Mr. Guthrie tells Eleanor that the way she has run the island has caught the attention of some Very Important Men and one of them might be willing to start a partnership with her, but she’ll have to give up her relationships with the pirates. Eleanor can’t believe he’s offering to broker a deal for her; why on earth would she trust him? He has to prove his intentions are true before she’ll let him so much as carry her bag for her.
On his way to the fight, Flint sees Mrs. Barlow on the beach and she asks to speak with him in private. He says it’s not the best time, but she begs him to come with her, saying she can save his life, saying that he owes her this much, because she’s been with him since the beginning, she’s been with him through it all.
Flashback Flint is pulled into a room with Thomas Hamilton’s grumpy bewigged father and his general and is told that his secrets have been found out and that he is being discharged. Since they like him, they’re going to do it quietly instead of at the gallows, but he is to leave London and disappear, never to be heard from again. They have arranged for Thomas to be taken to the local mental institution, and are publicly declaring that he had a mental breakdown upon finding out about Flint and Miranda’s affair.
Miranda is furious about the whole thing, but tells Flint that Thomas made her promise that Flint and she would take care of each other while he was gone. And even though they had plans to run away to some other part of Europe, Flint now has a better idea.
In present-day Nassau, Anne and Jack are watching Flint’s men storm the beach when Max comes between them.
Jack asks if any of Flint’s crew have been to the brothel, and when Max says they haven’t, the trio wonders if they’ve been specifically told to stay away to prevent them from accidentally divulging an important secret in the throes of passion.
Inspired, Mustachio Jack goes to see Charlotte and asks about one of her regular customers who happens to be on Flint’s crew. He hasn’t been to see her lately, but she’s sure he will soon. Jack asks her to get whatever information she can out of him about the Urca gold. She tells him that the rumors are that the gold wasn’t there at all, but he asks her to try anyway.
Prostitute Idelle calls Jack away, and leads her to a room where Featherstone is waiting to discuss aforementioned articles. Basically, his men have a rider, and Jack thinks he knows what the issue is: Max. He knows it’s unorthodox for a woman to get part of a crew, but he calls her a “font of prostitute intelligence” and that the tips, intel, and overall cleverness she provides is more than worth her share. Featherstone understands, kinda, but the thing is, Max’s share wasn’t the only issue.
Mustachio Jack goes to Anne to talk about the second issue, which is her. It turns out the men are willing to put up with one woman having a share of the crew, but not two. Anne huffs, saying she doubts Max will give them leads without her share, and the look on Jack’s face tells her that she made the wrong assumption. Her red hair gets redder and though Jack tries to tell her that it’s only temporary until he can prove that he’s a trustworthy captain and then he can take her back and they can rule the seven seas together, Anne stopped listening because she has gone into a blind rage.
Across the island, Silver tries to make Billy promise that he won’t tell the crew how he ended up flying overboard the Walrus, but he forgets that Billy isn’t just one of the dumb pirates he’s so used to being able to easily manipulate. Billy makes no such promise, and reminds Silver that he has no choice but to let him free, because the cook likes him, too. Silver realizes he’s stuck and uncuffs Billy.
In Eleanor’s office, Mr. Guthrie is swearing up and down that he only wants to protect her. Eleanor asks where this paternal instinct was when her mother died and he abandoned her, his young daughter, to fend for herself. Guthrie says he was mourning and tries to apologize, but Eleanor calls his bullshit.
She knows the truth: If she had been born a boy, there’s no way he would have left her for dead. He doesn’t disagree, and admits that all he cared about was his business, and he didn’t see how a woman could be a meaningful part of that business. But oh how wrong he was. He tells her to look at all she’s accomplished, how she made the island profitable all on her own. He says that someday they’ll tell stories of Nassau and how it was rebuilt from the ground up by one person, one woman, one Eleanor Guthrie. He even says he’s proud of her.
Eleanor absolutely does not know how to process anything that’s happening, but luckily she’s saved from having to respond to this new side of her father because a man calls her out into the bar. When she gets there, she finds Miranda Barlow waiting for her asking for a place to talk to Flint alone. Eleanor sends her upstairs to the parlor she holds her Consortium meetings and orders everyone else out of the bar.
Barlow tells Flint that Vane has a girl in the Fort, and that it’s Abigail Ashe, and that she’s his golden ticket. All he has to do is take her back to her father, his old friend, safely and he will get anything he wants in return. Flint says that Peter Ashe hangs pirates now, but Barlow says that if Flint brings Ashe his only daughter with no ransom demands, he’ll help Flint in a heartbeat. She begs him to stop this nonsense, because even though he shouts that he’s fighting for Nassau and even though he tells her he’s fighting for Thomas and his memory, really all Flint’s fighting for is for the sake of fighting. He’s fighting to drown out the voices in his head, especially one voice in particular, one voice that’s threatening to drive him mad. The one that’s tell him to hate himself, to be ashamed…for having loved him.
And then we see Flint’s darkest secret, his driving motivator, the reason for his inner conflict, the reason he always seemed more at war with himself than any of the rival crews he’s fought. Flint loved Thomas.
And Miranda knew it. It seems they had some sort of polyamorous situation going for them. Or at least a quiet understanding. Very progressive.
Miranda tells Flint that she knows that he was told it was shameful, that he came to believe it was, but that no matter what happened between her and Thomas or between her and Flint, what Thomas and Flint had was something different, something more. She tells him to accept it. He admits he’s mostly ashamed that he didn’t do something to save Thomas when he had the chance. She gives him the book Thomas left him, the one that says “Know no shame” and she leaves him.
Flint finally allows himself to remember, to not fight the memories of Thomas, to not ignore the heartbreak, to let that voice grieve him. But when he looks up from his reverie, Vane launches into the room, knife in hand, ready to cut off the head of the beast.
What did you think of “XIII”? That was one hell of a reveal, eh? You know, early in the episode, I knew something was up, and I suspected it was something like that, but I figured I was projecting my gayness onto it (as I am wont to do) so I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be true. How do you think Flint will go on from here? Do you think it will change him? Or do you think it won’t matter because Vane is going to behead him?
