TRAPPED IN THE 18TH CENTURY

Everything comes to its end one day. Even the golden days of piracy. And our protagonists know it well. The main topic of this episode is talking about Afterwards.  

Although Eleanor has a body of a weak and feeble woman, she has the heart and stomach...eh, never mind... I just wanted to say, she is living a quite masculine life. She is a boss, manages her business, and after the working hours, she visits the local brothel and pays for a girl. Like an average male costumer. Well, actually, she isn’t an average customer, she pays so much, that she has "exclusive rights", as we learn it a bit later, when Max gives only a handjob to a man because of the agreement with Eleanor.          

Anyway, the women are lamenting about the main topic of the episode: what if the appear of the Scarborough is the first sign of civilization is coming. (And we know very well from the first episode, it sounds so much more terrifying than “winter is coming”.)   

A pirate’s life can be hard, even after his death. The sailors of Flint’s ship just pissing on Mr. Singleton. ( I mean literally. On his corpse.) Billy can’t believe, what he did and shows the empty paper to Mr. Gates. It looks like not everyone is convinced by Flint of his leadership. There are at least three men who might be planning a mutiny. One of them is the old weird man, Randall who has to work with Silver together in the kitchen, and he just tells Pirate Ken, he doesn’t like thieves. Meanwhile, Mr. Gates realizes the previous cook couldn't commit suicide by just stabbing a blade in his own back. (Haha, it sounds like an old Hungarian joke about a victim of the Soviet KGB, who shot himself in the back while fleeing. ) Silver knows, he has to try to run away. 

Which is not so easy, when you’re on a ship. And she has an accurate accountant, who doesn’t allow you to take a boat. It’s not your turn, boy, you have to wait. Silver won’t wait. 

And....spla-a-a-a-a-a-a-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh.    

Pirate Ken is a funny guy, isn’t he? And obviously, a smart one, because he asks for different directions from different people on the beach. Mr. Gates is just scratching his nice round head, what to do now. Fun fact, the accountant tipped right: Silver wanted to go eagerly to the brothel. But for a totally different reason, everybody might have thought.           

Another everyday scene from the life of a young businesswoman: a misogynist (and also a quite racist) new captain arrives in the harbor and he doesn’t want to make business with Eleanor. She has tits! Horrible! Also, Captain Vane, our Wannabe-Badass-Guy arrives, and I should be maybe more respectful with him because he seemingly has a reputation. After introducing himself to the other captain, the mab changes his mind and agrees on the business with Eleanor. Actually, Vane looks quite normal in the daylight, even humble, while sitting in front of Eleanor and begging for a job. As Jack, the guy with the weird beard ( actually Vane’s quartermaster ) pointed out before, they have not enough information attacking a merchant ship with a really valuable cargo since Eleanor and Vane broke up. Eleanor says it’s not personal, it’s business. ( You can try Eleanor, but they never ever will believe it. Trust me, I know, what about I’m talking, a.k.a. the life of a young businesswoman chapter 124365956925493917)        

By the way, Jack accepted Max’s offer and wants to pay with pearls. It’s the crew members' property. And no here come the...

 Tits? 

What the hell is happening?

Two men are observing two paintings. One of them is an original masterwork, and the other, well.. it's not. But one of the two men can’t spot the difference. He sees tits, fruits, and plants on both of the paintings, and it seems to be enough for him. Probably he wants to sell them as a part of a prey.

 And he is just saying and saying again: fruits - fruits, tits-tits... 

I l-l-love absurd humor. Really.     

So, I have something common with Mr. Gates, who is observing and enjoying the scene. Billy is with him, still concerned about what happened on the ship, but Gates tells him, he did the best he could: he protected the crew. They aren’t here just for fun, the other one, not the Tits-Tits-Man, is a certain Mr. Fraiser, an appraiser. Mr. Gates knows, he must be the key to where to find Silver. And voilá, Mr. Fraiser goes to the brothel to meet Max and Jack. He verifies the value of the pearls. But news travell fast, even when based on false information: Vane wants to stop the business. He "knows", that Flint killed Singleton for the schedule. Jack seems to be a smart guy and puts the pieces of the story (including Flint lying to his own crew) together. But Silver is approximately three seconds smarter than him and he is able to escape from the brothel.  

