![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
(no subject)
* Flynn has offered to testify in exchange for personal immunity for his felonies, treason, espionage, etc..
* I meant to post this when it was new, but it got lost in the pile. "In bizarre first speech to HUD, Carson hints at skepticism on civil rights protections:" https://thinkprogress.org/in-bizarre-first-speech-to-hud-carson-hints-at-skepticism-on-civil-rights-protections-5a35208fb816
* Another thing I meant to post an lost in the shuffle. "Republicans Just Made It Easier For Companies To Exploit Workers:" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/republicans-exploit-workers_us_58bdb96de4b0d8c45f4565f8?g6r5omcc54eyd5cdi
* Senate Republicans brought in Pence to break a tie so as to allow states to discriminate against Planned Parenthood, thus endangering health care access for low income women.
* It was a very lucky thing I finished tank sterilization yesterday, as I woke up with steroid shakes today and am useless.
* "The Expanse Slowly Turns Heroes Into Villains:" https://www.thefandomentals.com/the-expanse-s02-e10/
* The next piece in the MacMillian sampler was the Judas tree, which it turned out I HAD seen a production of before, likely at the turn of the century. The music is as aggressively modern as the ballet is aggressively misogynistic. The one woman in it is explicitly a Madonna/whore trope and they rape her death. The choreography is excellent and both the dancing and miming were first rate, which makes it wore in a way. I am not convinced that making gang rape/murder/suicide exquisitely beautiful is a thing we ought to be doing. It was sort of peak MacMilian in every sense, really both in his obsession with ritualized violence against women and the very best of his choreography. I have no idea how to feel about something so terrible in it's conception so well executed. The ancient Greeks had a word to express this exactly, but we don't.
The final piece was Concerto. This was sort of a cut rate Balanchine in my opinion. The simpler costumes were an improvement over Elite Syncopation, but there was nothing particularly interesting or moving going on, and it suffered from the same sloppiness of execution and unevenness of skill that the Elite Syncopation suffered from, only this time the problem was more general. The women in the four lead couples were so different in line and extension that the effect was very ragged. Everyone's turn speed, timing, and lines were subtly different in the group numbers, but not enough different to look deliberate. It was like everyone was dancing individually with no reference to what anyone else was doing even when they were doing obvious formations. It was all very raggedy ass and sloppy. There was maybe one good pas de deux in there and a reasonable solo, but the whole thing was very amateur hour, which is weird because the Judas Tree proved they could dance when they want to and the women at least were much better in ES.
Why even WAS Kenneth Macmillan when Ashton and Balanchine already were?
* Black Sails XXXVII: Training Nemesis and the Battle for Narrative Control
* The thing that really stood out for me this episode is how very much Flint and Silver care about each other and how much that hurts them both.
* We open on a flashback of John Silver when he still had Randall's leg, making his way up the dunes to meet Flint. Two swords are sheathed in the sand. It's quickly clear that this is from the period between seasons. "In a few weeks time, I will lead a pirate fleet of unprecedented strength over that horizon into a battle of unprecedented importance. With a little luck, that battle will end with us taking Nassau and beginning a revolution. I cannot do it without you. So it would benefit all involved, you not the least, if, when the battle begins, you aren't killed by the first fool lucky enough to swing a sword your way." Their fates are tied together, much as Woodes Rogers claims of his and Billy's. So Flint is teaching Silver to fight. I have said from very early on that Flint was very carefully training his own nemesis in how to defeat him. This feels like the final step.
Silver: You're not concerned about this?
Flint: Concerned?
Silver: Well, you say you'll be teaching me to fight. But if every man fights differently, seems to me what you'll really be teaching me is how to defeat you.
Flint: I'll take my chances.
The flashback sequences center around their relationship on the one hand and control of the narrative on the other. the issue of Story and spin starts with a discussion of the practicality of the leg in a fight vs. control. I'm not convinced it works that way, but it does explain why he hasn't tried to replace the prosthetic and the point about image vs. practicality is a central theme of all four seasons. Silver shows he understands the earlier lessons in leadership Flint taught him. "The men have to manage how they see me. I understand that's part of my job. But for pride to be an issue between you and I well, I I think we're playing past that by now.
Don't you?" This layer of image stripped away is a symbol of intimacy, like Anne showing Max and Jack her back at the start of their threesome. Back at that point of the narrative he only let Madi and Flint and the Doctor see him without his leg. He will thrust that asside when he literally kicked free of the leg that was literally and symbolically dragging him down and killing him at the shipwreck at the start of this season, but I think these flashbacks show in part how he changed psychologically between seasons to reach that point. His growing intimacy with Madi and Flint allowed him to be more vulnerable with both of them, and that in turn let him strip down the extras to survive. Again, I don't think prosthetics work this way, an I'm betting crutch + prosthetic is better than only one of them, though I do agree my crutch gives me a lot more control compared to me with no crutch.
* Back to the present with Silver being rowed to meet Israel Hands and join in the Flint hunt. I spent this whole episode counting dead an waiting for Flint to inevitable murder Dooley. (Why? In Treasure Island Long John Silver says: “…by thunder! if it don’t make me cold inside to think of Flint. This is one of his jokes, and no mistake. Him and these six was here alone; he killed ’em, every man; and this one he hauled here and laid down by compass, shiver my timbers!” and "Messmates, but if Flint was living, this would be a hot spot for you and me. Six they were, and six are we; and bones is what they are now." There is also the 15 men on a Dead Man's Chest song. I'm counting the treasure guard towards that total, and I'm thinking that the Dead Man could be Charles, Jack, and or Flint from a treasure Island perspective, though not ours this episode, when only Charles Vane is dead.) Silver correctly guesses Woodes Rogers sudden inevitable betrayal, but not it's full extent.
* Woodes Rogers asks Billy Bones whether Silver or Flint will prevail so as to best plan. "Silver has the men, and Flint is on his own out there and disadvantaged. That said Flint's been on his own and disadvantaged countless times since I've known him. And here we are. Suppose what I'm saying is if I were you, I would assume the worst and act accordingly now while you know you still can." Woodes Rogers massacres the Walrus men so quickly on Billy's say so. O.o I kept thinking how far Billy Bones has come from the man who'd do anything to protect his Brothers and who condemned Dufresne for doing essentially what Billy Bones has done the last couple of episodes. A friend of mine explains it thusly:
"Billy was captured, tied up and tortured by the Navy. That he had a man standing over and lecturing him. Then when he returned, Silver tied him up as well, and lectured him. Then there was Vane. Billy's crewmates killed. Tied up. Silver tortured. Then Billy was captured by the Maroons. He heard his crewmates tortured to death by them, the exact thing he was trying to avoid happening. And they're supposed to ally with them. Then after all he did, once more Silver murdered his friend, captured him, tied him up, and left him to be tortured by the freed slaves. (And something of that is reminding me of what Billy did to Dufresne.)
