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Feb. 8th, 2016 03:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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* Black Sails XXI:
* The opener sets up the politics of the island changing again now they know the fleet is coming for sure. It also sets up the theme of complicated partnerships on the verge of breaking and the idea of what the two sides really stand for. I think this is the first time someone has made a point of Max's race. I think that it's no accident that no one much cares in multi-racial Nassau, but this outsider representing the corruption of self proclaimed civilization is the first one to say something overtly racist, and it's right after Anne Bonny says of him to Max, "Son of the wealthiest man in St. kit's they say. Also say he fucked his partner out of his trading company. Stole it. Wonder why he's the civilized one and we're the savages. Something I'm never going to fucking understand." It' good the show never forgets that England's Empire was built on the backs of slaves and other colonized people, that it was incredibly violent, racist, and corrupt, even as it shows horrors on the other side like Flint's killings of the Governor and his wife in the first episode or the things he is about to do to his own crew in this one.
* It's like Jack has come alive again now he has friends again. I, of course, was expecting Teach to step in, which he did, and I'll wager he'll be captaining the wan of war. Poor Jack, "Look me in the face and tell me you doubt it," followed by a cut to people doubting it. It's a good plan, but someone more credible was needed to helm it. The only options are Flint, Vane, or Teach. Flint being absent, and Charles being... where charles is mentally, there was no suspense at all here.
* The first Eleanor scene gives us a time frame of two or so weeks from this point to end of episode which is really helpful explaining the situation deteriorating the way it is on the Walrus. It's rather deft, really. I love Eleanor being clever enough to take the information she has and figure out what Rogers is really up to and trying to hide from her. I love watching her think and keep pressing him, which gives us the international politics and the full exent of the stakes.
* I'm rather surprised no one has thumped the "We are all dead men guy," but I supose they are too tired.
* The Flint/Silver/Bones scene is a quiet, desperate sort of brutal. "You can't divide the men like that." I love that you can see that they are both right by different measures and there is no right answer here. You can also see just how much Silver has changed from first season. Original Silver didn't give a fuck for the men. New Silver cares intently. I still maintain that it's more this is the only place where he matters than full empathy, but it's noticeably moving that way. Billy is right too, that division between them will break the crew. What we are looking at is deadly calculus made up of dwindling rations and the weakening grip that maintains the authority to ration at all. I love how quiet a scene that is this intensely emotional is. You can see the exhaustion and dehydration, and how much effort even this soft verbal argument is taking. I like how Flint's list of symptoms invites us to question the mental state of all three of them the rest of the episode. I like Billy defending Flint to Silver and then turning around and asking Flint is Silver's right that Flint is compromised. I like that Flint already guessed Silver's doubts since Charleston. I love that they are all intelligent men with a really good grasp of psychology and each other's way of thinking. It also works nicely with Eleanor and Rogers endless move and counter move around politics and psychology and reading each other, the strange balance of trust and distrust.
* Jack and Vane try to tandem lead with Jack at the head and Jack not having the credibility to pull it off, including the cringe worthy invocation of himself as "Daddy." Then Teach, Charles' Stab Daddy, turns up with a bombshell and when they are at their weakest, makes his offer to take control. It is brilliant and horrifying. It is also very messy for Charles psychologically. The invocation of fatherhood in the meeting is not an accident, I think. Here Blackbeard makes explicit the father/son relationship they have. Objectively, Charles would likely live longer if he fled Nassau, but doing so is a loss of another principle and it also means a sort of reversion, returning to being the lad Blackbeard trained instead of the man he grew into. I think this is why Charles can't step up into Flint's shoes right now; it's not just a matter of strategic thought (which he and Jack together could very likely handle), it's a matter of self confidence. Vane hasn't got it right now between the ways eleanor undermined him, his guilt over the slaves, and big Daddy Blackbeard standing over him making him look an feel small. Teach rightly lists the slavery situation as a major principle Charles has gone back on, and it is a clever lever to use, especially given the way he twisted the Eleanor knife last week. Blackbeard scares me because he has Silver level clever at getting people to do what he wants, and he's scary bright and Charles level violent. I suspect he's going to prove Flint tactical as well. All this, while being fundamentally devoted to chaos. Charles can be chaotic, but he was until this season firmly in the camp of individual rights and Freedom. Teach is... I'm still working on what Teach is, but he's clearly terrifying. Notice Blackbeard continuing to try to separate Vane and Jack by leaning hard on Jack' weakness. For the record, I can't quite tell how much of his interest in Vane is serious and how much manipulation. I'm leaning towards mostly manipulation.
