#bs 4x03

[illuminated-in-darkness]

Black Sails XXXI

Ever captained a ship of this size before?

God, no.

Have you captained a ship this size before?

Sure.

Good.

[jaredackles]

[rackhamrogue]

[moon-yean]

black sails | xxxi

[flyingfish1]

lots of resurrection stories on this show

I didn’t realize how significant a theme it was until just now. 

We have...

Vane

(x)

Billy

(x)

Eleanor

(x)

(“I suppose I should have seen this, that somehow your grip on this place would be too strong to be denied by a king, his laws, or even your death”)

Flint

(x)

(“I will come back from the dead and lay claim to what I am owed”)

Silver

(x)

... and now, possibly, Thomas as well?

Am I missing anybody? Let me know if I’m missing anybody.

This includes--I think--three times in which the other characters think the character is dead but the audience knows all along that they’re alive (Eleanor, Flint, and Silver); and three times in which the other characters and the audience are all led to believe that the character is dead (Vane, Billy, and Thomas; with Billy, the audience finds out that he’s alive before the other characters do but we still spend a few episodes thinking that he has drowned).

I’m not sure where I’m going with this, really, but it’s an interesting pattern. Also, the first season took place in the time leading up to Easter Sunday--the resurrection themes continue...

Aaaaand to round out the post, some Wild Speculation about Flint’s Treasure Island fate, which I’m sticking under a cut:

I’m trying to thwack my optimism down with a stick, here, just in case, but it’s not entirely working, so... for what it’s worth...

I wonder if we can possibly take this idea beyond Black Sails and apply it to Treasure Island itself.

One of the things we can take from this is that stories and hearsay and assumptions are, well, not exactly reliable. We already know that we don’t want to believe the second-hand stories we hear about our characters. Now it also seems to me that if a character doesn’t die in front of our eyes, we don’t necessarily want to believe the stories about their deaths.

A lot of characters die in Treasure Island, but most of them die pretty much on-screen, so to speak. On-page. Flint’s death, though, is a story. It (supposedly?) happens long before the events of the book and we know nothing about it other than what the other characters tell us, much like Thomas’ (supposed?) death in Black Sails. Flint has stepped into the “Thomas Hamilton” role in a lot of ways already: he’s become the powerful, idealistic figure who is the driving force in the plan to save Nassau, just like Thomas used to be. Assuming for the moment that Thomas really is alive, and assuming that Flint’s narrative will continue to echo Thomas’... maybe that means that Flint’s Treasure Island “death” is also going to be just a story? Maybe he’ll live, too? Maybe that’s the thing that all of Black Sail’s resurrection imagery is going to culminate in??

augh, or maybe they’ll both die in the end, I don’t know. It depends a lot on what’s going to happen with Thomas--if he’s alive, if he’s dead, what. Personally I think it makes the most sense for him to be alive, so I’m cautiously optimistic about Flint making it out okay too--there’s certainly a lot of precedent, right? But we’ll see.

[sorenkingsley]

[madeleineengland]

I want talk about Teach’s death and the character development of Rogers.

Lately I’m used to empty, unnecessary, meaningless death scenes, created for the sake of it, not for adding depth to the storyline.

In the last episode (SPOILER 4X03), Black Sails has realized a very violent scene, cruel, sadistic, hard to watch, but its arrangement was very good. It gave me chills. 

This episode was the realization of an excellent and coherent job into the violence. It takes courage to build a narrative of this caliber. Because it was not just violence, it was not just torture. (Honestly Teach was indifferent to me, but if he had tortured Eleanor would have been nice, is it not? LOL) (No double standard here.)

So, without thinking with personal taste, I judge this exquisite process but sadistic narrative:

- The episode opens with that appears to be a prophecy, an obscure prophecy. “Right now, good men are not what the moment requires. Right now, the time calls for dark men to do dark things.” and it explains where a man, even civilized, can pushed for his purpose and for the people who loves in hard times (“there’s a beast in very man and its stirs when you put a sword in his hand” from Game of Thrones) 

-  Flashback / present: the naval duels had the exact same manner. Action, boarding, white flag with the presumption to ask for mercy, a lost loved one (Rogers’ brother, Thomas, and now Eleanor). You see that Rogers sees the pirates as the Spanish men: cowardly, uncivilized, craven, and primarily they hurt (or threatened) the people he loved. The conditions are the same, and we feel the tension. We see Rogers as the implement of the initial prophecy. He is determined like some years ago to take his revenge, he considers right. The past fueled his motivation.  It’s the time to not hold back or retreat. 

-   Teach smiles. He is not afraid of anything. The pirate crew is on knees, they’re afraid instead.

- The torture begins. The show begins. Rogers’ show. He shows everyone what he can be capable of doing in certain circumstances. 

-  Finished the first torture. Teach is alive. The others are “moderately” surprised. Rogers results bored, he unimpressed facing a force that considered vain and useless. He says “Again”, as if he were playing cards, very simply, and there is a sudden look between him and Jack. Rogers seems to say: “See? You insist in making me your villian and I’m playing the part. Now you really know me at 100%” (parallelism with the third season) and Jack: “Oh fuck, I’m screwed” 

-    Finished the second torture

-     Fear is spreading. Rogers is more cynical than ever and to show it he wants to go on. He also wants torture Jack, without blinking.

