Black Sails 4x01-4x06
May. 30th, 2018 12:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkToday we had a three course meal for our TV evening: veggie sticks with hummus, leftover pizza, and chocolate ice cream with raspberry sauce. Living the luxury life.
Yesterday evening I thought I didn't have time to write a post so I only wanted to jot down a few quick notes, which turned out to be 500 words, and now after three more episodes I have even more feelings. Episode 6 is definitely a better one to stop on than E3.
I loved the time-skip after season 3, it worked very well. Several things happened off-screen that I think worked better that way: England and Spain going to war again, Rogers and Eleanor marrying, Silver and Madi getting together. I did not expect s3 to start with the almost-complete failure of the pirates' first assault on Nassau, but it made things very interesting.
Eleanor marrying Rogers surprised me, because she's definitely not someone satisfied with the commonly assumed role of a governor's wife. But she trusts that he won't think of her that way, and she thinks it'll make his men more comfortable with her authority, and she loves him and wants to support him the best she can, so. Feels like it's not what she wants, but what she wants to want, in a way. I assume it happened before Rogers' men were ordered to return to England and most went, except the fanatics. Also, did Rogers seriously not expect his previous wife's relatives to retaliate? Marriage contracts were alliances, and he just terminated it. In general the governor is unfortunately smart though.
I'm still not the biggest shipper of Silver and Madi, but I like them better now. I really like Madi, I just don't like that her position exists, if that makes sense. I hoped we'd see more leadership of her, and there was definitely some of that, very nice. I liked her working together with Flint – and Silver noting that she sounds like him, heh.
Billy! Several months being the leader of his own group of men and now he stands up to Flint, especially with Silver gone. Which leads to him drawing his gun on Flint and Madi, shiiit. It's clear that he doesn't really consider the slaves people, or at the very least not equals: what they might suffer doesn't really seem to concern him. Him nevertheless appearing at the take-over of Nassau to support Flint and Silver was a nice moment. I also liked Silver, Flint and Madi summoning him later. Unsurprising that Billy tries to divide Silver and Flint, but Silver notices of course, and doesn't choose the way Billy thinks he will. Billy realizing that Silver sold him out – and that pirate, idk his name, telling him, and telling him how powerful Silver became because of Billy – was a great scene. Later Silver asking Billy if their relationship can be mended, uh… Kind of ironic that Silver handing Billy over to the plantation slaves did not get him the amount of trust from Julius that he'd hoped, because Julius was wary that Billy would hand over a friend.
I enjoyed Teach with Jack and Anne. Anne is great, and Jack does a great job straddling the line between being comic relief, annoying, and surprisingly competent, and it looked like Teach might adopt both of them.
I did not enjoy Teach getting captured and the way he was killed. To start with, what kind of boarding was that?? Every other instance so far, iirc, involved the attacking ship moving next to the other one and then boarding from up close. Here for some reason Teach and his people take two longboats? Why? Those make for prime targets for guns, and if necessary either reinforcements or an avenue of retreat are far away. Also it's clearly standard for some defenders to hide below deck, here there were a few more than anticipated but still. It was irritating that Teach was only captured because he behaved oddly, the governor could not have anticipated that.
And then the keelhauling – holy shit. That was brutal. Hard to watch. Very next episode, the survivors are being forced to fight for their lives and tortured and killed in front of their crewmates, ouch. Until Anne saves the day, clutching glass shards in her hands, ow.
I loved how closely Silver and Flint are working together. The scene where they meet each other again after Flint thought Silver died, and Silver didn't know what had happened to Flint, was very nice. They take Nassau together, because of course they do. And later, when they repeatedly reaffirm their alliance, yes good. Like when it takes Silver two hours to tell Flint about what Billy told him, but he does tell him and explains why it took him so long. And of course Flint understands, especially once Silver mentions Thomas Hamilton. Later Flint agrees to Eleanor's deal even though Silver is against it, without even discussing it with Silver first or explaining anything *sigh* haven't you learned how important communication is. But Silver trusts him nevertheless. (Btw, Silver sending someone to get the gems means that he must have told someone else where to find the cache, I wonder who it was, that seems like a dangerous potential leak…)
And later Flint has to tell Silver that Madi died :( He knows exactly how he feels. Great scene with Flint coming to a devastated Silver in his cabin and apologizing for not keeping her safe and saying he knows it doesn't mean anything, and Silver telling him it wasn't his fault.
