Black Sails (2014) s02e04 Episode Script

Land ho! I'd like to go back and retrieve the gold.
Refit, hire a consort, finish the job.
- Is that possible? - Well, it might have been possible.
Before the bay fell into the hands of a madman.
Either we act now to remove him or no one will.
Congratulations, Jack.
Now you know what it's like to rise from the grave.
We're gonna sail again.
Your judgment with her is clouded at best.
And there's nothing I can do to counter it when I'm on the wrong side of that door.
Found the prize they was hiding.
Her father is Lord Peter Ashe, governor of the Carolina colony.
Lord Ashe won't be trifled with.
I have no intentions of trifling with him.
Charles Vane and the animals he commands have until sunrise tomorrow to vacate that fort or, so help me God, I will rain holy hell down upon him.
Go on.
"If you fail to meet these demands," if you remain when the deadline arrives, I will respond swiftly and definitively.
And as I currently sit fully outside your means of retaliation, this response will continue unabated until you, your men, and that structure are rendered fully incapacitated.
"Until dawn, Captain James Flint.
" Get him out of here.
Put him behind a door somewhere.
I want him whole when he delivers my answer.
Make ready the guns in the northwest.
Move everything we have to the southwest bastion.
He's telling the truth.
The southwest bastion is too weak to support any batteries at all.
We have no guns that can reach his position.
Somehow Flint knew exactly where to sit to take advantage.
Then find out how close I can get.
Now.
Tell me right now you had nothing to do with this.
- Charles, look at me.
- Tell me this isn't part of your plan - to push me into the sea.
- Look at me.
I had no idea this was coming.
I had no idea that Flint would be so fucking reckless as to threaten the fort itself.
I had no idea Hornigold would be so fucking petty as to divulge secrets about its weaknesses, risk its destruction for his own personal gain.
I told you what I would do if challenged like this.
- I know.
- I may not be able to hit his ship, but I can hit the rest of them.
I can turn that whole goddamn bay into a graveyard.
- But you won't.
- You doubt me? No, I have faith in your ability to formulate a plan more effective than this.
The initial barrage will be targeted at the southeast bastion.
Once the turrets are destroyed, we'll turn our aim to the weaker of the defensive walls.
Hammer them until the interior is exposed and the fort is vulnerable to an assault from the ground.
At this point, there's no limit to the damage we can inflict.
- How long to rebuild? - Rebuild? After we secure possession of what's left of the fort, how long will it take you and your men to rebuild what we've destroyed? Twice that to resecure the interior.
It is a risk, but a relatively short window in the grand scheme.
A short window that coincides with a British warship sitting in anchor 40 miles from here and my having stolen a Spanish warship in full view of a company of Spanish soldiers.
We'll just have to keep our fingers crossed for a while, then, won't we? Are you suggesting the threat we posed to Captain Vane is an empty one and we have no intent of following through? I am fully committed, as are we all, to the removal of Captain Vane from that fort.
But we'd be fools to ignore the catastrophic risks that lie down this road.
I have committed men and resources to aid you in retrieving the Urca gold.
In exchange for which you've assured me of your assistance of expelling Captain Vane from that fort by any means necessary.
Now, as I hear you waver, I feel forced to ask, if the sun rises tomorrow and Vane has not ceded to our demands, then what will you do? I was told it was urgent.
He said he wanted to see you right away.
What about? It's all right.
It has nothing to do with you and I.
He'll be arriving in less than two hours.
I'm sorry, who? The fourth Earl of Ashbourne.
Lord Proprietor to the Carolina colony, including the Bahama Islands, and peer of the realm.
Lord Alfred Hamilton.
My father.
I'm told he expects a full report of our efforts to devise a plan for the management of Nassau.
And you're concerned how he'll receive it? I'm concerned about how he'll receive one particular part of it.
The part you and I have yet to discuss.
I didn't think we had one of those.
These past few months I have come to trust you.
Very much.
Which is why I feel I can ask for your help.
When my father arrives, I intend to propose something to him which could be very dangerous politically.
What is it you want me to help you with? I want you to try to talk me out of it.
Yes? Ma'am, you're needed.
All right.
It's a Spanish warship! There's a Spanish galleon anchored in the harbor! Is today some sort of holiday that I've forgotten about? Spanish warship anchored in the bay.
