Black Sails: Post-Mortem Interviews & Tweets
It's now a solid week since Black Sails ended, and its end has not done much to slow down the speculation and debate, fitting for a show with this many layers. Here's a tiny selection of what the cast&crew have to say post-finale. [Plenty more on banned sources, sadly.]
IGN
Steinberg says the writers knew there didn't need to be death in the finale for it to be tragic: “I think there was an awareness that when watched in a certain way there was so much tragedy already in the ending. Of all the people who were lost and weren't there anymore, and how close they were to something historically meaningfully that got bargained away, that to then pile that on with even more misery just felt unpleasant.”
Wanted there to be a sense that every character was where they belonged
Billy and Flint's fight in the finale was meant to hark back to their positions in season 1 when Billy "fell" overboard
Steinberg confirms John/Madi’s ending isn’t happy: “She's willing to move forward in a marriage with him despite the fact that she knows there are things broken between them that can never be put back together. And it felt resonant that, ultimately, that marriage between the two of them was flawed and based on stories generously put, and lies maybe less generously put, that were holding it together. There was just something that felt true as an ending for him that he gets the domestic life he wanted but that it is so compromised by how he got it that it'll never quite be right.”
Theme for the season was about the choice between giving up ideals/ambitions and love, and that's reflected in Flint's ending reunion with Thomas
For Jack, Max, and Anne, the finale is meant to suggest their scheme in Philadelphia worked
Couldn't pass up the opportunity to bring Mary Read into the mix; meant to signify more adventures for Jack and Anne (Read: their deaths)
Ending is close to their original vision from season 1, specifically with regards to Silver and Flint's relationship
Steinberg, regarding King Max and the moment from the final episode/season that was most near and dear to his heart: "I found myself invested in the story in which Max was the protagonist. In a way that I didn't think I would be at the beginning. And so the Philadelphia story and her story and the choices she makes at the end, I was pretty proud of. It felt emotionally powerful."
Levine on his: "Yeah, I second that. And I also did have a huge smile on my face whenever I watched the Mary Read scene and then on through the ending. There's something in the tone of it that feels very specific to this show. I was soulful."
The Hollywood Reporter
Steinberg on what changed from what they planned to what actually happened over the course of the series: "I think the Max (Jessica Parker Kennedy) and Anne (Clara Paget) relationship was something that became emotionally impactful in a way that we didn't see coming. That was a lesson in if you're not letting stories evolve naturally, then you're missing all the good stuff."
Doubling down on the "Never say never" sentiment regarding a spinoff sequel series
Honored certain elements and details of Treasure Island characters' endings, but weren't beholden to them
Talks about the dialogue between Silver and Flint and how important their relationship was to the story: “We had to embrace the fact that there would have to be things that were left unsaid and were going to have to exist in subtext and performance and context in order for it to be honest. That felt right. There is, at least to me when I watch it, a significant amount happening between the two of them that is all under the surface. But at the same time, you want it to play at face value. These are two guys who are the least likely allies on page one of the series and certainly the least likely best of friends, who have reached this point. The tragedy doesn't work if you don't care about the two of them. The tragedy also doesn't work if you don't understand what came between them. There's a fair amount of a puzzle happening there and in some respect we always saw the series as a dialogue between the two of them. They couldn't be more different and yet somehow found some common ground that made them against all odds the only two people who understood each other. We relied on the audience a lot to fill in those blanks and go on the ride with us.”
Believes Silver not placing importance on his backstory is what made him stronger than Flint
Stresses again the time-honoured no body = no death rule on Black Sails: “We had a sense in season two when [Thomas] died off screen, that any character who dies off screen, you're taking the word of the messenger as to whether or not it actually happened. As someone who watches these stories and reads these stories, it feels unlikely that it actually happened. We knew we weren't finished with him.”
