Last week's pilot episode of the Starz pirate drama Black Sails left a lot to be desired (read the review here), but the second episode was marginally better and looked ahead to some promising points in the series as a whole. There are a good amount of characters vying for attention here, most of whom didn't rise above the level of a cardboard cutout in the pilot. Things change, though, and an upward trend could mean great things for Black Sails. Spoilers follow for the second episode "II." Among the few points of interest from last week's episode was Billy's quick decision to lie about the contents of the page he held in his hands - he deemed it the page missing from the ledger attained by the crew at the start of the episode, the page containing the schedule for a Spanish galleon carrying a vast fortune in treasure. In fact, the page was blank. Billy's lie incriminated the mutinous Singleton, prompting his humiliating death at the hands of the vengeful crew; the lie also said a lot about Billy, some of which was articulated in this episode. He's a young pirate and doesn't seem to fit with the hairy, splintered scoundrels on the rest of the ship, and yet his lie effectively protected the crew from what would have undoubtedly been a disastrous rule under Captain Singleton. I mentioned last week that it was a shame Anthony Bishop's Singleton had to die so soon after his introduction, because the tension he brought aboard the ship was possibly the most compelling part of the episode. Now that he's dead, we see Singleton had friends aboard the ship who still believe in his cause and hate Captain Flint for his death. Though it's a bit of a shame the character of Singleton was wasted, it does appear that he'll have an effect on the plot going forward, even in death. Toby Stephens' Flint was still relatively flat, but Stephens is a good actor and should break free of that monotony soon. More exciting were Luke Arnold's John Silver and Zach McGowan's Captain Vane, both of whom became much more interesting this time around. The former, who is in fact the thief in possession of the stolen page from the ledger, showed his cunning in a pair of scenes involving his flight from capture. The first was in the clever misdirection of his pursuers, but the second highlighted with greater power something that is never very far from Silver's thoughts, nor any other character's in this world: survival. Silver's decision not to face his pursuers when given the chance wasn't pure cowardice as it initially seemed; he reads and memorizes the page and then burns it, effectively ensuring his survival as the contents of his head are worth millions. Vane spent last week brooding and squinting menacingly through his beady eyes, and this week wasn't all that different. He became instantly more compelling in a quiet exchange (well, it started out quiet) with Eleanor Guthrie in her study. Vane is a brute, and on a show full of brutes he's feared even among the nastiest inhabitants of Nassau. But his approach in this conversation is thoughtful, well-measured, and polite even to the point of being anachronistic with his character. It's so early in the show that this side of him could be one or the other - interesting quality or rare anachronism - and sure enough by the end of the episode he's back to brooding and squinting. Black Sails can't afford to keep their characters so flat like this, and they'd benefit from a few more unexpected scenes like that conversation. The stolen page did a good job in this episode of reeling in the multiple character arcs and uniting their goals. Everyone want money, more money than imaginable, and the promise of it is often more decadent than the prize itself. Now that the page exists only in Silver's head, we'll have to see whether that promise can continue to provide threads between the many characters. Otherwise, the show threatens to feel disjointed as it did in the opening hour. If there's anyone among these people who could be called the main character it's Captain Flint, and so I'd like to return to him. The hunt for the page and the treasure all stems from him, and thus he should have stronger links to all of the characters on the show than anyone else. The look of death that he and rival captain Vane exchange in Guthrie's house promises that the two of them will clash later on, but until then Flint needs work more actively to achieve his grand goals. His comments about the peace of the land and the chaos of the sea were almost poignant, but they don't excuse his sitting on the couch while his crew hunted Silver. Now that he has Silver, I'm expecting the tension between the two of them - likely resulting in an uneasy alliance - to provide some flavor for next week's episode. What did you think of "II."? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to read next week's review of Black Sails 1.3 - "III."
