burn brighter

Gates happily saying, "Captain Gates" to himself alone is such a cute and bittersweet moment knowing how everything goes down.

ALERT: Long-suffering diva De Groot finally spotted!!

My boy Billy gets unanimously voted in as quartermaster but the question of the dreaded fuck tent dampens the celebration 😔

Didn't realize De Groot also does not care for the fuck tent idea. Or any other idea being put forth. Which is his right! Let the diva SPEAK 🔊

Silver is delighted to see the entire crew disagreeing with the frenemy he can't seem to win over:

Aaand now it's Louise Barnes' turn to be naked onscreen. And all for the most uncomfortable sex scene over 4 seasons of this show. There is something so unbearably sad & lonely about Miranda crying in front of Flint and him offering only empty words and a forehead kiss. Introducing them at the lowest point in their relationship when their grief has eroded their connection and ability to communicate to such a degree is pretty diabolical framing on the part of the writers, and I despise that so many people have deliberately misunderstood that in order to somehow claim their relationship was platonic and not romantic & sexual.

Unless I'm mistaken this episode marks the first "fuck you Jack" of the series - first from Vane, then from Anne. Fuck Jack indeed.

Flint watching shirtless Billy working with the crew, maybe only now realizing just how fuckable he is.. I know what you are, sir.

There are enough bad parental figures on the show but I might resent Richard Guthrie the most? An unrepentant failure of a father who is such a fucking baby he gave her the silent treatment in the last episode and talks about resenting her before ensuring the destruction of her reputation and power in this one. You're the parent, you fucking loser, she's the one who gets to resent YOU.

"Places like this aren't meant to last." He had a point. He could see how things would shake out, at least in the short term.

On Fathoms Deep they talk about loving seeing Billy be so competent and all business when he's on the job and I'm with them on that. I really appreciate seeing that he has some qualities of a good leader. I also keep thinking about them pointing out that he tells those 2 crew members to fix their mistake when they tied some rigging to the wrong palm but he doesn't stay to ensure they do it, just assumes they will. Which of course they don't, because so many of them will always take the easy way out when it's presented. Billy should know better, shouldn't he? He has a lot to learn, but he's only gonna learn the worst shit under Flint.

Silver having the audacity to approach Flint and ask him, "What are we going to do about Billy?" in episode 4 of the series is wild work. It does result in Flint lying multiple times about trusting/giving a shit about Billy though and that tickles me.

Classic Flint quote: "Nobody will believe it's possible until we show them. But when that day comes, you know what they'll say? They'll say that it was inevitable."

Flint running in to save Cat Dad Randall might be the first time we see him do something like that for a crew member. I can't say I can read his intentions with it - was he taking Silver's concerns about Billy & the mutiny seriously and thought a move like that would help get more crew onside? Doesn't really matter cause it ended up killing the strongest voice against him, renewing the anger and giving Billy a healthy dose of guilt for briefly siding with Flint against his own instincts.

Gates called Billy son 🥹

I've seen it called a betrayal that Miranda took Richard Guthrie up on his offer, but I'd argue Flint betrayed Miranda first by stranding her all alone in the interior friendless and disliked, knowing it was slowly killing her but pretending he didn't. Though I'm not sure calling either a betrayal is even entirely correct - the slow decay of a relationship wherein both partners stopped tending to it long ago is more a tragedy than anything else.

Favourite look:

The introduction of my beloved Miranda. She feels even sadder this time around. Even while Flint is smiling and actually looking happy for once, Miranda clearly isn't.

The Fathoms Deep ladies commented on how ambiguous their relationship is portrayed here (it doesn't necessarily come off as romantic) and I suppose that's true. But there's a very obvious lived-in intimacy. Flint is unusually open in her presence and she obviously knows the details of his goals that no one else knows fully.

When Miranda goes outside to find Gates wheeling Richard Guthrie to her, I noticed something for the first time: workers in the background, presumably slaves. I'd always thought she just had her garden and took care of it herself cause I didn't remember ever seeing anyone else around so this changes things. It looked like it had to be her own property, not a neighbour's. Is it common knowledge that Miranda had slaves work her property or am I misunderstanding something? That seems to work against the idea of her as this solitary mysterious figure no one knows the truth about. She mentions Pastor Lambrick setting up spies to watch her, which doesn't seem like it would be necessary if there were already people working on her property everyday.

Alright so I clearly wasn't paying close attention before cause now her yard is full of goats and there are more slaves wandering around. I clearly missed a lot on my first watch.

"I told her I would protect her. Did she not believe me?" Girl what??? The thing about Eleanor is that she lies to herself in a way that is so familiar to me that it sometimes makes my skin crawl. That's good writing but also so hard to watch. I know so many Eleanors, and have parts of her in me too and who wants to see the worst parts of themselves onscreen?