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“Black Sails” recap (2.10): Smooth Sailing

Previously on Black Sails, everything went to shit. Max and Eleanor were apart for the better part of the entire season, Eleanor tried to have everyone who knew about the Urca gold killed which may or may not have included Max, Eleanor got kidnapped and traded by Hornigold and Dufresne to the Royal Navy for pardons, Vane took over Flint’s ship but then found out Flint was going to be put to death by Ashe so decided to save him, and Miranda got killed so dead after she demanded to be taken on this journey to fight for Nassau and when she was oh so close to seeing their dreams come true.

We open in the Ashe mansion, where a piano is playing one note over and over, melancholy and lonely. It’s Abigail, plucking way, probably repeating the scene she saw, Miranda’s dead body on the floor, over and over like the note she’s playing. Her father sits next to her and says he’s sending Abigail to Savannah, because what’s about to happen in the town square is not something a young girl should have to see. He doesn’t want to expose her to a public trial, because it might get gritty. He doesn’t want to let Abigail, a girl who just spend weeks, if not months, aboard pirate ships and in cells, suffering who knows what kind of torment, see what’s about to happen, because at least what happened to her was beyond reason. It was random and cruel. This, this is being done in the name of justice, and he’s embarrassed. And what’s worse, she knows it. She tells him that she was raised to respect the truth so the least he can do is tell her; is he sending her away to protect her from the potential danger? Or is he sending her away to protect himself, so she doesn’t see him kill the second of the two people who saved her, who cared for her? So she doesn’t see him put an innocent man to trial while the true murderer is still in his employ?

You can take the girl out of Nassau, but you can’t take the Nassau out of the girl.

Meanwhile, Vane is planning on saving Flint, because having him hung by the government would dissipate all fear of pirates, and he can’t have that. He tells his quartermaster to send everyone who agrees with him to shore and keep the rest occupied since they can’t sail the ship with a skeleton crew anyway.

Flint’s crew are still prisoner, and Silver is still trying to keep his eye on the…well, silver lining but Billy points out that just because Vane is going to save Flint from Ashe doesn’t mean he’s not going to kill Flint himself. Before Silver can think too much on it, Vane pops over for a chat with Billy. He says the enemy of his enemy is his friend, and with the New Nassau Flint has planned, they’re going to need as many able-bodied pirates as they can keep, so if Billy keeps his men in line, Vane’s men will behave right back, and both Flint and Vane will have full crews upon their return.

Flint is on the racks in the town square being publicly ridiculed. Ashe comes to tell Flint again that this isn’t what he wanted, as if it somehow makes a difference at this point. He tells Flint that if he just gives him a signed confession, he can make it stop, he can lesson the humiliation both for Flint and for Miranda. He tries to talk of what Miranda would want, but one of the things Ashe said to them just yesterday was how he might have known Flint and Miranda once upon a time, but he didn’t know the people they became. Flint tells him that Miranda wanted the truth, and just like Abigail did, he asks Ashe what his truth is. He asks whether he truly wanted to lead, or if he had been too afraid to say no.

Before Ashe can answer, a crier calls out about Flint’s “minion” as if Miranda didn’t have a mind of her own, saying they came to murder the governor in his own home, and opens the poor woman’s casket.

Should have stayed in Nassau.

Then the people of the town start throwing things at Miranda’s body, hissing and booing. And I don’t know, all I’m saying is, over the course of two seasons, we’ve seen pirates pay more respect to the dead. Even Mr. Guthrie was buried with more respect.

Back on Nassau, Idelle tells Max that Eleanor has been given over the Navy and that the men on the beach are celebrating the fact that the queen is dead. This distresses Max in more ways than one.

If only Eleanor had run away with Max in Season 1.

When she notices Max looks ill, Idelle asks if she’s okay, and Max wonders aloud if they’ll try Eleanor for piracy, if they’ll hang her publicly like they would a man. What’s sick is, throughout the episode, you can tell that while a large part of Max is upset by the idea of Eleanor in danger, a small part of her is gratified by it. Idelle tries to read this expression of Max’s and says it must be difficult for Max, but Max isn’t in the mood for processing, and changes the subject by asking Idelle how much money should could get her hands on in an hour or less. Idelle doesn’t know off the top of her head, so Max says to find out and to get it. Idelle asks why, but Max also isn’t in the mood for plan sharing.

