XXXII

Now that Nassau is taken, it has to be held. Easier said than done when pirates are involved.

Silver and Flint start off standing together, the decision makers of the pirates as some of the English (and quick thinking Eleanor) made it into the fortress. There’s a lot of moving pieces in the eye of this storm.

The English men in their stuffy suits want to fight back immediately and Eleanor manages to persuade them to wait for Rogers to come back to Nassau. They need the man and firepower that he’s going to come back with. When she finds out that Max wasn’t taken in, she’s worried.

Madi goes off further into the island to check on the settlements to see if she can salvage the growing slave rebellion that was harmed by Bones actions of pushing to take Nassau and going off on his own. She finds out that a new threat has emerged from the penance the slave owners brought down from Bones’ actions: a leader has emerged. He has rallied a large swath of men by overthrowing a settlement and he intends on taking Nassau in the names of the slaves. Pirates be damned.

While working together to keep Nassau from eating itself alive in all the turmoil, Silver and Flint are working well with each other. Until Bones gets into his ear. Bones has been busy. He’s been cutting off possible trouble makers and he also managed to get Max. Using the leverage of Max, he forces Silver into a talk without Flint. He thinks he knows why Eleanor wants her so badly (she’s the one that sold them out at the beginning) and that trusting Flint is and always has been a mistake. He’s left a trail of bodies as far as the eye can see to get his way and any idea he comes up with to keep Nassau is just another terrible event waiting to happen. He suggests to Silver that now that he has something worth living for (Madi) he needs to be the sole shot caller. Then, Silver finds out from Max that someone very important in Flint’s life may still be alive, hidden away many years ago.

Back at sea, Rogers splits his group into two when he rescues a fleeing boat from Nassau and that Eleanor is still there. He’s going back to Nassau and he appoints one of his most trusted men to take the pirates they’ve caught to another friendly port. The guy wants to stick with Rogers and go to war, but Rogers makes him go. Now, Jack and Anne are part of those few dozen prisoners. This guy and those that are taking the to the authorities are pissed. All alone they decide to slowly take their revenge. The rest of what happens at sea fills the action quota for the week. A brutal fight for survival, it’s Anne who gives them the chance they need. Riveting scene.

Max gets reunited with Eleanor and as the crocodile tears start building, Max isn’t hearing it. She constantly told Eleanor and Rogers what was going to happen if they kept pushing and it did. Ignored through it all, Max has nothing left and cares little for how Eleanor feels. Flint and Eleanor are two peas in a pod, everyone close to them gets dashed on the rocks while they get to move on and destroy more.

Finally, Rogers floats up to Nassau and the pirates are in trouble. It’s a Man O’War so it’s got serious firepower so they’ll be able to get to the beach with little problem. When discussing tactics, Flint gets a message from Eleanor. He and Silver go to meet her in secret where she lays out an offer. In exchange for their buried treasure and safe passage for everyone, she’ll leave Nassau and the fortress (and its guns) to them.

This is a last ditch effort if there ever was one. Eleanor wants to bail out. All the work she’s put into Nassau in her adult life is gone and she sees nothing to salvage. If she can get this deal it gives her two options. Clear of the pending doom she can move on with Max. Or she can hang back, scoop up Rogers and use the money to pay off his debt and move on with him.

Silver rightfully says no. The treasure is the pirates future. If they live through this, they need the money to do anything. That bounty is the holy grail for basically everyone standing behind Flint and Silver. If they lose that, it will be full on mutiny. Flint on the other hand…no idea what he thinks there is to gain for himself by saying yes. Tunnel vision perhaps? He weighs his entire life, failure or success, on him taking back Nassau.

Eleanor getting her way seems far fetched. Rogers and her handmaiden are her only true allies she has left and the talk Bones gave to Silver already tilted his view on Flint. Flint telling her yes has to cement Silver on ditching Flint. I can only hope that Jack can get back to Nassau and crosses paths with Eleanor. That’ll be a wrap on her backstabbing.

I’ve never heard of Legion until the show was announced way back when. Looking him up you can see his rather important lineage to the X-Men universe. With the knowledge that he is the son of Charles Xavier, I’ve gone into Legion with little expectations. The last month or so they advertised this short season like it was the second coming.

Two episodes in, Legion feels like it’s in the X-Men world (it shares a certain production design aesthetic) but feels very unique. David is an incredibly powerful telepath but doesn’t really know. He was diagnosed as schizophrenic. He sees and hears things all the time and has no control over it. Sometimes people have gotten hurt. He’s been in and out of mental institutions for at least a decade and he considers himself with no silver lining: lost, depressed, sick, crazy. His sister, Amy, is probably his only tether to happiness.

In one facility he meets another patient Syd and their relationship changes everything. It leads to a road of enlightenment and danger where he comes to turn that he isn’t sick, he has powers. The voices and the visions are real. With a haunted childhood and an adulthood of doctors, isolation, and medication David has a lot to work through as he’s hunted once he goes into hiding with Syd and an organization of like-minded individuals committed to helping him.

The pilot is packed with info and characters to take in. Getting to know David is tough (as it should be) and it’s a constant question of what is real and who is a friend. Aubrey Plaza as his not so good of an influence friend Shannon is the fastest highlight to come for. The  end of the pilot puts it’s full X-Men brand shoes on for you to check out.

