Whale of a tale.
By Matt Fowler
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Even though last week’s ship-crushing storm made for one hell of an impressive set piece, the drama this week – in Chapter XXI – managed to eclipse it a bit. The on-board tension between Flint and Silver, with Bones caught in the middle, was superb. Almost two weeks after the storm, the crew was on its last legs. And Silver found himself powerless to stop a captain he thought had gone mad. For fear of shredding the last remaining sanity the crew possessed and sending everything into an even worse spiral.
So is Flint mad? I mean, we can see his side, surely. It’s a grim one, but also not one unfamiliar to Flint. The hard, cold choices. Cruelty in the name of the greater good. But think about this too. How often have we seen Flint alone this season? And what have those scenes held? More often than not, Flint is “spoken of.” Moments that really speak to/lend credence to the man becoming a mysterious mad legend more than anything else. And then when we do get him to ourselves, he’s trapped in delusions. Dreams of Miranda, dark figures, and despair. A mindset that’s turning just about every dire sight this season into fatalistic symbolism. The abandoned captain chained to his desk. The rotting whale. Inevitable decay and sadness.
And then Flint finally broke down. In tears. After shooting two men who swore they had nothing to do with food theft. A moment he almost couldn’t go through with. This was really important for us to see, I feel. Not that we didn’t know Flint was capable of strong emotion and sympathy, but we needed to know he was still capable of it. By the end of the episode, Flint and Silver managed to wrangle up some sharks for the crew to feast on. And then land appeared soon after (our future Treasure Island?). So will this mark the end of Flint’s existential crisis? This crucible? His dream of Miranda – where she identified to him as his mistress, wife, and mother – suggested that he may now move up and out.
Silver’s become such a great part of this show. Again, he’s so different now from the start. A massive sea change. But he’s still a master psychologist. And – at the employ go Bones – he began to work on cracking Flint’s trust boundaries. By admitting his past deception about the Urca gold. And then, revealing that he gave up his gold to be a part of the crew (where he could feel useful and accepted as a “cripple”). True or not, it seemed to work on Flint. You know, during that tense row out to the whale where we didn’t know if Silver would attempt to kill Flint or vice versa.
Oh, and the whale scene-slash-shark hunt was excellent. Sure, these men were at severe odds, but first and foremost they wanted to live to see the dawn. Things may not bode so well for Flint on that island though, with regards to Silver and Bones. Though Silver may have to put off his plans yet again if that indigenous island tribe decides greet their new visitors with hostility.
Back on Nassau, Blackbeard, in the absence of Flint, agreed to lead a “show of force” in the face of Woodes’ oncoming fleet. A display that could lead to battle, but perhaps not. The pirates here hoping that their unity will scare off the Brits and Woodes, having promised to retrieve the Urca gold for Spain, hoping he can meet a freakin’ invade-and-conquer deadline. So why did Blackbeard agree to do this? Was it a power play to take over? No, he did it because he saw Vane as the son he couldn’t sire. A legacy to leave behind. Just paternal pride. It was a nice little reveal. One that helped sort of texture Blackbeard with kinder colors.
Now, I don’t know what this season holds going forward. But I feel like the big deal, introduced this episode, is the idea of Spain coming in to wipe out everyone if they don’t get their s*** back. A collision so massive that it’ll probably stave off any actual battles between Woodes and Nassau for a while. And you could see there, at the end – Woodes completely circumvented Blackbeard’s forces by offering pardons and then putting a bounty on Vane’s head. So it appears a chess match is in order.
I haven’t really written about Anne and Max all that much this season. No real reason behind it, honestly. It’s a story both sad and sweet. Max, the realist waiting for the other shoe to drop, and Anne, the warrior who finally found someone to love with open honesty. Still, Max loves Anne too much to subject her to a relationship she knows is filled with tragedy. She knows they’re destined to be ripped apart so her thoughts were “let it be now so we may not live in fear of it.”
The ship drama, regarding the starving crew and Flint’s cold measures to ensure maximum survival, was the star of this week’s chapter. Normally, we’d see Silver and Flint square off more over something like this, but Silver – due to the dire circumstances – was neutered here. So the inner boil began. The idea of eventually stopping Flint later on, no matter the cost, took hold.