* The scene with Anne and Jack talking about Jack's need to impress Jack follows immediately. The structure of this show keeps being a marvel. Jack's understandably having trouble with the bargain Vane just made with the Devil in hopes if saving Nassau. Anne shows her insight into Jack. (I continue to believe that Anne does a lot of thinking and observing, but not much talking about it, so it's easy to underestimate the quality of her insights).
Anne: "'Cause you give a shit what he thinks of you. You always have."
Jack: "You think?"
Anne: "Plenty of the men in this place done plenty of stupid shit just to hear Charles Vane call them a 'proper pirate.' It might be your the only one who actually made a career of it."
* Billy's comment about the water ration helps show time advancing as well as shows the state of things politically in the ship in one line with it's implications, even as Silver's handling of the eels gives a good indication of how things stand materially. here again they are both a kind of right. Billy is thinking practically: they need Silver able to think and strong enough to lead if they are to survive. Silver is thinking politically: Command taking rations some men are being denied splinters the crew and if the crew breaks they are fucked. he is also showing that same fear we've seen in him all season that his physical disability renders him dependent and less valuable. Billy is counter arguing that he's needed for strength of will, brain and leadership and that those are crucial. Silver is still coming to terms with the loss of his leg and how it changes things for him.
Silver talks of the power of Story and the way Flint can will things to happen by using it; Billy thinks he's delirious. I think what we are seeing is that silver's resistance is down and he's trying to voice the further evolution of the thought he tried to express to Billy last episode about flint getting into his head and swaying him and how that's not supposed to happen. I think he's too tired and dehydrated to frame it properly so Billy can follow the train of though he's been mulling all this time. "Who is more powerful? The one who made the storm or the one who convinced us into battle to defeat it? A man of his capacities, his state of mind, becomes reality, and we are subject to it. Right now a state of mind so dark, it threatens to kill us all."
John Silver's reference to Flint's conscience is crucial, I think, because it's this decision in Flint that I think drives his arc this season. It's the place the dreams come from and his fundamental internal tension. With Miranda gone Silver is the only one who really sees Flint, both the Monster and the man. "I’m clearheaded, Billy. I see him. During that feud with Vane over the fort, I sat in his cabin and I watched him turn himself inside out over the idea that anyone in Nassau would see him as the villain in that story. Well, now he’s the greatest villain in the new world. We all see it, we all follow him because of it. I think it’s torture for him, and I think the only way he can imagine it stopping is when there are no more of us left to witness it." I still think Flint is creating his own Nemesis, but the way we get there is so much twistier and more interesting than I imagined. I didn't guess it would lead through understanding and empathy.
* Flint's killing of both men looked inevitable to me. I'm not saying right or wrong, just inevitable. I suspect that's why Silver said nothing, that and the politics of it.
* Flint keeps killing Miranda. I think this is something worth contemplating.
* Flint's breakdown in private is foreshadowed by Silver's invocation of his confession during the conflict of the fort. Silver has just explained a thing before it happened, that's how good he is at reading Flint.
