#bs randall

an analysis of my favorite piece of death foreshadowing

To start, a definition is probably in order: “The Murder Rope” is my nickname for the footrope that Silver’s gold-stealing accomplice frays in 2x08 to murder their wayward third accomplice on what he believed to be Silver’s order. The rope itself is just one part of what, in my opinion, is some of the most delicious foreshadowing I have ever seen so that’s what this post is about.

But before we get into that, let’s talk about Randall real quick for some context.

When he’s introduced in the first episode, we immediately learn that both Silver and Billy have, at various points, taken over his jobs (as cook and boatswain, respectively). People Replacement is a pretty significant theme in Black Sails and usually indicates a parallel between the person being replaced and the person doing the replacing, so Randall could be said to represent both Silver and Billy in this respect.

Furthermore, everything he does as a character involves one or both of them in some way, with his last significant action being preventing them from killing each other in 2x05. There truly is no better example of what I’m talking about here than Randall’s echoing 1x01’s “We like Randall.” back at Billy about Silver (“We like him.”) and then to Silver about Billy (“We like him too.”) 

So, onto 2x08! In the scene which precedes Silver giving his accidentally-fatal “look,” he is giving a speech to the men about a hanging that he supposedly witnessed in Charles Town. The last shot of Randall alive that we ever see is over Silver mentioning “a gallows.”

Billy is also listening to this and easily clocks Silver’s story as fraudulent, re-appropriated pieces of other crewmen’s stories, but Scott replies that Silver’s power over its telling renders its truth or untruth irrelevant. And, re: Silver’s Look, we find out immediately after this that Silver’s power over the men extends beyond storytelling and that he already has the ability to move them to murder their fellows on what was thought to be his order. But, despite noting the fake story right away, Billy never learns of Silver’s part in the murder, or even that it was a murder in the first place. He’s impressed by Silver’s power over a story but fails to note the danger he poses... Pretty on-the-nose foreshadowing for the mechanism with which Silver betrays him in 4x05, I would say.

On that note, let’s talk about the death curse! The ship’s riggers refuse to touch the ropes, citing the death which has occurred as a bad omen, so Billy has to go up and fix the severed footrope himself. It’s while he’s working on this that Silver finds Randall murdered and Vane’s crew boards the ship (the scene cuts back and forth repeatedly between Billy working on the ropes, none the wiser to any danger, and Silver discovering Randall’s corpse). 

Arguably then, this is the symbolic payoff for the death omen: Billy touches the rope which was (accidentally) cursed by Silver and Randall, who represents both of them, dies, the “gallows” moment being foreshadowing of this. But I’d argue that there’s even more here: Billy touched the rope, it’s his curse. So how does that pan out?

After taking the ship, Vane pulls Billy aside one-on-one to try to convince him to join his crew but Billy refuses, apparently leaving Vane with no choice but to kill him. Before this can happen however, Silver cuts the forestay, distracting Vane and buying enough time for him to see the logic in Billy’s argument, allowing the crew to live. Billy later passes this off as a much more vague situation (“If you hadn't have cut that forestay, there's an argument to be made that Vane would have set sail right away and probably killed us all.”), but, in truth, Billy’s life was the one that Silver most directly (indirectly) saved.

Additionally, Silver’s cutting the forestay could be considered the inverse of the Murder Rope: a rope tampered with to save lives rather than destroy them. And, indeed, it temporarily inverts Billy’s death curse by saving him from immediate danger.

However, the severing of the forestay being what properly kicks off Silver’s rise to power, I’d argue that it, sort of like Randall’s intervention, was only delaying the inevitable as far as Billy’s fate goes. From Scott’s telling Billy in 2x08: “At the moment [Silver] is using [his power over a story] to help the captain, but God help us if he ever realizes what else he could use it to accomplish,” to Silver’s losing his leg in the finale, the first inklings of Long John Silver were born in the last three episodes of season two.

Finally, speaking of gallows, have an excerpt from Treasure Island, as a treat:

‘When I got back with the basin, the doctor had already ripped up the captain’s sleeve and exposed his great sinewy arm. It was tattooed in several places. “Here’s luck,” “A fair wind,” and “Billy Bones his fancy,” were very neatly and clearly executed on the forearm; and up near the shoulder there was a sketch of a gallows and a man hanging from it—done, as I thought, with great spirit.

