Miranda tries to “free” James of his “Captain Flint” role/persona by arranging a pardon for him. Mr. Gates tries to get rid of Flint by arranging for him to accept the same pardon. Peter Ashe tries to “slay” the “monster” Captain Flint by having him bare his soul to the civilized world so that the civilized world can forgive him.
Silver is the only one of the bunch who never asks Flint to apologize. He never does have to do that, in the end.
And Silver is the only one of the bunch who is successful in “unmaking” Flint. It’s for a few reasons—and it goes without saying that the reunion with Thomas is the key—but I really think this is one of the factors in play. Out of all the people who plan to be “the end” of Flint, Silver is the only one whose plan doesn’t require Flint to roll over and declare that England was right to do what it did to him. He’s the only one whose plan doesn’t hinge upon Flint capitulating to the thing he’s been fighting against all these years.
It seems to me that the other plans would have “killed” “Flint” by more or less shaming him into submission—reintegrating him into the civilized world, the world that is “held together” by shame and gossip, by having him implicitly agree that his relationship with Thomas is one of the things that he needs to ask forgiveness for (as he says in 1x07, signing a pardon would mean “proclaim[ing] to the world that they were right” and it would be an “intolerable sacrifice” for him to do that). Silver’s plan, on the other hand, does the opposite. It “unmakes” Flint by giving him the chance to have that relationship back again and to have it in a way that doesn’t force him to apologize for it. I think that’s one of the things that allows him to finally let “Captain Flint,” and Captain Flint’s rage, go.