Word is it's Flint's crew sailing her.
And it's scaring the shit out of everyone on the beach.
Flint's sailing a Spanish warship? Think we should try and lure some of them inside? Wait.
Does he have it? Does he have what? Did Flint get to the Urca gold? I don't know.
Hold there.
The fuck are you doing? The situation is as we feared.
That warship is fully outside our field of fire.
And given our severe disadvantage, might she provide us valuable leverage? Make sure Flint knows the moment he fires those guns, her body gets dumped over the wall.
Your reply to Flint will be significantly more effective if it comes from me personally.
You might want to keep quiet now, miss.
You have questions about my loyalties as it relates to Miss Guthrie? Then accuse me.
Challenge me.
Fight me.
Or shut the fuck up about it.
Open the gate! What are you doing here? Putting an end to this.
Miss Guthrie.
Captain Vane has issued a reply to your ultimatum.
It's being read aloud on the beach as we speak.
I think you should see it.
Give us the room.
- I have as much right - Now, please! "You must ask yourselves who represents" the greater threat to your interests my men in this fort "or the madman on the water.
" It's effective.
Mm, I can see that.
What I cannot see is how Charles Vane alone was clever enough to turn this all into political theater in which he is the defender of the island's welfare.
Are you suggesting he had help in crafting his reply? Did he? Were I to have aided Captain Vane against your efforts, helped him move into a more favorable position last night, what would such a move say about the trust you and I are supposed to share? I believe I was clear yesterday about the danger he represents and my desire to see him removed from that fort.
Though you conveniently omitted the part about how you were prepared to use a Spanish warship to annihilate the fort to achieve that end.
Your refusal to acknowledge the urgency of the situation gave me no choice but But to do what? Disregard our partnership? Ignore the resources and influence and trust I have invested in you? This isn't personal.
It's too important for that.
All right, then.
What is it you wish to accomplish here? To see him removed from the fort.
Then this is a stupid fucking way of going about it.
He'll never voluntarily leave if he thinks it will show weakness to do so.
You want him out, here's how you do it.
You move this ship.
You allow him to save face on this score.
And then you and he and I sit down at a table and we sort it out.
Eleanor, I don't care if he leaves voluntarily.
If I give up this position, I will never regain it.
And without this position, the decision is his and his alone.
No, I simply cannot risk that.
Not with what's at stake.
You are talking about rendering this bay, rendering Nassau completely unprotected.
I know! And I am perfectly aware of the danger that presents.
But when it comes to Charles Vane, you and I simply do not see him in the same way.
Now, if you can see a way, an effective, credible way out of this that doesn't involve disabling the fort, I would love to hear it.
If you think that he will hear reason.
Not with you holding a gun to his head.
Then I suggest you talk to him.
Because one way or another, he is leaving that fort.
And right now my way is the only way that I can be certain of that.
My name is Charles Vane and you are now my guest.
As such, no harm will come to you as long as you do exactly as I say.
You understand? The other one, he said no talking.
Captain Low? You don't need to worry about him anymore.
How can you be sure? I cut his head off.
Good.
Now, your father is Lord Peter Ashe, governor of the Carolina colony.
Is that right? What is the total value of his estate? I don't know.
How many rooms in his house? How many slaves? Honestly, I don't know.
Haven't seen him in years.
I've been at school in London.
Are you close with him? What? I'm asking if there's any reason I should expect he may not be willing to pay to ensure no harm comes to you? You're asking if he loves me? He'll pay you what you ask.
Can you write? Of course.
Then write the following.
You're a prisoner of the pirate Captain Charles Vane.
Your ransom, should your father ever wish to see you alive again, is £250,000.
The next contact I'll make will be to arrive in Charlestown harbor with you in my possession.
If I sense a trap or my demands are unmet, I'll kill you and throw your body into the bay.
Do you understand? She's writing the letter now.
I want it on its way to Charlestown before whatever's going to happen here tomorrow happens.
Right.
Who are they? Friends from the beach.
They have pledged their services to Captain Vane to defend the fort and to discourage any move against it.
It seems his pronouncement has had the intended effect.
And 40 men becomes 60 and the fight ahead only gets bloodier.
Then get out there.
