Jamestown (2016) s02e06 Episode Script

1 I only ever wished to offer you comfort.
Comfort was not worth tasting.
Temperance Yeardley told me I must remarry.
And quickly.
Every instinct makes me fight against such a confinement.
- (GRUNTS) - I am sick of the likes of you vermin! You said I was I've heard tell of men, Master Massinger, made blind with rage.
Tell the governor that you found the secretary on his knees.
It will make no difference.
He already possesses me.
And that is why he refuses to suspect you as the Spanish spy.
No, he already knows who that is.
Does it say if Governor Yeardley's cargo was also lost? No, it doesn't say that.
Ours is stolen, but his is safe.
In't that suspicious? If Yeardley believes he's seen the last of the Sharrows' anger, then he will need new eyes.
(YELLING) (GUNSHOT) SILAS: Every working man in the town that cares about his livelihood, gather round! A whole year's work! Robbed from us! (MEN YELLING) Privateers, we're told.
Now, if our tobacco can go missing, then any man's can.
Yeah? You dare to fire off your musket in this settlement, Sharrow? We want to know why our tobacco was stolen out at sea, - but our governor's was not.
- Yes.
ALL: Yes! REDWICK: Is that right? The proper place for matters such as this is the house of burgesses.
Everyone knows how Yeardley resents our prospering.
- (ALL YELLING) - (BELL RINGING) (HUSH FALLS) The Spanish are coming.
Philip the Papist has sent a fleet of warships to attack us.
They might be off our coast any day now.
People of Jamestown, we will soon be under siege! Every man amongst you must prepare for battle.
The marshal will order you into readiness to defend our settlement.
Our purpose here is holy.
We fight with God on our side! ALL: Yes! Farmers from the farms close by must gather inside the fortifications and remain here to make ready to defend our colony.
ALL: Yes! (BIRDSONG) (GASPS) - (MAN GRUNTING) - (WHIP LASHING) (GROANING) (WHEEZING) - (DOG BARKING) - (HORSE NEIGHING) (CROWD MURMURING) How the world doth darkle.
A dispatch from God, Lady Yeardley.
To warn us that menace draws near and that we must be ready to fight it.
(DOG BARKING) HENRY: Don't it suit the governor to have such news, when there is an uprising on his own doorstep? What shall we do now, Henry? Silas.
I know what this means.
I've seen it before, back at my home in England.
Some terrible spirit is coming here.
Aye.
(DOOR OPENS) Governor, why is it the Spanish should choose to invade us now? Because they have always coveted our colony.
So surely it is because they have a spy amonst us.
I do not understand why you stand back from denouncing We might soon be facing Spanish cannons.
I do not need you snapping at my heels, madam! Who is it? Keep away! You keep away! It's Mercy Myrtle, sir.
Widow Castell's maid, and no one else.
Mr Massinger.
You can't see anything.
The world's as black as hell.
Sir, will you take my hand? Why will you help me? Why, sir? Because you need help.
(GASPING) - MAN: To the blacksmith! - SECOND MAN: Keep your eyes open, lads! We'll need swords, Read.
And daggers.
A call will go out for anything that might be smelted, - and made into weapons or ammunition.
- I can forge swords, sir.
But it'll be quicker to make halberds, and easier to use for them that aren't skilled.
Why do you look so contented, Master Read? Oh, something like this gives a man a chance to prove himself.
Prove himself to a king who hasn't as much as set foot here, or to a governor who had you whipped and hanged by your neck? You mean display your courage to a woman.
Your filthy face cannot hide your chivalrous heart.
Suppose a woman has no call for chivalry? When I asked you to promise me you wouldn't love me, it was not because you're a blacksmith.
It's because you're a man.
Verity.
The black sun was a sign.
Do you see anything strange about? (SCOFFS) Hell's teeth, woman.
It's all strange.
There's to be a war, and here we are, fetchin' food.
Ugh, look at them.
Strutting cocks, the lot of them.
Well, I want to be in.
Amongst the fighting.
- Verity, you can't.
- Did you ever hear of Mary Ambree? Come, all ye, to hear of the Battle of Ghent A captain courageous - That death could not daunt - (LAUGHS) Come all ye, come all ye, by two and by three First into battle was Mary Ambree In Congo, I was the best warrior with a sword.
Everybody knew it.
The Spanish will see it.
I have heard tales of the Spaniards' fighting men.
Ruthless.
Merciless.
- Vile torturers.
- (CHUCKLES) Ah, I hope they will come soon.
Close up the gates! Hold hard! What has become of him? As the sky went black, sir, there he were, cursin' and roarin' and strikin' at nothin'.
