01x03 - The Man Who k*lled Blackbeard

[bunniefuu]

Previously on Crossbones...

Your assignment is to eliminate the pirate.

Blackbeard.

We don't use that name here.

What are the terms of your tenancy?

I'm to serve as this island's surgeon.

I'd like you to help my husband.

I get headaches.

And are these headaches accompanied by visions?

You cannot trust Valentine.

Finally see the fabled unknown king.

[Grunts] Ah!

Find who sent these men!

I'm not responsible for the as*ault on the commodore, but I'm compelled to accept that not everyone here will believe me.

Tom Lowe is innocent.

Lucky old innocent you.

All that to get what you wanted.

If I'd done in myself, I might have come across as disagreeable.

I'm glad you didn't hang.

Not half as glad as I.

[Indistinct whispering]

Father!

Father!

I have to go.

So early?

sl*ve to the tides.

What do you mean?

We're an island. We need provisions.

Meat, grain, wine.

Life here doesn't work without trade.

We'd starve.

Where are you going?

Not too far.

The trading post on Adderley Cay.

Too far out of the way for the English to pay much attention to it.

It's an outpost, really, run by a debauched old priest with about a thousand children.

But the risk to you, if you were to be captured.

I've done this a hundred times.

I'll be fine.

[Indistinct whispering]

Father!

Help!

[Screaming]

[Gasps]

Nelly.

[Moans]

What's wrong?

Oh!

[Crying and moaning]

Hey.

It's one of my girls.

[Moaning]

How long has she been in labor?

Too long.

I took it for a fever.

Well, sometimes it happens after eating shellfish, sweats, cramps.

But there were no signs. Her stomach was flat.

She bled.

It's Nelly, isn't it?

[Breathing heavily]

My name's Tom.

I know.

With your permission, I'm going to examine you.

[Moans]

[Grunts]

I can feel the baby.

Oh, there can't be a baby.

There can't. There was no baby yesterday.

Then God has given you a gift.

But the infant's in the wrong position.

The head's pointing this way.

We need it to be pointing down.

[Panting]

[Groaning]

I think I can turn the baby around.

Have you ever brought forth a child?

Mmm, no.

Mmm?

But I've read about it in a book.

Hmm?

It was a very good book.

[Groans]

[Moaning]

[Indistinct whispering]

Father!

[Screams]

[Crying]

Help!

[Crying]

[Yelling]

[Screeches]

[Grunting]

[Sighs]

Is this it?

My share from the petrel, yeah.

And yet... and yet what?

I've been watching you very closely, and I do believe I noticed a spot of petty larceny.

You did?

And what form did this larceny take?

I saw you secrete certain items about your person, items that were unreported to the quartermaster.

Scandalous.

You concealed that like a cheap conjurer.

And how would I do that?

[Laughing]

You're back!

Ah, bonjour!

Guten morgen! Beunos dias.

Buongiorno.

Father Daniel.

Were there always so many children?

Well, I was celibate, until the lord commanded me to be fruitful and increase in number.

Allez! Geh!

Raus, raus!

Andelez!

Vamanos!

Why do you never bring your crew ashore?

They'd get drunk and embarrass me.

Hmm.

How's trade?

Flat.

Oh, if you're to be believed, trade's always flat.

It's what makes you such a valued patron.

[Both laugh]

But how can I oblige you today?

We've goat and mutton.

No pork and still no beef.

A year now, a year without beef.

I've rum, wine, pepper.

I'll need a price for these.

Hoy. Roger, coffees.

Quickly, quickly. Imshi!

We've obtained a consignment of coffee, if you're interested.

No call for it.

Have you ever tried it?

Never tried it. Never missed it.

Then you don't know what you're missing.

Try before you buy.

I'm not buying.

So try! [Laughs]

Shall we discuss a figure?

Oh, I'll give you the best price.

I know you will, eventually.

But why should I cut short the pleasure I take in your company?

The only pleasure that you get outside the bedchamber is turning an outrageous profit.

It's sport to you.

Sadly, it's the only sport I have left in me.

Then you'll be vexed to know that I sail on the next tide with or without settling.

I'll head to Santa Maria and sell those for twice the price.

But at three times the distance, and I can smell a storm in the air.

It'll be a fraught and distressing journey.

But a profitable one.

[Laughs]

♪ In behind the old turf wall ♪
♪ I sense there lies ♪
♪ a new slain knight ♪
♪ nobody knows ♪
♪ yes, the wind will blow ♪
♪ for evermore ♪

Have you ever heard of that?