Sit with the captains.
Talk some sense into them.
Tell them that it's their ships and cargo that will be subject to his extortion the moment it suits him.
I'll get to the beach.
Appeal directly to the crews.
If we can stop anyone else from going up there, we can keep this from getting out of hand.
Can I assume when you say you'll go to the beach to make this appeal, you mean me? All right, then.
Why do you think they went up that hill? Beg your pardon? If we're to stop any more men from joining his side, isn't it a prerequisite that we try and understand the thinking of the men who have already joined him? Sorry, are you asking my opinion? Oh.
Well, uh I suppose one could argue that it's simple fear.
Their fear of losing the fort being greater than their fear of Vane remaining in it.
But then again, it's possible this has nothing to do with the fort.
Nor with Vane.
Perhaps it's just them expressing their opinions about you.
So you think that they see me as the villain in this particular story? I think that would explain their decision, yes.
And you? What do you think? You see me as the villain here? I see you as the agent most likely of securing my share of the gold on that beach.
As long as that remains true, I am not bothered in the least by whatever labels anyone else decides to affix to you.
Why? What do you think about it? I'm sorry? It bothers you, doesn't it? What they think? With the things you've done My God.
It must be awful being you.
Time is short.
You'd better be off.
We have reasonable proposals to recruit men for the expedition.
To procure supplies and to ferry them.
But it will be the approach to dealing with the Nassau pirates by which the entire plan will be judged.
I feel that's where we're strongest.
Targeted raid on the beach under cover from two men-of-war.
Public trials and hangings of roughly a dozen of the ringleaders.
And the replacement of the governor with an officer of our choosing.
It's precise, it's affordable, and it'll play well with the Sea Lords.
I understand that's the expected proposal.
The safest one.
But it's not the one I would like to make.
When my father arrives, I would like to propose to him that we don't hang the pirates.
- That we pardon them.
- I'm sorry, what was that? I want to pardon them.
- You want to pardon them? - Yes.
- How many? - All of them.
- All right.
- The island needs commerce to survive.
It needs labor.
It needs men and women vested in its interest.
Don't these men fit that description? Couldn't they become part of the solution? You don't need me to answer that.
- They're men.
- They're traitors to the Crown.
- What difference does that make? - Makes some difference to the Crown.
Just answer me this, would it work? To pardon a traitor is the act of a coward.
And given our current war footing, precisely no one in Whitehall wants to wear that label right now.
If you propose this to your father, he will almost certainly distance himself from it and most likely from you.
Now, I only know what I've heard of your father, but if half of what I've heard is true, he's not a man one wants as an enemy.
If you're asking me as your liaison to the Admiralty, my advice to you is that this is a maneuver only to be approached with utmost caution.
But as your friend, I suggest you forget you ever thought of it.
They came through the gate like locusts, Vane and his men.
Brothers of mine being hacked to pieces.
I swear to Christ Almighty, it wasn't the screams that haunt me most.
It was their laughter.
I thought they said no one survived the raid from Captain Hornigold's crew.
Well, I guess one of them must have gotten away.
So what do you make of this business between Captains Flint and Vane? Thank you.
Lovely performance.
Hello, friend.
Man around the bend has something to say about this business at the fort.
The fuck's going on in there? Pulled a man out of the water.
Up by the north point.
That's lucky.
We were just about to send for one of you.
Excuse me? You're a Walrus man, aren't you? Sorry, what are you talking about? He's one of yours.
I assume Captain Flint wasn't amenable to your suggestion.
He's not listening to me and this place is slipping into ruin.
It's my commitment to see this fort protected from all enemies, all threats.
So as you consider where to lay your support, consider which of us represents the greatest threat my men in this fort or the madman on the water? - How many criers did you pay? - Four total, as you asked.
Sent to the ends of the camps.
But what I don't understand is why we're supporting Captain Vane's position.
We're not supporting it, we're relaying it.
With all due respect, I can't see the difference.
I think I can live with that.
So what do we do now? The only one who can stop this is Flint.
I'll just have to find someone to convince him.
He's moving in a direction that promises unimaginable chaos.
He won't listen to me, but perhaps he would listen to an appeal from you.
I appreciate your frustration.
Were there something I could do to help, I assure you I would.