Billy was broken. Everything he's endured. Gates death. The captures. The torture. Having absolutely no one. And I wonder if he did not, in some way, blame Madi for the deaths of their crew, as well as a wedge between Silver and Flint. Of course we never see Billy speaking to her. Do we ever see him talk to any women? And then Woodes Rogers. More capture. More torture.
Billy is broken. And no, I don't think he's been acting out of character. I was also thinking, it's probably relevant that he spent almost all of his time with Ben Gunn. Ben Gunn who lost his entire crew to the maroons, who we know told Billy about it all. Not sure what he's feeling now. He's all broken."
Here are images of Billy as captive for reference:
http://jonquility.tumblr.com/post/158942988993/sucks-to-be-billy-bones-here-he-is-in-all-the
http://jonquility.tumblr.com/post/158943106133/yep-really-sucks-to-be-billy-bones
I will reiterate that I think what he does will weigh on him and adding that to the history above we cat now see how we get from Show Billy to book Billy. The tragedy of it.
* Flint has sensibly split his trail and set a trap. Silver splits his men. Israel correctly points out he's signed the death warrant on one of the groups. Silver knows and sacrificed them to get Flint to reveal his position. "I wonder if he knows just how much you learned from him." I'm pretty sure he does. This clash is so deadly dangerous because they both know each other so well. I keep thinking of Eleanor and Charles. Their battles were so destructive for the same reason, and I think what Charles said to Eleanor: "You will turn on absolutely anyone, won't you?" applies just as well to Flint. I always did say that Eleanor Guthrie was the character most like Flint in the show.
* Back to the Fight training flashback where Flint turns fighting into narrative.
Flint: Your opponent's wrist is from whence the attack is born. It is its past tense from which it cannot separate itself. The end of the blade, where the attack arrives, is its present tense, which also cannot be denied. You're still watching my eyes, which is a good way of getting yourself killed.
Silver: How exactly is one supposed to watch two points in space at the same time?
Flint: Practice.
This is again, not entirely real world correct. You watch the muscles of the neck for advance warning of a strike not the eyes. Never, ever watch the eyes because eyes distract and eyes lie, but the body can't conceal what it's doing in a place as exposed as the neck. No really. Flint is correct that practice lets you watch both. I know, I keep interjecting real world objections to what is all extended metaphor, but it irks me, especially as Flint so clearly moves correctly and knows what he's doing, to the point that I'm wondering now if both things: getting him to pick crutch over prosthetic instead of using both and the choice of eye and tip over neck and tip are actually Flint ensuring that Silver won't ever be quite as good as he could be. Perhaps Flint has his insurance here by subtly not giving the best training the same way Silver has his insurance by not having a personal narrative flint an grab instead of a collection of fictions.
Remember how I keep saying that nothing Silver says about his past is true, but rather pasted together out of other people's stories glued together with bits of invention? Apparently Flint noticed too.
Flint: All warfare is the same. Two questions are of paramount importance. Who was my opponent yesterday, and who is he today? Answer those two questions, and there is very little he can... hide from you.
Silver: What?
Flint: Who you were. I have no idea who you were. Not before we found you, at any rate.
Silver: Jesus Christ, don't do that. If you want to know where I come from, just ask.
Flint: I think I just did.
Silver: You know all there is to know. I was born in Whitechapel, never knew my mother. I had a wholly unremarkable youth. Spent most of it at a home for...
Flint: Home for boys. I know, I know. You, uh you told me once or twice of your experiences there. Except it isn't true. Is it?
Silver: Why would you say that?
Flint: I remember when you first told me, it sounded like a invention. About one story that bled into others I'd heard told elsewhere to the crew. I didn't think much of it at the time. I suppose I assumed that if you ever became somebody worth knowing, I'd learn the truth of it eventually. Only in this moment, I'm realizing that never happened. And what is of some concern to me is that despite how invested we each are in the future of the other you just told me that story again. Why is that?
Silver: It isn't important.
Flint: All right. Although, you know that isn't true either.
Silver: Why isn't it true?
Flint: I'm sorry, the more I try and dismiss this, I.... You know my story. Thomas, Miranda, all of it. Know the role it played in motivating me to do the things that I've done, the things I will do. It has made me transparent to you. Not only that, but when I told you this story, you insinuated yourself into it. The latest in a line of ill-fated partners, situating yourself such that were you and I ever to come to blows I'd be forced to hesitate before doing you any harm.
Silver: Slow down, I
Flint: I'm not angry with you. It's just you know my story.
And for some reason, I cannot figure...
Silver: I don't want you to know mine.
Flint: Wait a minute.
Silver: I...I understand your concern.
Flint's concerns are founded and his prediction as to the effect is prescient given events later this episode. Stick a pin in this, because I'm going to have a lot more to say about John Silver and his rejection of narrative handles other people can use against him a little later. I just really needed this conversation on the record so we can refer back to it when the other shoe drops.
* Flint made it look like he was burying something. I noticed it looked more like a grave in shape than a chest sized hole. The lesser search party found it, so there wasn't really any doubt as to outcome, especially as Flint has treasure Island plot armour, we know there must be six deaths, and I literally don't know these guy's names. They dither as to whether to go get silver, forge ahead instead and are duly slaughtered by Flint, as Israel predicted. Three down, three to go.
* Jack's face as he approaches the elderly pirate and says admiringly, "You sailed with Avery," is endearingly fanboyish, and then the comedic shift as he adds, "A long time ago." They establish it was more than twenty years. Jack's real concern that the old guy may have forgotten how to get to Skeleton island is all over his face and tone. "No, seriously, I've got quite a lot riding on this." It's so classic Jack Rackham really, that mix of fan boy, snark, and underlying lack of confidence. The old man's explanation is poignant and fits in with things like Flint's Oddyseus fantasy, the Max and Eleanor where would we go conversation, and the Anne and Jack retirement conversation right before Blackbeard's horrible death.
