Jamestown (2017–…): Season 1, Episode 8 - Episode #1.8 - full transcript

Look what they send us...

a paltry few measly, weak men.

No more than boys, most of them.

What we need is strong hands to toil.

Plantation's nothing but
dirt till it's worked.

Labour is where riches are made.

- Captain, welcome to Jamestown.
- Thank you.

We're eager for news from England.

A General Assembly of representatives
from all of Virginia,

for the purpose of passing laws.

Planters will be selected.



Each man will be named a Burgess

of his parish to speak
on behalf of the commonage.

Burgesses?

Elected? Why give power away so cheaply?

It's a Company wish, and
a firm instruction.

Rankling does not suit you, sir.

Perhaps you might explain
the benefits to us, Governor,

of inviting men of the soil to put
their grub hands on the governance.

Sir, Edwin Sands has
convinced the Company

the surest way to attract new investors

is to assure them their stake
will not be embezzled.

Accountability seems to be
the word on everyone's lips.

An understandable and
admirable sentiment,

but what is to become of us



if we are to answer
to hedgeborn planters?

Well, that, gentlemen,
we shall discover.

Don't you go thinking you can
leave on that ship, woman.

You're married now.

And that means you're wed.

We ain't married, you jolthead!

You're so drunk from waking to sleep,

and you don't know spit
of what might happen or not.

So I only told you we were wed.

But we're married!

Verity!

Verity!

We're married!

Come on.

Perhaps if you were to lay yourself
at the mercy of Lady Yeardley...

Explain the nature of your
predicament at the time.

She detests my every living step.
Who can blame her?

I've mocked her piety.

I am expert at making enemies,

and now she has the means to destroy me.

Mistress Castell.

You seemed to be in considerable
distress at the wharf.

So much so that here you are,

seeking solace from the good doctor.

How kind of you to notice,
Secretary Farlow.

I do not doubt that you
appreciate the gratification

to be gained from the comfort of a man.

I am moments away from ruin.

It is all I can do to breathe.

Reverend Sir. Your Worshipness.

Suppose...

a woman were intent
on getting on that ship.

And suppose that woman's husband
said they were married,

but the wife said... she weren't a wife.

Can they take their vows in haste
if they ain't already wed?

England!

Yeah, that's me point, sir.

To prevent her from returning.

I'm going home!

I am leaving this place.

I can breathe again.

Did you wed meself and me wife?

You are no more married
than I am, Rutter.

Are you married, Reverend?

Silas?

Is he to stay in our home?

He's my brother.

Come on.

Henry, you have your own land now.

Why is that not enough?

Once you've started,

once your land is growing,
it'll give you your life back.

Henry.

We've a harvest to bring in.
We need your strength.

Ain't that so, Pepper?

Will you help us, Henry?

He's turned that savage will
of his against his own life.

For the sake of silver.

Ain't the silver that broke him, Silas.

It's the crushing humiliation
before every soul in Jamestown.

It is right that you should
take a care for your brother.

How can I sleep with him
there, so close at hand?

Do you believe that he might
try to harm you again?

It ain't that.

It's the memory of it.

Some... harvest you should have,
Sharrow.

There's work to do yet,
Master Massinger.

Considered what you're
looking to profit?

I daresay you'd know that
better than I would.

Well, whatever you foresee, forget it.

Why is that so, sir?

Well, I'll harvest 40
times what you bring in.

Best quality tobacco, and I intend
to sell it at a price so low

that no dealer will pay any
price above what I ask,

and make sure that you don't profit

from one leaf.

I can afford to do that year after year

till you're ruined.

I gave you a chance to deal.

But you decided to challenge me instead.

And now you're going to see
what that truly costs.

I mean, if life here
ain't to your liking,

what'll happen when you go home?

Prison!

That's what!

So what were they for?

The tears.

All my life, I never really
felt like I belonged.

But here...

in this mad,

kneedeep shitpile...

I do.

I saw those women
coming off of that ship

and I knew I'll never leave this place.

Because it's my home.

That changes everything.

I have thoughts and desires now
that I ain't never had before.

So you ain't going back?

No.

Fetch us an ale, then.

Mercy, did you ever witness
anyone die on the gallows?

I have, ma'am.

It is a most fearful, frightful sight.

Do the condemned seem ready
to meet their maker?

Or do they plead for their
lives to be spared?

They scream for forgiveness, ma'am.

Screeches that sound like they
escaped from hell itself.

Yes, well, that's description enough.

Some of them curse their own
souls with such a loathing,

it's like looking into Satan's eyes.

I stand before you

to call together a General Assembly.

