MaryMatts

Chauffeur Nick looks just like Nick with the ratty hair on Fear the Walking Dead. I wonder if they are the same? Both singularly unattractive.

So does anyone else find the sex scenes in this series as boring as hell? None of the men are the least bit attractive and the poor lead actress has no chemistry with any of them yet she has the misfortune that the script calls for her to have pretend sex with three of them. Poor woman, I feel for her. During the sex scenes (with the husband, the chauffer and the Commander), I was playing Candy Crush and yawning. Best part was the mutilated girl running down the fascist Blackjacks. I cheered for her, lol. They should've, however, have her laughing maniacly while driving over the BlackJacks instead of looking anxious. It totally spoiled the scene.

Well finally someone who agrees with me. I've always liked this guy. He seems to be the only one who realizes in just how much danger they are and that the officers are pretty clueless. I can't blame him for wanting to know what is going on. I don't understand why other commenters feel his attempted eavesdropping is somehow bad on his part. The man seems to be two steps ahead of everyone else and is trying to put himself in a position where he has the best shot at survival. I also think I sympathize with him because the actor who plays him is doing a superb job. I don't believe he killed the guy on the other side of the tent cold bloodedly; I think he was desperate and knew they didn't have much time left. People in situations like that usually panic. I think his lack of expression at seeing he'd killed someone (I didn't realize it was one of the doctors) was total shock. Yes James is becoming a much nicer guy which is good because TB was one of the reasons I started watching this. I thought for sure he was a goner in the first few episodes because....well, pompous jackasses are usually the first to go, aren't they? I think I read somewhere that this will now have a season 2. Did I get that right?

Yeah, me too. Adding salt to open wounds must be agonizing. It was done, of course, to fend off infection. It was about all they knew at the time to keep infections from spreading. It still makes no sense to punish people this way and then worry about healing their wounds. But then, military men have never been know for their high intelligence or logic, lol!

Yes they are. I just binge watched the whole two seasons there. I wasn’t even aware of this series until I saw it up on Netflix. I enjoyed it very much and thought season 2 was better than 1. I’m really looking forward to watching 3 which I believe starts May 4. (And yeah I thought oh boy, Sawyer and Lori are married, lol!!)

Hmm, so it was necessary back in the 1840’s but not today? Why? What's changed? There are no mutinies or insubordination is today’s navy or armed forces? Why was it necessary for brutal punishments to maintain discipline but today you can do without them? Just wondering....

Maybe not but this is torture, pure and simple, in my book.

So you think Katie was fine with joining the resistance? Even in a world where there is no justice system and she knew if she was caught her whole family would be sent to the Factory? She didn’t mind putting her young kids at risk?

This sort of punishment, also, MUST be public, ritualized, and severe. Taking someone to a tiny closet in private and giving them a splinter is in no possible way a deterrent. This sort of punishment is never justified in my opinion. Are you saying you condone this barbarity? And even though it was commonplace in other centuries, any decent minded person would have objected to it in principle.

Yes. Check out a movie from 2010 called Forget Me Not. It's on Youtube. Kind of heartbreaking though. He also plays Frank Randall in Outlander who is a thoroughly nice guy as opposed to his villainous ancestor Black Jack Randall. Claire treats him abominably.

Make a big show? Hell, it’s more than a big show to th guy getting flogged. I doubt he’d be able to walk after that, let alone work in any capacity. And considering the primitive medical skills of the era, one wonders how many flogged men did indeed die of infections. Before the advent od antibiotics, cuts and wounds were a big cause of death.

I came late to this show. Unfortunately, all I can see when I look at Katie is Lori. She looks exactly the same as she did in TWD (except she's cleaner) and is still doing the same silly things she did on TWD - meaning putting everyone in danger by her actions. *sigh*

Really? I didn't know that. Richard Harris was one of my favourite actors in days gone by. Funnily enough, I have a family member who is friends with Annabel Wallis who is RH's niece so she must be JH's first cousin although she is much younger. Acting obviously runs in the family!

I totally agree - it was brutal, extra humiliating and completely over the top. It made it much worse when I realised what "punished, as a boy" meant. Jesus, they used to flog children like that? Barbarians indeed. I do wish I could understand some of the dialogue better too. And someone should tell TV people that dark scenes are incredibly difficult to see and figure out what's going on top of the fact these guys are so bundled up you have almost no idea who they are. I don't appreciate having to squint to try to see what is going on, lol! BTW, I think the whole "bear" thing is a bit silly. I mean, it cuts men in half and then places their corpses aboard the ship like they were one person? Yeah, pretty ridiculous though I do realise this series is based on a book and not totally on the real expedition itself. It's not enough they had to endure extreme cold, not much food, half a year of eternal night and being totally lost with no hope of rescue? Have we heard at all what happened to the party they send out (south, I think) to try and get help? Still, I am enjoying the show immensely and am looking forward to the next episode.