A mother not knowing?

The world is full of wonders.

Will she prosper?

Oh, she's very strong.

Good.

Good, good, good.

She's our first.

Do you believe she was born into sin, this sweet creature?

I don't know, sir.

Because where's the justice in that philosophy?

I can see very little.

There is none.

And yet, it's no easy thing to look upon a newborn and then spit in the eye of God.

Until you see a newborn sicken and die.

The spitting becomes easier after that.

There are those who consider me to be evil simply because I've committed depravities.

But I don't believe that to be so.

Evil is no more than a cogent riposte for the world you and I were born into.

It will be different for this child.

She'll be free from it all, the inequities that we had to accept as part of the natural order, king and country, God in heaven.

[Cooing]

My headaches are growing worse and more frequent, and the apparitions that attend them more vivid.

What do you see?

A spectre.

Of whom?

A woman.

I don't know who.

So tell me, will I live long enough to finish what I've begun?

This is a lovely piece.

Somebody somewhere is missing this.

How long does it take to prepare coffee?

A while.

It's been long enough, surely.

Daniel, what have you done?

They threatened my children. I'm sorry.

Head right!

Halt! Halt there!

I'm captain Bennet Harwood of the King's own 12th lancers.

We have reason to believe that you are in possession of items stolen from the HMS Petrel.

If you've done nothing wrong, then you have nothing to fear.

But I'd ask you, please, to come with us.

[Grunts]

[Breathing heavily]

Attendants!

Bring your company 'round.

News from Adderley Cay.

A number of items on the watch list showed up out there.

Jewelry you had planted on the Petrel.

Sold by whom?

A young widow.

She often traffics there.

And what does this widow commonly trade?

Silk, spices, tea, jewelry.

Where does she acquire such items?

The trader never asked.

Because she made him a rich man, no doubt.

Shall I have her brought to you?

No.

We go to her.

No.

No, no, no.

No.

James?

They've got her.

The English, they've got Kate.

Attention. Commander on deck.

Are you familiar with how William Jagger interrogates women?

If he does to Kate Balfour what he so delights in doing to unruly women, she'll submit and she'll send him here directly with his men and his g*ns.

If they arrive in force... they will.

What will we do?

Resolve the predicament.

Abandon the island?

Only them as can't fight, and only briefly.

So if you wish to live, you must prepare to evacuate.

Edward, you know I never shall go outside.

You're at liberty to choose, of course.

And what did you do to deserve a posting out here on the edge of never?

I go where they send me.

A poor boy then?

The army feeds me.

That it may.

But I can make you rich.

How rich we talking?

How rich do you want to be?

Pretty rich.

Then untie me.

Help me.

[Laughs]

[Groans]

[Coughs]

You've got nothing I wouldn't take if I wanted it.

Now shut up!

[Sobs]

He's off to rescue Kate.

So I understand.

He's lying.

He's a chilly mathematician, Tom.

If he intended to rescue her, he'd take a full crew, overwhelm the outpost, and break her out.

But that would be too precarious.

Sneaking in under the cover of darkness, quietly shutting her mouth forever, that would be so much easier than breaking her free and taking flight.

Charlie, I need you to stay behind.

To what end?

To keep watch and ward over Selima.

Allow no harm to come to her, no suffering.

Do you understand?

I do.

I know you think highly of her.

She thinks highly of you too.

She's going to die, Tom, either at the hands of the English or the commodore.

Please don't allow that to happen.

I'll beg you, if your vanity demands it.

Attention!

Attention now!

Eyes in the boat, please!

The English are coming.

We need to evacuate all food supplies, all civilians, and all capital assets.

You'll take shelter in hunger bay until the danger has passed.

[Indistinct chatter]

And if we chose not to go?

Rose, the English are coming.

They'll take everything.

Well, it's inconvenient.

Tell them to go back to London.

[Sighs]

All right.

I'll need privacy.

For what?

[Scoffs]

Am I to be denied my secrets because the land's in peril?

Where's the liberty in that?

Don't be too long about it.

Quick as you like, please!

[Suspenseful music]

Hoy!

Mr. Lowe.

Welcome aboard.

Thank you, commodore.

You're acquainted with the punishment for stowaways?

Not specifically, but I could take an educated guess.

And yet here you are.

Indeed I am.

It does make a man speculate as to why.

Well, I find myself under something of a moral obligation.

To?

Ensure that Kate Balfour comes home safe and well.