He took pretty great care of Randall. Treated him like an equal, while also being terrified of being seen as obsolete, as Randall was seen by the crew. SO... the crew... is who treated Randall pretty shittily. John was the one who helped keep Randall on the ship a bit longer, by agreeing to make a deal with him.

Silver did not treat Randall like an equal. He took care of him—which is not the same thing as treating someone well—because Randall blackmailed him into it. Here’s the first conversation about Randall in the show:

Billy: Here, every man is equal. All right? Silver: Even him? Billy: Randall was the ship's boatswain before he got beaten to within an inch of his life while taking a prize. He lost his wits, but not our loyalty. We like Randall. You, we'll see. 

What Billy says here holds up: the men are never seen treating Randall poorly or even that differently. But Silver initially laughs at the idea that someone who’s “lost his wits” is equal to other men.

Here’s a conversation from episode IV, to demonstrate the general tone of the crew’s relationship with Randall: 

Morley: Shove over, Randall. The shade's mine for the next hour. Don't want no arguments. Randall: Did you bring me barnacle? Morley: Oh, fuck. Sorry, mate. I forgot. Randall: You promised. For Betsy. Morley: You're right. Hold my spot.

Morley, who is certainly closer and kinder to Randall than most but not in a remarkable way, treats him with as much respect as he would any other member of the crew. 

The only time the crew ever treated Randall poorly (on screen, at least) was when they argued that having a one-legged, brain damaged cook was a fire-hazard. That was a council decision, and no individual crew member is seen firmly in favor. Most of them seem to regret that this has to happen, and it’s described as “a raw deal.” More importantly, the only reason Silver stopped them from kicking him off the crew was because if he didn’t, Randall was going to testify against him and he would probably end up dead. That’s not treating someone well, or equally, or...anything. That’s just Silver’s survival instinct.

The reason I even brought this up was because a friend of mine was watching the show for the first time, and asked why Randall didn’t want to wear the prosthetic leg in 108. I thought about it for a while, and my opinion is that while it’s mostly there to set up Randall’s rescue of Silver later in the ep, it’s also a way to showcase Silver’s attitude towards Randall and disability in general. He doesn’t ask why Randall doesn’t want to wear the boot, he doesn’t make a serious effort to help him, he doesn’t hold back from complaining about the difficulty of helping take care of Randall, etc. If someone treated Silver like that after he lost his leg, the rest of the crew probably would’ve jumped them. 

-  Not a cat person. Now, Billy doesn’t exactly hate cats, he’s just too busy to sit down, and not move for an hour because the damn feline insists on sleeping in his lap. Randall being Randall, obviously doesn’t take this very well, which is something he had to find out the hard way. The first time he tried to move Betsy off of his lap, Randall let out the loudest, angriest screech he had ever heard (which resulted in him jumping up in shock, bumping his head against the ceiling, and everyone laughing at him) and then proceeded to come after Billy with one of his soup spoons. It took Randall two weeks to stop spitting in his bowl.

- Like every person, Billy has made a few mistakes in his life. One of those mistakes was saying the words “I don’t believe in mermaids” in front of the wrong people. He spent the rest of the evening listening to rather questionable stories of mermaids doing the most absurd things imaginable (one man claimed that a mermaid temporarily turned him into a goldfish once. Billy didn’t have the heart to tell him goldfish didn’t live in the sea.) He wasn’t sure if those men were just incredibly drunk, or if they genuinely believed in mermaids, but he promised himself to never even mention the word “mermaid” again. Nor would he ever admit to anyone how he’d sometimes stare out into the ocean, searching the waters for a sign of them.

- Has a little brother, but never tells anyone about him. Every now and then, he writes a letter to the kid, telling stories about fearsome, but loyal pirates, and the odd things that happen in Nassau. He never sends any of the letters, too afraid of what his brother, or even the rest of his family would think, but it helps him feel a bit better whenever he’s homesick.

Black Sails Moomin AU - PART II.  (Part I here).

I couldn’t resist doing more of these a couple of months ago and this has been sitting in my drafts since then and now I finally decided to post it. If you are not familiar with the Moomins and/or Black Sails, then this probably doesn’t make any sense, but anyway... Please, do not repost elsewhere :D