Meanwhile, Flint tells Eleanor the story of the Urca de Lima and talks about his utopia: with the help of the money, the pirates can settle down and starting a normal life inside of this island. Dear Flint, it sounds like the pirates himself would bring that terrifying civilization into their own life. Anyway, Eleanor has more information than any other, she even realizes, what Max was talking about in the morning, and knows, the girl is ina big trouble. But she refuses to go and starting a new life with here anywhere else. Of course, she would never leave her Miss Bossy life behind her.

From Max’s point of view, it looks like she was betrayed by Eleanor and later she decides to go anyway. She is able to escape from her room, only Anne Bonney, the woman with the big hat follows her. 

In the dark, Vane and Jack want to get the schedule, but Silver only sends messengers with meaningless messages. Of course, the pirates kill them. A bit later Jack lost the pearl by falling into the water.

Also, Billy and Flint arrive at the place and start chasing Silver. At the end, Pirate Ken has no other choice, than memorizing the content of the paper and burning it. Now Flint has a very good reason not to kill him. 

Smart. 

[Sing me a song of a ]... hey, hey, that’s an anachronism, the song about Bonnie Prince Charles couldn’t exist before he was born! I don't really know what Eleanor and Mr. Scott talking about because I’m focusing on the song. Sorry. 

#funfact

ON THIS DAY

ON THIS DAY

ON THIS DAY 

#OTD

(OK, it’s a test. As a writer/journalist I love to write recaps of TV-series on my special ironical way, which bases on a deeper knowledge of my own mother language, Hungarian. It’s like etudes for musicians, little nice pieces to practice. But I want to try it in English too, I want to find my voice, my style. Therefore I’ve chosen a series, which fits in the time period 18th-century, and I know, that it suits also my way of thinking about history and storytelling. So, let the fun begin! ) 

Time and place: 1715, West Indies.  

A merchant ship is attacked by pirates. Everyone is preparing for the fight, except for one man, who is looking suspicious. He just tears a page out of a book and tries to hide under the deck. And then, another guy comes. Dark curly hair (is that a wig?) and bright blue eyes. He smiles like an idiot, thus he looks more suspicious. Very suspicious. He recognizes, that the other one, who is the cook of the ship, hides something. They both mention a certain Captain Flint, probably the leader of the pirates. 

The pirates seized the ship and before the slaughtering goes too far, a guy with green eyes (I can recognize him, he is Toby  Stephens! I know he is in the show) stops: It’s enough. The captain of the defeated crew agrees.

A bit older, bald man, called Mr. Gates (seems to be a nice and reasonable person) finds the guy with the curly hair, who says, his name is John Silver and he happens to be a very good cook. Probably a big lie, because the real cook is lying dead on the floor. Later, as  Silver is accepted as a cook, we can see, that he has the mysterious paper. Obviously, that’s why the real cook had to die. 

But before that, we learn from the dialogue between Mr. Gates and Captain Flint (he the one, who is played by Toby! Toby is the captain!), that this piece of paper is what they’re searching for. But Flint didn’t tell it to the crew, and they are dissatisfied with the prey they found on this ship. And on a few other ships before. That’s why the not-nice-bald-man, Mr. Singleton is angry either. He wants to be a captain. Democracy is on course among the pirates, there will be a vote. Mr. Gates warns Captain Flint, that he has not enough votes. Maybe it would be worth to speak about the purpose of their attack. Even the defeated captain, now bonded to the mast, knows, Flint is unable to keep under control his own crew.  