Mr McCoy: One day, you'll leave the account. Take a wife, father children. See less and less of the sea until she becomes like a painting hanging on the wall, static and irrelevant to your daily existence, but she'll keep on calling you. And when she does, you'll step into that painting and feel the swell beneath your feet. It'll all come back as if it were like yesterday.
Jack Rackham: Is that so?
Mr. McCoy: I've watched you and yours handle the account since I and mine left it. Accomplish things that no one I ever sailed with could dream of. From what I've overheard, if you reach Skeleton Island, might mean the end of the governor. Maybe keep the account alive a little while longer. Is that so?
Jack: That and more.
Mr. McCoy: Then I'll take you to it. Hold on to this for as long as you can, for all of us who once had it and walked away.
It's a beautiful little moment of bonding. Jack's finally got validation from someone who sailed with the revered Avery, the kind of validation he always wanted from men like Vane and Teach. He's also looking at his future if he were to by some miracle survive and sail away with Anne. I also was thinking that jack having this sort of conversation with a legend has been the kiss of death before. *cough* Blackbeard *cough*
* Woodes Rogers confronts Madi about his belief that somehow Flint and Madi who were trying their damnedest to protect Eleanor from men Woodes Rogers set loose on the island to rape and kill the inhabitants were somehow to blame for Eleanor's death and not Woodes Rogers. *side eye* As he rambles his in denial nonsense at her, he imagines Eleanor's ghost knitting silently in the corner. The thing is, I don't think she can have know how to knit. It's not like they need woolens in the Caribbean (They spent a couple episodes in Boston underlining the difference in climate as reflected in clothing), and given the state of her more useful in the tropics embroidery.... He is still insisting on his fantasy of her over the reality, just like he is lying to himself that he didn't kill her and it was somehow Flint and Madi's fault. A silently knitting Eleanor is the opposite of the real Eleanor who was perfectly willing and able to speak for herself at every opportunity. Remember that time she struck Charles Fucking Vane in the middle of a packed tavern?
Madi spoke for Eleanor's ghost as well as herself, I think, and the sound editing here is brilliant, the loud clack of the needles emphasizing each of the points as Madi drives them into him like the point of a sword. It seemed to me to echo the sparring swords earlier in the Silver and Flint scenes where they were also bandying words, and to foreshadow the violence to come, but really, this is a scene about Madi not putting up with Woodes Roger's self serving lies, and putting blame where it is do as she speaks for the dead. I think it is interesting that she's basically been siding with Flint against Silver this episode and last in her willingness to sacrifice herself rather than accept the slavery of her people. Her rejection of slavery is powerful and beautiful and absolute, "The voice you hear in your head I imagine I know who it sounds like, as I know Eleanor wanted those things. But I hear other voices. A chorus of voices. Multitudes. They reach back centuries. Men and women and children who'd lost their lives to men like you. Men and women and children forced to wear your chains. I must answer to them and this war their war Flint's war my war it will not be bargained away to avoid a fight, to save John Silver's life or his men's or mine. And you believe what you will, but it was neither I nor Flint nor the Spanish raider who killed your wife. That, you did." It is nothing Woodes Rogers can possibly understand as the avatar of colonial dystopia and oppression. Last episode Grandmother Guthrie tempted Max. This episode Rogers tempts Madi. Interesting that they both say no.
* Silver and Hands find the dead men. There is no trail, so flushing Flint out didn't work so well this time. Silver thinks through the politics. ("You will turn on absolutely anyone, won't you?" Basically, and the implications of Madi's martyrdom and Flint's control of the chest). Silver's sense of betrayal is intnse in a way that suggest his feelings for Flint were very real, "Fuck him for dictating this outcome to me, for swearing his friendship falsely to me, for his arrogance, his indifference." Israel hands is again spot on, "You've been warned so many times by Billy, by me, by Flint's own actions. And despite that, despite this, I think when we meet him again, you will look for reasons to forget it all again. You've come all this way, traveled all this distance, and when he starts talking, you won't have learned a goddamn thing." Prescient, even. His complaint gives Silver the insight to figure where Flint actually is.
* Flint had indeed left the chest and Dooley behind. Like Israel Hands, Dooley is having a hard time seeing how Flint and silver can be friends after all this. Dooley is basically the cut rate Hands, offering to kill Silver for Flint when the time comes.
* Now we get to the scariest thing about Silver, courtesy of a flashback.
Silver: I have no story to tell. It all might seem as though I'm trying to conceal something from you, but truth is there is no story to tell.
Flint: No one's past is that unremarkable.
Silver: Not unremarkable, just without relevance. A long time ago, I absolved myself from the obligation of finding any. No need to account for all my life's events in the context of a story that somehow defines me. Events, some of which, no one could divine any meaning from other than that the world is a place of unending horrors. I've come to peace with the knowledge that there is no storyteller imposing any coherence, nor sense, nor grace upon those events. Therefore, there's no duty on my part to search for it. You know of me all I can bear to be known.
All that is relevant to be known. That is to say, you know my genuine friendship and loyalty. Can that be enough and there still be trust between us?
This is flat out spooky. I had suspicions about Silver's back story as no fucking way is that a White Chapel accent. He's too posh and it never slips. We've spotted him stealing stories before, so it's not a surprise his Ur story is stolen. His refusal to become narrative is both fascinating and alarming. I am still turning over the implications. All of the stories about him are lies. His stories, Billy's stories. What does it mean for him to be entirely fictional in a land where narrative shapes reality? What does it mean for him to be entirely unknowable? Is it like Wizards and Fairies and true names? I am thinking about Woodes Rogers advising Jack to write a book to control his story last season, and Jack this year encountering the fictional stories about Vane up in Boston and the telling the Fan to read a book. Silver has a grip on Flint's story. Flint has a handful of confetti instead of Silver's story. Billy invented Long John Silver, claimed to be him to Rogers, and is certainly at least half of him. (Billy is Long after all and the character is made of tall tales Billy told). I think I'm on to something here, but I can't quite word it.
A Friend of mine said about it, "The importance of stories is woven right throughout the entire series narrative. And we never learn John Silver's. I hope we don't learn it next episode. I hope he remains a mystery, like that man that Flint took his name from who just appeared out of nowhere and disappeared the same way. I like that he never gave Flint that power over him." I can't help but agree.
* Remember what I said about Featherstone being the navagator in his partnership with Jack? There he is working on the charts, trying to plot their way based on Mr. McCoy's directions, and it's sounding to me like Jack has no navigational skills from the conversation. They fundamentally need each other, Jack for the vision and leadership, Featherstone for the nitty gritty. I wonder who did the navigating while Featherstone was in Nassau with Max?
