Black Sails 2.10.
Mar. 30th, 2015 02:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which the great second season ends fabulously.
Well, not for several of the characters, of course, but from a storytelling pov. I wasn't surprised we got no Eleanor this episode, there was so much else going on which needed wrapping up, but I fully expect her to be alive and find a way to escape next season. Incidentally, I thought that Max buying Eleanor's inn and basically becoming the new queen of Nassau was beautifully layered. Otoh, it was business, and Max having the smarts to see the opportunity, otoh, it was also personal, because this business was what Eleanor chose over her all the way back in s1; and yet there's a third layer, where Max is still concerned for Eleanor because she has some feelings left, and not happy that she's gone in this particular way.
And then Jack and Anne return with the treasure, at least, and Max gives us our last look of the season with that face of utter joy! Perfect. Now I thought the Jack-Anne-Max triangle stuff was a bit stretched and repetitive in the first third of the season, but the pay off was worth it, with Jack and Anne reunited but also redefined in their relationship, and Max as a partner to both.
Meanwhile, Charleston was the location for Judgment Day. While Abigail didn't help free Flint, as I had expected, I think she'll end up with the pirates regardless, since the show was careful to let her be sent from Charleston right away (which probably saved her life), and to let her condemm her father's actions and lies unambigiously. (Twice, in fact, in her diary and to his face.) Peter Ashe even heightened his despicableness by first trying to induce Flint to a confession with "what Miranda would have wanted" , of all the lying phrases, and Flint's "I think she was very clear on what she wanted" retort was perfect. (Btw, I think Ashe's claim that he visited Thomas and Thomas forgave him is on the same level of truth.) Note that while Ashe was still trying to lie to Flint yet again, he had his people bring Miranda's body out already - her corpse would have been desecrated the way it was, for the enjoyment of the crowd, even if Flint had made things easier for Ashe. Flint's icy rage went to whole new level there: I felt like strangling him myself. (Otoh this also meant the last sight Ashe saw was Miranda's dead body and the town he'd sold Thomas, Miranda and James for crumbling around him. Go show!)
The Vane and Flint team-up was a deserved crowd pleaser (and reminded me of the Fanged Four devastating China, it was even filmed that way). I was very amused that Flint figured out half of Vane's plan before it happened; and by Billy making Abigail's diary into such a useful crowd destraction device.
Otoh, what I hadn't expected was that this would be the episode where Silver loses his leg. Clever, clever show, to let it happen this way. When Silver in the last episode decided to sabotage the mast instead of swimming on shore to Charleston, Vincent the ex guard asked him whether he did this for them (meaning Vincent and Silver) or the crew, and Silver didn't reply. Arguably both, since chances would have been better for Silver he'd tried the shore option on his lonesome. But it's still ambiguous. In this episode, though, Silver really has to make a choice between his own safety and the lives of many crew members, and it turns out all that time he spent making the crew like him worked in two ways (as Flint later observes): he now has feelings for them and so refuses to make a choice that would result in their deaths. Which leads to the loss of his leg, the crew turning on their captors and saving themselves, and voting for Silver as Quatermaster. (Several iconic Treasure Island foreshadowings here: the reversal from a captive/captors situation, and Silver becoming Flint's one legged Quatermaster.) Mind you, I wouldn't be surprised if the lost leg also resulted in him concluding that returning to looking out for No.1 is healthier, in the long term. But Silver sailed the seas for many years before he settled down in England (for a while), and if young John here hadn't changed from someone who cheerfully tells Flint in the season opener he's not into the sea, the crew or Flint, for that matter, he just wants the money and then will be gone) to someone who comits himself to the pirate life for a while, it wouldn't have made character sense. Plus, this show isn't cynical about people not the main characters: they let everyone have opinions and their own minds. John Silver is a witty and charming character, but if the only reason the crew took to him was that he's an entertaining talker, it would make the men look stupid. Trusting someone who lost his leg for them, though? That's understandable.
Silver is somewhat dazed when he returns to consciousness in Flint's cabin without his leg, but not so dazed that he can't immediately improvise a cunning lie re: the Urca gold, which is impressive and so very him. The dead Vincent as the culprit has the great advantage that no one can disprove that, and presumably Silver counts on squaring this story with Max before Flint has an opportunity to speak to her. And it's already endlessly frustrating that I'll have to wait a year to find out what happens next.