* The first Anne/Max scene this episode informs the second: the invocation of the was Max will be seen and treated outside of Nassau, is now followed by Max speaking of her past as a slave. She is as ruthless with her self as she is being with Anne. I do believe she really loves Anne and doing this hurts. I don't agree that splitting up is best either, but I think I understand why she is doing it though I'm not convinced I could explain it properly. It's a thing one does in harsh environments to survive, a slicing away of bits of self one can't afford when things are at their worst. I think she also thinks she is protecting Anne, but she's not. She's simply robbing her of choice in a rather paternalistic way. People constantly underestimate Anne's depths because all they see is her surface. I've written of this repeatedly with Jack Rackham, the way he assumes she either thinks like him or isn't thinking at all. I think Max often treats her like she is naive in ways I don't think Anne actually is, because Max is so used to having to be clever and socially skilled to survive and Anne is not particularly verbal or social. It's easy for them both to overlook the ways Anne is observant of people because both Jack and Max manifest their skills in that area in these flashier more visible ways and they are both way more intellectual about it, if that makes sense. Anne does a lot of thinking and her insights are excellent, but phrased deceptively simply in short words and usually short sentences. Neither of them really See her as a thinking being. I've written a lot about Jack's unexamined internalized sexism and the way it both harms Anne and Jack himself. I think that this is a flaw Max shares. Under her obvious brilliance and adaptability there is a lot of unexamined internalized sexism. Max is one of the few people to see Anne as a woman even though Anne performs traditional masculinity on a level with the likes of Edward Teach. Max, for all her beautiful performance of traditional femininity, really is acting the way Jack unfairly accused her of early in the season: she is robbing Anne of her say in what happens in the relationship in the name of protecting her. I think Anne's expression and body language as she kisses her and walks away is more eloquent commentary than words ever could make. I also think there is a parallel here with season two Jack's not consulting her about the ultimatum and simply deciding for her. Jack and Max are way more alike than either of them would find flattering.
I do think that Max's practical considerations as a mixed race same sex couple in the early 18th Century are ones to take seriously, and I suspect that Anne underestimates the difficulties. Anne is used to being able to fight her way out of problems. Max has a much more realistic idea of what they are up against, I think.
* I think for Max the money has always been about security, and when money wasn't enough, she went for power in the hopes that would protect her.
* I think for Anne pirating's never been about the money or the power at all, but about finding somewhere she belongs.
* This is the moment Billy begins to turn. It's also a beautiful counterpoint to Flint pressuring Silver to get things under control at the end of the food thief scene. The tone is nearly identical. Flint: "If you're not strong enough to do what needs to be done, I'll do it for you." Billy: "Maybe you were right. Maybe he is dangerous to us in this state. And maybe there is nothing we can do to stop him right now without shattering the crew. But if he kills another innocent man in this crew to make a point, or tries to... I'm going to do something about it. So I suggest you get this situation under control before that happens."
I think it is interesting that Billy has been trying to teach Silver to be Mr. Gates all episode (vide the eel scene). I think it's interesting that Billy can't be Gates himself. Billy invokes Mr. Gates and Mrs. Barlow as people who could rein in flint because he respected them. Silver points out they are both dead. Ouch. (I would argue the Miranda case was way more complicated, but still? Ouch).
* At the 21st day becalmed we get another Flint dream, falling right on the heals of the invocation of the dead. Flint has his current hair cut, but McGraw's white linen shirt again. Miranda is in that beautiful green dress she wore at... I'm thinking it was at the salon/party scene in the London flashbacks, after the kiss in the coach when she reassures him it won't be a problem with Thomas, but don't quote me on this. I'll need to rewatch season two, clearly. The spoken material goes back to the three of them as well.
Flint: When I lost Thomas, I raged. I was distraught. I wept. But with you... I'm ruined over you.
Miranda: When I first met you, you were so... Unformed. And then I spoke and bade you cast aside your shame, and Captain Flint was born into the world... the part of you that always existed yet never were you willing to allow into the light of day. I was mistress to you when you needed love. I was wife to you when you needed understanding. But first and before all... I was mother. I have known you like no other.
