HIt me hard seeing them go. It really is ending.
What a show this ended up being, better than I could have imagined after the first few episodes.
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Black Sails S4 |OT| The End Is About To Begin - Sundays 9/8c on Starz
- Thread starter TheOddOne
- Start date
HIt me hard seeing them go. It really is ending.
What a show this ended up being, better than I could have imagined after the first few episodes.
velvet_nitemare
Member
Ok how did Flint beat the bad ass sword wieilder and Israel Hands back to back?
Hands was literally a surgeon with his sword and ax all season and there he was flaiing like an idiot and got taken down super easily despite Flint being roughed up from the prebious fight. Only issue with the episode, otherwise it was great. Amazing show, sad it's ending.
Hands was literally a surgeon with his sword and ax all season and there he was flaiing like an idiot and got taken down super easily despite Flint being roughed up from the prebious fight. Only issue with the episode, otherwise it was great. Amazing show, sad it's ending.
AngmarsKing701
Member
He beat the samurai dude by knowing the ground and using the fall over the hill.
Re: Hands? I'm going with reputation. Hands sits there thinking "I've been talking shit about this guy for weeks now but the reality is he is Captain Fucking Flint."
Stallion Dan
Member
I'm mixed on a Treasure Island spin-off. Who would be returning, Silver and a bit of Billy?
Going with the expert military trained swordsman vs psycho with an axe who wins off of ruthlessness and intimidation. Flint doesnt give a fuck
Yabberwocky
Member
Whilst I liked the pacing of 4x08 a lot more, 4x09 was definitely one of the most memorable penultimate episodes I've seen. The tension was brutal, and losing
.
. There was such a wonderful perpetual contrast between Silver and Flint throughout the episode, not just in flashbacks. We saw a softer side to Flint again, with him being unwilling to let any harm come to Silver, and still wanting to save Madi. We saw a harsher side to Silver, with him being quite off-hand about sending his crew to their deaths against Flint. Meanwhile, Hands is so sick of everyone's shit.
Skeleton Island feels like such a haunting, personified force, and it was such an oppressing backdrop to the episode. Flint doing his disappearing act early on certainly added to the tension. Madi is brilliant, brave, and glorious, and she'd ground Rogers under her proverbial heel by the end of their scene. The rhythmic beat of Hallucination!Eleanor's needles throughout was chilling, especially the scrape at the end. I'm sure the knitting is some other type of metaphor, but man, how little Rogers' sorry ass knew her, if he pictures he knitting. Joji's fight scene was the only time I've ever seen Flint genuinely scared, it was so fucking tense. I'd also be utterly remiss not to mention McCreary's incredible score, and the beautiful cinematography throughout the episode. I don't know what kind of budget they have for Sails (I think it was filmed in South Africa?), but there is never a week where I don't think an episode isn't straight out of Master and Commander. I don't think I've seen a TV series on such a scale, with such a supreme attention to detail, and so beautifully cinematic throughout. GoT had previously been my gold standard in that regard, and GoT feels super constrained, stilted, and stage-y in comparison.
I think it'll take 4x10 for the full extent of the flashback scenes importance to come to light (and I'm hoping it's a cataylst/set-up for a metaphorical Flint ending following the path of his namesake), but there were a fuckton of layers to those scenes that I still can't get my head around. I think I need a coffee table book of Lauren Sarner's Black Sails episode reviews, because every week she cuts right through to the core of the characters and the episode. Regardless of what you think of the Flint and Silver dynamic, her review and summary of 4x09 was beautiful:
Flint hardly knew how to articulate his relationship with Miranda. As she said in Season 3, she was alternately his wife, mother, and lover. His love for Silver is similarly undefined, because Flint has never been a person who is interested in categorizing such things. Silver is that kind of person, and his conclusion is ”respect." But Flint wouldn't have let the issue of Silver's past go if he didn't value him above everyone else; wouldn't have shot Dooley point-blank. And for James Flint, love is a destructive force. Flint is brutal and cruel and harsh, but never underestimate his capacity for love. John Silver might be a void with no story — but the experience of being loved in this fierce and destructive way by this fierce and destructive person is Long John Silver's backstory.