The main part of which
will be made up of burgesses,

men elected to make laws

that we will live our lives by.

Two men from each particular plantation

will form a house to pass laws.

Make no mistake about our purpose here.

It is to create a new world,

one abundant with
opportunity and harmony.

God has given us the means
to seek heroic profit.

Let us do so as one...

and invite good men
to take up governance.

Since the men from the boroughs are in
Jamestown for the arrival of the ship,

I will call the first General
Assembly this very week.

We are the creators

of the greatest political endeavour...

a land

where free men...

together

respect the rights

and the conscience of all who can speak.

Thank you.

I trust with all my heart

that the burgesses will
serve our colony well.

But I will appoint a Council of State

to oversee our business.

And I will of course reserve
the power of veto for any...

let us say...

unseemly proposals.

Good news.

Mistress Sharrow...

Er,

I wish to show you something.

Thank you, James.

What made you decide?

I seen more women arriving.

I'm going to...

buy myself a wife.

To come over on the next ship.

Is Henry staying with you
now out at the plantation?

He is.

If you ever want him to leave...

I mean, if you and your husband
need any assistance...

James...

What a man you are.

Might I take a drink
with you, Master Rutter?

Might I have another?

Mercy, let us live brightly.

For we do not know how
much life we have left.

Is there a better
companion in this world

than a true drinking cousin?

Pour inside me several ales

and I have the fleetest of feet.

Yes?

Shall I show you, your ma'amship?

I killed a man.

I took the life of a man
because I loved him.

I loved him!

And that's why I came here.

- I put poison in his wine.
- Hold on tight.

- Come on. Here we go.
- I killed a man.

Mercy, help me!

I poisoned him.

Rutter, not one word of
who we have in here.

Come on, quickly.

Merrymaking all on your own, Rutter?

No, Marshal. There is a number of us.

Ladies and, er...

There was...

Perhaps you drinkdreamed
your very own harem of handmaidens.

No, sir. The ladies...

What does it matter? Fetch us some ale.

Have a seat, Captain.

I watched that man die.

Ma'am, the Marshal is in the tavern.

You must be quiet!

I have information that
requires your discretion.

Master Massinger insists that
land is worthless without labour.

I see where you're leading.

Sir, a good many men who were sent
here intended to work on Company land

were signed over to Massinger

by Redwick and Farlow.

It's outright malversation.

Well done, Samuel.

I must consider how best to move
against the secretary and the Marshal

for their part in the thieving
of Company property.

I presumed they would be charged?

You must rest, dear Samuel.

You leave this to me.

Good night, Lady Yeardley.

When the letter is revealed,

the entire town will gather
together to watch me swing.

Lordy!

Mercy! Mercy, you must go
and fetch Alice Sharrow.

Do you hear me?

Leave by the back door.

You must not let the Marshal see you,

and you must speak to no one.

No one.

No one.

Ssh, ssh, ssh.

Ssh, ssh, ssh.

Before it becomes too dark.

Why are you abroad at this hour, girl?

Have you been drinking?!

Why are you so anxious
we should find Jocelyn?

I've twice made the rounds, sir.
No sign of her.

What is it we're seeking out, Secretary?

Is the Recorder's wife here?

Why would the likes of a fine lady
be keeping company

with a ratsmelling drinking man
such as me?

Farlow.

I have the most beneficial
news from the ship's captain.

Have you seen anyone else
here tonight, Marshal?

Did you not hear me say I have
the sweetest information?

Ssh, ssh!

Me wife.

She snores like a trodon cat.

Farlow! We must speak to Massinger.

Mercy.

What are you doing here?

I can't remember.

Perhaps I come to see you.

Why would you come to visit me

at such a time of night?

Because you are the handsomest boy
ever walked through a girl's dreams.

That's why.

And I want to kiss you the night long.

Will you kiss me, Pepper?

According to the captain,

there's 20andodd Angolan
slaves on a Dutch manofwar

a little way out at sea.

It seems the privateers stole the cargo

from a Portuguese merchant
slaver on its way to Veracruz.

They could be brought
ashore in a matter of days.

What will it cost?

Food and provisions for the privateers
will buy them for you.

Well, there's no appetite
for slaves in England,

but we'll require Yeardley's agreement
before we bring them to Jamestown.

Suppose once purchased,

we arrange to land the cargo downriver...

Point Comfort?

And only then do we take up
the matter with the Governor.

Slaves.

We no longer have to rely on whatever
lumps England cares to send us.

These sweats will be mine till they die.

Progress, gentlemen. Progress.

Silas,

the Assembly the Governor spoke about,

it's to pass laws?

That's what he said.

The other men who were granted
land, do you know them well?

