Black Sails 2.09
Mar. 22nd, 2015 09:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which any kind of above cut remark would be spoilery.
Okay, this time my "I knew it" comes with "NOOOOO, I WAS AFRAID OF THIS AND NOW IT HAPPENED". Damm damm damm. Oh, Miranda. You grew on me so much this season and were such a great character. At least your death didn't come artificially just so Flint would be separated from his inner James McGraw for good, but organically as part of the overall story. And your story. When Peter Ashe said "This is what civilisation means", it underlined it. Miranda had been rooting for a return to the world she left out of temporal distance, idealising it the further away it got, but figuring out during the course of the episode that Ashe had been the one to betray Thomas and James to Hamilton Snr. and the navy (and was now demanding Flint to practically commit suicide for the cause, because coming home to London and admitting a homosexual affair would amount to this) drove home the hypocrisy and cruelty of the world they'd left behind. And her violent verbal rejection of this leads to her death. Elsewhere in the episode, you have Eleanor ordering the deaths of Jack's crew so that the dream of a legitimate Nassau can be accomplished only to find herself kidnapped and handed over to the British navy as "The Queen of Thieves", a pirate herself; no matter the outcome of this, Eleanor's idea of a legitimate Nassau and herself as a part of this dies right then and there on that beach.
"They can't tell the difference between you and I" Billy says to Vane in one of the episode's key scenes, talking about the British navy, and this actually sinks in and gets turned around as Vane, in the cliffhanger conclusion of the episode, decides to unite the crews and rescue Flint from execution. Mind you, before that we get two circumstances which are the sole plot over character dictated events of the episode. When Silver gets the dop on Vane, he should have and would have killed him immediately (Silver is far from stupid, and knows how very dangerous Vane is), and the sole reason he doesn't is Doylist (i.e. Vane is needed for the story to continue); conversely, when Vane then disarms Silver & accomplice, the sole reason he doesn't kill Our John immediately is that Silver's life is prequel protected and that he's one of the main characters. If a redshirt had temporarly disarmed Vane, said redshirt would be dead.
Anne & Jack reunion: lucky Jack, in every sense. And off they are together to get the Urca gold!
First Max and Eleanor scene of the season: I think Max did come for the emotional reasons she gave (i.e. she knows how the relationship between Eleanor and her father really was), but Eleanor is too much in a stone cold Godmother mode for it to work, and fortunately, Max realises this. (BTW, the irony is of course that while Eleanor's assessment of the situation as war is right, her lethal prevention of the Urca gold retrieval, had it worked, would still not mattered one bit to the British Navy, which she realises on that beach.)
So, finale speculation: I still think Abigail will play a role in freeing Flint, but also that this will backfire terribly on Abigail, because Flint, having seen Miranda die right in front of him, is now again in vengeance mode, and he will kill Ashe. And whether or not Vane's announcement at the end means he wants to raid Charleston as well as prevent the execution, you can bet that Flint, once free, will turn it into a raid, to give Miranda her dying wish and to burn his own dreams once and for all. However, Abigail herself will remain alive, and I suspect will end up back on the ship with the pirates and will replace Miranda as a regular next season. Also as the upper class woman stranded in Nassau, but with a very different relationship with Flint (if she rescues him and he then kills her father, she's bound to feel guilt and loathing).
It's possible a returning Flint could rescue Eleanor, but what I actually want to happen is for Eleanor to rescue herself somehow. I'm pretty sure the show won't let her be transported to England, but imprisonment closer by in a British colony is also possible, with Eleanor only regaining her freedom next season. Jack and Anne will make it back with the gold, but how they'll manage to keep it, at least the majority of it, when Vane and Flint come back is another question...
Oh, and I almost forgot, which is a shame because he was a good character: Miranda wasn't the only person who was with the show from the start to die in this episode. RIP, Randall. You were hilarious, and also a sneaky and great inspiration for Silver.