Have I failed to express my intention to do just that?

You've said so very plainly, yes.

And yet here you are.

And yet here I am.

So what?

You don't trust me?

What is your plan?

I must confess that I don't have one.

I'm extemporizing somewhat.

I see.

And so yet again, I can't decide if you are the most cunning or the most beef-headed fellow I've ever met.

A conclusion I must gladly leave to you, sir.

I've no intention of k*lling Kate Balfour, nor of allowing her to be harmed in any way.

The Reaver is very fast, Tom.

We race to Adderley Cay, we arrive before the English, and we buy Kate back.

We pay for her.

This is the new world.

Money trumps anger.

Money trumps hatred.

Money trumps nation, king, and country.

Money trumps God.

I am touched by your gallantry, though.

You've the soul of a pirate, if the brain of a frenchman.

Leave him be, boys.

[Clears throat]

How is she?

Beautiful.

And you?

Less so, I'm afraid.

Well, that's not true.

Um, miss, the English are coming.

There are fears the baby may... well, she may cry and lead them to us.

So I'm going to take you to a place of great safety.

It's ironic, isn't it?

I used to be a laird.

Thousands of acres, ancestral home, deer and grouse, a library... where was it?

The most beautiful country in the world, Scotland.

Gently with that.

How did you come to be here, you and the others?

We was on The Compass Star.

A ship filled with the King's own strumpets en route to India.

Oh, I heard she sunk.

Oh, no.

The commodore boarded us and offered madame rose the freedom to ply our trade in Santa Compana.

Or continue in safety to the armpit of the world, selling their treasures to drunken redcoats and fat old generals.

Well, we chose the money.

But what good's a fortune if you don't get to spend it?

We'll get to spend it.

And you, Mr. Fletch, where were you born?

Um, I... I don't know.

I've never known a mother nor a father.

I've been at sea since I'm seven years old.

For what it's worth, I knew my father, and he was a bastard.

A father's not always the answer.

He'll bring her home, sir.

Mr. Lowe, he's good at that sort of thing.

Aye, so it would seem.

Charles, why aren't you with the commodore?

I find myself surplus to requirements.

I'm sure that's not so.

Oh, it's so.

He loves you.

So he says, yes.

When he and I stood on the black flag, a man was happy to serve under him.

And now all I get is Bible stories.

Bible stories?

You know the one about the prodigal son?

Some old geezer divides his estate between his two boys.

And his youngest boy, he runs off, and he lives high on the hog, squanders his coin on dollies and beer.

He comes home in disgrace, and his adoring old man, he kills a fatted calf.

Hurrah.

The older boy, the good son, he's all bewildered and lost.

"Look," he says.

"What about me?

"All these years I've been slaving for you, "and I've never disobeyed any of your wishes.

What do I get?"

Hmm.

What is the point of Bible stories between a man like him and a man like me?

Do you know me?

Your his majesty's governor.

Yes.

I'm the man who k*lled Blackbeard.

Well, purportedly.

It used to be children would stop me on the streets of London and ask what it was like to see Blackbeard's head severed from his body, to see his headless corpse swim thrice around my ship.

Such was the infernal vigor of the man's marrow.

I told them that even as I held his head in my hands, he cursed me to hell.

All lies, of course.

I held the head in my hands, but it wasn't his.

I knew myself as a liar in that moment.

Not an easy burden for a man to carry.

Then I'm sorry... forgive me... but whose head was it that you held?

A fellow who bore a passing resemblance to him, the beard, the hair.

A subterfuge like that is easily accomplished.

But I knew in my heart it wasn't Edward Teach, just as I know he still lives, just as I know you're his shill.

[Laughs]

I beg your pardon, sir, but you're mistaken.

Several of these articles I had placed on a ship called the Petrel, a ship that was later lost carrying a most precious cargo.

How did they come into your possession?

I bought them.

From?

I don't know his name. An Irishman, heavily tattooed.

A pirate?

That's not the kind of question that's prudent to ask.

[Laughs] No, of course.

So this fellow, this pirate, do you and he do business often?

Well, not that often.

I see him perhaps once a year.

Once a year?

I see.

And the name of his ship?

The Palatine, I believe.

The Palatine?

No ship of that name sails in these waters.

Well, then I don't know what to tell you, sir.

I know it only as The Palatine.

What's your name?

Why... where do you live?

My father and I, we... a sugar plantation.

We have a sugar plantation!

[Gasps]

[Groans]

Now before we proceed, you need to understand that I know a lie as readily as I know the kiss of my own mother.