Jack Rackham: When we sailed for the Urca gold, I remember something of this feeling. So much to be gained. But this is different, isn't it?
Featherstone: How so?
Jack: Well, then, even a complete and thorough success meant a qualified victory. On some level, whether we were prepared to acknowledge it out loud or not, I believe we both knew the fortune would likely cause as many problems as it would solve, but now, if that man out there can fulfill his promise to us, if we can prevail over Flint and the governor and I feel we can I don't know why, but I feel it. Am I mad? Tell me. I'm asking.
Featherstone: I don't think you are. I've thought the same thing.
Jack: The result ahead of us promises to be a victory of a different sort. A true victory. Freedom in every sense of the word. How many men in the history of the world have ever known it? How remarkable a moment is this? How fortunate are we to be standing on the threshold of it?
Jack's luck reasserts itself, just as he's envisioning victory, because of course it does. This is so jack, it hurts. Mr. McCoy had a heart attack just at their moment of peak happiness. jack's reaction suggests that really, this kind of setback is more familiar than hope. Featherstone is almost sure he can get them there without the guide based on their conversations. *facepalm*
* The DeGroot and Benn conversation last episode very much had the air of the older sibling trying to distract the younger one when parents were fighting. This one is the older sibling trying to convince a younger one there are no monsters under the bed. There ARE Monsters though: the inevitable human ones, and Woodes is the worst of them all. Are the sounds they are hearing suggestion only, or are they part of the Woodes and Bones strategy to unnerve their victims as they approach through the mist?
* Things start inter cutting quickly here. I'm going to abandon strict order on the grounds that clumping a little will actually make things clearer.
* I am angry Joji died without ever having spoken. Fucking inscrutable Asian trope. Yes, I know he can't speak. He was written this way on purpose and so lived and died without ever telling us his story and all we are left with is the guess that he is ronin cast up on the island of misfit toys after a series of catastrophes. Gods, was he beautiful in motion though, and striking rising out of the greenery. I hope the actor gets more to do in his next gig.
Joji and his partner make five out of Silver's six slaughtered by Flint on Skeleton Island. The moment Flint left Dooley to bury the chest his fate was sealed.
* Back at the Flint hunt, Israel is ahead of silver, as Silver's disability slows him. Flint ambushes Hands in a sequence that is parallel to the one towards the end of XXXVI in the hold with the chest. The lines are different, but the idea is similar. Flint is standing in Israel's shoes, "It would be preferable to me if we resolved this another way. Cache is in the ground by now, and I'll need as many men as we can get for what comes next. That includes you." He tries to talk him round, because that is a thing Flint is good at and has worked in the past. hands isn't having it though, "He'll be here in a moment. You still think you'll persuade him to see this all your way? I don't think so, but I'd prefer not to find out." In both scenes they are fighting over Silver's loyalty, even though the chest hands over things. I knew he couldn't kill Israel here as Dooley is number six and Israel couldn't kill Flint because Flint has TI plot armour, which meant what suspense was over the how they end up not killing each other, not the broad outline.
Anyway they fight until Flint is winning and Silver turns up to stop it. Flint knocks out Israel Hands so he can argue with Silver one on one. Flint still wants to try to rescue Madi and clearly still wants the friendship. Silver calls Flint on his bullshit again as in last episode, pointing out how one sided things keep ending up.
Silver: Fuck you! Where is it?
FLINT: In the ground where it stays until Madi is freed, and we gather it and return it to the camp, all of us. I know you cannot see why this must be. But it must be.
And every moment we waste is a moment we could be working to retrieve her.
Silver: That's all this has ever been, isn't it? A partnership only insofar as it enables you to do whatever it is that matters to you in any given moment. And right now it matters far less to you whether she lives or dies than it happens your way, on your terms.
FLINT: I think you know it's far more complicated than that. I'm certain she does. Even if you could kill me, even if that somehow helped you see her alive again, how are you going to explain it to her? She believes in this as much as I do. You know this. If it costs the war to save her, you'll have lost her anyway. Even you cannot construct a story to make her forgive you that. You do this, and you're gonna regret it.
The thing is though? Flint is absolutely correct about Madi's opinion on the issue. Love doesn't mean you agree necessarily and Flint does see Madi's opinion more clearly than Silver can here, blinded by his love. i think this point is emphasized by the intercutting of Flint beating Silver over and over in spar, the sound of the blades mimicking the sound of the knitting needles in the Woodes and Madi scene. Both Madi and Flint are saying things that the other person doesn't want to hear that strike to the heart.
I am of the opinion that Silver flashing the chest when he did saved Madi's life as no way could they bring the ship around and launch an attack fast enough to stop Rogers killing her. at the same time, it is painfully obvious that the moment Silver turned over the gold, Woodes rogers would have killed them all anyway. They have both been blinded by their hopes in different ways this season.
Silver draws his sword anyway for a fight well all knoiw he can't win having seen the spars. Dooley turns up as promised to shoot silver in the back. Flint kills him inevitably, inevitably. Silver attacks anyway, wildly, emotionally. Flint defends but makes no real effort to hurt him. They are interrupted by the Walrus' magazine exploding.
* Meanwhile, Billy and Woodes' men are burning our beloved Walrus. They are forced to abandon ship, where Billy and the forces of colonialism are shooting them like fish in a barrel while they have no means of defending themselves. A dead eyed Billy deliberately lets Ben Gunn live, but DeGroot is shot in the head as is the man right next to Ben Gunn who Billy kills instead of him. Ben ducks under the water to swim away, protected by his Treasure Island plot armour from being spotted later, one assumes. This is Billy's last living tie, the last living person he cared about who hasn't betrayed him specifically.
* Flint and Silver watch the destruction of the Walrus from a cliff vantage, eventually to be joined by Hands, while a flashback voice over of a conversation Silver hand with Madi metween seasons about Flint plays, clearly a continuation of the one we saw of them in bed from Madi's point of view early in season. This time, they are clothed. The morning after maybe? "Can't you see it? It isn't utility that's behind his investment in me nor necessity, nor dependency. I understand you fear a false motive. But this much is clear to me now I have earned his respect. And after all the tragedies that man has suffered the loss of Thomas, the events of Charles Town, I have earned his trust. I have his true friendship and so he's going to have mine. And as long as that is true, I cannot imagine what is possible." Ouch. Ouch, ouch, ouch.
*****
* Full list of Resistance and charity links has been migrated to my profile as it was getting out of hand.
* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal [email protected]
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com
* I meant to post this when it was new, but it got lost in the pile. "In bizarre first speech to HUD, Carson hints at skepticism on civil rights protections:" https://thinkprogress.org/in-bizarre-first-speech-to-hud-carson-hints-at-skepticism-on-civil-rights-protections-5a35208fb816
* Another thing I meant to post an lost in the shuffle. "Republicans Just Made It Easier For Companies To Exploit Workers:" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/republicans-exploit-workers_us_58bdb96de4b0d8c45f4565f8?g6r5omcc54eyd5cdi
* Senate Republicans brought in Pence to break a tie so as to allow states to discriminate against Planned Parenthood, thus endangering health care access for low income women.
* It was a very lucky thing I finished tank sterilization yesterday, as I woke up with steroid shakes today and am useless.
* "The Expanse Slowly Turns Heroes Into Villains:" https://www.thefandomentals.com/the-expanse-s02-e10/
* The next piece in the MacMillian sampler was the Judas tree, which it turned out I HAD seen a production of before, likely at the turn of the century. The music is as aggressively modern as the ballet is aggressively misogynistic. The one woman in it is explicitly a Madonna/whore trope and they rape her death. The choreography is excellent and both the dancing and miming were first rate, which makes it wore in a way. I am not convinced that making gang rape/murder/suicide exquisitely beautiful is a thing we ought to be doing. It was sort of peak MacMilian in every sense, really both in his obsession with ritualized violence against women and the very best of his choreography. I have no idea how to feel about something so terrible in it's conception so well executed. The ancient Greeks had a word to express this exactly, but we don't.
The final piece was Concerto. This was sort of a cut rate Balanchine in my opinion. The simpler costumes were an improvement over Elite Syncopation, but there was nothing particularly interesting or moving going on, and it suffered from the same sloppiness of execution and unevenness of skill that the Elite Syncopation suffered from, only this time the problem was more general. The women in the four lead couples were so different in line and extension that the effect was very ragged. Everyone's turn speed, timing, and lines were subtly different in the group numbers, but not enough different to look deliberate. It was like everyone was dancing individually with no reference to what anyone else was doing even when they were doing obvious formations. It was all very raggedy ass and sloppy. There was maybe one good pas de deux in there and a reasonable solo, but the whole thing was very amateur hour, which is weird because the Judas Tree proved they could dance when they want to and the women at least were much better in ES.
Why even WAS Kenneth Macmillan when Ashton and Balanchine already were?
* Black Sails XXXVII: Training Nemesis and the Battle for Narrative Control
* The thing that really stood out for me this episode is how very much Flint and Silver care about each other and how much that hurts them both.
* We open on a flashback of John Silver when he still had Randall's leg, making his way up the dunes to meet Flint. Two swords are sheathed in the sand. It's quickly clear that this is from the period between seasons. "In a few weeks time, I will lead a pirate fleet of unprecedented strength over that horizon into a battle of unprecedented importance. With a little luck, that battle will end with us taking Nassau and beginning a revolution. I cannot do it without you. So it would benefit all involved, you not the least, if, when the battle begins, you aren't killed by the first fool lucky enough to swing a sword your way." Their fates are tied together, much as Woodes Rogers claims of his and Billy's. So Flint is teaching Silver to fight. I have said from very early on that Flint was very carefully training his own nemesis in how to defeat him. This feels like the final step.
Silver: You're not concerned about this?
Flint: Concerned?
Silver: Well, you say you'll be teaching me to fight. But if every man fights differently, seems to me what you'll really be teaching me is how to defeat you.
Flint: I'll take my chances.
The flashback sequences center around their relationship on the one hand and control of the narrative on the other. the issue of Story and spin starts with a discussion of the practicality of the leg in a fight vs. control. I'm not convinced it works that way, but it does explain why he hasn't tried to replace the prosthetic and the point about image vs. practicality is a central theme of all four seasons. Silver shows he understands the earlier lessons in leadership Flint taught him. "The men have to manage how they see me. I understand that's part of my job. But for pride to be an issue between you and I well, I I think we're playing past that by now.
Don't you?" This layer of image stripped away is a symbol of intimacy, like Anne showing Max and Jack her back at the start of their threesome. Back at that point of the narrative he only let Madi and Flint and the Doctor see him without his leg. He will thrust that asside when he literally kicked free of the leg that was literally and symbolically dragging him down and killing him at the shipwreck at the start of this season, but I think these flashbacks show in part how he changed psychologically between seasons to reach that point. His growing intimacy with Madi and Flint allowed him to be more vulnerable with both of them, and that in turn let him strip down the extras to survive. Again, I don't think prosthetics work this way, an I'm betting crutch + prosthetic is better than only one of them, though I do agree my crutch gives me a lot more control compared to me with no crutch.
* Back to the present with Silver being rowed to meet Israel Hands and join in the Flint hunt. I spent this whole episode counting dead an waiting for Flint to inevitable murder Dooley. (Why? In Treasure Island Long John Silver says: “…by thunder! if it don’t make me cold inside to think of Flint. This is one of his jokes, and no mistake. Him and these six was here alone; he killed ’em, every man; and this one he hauled here and laid down by compass, shiver my timbers!” and "Messmates, but if Flint was living, this would be a hot spot for you and me. Six they were, and six are we; and bones is what they are now." There is also the 15 men on a Dead Man's Chest song. I'm counting the treasure guard towards that total, and I'm thinking that the Dead Man could be Charles, Jack, and or Flint from a treasure Island perspective, though not ours this episode, when only Charles Vane is dead.) Silver correctly guesses Woodes Rogers sudden inevitable betrayal, but not it's full extent.
* Woodes Rogers asks Billy Bones whether Silver or Flint will prevail so as to best plan. "Silver has the men, and Flint is on his own out there and disadvantaged. That said Flint's been on his own and disadvantaged countless times since I've known him. And here we are. Suppose what I'm saying is if I were you, I would assume the worst and act accordingly now while you know you still can." Woodes Rogers massacres the Walrus men so quickly on Billy's say so. O.o I kept thinking how far Billy Bones has come from the man who'd do anything to protect his Brothers and who condemned Dufresne for doing essentially what Billy Bones has done the last couple of episodes. A friend of mine explains it thusly:
"Billy was captured, tied up and tortured by the Navy. That he had a man standing over and lecturing him. Then when he returned, Silver tied him up as well, and lectured him. Then there was Vane. Billy's crewmates killed. Tied up. Silver tortured. Then Billy was captured by the Maroons. He heard his crewmates tortured to death by them, the exact thing he was trying to avoid happening. And they're supposed to ally with them. Then after all he did, once more Silver murdered his friend, captured him, tied him up, and left him to be tortured by the freed slaves. (And something of that is reminding me of what Billy did to Dufresne.)
