Black Sails (2014–2017): Season 2, Episode 9 - XVII. - full transcript

The only way to truly ensure
that the Urca gold doesn't return here

is to eliminate everyone with the knowledge
of where it is and how to retrieve it.

Are you angry with Anne for leaving

or are you angry with me for
offering her the opportunity?

You think there's something valuable enough

to make the British Navy forget
that you and I are pirates?

Not what, who.

Acquiring the partnership of a
plantation the size of Mr. Underhill's

could help bolster commerce
on my side of the island.

Richard Guthrie betrayed Nassau.

As far as you and I,
I was warned about you.



Warned you would betray me.

I made clear the price for the girl.

You should know me well enough
to know I will claim it.

My father said there would
be law in the Americas

the day Captain Flint
swung over Charles Town.

- You're Captain Flint?
- I am.

And you wish an audience with Lord Ashe?

Welcome to Charles Town.

I can't say enough, miss,

how saddened we all are by this loss.

All my life I was a pauper.

With your father's help I plied a trade.

I'll always be grateful for that.

Do you need a respite, ma'am?



Some bread and fruits from the girls.

May I sit?

Thank you.

I can imagine how difficult this must be.

Being the daughter they expect you to be.

I would think that at least with me,

you would know that I know the truth

about how complicated
the situation is for you.

Your relationship with him.

Your relationship with Captain Vane.

And because of that,
you would not pretend otherwise.

And that that might bring
some small measure of comfort.

There is no part of this
that is complicated.

I crossed Charles, he retaliated.

That is what happens in a war.

A war?

A state of affairs in
which resolution only comes

when one side has suffered enough pain

it's willing to concede its principles.

I presume you've heard Charles's manifesto.

I heard it's been read aloud on the beach.

Everyone must take a side, he says...

with him against
reconciliation with England

or with me.

Those people out there heard him

and they came to my door
not to pay their respects,

not because they loved my father...

but because when this war begins,

they want to make sure I don't
mistake them for enemies.

Is that why you've come?

Or have you yet to choose a side?

I'm interested to see what she does now.

How did that go?

I have seen what Eleanor Guthrie can build

when she is feeling ambitious.

I have seen what she can
destroy when she is angered.

Which of the two was she just now?

She was something else entirely.

How soon can you be ready to sail?

Just finalizing the route,
sorting out supplies.

I assumed we'd depart
tomorrow at some point.

Leave as soon as possible.

There are foul things brewing here.

Yes?

They're here.

Do you know why you're here?

Yes, ma'am.

Good.

Then we move at sundown.

The proposal that I have
come all this way to make

is one that may at first
strike you as implausible.

However, I ask that you remember that...

I love my daughter.

More than life itself.

When I received that despicable letter

I was given to dark thoughts, rage.

A desire to visit revenge upon those men

that put her through that ordeal.

It would seem only reasonable, then,

that I bear an equal measure of gratitude

to the man who rescued her from it.

Were it not for that gratitude,
you and I would not be speaking like this.

You and Colonel Rhett would be
having a very different conversation.

Because while I knew you once,

called you friends once,

I cannot fathom

how those people I knew turned into you.

Ask me, then.

Anything you want to know.

I will be truthful.

Anything?

When did you first arrive in Nassau?

Two months after we saw you last in London.

February, thereabouts.

The first accounts of Captain Flint raiding

shipping in the area began in June.

You became the captain of a
pirate crew in four months?

I became the captain of a
pirate crew faster than that.

It took us four months to secure
our first significant prize.

How did you manage that so quickly?

I met a man in a tavern.

Quartermaster of a well-respected crew.

I persuaded him

that I was someone worth listening to.

A crew followed shortly thereafter.

And how long after that was it

that you decided to murder Alfred Hamilton?

I received a letter
from a former servant.

She mentioned innocently

that Alfred was travelling in secret.

And she mentioned the name of the ship.

I encouraged James to find him.

And to kill him.

If you're going to blame anyone for it,

please, blame me.

The governor may know who you are.

I only know what you are.

Let us agree that if either one of you

gets any closer to the
governor than you just did,

I will be forced to consider
that a threat to his person

and I will shoot you where you stand.

I cannot stand before you

and claim to be without sin.

When we received that letter from you

informing us of Thomas's death,

the damage wrought by Alfred Hamilton

was too much for us to bear.