(Do I hear correctly? Is this a music by  Bear McCreary? Yep. Exactly. It is. ) 

Finally, the ship reaches Nassau (New Providence Island). The sea looks incredibly turquoise. The island is free, not under English command, it belongs to the pirates now. Silver seems to like it. He wants to know more about the paper he has and learns that most of the books are in the captain’s cabin. But he has to wait to find the right one because the members of the crew take him to ‘Blackbeard”, who is a woman, and she wears her “beard” not on her face. Yepp, exactly, Silver is in a brothel. The pirates were very generous with their new colleague, he is now with at least four girls. After the thingy, he is unable to find his precious sheet of paper, because one of the girls (with a strong French accent) took it. She wants a deal, and Silver admits, he has not a clue, what this paper is for. 

Another new place, other new characters, a young blond woman (not a meek and obedient type), the boss of the tavern and her black adviser. Mr. Gates wants money for bribing (? or is it a normal thing here? ) some crewmembers before the big vote. The adviser doesn’t think it’s a good idea, the woman, Miss Eleanor Guthrie, just for spite, gives the required sum. 

Meanwhile Flint and Dickon Tarly, um.. er... sorry... Billy Bones (Tom Hopper) meets the father, Mr. Guthrie, and finally, we learn what is the schedule for. There is a big treasure galleon, the Urca de Lima, which carries gold in the worth of 5 million Spanish Dollars. She doesn't have an escort ship, her route is enciphered in a captain’s log. Finally, we understand why Mr. Gates wanted Billy to go with Flint, he is quite short-tempered, forcing Mr. Gurthrie to collaborate, but then suddenly the captain of the Royal Navy ship Scarborough arrives, and everybody wants to look like a polite lady drinking their five-o-clock tea. The captain isn’t that stupid, he knows, there is something wrong with this scene. Interesting, how he talks about civilization, which based on gossips and rumors and the power of humiliation by them. We don’t know what the end of the scene is, but certainly somebody shot Mr Guthrie. 

Mr. Gates has a meeting with an old black man, who (and his men) is to be paid for the right votes. But here come some other new characters: a tall and skinny guy with weird facial hair, a young woman with a big hat, and someone who eagerly wants to look and sound like a very very badass guy. He is Captain Vane, and even here, in the Bahamas, he definitely seems to spend too much time in the tanning salon. He really looks like his own parody. (He is much more self-parodistic, than Silver.) By the way, the old man is killed, unfortunately. Besides, that killing is a bad, bad thing, this doesn’t look good before the vote.  

Later, Captain Vane arrives in the tavern, happy to see Eleanor. But she punches him in the face, and the man hits back. Well, well, equality means equality in every aspect. Miss Bossy isn’t delighted about the news, that the old man is killed, because it means, that her money is wasted for nothing.  

I have never ever thought before, how terrifying the sentence can sound: civilization is coming. This is the topic of the conversation between Flint and Billy the next morning. Also, Mr. Guthrie is with them, but we can’t learn his opinion about the topic, because he is just lying unconscious. (But he is probably not dead.) 

And here we go, this is the moment of the vote. Flint is holding a speech about the schedule. He talks a lot, but I guess, he is not entirely honest with the crew. Well, he is definitely lying to the crew about the schedule is stolen by Singleton. There will be a duel, which doesn’t sound good because Singleton looks not just taller but much stronger. But Flint is really obsessed with his captainship and the schedule and beats the shit out of his rival.

YOLOE, Mr. Singleton (you live only one episode), you weren’t the real villain. But who then? Flint? Well, he looks really terrifying. After the fight, Billy confirms his lie, he tells the crew that the empty paper given to him by Flint isn’t empty, this is the schedule. 

Actually, I was never interested in time-travel stories f. e. like Dr. Who, where the protagonist visits different periods to solve cases. Neither I was thinking too much about in which era I would like to live, if not in my own one. 

History is something that I like to observe purposely from the point of view of the 21st century.  

