#my eyes always glaze over in this scene bc i see hodgson and john staring into space and i forget ned
Here's what this scene is about. Coming after the tragic death of Silna's father and the disrespect they treated his corpse with, this is the first scene where we are given seeds of how most of the crew thinks of the native people in the area. Edward suggests Silna's father's tongue could have been cut out as punishment (based on nothing but speculation on his part?), and "if that's what they do to their own, what would they do to us? We don't know how many they are and if Silna has gone off to muster them to attack us?" <- paraphrased
It's a scene to let us know the general attitude towards the Netsilik is bad; mistrustful, fearful, based on stories heard a world away-you're supposed to see how their lack of knowledge has already caused immense personal harm and that, through ignorance and fear, they will continue to do so. Ned's discomfort is representative of all the men's discomfort. It's the same discomfort that leads to the guns being handed out under false pretenses of an attack in the fog. It's the same discomfort that makes him believe the Netsilik killed John. This scene is your first hint that Crozier is one of the only people who not only knows anything about them, but is not going to jump to conclusions and chose violence against them when scared.
Crozier's flaws include poor communication, but his frustration here is legitimate. Edward's distorted, racist view of the local people is the point of this entire scene. If you can look past the racism embedded in Edward's concerns to see from Edward's POV, that Edward is coming at this the best way he knows how (from a racist and colonialist society's perspective, his only perspective) and doesn't have better language to handle the conversation, one can also see that Crozier recognizes the deep offenses and harm they've already caused and is frustrated that his crew is so willing to turn hostile when they're in the wrong, and he also doesn't have better language to communicate this. Crozier has a lot of scenes he deserves hands thrown, but not this one. The show actually perfectly illustrates Crozier's deserving of being punched in the scene where he actually does get punched.