It is at this point it transitions from Londion to a row boat with her in one of her dingy Barlow outfits. I maintain that she is meant to evoke Charon here. We had lady death in XIX, we had a male death in the place of Ghost Captain in XX and Miranda as a sort of spirit guide, now we have Miranda as Charon saying the following rather ominous lines: "o I love you like no other. I will guide you through it, but at its end is where you must leave me. At its end is where you will find the peace that eludes you, and at its end lies the answer you refuse to see." O.o
* Silver insists on the trip to the dead whale. Silver maneuvers Flint into that boat alone with him. Silver set this up for his confession knowing even odds Flint kills him, based on Billy's comment about Flint needing to respect Silver as an equal to do his job as Quartermaster on that ship. It happens to work, but it was very, very close only one of them coming back instead of two. We also get Silver explicitly saying that he is bound to the crew now and why. Silver says, "I saw no way to hold it [The Urca Gold] and remain a part of this crew. And without these men, all I am is an invalid." So I was right about motive, and we also get an accounting of his share. It is his loyalty to the crew that saves him, i think. That moment of vulnerability that shows he really has changed is why Flint lets go the weapon and takes up the oar.
* So the shark and the wind save them, the timing suggesting that the clearing of the air more than symbolically cleared the air, though that is likely just a fancy.
* The Shark hunt was beautifully shot and edited by the way. I love that they chose clarity in the action scenes, it is unfashionable, but i much prefer it, and I'm not just saying that because of the lovely ass shot in the middle. I do like that they show the stronger men feeding and watering the weaker ones after the shark hunt. It is a small thing, but the sort of thing I worry about. I also appreciate the spare exchange between Billy and Silver in which Silver reports progress. Silver took Billy's advice for fixing the problem and there is acknowledgement of that implied and thus respect.
* The opening scene amounts to warning of a storm coming in the form of the English fleet. Now that fleet arrives to find the defensive line of ships, and Teach and Charles marshaling Nassau's response. Eleanor cleverly picks Hornigold to send to offer of pardons, but we don't know how it works out exactly beyond that there are defections.
* I have concerns about where the next passage with the walrus crew is going, but I'll wait to next week to see how I feel when this plays out.
* Zimbabwe has joined Ethiopia in disaster level drought People and animals are dying. Want to help? https://www.wfp.org/help
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* "Should feminism play a role in the 2016 election?:"
* "Rubio mocks Cruz's Iowa robo-calls:"
* "Congress grills EPA over role in Flint disaster:"
* Black Sails XXI:
* The opener sets up the politics of the island changing again now they know the fleet is coming for sure. It also sets up the theme of complicated partnerships on the verge of breaking and the idea of what the two sides really stand for. I think this is the first time someone has made a point of Max's race. I think that it's no accident that no one much cares in multi-racial Nassau, but this outsider representing the corruption of self proclaimed civilization is the first one to say something overtly racist, and it's right after Anne Bonny says of him to Max, "Son of the wealthiest man in St. kit's they say. Also say he fucked his partner out of his trading company. Stole it. Wonder why he's the civilized one and we're the savages. Something I'm never going to fucking understand." It' good the show never forgets that England's Empire was built on the backs of slaves and other colonized people, that it was incredibly violent, racist, and corrupt, even as it shows horrors on the other side like Flint's killings of the Governor and his wife in the first episode or the things he is about to do to his own crew in this one.
* It's like Jack has come alive again now he has friends again. I, of course, was expecting Teach to step in, which he did, and I'll wager he'll be captaining the wan of war. Poor Jack, "Look me in the face and tell me you doubt it," followed by a cut to people doubting it. It's a good plan, but someone more credible was needed to helm it. The only options are Flint, Vane, or Teach. Flint being absent, and Charles being... where charles is mentally, there was no suspense at all here.
* The first Eleanor scene gives us a time frame of two or so weeks from this point to end of episode which is really helpful explaining the situation deteriorating the way it is on the Walrus. It's rather deft, really. I love Eleanor being clever enough to take the information she has and figure out what Rogers is really up to and trying to hide from her. I love watching her think and keep pressing him, which gives us the international politics and the full exent of the stakes.
* I'm rather surprised no one has thumped the "We are all dead men guy," but I supose they are too tired.