Possible cliffhanger ending: the British navy showing up in front of Nassau?
Okay, this time my "I knew it" comes with "NOOOOO, I WAS AFRAID OF THIS AND NOW IT HAPPENED". Damm damm damm. Oh, Miranda. You grew on me so much this season and were such a great character. At least your death didn't come artificially just so Flint would be separated from his inner James McGraw for good, but organically as part of the overall story. And your story. When Peter Ashe said "This is what civilisation means", it underlined it. Miranda had been rooting for a return to the world she left out of temporal distance, idealising it the further away it got, but figuring out during the course of the episode that Ashe had been the one to betray Thomas and James to Hamilton Snr. and the navy (and was now demanding Flint to practically commit suicide for the cause, because coming home to London and admitting a homosexual affair would amount to this) drove home the hypocrisy and cruelty of the world they'd left behind. And her violent verbal rejection of this leads to her death. Elsewhere in the episode, you have Eleanor ordering the deaths of Jack's crew so that the dream of a legitimate Nassau can be accomplished only to find herself kidnapped and handed over to the British navy as "The Queen of Thieves", a pirate herself; no matter the outcome of this, Eleanor's idea of a legitimate Nassau and herself as a part of this dies right then and there on that beach.
"They can't tell the difference between you and I" Billy says to Vane in one of the episode's key scenes, talking about the British navy, and this actually sinks in and gets turned around as Vane, in the cliffhanger conclusion of the episode, decides to unite the crews and rescue Flint from execution. Mind you, before that we get two circumstances which are the sole plot over character dictated events of the episode. When Silver gets the dop on Vane, he should have and would have killed him immediately (Silver is far from stupid, and knows how very dangerous Vane is), and the sole reason he doesn't is Doylist (i.e. Vane is needed for the story to continue); conversely, when Vane then disarms Silver & accomplice, the sole reason he doesn't kill Our John immediately is that Silver's life is prequel protected and that he's one of the main characters. If a redshirt had temporarly disarmed Vane, said redshirt would be dead.
Anne & Jack reunion: lucky Jack, in every sense. And off they are together to get the Urca gold!
First Max and Eleanor scene of the season: I think Max did come for the emotional reasons she gave (i.e. she knows how the relationship between Eleanor and her father really was), but Eleanor is too much in a stone cold Godmother mode for it to work, and fortunately, Max realises this. (BTW, the irony is of course that while Eleanor's assessment of the situation as war is right, her lethal prevention of the Urca gold retrieval, had it worked, would still not mattered one bit to the British Navy, which she realises on that beach.)
So, finale speculation: I still think Abigail will play a role in freeing Flint, but also that this will backfire terribly on Abigail, because Flint, having seen Miranda die right in front of him, is now again in vengeance mode, and he will kill Ashe. And whether or not Vane's announcement at the end means he wants to raid Charleston as well as prevent the execution, you can bet that Flint, once free, will turn it into a raid, to give Miranda her dying wish and to burn his own dreams once and for all. However, Abigail herself will remain alive, and I suspect will end up back on the ship with the pirates and will replace Miranda as a regular next season. Also as the upper class woman stranded in Nassau, but with a very different relationship with Flint (if she rescues him and he then kills her father, she's bound to feel guilt and loathing).
It's possible a returning Flint could rescue Eleanor, but what I actually want to happen is for Eleanor to rescue herself somehow. I'm pretty sure the show won't let her be transported to England, but imprisonment closer by in a British colony is also possible, with Eleanor only regaining her freedom next season. Jack and Anne will make it back with the gold, but how they'll manage to keep it, at least the majority of it, when Vane and Flint come back is another question...
Oh, and I almost forgot, which is a shame because he was a good character: Miranda wasn't the only person who was with the show from the start to die in this episode. RIP, Randall. You were hilarious, and also a sneaky and great inspiration for Silver.
Possible cliffhanger ending: the British navy showing up in front of Nassau?
