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XV.
Blacksails-BillyBones-Dufresne15
Season Two
Number Fifteen
Date Aired March 7th, 2015
Writer Lisa Schultz Boyd
Director Alik Sakharov
Previous XIV.
Next XVI.
"You will turn on absolutely anyone, won't you?"
―Charles Vane to Eleanor Guthrie[src]

Max surveys the aftermath of a massacre; news from the outside world impacts Flint and Silver; Eleanor takes a risk that she hopes secures her future; Bonny comes to a crossroads; and Dufresne provokes Billy to act.

Synopsis[]

The episode opens deep within the fortress in Abigail Ashe's cell. She is telling Eleanor Guthrie about how she remembers Hamilton's wife, Miranda Barlow. Eleanor explains the situation of Vane and Flint to Abigail but she is afraid of Captain Flint, having heard many horrible tales about him from her father. Eleanor finally gets Abigail to agree to flee with her by asking her to trust "Lady Hamilton's" judgement about Captain Flint.

Elsewhere in Nassau, the men are beginning to gather for the vote between Flint and Hornigold. Billy Bones approaches Flint and tells Flint that he is up in the vote count, but Flint is still nervous, knowing that men can switch their votes on a whim. When the meeting starts, Hornigold begins his speech, using the tactic that the men should never trust someone like Flint who has backstabbed men multiple times just in recent weeks. While Hornigold continues his speech, John Silver approaches and tells Flint that Vincent and Nicholas have returned from their mission in which they were to keep an eye on the Urca gold. They inform Flint that the gold is all gone, that two Spanish ships arrived and took every piece of gold off the beach. The men overhear this and begin to spread the word.

Ep15-8

At Rackham's brothel, Max has a servant burn all of Anne Bonny's clothes, except for her hat. Max informs Bonny that all evidence of Bonny's crime has been cleaned up. She gives Bonny a fresh dress and shoes to wear for when she feels like getting out of bed. Bonny then opens up and tells Max about her marriage to a man when she was only thirteen. The man abused her and burned her and passed her around among his crew. She states that one day she was in a tavern and her husband was abusing her. During the abuse, a man walked over and cut her husband's throat; this man was Jack Rackham. She expresses sorrow for the fact that she is not the person she was supposed to be when she was born in that she has been warped and manipulated by multiple barbarous men that she has become one herself. Outside, Idelle tells Max that she and the girls have been talking and that they want to get some men to the brothel to protect Max. Max begs Idelle to not bring any more attention to Bonny and demands that the brothel be a safe place for Bonny. Idelle agrees to this request.

Back outside, Dufresne is explaining to Flint and Silver that Hornigold's faction has completely faded away and that the men are now concerned about what their next move is going to be since the gold has disappeared. Flint declares to Silver that they must now find a way to convince the men to continue to go along with the plan to return Abigail to her father. Silver stops Flint in his tracks and states that they quit being a team once the gold disappeared. Flint then convinces Silver to go speak to the men on his behalf by appealing to Silver's vanity. He tells Silver that there is no other place in the world where Silver matters other than with the crew of his ship. Silver then gives a speech to the men in which he tells them the value of Flint's plan. He tells them that by following Flint, they have the chance to one day live their lives not as wanted men, but as free men.

Ep15-9

Close by, Dufresne and Bones are watching Silver give his speech. They begin to discuss Flint's plan. Dufresne thinks it is madness because he feels there is no way that Peter Ashe, the most dogged pirate hunter in the New World, would ever give pardons to pirates. Dufresne tells Bones that they both know what needs to be done: capturing Flint and giving him to the Navy in exchange for pardons for them and eight other men. Bones then tells him to go find eight men who would be willing to betray Flint and to meet up in an hour. Later, when Dufresne has gathered the men together, he meets up with Bones. However, Bones is not alone. He arrives with the rest of the crew who have all remained loyal to Flint. Bones tells Dufresne that there will be no more dissent and no more interference with Flint's plans and demands that Dufresne and the others leave.

Back at the brothel, Bonny has put on the dress Max gave her. She heads downstairs where she is given some soup by Max. As she is eating, a sailor named Jacob Garrett approaches and begins to flirt with Bonny. For some reason, Bonny takes him upstairs as if she were a prostitute. Before anything can happen, Idelle intervenes and distracts the man, giving Bonny an avenue to leave the room. Standing outside the room she begins to cry. Max soon appears and comforts her with an embrace.