You can make him see how destructive his actions would be.
- You can make him - If you believe if you believe anyone can make him see anything, you must not know him very well at all.
I'm sorry.
I can't help you.
You weren't here the last time they came.
They burned the huts on the beach and then the structures in town.
When the whole of Nassau was a smoking wreck, they turned their eye inland.
They raped, they murdered, they laid waste.
And all because there was no fort to protect the bay.
The men in charge had allowed it to fall into disrepair.
Please, help me to dissuade him from putting us on that path again.
If you're concerned for your safety, perhaps you should request sanctuary along with your father at the Underhill estate.
I'd be happy to carry the message.
You think this is about me? You asked me for my help yesterday with Mr.
Underhill.
I gave it my best efforts.
You asked me today again for my help, but I'm sorry, what you ask is simply impossible.
You don't give a shit about the rest of us, fine.
But Flint.
Don't you care enough about him to at least try to stop him from doing this? Don't I care about him? He's the one in the most immediate danger.
- And you would do nothing - You who have enabled him, encouraged his violence, you ask if I care about him? How dare you? Get out of my house.
Yes? What? - New recruits? - Mm-hmm.
It would appear your reconciliation with Captain Vane has borne fruit.
Though, perhaps, of the low-hanging variety.
Thank you for your concern.
Did you know? Before she opened the door? No, I didn't know.
You must care for her a great deal.
Not once all night did you so much as look in my direction.
I've seen enough to know to keep my distance from you, thank you very much.
The situation was not of my making.
If it was anyone's, it was yours.
I'm sorry, what? The conflict within her.
I had it under control.
Right until the moment you walked in on her and me.
For that was the moment you began the competition between you and me.
What is happening here, the three of us, it is only temporary.
A state of denial until she finally makes a choice.
A choice between you and I? Anne and I have been by each other's sides since she was 13 years old.
We have sailed together.
We've killed together.
We have shared things you couldn't begin to imagine.
You've shared a bed with her for a week.
You'd be amazed what can change in a week in my bed.
I understand you're feeling quite indispensable of late.
But rest assured, it only seems that way.
I wouldn't get too comfortable were I you.
And what if I can get you back on the water with a crew? Would I still only seem indispensable then, too? One of the girls has a lead? Mm, but which one? They're so mistrustful of male authority figures.
It'll take some time before they report these things to you and not me.
Come.
Mr.
Featherstone.
Been a regular for months now.
The navigator on the Colonial Dawn.
Finest on the island, so he says.
He's all right.
Go on.
Put my tongue in his bum, he'd tell me anything.
So I did and he did.
He's looking to move.
Said the men were split badly over the mess on the beach.
Some backing Flint, some saying he'd gone mad.
Said the crew been fraying for some time, anyway.
Said in all likelihood, a lot of those men would follow him wherever he went on account of his skills.
And we have a plan to sway him and his men to our camp? I'm going to fuck the living shit out of him.
If he chooses to join Captain Rackham's crew, that decision must be heartfelt.
It cannot be cast into doubt the moment the pleasure fades.
And for that, you cannot just fuck him.
You must seduce him.
Yes, there is a difference.
The breath in his ear.
The arch in your back when he thinks he is making you finish.
The look in your eyes when you finally breathe again that tells him you would do anything he asked in that moment.
Anything at all without hesitation.
The story you tell him that night about when you were a little girl, about the place you hid from your mother where the world was quiet.
A story you've never told another soul.
The look of confusion you show him when you wake up the next morning that tells him despite the thousand other men you've awoken beside, that he is unique.
That he has seen you vulnerable.
And that you cannot live without him.
I completely understand.
Just so we're clear, I still fuck the shit out of him, yes? Yes.
Is there anything else you would like to add? Uh, no.
No, I don't think so.
Tell me again, who are those men camped out in your family's storehouse? What men? Perfect.
We're doing wrong.
He can't be on the ship right now.
Captain is holding things together with both hands and Billy will, understandably, have some feelings about the events of this past week.
If those feeling were expressed right now, it could spoil whatever chances we have to retrieve the Urca gold.
Where is this? It's all right.
You made it home.
What was that? Get Gates.
Featherstone and Idelle? - Max told me.
- Ah.
Been in there going on three hours.
