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“Black Sails” recap (3.04): Right hand (wo)man

Previously on Black Sails, Eleanor got kidnapped by Rogers but then proved to be an asset, Max and Anne split up their shares of the Urca gold and said their goodbyes, Rogers sent Hornigold to Nassau to offer everyone pardons in exchange for letting him peacefully invade the island, and Flint’s crew became stranded on desert island that wasn’t so deserted after all.

Unaware of the current inhabitants, Flint’s crew starts to set up camp on the beach of the island they landed on. Flint brings Silver water for his stump, still aching and probably infected. Flint and Silver talk about what’s next, and Silver gives his theory: If Hornigold had an infinite number of pardons for the crew, chances are Nassau is being overtaken as they speak. Silver thinks they should be prepared to return to war, but Flint thinks it’s probably already over.

Before the men can get settled, the island residents appear, and not exactly as a welcoming committee.

On Rogers’ boat, Eleanor goes to see him in his office. He tells her that he has assembled the best group of advisors money could buy, but she has proven to be invaluable.

About half of the men on the island have accepted the pardons by now, and soon he’ll be able to get to work on the island. But he needs someone by his side. A Senior Councilor. And she is the obvious choice. She’s smart, and she gives zero fucks. If she knows she’s right, she’ll shout it from the rooftops. She asks if he’s worried about what his others advisors might think, but he doesn’t care. Neither does she, obviously, so it’s agreed.

On Nassau, Vane, Jack and Anne are holed up in the fort. Men are banging on the door, yelling at Jack to stop hoarding the bounty, begging him to give Vane over. Jack eventually gets fed up and opens the door and shoots the loudest one. Anne is confused-why is Vane the only one on the entire island not offered a pardon?

No one knows, but Jack knows one thing: They have to GTFO. And fast.

Across the sea, Flint’s crew is being led deeper into the foresty island. Flint tells Silver that they’re Maroons, escaped slaves, who have established a village up the river. Silver stumbles and falls because of his leg, and one of Flint’s men takes the distraction as an opportunity to run. One of their kidnappers walks slowly after him, but the man ends up finding himself in a spiky trap before long. It’s clear that escape is not an immediate option for these guys.

They’re led to the village, and presented to the person in charge, who is a woman of course, because who run the world? Girls!

She asks to speak to their quartermaster, Silver, asking how they found the island. Silver promises they were just caught in a storm and stranded, and that no one was following them or knew where to find them. He offers his word as a promise, but she’s not willing to risk the lives of her people just because a pirate pinky promises he’s telling the truth. She orders one of Flint’s men to be taken away and interrogated, and the rest are put in a cage. The one man already in the cage when they’re put there tells them that after interrogation comes slave labor, but even that won’t last too long. He’s the last of his men, they all died one by one, from the labor, from trying to run, because She said so.

Jack finds Vane and tells him they set up a wall to explode for two purposes, to make sure it’s not helping the intruders, and so Vane can escape. Vane realizes Jack didn’t say “we” were escaping and realizes that Jack has no intention of leaving. Jack is finally his own person, not just on someone’s crew, and he’s not ready to give it up. Jack tells Vane they’ll be okay, him and Anne, because they have some of the gold. They hug goodbye, unsure if they’ll ever see each other again. “Godspeed, Charles.” “Fuck you, Jack.” So loving.

On Rogers’ ship, Eleanor assures her new boss that Teach’s crew will never take the pardons. But Rogers isn’t worried because they’ll run out of supplies eventually. Rogers asks Eleanor why she hasn’t asked about Vane yet.

Instead of saying, “Because unlike you, I strategize with my head and/or heart, not my naughty bits,” she says that she trusts he’ll let her know if something worth knowing happens. He asks her why her pretty little brow is so knitted, and she admits she’s nervous about landing on the island. She has a lot of enemies. She doesn’t want to be the reason he doesn’t succeed. Before they can discuss it further, they hear an explosion.

The fort is smoking, and Vane is gone.

On Maroon Island, the veteran prisoner tells Flint’s men that the woman they spoke to is everything to this island. There are rumors of a husband, someone who sends the supplies they cannot make or grow themselves, but he’s never seen. Her word is supreme. Silver asks about another woman he noticed, and it’s the Supreme’s daughter. Flint asks why he cares, and he thinks he can find a dissenting opinion on the island and use it to their advantage.