I was very surprised when Eleanor offered that deal to Flint, to hand over the fort in exchange for the cache of gems. DD speculated that she wanted to go to Port Royal with Rogers just to wait until the Spanish attacked the pirates holding Nassau and return then, but I think she really just had enough of this place. She mentioned it to Max, too, that she used to be so tied up with this city, with the implication that now she wasn't anymore. She even mentioned Max' request that they run away together, very early on. She also said something like "I wish I could do it over", something like that that made me immediately wish for an Eleanor time travel AU.
I wonder if she really thought that Rogers would forgive her for handing over the fort. He's not really a very forgiving kind of person. But I got the impression that she kind of saw what she wanted to see, in Rogers, so maybe she really had that hope.
(I was at first surprised that she was pregnant, but DD pointed out that it was more surprising that she hadn't become pregnant before, we've seen her have unprotected sex multiple times and presumably it happened more often.)
And then Eleanor died O.O Holy shit. Did not see that coming. I'm… not quite sure yet how I feel about it. It was a brutal death, and she died thinking that the Spanish had taken over Nassau (but at least not realizing that her husband had called them.) She died right when she was ready to finally leave that damned town and island, to live somewhere else, maybe even somewhere remote, with someone she loves, and be happy. That never would have worked with Rogers, but at least she had that fantasy for a minute. But that island is brutal, which she contributed to, and doesn't really allow fantasies, and it demands victims.
Madi, on the other hand, is clearly still alive. Yep. I did not clearly see her die, therefore she's still alive. I want Eleanor to have saved her, and I want Madi and Billy to meet up and evade the Spanish on the island until the others come back. During that time Billy can learn to admire Madi and realize the (former) slaves are people too, and they become a great team. Yep. *nods firmly*
Speaking of people who realize that, it would have been really interesting how the pirates&slaves alliance would have gone if Charles Vane was still around, the pirate who was a slave. Someone has written the fic where Billy succeeded in rescuing Vane, yes?
And speaking of people who should still be alive: Thomas Hamilton?! Wow. I suspected it for a while at first, but then when it hadn't come up by the end of season 3 gave up hope, but now, maybe, probably? Why else would it have come up?
…oh man, if Thomas disapproves and doesn't understand and doesn't forgive Flint for what he's done, Flint is never going to recover. But it's been more than ten years, probably eleven by now, who knows what kind of person Thomas has become.
Max learned that "civilization" is not perfect, especially when people like Berenger are in charge – and then Eleanor died, and Anne was severely injured by British soldiers, and now Max wants to burn it all down. (Figuratively, because literally the Spanish are already doing it.) Going to the Guthries seems like a long shot, but who knows.
In the meantime governor Rogers has finally massively screwed up and handed the entire island to the Spanish. (Not that he could have stopped them had they decided to attack, not if they have 12 ships to spare for something non-critical like this.) And he lost his wife for it, I'm curious how he'll react to that. It was his own fault: he didn't agree with her plan, he decided that keeping control of Nassau was more important than her safety, and now he pays for it.
The Spanish have driven the pirates, and many of Julius' people, from the island (on the Walrus, which doesn't die), but the silver lining is that the alliance Flint envisioned has started to assemble at the maroon camp. People arrived, so they have to have ships, so… I have no idea what's going to happen. Only four more episodes!
I love how they keep expanding the scope in each season: s1 was in Nassau, s2 in Nassau and Charlestown (and London), s3 added the camp, and now s4 the plantations and Havana and who knows what else.
Tomorrow morning we meet with property management of our hopefully future apartment to iron out the details, and then at noon with someone about moving our kitchen, hopefully that all goes well. And then in the evening more Black Sails episodes – we have to finish the show on Thursday because on Friday DD goes on vacation for a week, and I'm definitely not waiting that long ^^
Yesterday evening I thought I didn't have time to write a post so I only wanted to jot down a few quick notes, which turned out to be 500 words, and now after three more episodes I have even more feelings. Episode 6 is definitely a better one to stop on than E3.