* The Flint/Silver/Bones scene is a quiet, desperate sort of brutal. "You can't divide the men like that." I love that you can see that they are both right by different measures and there is no right answer here. You can also see just how much Silver has changed from first season. Original Silver didn't give a fuck for the men. New Silver cares intently. I still maintain that it's more this is the only place where he matters than full empathy, but it's noticeably moving that way. Billy is right too, that division between them will break the crew. What we are looking at is deadly calculus made up of dwindling rations and the weakening grip that maintains the authority to ration at all. I love how quiet a scene that is this intensely emotional is. You can see the exhaustion and dehydration, and how much effort even this soft verbal argument is taking. I like how Flint's list of symptoms invites us to question the mental state of all three of them the rest of the episode. I like Billy defending Flint to Silver and then turning around and asking Flint is Silver's right that Flint is compromised. I like that Flint already guessed Silver's doubts since Charleston. I love that they are all intelligent men with a really good grasp of psychology and each other's way of thinking. It also works nicely with Eleanor and Rogers endless move and counter move around politics and psychology and reading each other, the strange balance of trust and distrust.
* Jack and Vane try to tandem lead with Jack at the head and Jack not having the credibility to pull it off, including the cringe worthy invocation of himself as "Daddy." Then Teach, Charles' Stab Daddy, turns up with a bombshell and when they are at their weakest, makes his offer to take control. It is brilliant and horrifying. It is also very messy for Charles psychologically. The invocation of fatherhood in the meeting is not an accident, I think. Here Blackbeard makes explicit the father/son relationship they have. Objectively, Charles would likely live longer if he fled Nassau, but doing so is a loss of another principle and it also means a sort of reversion, returning to being the lad Blackbeard trained instead of the man he grew into. I think this is why Charles can't step up into Flint's shoes right now; it's not just a matter of strategic thought (which he and Jack together could very likely handle), it's a matter of self confidence. Vane hasn't got it right now between the ways eleanor undermined him, his guilt over the slaves, and big Daddy Blackbeard standing over him making him look an feel small. Teach rightly lists the slavery situation as a major principle Charles has gone back on, and it is a clever lever to use, especially given the way he twisted the Eleanor knife last week. Blackbeard scares me because he has Silver level clever at getting people to do what he wants, and he's scary bright and Charles level violent. I suspect he's going to prove Flint tactical as well. All this, while being fundamentally devoted to chaos. Charles can be chaotic, but he was until this season firmly in the camp of individual rights and Freedom. Teach is... I'm still working on what Teach is, but he's clearly terrifying. Notice Blackbeard continuing to try to separate Vane and Jack by leaning hard on Jack' weakness. For the record, I can't quite tell how much of his interest in Vane is serious and how much manipulation. I'm leaning towards mostly manipulation.
* The scene with Anne and Jack talking about Jack's need to impress Jack follows immediately. The structure of this show keeps being a marvel. Jack's understandably having trouble with the bargain Vane just made with the Devil in hopes if saving Nassau. Anne shows her insight into Jack. (I continue to believe that Anne does a lot of thinking and observing, but not much talking about it, so it's easy to underestimate the quality of her insights).
Anne: "'Cause you give a shit what he thinks of you. You always have."
Jack: "You think?"
Anne: "Plenty of the men in this place done plenty of stupid shit just to hear Charles Vane call them a 'proper pirate.' It might be your the only one who actually made a career of it."
* Billy's comment about the water ration helps show time advancing as well as shows the state of things politically in the ship in one line with it's implications, even as Silver's handling of the eels gives a good indication of how things stand materially. here again they are both a kind of right. Billy is thinking practically: they need Silver able to think and strong enough to lead if they are to survive. Silver is thinking politically: Command taking rations some men are being denied splinters the crew and if the crew breaks they are fucked. he is also showing that same fear we've seen in him all season that his physical disability renders him dependent and less valuable. Billy is counter arguing that he's needed for strength of will, brain and leadership and that those are crucial. Silver is still coming to terms with the loss of his leg and how it changes things for him.
Silver talks of the power of Story and the way Flint can will things to happen by using it; Billy thinks he's delirious. I think what we are seeing is that silver's resistance is down and he's trying to voice the further evolution of the thought he tried to express to Billy last episode about flint getting into his head and swaying him and how that's not supposed to happen. I think he's too tired and dehydrated to frame it properly so Billy can follow the train of though he's been mulling all this time. "Who is more powerful? The one who made the storm or the one who convinced us into battle to defeat it? A man of his capacities, his state of mind, becomes reality, and we are subject to it. Right now a state of mind so dark, it threatens to kill us all."