Because we just had the penultimate episode, this is my obligatory Thomas Hamilton mention. Imma watching you, Black Sails, especially after Stephens' teasing on his Q&A on Twitter this week, and Luke Arnold's sporadic trolling. Black Sails has such a wonderful cast, too, I'd be quite happy if they followed in Deadwood's footsteps and did some commentaries for a big fancy full series edition.
I was okay with it, because Hands has always been a bit more on the brawn-ish side with fighting, and Flint is a lot more tactical plus also having Navy training. Flint/Hands was kind of repeat of Flint vs. Billy - Billy had the raw strength, but Flint started to work to quickly wear him down. Meanwhile, Billy vs. Hands was brawn on brawn, and Hands had all the experience.
my beloved Walrus and Grumpy Grandpa DeGroot really fucking hurt
Props to those who pointed out that Eleanor died with Nassau, and DeGroot died with the Walrus
Skeleton Island feels like such a haunting, personified force, and it was such an oppressing backdrop to the episode. Flint doing his disappearing act early on certainly added to the tension. Madi is brilliant, brave, and glorious, and she'd ground Rogers under her proverbial heel by the end of their scene. The rhythmic beat of Hallucination!Eleanor's needles throughout was chilling, especially the scrape at the end. I'm sure the knitting is some other type of metaphor, but man, how little Rogers' sorry ass knew her, if he pictures he knitting. Joji's fight scene was the only time I've ever seen Flint genuinely scared, it was so fucking tense. I'd also be utterly remiss not to mention McCreary's incredible score, and the beautiful cinematography throughout the episode. I don't know what kind of budget they have for Sails (I think it was filmed in South Africa?), but there is never a week where I don't think an episode isn't straight out of Master and Commander. I don't think I've seen a TV series on such a scale, with such a supreme attention to detail, and so beautifully cinematic throughout. GoT had previously been my gold standard in that regard, and GoT feels super constrained, stilted, and stage-y in comparison.
I think it'll take 4x10 for the full extent of the flashback scenes importance to come to light (and I'm hoping it's a cataylst/set-up for a metaphorical Flint ending following the path of his namesake), but there were a fuckton of layers to those scenes that I still can't get my head around. I think I need a coffee table book of Lauren Sarner's Black Sails episode reviews, because every week she cuts right through to the core of the characters and the episode. Regardless of what you think of the Flint and Silver dynamic, her review and summary of 4x09 was beautiful:
Flint hardly knew how to articulate his relationship with Miranda. As she said in Season 3, she was alternately his wife, mother, and lover. His love for Silver is similarly undefined, because Flint has never been a person who is interested in categorizing such things. Silver is that kind of person, and his conclusion is ”respect." But Flint wouldn't have let the issue of Silver's past go if he didn't value him above everyone else; wouldn't have shot Dooley point-blank. And for James Flint, love is a destructive force. Flint is brutal and cruel and harsh, but never underestimate his capacity for love. John Silver might be a void with no story — but the experience of being loved in this fierce and destructive way by this fierce and destructive person is Long John Silver's backstory.
Because we just had the penultimate episode, this is my obligatory Thomas Hamilton mention. Imma watching you, Black Sails, especially after Stephens' teasing on his Q&A on Twitter this week, and Luke Arnold's sporadic trolling. Black Sails has such a wonderful cast, too, I'd be quite happy if they followed in Deadwood's footsteps and did some commentaries for a big fancy full series edition.
I was okay with it, because Hands has always been a bit more on the brawn-ish side with fighting, and Flint is a lot more tactical plus also having Navy training. Flint/Hands was kind of repeat of Flint vs. Billy - Billy had the raw strength, but Flint started to work to quickly wear him down. Meanwhile, Billy vs. Hands was brawn on brawn, and Hands had all the experience.
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
Grizzlyjin
Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
That sounds about right. It looked like Israel, Flint, and Silver were all pretty shook at the end. Rogers is wiping out everybody, so they have someone to direct all that pent up aggression at.
Fucking Billy. He used to be my boy, but I'm officially done with him. He's not wrong about any of it but I just can't with him anymore.
Charles Brandon
Member
Fuck Billy and fuck Sliver. Flint is the man. Rackham is OK too I suppose but if he actually tries to take down my man I hope he get's his head chopped off.
