‘Black Sails’ season 3, episode 4 review: Great (Mr.) Scott!
Sometimes, we struggle to come up with the perfect way to describe an episode of a show like “Black Sails”; however, this one was not exactly hard. You just have to look at the title above for evidence of that!
The big news that came through this installment was the reveal that none other than Mr. Scott was the king-of-sorts for the slave island, the same one that Flint and company now find themselves on. Who saw this coming? This was the perfect way to give this character more to do, and to connect this place to everything that we’ve seen on the show so far. While this means that the Queen is not ruling on her own, we think that in some ways, this gives her even more power that this connection exists.
Is it possible that Silver could lead eventually some sort of coup using some family troubles to his advantage? At the moment, that’s one of our prevailing theories as to where this story is going.
As a whole, we’d say that this installment had a little bit more of an ensemble feel than the past few. Also, there was a lot of action (tremendous sequences, even if they are hard to really put into words) and a few other key revelations to boot: Vane saw more of the connection between Eleanor and Woodes, and also seeing Ben Gunn on the island. The nods to “Treasure Island” seem to be escalated, and that should make almost everyone intrigued as to where season 4 could be going.
As a whole, we don’t know how you couldn’t like this episode if you enjoy the trajectory of this season so far. The Mr. Scott reveal caught us off guard, and more so than that the action in here was top-notch and more than anything, earned. We’re not counting out Captain Flint and company just yet, even if things do not exactly look that great for them at this particular moment. Grade: A-.
CheGuevara
February 14, 2016 @ 8:22 pm
We know main Black Sails characters like Flint,
Silvers, Vane will live on in this prequel to Treasure Island; putting
tension on the how is what makes it interesting. Now Scott’s
motivations become clear – his loyalties were to his own “empire” and he
squirreled things away to them while understandably keeping it secret
from everyone else. If this is the future Treasure Island, he must at
least live long enough to vouch for Silvers and/or Flint.
As an aside, it also shows how the dynamics of race and class effected the evolution of European based slavery and how using Africans became the norm as Europeans colonized the American continents. The slavery stock was displaced from their homelands/ethnic groups and also easily identifiable from those enslaving them and the local native people. For example, Vane was an escaped slave turned pirate, Scott, a freed slave officially under the watch of whomever the ruling white male islander. Vane’s color allowed him to blend in and/or escape his captors – even rule those who would follow him based on his strength. He could give orders to newly captured black slaves who could not differentiate between him and their ruling white captors. Scott did not have that luxury since his color made it easy for anyone to separate him from Europeans and even in that environment “freed(wo)men” had less rights/mobility than their white counterparts. So his accommodating attitude was a unfortunate necessity to support a very secret enclave of ex-slaves.
sigrid28
February 15, 2016 @ 12:24 am
Throughout the eighteenth century, groups of escaped slaves in the Americas were known as “maroons,” which is the term used for them within “Black Sails.” This is the first plotline in three years that addresses successfully Starz’s promise to provide programming for niche audiences like women and minorities.