On Nassau, Vane is making his escape, being let pass at first, but then he’s met by men who want the bounty on his head. They fight him, but none of them fight as well as Lexa, so he defeats them easily. More show up, and he starts to look nervous, but Teach and his men swoop in to rescue him.

At the tavern, men are lining up to get their pardons. Hornigold pulls Mr. Scott out of line and asks for his help. The slaves they had for the fort renovation have escaped, and Scott offers to find them and try to convince them to come back.

Meanwhile, Teach is harboring Vane on his ship and tells him that he figured out why Vane was the only one who didn’t get a pardon. He hands him a spyglass so he can see the reason for himself.

Jack and Anne are hanging out in a cave, Anne is talking about all the places they can go now, but Jack is sulking. He says they almost made it to the history books, and he’s mourning the loss of that opportunity. Anne tells him to quit with his manpain and look forward, not back.

In the middle of the night on Maroon Island, Silver wakes to a knife across his neck. He is taken to see the Supreme’s daughter, who wants to know why they all chose to refuse the pardons they were offered. He says some are too angry, some are too bitter, some feed defensive of Nassau. But she says that’s not possible, because her people are angrier and more afraid than anyone else could be, but they would probably take the pardon. She says to try again. He says maybe it’s because his captain wants England to fear his men’s anger, but the Supreme would prefer her men fear England. He tries to appeal to her humanity, asks if she’s just going to let her mother kill them, but she says nothing and lets her men take him back to the cage.

On Teach’s ship, they build a fire, and Teach expresses how impressed he is that Eleanor left a prisoner and returned a highly respected advisor. He asks what would happen if Vane had to choose between escape and killing Eleanor, would he take the escape route? Vane assures he would; that leaving is more important than revenge. Teach is impressed, and Vane credits Eleanor herself for that mindset.

Rogers’ men tell him that they’re confident it’s only a matter of time before someone brings them Vane, and when they leave just Rogers and Eleanor in the room, Eleanor’s handmaiden decides to eavesdrop a little.

Rogers decides to continue their conversation from before the fortress exploded. He asks Eleanor what he thinks her enemies on the island will say about her, says he’d rather hear it right from her. She says that the people there will say that she’s untrustworthy, that she is likely to turn on anyone at any moment, no matter how close they were to her. That no one should get close to her, in fact, if they want to leave with their heart in one piece. Specifically, I believe she’s talking about Max and Vane, both people she loved, both people she screwed over, and both people with plenty of influence on the island.

Rogers says that Eleanor tamed the island once, and is willing to risk nasty whispers to keep her council.

A knock on the door announces trouble above deck. Teach’s ship is heading right toward them, white flags waving, gun ports closed. Teach’s man says that it’s possible the ship is surrendering, but Rogers takes one look at Eleanor’s face and knows that can’t possibly be the case.

And it’s true. Vane isn’t surrendering on Teach’s ship; he’s launching a fireship at Rogers. They start firing cannons, trying to sink the ship before it gets to them. As it sails closer, embers spark and fly onto Rogers’ ship, and Rogers immediately moves to cover Eleanor and shouts for someone to get her inside, where she can be safe (which we all thank him for). We’re so close to getting her back on that island.

Meanwhile, in the cage on Maroon Island, Flint is having an existential crisis, wondering if the pardons and the civilization of Nassau isn’t exactly what he originally set out to do with Ashe and Miranda, long before he became Captain Flint. He’s wondering if, just this once, he should not fight the inevitable, and let Captain Flint disappear. Silver still thinks they can get out of this, but Flint assures her that She has too many people to think about, there’s no way she’ll let them go alive.

The Supreme’s daughter goes to talk to her mother, asking her to reconsider killing Flint and his men. The Supreme says that they can’t risk letting them go, because someday, maybe tomorrow, maybe in six months, they might mention this island, and then they’re doomed. Her daughter asks what Father would think, but even though her husband might have been friends with some of these men, he would understand that Her word is law and that this is the best option for their people.

And, are you ready for this? Her husband? Mr. Scott.

He is leading the slaves he promised to find to a rowboat to get them to Maroon Island when redcoats catch them. Everyone shoots and Mr. Scott is hit.

What did you think of “XXII”? Do you think next week is the week Max and Eleanor reunite?

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