I’ve found episode 2 to be really impressive. Shocking, actually. With the introduction of David done, we go into (literally) his head for the dirt. Presenting his past the way they do gives the direct line to discover who this guy is. What made him this bundle of nervous power. I dig the supporting characters (especially Wallace) and every scene felt important. Whatever that fat man/demon thing is is super disturbing. The ultimate boogyman of what that creature is, where it’s from, what it wants and holy animal, is it real, has me hooked.

Major shout out to the crew on this show. It starts on the page and comes to life in some amazing direction and editing. There are too many incredible moments to mention but basically anytime Wallace and Dr. Bird are working with David is nuts. Whatever the budget is for this show, every dime is seen on screen. Seamless visual effects to display morphing time, space, and locations. They visually jump around in David’s memories so much that it shouldn’t work but it does. The sense of being in the narrative perspective of the main character, even when he isn’t “there”, is masterful work. Everything with the MRI machine is brilliant. The lighting cues, the blocking, the incredible editing. This episode needs to be put up for awards.

I can only hope that after seeing this that the best is yet to come.

XXXI

This might end up being in the top 5 episodes of the series. There is some intense moments, to say the least. There’s a lot to unpack here.

I’ll start with Max. In the last episode, she made her own moves in the dead of night to end the battle for Nassau with Long John Silver. It didn’t work out and she was ratted out. That put Max firmly on Berringer’s bad side and he had enough of her, putting her up for treason. Berringer is throwing his full weight around as the only authority in town, and Eleanor is the only one who could help her. With a trip to the gallows in her future, Max has very few avenues of rescue available. Her two main helpers try their best but fail. The good news for Max is that getting into trouble kept Eleanor on the island, dashing Rogers plan for Eleanor to get help. That’s bad news for Rogers.

With Billy Bones gone rogue with a large swath of the pirates, Silver and Flint work in their smaller group to take back Nassau. The Long John Silver boogeyman has been working well in town and Flint is still confident that they can take their home back with enough slave resistance. John coming back from the dead brings renewed faith in Madi. This group has a bit of an advantage- Rogers took off with quite a few men so Nassau isn’t as well guarded as it could be.

On the ocean, Blackbeard, Anne, and Jack catch up to Rogers. It does not go well. They lose the battle and get taken prisoner. Charging forward to get even for Vane’s death has delivered them to death’s door. A major win for Rogers, he makes an example out of the notorious Blackbeard. I did not know what keelhauling meant until now. Seeing Teach strung up like that, I thought they were just going to dunk him head first into the ocean repeatedly, an advanced water boarding if you will. He disappears into the water, some strange noises from the boat are heard and he comes back up head first and with cuts all over him. He is messed up. Teach lived through it and Rogers orders another round and they show it all. His body is literally scraped along the bottom of the boat. Absolutely horrific.

In a moment that rivals the badassery of Captain Vane spitting in the face of the crown by walking off to his hanging to kick off the resistance, Blackbeard manages to thumb his nose at  Rogers authority. and clips his power move by surviving three rounds of keelhauling, forcing Rogers to shoot him. Absolutely nuts.

This whole segment was brilliantly put together, it might be my favorite scene in the series. We don’t see what happens to Teach the first time. All the pirates are shaken, their Captain taking a brutal punishment from their sworn enemy. The shock when they see him alive and Rogers’ complete annoyance that this bastard is still fighting him. The second time around and we are shown exactly what Teach is going through. He comes back up and it’s gross. Rogers feels vindicated and gears up to send Jack up for his turn. But Teach sputters to life and everyone is shocked. His men are in disbelief, their leader, their tough bastard of a leader is still with them. Rogers orders Teach around again and we only hear the horror. We wait on the boat with everyone to see what comes back up. Teach is dumped onto the deck again and he looks like ground beef. His people look at him, their spirit taken with their captain. And he comes back again! The pirates swell with pride with this unheard of level of defiance. Blackbeard will never be forgotten. With no way out he still managed to defy his enemy. While Rogers does get to kill him, his triumphant moment is ruined and he’s so flustered that he does nothing to Jack.

Back at Nassau, Berringer starts the public hangings after ignoring some spy info Eleanor passed him from Max. She wanted him to silence the resistance away from the people. With three hung and the next set coming up, Berringer is riding the power wave, ready for Silver to show up right there so he can show everyone he means business. Eleanor knows what’s about to pop off and she’s petrified–she takes off to hide with Max and a few others.

Enter Long John Silver into Nassau. Him in front with his one leg and the others behind him (even Flint!). It’s a huge moment for Silver, a legend come to take back the power. All out war breaks out right there in the center of town and just when it looks like Berringer has the advantage, Bones shows up with his crew and they overwhelm the crown. In another nod to Silver’s ascent to leadership, it is he who gives Hands the go ahead to kill Berringer.

The pirates have planted their flag back on their home turf while Rogers had his own win at sea. But Rogers has a real problem on his hands. He’s lost home base and thus, any kind of leverage. There’s really no negotiating chips he holds aside from Jack and Anne. He’s out numbered with no place to land. Eleanor is also trapped on Nassau, she never made it to her uncle for help. Rogers is on his own along with that boat anchor of debt still tied around his neck.

I don’t think they’ll be able to match the action and insanity of this episode next week but I can’t wait to see what happens next.