What is it?

If you were to tell the other planters
about what Massinger's doing to you,

pricing his own tobacco so low...

What is in that mind of yours, Alice?

Well, if you were to band together,

all of you,

and vote to make the price of tobacco
fixed for every plantation,

Massinger can't use
his position to crush us.

Shivers!

Now I do remember. Mistress
Sharrow, you are to come quickly!

The tavernkeeper's wife needs your aid!

Why would you want 50
pounds of chains, Marshal?

Why would you want to
ask me such a question?

Do you wish for heavymade
chains, might fasten a ship?

Or chains might fasten a man?

Chains such as this will serve me well.

A man, then.

You might only come to me, sir,
if you needed such chains in haste.

I've noticed over the years, Read,

that you hold honour
closer than life itself.

You locked horns with the Governor
on a matter of principle, so you, Read,

are the last man that I would
tell the purpose of the chains.

Now, there's a ship on the wharf.

Would you have the Secretary
send you back to England?

Lady Yeardley has the letter.

I saw it in her hands.

She spent half the night
telling me that she killed a man.

Verity, will you trust me to know
that we must abide by Mistress Castell?

Sure. What do I have to lose?

Except perhaps me neck.

I came here to escape my past.

It seems my past will not let me go.

Give me your hand.

I will say your own words back to you.

The ones you spoke to me
on our first day here.

Knowing that this forbidding
place will be our lives now.

We are sisters...

of a sort.

I'll speak to Lady Yeardley.

I know that woman has good Christian
compassion in her breast.

Let me try to reach it.

You must go home to your husband.

How can I?

What will I tell him I've been
doing all the night long?

You let me take you back to him.

I know just the words will
shut up any man's questioning.

I know, ma'am, that you're
written to your cousin.

What business is this
of yours, dear Alice?

And that she sent you a letter in reply.

Mistress Castell confided in you, then?

Ma'am, I sit in the Governor's chair,

in the Governor's house,
before the Governor's wife.

I could not do such a thing
were I not moved by such

good reasons to make
a plea for clemency.

- Your efforts are purposeless, Alice.
- Please...

let me speak what I know
before you decide that.

It is true.

Mistress Castell killed
a man with poison.

That villain ruined her reputation...

inviting his friends
to witness him seduce her

so that her womanhood was
trodden into the dirt.

He made a mockery

of the things that any woman
cherishes above all else...

love,

and trust and...

hope and chastity.

Ma'am, I know how it feels to
be cut so adrift from justice

that a burning need for
vengeance overtakes all else.

If you condemn
Mistress Castell, ma'am...

then you condemn me.

My cousin, Alice,

wrote to tell me that the most
she knows about Jocelyn Woodbryg

is that her heart was broken by a rogue.

That is all?

That is all.

What have I done?

Jocelyn, what has become of you?

Your wife was feeling most faint, sir.

So I gave her a place
to sleep for the night.

Why didn't you fetch me to her?

I sent a message with my husband.

Did he not tell you?

What is it, Jocelyn, that ails you?

Perhaps you might like to
take a seat, gentlemen,

and I'll fetch you some ale.

After all,

both of those things are required
when there's news of a babe to come.

Jocelyn!

Jocelyn!

Why so many chains, James Read?

It's orders for the Marshal, sir.

What does he propose to do with them?

He ain't the kind of man
who speaks his business freely,

but I did see him keeping company
with the ship's captain.

Our conscience might rest easy, sir.

It's well known that any
pagan heathens brung here

will surely be saved by conversion
to the Christian faith.

God will not be mocked, Read.
You mind your tongue.

Has Marshal Redwick
ordered any shackles?

No, sir.

No shackles. Not yet.

Then it is possible you are mistaken.

There are no slaves.

I will speak to the captain,
learn the matter of it.

Can you tell her, please, that

my meeting with Lady Yeardley
did not go as well as I'd hoped.

Tell her to come and see me if she can,

that I might explain to her...

Thank you, Mercy.

I take it, Jocelyn,

that there is no childtobe?

Would you be so kind...?

Would you give me something...

so that I can not ever have
to face what is out there?

And if I do it quickly...

then Samuel might be spared

the pain and ruin of seeing his wife
denounced as a murderer.

Jocelyn.

You paint such tempting pictures.

But I have learned to resist
all of your entreaties.

I was wondering when we might tell
our neighbours the good news.

Perhaps not yet.

I am your doctor, Jocelyn.

I will be by your side
both night and day.

Should you need me.

Planters cannot see any benefit
in fixing a price for our crops.

They each want to get
the best that they can.

Did you tell them
that once he's destroyed us,

Massinger will come after them?