I ain't never seen nothin' so pitiful.
Pitiable.
Pitying.
Piteous.
Sorrowful.
Bring him to my apothecary, Mercy.
Pedro, I have such frail blood, cowardice is my only religion.
I fear, as men die about me, I will run like a cur.
Pedro.
You are a man of rare pluck.
(WHISPERS) Where might I find the same? Shake your beard, Meredith Rutter! Huh? You're dying already from the creeping and crawling around your own soul! Give death a slap, my friend.
Eh? But how? Which men amongst you will take the first night watch? I will, Marshal! I have the best eyes in all of Virginia.
And so will Master Rutter! My brave companion wishes to show to Jamestown that he is a fearless warrior.
If you are to be the watch, Rutter, then you will be sober.
- (YELPS) - (LAUGHTER) Marshal.
Did you ever hear of Captain Mary Ambree? She fought boldly against the Spanish.
Me ma sang me the ballad of it at her knee.
I wish to fight like her.
Sir.
You couldn't so much as lift a sword.
I'll have no woman's warm cake in my militia.
- Hah! - (LAUGHTER) It seems, sir, that the vital spirits of your body have boiled up like an earthquake and attacked your every part.
That is what has reached your eyes and taken your sight away.
I must have my eyes back.
We'll try with a tincture of mistletoe and peony.
If that fails, Master Massinger, we must let blood from your head.
I will pray for you, sir, with all my living soul.
Sir, I might pray better if I had my hand free.
(OWL HOOTING) FARLOW: If a ship comes, Rutter, it will advance from the river, not from the woods.
Yes, Secretary, but them Spaniards, sir, they're known to be devious.
Devious, Rutter.
Not miraculous.
(GRUNTS) (CHUCKLES) (INSECTS CHIRPING) Did you see him, Meredith? I saw something.
Was it a man? He passed amongst the graves there below.
(SCREAMING) (GASPS) (HORSE NEIGHS) (DOOR CREAKS) (NEIGHING CONTINUES) Silas.
Silas, come and see.
Look, there on the floor.
Maggots.
Maggots are a sign of the walking dead.
(BIRD SCREECHES) (CREAKING AND RATTLING) Ma'am? - Ma'am? - (CREAKING) (RATTLING AND SQUEAKING) (CREAKING) (CRASHING) (SCREAMS) (GROANING) (GASPS) I smell perfume.
Is it the widow? Mercy, take Master Massinger outside for some air.
Yes, ma'am.
Here we go.
Christopher, when I left my wedding ring here with you, - what did you do with it? - (SIGHS) I placed it here.
(SIGHS) In this box.
- It was beside me on the pillow.
- A trick.
- Someone attempting to torment you.
- (SCOFFS) - Samuel has risen from the grave.
- (DOOR OPENS) Mistress Castell, there is wild talk about the town that you witnessed a ghost abroad.
Mercy saw the apparition at the window.
She said She told me it was Samuel.
Your maid spends half her life in a state of fright or fantasy.
TEMPERANCE: There is no domain between Earth and Heaven.
It is a trick by Papists to herd the fearful into their malicious embrace.
I will not allow any talk of spirits and demons as men prepare for battle.
There'll be no mention of this.
Do you understand, Jocelyn? I fear it is too late for that, Governor.
Others saw it too.
Hands! They attacked me by the throat.
Claws, they were! Drizzling blood! I had to fight 'em off.
Yeah, I saw no claws drizzling blood.
That part of the affair Pedro did not witness, for he looked away.
What's this talk of spirits walking amongst us, Rutter? Know this, Marshal It weren't human.
That's what.
- Eyes like shrieks from Hell.
- I'll have none of it! You make the tale taller with every telling, Rutter.
My own mother's ghost lay beside me, beneath my bedsheets, her hand upon my cheek, every night for a month.
That is why I came to the other side of the globe.
Men dream up spectres before their eyes when their senses are assailed with fears and terrors.
- Who will volunteer for the night watch? - I will, Marshal.
And my brave friend, Master Rutter.
You're keen to boast you're not shaken by the fright of the dark, Rutter? You'll do.
(LAUGHS) - What was it that you saw, Pedro? - Oh, I was not afraid.
But what did you see? Ma'am, I cannot trust what my eyes told me in the dark.
Well, you have the best eyes in Virginia, Pedro, I heard you say.
I saw Master Castell.
- (GASPS) - But it was not him.
It was only the dead corpse of the man.
Walking.
Walking.
We had to rework swords and armoury to make farm tools, cos the talk was all of land and peace.
Show me how to make a sword, James Read.