We were angry.

We allowed that anger to
drive us to a dark deed.

But I ask you not to
judge me by that one deed.

Judge me by the ends that I
have come here in service of.

The redemption of Nassau

in accordance with the
principles that you and I

and she and Thomas Hamilton

committed ourselves to all those years ago.

I ask nothing from you but your ear.

I'm listening.

Footrope. Bitch of a spot.

Fucking death trap if it isn't
fixed before we set sail.

Let's try this again.

You idiots are the fucking
riggers of this ship.

So which of you would like to volunteer

to repair our topsail yard footrope

so that when Captain Flint returns,
he returns to a ship

that can hoist its fucking
sails without fatalities?

It's a bad omen.

A man died on them ropes.

Can't touch it till it's fixed.

You're all good people.

Tell me something.

Is he going to find anything up there?

What would he find?

An indication that the rope
didn't just fray on its own.

No. Absolutely not.

It'd be almost impossible.

What?

What is it?

I thought I saw something in the water.

Tell the watch on the main so
they can keep an eye on it.

I'm sure it was nothing.

Tell them anyway.

The Lord is my shepherd.
I lack nothing.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

Leaves me beside the quiet waters.

Refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right path

for His name's sake.

Even though I walk through
the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil, for You are with me.

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil.

My cup overflows.

Surely Your goodness and love will
follow me all the days of my life

and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord evermore.

- Amen.
- Amen.

Mr. Underhill.

All his wealth, all his ambitions,

yet here he rests.

One might see a lesson in that.

Before you return home,

I had hoped that you and
I might share a word.

Privately.

What do you wish to speak about?

Ambition, sir.

Yours and mine.

Total reconciliation?

This is what you're suggesting?

A return to colonial rule

with an existing power structure in place.

And I am to believe that
500 hardened pirate raiders

will voluntarily step down,

fall in line with this plan of
yours and volunteer their labor?

Not all of them.
A lot of them. Most of them.

Enough to resist those that won't.

Enough to make it worth
giving them a chance.

I made an appeal to my crew of 100 men.

And better than 70 of
them are sitting right now

just outside your harbor
in full support of it.

It is exactly as Thomas proposed

- all those years ago in London.
- Yes.

But then we were talking
about less than half

the number of criminals on the island.

We were talking about a failing colony,
not a failed one.

We also didn't have the
most respected captain

on the island standing
in advocacy of our plan.

Now we do.

We didn't have the trade boss of the island

actively working to reform operations then.

Now we do.

And we didn't have a man
who has established himself

as the New World's most committed
pirate hunter endorsing it.

The first thing that they
will ask for is a name.

- A name?
- It is as true now as it was then.

New Providence will only ever succeed

insofar as its governor can make it so.

Were I to make this case to
the men I know in Whitehall...

the first question that they will ask

is who will oversee all this?

Who will be responsible
for its success or failure?

You?

There are things that I can do to
help protect the fledgling colony.

I can help establish the militia.

I can organize the navy.

But beyond that,

I don't think that there's a part
for Captain Flint in Nassau's future.

Not with the blood on his hands.

He will have to go away

and leave James McGraw and Lady Hamilton

to retire to the interior in peace.

Yes?

Father, Mrs. Tyler says it's time

to turn the room over for dinner.

Please ask Mrs. Tyler to arrange a room

for our guests to retire to in the interim.

Something wrong?

Nerves.

I'm fine.

If we're so worried he's gonna
find something up there...

what are we still doing here?

Where exactly do you think we'd go?

Charles Town is sleeping with one eye open

and a knife under its pillow tonight.

Any one of us sets foot on that sand

absent an engraved
invitation from the governor

is likely to greet the sunrise swinging.

We arrived on this ship.

Until and unless Captain Flint
is successful in his endeavor,

this ship is the only
way we leave here alive.

If he was suspicious,
he'd have come down by now.

I'm going to find Randall.

See who I can ridicule
for the crew's amusement.

Randall.

Crew address is due at next bells.

If you have anything new
for me by the way of gossip,

now... would...

be the...

time.

DeGroot!

Danger!

Secure!

Tie 'em up.
Down in the well with 'em.

Take them alive.

He doesn't want to consider it.

He spent so many years hardening
himself to these ideas.