So Jesus that was an very intense episode. I guess the "bear" is not a bear but some kind of monster/supernatural being? It can climb ropes up to the sails? Hmm.... Having said that, the most awful part of this episode was the brutal flogging scene. Ugh just ugh! What absolute barbarians these people were. I was beginning to have a certain sympathy for Crozier but now I can't stand the bastard and hope he has a long, drawn-out painful death at the bear's claws. He was totally vindictive and vicious. Also, I'm having problems with hearing some of the dialogue like others have mentioned and I just don't understand why the men were sentenced to being flogged? What did they do that merited such a punishment? I get the Irish guy's sentence was augmented because he kept arguing with Crozier but what did they do that was so bad in the first place?

Yup, that’s what drew me to this show at first too. Not only a Rome reunion but A Game of Thrones reunion too seeing as both actors are in that as well. No idea who Jared Harris is but he is doing a good job as the other Captain. So far, I've watched every episode I could find online so when can we discuss those?

I very much doubt it was illegal and it does say at the end of the paragraph, "there were no legal restrictions against intermarriages at the time". Of course, if you won't accept Wikipedia, there's nothing I can do about that though why anyone would like about that is beyond me. Frowned upon definitely (especially the higher in society you went) but illegal? No, never heard of such a law in the UK though it was apparently illegal in the colonies and then the US. That being said, I still don't think Silver would have had a problem with an African wife. He was quite low on the social scale and I doubt sailors and common people (especially in a port) would have been too bothered about an innkeeper cohabiting with an African woman. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/oct/04/mixed-race-britain-social-history As to Flint and Thomas, since they gave us a bit of an open ending, I prefer to think they only stayed in the plantation just as long as Flint felt like it. I can't imagine him not breaking out of such a flimsy prison the minute he decided he wanted out and taking Thomas with him.

Just a question I haven't seen addressed anywhere yet: does anyone else think that Thomas would have a huge problem recognizing Flint as James McGraw? I mean he looked so much younger in Series 2 and his hair was black (why, I wonder?). Then this much older looking, bald man comes up and he immediately recognizes James? They did a great job ageing TS - I thought Flint was unrecognizable as James - his faced alsomseemd so much more lined and wrinkled.

JS stated that they were always going to address slavery. Being that BS was about 18th century pirates in the Caribbean they knew they had to explore that institution that was integral to the islands. Whether Silver had found his African wife there or not, they were going to do a little more with slavery than having it as some horror going on in the background of pirate intrigue. Yes but the Maroon story was a minor part of BS. I saw them more as a part of the plot for the Pirates to gain allies than actually addressing slavery. That said, JS did say that he always found it fascinating that Silver would CHOOSE an African wife in a time when such a thing was illegal. So adding Madi (who wasn't apart of their early brainstorms about the Maroons), finding a way to incorporate the love story between her and Silver into all that was going on was probably gravy for him. Yes but was it actually illegal? I'm sure it wasn't in the UK though it might have been in colonies (what was definitely illegal was homosexuality and men were hung for it). And anyway, why would they have cared in Nassau (since it was a lawless territory) if Silver had an African wife? If Pirates stole, murdered, pillaged and raped, a minor thing like a white man living with a black woman would not have raised many eyebrows, I would think. "Inter-ethnic marriage began occurring more often in Britain since the 17th century, when the British East India Companybegan bringing over many Indian scholars, lascars,servants and workers. Though mixed marriages were not always accepted in British society, there were no legal restrictions against intermarriage at the time." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interracial_marriage

But anywho, I agree with Luke Arnold. Flint and crew were in the way of the Maroon story. I will say I also think part of the problem was they found out 1/2 way into filming season 4 that the show was being cancelled. Maybe if they got 1 more season, the Maroon story would have gotten more focus. I think you're wrong about them finding out the show was cancelled. It wasn't cancelled at all: the show runners decided they'd reached the end of the story and decided to end it on a high note. I think they knew they were ending it before the beginning of season 4. This story was always about Silver and Flint -- they were the focus of the series not the Maroons. I think the Maroons were only included to find a way to give Silver his "African wife" and thus tie it in with TI. I have to say I never really believed in the Silver/Madi love story. It seemed contrived and forced. Maybe it was the lack of chemistry between the two actors but it sure didn't work for me. I never really cared about the Maroon story - the main focus was always Flint and he was the one I always rooted for. His happy ending with Thomas was more than satisfying and (almost) made up for the end of an excellent series.

Flint has to be alive otherwise how did Billy get the map to the treasure in the book? It makes no sense to have Silver off him. Here's an interesting and convincing argument: http://uniwolfwerecorn.tumblr.com/post/159308610775/black-sails-the-finale-and-everything

Lol, obviously typo which I didn't notice at the time: Toby Stephens of course, :)

Totally agree. Toby Smith also deserves an Emmy for his performance. This was one of the best series ever. All the way up there with Rome and Game of Thrones. So sorry to see it end.

I totally agree with you. I was scared to death of watching the last episode because I love this show so much and just didn't want most of them to die (even Woodes Rogers, lol). So the general all round happy ending was a delightful surprise and even made up (somewhat) for the end of the series. And no matter how much people say that Silver really killed Flint, I refuse to believe it because they really gave us a choice at the end and I choose to believe the happy ending!

And Mrs. Hudson is played by Toby Stephen's wife Anna Louise Plowman. Lots of relations in this show. Louise Barnes, who played Miranda, is married to the actor who played Peter Ashe. So effectively, he was responsible for his wife's character's death, lol.