The fire, the billet, the hammer and the anvil.
Huh We Sharrows are loyal Virginia men.
But after this business with the Spanish is done, we will be asking our governor what happened to our shipment that went missing at sea.
Do you doubt me, Sharrow? Do you dare threaten me? Perhaps you will prefer to tell us, sir, why our tobacco was lost, and not yours.
I see why you might arrive at such a suspicion, but the explanation might not be as convenient as you so clearly hope for.
Life without eyes in this place.
I wouldn't wish that on any man, not even Massinger.
VERITY: Sure you would.
Didn't Massinger tell me he would do anything in his power to stop the Sharrows from prospering? Now, wouldn't that make sense of it? Massinger arranged with the captain of the Royal Moon for our cargo of tobacco to be lost.
That man said many times how he wants to destroy you.
Don't mean it was him who had your cargo stolen.
The confirmation of it might come from the man himself.
Mistress Castell, Pedro said it was your husband he saw by the graves.
Mercy witnessed the same through the window.
Alice, he left our wedding ring on the pillow.
What does it mean? I lived on a farm in the most far-off corner of nowhere.
Trees that shrouded the house in darkness.
Night owls calling low.
My father said that when I was a child, I was touched by a sense of things beyond.
I heard such creaks and moans.
I told him there was a spirit attempting to come into our house.
But then, such strange apparitions came about as pots and pans would move when no one touched them.
When we saw the ghost, my uncle wept.
Told us he recognised him.
He admitted he'd stolen a purse from a dying man by the roadside.
He took some coins from it, burned the love letter that was inside.
And the next morning, we found my uncle dead, his own knife in his eye and his own hand upon it.
This is a story of vengeance, Alice.
That is why Samuel has returned.
Because my toying with romance has angered him from beyond the grave.
(SIGHS) No.
No! Men try to possess me even from beyond this world.
What must I do, Alice? I've seen what such evil spirits can do.
I will not let that happen again.
We must banish the ghost.
Prevent him from returning.
How? It's a foul business, ma'am, but I will help you do it.
We must ask James Read to make us metal spikes with the sharpest points upon them.
What do food taste of to a blind man, sir? - Food, huh? - Hm.
(GROANING) When I take this blade out of your mouth, you will tell me the dealings you've had with the captain of the Royal Moon.
The arrangement that you made with him for our tobacco never to reach England.
You speak, Master Massinger.
(GROANS) While you still have a tongue to speak with.
Cut out me tongue.
If you dare.
- What is this? - (YELLING) (SCREAMING) Governor, we believe that this man made corrupt dealings with a ship's captain to steal away our profit.
First you blame me, then you accuse Master Massinger.
Marshal, take him to the garrison.
(GRUNTING) Do not make me prove to you what kind of fighting man I am.
Leave this business to me to resolve as I see fit.
(GRUNTS) He will not leave his grave while they are there.
You must do it with me, ma'am.
He must know that you refuse him returning.
(GRUNTS) (GRUNTS) Why won't God let my master rest? (GRUNTS) - (CREAKING) - (GASPS) MEREDITH: You know what that is, Pedro? Darkness.
In the darkness, there is terror, that's what.
You told me you wanted to find your courage, Meredith.
Yeah, and I want to lose it again.
Don't you volunteer me no more.
I mean, I might be bold enough if I had a glass or two, but sober Even the word of it is ugly.
Sober.
Sober.
Sober.
(OWL HOOTING) How is it that men like you, Pedro, or like James Read and the Sharrows, you can forego the drink, and the world is not made of filth and fear to you? Pedro? Pedro? Pedro? (SCREAMING) (DOOR OPENS) (OWL HOOTING) (SIGHS) Is someone there? (GASPING) Who is it? Speak! - It is Maria.
- (SIGHS) Maria, what are you doing about? Mistress Sharrow, what are you doing about? (LAUGHS) Maria, I do admire your defiance.
- (SCREECHING) - (GASPS) (WIND SCREAMING) (THUNDER CRASHING) (YELLING) (WIND WHISTLING) (SIGHS) (THUNDER CRASHING) The spirit is about.
The phantom will call to Widow Castell's house.
- (GLASS SHATTERS) - (SCREAMS) (GASPING) - (CREAKING) - (GASPS) - (SCREAMING) - (CRASHING) - (CRASH) - (BOTH SCREAM) (SIGHS) (THUNDER RUMBLING) (THUNDER CRASHING) - (DOOR OPENS) - (GASPS) Why would you do such a thing, George? It does not say attack! It is only that the Spanish are out to get here.
It is only angry talk, as it has been for years.
Why has the whole town been put into a state of fear and worry? Fields left untended.