Last episode predictions? We know
Last episode predictions? We know
Hands, Flint, Silver and Billy survive (according to treasure island) and we know there wasn't a massive slave revolt because that would be a bit weird to change history like that so...there's a big fight, Rogers gets killed, the British or the Spanish steam in and fuck everyone up but the four listed above escape and go their separate ways whilst Rackham and Anne die together, either hanged or killed, leaving the french whore to lead Nassau into respectability and profit.
wasn't a problem for hornigold, black beard, etc.
Hmm ? Black Beard died in battle, Hornigold around the same period, whereas Rogers succeeded in getting rid of the pirates in Nassau and dies of exhaustion at least 10 years later. Killing him now would be the same as freeing all the slaves in the region ^^
fair enough
Woodes Rogers was imprisoned for debt, a plot point brought up in the show. That could happen. Besides, the show is not adhering to history anyway.
AngmarsKing701
Member
These "loosely based on historical events/figures" (meaning Spartacus and Black Sails) that Starz keeps excelling at really do leave you guessing as to how things will wrap up. And at least so far Black Sails is simply top tier. I hope they can nail the landing.
I can definitely see that.
But killing him would be like Inglorious Basterds ending, i just don't see it lol
All this time and I hadn't twigged Starz had made Spartacus too. Loved that show. All of the series were great - but S1 with Andy in the lead role was incredible.
Any other top shows from Starz you'd recommend?
AngmarsKing701
Member
I'm enjoying Outlander but as a warning it's a bit more on the romantic side than either Spartacus or Black Sails.
Some others might have recommendations. It will be interesting to see whether Starz has something else like this up their sleeves. Given what they've accomplished with Spartacus and the history around the pirates of Nassau, I would love love love to see them tackle a legend like King Arthur--but more along the lines of how an Arthur might have existed in post-Roman Britain, not the whole chivalry middle ages hoo-ha.
Grizzlyjin
Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
I'd co-sign on Outlander. I avoided it at first because it looked too sappy for me, but it's an extremely well produced show. I'm eagerly awaiting Season 3.
tearsintherain
Member
Woods Rogers is supposed to be the hero. Silver, Flint, etc are the bad guys. They are pirates who want to overthrow civilization and establish a new theocracy - Pirate KING Long John Silver, not President LJS as appointed by the council of island and plantation representatives. How long do you REALLY think it'll be before the pirates realize that farming sucks balls and they go ahead and approve slavery, at least for farming? The early pirates (Avery, etc) all traded in slaves and made fortunes that way.
Max said it best a few episodes ago - you cannot beat civilization by fighting it head on. You have to beat it from within. All our characters are doomed to failure, and that is the tragedy of the story.
The entire golden age of piracy lasted a ludicrously short time, like the entire blackbeard / rackham / vane time period was 2-4 years long before they all got caught and hung.
Max said it best a few episodes ago - you cannot beat civilization by fighting it head on. You have to beat it from within. All our characters are doomed to failure, and that is the tragedy of the story.
The entire golden age of piracy lasted a ludicrously short time, like the entire blackbeard / rackham / vane time period was 2-4 years long before they all got caught and hung.
HawksWinStanley
Member
So what was the show's explanation for the name 'Long' John Silver? It seems like it happened really fast with them agreeing that they needed somebody to be the figurehead for others to fear and then boom, they just made it up. Was there really a reason why he got that name?
Something he said back in Season 2 when he went back to a bar in Nassau and gave a speech, shortly before stomping that guy with his metal leg.
"My name is John Silver, and I got a long memory" or something of that sort.
HawksWinStanley
Member
Ah ok, I remember the (great) scene but I guess I didn't put two and two together with the long memory line. Makes sense.
Discotheque
Banned
Spartacus was awesome and I loved it but I think this is considerably better. Particularly when it comes to dialogue and drama. Much better in that end.
Spartacus was great for the bro moments and action.
I'd love to see what this show runner has cooked up next. I liked Jericho and this one blew me away. Needs to work with bear McCreary again too. Dude put in such good work for the music here.
Spartacus was great for the bro moments and action.
I'd love to see what this show runner has cooked up next. I liked Jericho and this one blew me away. Needs to work with bear McCreary again too. Dude put in such good work for the music here.
AngmarsKing701
Member
Agreed whole-heartedly that Black Sails is superior to Spartacus.
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
Spartacus
Party Down
Da Vinci's Demons (another adventure oriented period piece. It's not as good as Spartacus or Black Sails, but it is a lot of fun)
Outlander
Survivor's Remorse
Power, Ash vs Evil Dead, and The Girlfriend Experience are also solid.
