Black Sails XXXVI: Flint Done F’d Up Now
Previously: Silver duped Flint and Max met a mentor
Rogers and Ms. Hudson
Rogers arrives at Miranda’s burnt house where he find the cellar and finds a diary from Captain Avery. Billy later tells Rogers that Gates was trusted by Flint, but all it took was money to tear them apart. He says it’ll happen with Flint and Silver, and Billy shows Rogers a page from the diary. It’s a map of an island: La Isla del Esqueleto (Skeleton Island or as Jim Hawkins calls it, Treasure Island).
Rogers missed another council meeting and they are beginning to lose faith in him. Rogers tells Soames that he is too busy to deal with the council, that he has to protect civilization from the pirates. Soames tells him in no uncertain terms that it’s not his responsibility to do that. Rogers is to make Nassau stable and if he does not, his investors and those that back him will leave him.
Ms. Hudson goes to talk to the madame of the brothel. She says the governor is going down a dark path and the madame is like no shit, everybody’s already figured that out. Ms. Hudson tries to pull the madame back into the fold by telling her that she can help her get back on the council. The madame asks what Ms. Hudson wants and she just wants to return home.
The madame goes into Max’s old room by herself and she starts talking to the window. We see that Jack Rackham and Featherstone are sitting in the room which is a very interesting development. Rackham decides to follow Flint and Rogers to Skeleton Island so that he can complete his deal with GG.
Rackham and Max
Grandma Guthrie takes Max to a port and GG shows Max some pirates that have been parked by the docks for years. GG says that her family makes a lot of money there and that they’ll progress, but the pirates will remain. Max intuits that the pirates make GG richer. GG asks that now they are in agreement for acquiring and reforming Nassau, who will run it?
Later that night GG and Max are at a party and GG starts talking about a young man. She doesn’t like him per se, but she wants Max to be in charge and she can’t be without a husband. GG says that he has little ambition and reform minded parents that would like Max’s story. That once they get to Nassau, he can have other ways to entertain himself without her participation and that she will also have freedom to do what she likes. GG asks if she’s ready for the next step.
Max tells Anne that GG has committed to the plan and Max, but she could not agree to marrying someone even just for appearances. Anne asks why she didn’t do it. Max says she watched Eleanor and resolved not to make the same mistakes. That she can’t be with a man that would one day position himself between Max and Anne. Max apologizes and says she never should have betrayed her. They hold hands on the bench and it’s cute. I’m really glad they’ve reconciled though I know the real history of Anne Bonny and Jack Rackham and it’s not a happy ending.
Silver and Flint
The rescue plan is underway. Kofi and some other men are sent to rescue Madi. Silver asks Flint what happens after this. Flint tells him the rescue attempt plan and Silver repeats himself. Flint mentions the war, but Silver doesn’t want a part of it.
Later, Silver and Flint are looking at Rogers ship and the rescue attempt did not work. Billy walks out and then Madi.Rogers kills Kofi, then another crew member. Silver tells Hands to bring it out and Flint asks bring what out. Silver tells Flint his plan failed. Rogers has Madi brought up next and he begins to load his gun which freaks Silver out. He has the men show Rogers the chest and Rogers brings up his anchor to sail off.
Silver tells Flint he’s tired of gambling with Madi’s life. Flint says they had it (which they didn’t) and now they’ll lose the war for sure. Silver says he saw so many men die because Flint said to trust him without asking questions — now he’s asking for the same in return.
“Do not ask me to choose between a war and a wife. I don’t think you’ll like the answer.”
-Silver
Silver asks Flint if he has his support and Flint says yes (he’s a big liar).
Hands and Silver talk below deck and Hands says that if Flint stays alive long enough he’ll make Silver pay for it. Silver says it’s over. It’s fine and they’re all friends again, but Hands does not believe it. There can’t be two kings and Flint is not willing to share the crown. Silver demands that Hands cannot move against Flint and he cannot talk to any other man or Silver about killing Flint.
At the same time, Flint and Dooley are talking about Avery and the island. Flint tells Dooley that Avery’s crew had locked themselves inside the hull and had eaten each other. They refused to leave the ship because there was talk of weird stuff on the island.
The Walrus crew is looking overboard and there’s a bunch of fog everywhere and the remains of a massive ship that had sunk a long time ago. No one is down below watching the treasure. Flint tells Dooley he needs himself a new partner because Silver is compromised. They kill the guy guarding the cache and they start untying it. Hands catches them and says if him and Flint fight either way Hands will be blamed. That Silver needs to see Flint for who he is. He tells them to take it. They drag the cache on the island and Hands shows Silver.
Silver goes on board the Eurydice (Rogers’ ship) and tells Rogers that Flint took the cache on the island. He sent six men to find the cache, track Flint, and kill him.
I really like Hands. He has Silver’s best interests in mind, but he also knows his weaknesses. Hands knows that Silver still has a bit of trust left in him, but as soon as he shows him Flint taking his one chance to save Madi, that trust is gone. No more Mr. Nice Silver.