I know a lie before a sound has been uttered.

Please, I beg you.

I'm innocent.

Where does Teach hide himself away?

Tell me where I can find him.

[Sobs] I'm sorry.

I don't know what you mean.

Please, I don't know.

I have neither time nor mercy for liars.

You will most assuredly tell me the truth.

Far better that you should do so now.

[Gasps]

I don't know who you think I am, but I'm not she.

I'm innocent of these charges.

Find me a cross, and I'll swear on it.

Then may God forgive me.

Charles, I don't need you here.

If the English come, they will k*ll you.

But first, they'll... if they get close, I'll use this.

And do what, fight them?

We should just leave.

Did the commodore order that?

No!

He ordered the opposite.

He told me to board up the house and prepare for siege, our last line of defense.

But if they come, this house will fall.

My lady, I can take you to a place of greater safety.

No.

If we don't...

I said no.

This doesn't make any sense to me!

That's not my concern!

Ah.

I can't follow this order I've been given.

What order?

Charles, if you lay a hand on me... no!

Come on!

No!

No!

No!

No!

Come on!

[Gasping]

[Groans]

Come on.

[Crying]

No!

Land ho!

[Scoffs]

Commodore?

Too slow.

Too slow.

We're too late.

That's...

William Jagger's ship, The Eldritch.

100 g*ns, 400 men.

We can't fight her.

No.

So what do we do?

Kate will betray the truth about Santa Compana because he'll leave no alternative.

And then he'll come on The Eldritch with her hundred g*ns and a fleet at her tail, and he will wipe us from the face of the earth.

Now once more, where is Edward Teach?

Give me Blackbeard and spare yourself.

I don't know. I swear!

[Sobs]

Where is he?

Give him to me!

[Gasping]

Very well.

Oh!

Ugh!

[Coughs]

[Screaming] No, no, no!

No!

No!

No!

[Screaming]

No!

[Sobs]

No!

[Sobbing]

No!

[Grunts]

[Groans]

[Sobbing]

No!

No!

[Screaming]

[expl*si*n]

To arms. To arms.

My God.

It's Blackbeard. He's come for her.

[Groans]

I didn't know.

It's remarked upon that you never go outside.

They call you the lady of the house.

Outside around people...

I find it vexing.

I don't understand.

Nor do I.

And the commodore, he knows you fear being around people?

Of course.

Why?

Charles?

He asked you to k*ll me?

If I had to.

But I couldn't hurt you nor see you hurt.

[Moaning]

Hold steady!

Hold steady!

She's fast, but we're faster, by God.

Commodore, she's coming about!

[Explosions]

Hold your course!

Hold your course!

She's out of range.

Hold steady!

Hold your course!

Hold your course!

There's no one on the quarter deck.

That's not right.

It's a three-cup trick.

He's not in that ship.

Bring us about!

What's the status, sir?

Bring about!

Bring about!

It's him.

That's Blackbeard's flag.

He could skulk away like a dog.

But no, he won't escape this time.

Faster, damn you!

I don't care if it kills every last man jack of you!

Bring her about, damn it!

Bring her about!

Double time!

[Bells ringing]

[Sobs]

[Screaming]

Halt!

Identify yourself.

Hands in the air!

[Screams]

[g*nsh*t]

[Both grunt]

[g*nsh*t]

[Grunts]

[Groaning]

[Both grunting]

[Both grunting]

[Grunts]

[Breathing heavily]

[Both moaning]

[Both breathing heavily]

[Breathing heavily]

Hang on!

Kate, hang on!

[Gasping]

[Grunts]

[Coughing and gasping]

Oh. Oh, oh.

[Crying]

[Both crying]

Come on, then.

Come on, William, you whoreson.

You Nightwalker's get.

We should leave.

We should, and yet... ready to fire, sir!

We're not going to sink her.

We're going to board her.

Prepare to board!

Prepare to board!

Prepare to board!

Prepare to board.

That's it, William.

Follow the flag.

[expl*si*n]

How are you keeping?

I wanted to thank you.

Thank Tom Lowe.

Much of the strategy was his.

Many of the grace notes were mine.

I'd never have told them.

You would have, eventually.

There's no shame in it.

Jagger would have martyrized you until you lost your mind.

I've seen it before.

I'm sorry.

For what?

It's my fault.

We may have come close to the end, but close to the end is not the end, is it?

[Sighs]

[Bright orchestral music]

[Cheers and applause]