They don't have any other action/adventure period pieces like this in the works at the moment, unfortunately. I think Outlander is the closest thing we're going to get for the time being.
After 'Camelot', I doubt Starz will ever attempt another King Arthur series again.
AngmarsKing701
Member
After 'Camelot', I doubt Starz will ever attempt another King Arthur series again.
I did not know that was a thing. Should I look it up or is it bad? And is it set in post-Roman Britain or does it try to do the whole middle ages chivalry thing?
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
It was awful. Eva Green was the only good thing about it.
I have no idea what the difference is!
Nicking this from reddit -
In honour of the final episode coming up...to those who love the intro:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBmzzrU3gR8
In honour of the final episode coming up...to those who love the intro:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBmzzrU3gR8
Nice, such a great theme. I always love the little creeaaaak at the very end.
Cornballer
Member
Almost finale time. Starz posted a very brief clip from the final episode.
AngmarsKing701
Member
I was hoping they had it up early on demand but no joy.
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
It's a rare thing indeed for a show to end with its best episodes.
What an extraordinarily strong season this was.
SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES FINALE
SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES FINALE
SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES FINALE
SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES FINALE
What an extraordinarily strong season this was.
SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES FINALE
SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES FINALE
As many anticipated, it turns out that Thomas was alive after all! And he got a happily ever after with Flint James! :^) I don't know if Thomas being alive this whole time was something the writers had actually planned for, but the circumstances surrounding his "death" were always super murky (I don't think anyone on GAF ever brought it up before that one scene earlier this season, and it never occurred to me personally, but I'm currently skimming the Black Sails wiki and there has been quite a bit of speculation regarding his survival dating back to 2015) so it doesn't feel like a cheat to me.
Nice callback to Silver being a cook way back in the first season. (re: the scene where Silver interrogates Woodes Rogers' ship's cook as to Madi's whereabouts)
Mary Read!
Nice callback to Silver being a cook way back in the first season. (re: the scene where Silver interrogates Woodes Rogers' ship's cook as to Madi's whereabouts)
Mary Read!
SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES FINALE
SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES FINALE
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
No need bro, it's a great one. Enjoy!
Yabberwocky
Member
Gotta process this shit for awhile, but man, whilst there were some rough edges with the pacing, I think that's easily my favorite finale of all time, and a beautifully fitting end to one of the most memorable TV series I've ever watched. I say the as someone who had stupidly high expectations going into it, too. Stupidly high.
Stormwatch
Member
NEW EPISODE SPOILERS
It feels like this suddenly became the story of Jack Rackham with him narrating a large portion of this episode. Nice to see "Mark" Reed and the Calico Jack, though. Just wish there was a bit more connection to Treasure Island with Silver going on to do more pirating.
Grizzlyjin
Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
SERIES FINALE SPOILERS
I'm truly going to miss this show. Went from something that was at the bottom of my watchlist in Season 1 to required weekly viewing in Season 2. Black Sails truly found its voice in that second year and it never lost it, right up until the last moment.
Don't go, Black Sails.
You know, that was a much happier ending that I ever would've expected from this show. It was nice to see everyone at least walk away with something after so many setbacks. I don't think anyone on this show has gotten to be happy before haha.
I'm truly going to miss this show. Went from something that was at the bottom of my watchlist in Season 1 to required weekly viewing in Season 2. Black Sails truly found its voice in that second year and it never lost it, right up until the last moment.
Don't go, Black Sails.
Damn that was really good. What a show this was. I am just so impressed with how consistently great this has been for the last three seasons. Incredible.
Finale Spoilers
Finale Spoilers
I have never read Treasure Island though I plan to soon. Knowing next to nothing about the book, I was slightly worried the finale might not be totally satisfying as it might be setting up the book or too much would be left unsettled or something. That wasn't an issue at all here. I am very satisfied with how they ended things for all the major characters. I'm also impressed with how much this finale got done. I figured just the stuff with Flint, Silver, Rogers and Rhackam would fill up an hour, but to fit in the stuff with Hamilton, Naussau and Philadelphia and it not all feel rushed, just a great job by the writers. And the final on-sea battle was awesome. Especially the Flint-Billy Bones fight up top. Wow! What a great finale!
dead souls
Member
Good finale.