But I don't think he can
work out how to say no.

If he says no, it means there's
a part of him that is no more.

A part of him he doesn't want to let go of.

Did you mean it?

Earlier.

You said Captain Flint
would have to disappear

for this plan to work.

Are you truly ready to let him go?

Did I ever tell you where
that name came from?

No.

I told you of my grandfather who raised me.

A fisherman in Padstow.

Well, in his youth

he was a deckhand on a privateer

off the coast of Massachusetts.

And one night he was
alone on the late watch

at anchor in the Boston Harbor

when he sees this man

climbing out of the
water and onto his ship.

A stranger.

Now, my grandfather thought
about ringing the bell,

but curiosity got the better of him.

The stranger approaches my grandfather

and asks him for a little rum.

Man said that he'd fled
his fishing trawler.

Accused of killing another man.

And when asked his name,

the man simply replied

Mr. Flint.

This stranger, he never said whether

he was guilty of the killing
or why he chose that ship

or where he was bound, he just...

just sat there.

Eventually, he asked my grandfather

for a little more rum from below.

My grandfather went off to fetch it,

but when he returned...

the man was gone.

My grandfather was in Boston
for a month after that.

Never heard a word about a killing

or a fugitive at large.

It was as if the sea had
conjured that man out of nothing

and then taken him back

for some unknowable purpose.

When I first met Mr. Gates

and he asked me my name...

I feared the man I was about to create.

I feared that someone
born of such dark things

would consume me were I not careful.

And I was determined only
to wear him for a while

and then dispose of him when
his purpose was complete.

And I thought of that story.

Am I ready to let him go?

Truth is...

every day I've worn that name

I've hated him a little more.

I've been ready to return him
to the sea for a long time.

James...

They're ready for you downstairs.

What the fuck do we do now?

The moment this ship is clear of the area,
if not sooner,

Captain Vane will put the crew
to the sword, yes?

Most likely.

Eventually,
they find us down here and do the same.

So either we swim to the beach
and likely face the noose,

or else do nothing,
in which case it's the sword.

Come with me.

Where are we going?

To execute the third option.

Persuade Captain Vane
to surrender the ship.

Governor Ashe? He's coming here?

Plans are underway as we speak.

When he arrives,
I propose that you and I greet him together

and we explain to him our joint
venture to reclaim Nassau.

My ships, your sugar.

The return of legitimate
commerce and the return of law.

For so many years

I have watched you and your kind

thieve and whore

and kill like a plague upon this island,

doing whatever you please because you can.

I've heard your appeal.

How could I be expected
to trust one of you?

How could you trust a pirate?

Exactly.

I am no pirate, sir.

I'm an Englishwoman.

I'm my father's daughter.

And I will be the end of piracy in
this place and it begins tonight.

What do you mean?

I discovered a plan by
one of the crews on the beach

to reclaim a prize that is so large
it would upset our world here.

Embolden piracy for years,
possibly decades to come.

I identified the members of that crew

with the specific knowledge of
the whereabouts of that prize.

And I have ended their
endeavor before it began.

You've ended it? How?

Shh.

You're back.

Just landed.

I shouldn't have left the way I did,

without telling you.

Wasn't your fault what happened.

It was a hard fucking choice put on you.

I didn't think I was gonna see you again.

I thought you'd just get to Port Royal
and board a ship and never look back.

I thought about it.

But then I...

What?

Then I...

My lord,

I know there are many reasons
to say no to this, however...

- Colonel Rhett.
- Yes, sir.

I'd like everyone to clear the room.

Sir?

I'd like to speak with my
guests privately for a moment.

Wait in the hall, please.

I believe there is a
way that I can help you

achieve your intentions
for the future of Nassau.

And I am ready to do it.

However,

my plan will require an act of you,
Mr. McGraw,

if it is to succeed.

And I don't think you're going to like it.

Are you hurt?

Mostly unscathed, thanks to Anne.

Mr. Stayton and Mr. Atz are dead.

Jesus.

It would be wise not
to tempt fate any further.

Eleanor will be returning from
the interior sooner than later.

Can you sail without those men?

Yes.

Fuck it.

Fuck her.

We leave now.

Go get us our prize.

Shift capstan bars.

Snap and go, boys.

Raise anchor.