Billy was broken. Everything he's endured. Gates death. The captures. The torture. Having absolutely no one. And I wonder if he did not, in some way, blame Madi for the deaths of their crew, as well as a wedge between Silver and Flint. Of course we never see Billy speaking to her. Do we ever see him talk to any women? And then Woodes Rogers. More capture. More torture.
Billy is broken. And no, I don't think he's been acting out of character. I was also thinking, it's probably relevant that he spent almost all of his time with Ben Gunn. Ben Gunn who lost his entire crew to the maroons, who we know told Billy about it all. Not sure what he's feeling now. He's all broken."
Here are images of Billy as captive for reference:
http://jonquility.tumblr.com/post/158942988993/sucks-to-be-billy-bones-here-he-is-in-all-the
http://jonquility.tumblr.com/post/158943106133/yep-really-sucks-to-be-billy-bones
I will reiterate that I think what he does will weigh on him and adding that to the history above we cat now see how we get from Show Billy to book Billy. The tragedy of it.
* Flint has sensibly split his trail and set a trap. Silver splits his men. Israel correctly points out he's signed the death warrant on one of the groups. Silver knows and sacrificed them to get Flint to reveal his position. "I wonder if he knows just how much you learned from him." I'm pretty sure he does. This clash is so deadly dangerous because they both know each other so well. I keep thinking of Eleanor and Charles. Their battles were so destructive for the same reason, and I think what Charles said to Eleanor: "You will turn on absolutely anyone, won't you?" applies just as well to Flint. I always did say that Eleanor Guthrie was the character most like Flint in the show.
* Back to the Fight training flashback where Flint turns fighting into narrative.
Flint: Your opponent's wrist is from whence the attack is born. It is its past tense from which it cannot separate itself. The end of the blade, where the attack arrives, is its present tense, which also cannot be denied. You're still watching my eyes, which is a good way of getting yourself killed.
Silver: How exactly is one supposed to watch two points in space at the same time?
Flint: Practice.
This is again, not entirely real world correct. You watch the muscles of the neck for advance warning of a strike not the eyes. Never, ever watch the eyes because eyes distract and eyes lie, but the body can't conceal what it's doing in a place as exposed as the neck. No really. Flint is correct that practice lets you watch both. I know, I keep interjecting real world objections to what is all extended metaphor, but it irks me, especially as Flint so clearly moves correctly and knows what he's doing, to the point that I'm wondering now if both things: getting him to pick crutch over prosthetic instead of using both and the choice of eye and tip over neck and tip are actually Flint ensuring that Silver won't ever be quite as good as he could be. Perhaps Flint has his insurance here by subtly not giving the best training the same way Silver has his insurance by not having a personal narrative flint an grab instead of a collection of fictions.
Remember how I keep saying that nothing Silver says about his past is true, but rather pasted together out of other people's stories glued together with bits of invention? Apparently Flint noticed too.
Flint: All warfare is the same. Two questions are of paramount importance. Who was my opponent yesterday, and who is he today? Answer those two questions, and there is very little he can... hide from you.
Silver: What?
Flint: Who you were. I have no idea who you were. Not before we found you, at any rate.
Silver: Jesus Christ, don't do that. If you want to know where I come from, just ask.
Flint: I think I just did.
Silver: You know all there is to know. I was born in Whitechapel, never knew my mother. I had a wholly unremarkable youth. Spent most of it at a home for...
Flint: Home for boys. I know, I know. You, uh you told me once or twice of your experiences there. Except it isn't true. Is it?
Silver: Why would you say that?
Flint: I remember when you first told me, it sounded like a invention. About one story that bled into others I'd heard told elsewhere to the crew. I didn't think much of it at the time. I suppose I assumed that if you ever became somebody worth knowing, I'd learn the truth of it eventually. Only in this moment, I'm realizing that never happened. And what is of some concern to me is that despite how invested we each are in the future of the other you just told me that story again. Why is that?
Silver: It isn't important.
Flint: All right. Although, you know that isn't true either.
Silver: Why isn't it true?
Flint: I'm sorry, the more I try and dismiss this, I.... You know my story. Thomas, Miranda, all of it. Know the role it played in motivating me to do the things that I've done, the things I will do. It has made me transparent to you. Not only that, but when I told you this story, you insinuated yourself into it. The latest in a line of ill-fated partners, situating yourself such that were you and I ever to come to blows I'd be forced to hesitate before doing you any harm.
Silver: Slow down, I
Flint: I'm not angry with you. It's just you know my story.
And for some reason, I cannot figure...
Silver: I don't want you to know mine.
Flint: Wait a minute.
Silver: I...I understand your concern.
Flint's concerns are founded and his prediction as to the effect is prescient given events later this episode. Stick a pin in this, because I'm going to have a lot more to say about John Silver and his rejection of narrative handles other people can use against him a little later. I just really needed this conversation on the record so we can refer back to it when the other shoe drops.
* Flint made it look like he was burying something. I noticed it looked more like a grave in shape than a chest sized hole. The lesser search party found it, so there wasn't really any doubt as to outcome, especially as Flint has treasure Island plot armour, we know there must be six deaths, and I literally don't know these guy's names. They dither as to whether to go get silver, forge ahead instead and are duly slaughtered by Flint, as Israel predicted. Three down, three to go.
* Jack's face as he approaches the elderly pirate and says admiringly, "You sailed with Avery," is endearingly fanboyish, and then the comedic shift as he adds, "A long time ago." They establish it was more than twenty years. Jack's real concern that the old guy may have forgotten how to get to Skeleton island is all over his face and tone. "No, seriously, I've got quite a lot riding on this." It's so classic Jack Rackham really, that mix of fan boy, snark, and underlying lack of confidence. The old man's explanation is poignant and fits in with things like Flint's Oddyseus fantasy, the Max and Eleanor where would we go conversation, and the Anne and Jack retirement conversation right before Blackbeard's horrible death.
Mr McCoy: One day, you'll leave the account. Take a wife, father children. See less and less of the sea until she becomes like a painting hanging on the wall, static and irrelevant to your daily existence, but she'll keep on calling you. And when she does, you'll step into that painting and feel the swell beneath your feet. It'll all come back as if it were like yesterday.