I loved the time-skip after season 3, it worked very well. Several things happened off-screen that I think worked better that way: England and Spain going to war again, Rogers and Eleanor marrying, Silver and Madi getting together. I did not expect s3 to start with the almost-complete failure of the pirates' first assault on Nassau, but it made things very interesting.
Eleanor marrying Rogers surprised me, because she's definitely not someone satisfied with the commonly assumed role of a governor's wife. But she trusts that he won't think of her that way, and she thinks it'll make his men more comfortable with her authority, and she loves him and wants to support him the best she can, so. Feels like it's not what she wants, but what she wants to want, in a way. I assume it happened before Rogers' men were ordered to return to England and most went, except the fanatics. Also, did Rogers seriously not expect his previous wife's relatives to retaliate? Marriage contracts were alliances, and he just terminated it. In general the governor is unfortunately smart though.
I'm still not the biggest shipper of Silver and Madi, but I like them better now. I really like Madi, I just don't like that her position exists, if that makes sense. I hoped we'd see more leadership of her, and there was definitely some of that, very nice. I liked her working together with Flint – and Silver noting that she sounds like him, heh.
Billy! Several months being the leader of his own group of men and now he stands up to Flint, especially with Silver gone. Which leads to him drawing his gun on Flint and Madi, shiiit. It's clear that he doesn't really consider the slaves people, or at the very least not equals: what they might suffer doesn't really seem to concern him. Him nevertheless appearing at the take-over of Nassau to support Flint and Silver was a nice moment. I also liked Silver, Flint and Madi summoning him later. Unsurprising that Billy tries to divide Silver and Flint, but Silver notices of course, and doesn't choose the way Billy thinks he will. Billy realizing that Silver sold him out – and that pirate, idk his name, telling him, and telling him how powerful Silver became because of Billy – was a great scene. Later Silver asking Billy if their relationship can be mended, uh… Kind of ironic that Silver handing Billy over to the plantation slaves did not get him the amount of trust from Julius that he'd hoped, because Julius was wary that Billy would hand over a friend.
I enjoyed Teach with Jack and Anne. Anne is great, and Jack does a great job straddling the line between being comic relief, annoying, and surprisingly competent, and it looked like Teach might adopt both of them.
I did not enjoy Teach getting captured and the way he was killed. To start with, what kind of boarding was that?? Every other instance so far, iirc, involved the attacking ship moving next to the other one and then boarding from up close. Here for some reason Teach and his people take two longboats? Why? Those make for prime targets for guns, and if necessary either reinforcements or an avenue of retreat are far away. Also it's clearly standard for some defenders to hide below deck, here there were a few more than anticipated but still. It was irritating that Teach was only captured because he behaved oddly, the governor could not have anticipated that.
And then the keelhauling – holy shit. That was brutal. Hard to watch. Very next episode, the survivors are being forced to fight for their lives and tortured and killed in front of their crewmates, ouch. Until Anne saves the day, clutching glass shards in her hands, ow.
I loved how closely Silver and Flint are working together. The scene where they meet each other again after Flint thought Silver died, and Silver didn't know what had happened to Flint, was very nice. They take Nassau together, because of course they do. And later, when they repeatedly reaffirm their alliance, yes good. Like when it takes Silver two hours to tell Flint about what Billy told him, but he does tell him and explains why it took him so long. And of course Flint understands, especially once Silver mentions Thomas Hamilton. Later Flint agrees to Eleanor's deal even though Silver is against it, without even discussing it with Silver first or explaining anything *sigh* haven't you learned how important communication is. But Silver trusts him nevertheless. (Btw, Silver sending someone to get the gems means that he must have told someone else where to find the cache, I wonder who it was, that seems like a dangerous potential leak…)
And later Flint has to tell Silver that Madi died :( He knows exactly how he feels. Great scene with Flint coming to a devastated Silver in his cabin and apologizing for not keeping her safe and saying he knows it doesn't mean anything, and Silver telling him it wasn't his fault.