This traitor talks about how Starz gave them wiggle room to go beyond season 4 but didn't want to because they were afraid of sucking eventually, or something…
Inverse - Jon Steinberg & Robert Levine
on Flint’s fate: “The crew’s understanding of Flint’s fate in Treasure Island is that he dies alone in Savannah in an emotionally not good place. How did he get there? We like the idea of a story about how he was put there as an act of mercy. It turns into loneliness later on, presumably when Thomas dies of old age. That made sense as a way to both acknowledge the book and spin it.” [OP wipes a tear at the thought of Thomas & James growing old and grey together]
have their own idea of which version is true, but want the audience to decide themselves
on John/Madi: “The way you see them at the end, they’re in the same frame but they’re yards away from each other. Emotionally, that’s as close as they’ll ever get again.”
Jack’s character is in many ways about how pirates existed and saw themselves, and how history and popular culture sees them; and how Jack finally finds a disappointing but lasting legacy of his own in the pirate flag: “You chase this thing, ultimately find it and you never know that’s what you saw.”
Inverse - Toby Schmitz
was pleasantly surprised that Jack survived the show
“His obsession with awe-inspiring legend also made it fitting, though now (we imagined about a year down the track) it has a melancholy edge: He must be a pirate in secret and he has discovered that being the subject of legend isn’t as fun as he thought as a young man.”
says Jack is “defined by disappointment”- reckons that Anne & Jack post-finale “have more adventures until Jack’s luck runs out and Anne survives him”
AfterBuzz TV with JPK
Click to view
Jessica Parker Kennedy guests on this week's AfterBuzz TV review and it's amazing
...Even though she thinks Flint is dead... #flop
Watch it anyway
She gives a lot of interesting BTS info on the cast and her auditioning process
Does a hilarious reenactment of her experience watching Eleanor's death scene
The hosts actually ask her interesting questions about acting and getting into the headspace of playing Max
The creators also retweeted the following tumblr post re: the ending and our own attitudes to marginalisation and bigotry:
My thoughts abt the "open ending" aspect of the #BlackSailsFinale and what the version we believe says about us #BlackSails @BlkSailsCreatrs pic.twitter.com/0CBqecg37w
- sarah (@bisexualcyborg) 4. April 2017
"A story is true, a story is untrue. As time extends, it matters less and less. The stories we want to believe, those are the ones that survive. -
The writers gave us this quote as the same time as an “open ending.” Combined with the themes of this show I choose to believe that what’s important is not the story they tell, but the story we remember. The story we believe. And they gave us other themes, too - themes of love, of representation of marginalised characters, and an ending for several of them that was unambiguously happy. This quote, and the entire show, is also clearly a criticism on a bigoted civilisation: civilisation wants to believe that pirates are monsters, that people who are different are monsters, and that’s why those versions of their stories survive. Black Sails is such a meta show, so aware of the contemporary issues it addresses. Out of the two “options” - the one where marginalised characters who have suffered too much finally get a shot at happiness and love and are portrayed, through this love, as human and not as monsters, and the one where those same marginalised characters, treated as monsters by both historical and contemporary civilisations simply because they are different, are punished for their differences with meaningless death, - the one we believe says more about us than it does about the story itself. Civilisation tells the story that serves its narratives, its values. Which version we believe, which version we tell, says a lot about our values - and helps us spread those, against the grain of pessimism and bigotry. Considering the themes of the show,I am pretty sure I know which version would align us with the message the writers have been trying to send. And even if I’m wrong - considering the state of the world right now, where stories about people who are different have the biggest chance they’ve ever had to not be deformed into monstrosity by a bigoted majority, it does not matter what story the writers have been trying to tell. It matters which one we tell. I know which one I believe. I know which one I want to make sure will be remembered. I know which one I want to make sure survives. And like the quote above says - the story that survives, ultimately becomes true. Let’s make it the hopeful one, shall we?"
They also shared the following link to an article that speaks of the central theme of LGBT marginalisation on Black Sails:
'Black Sails' Depicts the Untold Story of Queer Pirates https://t.co/ctWS2wfwb3 via @VICE
- BlkSailsCreatrs (@BlkSailsCreatrs) 5. April 2017
Meanwhile, Old Man Stephens can't match Luke Arnold's troll game, but he does his best:
@dixonxnegan Tweet . Tweet.
- TOBY STEPHENS (@TobyStephensInV) 8. April 2017
Sources 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Crew, how did you survive this first Sunday without new pirate shenanigans? Are you still basking in the glory?
(Special thanks to mammary_glands who provided lots of of interview notes!)