Jack Rackham: Is that so?
Mr. McCoy: I've watched you and yours handle the account since I and mine left it. Accomplish things that no one I ever sailed with could dream of. From what I've overheard, if you reach Skeleton Island, might mean the end of the governor. Maybe keep the account alive a little while longer. Is that so?
Jack: That and more.
Mr. McCoy: Then I'll take you to it. Hold on to this for as long as you can, for all of us who once had it and walked away.
It's a beautiful little moment of bonding. Jack's finally got validation from someone who sailed with the revered Avery, the kind of validation he always wanted from men like Vane and Teach. He's also looking at his future if he were to by some miracle survive and sail away with Anne. I also was thinking that jack having this sort of conversation with a legend has been the kiss of death before. *cough* Blackbeard *cough*
* Woodes Rogers confronts Madi about his belief that somehow Flint and Madi who were trying their damnedest to protect Eleanor from men Woodes Rogers set loose on the island to rape and kill the inhabitants were somehow to blame for Eleanor's death and not Woodes Rogers. *side eye* As he rambles his in denial nonsense at her, he imagines Eleanor's ghost knitting silently in the corner. The thing is, I don't think she can have know how to knit. It's not like they need woolens in the Caribbean (They spent a couple episodes in Boston underlining the difference in climate as reflected in clothing), and given the state of her more useful in the tropics embroidery.... He is still insisting on his fantasy of her over the reality, just like he is lying to himself that he didn't kill her and it was somehow Flint and Madi's fault. A silently knitting Eleanor is the opposite of the real Eleanor who was perfectly willing and able to speak for herself at every opportunity. Remember that time she struck Charles Fucking Vane in the middle of a packed tavern?
Madi spoke for Eleanor's ghost as well as herself, I think, and the sound editing here is brilliant, the loud clack of the needles emphasizing each of the points as Madi drives them into him like the point of a sword. It seemed to me to echo the sparring swords earlier in the Silver and Flint scenes where they were also bandying words, and to foreshadow the violence to come, but really, this is a scene about Madi not putting up with Woodes Roger's self serving lies, and putting blame where it is do as she speaks for the dead. I think it is interesting that she's basically been siding with Flint against Silver this episode and last in her willingness to sacrifice herself rather than accept the slavery of her people. Her rejection of slavery is powerful and beautiful and absolute, "The voice you hear in your head I imagine I know who it sounds like, as I know Eleanor wanted those things. But I hear other voices. A chorus of voices. Multitudes. They reach back centuries. Men and women and children who'd lost their lives to men like you. Men and women and children forced to wear your chains. I must answer to them and this war their war Flint's war my war it will not be bargained away to avoid a fight, to save John Silver's life or his men's or mine. And you believe what you will, but it was neither I nor Flint nor the Spanish raider who killed your wife. That, you did." It is nothing Woodes Rogers can possibly understand as the avatar of colonial dystopia and oppression. Last episode Grandmother Guthrie tempted Max. This episode Rogers tempts Madi. Interesting that they both say no.
* Silver and Hands find the dead men. There is no trail, so flushing Flint out didn't work so well this time. Silver thinks through the politics. ("You will turn on absolutely anyone, won't you?" Basically, and the implications of Madi's martyrdom and Flint's control of the chest). Silver's sense of betrayal is intnse in a way that suggest his feelings for Flint were very real, "Fuck him for dictating this outcome to me, for swearing his friendship falsely to me, for his arrogance, his indifference." Israel hands is again spot on, "You've been warned so many times by Billy, by me, by Flint's own actions. And despite that, despite this, I think when we meet him again, you will look for reasons to forget it all again. You've come all this way, traveled all this distance, and when he starts talking, you won't have learned a goddamn thing." Prescient, even. His complaint gives Silver the insight to figure where Flint actually is.
* Flint had indeed left the chest and Dooley behind. Like Israel Hands, Dooley is having a hard time seeing how Flint and silver can be friends after all this. Dooley is basically the cut rate Hands, offering to kill Silver for Flint when the time comes.
* Now we get to the scariest thing about Silver, courtesy of a flashback.
Silver: I have no story to tell. It all might seem as though I'm trying to conceal something from you, but truth is there is no story to tell.
Flint: No one's past is that unremarkable.
Silver: Not unremarkable, just without relevance. A long time ago, I absolved myself from the obligation of finding any. No need to account for all my life's events in the context of a story that somehow defines me. Events, some of which, no one could divine any meaning from other than that the world is a place of unending horrors. I've come to peace with the knowledge that there is no storyteller imposing any coherence, nor sense, nor grace upon those events. Therefore, there's no duty on my part to search for it. You know of me all I can bear to be known.
All that is relevant to be known. That is to say, you know my genuine friendship and loyalty. Can that be enough and there still be trust between us?
This is flat out spooky. I had suspicions about Silver's back story as no fucking way is that a White Chapel accent. He's too posh and it never slips. We've spotted him stealing stories before, so it's not a surprise his Ur story is stolen. His refusal to become narrative is both fascinating and alarming. I am still turning over the implications. All of the stories about him are lies. His stories, Billy's stories. What does it mean for him to be entirely fictional in a land where narrative shapes reality? What does it mean for him to be entirely unknowable? Is it like Wizards and Fairies and true names? I am thinking about Woodes Rogers advising Jack to write a book to control his story last season, and Jack this year encountering the fictional stories about Vane up in Boston and the telling the Fan to read a book. Silver has a grip on Flint's story. Flint has a handful of confetti instead of Silver's story. Billy invented Long John Silver, claimed to be him to Rogers, and is certainly at least half of him. (Billy is Long after all and the character is made of tall tales Billy told). I think I'm on to something here, but I can't quite word it.
A Friend of mine said about it, "The importance of stories is woven right throughout the entire series narrative. And we never learn John Silver's. I hope we don't learn it next episode. I hope he remains a mystery, like that man that Flint took his name from who just appeared out of nowhere and disappeared the same way. I like that he never gave Flint that power over him." I can't help but agree.
* Remember what I said about Featherstone being the navagator in his partnership with Jack? There he is working on the charts, trying to plot their way based on Mr. McCoy's directions, and it's sounding to me like Jack has no navigational skills from the conversation. They fundamentally need each other, Jack for the vision and leadership, Featherstone for the nitty gritty. I wonder who did the navigating while Featherstone was in Nassau with Max?