Do you think she can do it? Swing him our way? I think I have underestimated my last whore for a while, given the week I've been having.
I've put a lot of bodies in the ground for you, haven't I? Excuse me? Watched your back.
Cleaned up your messes.
Carried out your plans.
I didn't always understand.
Didn't always agree.
But I did it.
Some fucked-up, awful shit 'cause I knew you needed it done.
I don't think the night you had last night comes even close to something to bitch about.
I know you know this is significantly more complicated than the quantity of tits I have access to at any given moment.
I know she's dangerous.
Especially to me.
I ain't in my right head about her.
She knows it.
And it ain't hard to imagine her intent is to play us off one against the other.
But I'm asking you to do this for me.
I'm asking you to watch my back on the other side of that door.
'Cause I know as long as you are, there ain't shit she can do to get between us.
Mr.
Featherstone will announce to his shipmates tomorrow that he has joined a new crew.
Your crew.
What? He believes a number of his men will join him upon hearing this news.
At least 28 men.
That's more than half his crew.
In addition to these new recruits, you will be granted command of their ship as well.
Congratulations, Captain.
A few more men in the fort now than two hours ago, though I believe we stemmed the tide there.
The captains I've spoken with are on firm agreement with our position.
Several of them have committed men and resources to the final assault up the hill.
Though we have yet to hear from your man Mr.
Silver, word has come in from the beach.
Support is in our favor, though division amongst the remaining crews is rampant.
Reports of skirmishes amongst and within the camps has been arriving Numbers, please.
Pardon? We're well aware of the discord caused by Captain Vane's entreaty.
I want to know what we'll be facing if we go down this road.
Roughly 65 men in the fort, plus or minus 10.
We bring to bear 90 men on our own plus 50 pledged by sister crews.
On rough terrain and fighting an entrenched enemy, I think it's safe to assume that casualties will number threescore on our side.
As I've said, we ought harbor no illusions about the blood that will be spilled on that hill.
Father, how was your travel from the country? Wet.
Well, I think you're most optimistic about the Admiralty's willingness to outfit these ships you assume you can procure.
But as for the rest of it, seems like a reasonable proposal.
Do you agree, Lieutenant? Yes.
Yes, I would, sir.
I see.
Well, then, perhaps we can discuss the one element you so conveniently elected to ignore.
What about the pirate raiders of Nassau? I want to put them to work.
To work? At what? Tilling, harvesting, coopering, building, smithing, fishing.
What are you talking about, Thomas? I intend to secure them pardons.
A blanket amnesty for any man who will accept it.
In exchange for his allegiance, his renunciation of violence and his labor.
What a piece of work you are.
You asked me to formulate a plan.
That's what I've done.
I asked you to formulate a plan that would secure the support of the navy in our efforts.
Support without which there is little chance of reversing the catastrophic downward trend in revenue from the Bahama territories.
Support that is almost certain to disappear entirely and for good the moment they hear they are to be associated with a plan to reward men who are in open revolt against the Crown.
This is the solution most likely to lead to our desired result.
It also has the virtue of being the right thing to do.
Oh, for God's sake.
Lieutenant, am I right to assume that a proposal such as this Don't look at him.
Talk to me.
My son is impertinent, Lieutenant.
My son is indulged.
My son is self-righteous.
But he's not stupid.
Perhaps you could explain to me how you intend to distract the queen from her war to issue these pardons.
I wouldn't need her to do anything.
A simple act would accomplish the same thing.
Of Parliament? There aren't four votes among the lords for something as absurd as this.
Sutton, Dunster, Lewis, Form, Philpott.
There's five.
They're easy.
I haven't even opened my mouth to make an argument.
An argument to abet sedition in times of war? A war, sir, to ensure that a Protestant sits on the throne of Spain.
Thomas, if I were a rival of this family, I would be shouting from the rooftops that any man who proposes to pardon a traitor in times such as these is himself a traitor.
We are fighting a war in the service of the son of God.
And it is treason to offer forgiveness to any man who would seek it? What in the hell is it you think we're doing here? This isn't your goddamn salon, Thomas.
If you do not forgive men their sins, your father will not forgive your sins.
- I don't want to hear it! - I know you don't.
Lieutenant.