They believe that because they're
further upriver, he's no threat to them.

When we sat on the wharf on that

warm morning and you told me of the wife
and child you had who died...

Meredith.

My Meredith.

I saw such a humbling
in your face that day.

And I loved you for it.

I have loved you for it every day since.

Look at me.

Look at me in the eye
so that you see it!

I had a child taken
out of my belly once.

I was 14.

We could have a babe.

Do you see?

Woman.

You know how to love a man.

Master Massinger's labourers.

You provided him with men
intended for Company land.

Now, I do hope we're not going
to haggle over evidence.

I have no armed men outside.

May I ask you, sir...

what do you want from us?

Massinger's bought himself some slaves.

- How many?
- 20andodd.

And why was I not offered any of them?

We had expected, sir, that it
might not suit your taste.

Jesus never spoke against
one man owning another.

Abraham took slaves.

We have fields to plant and harvest.

- I want half of them.
- Governor.

Is it safe to speak of such
business before your wife?

I quite forget that she is there.

She is a woman.

She is not there.

I will preserve these in safekeeping.

I own you now.

Gentlemen.

I've been waiting for you.

I know more than you realise.

You know enough,

and that's what matters now.

I live in fear of God.

I live in fear of many things.
Mostly I live in fear of men.

I am afraid of what they
will make of this world.

I've given my life to
men just as you have.

But I have not had to suffer

as you did.

Will you forgive me, Jocelyn?

It will soon be harvest.

And there will be dancing.

And I would dearly like to see
you dancing, Mistress Castell.

Henry.

Henry, I know you can hear me.

You've made strong men of your brothers.

You were like a father to them.

Massinger is determined to ruin us.

Silas must win the support
of the other planters,

but if you stand beside him,

the others will do the same.

You've been speaking to other planters.

'Your brothers are working
to bring the harvest

'that might be worth nothing to them.

'They need you!'

Henry, I'm going to have a child.

We... are a family.

I will dig out your brains
and lay them on my hand

so that I might spit upon them,

you dog!

If you harm my brother...

it'll be the last breath you take.

Do you understand that,

Master Massinger?

If you come onto our land again...

I will tear your eyes
out of your head.

Well...

never let it be said

that I killed an unarmed man?

You have served your Governor,

the Company and the colony well.

How do we intend to depose them?

Their own greed for gain has
already been turned against them.

These men now know that
the noose awaits them

should they fail to serve the best
interests of governance here.

Your discoveries did that.

Sir, will they not be charged?

If the Company appoints
a new Marshal and Secretary,

how do we know that their
morals will be any better?

These two know that
they have been pocketed.

What could be better?

I believed your intention
was to expose their wrongdoing.

And we have, dear fellow.

But politics, Samuel,
is not a blunt instrument.

Wafercake, why so glum?

Do I not have such cause for joy
when we are to have a child?

That... That was a mistake.

Honeytongue,
there is to be an Assembly.

Is that not the most wonderful
opportunity for you to find advancement?

A mistake?

There's so much to do,

I doubt we will find
the hours in the day.

I, Silas Sharrow,

do swear to bear faith and
true allegiance to His Majesty.

Every one of you owes a debt
of loyalty to us Sharrows.

Which man here can deny it?

Now, when you were tenured by Massinger,

who was it who showed you
how to work the land,

kept his whip from your back?

Who was it at times did
your work for you?

And will defend to the utmost of
my power against all conspiracies...

Now, will you stand with us...

or let your cowardice stain
your own reputation?

My proposal to the assembly is
to fix the price of tobacco.

Then no planter could drive up or down
the profit that a neighbour might make.

How much do you propose
to charge, Silas?

Three shillings a pound
for the best leaf tobacco

and 18 pennies for the lesser crop.

It's a fair amount.

No!

Now, you listen to me.

No man alive

will tell me what my crop is worth.

It wouldn't be a man telling you.

It would be the collective of us all.

Ain't that the purpose of this house...

to serve the whole colony, and
not just the benefit of one man?

Perhaps we should take a vote on it,

since that is why we're all here.

All those in favour of the proposal
made by the Sharrow brothers, say "ay".

Ay!

Sir, is this not a case for the council
to veto a reckless provision?

If you do that, Governor,

who in here or out there will believe
that this house has any influence,

or is an instrument of justice?

There will be no retraction
on what has been voted upon.

The law stands.
The price of tobacco is fixed.

Come on!

Henry.

That's it.

Your own land, Henry.

We might be neighbours.

I've paid my debt to you, Henry.

I'll pay no more.

Grow.

Work your land, same as me.

Subtitle by peritta