Black Sails XXXVII: Billy Bones Better be Glad He’s a Fictional Character
Previously: Silver saw Flint’s betrayal and Rogers is still the worst
This episode was something else. We lost beloved characters from season 1 and we had flashbacks that gave us more questions than answers.
Silver and Flint’s friendship is being decimated by Flint’s own actions yet Silver truly has not given Flint completely up. It doesn’t help that Madi isn’t there to help guide him, but Hands is trying his darndest to take off Silver’s rose colored glasses.
We learn through flashbacks that Flint is teaching Silver how to sword fight with only his crutch which is very smart. The peg leg could break during battle and then where would Silver be. Anyways, Silver asks Flint if he is concerned since technically he’s really teaching Silver how to defeat him.
In another flashback, Flint asks about Silver’s backstory and Silver regurgitates the same thing he told him before. Flint says he’s heard snippets of that story throughout the crew so he knows its false. It’s the one piece of Silver he doesn’t have yet and he’s concerned that Silver is keeping this a secret. Silver walks off, but in the third flashback of the episode Silver is back and ready to fight again. He tells Flint that his story is completely remarkable and that his friendship and loyalty will have to be enough.
In the last flashback (I promise), Silver and Madi are eating on Maroon Island. Silver tells her that he truly has Flint’s trust, respect, and friendship and that Flint will have his in return. Silver seems almost in awe of this fact and yet he refuses to tell Flint his backstory. I am 100% certain that he has told Madi everything so why not Flint.
In the present, Silver meets Hands who was supposed to be with the men finding Flint. Silver is not happy about this because Flint could’ve buried the treasure anywhere which means he has won. To make things even worse, Rogers gave Silver the ultimatum that he must return the cache by sunrise the next day. Silver is not trusting of this (which he shouldn’t be) and he wonders what Rogers is up to.
Silver catches up with his men who wanted his input on where Flint went to and he says why would he know that. He splits the men up anyway and Hands mentions that thats what Flint wants. It’d be easier to kill the men if they were split up, but Silver doesn’t care as long as the men reveal Flint’s location. Hands says he must have learned a lot more from Flint than he realized.
On the other ship, the two worst people — now that Eleanor is dead — are deciding what their next move is. Billy tells Rogers that he needs to assume the worst and act now before anyone has the chance to act against him. Rogers goes to see Madi again and he tries to intimidate her by saying he’s having a hard time controlling himself and he wants to be violent blah blah blah.
He threatens Silver, saying he hears Eleanor talking to him. Madi cuts him off in one of the best speeches of the series:
“The voice you hear in your head. I imagine I know who it sounds like as I know Eleanor wanted those things. But I hear the voices. A chorus of voices. Multitudes. They reach back centuries. Men and women and children who lost their lives to men like you. Men and women and children forced to wear your chains. I must answer to them and this war. Their war. Flint’s war. My war. It will not be bargained away to avoid a fight, to save John Silver’s life, or his men’s, or mine. And you believe what you will, but it was neither I nor Flint nor the Spanish raider who killed your wife. That, you did.”
Rogers is speechless and furious because he knows Madi is right. It’s his fault and he’s trying to blame everyone else for his actions. Madi is not here for the blame game and she is willing to sacrifice everything for her people. Flint wants this war to enact revenge on England and he is willing to kill anyone who gets in his way, but Madi will sacrifice herself if it means her people will be freed. Not just the Maroon people, but all those who have been or will be enslaved.
The three men Silver sent are killed by Flint. Silver finds them and Hands asks what he’s gonna do about it. He says that Silver has been warned by Billy, himself, Flint yet he will forget about everything Flint has done and go back to him. They head back to the split where Flint and Dooley have retrieved the chest and Dooley asks about what happens after. He says that he hopes Silver comes around and if he doesn’t, Dooley will do the deed so Flint doesn’t have to not realizing that Flint has no qualms about killing a friend. Just ask Gates who he strangled with his bare hands.
In the worst scene of the episode, Rogers’ men set fire to the Walrus and while the men are abandoning ship, Billy’s bitch ass leads the others in boats as they shoot the men like fish in a barrel. DeGroot is killed, but Billy spares Ben Gunn’s life since he saved his. Thanks Ben.
Hands finds Flint and fights him, but Hands is defeated. How Flint is able to defeat Joji AND Hands is beyond me. Silver finally hobbles in and demands to know where the cache is. Flint says no and that even if they free Madi, she’ll never forgive Silver. I don’t believe this for one minute, but Flint is doing his best to manipulate Silver.
Silver pulls out his sword and they start fighting. Before it can really get started they hear the Walrus explode. They are essentially stuck on the island though Rogers is so hellbent on destroying everything I don’t doubt he’ll try to find the cache himself. The only good thing is that Rackham is on his way though without their guide, I’m not sure what damage will be done before he arrives.
Next Black Sails recap is the finale, and we are not ready!
Tayci is a mother of 3 boys and a Ravenclaw and a member of #WizardTeam. In her spare time she tries to write, but usually plays Fallout 4 or Tropico 5. You can find her work here and here and you can find her onTwitter and Tumblr @taycibear.