I'll ask you once again, am I to assume by your silence that you are in agreement with this proposal? The lieutenant has dutifully expressed his reservations Madam you have done enough to damage the good name of this family.
I would ask that you keep both your mouth and your legs firmly shut going forward I support it.
I found his argument persuasive.
I find his intent to be good and true.
And I find yours wanting, sir.
I will be relaying my findings to Admiral Hennessey in short order.
And now I think it's time you left, sir.
Gentlemen.
Did you just ask my father to leave his own house? Right now he will be dispatching messages to the Sea Lords, the Southern Secretary, his friends in the Privy Council.
He will stop at nothing to ensure that this plan never sees the light of day.
And now you're in the line of fire.
People can say what they like about you.
But you're a good man.
More people should say that.
And someone should be willing to defend it.
Pastor.
It's before dawn.
I don't sleep anymore.
I've seen you at my service.
I've kept my distance, but I've seen you there.
Heard of your efforts to join our community.
To make a fresh start.
I've wanted to believe it to be true.
After after what happened between you and I, I wanted to believe that as vile as the act was, perhaps it was born of a misguided desire on your part to change your ways.
To seek a more virtuous path.
I do seek a more virtuous path.
Then why am I also hearing that you've been receiving Mr.
Guthrie's daughter? Making requests of Mr.
Underhill on her behalf? You don't understand.
I understand more than you think, ma'am.
I've been to town today.
I hear that one of the thieves on the beach, desirous of impressing her, assaulted another.
Killed him.
And in a display for all to see, mounted his severed head on a pike.
Were this not monstrous enough, talk is it was all in service of stealing a young girl intended to be ransomed to her father.
None other than the governor of the Carolina colony.
An upstanding, God-fearing man hundreds of leagues from here is unsafe from their brutality.
These are Miss Guthrie's associates.
These are the men on whose behalf you would act by doing her bidding.
Men who seek profit through the most boundless, wanton, unrepentant barbarism.
And I'm to believe that your desire to repent is genuine? Lord Ashe? What? The governor in Carolina, it is Lord Peter Ashe, it is not? I believe so, but Lord Ashe's daughter, what was her name? Mrs.
Barlow, what difference does her name make? Abigail.
Her name is Abigail Ashe.
Absolution.
A clean slate for all those willing to accept it.
A few hours ago, I informed my father that this was my intended solution for the pirate issue on New Providence Island.
We've talked in this room, you and I, about reason.
We've talked about justice.
We've talked about virtue and the right.
We've talked and talked.
And now, perhaps, it is time to do that which we've only spoken about behind closed doors.
I am committed to this end.
But it is a long road and I will need your help to see it through.
How can I help? I don't believe you've been properly introduced.
Lieutenant McGraw my good friend Lord Peter Ashe.
What the fuck is this? I heard the news today.
I thought it a sign it was time to come and see you.
You're kidding me.
Coming to gloat now? You don't see it, do you? You're so close to having everything you've wanted.
Everything I told you you'll never have.
It's within your reach.
I came to help you get it.
I remember when I first saw it.
I'd never seen a structure like it.
It seemed indestructible.
If you would have told me then the decision you face today, I don't know if I would have believed it possible.
Richard Guthrie sat on the throne of commerce when I arrived.
Made men rich, they said.
Then his daughter took his place, made Nassau strong.
Everyone knows this.
I wonder how many know that there was one man standing behind them.
Standing behind both thrones, keeping the world spinning.
You're as invested in the future of this place as any.
What would you do? I know Eleanor's argument.
And I know why you think it is weak and I do not disagree with you.
Her judgment about Captain Vane has never been right.
But because she is compromised, it does not necessarily follow that she is wrong.
I fear that to take that fort will be to divide this island in a most dangerous way.
To force men to take sides against each other at a time when our very survival demands the very opposite.
I fear that if we go down that road, by the time Spain or England arrive, they will find their job done for them.
They will find Nassau has destroyed itself.
The world changes.
It is inevitable.
Perhaps the only thing that is inevitable.
If it were me facing this decision, I would make peace with that.
I would teach myself to see Captain Vane as an unfortunate but unavoidable change in our landscape.
And I would ensure that we all live to see the sunrise again tomorrow.
Were it me.
What say you, Captain? Fire.