I was very surprised when Eleanor offered that deal to Flint, to hand over the fort in exchange for the cache of gems. DD speculated that she wanted to go to Port Royal with Rogers just to wait until the Spanish attacked the pirates holding Nassau and return then, but I think she really just had enough of this place. She mentioned it to Max, too, that she used to be so tied up with this city, with the implication that now she wasn't anymore. She even mentioned Max' request that they run away together, very early on. She also said something like "I wish I could do it over", something like that that made me immediately wish for an Eleanor time travel AU.
I wonder if she really thought that Rogers would forgive her for handing over the fort. He's not really a very forgiving kind of person. But I got the impression that she kind of saw what she wanted to see, in Rogers, so maybe she really had that hope.
(I was at first surprised that she was pregnant, but DD pointed out that it was more surprising that she hadn't become pregnant before, we've seen her have unprotected sex multiple times and presumably it happened more often.)
And then Eleanor died O.O Holy shit. Did not see that coming. I'm… not quite sure yet how I feel about it. It was a brutal death, and she died thinking that the Spanish had taken over Nassau (but at least not realizing that her husband had called them.) She died right when she was ready to finally leave that damned town and island, to live somewhere else, maybe even somewhere remote, with someone she loves, and be happy. That never would have worked with Rogers, but at least she had that fantasy for a minute. But that island is brutal, which she contributed to, and doesn't really allow fantasies, and it demands victims.
Madi, on the other hand, is clearly still alive. Yep. I did not clearly see her die, therefore she's still alive. I want Eleanor to have saved her, and I want Madi and Billy to meet up and evade the Spanish on the island until the others come back. During that time Billy can learn to admire Madi and realize the (former) slaves are people too, and they become a great team. Yep. *nods firmly*
Speaking of people who realize that, it would have been really interesting how the pirates&slaves alliance would have gone if Charles Vane was still around, the pirate who was a slave. Someone has written the fic where Billy succeeded in rescuing Vane, yes?
And speaking of people who should still be alive: Thomas Hamilton?! Wow. I suspected it for a while at first, but then when it hadn't come up by the end of season 3 gave up hope, but now, maybe, probably? Why else would it have come up?
…oh man, if Thomas disapproves and doesn't understand and doesn't forgive Flint for what he's done, Flint is never going to recover. But it's been more than ten years, probably eleven by now, who knows what kind of person Thomas has become.
Max learned that "civilization" is not perfect, especially when people like Berenger are in charge – and then Eleanor died, and Anne was severely injured by British soldiers, and now Max wants to burn it all down. (Figuratively, because literally the Spanish are already doing it.) Going to the Guthries seems like a long shot, but who knows.
In the meantime governor Rogers has finally massively screwed up and handed the entire island to the Spanish. (Not that he could have stopped them had they decided to attack, not if they have 12 ships to spare for something non-critical like this.) And he lost his wife for it, I'm curious how he'll react to that. It was his own fault: he didn't agree with her plan, he decided that keeping control of Nassau was more important than her safety, and now he pays for it.
The Spanish have driven the pirates, and many of Julius' people, from the island (on the Walrus, which doesn't die), but the silver lining is that the alliance Flint envisioned has started to assemble at the maroon camp. People arrived, so they have to have ships, so… I have no idea what's going to happen. Only four more episodes!
I love how they keep expanding the scope in each season: s1 was in Nassau, s2 in Nassau and Charlestown (and London), s3 added the camp, and now s4 the plantations and Havana and who knows what else.
Tomorrow morning we meet with property management of our hopefully future apartment to iron out the details, and then at noon with someone about moving our kitchen, hopefully that all goes well. And then in the evening more Black Sails episodes – we have to finish the show on Thursday because on Friday DD goes on vacation for a week, and I'm definitely not waiting that long ^^
no subject
Date: 2018-05-30 08:29 am (UTC)Fingers crossed for the apartment stuff.
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Date: 2018-05-30 11:27 am (UTC)