Wait. You certain this is a good idea?

Yes. We sever the forestay,
the ship can't sail till it's repaired

- which could take hours, yes?
- Yeah, but...

The longer Captain Vane
remains in this harbor,

the more dangerous it is for him

and the more likely it
is that Captain Flint

might just win over the governor

and bring his militia to
bear to retake the ship.

I understand that, but the moment
you go out there to sever that line,

they'll send a team of men down
here to clear the hold again.

We evaded them once.

Which makes trying it a second
time that much more insane.

Perhaps.

But I see no other way that I...

we survive this ordeal.

I can.

We swim and hope for the best.

It'd be dangerous,
but it wouldn't be suicide.

Just tell me this,

are you suggesting we do
this to save ourselves

or are you suggesting we
do it to save the crew?

You're the boatswain.
Mr. Gates's boy, aren't you?

I've got a confession to make.

The Singleton affair,

when Jack and I attempted to
alter the vote on your ship,

see Flint deposed,

it was intended to induce key
men on your crew to defect.

Then to recruit them ourselves.

But most specifically,

it was with an eye toward recruiting you.

We'd heard about you.

Not some petty thief in it for coin.

Not some coward

in need of a bottle to find
his courage in a fight.

A proper pirate

committed to our way of things.

Committed to a life free of the yoke...

Fuck you.

And loyal to a fault.

You can see how that

is a man we'd have wanted
on our side of things.

A man I could still use now.

You have no fucking idea
what's going on here,

do you?

Flint stole from me and
I'm making it right.

Exactly. You hate Flint.

I hate Flint.

But right now he's talking about
how we survive what comes next.

And you're talking about
what you think is yours.

When the navy arrives,
they aren't gonna give a fuck

what belongs to you or what belongs to me.

Because to them,
there is no difference between you and me.

He has you so afraid of an imagined threat.

Nah.

I saw it with my own eyes.

The garrison on Harbour Island.

Royal Marines, a full company of them.

200 men in support.

The Scarborough anchored.

And a commander just waiting for the order

to begin his assault against us

and exterminate every last one us.

There is nothing imagined about the threat

we all face, I assure you.

And right now your only
plan to reckon with it

is to try and fight them head to head,

each crew for themselves?

Right now, Flint's plan is the only plan.

Forestay!

Forestay, Captain!

- What's going on?
- We lost the forestay.

Lost it? Fuck you mean, we lost it?

Sabotage. We must have missed someone.

Can we sail without it?

Not without seriously
risking losing that mast.

Drop the anchors. Repair the stay quickly.

I'll get a team, clear the hold.

No.

I don't want to divert men
away from the prisoners.

We can't leave a saboteur down there.

I don't intend to.

There are men in Whitehall
who could potentially find

a proposal such as yours to be plausible.

On religious grounds, on economic grounds.

I know some of these men.

You could almost certainly
win them to your side.

But there are other men who
will oppose it categorically

for the same reason all men
refuse to do things they should.

Pride.

You think they're too proud
to put pardons on the table?

I think they fear you.

And to capitulate to something one fears

is a humiliation that
powerful men cannot accept.

If we are to persuade
them to ally with you,

then we have to completely redefine

their understanding of who you are,

what you are.

How do you propose we do that?

With the truth.

I will come with you to Nassau,
survey the situation.

If it is as you say it is,

you and I will sail to London together.

And when we arrive,

you will stand up

and you will tell your story.

My story?

What part of my story?

All of it.

You will tell them about
the affair with Thomas.

You will tell them how it ended.

You will explain to them
what it drove you to do.

You will reveal everything.

And when you do,

Captain Flint will be unmasked,

the monster slain.

And in his place will stand
before all the world a flawed man,

a man that England can relate to

and offer its forgiveness.

What you're asking of me...

I wish there were another way,

but I have given it great
thought and I cannot find it.

Tell me this is something
that you are willing to do,

and you and I will walk
out of this house together,

announce our partnership to the street,

and prepare to set sail for Nassau.

Your clock by the wall...

where did you obtain it?

What?

It looks very much like
one that used to reside

in my husband's parlor in London.

Identical, in fact.

I don't remember gifting it to you.

It was there when I left.

So I ask again,

how is it you came to possess that clock?

It was a gift.

From whom?

From Alfred Hamilton.

