Archive

“Black Sails” recap (3.02): A Good (Wo)Man in a Storm

Previously on Black Sails, Flint set out on a mission to punish anyone who punished pirates, Max decided she wanted to move the gold out of the fort but needs Jack to get on board, Edward Teach returned to Nassau to find Vane, Governor Rogers asked Eleanor for help colonizing the island, and Flint sailed his ship directly into a storm.

We open on Flint’s ship, where the ghost of Miranda climbs out of the ocean and says something to him, something he can’t hear.

He follows her below deck, but before he can find her again he’s woken up; it was just a nightmare. The crew gets to work prepping to enter the storm, and Flint is surprised to see Hornigold still following them. But he’s sure they’ll pull back, so he tells his crew to keep trucking along.

Billy Bones looks at him like he’s a looney toon, but he does as he’s instructed. Silver is starting to regret their decision to blindly follow this man into the belly of the beast instead of taking Hornigold’s offer of pardon, but it’s way too late for that now.

On Rogers’ ship, Eleanor is giving herself a sponge bath.

A woman comes in with clothes for her and an order from Rogers to meet him abovedeck, and Eleanor doesn’t really know what to say, never having had a proper chambermaid before. The chambermaid sasses her, saying that since Eleanor’s technically a prisoner, she doesn’t have to bite her tongue around her, but she’s more privileged than she knows.

Eleanor goes to meet Rogers, and he tells her the names of all the ships he has and all the guns each of them holds. Eleanor says she’s impressed, and maybe she actually is, but she knows that’s not really why she was called to meet with him.

He shows her one ship that is expendable and says that it’s the one that will take her back to London to be hanged if she proves useless. Eleanor says that will never happen, because there’s so much that only she knows. There are things he never knew he never knew, and she’s the only one who can help him. He secedes, warning her that if she manipulates him or lies to him or basically makes him mad at all, she’s a goner.

On the island, a pirate goes to Featherstone to try to withdraw 500 gold pieces. Jack mentions that he just withdrew that amount two days ago, but the pirate lost it. No, not gambled it away. Misplaced the entire bag of 500 gold pieces. They try to offer him financial advice, but eventually realize they’re trying to teach a pig to fly and give him the gold anyway.

Max comes in and asks to talk to Jack alone, and pitches her plan to turn the gold into smaller shiny objects that are easier to hide and protect. Jack thinks this all has to do with Anne, but Max assures her it doesn’t; she truly believes that, if it ever came down to it, Anne would choose Jack over her. The fort is going to fall if they don’t do something, and if it does, it’s his head on a pike. “Without you, there is no her,” she says sadly.

Max says they both love Anne, and the least they can do is work together to protect her future. Jack looks like he understands, though it seems to hurt him a bit, too.

In Rogers’ office on the ship, Eleanor tells him her origin story, how she took over Nassau at the young age of 17, and how she got a bunch of hooligans to listen to her by getting the one guy they feared most off the island: Edward Teach. He had a pirate fleet with Hornigold and a young protege, and as soon as she got the protege on her side, the rest was cake.

He asks who that protege was, and she says Vane. He raises an eyebrow at her and she offers that yes, she was fucking him.

Rogers. is. PISSED. He’s ready to send her to the gallows, but she’s mad right back. He never asked her! She never lied to him. Rogers thinks that he was about to risk everything for a personal vendetta. But Eleanor says it’s more than that; she knows everyone. She knows Flint is dangerous but reasonable. Rackham is manipulative but cares most about his legacy. And Vane is not to be underestimated. Rogers doesn’t trust her, but Eleanor doesn’t need to be trusted. She just wants to see Nassau great again. He just needs to believe they want the same thing.

On the island, Vane is trying not to get too upset over the use of slave labor to protect his own gold when he’s greeted by a not-so-friendly sword. Wielded by Edward Teach. Teach says that Vane betrayed him for a girl, and how much he was hurt but that, but still hugs him and calls him an old friend. He says that his ninth (!) wife distracted him enough to forget Nassau, but then soon after he moved on, someone told him both of the Guthries were off Nassau; one dead, one taken. Vane insists they’re both dead, though. And says he’s not about to apologize for his past decisions.

Teach isn’t here for that, though, he just wants to meet whoever Vane is running with nowadays.

And one such man is Jack Rackham, currently gambling in the tavern. Idelle approaches him and returns the sacks of gold his pirate lost…yes, both of them.

She calls his men stupid and he can’t disagree. Before they can elaborate on that, Vane comes in and introduces his old partner and his new one. Teach asks them why they’re defending Nassau, and it’s clear Rackham wants history to have its eye on him. Two men approach Teach where he sits and ask to be on his new crew, and he’s appalled at their audacity. Back in his day, you had to punch someone to get on a crew, not just ask nicely.

Teach says Nassau is spoiled and says he only came back for one man. He looks Vane right in his face and says he wonders if that man is still here.

In the brothel, Max is on a date with Anne when Jack stumbles in and leads them into their room to talk. Jack agrees to Max’s plan to move the gold and just makes them promise they won’t tell anyone. ANYONE.

When Jack storms out, Anne asks what Max said to change his mind. Max says she knows that Anne can’t imagine leaving her, but they can’t keep up this weird threesome forever, especially once England returns to colonize; Max must stay, but Anne will likely leave with Jack.

They kiss, and it feels a little like goodbye.

Anne keeps kissing her, not wanting it to mean that, desperate not to lose this love she’s found. Max looks sad, like it kills her to be breaking this poor girl’s heart.

But if we’re being honest, I think she was just being a comfort to Anne. I think she loved her, but I don’t think she was in love with her. I don’t think she would let herself be, not after Eleanor.

Anyway, on the ocean, getting nearer to Nassau, one of Rogers’ men worries Rogers is being a little rash. See, he’s heard stories about decisions he’s made that didn’t go terribly well, and worries that this plan to take Nassau might be going that way as well. But it’s too late to turn back now, because Hornigold and Dufraine are here to talk to the governor.

Hornigold is stressed that Eleanor is on board, because she is, as he calls her, untrustworthy. But Rogers (thinks he) knows who he’s dealing with. Rogers asks for news of his mission, and Hornigold insists that Flint is dead; no man could have survived the storm based on the debris they found.

The joke’s on them, though, because while Flint’s ship did have a hard time in the storm, taking on a lot of water, and almost tipping over, and though poor Silver haD to watch a man drown below deck, they are still kickin’.

Flint IS still having nightmares, in which the ghost of Miranda is still shouting things he can’t hear.

Something moves between them, black as death, but he is woken up again, this time to the news that the storm had passed. Oh and also they’re hella stranded unless the wind starts blowing right now.

What did you think of “XX”? Are Max and Anne doomed? Does this open the door for Max and Eleanor, or are they too far apart now?

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button