As a literary historian, I like historical fiction with a tension between the era, when the story is told and the era the story is set in the most. (Mostly stories about academic researches or other kinds of investigations in the 20th or 21st century connected to the past). When I first heard about the Outlander, I found this kind of tension exciting, because I know, that the 18th century is quite important in the Scottish cultural memory. (Cultural memory and its representation in fictional novels are one of my favourite research topics.)   

On the other hand, I think it’s a very important factor in storytelling, that the readers feel emotionally affected by, or involved in the story on some level. When the reader is personally interested in the fate of one or other (or even all of the) characters. 

Nevertheless, time-traveling is a wonderful illusion, something that only exists in the human imagination. When someone follows such a long story like Outlander, soon or later must hit by the question: what is to be dropped in another time would be like? In my post below I selected four moments from the TV-adaptation, which really gave me chills.

4. Entering Versailles (S02E02)  

When Claire (Caitriona Balfe) enters the big ballroom in the palace, she looks around and tries to realize, she is really in Versailles, in the court of Luis XV That’s insane! It’s not just about, she can meet a king and lots of other privileged people at a fancy event. It’s beyond the imaginable. It’s the past, it’s history, for God’s sake!

3. Reading your own signature on a two and a half centuries old  historical record (S02E13)

The finale of the second season is one of the best episodes of the show so far. The 20 years jump in the 20th-century timeline, the first scene with the adult Roger (Richard Rankin) is already quite thrilling, and the rhythm of switching between the two centuries makes it even better. 

Claire has been kept, what she promised in 1948, and she was never researching about the 1745 Jacobite Rising again, till her husband, Frank (Tobias Menzies) was alive. But after his death, she immediately wanted to know, what happened with Jamie (Sam Heughan) and all the others she knew from the past. In Inverness, she asks for documents connected to Lallybroch and learns, that their plan right before the Battle of Culloden has succeeded, the Murry family possessed the estate for generations.

Nice and funny, but yeat a very chilling moment, when the archivist gives her a document and is talking about the persons, who gave their signature. One of them is blurred, but the woman is sure, that the person must have been a Fraser too. And Claire knows exactly, who she might have been: herself because it’s her own signature. (Later in this episode, we could learn the cause, why the text is blurred.)

2. Roger meets Fergus (s04E08) 

When I say, that the reader, or in this case the audience should be emotionally involved in the story, I’m rather talking of this kind of tiny moments: oh, dear, two characters we know very well are interacting without knowing each other. That’s amazing! And sad at the very same time. Annoying some way, because Fergus (Cesar Domboy) could help Roger to find Claire at least (don’t forget, Roger knows not only Brianna, from the 20th  century, but Claire too). 

Probably this is the moment when we can feel Roger’s loneliness in his action to follow Bree in the past. Not when he crosses the ship eventually on Bonnet’s ship, neither during the mohawk story. But, here, in this moment, when we know, it could be everything so easy, when someone would introduce them to each other. 

Whishing this, of course, is an emotionally affected point of view. On the other hand, we know very well, when everything could be solved so easily, there wouldn’t be any story.      

1. Bree’s first steps in the 18th century (S04E07)

I never thought I would see such an almost perfect visualization, what time traveling would be like. Brianna (Sophie Skelton), a young woman alone in the middle of nothing, the bare, but partly snow-covered landscape. Our 20th (and 21st) century life is crowded, cozy and warm. The past, this hard imaginable terra incognita is cold and bare.  

 in the London area took place in Tothill Fields in Westminster in 1711 between Colonel Richard Thornhill and Sir Cholmley Deering. Dering was dining at an inn on 7 May 1711 when he became involved in an argument with Thornhill. The duel took place on 9 May 1711. Both men fired at once, but only Deering was hit. He died soon after.   

Building of the day: Corn Exchange, Bristol

Built: 1741-43

Architect: John Wood the Elder 

It’s the only surviving 18th-century exchange building in England. 

The clock at the front of the building has two minute hands (installed in the middle of the 19th century) and it’s showing both the Greenwich Mean Time and the “local time” (10 minutes late to London).