John Silver's reference to Flint's conscience is crucial, I think, because it's this decision in Flint that I think drives his arc this season. It's the place the dreams come from and his fundamental internal tension. With Miranda gone Silver is the only one who really sees Flint, both the Monster and the man. "I’m clearheaded, Billy. I see him. During that feud with Vane over the fort, I sat in his cabin and I watched him turn himself inside out over the idea that anyone in Nassau would see him as the villain in that story. Well, now he’s the greatest villain in the new world. We all see it, we all follow him because of it. I think it’s torture for him, and I think the only way he can imagine it stopping is when there are no more of us left to witness it." I still think Flint is creating his own Nemesis, but the way we get there is so much twistier and more interesting than I imagined. I didn't guess it would lead through understanding and empathy.
* Flint's killing of both men looked inevitable to me. I'm not saying right or wrong, just inevitable. I suspect that's why Silver said nothing, that and the politics of it.
* Flint keeps killing Miranda. I think this is something worth contemplating.
* Flint's breakdown in private is foreshadowed by Silver's invocation of his confession during the conflict of the fort. Silver has just explained a thing before it happened, that's how good he is at reading Flint.
* The first Anne/Max scene this episode informs the second: the invocation of the was Max will be seen and treated outside of Nassau, is now followed by Max speaking of her past as a slave. She is as ruthless with her self as she is being with Anne. I do believe she really loves Anne and doing this hurts. I don't agree that splitting up is best either, but I think I understand why she is doing it though I'm not convinced I could explain it properly. It's a thing one does in harsh environments to survive, a slicing away of bits of self one can't afford when things are at their worst. I think she also thinks she is protecting Anne, but she's not. She's simply robbing her of choice in a rather paternalistic way. People constantly underestimate Anne's depths because all they see is her surface. I've written of this repeatedly with Jack Rackham, the way he assumes she either thinks like him or isn't thinking at all. I think Max often treats her like she is naive in ways I don't think Anne actually is, because Max is so used to having to be clever and socially skilled to survive and Anne is not particularly verbal or social. It's easy for them both to overlook the ways Anne is observant of people because both Jack and Max manifest their skills in that area in these flashier more visible ways and they are both way more intellectual about it, if that makes sense. Anne does a lot of thinking and her insights are excellent, but phrased deceptively simply in short words and usually short sentences. Neither of them really See her as a thinking being. I've written a lot about Jack's unexamined internalized sexism and the way it both harms Anne and Jack himself. I think that this is a flaw Max shares. Under her obvious brilliance and adaptability there is a lot of unexamined internalized sexism. Max is one of the few people to see Anne as a woman even though Anne performs traditional masculinity on a level with the likes of Edward Teach. Max, for all her beautiful performance of traditional femininity, really is acting the way Jack unfairly accused her of early in the season: she is robbing Anne of her say in what happens in the relationship in the name of protecting her. I think Anne's expression and body language as she kisses her and walks away is more eloquent commentary than words ever could make. I also think there is a parallel here with season two Jack's not consulting her about the ultimatum and simply deciding for her. Jack and Max are way more alike than either of them would find flattering.
I do think that Max's practical considerations as a mixed race same sex couple in the early 18th Century are ones to take seriously, and I suspect that Anne underestimates the difficulties. Anne is used to being able to fight her way out of problems. Max has a much more realistic idea of what they are up against, I think.
* I think for Max the money has always been about security, and when money wasn't enough, she went for power in the hopes that would protect her.
* I think for Anne pirating's never been about the money or the power at all, but about finding somewhere she belongs.
* This is the moment Billy begins to turn. It's also a beautiful counterpoint to Flint pressuring Silver to get things under control at the end of the food thief scene. The tone is nearly identical. Flint: "If you're not strong enough to do what needs to be done, I'll do it for you." Billy: "Maybe you were right. Maybe he is dangerous to us in this state. And maybe there is nothing we can do to stop him right now without shattering the crew. But if he kills another innocent man in this crew to make a point, or tries to... I'm going to do something about it. So I suggest you get this situation under control before that happens."
