“We’re all villains in Nassau…”

Light on action this week but there was more than enough killer dialog to make up for it. The themes of this episode: history and sympathy.

Rackham is locked up and has to wait for the world to move around him.

The Flint/Vane project goes into motion with a sneaky trip to the island. This is Madi’s first mission with a ton at stake and she succeeds but Silver had a harder time on his end. He did manage to make his point when pushed, though. Too bad Rogers managed to curb that maneuver with Max. Great scene with Flint and Rogers, I love conversations between two sides of the same coin. Another great scene is The Maroon Queen laying it down on Flint when they’re making plans to go to Nassau after Flint comes back with only Vane. She recognizes flints recklessness and slows him down.The guy needs to be put in place from time to time. It’s a good thing Vane is involved because he pretty much saved this mission by finding Anne first. Great ending setting up the all or nothing snatch and grab mission.

By far the most interesting piece of this episode is the Max, Rogers, and Eleanor triangle. Max and Eleanor have that touchy past (to put it mildly) and Rogers is like the third wheel, but he’s the one steering. Eleanor is a traitor to everyone on Nassau, having burned every single bridge. More than enough was said to make sure everyone knew it, all the way up to England hearing it. Rogers reluctantly had to take her along for the ride because she is valuable. Stabbing everyone in the back wasn’t in her character. She had to and it eats her up every day since it happened. Rogers and her fall for each other (I believe she really has) but he can’t ignore her past and tells her so. That scene is fantastically written and performed. I haven’t felt any sympathy for Eleanor in awhile and that bit hit me (brilliant idea from the writers using the grippe illness as a parallel).

Now the Eleanor and Max relationship. This whole ordeal has twisted in on Max in ways she never imagined. First it forces her to have to work with Eleanor and it ends up putting Max in a very similar position that Eleanor was in. Max now knows what Eleanor went through, the hard decisions she had to make and why she had to make them. Max again feels sympathy for a person she was sure she would hate for the rest of her life.

I like Rogers a lot, they gave him a  lot of layers and this Nassau boondoggle is digging into him more every day. He’s a good guy trying to do honest work in a pirates world. He believes in what his country wants to do, restore order and make a contributing society. He does everything he can to keep people from getting hurt, no matter what side they are on and obstacles keep getting thrown in his way. As he said to Flint, if it comes down to it, if you choose to try and steal this all away again, he will do what he has to do. No more offers or talks, it’s war. Rogers is being forced down a path he doesn’t want to take, just like Eleanor was.