Families huddled, afraid, at night.
(SOBBING) Since you have returned this time, my dear, you have possessed a new boldness about you.
I plead with you, as a devoted, obedient wife.
See what is about you! - The sun turned black! - (THUNDER RUMBLES) A man struck blind! Did we offend God? Sh, sh, sh, sh, my pet.
Sh, sh, sh, sh, sh.
Your difficulty does not lie in the letter.
It is your wish to read it that has brought you to such a condition.
I saw something in your face as you made your pronouncement.
Some delicate telltale sign of deceit.
Then let me show you how you might know relief from such anxieties.
(GASPS) Never see such things in my face ever again.
(THUNDER CRASHES) Someone's pulled them from the grave.
Did you see anyone out there last night, Pedro? Uh No, Mistress Sharrow.
(HORSE NEIGHING) I saw Maria about.
You didn't notice her? (MEN YELLING) (GASPS) GEORGE: Hold hard! Hold hard! When a man, a good man, dies a long way from home, as a true Englishman, like Samuel Castell did, it is not unknown for a man's soul to become susceptible to demons.
The poor spirit might rail around in the night, to plead for our aid.
And I, for one, will not deny him.
We will implore God for the deliverance of our trusted recorder.
And I know that all you true Christians will want to offer prayer.
Led by my wife.
TEMPERANCE: We pray and beseech You, O Lord, as many as are here present, with humble voice.
You raise the dead to life in the spirit.
O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable offenders.
Deliver unto Heaven, O God, them that have lost their way.
Restore them to Thy grace.
In Christ Jesus, our Lord.
ALL: Jesus have mercy.
I myself will join the night watch.
Let no man fear nor doubt shades of the dark when our mettle is needed to save this glorious colony.
Take up your duties! We'll fight with every last drop of Albion blood! Maria.
Did you take the spikes from the ground? No.
Hm.
Why do you believe me so easily, when I know you saw me in the night? Because you are Maria.
It was the widow took the spikes from the ground, because I told her it was a suffering for a spirit to be quiet when he needs to speak.
(SIGHS) ALICE: Ma'am? I couldn't help but see that when James Read comforted you last night, the apparition's attack stopped.
I do not believe the spirit's anger is aimed at you.
It seems he wants to shake you.
Samuel was killed, but the true cause of it is yet to be named.
Our faith forbids any living soul from speaking with a ghost, but it seems we must do it.
Ah, this sword is such a beauty, James.
Might it be mine for the keeping? (CHUCKLES) Will you teach me how to use it? I don't care what the marshal says.
I ain't afraid of dying.
And I ain't afraid of killin' any would seek to trample us underfoot.
Come here.
All right.
Grip the sword in your strong hand, your other hand underneath it.
Hold the sword here so the pommel's away from your body.
Then stab at the sky, left hand left hand past your eye, and then down onto your foe.
So, use the right hand to guide the blade and the left hand to set the force into it.
Go on.
- Uh-huh.
- Have you killed many men, James Read? It ain't the number that matters, Verity.
It's the cry of a man put to the sword.
That haunts you.
It in't a sound I wish you to know.
But if you want to fight, that's the price.
What did you say, man? If a man's manitou is here, it is because his life is not finished.
There are deeds yet to do, matters he must see.
He cannot move away to the spirit world until his business is done.
Is it likely, Governor, that the recorder wants his killer to be named? When the frog tries to swallow the sun, it is a sign of things to come.
He means, sirs, the eclipse is a message of the ghost coming.
My wife said the same thing.
Here is the very reason we must not sink to superstitions.
It is pagan blasphemy.
An eclipse is no more than a shadow on the sun.
Maggots mean maggots and nothing more.
A broken window's a common occurrence.
Fearful minds will see walking shades in every shadow.
When you are seen speaking Pamunkey in the village, it brings suspicion upon you, Silas.
Suspicion is not guilt.
Tell that to the hangman.
(FIRE CRACKLING) If he appears, I will address him.
He must understand that we will help him, but he cannot remain here.
Perhaps the master won't come.
I don't believe he will come.
Don't the fire crackle with a ghostly crick-crack? - It never crackled like that before.
- Hush, child.
I'm only saying, ma'am, that I don't think the spirit will return, because that's what I hope, and sometimes it is best to believe what you hope, because, ma'am, there he is at the window.
(SIGHS) It is James Read.
I shall send him away.
He likely wants to serve as our guardian.
I wanted only to say that if this is my doing, if what happened between us is the reason that your husband has returned to torment you, then I will face any demon.
Sometimes I look at you and I want to take your hand and lead you into the night again.
