I don't think I'll ever be over the tragedy of the black sails s2 flashbacks. Like imagine finally finding so much love and opening yourself up and being vulnerable and learning that maybe this thing that you've been taught is vulnerable and dangerous and dark can actually be life-changingly beautiful and then it's all torn away in such a sudden and brutal and violent way. Like in some ways it was always going to happen, from the perspective of the audience we know that Flint and Miranda end up in Nassau without Thomas, who is (most likely as far as we know atp) dead, and we know this is a show about the brutality and bigotry of the British empire, of how it will destroy anything and anyone to ensure its continuity, and how a lack of conformity presents the perfect opportunity to turn people into monsters and enact this destruction. We know from this that Thomas, Miranda, and James will never have their happy queer polycule. We (the audience) know tragedy is inevitable. But to the characters, it's so preventable: if only they'd been more careful, if only James hadn't confronted Alfred Hamilton or made it to Hennesy before he did or gone to save Thomas. It's obviously not his fault, we know this, but how could he? How could that not reinforce a latent belief that queerness is dangerous and dark and monstrous? They could have been happy. They never could have been happy. As time goes on it matters less and less.