-         ANNE’S REACTION BROKE MY HEART  

-  But they stopped.  Surprise, Teach is still alive

-       Rogers turns to him: this time he’s bothered. His glacial face seems to say: “Why do not you decide to die, you son of a bitch? What game are you playing with me? It would be much easier if you submit.” And this time when he says “Again!” he screams with an angry growl. He doesn’t like to be challenged or fail when he believed to have the owing victory in his own hand.

-          Another glimpse between Jack and Rogers. “Oh fuck are you insane?” – “I’m just showing the monster that you’ve unleashed, nothing more.” Their afraid and diabolic faces are talking.

-          The torture continues.

-          Rogers results more arrogant and haughty than ever because he knows already that good manners do not serve with “these people”. He believes it’s done in the way he wanted. Everyone thinks it. The show is about to end.  Anne has never been so scared in her life.

-         But something changes, a small detail: Rogers turns and sees the crew pirate raised standing. No more kneeling. Rogers proves a little disturbing, but he doesn’t really want to show it. He wants to show himself as the strong hero slaying the evil pirate. He feels to be right

-         Torture is over. Now the body is torn. Broken. There is no more hope.

-          But the hope is rekindled with the breath of Teach’s life. He didn’t give up, his body is disposed, but his spirit didn’t give up. The ship comes alive.

-          Rogers is unmoved but slowly something also changes in him. He looks around. He watches his men. His good men, and they are confused. They do not know what’s going on. And the pirates are more animated because their leader is alive. And then Rogers looks back to Teach. The Governor is visibly bothered. He wanted that revenge would end in his own way. And he feels outraged for that personal defeat. And he looks angry because the others there know it. And he hates it. He hates that uneatable pirate especially because he wanted to end it as like with the Spanish galleon.  But this time is different. Why? To end with this ridiculous charade and to not risk making him a martyr, Rogers takes the easy way out and shoots him. 

- And it’s finished, apparently. There is a lot of tension on the ship. There is no victory. Only defeat. Rogers looks at Jack, he looks at his men, shocked, silent. He sees the horror on himself. AND HE HATES IT. He hates this even more. He believed to be right, to have the right to take his revenge, as he had done for Thomas…. But now he feels disgusted, ashamed. He didn’t expect this. The pirates have shown him that he was wrong. They are not like the Spanish men. They’ve proven that they are worthy of living, that they are brave facing death like no one. And he hates this new truth that goes straight in his face and hit him.

- He hates so much that feeling that he decides to go away. He changes his mind. No longer he wants to torture Jack. That show is over. Because it wasn’t his show as avenging hero. It was the show of his fucking dark side, a dark side that he forced to face it. It was the show of pirate courage. And when he finishes this macabre show, it seems that he is half a soul divided. He goes away with inner torments that will surely torment him overnight. Because he pushed too far and he discovered too late. He feels that he is lowered to the level of people who despise, and he dislikes it. “Everyone is a monster to someone” and now Rogers he is. Now we know what was hiding behind his scars. He’s making his slow (not so much anymore) sinking descent downward handing his morals over to Nassau, like the others. To stand on the side of civilization and the law is his moral compass, and it keeps him protected, but when he comes out of those borders, he becomes more unpredictable than Flint. 

-          And when Jack discovers that he rescued, he turns to Rogers and he’s really surprised. THANKS TO GOD BUT ALSO JESUS. The shock, however, remains throughout the ship. This experience will change everything. Forever. 

——————–

 I finished. I only say that the script was so incredible, complex characters, the great acting (LUKE ROBERTS AND TOBY SCHMITZ DESERVE AN AWARDS) and this show gave an emotional and savage power at the TV. Not an easy job and in fact it inspired this papyrus filled with numerous points of reflection. I hope you’ll read and reblog it! 

(Sorry for my bad english, if I did some errors, please tell me)

[captflint]

4x03

- Max, take you things and run. every week i’m scared for her...

- i enjoyed the Flint/Madi scenes, they have good chemistry

- also, the don quixote quote and the parallel to Miranda... i’m not sure how i   feel about that...

- Eme is beautiful and i’m glad she got screentime and is part of the story

- i was just beggining to think how much i like the Jack/Anne/Teach scenes... 

- the torture scene... holy shit that was horrifying. i actually couldn’t fully watch   it, oh god :( i really didn’t think they’d kill off Teach... fuck and rip Blackbeard

- i’m also very, very scared of what happens next to Anne and Jack... this is so   depressing...

- speaking of death: goodbye Barringer, noone will miss you. and wtf was that   with his locket? were we supposed to feel sorry for him? yeah, no.   let’s hope Woodes is the next one to die. Eleanor, run away from that psycho!

- the silverflint reunion... i gotta admit, the look they shared when they saw   each other was... something else... (plus the music <3)

- but with the camera panning to Flint and his expression during the MadiSilver   kiss... to me that screams one-sided pining bullshit and i’m not impressed. of   course it’s all just speculation at this point, but yeah... as of right now, i’m not a   fan... (i’ve read some people speculating that they will pull another     ThomasJamesMiranda reveal and i wish i had your confidence)

- Billy being back can only mean things will get worse (for Flint)...

- i said it last week, i’ll say it this week: more Flint. he needs more screentime,   please!!