The earl was no friend of yours,

yet he grants you gifts from his own home.

Why would he do that?

All these years it never sat right with me

how Alfred was able to turn
the navy against James.

He was far too admired by his superiors

for his career to be dashed
by solely on hearsay.

Alfred would have known that.

He wouldn't have gone to them

armed only with unfounded suspicions.

He would have needed a witness,

someone who knew Thomas

and James well enough

to give the accusation credibility.

Alfred came to you, didn't he?

Asked you to betray Thomas
in exchange for which he'd...

see you made a king in the New World.

Perhaps this is an opportunity for us all

to find a little forgiveness.

Forgiveness?

What forgiveness are you entitled to

while you stand back in the shadows

pushing James out in front of the world

to be laid bear for the sake of the truth?

Tell me, sir, when does the truth

about your sins come to light?

You know nothing of my sins.

Were you there when
Alfred Hamilton threatened

my family's standing, my daughter's future

if I failed to cooperate?

Were you there when I visited
Thomas at the hospital

to confess my sins and heard him offer

his full and true forgiveness?

He knew I had no choice in the matter.

- No choice?
- A hard choice.

Made under great duress,
but with the intent

to achieve the least awful outcome.

You wish to return to civilization.

That is what civilization is.

I am so very sorry for
what you have suffered

and for any part I may have played in it.

Please believe that.

But at this point, the most important thing

is what comes next, what we make of this.

- You destroyed our lives!
- Miranda.

- You caused our exile!
- I am sorry for what I did.

- Thomas died in a cold, dark place...
- I am trying to help you.

- What more do you want from me?
- What do I want?

I want to see this whole goddamn city,

this city that you purchased
with our misery, burn.

I want to see you hanged
on the very gallows

you've used to hang men for
crimes far slighter than this.

I want to see that noose around your neck

and I want to pull the fucking
lever with my own two hands!

This is not what I wanted.

Do not shoot him.

Don't shoot!

We have a deal, then?

Yes.

We must get back before we're missed.

We have much work to do.

Your father...

when he came to me seeking sanctuary,

telling me he wished to resist the
continued presence of the pirates,

he told me he'd repented for his past sins.

He seemed so genuinely contrite.

I knew his reputation.
I knew he was most likely

telling me the story I wanted to hear,

but his contrition was utilitarian at best.

But you,

you don't even seem to be
wanting to appear that way.

The time for storytelling is past.

Now is the time for cold, hard truths.

What is this?

Who are you?

Are you Underhill?

- I am.
- Then I suggest you step aside, sir.

We've no quarrel with you.

However, we will be taking the girl.

Launch approaching!

Hello.

Hello.

Man your stations.

Ready the guns.

- What's happening?
- Shut the fuck up.

So...

what do you suppose happens next?

Pirate vessel!

Pirate vessel!

What follows is a message

from the Lord Governor
of the Carolina Colony.

"I trusted the good faith of your arrival

and I accepted Captain Flint as my guest

in the same spirit.

But I now regret to inform you

that he has violated that trust
in a most deceitful manner."

- What?
- "Therefore I've placed him under arrest.

This trial and its resulting sentence

will be swift, just, and final.

And it will reestablish
beyond any shadow of a doubt

that the rule of law lives in Carolina,

that the men and women of this place

will not shrink from you, from any of you,

from any like you,

and that the death of
piracy in the New World

has never been nearer than today.

At the conclusion of this trial,

if your ship remains,
I will seize or sink her."

Now, let me tell you what happens next.

You were right.

Right about what?

They can't tell the
difference between you and I.

Nassau is strongest when she's feared.

And if what promises
to happen here tomorrow

actually happens, a trophy

made of one of her most notorious captains,

she may never be feared again.

So I suggest we do something about this.

I suggest we...

get him the hell out of there.

Captain Hume.

I understand you hold in
your possession 10 pardons

for whomever was to deliver
you Captain James Flint.

I wonder if I can't do better.

This is Eleanor Guthrie,
the trade boss of Nassau,

the woman who lorded over
a savage pirate kingdom

as if it were a plaything.

And without whom it cannot function.

Imagine, sir, how London would react

to the arrival of the queen of thieves.

Imagine the spectacle of her trial.

Imagine the celebrity

that'll be heaped upon her captor.