(INSECTS CHIRPING) But you can't, - cos you are to marry the doctor.
- I intend to live as a widow.
I think you'll find that the governor has other ideas on that.
Hey, Governor.
I see nothing, Pedro.
Cold the wind blows Still falls the rain I saw a man in the greenwood slain His ghost did rise up Rise up and speak "Until I know vengeance "I will not sleep" Sing all you like, Yeardley.
It's your own conscience at you scratching.
The captain of the Royal Moon is known as the corruptible kind.
When I saw you enjoying his company, I asked Recorder Castell to keep a watch on you both.
- He did not live to make that report.
- Even a blind man can see - you have no evidence.
- Did you arrange with the captain to have the Sharrows' tobacco lost at sea? Cold the wind blows And was it in exchange for you offering some favours to that Spanish adder, the Count of Gondomar? I have no eyes, Governor.
Come closer.
Come closer that I might bite off your face.
I'm waiting for the captain's return, so that I might ply him with rum, put a blade to his throat, and have him speak your name.
I saw a man In the greenwood slain (CHUCKLES) (FIRE CRACKLING) (DOOR HINGES SQUEAL) I came to implore you.
It is only spirits of evil who create the illusion of ghosts.
You must, I beg you, by no means communicate with the shade.
Whether or not the demon speaks for God or the devil, I know this.
He will return each and every night until such time as his call is heard and his slayer is named.
There is a means by which we can have Samuel himself tell us who it was that took his life.
Cruentation.
Cruentation? The ceremony of touching the dead man's body.
What is this cruentation, Alice? Because the soul speaks through the blood, if the murderer lays his hand upon the corpse of his victim, that body will bleed.
And so God's verdict is declared.
REDWICK: Guards! Lay your hand upon the body, Master Massinger.
- There is no blood.
- (MURMURING) Governor, are we to let this declare Massinger is innocent? Let the widow do the same.
Let us see if she is as free of guilt as I am.
Will she dare? Mistress Castell? - (CRASHING) - (ALL GASPING) The Spanish are upon us! - Hold fast! - Hold your fire, you damn fools! It looks like the Royal Moon.
It flies an English flag.
An ensign cannot always be trusted, sir.
One ship alone is not a Catholic attack.
Lay down your arms.
A friendly ship.
This letter contains welcome news.
Escort the good captain to the assembly hall.
Stand down the militia! The Spanish threat is ended.
SILAS: Was there ever truly a Spanish threat, Governor? Men have had their arms broken for saying less than that, Sharrow.
We have business to conclude.
Mercy, you must fetch something for me.
Quickly.
(FLIES BUZZING) It will only bleed if the hand that killed him touches it.
That is so.
- I see no blood.
- (MURMURING) (WHISPERS) Master Massinger, we would have you place your hand on the corpse once more.
What trick is this? The whole town is here to witness that no false claim be made against you, sir.
You must do as the governor bids, Master Massinger.
(FLIES BUZZING) You failed to prove any guilt upon me once already.
What have I to fear? (SOBBING) Blood.
- Blood.
- (MURMURING) Damn you! You vile widow! Damn you, Yeardley.
Pox butcher of Virginia.
Yes! I cut the throat of your primping recorder.
(ALL MUTTERING) And I fed him to the birds.
Arrest the captain of the Royal Moon! Massinger's cohort in this rotten business.
- (GRUNTING) - Be still! Was it you had our cargo stolen, Massinger? Tell us, man, before you die.
That is my final curse on you Sharrows, that you should never know if it is true.
The captain of the Royal Moon will tell us.
(WHIMPERS) Thank you, child.
Oh I know that you know, Jocelyn, that the bleeding from his nose was caused by his collar.
Not by God, nor a ghost pointing to his guilt.
Do you suppose I have magical gifts, Christopher? How might I make a man's nose bleed? I will wait for you in Hell, Yeardley.
Bury him.
What will become of Massinger's land, Governor? The man is not yet in the ground.
Have at least the pretence of dignity about you, Sharrow.
Verity.
The deed is done.
We must open up the tap.
Will you let the man have a moment's pity over him? Even Massinger deserves that.
(GASPS) - Let me be! Let me be, let me be! - (MOANING) (GROANING) (SCREAMS) (GROANS) It is like the cry of an owl.
(GASPING) GEORGE: You Sharrows are known as masterly hunters.
(SCREAMS) You will track the Negro down if you wish me to favour your petition.
What have you beneath those blankets, James Read? We have a chance to get back what we have lost.
I will not give Maria up.
JOCELYN: The more they seek to shame me, the more I refuse to be tamed.