Meanwhile, Jack and his crew are sailing off to get the Urca gold, with Anne watching over them. Jack asks Anne to finish her sentence from before, to tell him why she came back when she didn’t have to. Anne says that while she was away, she realized it was the furthest she’d ever been from Jack since they were literal children, and she said it gave her perspective. That she owes him her life whether she likes it or not. But that there’s a part of her she doesn’t owe him. He asks if she owes Max that part of her, and Anne says that with Max it was different; with Max it was never about owing. It was simpler than that.

With her it’s more giving and receiving.

Anne says that everywhere she went, when she said her name, everyone recognized it, but that the first thing they said was his name. So even though she won’t ever be his wife – can’t ever be his wife – she’s tied to him, whether she likes it or not. They’re partners for life.

On Flint’s ship, Silver’s watchman pretends to be sick so he can call one of Vane’s men over and give him some insider info. This insider info leads Silver to be unlocked and taken away. But before Vane’s men get Silver very far, all of Flint’s men stand up, ready to protect their brother. Despite what Billy had been trying to tell him not moments ago, Silver didn’t realize until just now how much he meant to the crew. When Vane’s men don’t let Silver go, a ruckus ensues.

On shore, the judge (and/or lawyer? it’s unclear what this dude’s job is beyond riling everyone up) reads off evidence against Flint, publicly calling for Flint to defend himself, asking if he has any regrets, hoping the prisoner will add to his dramatic bit of theatre. After a long silence, Flint finally speaks up, saying he does regret one thing: coming here with the hope that he would find understanding and reconciliation. Flint says that everyone is a monster to someone, and that he will be Ashe’s monster if he must.

Just then Vane is lead into the town square, saying he offers testimony in Flint’s defense. Ashe asks why he thinks he’d be considered a credible witness, but he doesn’t; he has Abigail’s diary, in which she writes about wondering if her father cloaked the truth about Flint’s true nature, because all she saw was a kind man seeking order and truth. Ashe is worried this will sway some of the jury, but the judge/lawyer/whatever dude has “taken care of” the jury so Ashe needn’t worry. So much for order and truth.

Back on Nassau, someone hanged a doll dressed like Eleanor with a sign that says “good riddance” upon which Max is gazing sadly.

They had been on their way to ruling the island together.

Max goes into Eleanor’s office and finds a man sitting there like he owns the place. She says she knows the Consortium has fallen to pieces and that several offers are coming in to buy the tavern, and that she’d like to make a more generous one than has probably been offered so far. He asks her why he’d sell at all and she says the chaos that is to come will be something he is incapable of handling, and that the tavern will be in the center of it all. She tells him that she won’t run the tavern like Eleanor did, that she prefers a quieter type of power, and that he should give her his answer by nightfall.

He asks her why she’s even bothering with all this but she just gives him one last look and leaves. And quite frankly even I, someone who has been watching this show for two full seasons and recapping/over-processing every last one, cannot tell if Max means to usurp the empire Eleanor built, or just keep it warm until Ms. Guthrie returns.

I’m hoping it’s the latter, but Max has a fire in her.

On Flint’s Spanish warship, Silver brought in to see Vane’s quartermaster, who asks him to give up the name of ten men on Flint’s crew who will help them get the hell up out of there. See, Silver’s watchman had said that Silver was the most in tune with the men on the crew, so they know Silver is the one who would give up the best names. But Silver doesn’t want to play God, and won’t give up names, because he knows that will get the rest of the men killed. Unfortunately this refusal backfires, because his watchman is killed on the spot, and the men pull a Misery on his leg and smash it up real good.

