Black Sails: X Recap

Synopsis of 2×01: Flint gives Dufresne some advice. Silver must make himself indispensable. Eleanor is asked to depose a captain. Rackham gets ambitious.

Rating: ?????

Billy Bones is back! In a welcoming return, what appears to be a very disheveled Billy washes up on a beach where he is rudely greeted by the captain of a nearby garrison, who just so happens to be very interested in finding out what secrets Billy knows. That doesn’t sound too promising.

Under Dufresne’s captaincy, Flint is literally stuck in the doghouse, with no power whatsoever, or so Dufresne believes. While no man on the crew will speak to, let alone support him, Flint is confident that he will once more be captain before the ships’ arrival in Nassau in two days time.

Through flashbacks, Flint, as lieutenant James McGraw, struggles in his role as liaison to Thomas Hamilton. Hamilton wishes to essentially fix Nassau, removing the pirates and reforming Nassau in his image with Flint’s help. Flint sees it as a wasted reckless opportunity, holding grave doubts that fixing Nassau is a realistic idea, but Hamilton seems insistent on his quest to ensure Nassau survives and prospers, pirate free.

Back on the Man-O-War, Flint informs Silver that he can still walk away from all of this, but Silver is adamant about helping Flint regain control of the ship and crew. Silver reveals that while he simply doesn’t want to be a pirate, working with Flint has given him an opportunity that he can’t find anywhere else, and would give him a prize that would grant him the freedom to do whatever he fancies in the future.

Meanwhile things continue to grow bleaker between Ned Lowe and his second, Mr. Meeks. While Ned seems to care little for brokering a good relationship with Ms. Guthrie, Meeks thinks Ned is jeopardizing things. At some point, Lowe’s recklessness is going to get him killed, sooner rather than later I hope, despite what a wonderful villain he is.

Further flashbacks to Flint’s past reveal that being liaison to the Hamilton family is not as easy as it may look. Mocked by his fellow officers, they believe that someone such as Flint, the lowly son of a carpenter’s maid should not hold a position. Everyone seems to think that Flint has convinced himself that he is something more than what he actually is: a gentleman. Flint, unable to restrain himself any further, starts a bar brawl with the other men.

Max attempts to comfort Anne as she continues to wrestles with her recent decisions. friends Part of Anne still believes she owes Jack for the new life he gave her. Still, Anne finds some sort of solace in Max which is a welcoming relationship in the show. Later, Jack approaches Max, demanding to know what is happening between Anne and her. He believes Max’s seduction of Anne is a means to drive a wedge between Anne and Jack, but Max claims that she knows that Anne has always wanted independence from Jack deep down.

On the Man-O-War, Silver earnestly begins what might initially seem like the most idiotic plan in the history of Black Sails: convincing the crew to allow Silver to remain with them. While Silver doesn’t need the men to like him, he needs them instead to see that he is essential to the crew. Drawing on the years he spent at an orphan’s home, Silver believes it isn’t about getting men to like you but rather reminding them how much they dislike each other.

As Silver consistently attempts to share http://artsandhealth.ie/ventolin/ crude secrets and pieces of gossip he learned from Randall, the cook, Flint begins to notice subtle changes in the crew, now divided on particular matters and callous towards each other. It seems Silver has just as an important role to play in Flint’s plan.

Back in Nassau, Lowe pays Meeks a visit at Eleanor’s tavern. Lowe calls Meeks out on his meeting with Eleanor and claims that he may be jeopardizing Lowe’s role as captain. Lowe then murderously beheads Meeks in front of dozens of tavern onlookers. O’Malley, Eleanor’s bodyguard and good friend, intervenes and insists that Lowe leaves, but being the quick tempered man he is, Lowe viciously attacks O’Malley, eventually stabbing him through the neck and killing him as Eleanor pleads with Lowe to spare O’Malley’s life. In his sick twisted fantasy, Lowe fancily promises Eleanor that she will see him soon.

Flint visits Dufresne, wishing to give the new captain some advice and support him as some sort of penance for what Flint did to Gates last season. Flint’s lies easily roll of his tongue as he suggests to Dufresne that he not travel east around the coast as the route runs through a passage frequented by many merchant ships traveling out of Kingston. Flint insists the men will want to eagerly take the first prize they see, but Flint claims the men are simply not ready and far too depleted to man the ship efficiently in battle.

Eager to impress his crew and likely show Flint that he is more than capable of captaining a ship of this magnitude, Defresne does exactly what Flint advised him against doing and lets his hubris get the best of them. Before long, they cross paths with a sugar merchant ship. With tensions high and the black unfurled, the merchant ship soon hoists their white flag of surrender to the gallant pirate man-o-war, prompting her to pull up along side the smaller vessel.

Dufresne and a depleted crew of men board the other ship and begin transferring cargo back to the Man-O war. Dufresne, with his unimposing stature, fails to intimidate the merchant captain and his crew and in one quick moment, the crew of the merchant ship fights back, prompting an all out war on the ship’s deck. Well that sure escalated quickly.

Failing to get things under control and unsuccessful in keeping his cool, Dufresne struggles with making a decision whether to run and leave the other ship or to sink the ship and then flee. Luckily, Flint is on hand to step up, making a decision for Dufresne and readying the crew to sink the other vessel. Under this new, more convincing leadership, the crew eventually listens to him and Flint valiantly sinks the other ship.

Later that evening, Flint proudly approaches a somber Dufresne to inform him that the crew have elected Flint as the new captain, as Dufresne’s pride and ineptitude at thinking in the heat of battle put the entire crew and ship at risk. Flint, having gotten exactly what he wanted, now sets his sights on returning to Nassau, with Silver having earned a rightful spot at his side and on the crew.

Eleanor, now desperate, seeks help from Vane, as she cannot withstand an assault from Lowe and his crew, especially after the public display of loses she has just suffered. Before leaving, Eleanor informs Vane that before he died, Meeks shared with her the existence of a piece of cargo that Lowe’s crew considered extremely valuable.