Well, not for several of the characters, of course, but from a storytelling pov. I wasn't surprised we got no Eleanor this episode, there was so much else going on which needed wrapping up, but I fully expect her to be alive and find a way to escape next season. Incidentally, I thought that Max buying Eleanor's inn and basically becoming the new queen of Nassau was beautifully layered. Otoh, it was business, and Max having the smarts to see the opportunity, otoh, it was also personal, because this business was what Eleanor chose over her all the way back in s1; and yet there's a third layer, where Max is still concerned for Eleanor because she has some feelings left, and not happy that she's gone in this particular way.
And then Jack and Anne return with the treasure, at least, and Max gives us our last look of the season with that face of utter joy! Perfect. Now I thought the Jack-Anne-Max triangle stuff was a bit stretched and repetitive in the first third of the season, but the pay off was worth it, with Jack and Anne reunited but also redefined in their relationship, and Max as a partner to both.
Meanwhile, Charleston was the location for Judgment Day. While Abigail didn't help free Flint, as I had expected, I think she'll end up with the pirates regardless, since the show was careful to let her be sent from Charleston right away (which probably saved her life), and to let her condemm her father's actions and lies unambigiously. (Twice, in fact, in her diary and to his face.) Peter Ashe even heightened his despicableness by first trying to induce Flint to a confession with "what Miranda would have wanted" , of all the lying phrases, and Flint's "I think she was very clear on what she wanted" retort was perfect. (Btw, I think Ashe's claim that he visited Thomas and Thomas forgave him is on the same level of truth.) Note that while Ashe was still trying to lie to Flint yet again, he had his people bring Miranda's body out already - her corpse would have been desecrated the way it was, for the enjoyment of the crowd, even if Flint had made things easier for Ashe. Flint's icy rage went to whole new level there: I felt like strangling him myself. (Otoh this also meant the last sight Ashe saw was Miranda's dead body and the town he'd sold Thomas, Miranda and James for crumbling around him. Go show!)
The Vane and Flint team-up was a deserved crowd pleaser (and reminded me of the Fanged Four devastating China, it was even filmed that way). I was very amused that Flint figured out half of Vane's plan before it happened; and by Billy making Abigail's diary into such a useful crowd destraction device.
Otoh, what I hadn't expected was that this would be the episode where Silver loses his leg. Clever, clever show, to let it happen this way. When Silver in the last episode decided to sabotage the mast instead of swimming on shore to Charleston, Vincent the ex guard asked him whether he did this for them (meaning Vincent and Silver) or the crew, and Silver didn't reply. Arguably both, since chances would have been better for Silver he'd tried the shore option on his lonesome. But it's still ambiguous. In this episode, though, Silver really has to make a choice between his own safety and the lives of many crew members, and it turns out all that time he spent making the crew like him worked in two ways (as Flint later observes): he now has feelings for them and so refuses to make a choice that would result in their deaths. Which leads to the loss of his leg, the crew turning on their captors and saving themselves, and voting for Silver as Quatermaster. (Several iconic Treasure Island foreshadowings here: the reversal from a captive/captors situation, and Silver becoming Flint's one legged Quatermaster.) Mind you, I wouldn't be surprised if the lost leg also resulted in him concluding that returning to looking out for No.1 is healthier, in the long term. But Silver sailed the seas for many years before he settled down in England (for a while), and if young John here hadn't changed from someone who cheerfully tells Flint in the season opener he's not into the sea, the crew or Flint, for that matter, he just wants the money and then will be gone) to someone who comits himself to the pirate life for a while, it wouldn't have made character sense. Plus, this show isn't cynical about people not the main characters: they let everyone have opinions and their own minds. John Silver is a witty and charming character, but if the only reason the crew took to him was that he's an entertaining talker, it would make the men look stupid. Trusting someone who lost his leg for them, though? That's understandable.
Silver is somewhat dazed when he returns to consciousness in Flint's cabin without his leg, but not so dazed that he can't immediately improvise a cunning lie re: the Urca gold, which is impressive and so very him. The dead Vincent as the culprit has the great advantage that no one can disprove that, and presumably Silver counts on squaring this story with Max before Flint has an opportunity to speak to her. And it's already endlessly frustrating that I'll have to wait a year to find out what happens next.