While Abigail’s journal is being read aloud as evidence, Flint asks Vane why he came to his trial. Vane says if anyone will make a trophy of Flint, it will be hom. Flint asks what happens next, and Vane says they have to run to the jetty, he’ll know when. But Flint says they shouldn’t just run like cowards, they should fight like pirates. Vane stands up then, and tells the people that they had a hand in their own fate. He raises his chained hands dramatically, and then brings them down, prompting canons to start firing from the tower Vane’s men had overtaken.

With no Eleanor to screenshot, I gave in and took one of Vane. I like his braids.

Everyone starts running and fighting in mayhem and chaos. Flint stabs Ashe himself, turning his head toward Miranda to look at her slain and abused body as he bleeds out.

Flint meets up with Vane and they work together as the run and escape. Luckily for them, they were handcuffed in the front, so they are able to punch and run and generally be more useful than they would have been if their hands were bound behind them. On the way, Flint sees a cage full of men and pulls a Daenerys Stormborn, mother of dragons and breaker of chains, setting them free before continuing to run for his life.

Flint and Vane hop in a rowboat together, heading back to their ship as it blows the structures on shore to smithereens.

Speaking of smithereens, Silver’s leg is smashed up real good. But even though he’s nearing unconsciousness, he still has enough left in him for a little bit of sass. He asks about a ring of key that has gone missing from the belt of one of his attackers and as if on cue, Flint’s men, lead by Billy, barge in to save their favorite storyteller.

The men take him away and inspect his leg, giving him rum because no man should have to endure this kind of pain sober and they are desperately lacking in morphine at the moment.

When Flint and Vane get on the ship, they make sure their men are all free and that everyone knows that right now is not the time for pirate-on-pirate crime; it’s pirates vs. civilians and they have to work together. Flint tells his men to destroy whatever is left on the shore and Vane looks on at the darkness in the captain’s eyes with approval.

So while down below, the men rally around Silver as he gets his leg hacked off, up above, other men rally as people on the shore get their heads blown off.

Still no Eleanor. Here’s a boat.

Everything is so loud that it’s almost quiet; people fall, buildings crumble, Ashe lies helpless, still bleeding out as Miranda’s body looms over him. Vane and Flint look over what they’ve done and are proud; against all odds, they won.

Silver wakes up a few days (weeks?) later in Flint’s quarters and looks down at his stump. He’s one step closer (no pun intended) to becoming the Long John Silver he’s destined to be. He asks where they are and Flint says that they stopped in Tortuga for a bit to get the news, but aren’t too far from Nassau. The news they got was that Eleanor Guthrie has been arrested and is halfway to London by now. Flint hardly remembers a time there was no Guthrie in Nassau and says the winds of change are strong, and that the men on this ship are going to look to him as captain to guide them, but also to Silver, their new quartermaster. Silver figures now’s as good a time as any to tell Flint that when they get back to Nassau, it’s likely to be a more complicated place than Flint is counting on, because Silver’s watchman lied about the Urca gold being gone, and sold the information of its location to a certain other local pirate crew that may or may not be lead by a mustachioed man.

Meanwhile on Nassau, a young boy runs into the Inn to find Max, and without having to exchange a single word, Max knows what news he brings.

Max and Idelle head down to the beach to meet Jack and Anne. Max is worried and asks what took them so much longer than they had planned.

All of her life goals hinge on this gold.

Jack says their information was a little faulty; there were still plenty of healthy Spanish men on the beach they needed to fight. And also they found the Walrus hanging out there and needed to fix her up to be able to sail her back. Max is confused, why didn’t they just leave the Walrus there? But Jack says they needed the space. Max looks almost afraid to hope this means what she thinks it means. Jack smirks, loving this game, and asks if Max wants to see something shiny.

And whether he meant literally shiny or shiny like they meant it on the Serenity, shiny it is. Max looks at the chests and boxes and crates of gold in one of the holds in one of the two ships and she. can’t. even.

This might be the first time she’s smiled from her mouth to her eyes since Eleanor broke her heart.

And here’s a bonus shot of the Trio, because I think Season 3 will be all about them kicking ass and taking.

Team Phoenix, all three risen from the ashes.

What did you think of XVIII? What do you think Season 3 will be like? What are we even supposed to do until January 2016??

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