Ep15-7

In the fortress, Eleanor and Abigail are wandering deep through the lower corridors, looking for the exit. They finally find a gate leading to the outside. However, when Eleanor unlocks it, she is unable to get it open. Finally, after considerable effort, she is able to get herself and Abigail through the gate. But as she is locking the gate, Vane appears. He tells Eleanor that he killed Low's crew for her. He tells Eleanor if she takes Abigail, his men will turn on him and kill him. Finally, he tells her if she walks away with the girl, she will surely hear from him again. Despite Vane's pleas, Eleanor locks the gate and walks away with Abigail.

Ep15-10

In Eleanor's tavern, Richard Guthrie and Barlow are awaiting the arrival of Eleanor with Abigail. Soon, Eleanor and Abigail appears. Abigail recognizes Barlow and hugs her. When Eleanor heads upstairs, Richard Guthrie approaches and embraces his daughter, who returns the embrace.

On the beach, Flint is approached by Bones who tells him that they've lost about eighteen defectors in the past hour. Nevertheless, most of the men remain with Flint. Flint asks Bones why he is supporting his captaincy. Bones tells him that when he fell into the sea, he remembers slipping on the bow and remembers reaching out and grabbing Flint's hand. The last thing he remembers before going into the water is Flint's hand slipping away. He states that he doesn't know whether Flint intentionally dropped him or not and states that he doesn't really care. He believes that he needs to remain loyal to Flint because the last man who crossed him, Mr. Gates, wound up being killed by Flint.

Flint is then summoned to the tavern where he introduces himself to Abigail. He tells her his name is James McGraw and that he is friends with her family.

Elsewhere, Dufresne approaches Hornigold, who is saddling his horse preparing to leave. Hornigold tells Dufresne that he is finally leaving the island. He states that he knows he doesn't have many years left but that he doesn't want to spend his final years swallowed up there. Dufresne then states that there is a way for Hornigold to restore his name and live out his days as a free man.

In the brothel, Max is enjoying a drink alone when Silver interrupts her. He tells Max that they must discuss something. Silver admits to Max that when the two scouts arrived on the beach, they told him that the gold was actually still there and that what had occurred was that the Spanish sailors on the beach had all become ill and died, leaving the gold virtually defenseless. He then asks Max if she knows of a crew who would be willing to go there and collect the gold.

Elsewhere in Nassau, Richard Guthrie is riding in a carriage when they stop on a misty road. Guthrie gets out and with a lantern walks into the fog. Standing before him is a group of men, barely visible.

Memorable Quotes[]

"A man asks for your trust, he asks and offers you things in the future. And the brighter those things may be, the more you must ask yourself, "What is it they are intended to blind me to in the present?" It's no surprise that that man wants to shift your attention to the future. To the things he says he can give you. To the hardships he can remove. A most shining future it would have to be for him to blind you to the cowardly and devious acts of his past... theft, betrayal, lies, murder!" 

Benjamin Hornigold's speech at the election. 

"Truth is, there's only one kind of person who'd want to do what we do if there was an easier way to survive. And because I don't believe there is a rotten, murdering f*ck amongst you, I don't imagine I'm alone in having taken some comfort in the idea of all of this coming to an end. But now... no gold. We're back to the same two choices we've known our entire lives... toil for another man's benefit or steal for our own. Unless... Captain Flint just showed us a third way. Reconciliation. Pardons. And not because we need to apologize for what we've done. Not because we got any desire to go back to where we came from. But because maybe... with a little help... this place could be the reason we never have to do either again. The question then becomes what do we have to lose?"

John Silver's speech in favor of Flint at the election. 

Trivia[]

  • Jack Rackham does not appear in this episode.
  • The men that Dufresne recruits to betray and capture Captain Flint appear to be a mixture of both Walrus and Hornigold's crew members. 
  • Richard Guthrie's comments comparing Charles Town to London mirror those he made comparing the latter to Boston in IV. In that episode, he says that Boston is more forgiving than London. In this episode, he says that Charles Town may appear a civilized place, but it is only an appearance. 
  • Billy's line to the traitors led by Dufresne, "we are none of us safe until we are all safe" echoes a line by Jewish-American poet Emma Lazarus. Lazarus wrote in her article collection, An Epistle to the Hebrews, "until we are all free, we are none of us free."

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