I think it is interesting that Billy has been trying to teach Silver to be Mr. Gates all episode (vide the eel scene). I think it's interesting that Billy can't be Gates himself. Billy invokes Mr. Gates and Mrs. Barlow as people who could rein in flint because he respected them. Silver points out they are both dead. Ouch. (I would argue the Miranda case was way more complicated, but still? Ouch).
* At the 21st day becalmed we get another Flint dream, falling right on the heals of the invocation of the dead. Flint has his current hair cut, but McGraw's white linen shirt again. Miranda is in that beautiful green dress she wore at... I'm thinking it was at the salon/party scene in the London flashbacks, after the kiss in the coach when she reassures him it won't be a problem with Thomas, but don't quote me on this. I'll need to rewatch season two, clearly. The spoken material goes back to the three of them as well.
Flint: When I lost Thomas, I raged. I was distraught. I wept. But with you... I'm ruined over you.
Miranda: When I first met you, you were so... Unformed. And then I spoke and bade you cast aside your shame, and Captain Flint was born into the world... the part of you that always existed yet never were you willing to allow into the light of day. I was mistress to you when you needed love. I was wife to you when you needed understanding. But first and before all... I was mother. I have known you like no other.
It is at this point it transitions from Londion to a row boat with her in one of her dingy Barlow outfits. I maintain that she is meant to evoke Charon here. We had lady death in XIX, we had a male death in the place of Ghost Captain in XX and Miranda as a sort of spirit guide, now we have Miranda as Charon saying the following rather ominous lines: "o I love you like no other. I will guide you through it, but at its end is where you must leave me. At its end is where you will find the peace that eludes you, and at its end lies the answer you refuse to see." O.o
* Silver insists on the trip to the dead whale. Silver maneuvers Flint into that boat alone with him. Silver set this up for his confession knowing even odds Flint kills him, based on Billy's comment about Flint needing to respect Silver as an equal to do his job as Quartermaster on that ship. It happens to work, but it was very, very close only one of them coming back instead of two. We also get Silver explicitly saying that he is bound to the crew now and why. Silver says, "I saw no way to hold it [The Urca Gold] and remain a part of this crew. And without these men, all I am is an invalid." So I was right about motive, and we also get an accounting of his share. It is his loyalty to the crew that saves him, i think. That moment of vulnerability that shows he really has changed is why Flint lets go the weapon and takes up the oar.
* So the shark and the wind save them, the timing suggesting that the clearing of the air more than symbolically cleared the air, though that is likely just a fancy.
* The Shark hunt was beautifully shot and edited by the way. I love that they chose clarity in the action scenes, it is unfashionable, but i much prefer it, and I'm not just saying that because of the lovely ass shot in the middle. I do like that they show the stronger men feeding and watering the weaker ones after the shark hunt. It is a small thing, but the sort of thing I worry about. I also appreciate the spare exchange between Billy and Silver in which Silver reports progress. Silver took Billy's advice for fixing the problem and there is acknowledgement of that implied and thus respect.
* The opening scene amounts to warning of a storm coming in the form of the English fleet. Now that fleet arrives to find the defensive line of ships, and Teach and Charles marshaling Nassau's response. Eleanor cleverly picks Hornigold to send to offer of pardons, but we don't know how it works out exactly beyond that there are defections.
* I have concerns about where the next passage with the walrus crew is going, but I'll wait to next week to see how I feel when this plays out.
* Zimbabwe has joined Ethiopia in disaster level drought People and animals are dying. Want to help? https://www.wfp.org/help
* Help the poisoned children of Flint Michigan. "Water Crisis:" https://www.cfgf.org/cfgf/GoodWork/FlintArea/WaterCrisis/tabid/855/Default.aspx
* "How to help Flint, Michigan:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan
* Want to help finance Hector's cat food and my meds/medical co pays? Paypal Lethran@gmail.com
* Donate to help refugees "UN Refugee Agency:" http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general
* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com