Jack Rackham: When we sailed for the Urca gold, I remember something of this feeling. So much to be gained. But this is different, isn't it?
Featherstone: How so?
Jack: Well, then, even a complete and thorough success meant a qualified victory. On some level, whether we were prepared to acknowledge it out loud or not, I believe we both knew the fortune would likely cause as many problems as it would solve, but now, if that man out there can fulfill his promise to us, if we can prevail over Flint and the governor and I feel we can I don't know why, but I feel it. Am I mad? Tell me. I'm asking.
Featherstone: I don't think you are. I've thought the same thing.
Jack: The result ahead of us promises to be a victory of a different sort. A true victory. Freedom in every sense of the word. How many men in the history of the world have ever known it? How remarkable a moment is this? How fortunate are we to be standing on the threshold of it?
Jack's luck reasserts itself, just as he's envisioning victory, because of course it does. This is so jack, it hurts. Mr. McCoy had a heart attack just at their moment of peak happiness. jack's reaction suggests that really, this kind of setback is more familiar than hope. Featherstone is almost sure he can get them there without the guide based on their conversations. *facepalm*
* The DeGroot and Benn conversation last episode very much had the air of the older sibling trying to distract the younger one when parents were fighting. This one is the older sibling trying to convince a younger one there are no monsters under the bed. There ARE Monsters though: the inevitable human ones, and Woodes is the worst of them all. Are the sounds they are hearing suggestion only, or are they part of the Woodes and Bones strategy to unnerve their victims as they approach through the mist?
* Things start inter cutting quickly here. I'm going to abandon strict order on the grounds that clumping a little will actually make things clearer.
* I am angry Joji died without ever having spoken. Fucking inscrutable Asian trope. Yes, I know he can't speak. He was written this way on purpose and so lived and died without ever telling us his story and all we are left with is the guess that he is ronin cast up on the island of misfit toys after a series of catastrophes. Gods, was he beautiful in motion though, and striking rising out of the greenery. I hope the actor gets more to do in his next gig.
Joji and his partner make five out of Silver's six slaughtered by Flint on Skeleton Island. The moment Flint left Dooley to bury the chest his fate was sealed.
* Back at the Flint hunt, Israel is ahead of silver, as Silver's disability slows him. Flint ambushes Hands in a sequence that is parallel to the one towards the end of XXXVI in the hold with the chest. The lines are different, but the idea is similar. Flint is standing in Israel's shoes, "It would be preferable to me if we resolved this another way. Cache is in the ground by now, and I'll need as many men as we can get for what comes next. That includes you." He tries to talk him round, because that is a thing Flint is good at and has worked in the past. hands isn't having it though, "He'll be here in a moment. You still think you'll persuade him to see this all your way? I don't think so, but I'd prefer not to find out." In both scenes they are fighting over Silver's loyalty, even though the chest hands over things. I knew he couldn't kill Israel here as Dooley is number six and Israel couldn't kill Flint because Flint has TI plot armour, which meant what suspense was over the how they end up not killing each other, not the broad outline.
Anyway they fight until Flint is winning and Silver turns up to stop it. Flint knocks out Israel Hands so he can argue with Silver one on one. Flint still wants to try to rescue Madi and clearly still wants the friendship. Silver calls Flint on his bullshit again as in last episode, pointing out how one sided things keep ending up.
Silver: Fuck you! Where is it?
FLINT: In the ground where it stays until Madi is freed, and we gather it and return it to the camp, all of us. I know you cannot see why this must be. But it must be.
And every moment we waste is a moment we could be working to retrieve her.
Silver: That's all this has ever been, isn't it? A partnership only insofar as it enables you to do whatever it is that matters to you in any given moment. And right now it matters far less to you whether she lives or dies than it happens your way, on your terms.
FLINT: I think you know it's far more complicated than that. I'm certain she does. Even if you could kill me, even if that somehow helped you see her alive again, how are you going to explain it to her? She believes in this as much as I do. You know this. If it costs the war to save her, you'll have lost her anyway. Even you cannot construct a story to make her forgive you that. You do this, and you're gonna regret it.
The thing is though? Flint is absolutely correct about Madi's opinion on the issue. Love doesn't mean you agree necessarily and Flint does see Madi's opinion more clearly than Silver can here, blinded by his love. i think this point is emphasized by the intercutting of Flint beating Silver over and over in spar, the sound of the blades mimicking the sound of the knitting needles in the Woodes and Madi scene. Both Madi and Flint are saying things that the other person doesn't want to hear that strike to the heart.
I am of the opinion that Silver flashing the chest when he did saved Madi's life as no way could they bring the ship around and launch an attack fast enough to stop Rogers killing her. at the same time, it is painfully obvious that the moment Silver turned over the gold, Woodes rogers would have killed them all anyway. They have both been blinded by their hopes in different ways this season.
Silver draws his sword anyway for a fight well all knoiw he can't win having seen the spars. Dooley turns up as promised to shoot silver in the back. Flint kills him inevitably, inevitably. Silver attacks anyway, wildly, emotionally. Flint defends but makes no real effort to hurt him. They are interrupted by the Walrus' magazine exploding.
* Meanwhile, Billy and Woodes' men are burning our beloved Walrus. They are forced to abandon ship, where Billy and the forces of colonialism are shooting them like fish in a barrel while they have no means of defending themselves. A dead eyed Billy deliberately lets Ben Gunn live, but DeGroot is shot in the head as is the man right next to Ben Gunn who Billy kills instead of him. Ben ducks under the water to swim away, protected by his Treasure Island plot armour from being spotted later, one assumes. This is Billy's last living tie, the last living person he cared about who hasn't betrayed him specifically.
* Flint and Silver watch the destruction of the Walrus from a cliff vantage, eventually to be joined by Hands, while a flashback voice over of a conversation Silver hand with Madi metween seasons about Flint plays, clearly a continuation of the one we saw of them in bed from Madi's point of view early in season. This time, they are clothed. The morning after maybe? "Can't you see it? It isn't utility that's behind his investment in me nor necessity, nor dependency. I understand you fear a false motive. But this much is clear to me now I have earned his respect. And after all the tragedies that man has suffered the loss of Thomas, the events of Charles Town, I have earned his trust. I have his true friendship and so he's going to have mine. And as long as that is true, I cannot imagine what is possible." Ouch. Ouch, ouch, ouch.
*****
* Full list of Resistance and charity links has been migrated to my profile as it was getting out of hand.
* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal [email protected]
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com