#but I'm always ready to leap to John's defense

[hellsbells91]

So about Max and Silver

at the end of 4.02.

Yes it’s the end of the brotp, but when I think about it, when was there a time when they were allies or friends? They have been temporary partners in the past, but that is pretty much the extent of their relationship. So to see them acting this way towards each other, is sad perhaps but not surprising. From their own perspectives, this is pretty much what they know about the other.

Max knows (or thinks she knows) that John has been sending out black spots to pirates who sided against him. She first read the letter that proclaims John as Long John Silver. She knows that John apparently murdered a redcoat, and is allied with a pirate who sent a ship ashore full of dead redcoats. She remembers him as a petty thief who betrayed his crew, only in it for himself, and now she knows him as a ruthless murderer. 

Max is stuck in the middle of two people who she believes are brutal killers and just as bad as each other, Silver and Berringer. She has become the target of both, and has been threatened by both to join their side in the war.  Max however sees them as a continued perpetuation of violence and anger. She wishes for the violence to end and for civilisation to be protected, and believes the only way to do so is by cutting out the both of them. She will not be Silver’s friend in this war.

John on the other hand knows Max only as the person who will blackmail and manipulate and as far as he knows, she has sided with the Governor and has betrayed the people she once worked with.

So judging from this they don’t really have any reason to be open or frank with one another. John acts like the villain he is being made out to be, not the man he is around the crew, around Flint and Madi (the man we viewers know him to be). He is cold, callous and demanding. He makes no move in explaining to Max that people are making up lies about him to perpetuate their own vision of a terrifying pirate king. Why should he? Silver seems to have accepted his role in this war now, and is trying to keep up with the responsibility that others have thrust upon him.

It’s kinda sad because we know how different these two can be, and also sad because Silver might get so wrapped up in presenting himself as Long John Silver the villain that he may in fact become him (well, we know he does xD).

The look however, that Max and John share as she makes her escape after their conversation devolves into violence speaks volumes. The facade is gone and they appear more like their true selves, and in that they share a look of grief, almost. Grief at the realisation that this is what everything has come down to, grief at a bridge that is well and truly burned. Max staring in disbelief because Silver cannot see what she does, and Silver frowning because maybe, very deep down, he knows she is right.

Urghhh I hate it and I want more. I have a feeling that this is going to escalate into a war quickly between John and Berringer. The ‘hold everything together while i’m gone’ speech from Rogers is just too much of a warning bell for everything going to shit. And who knows, since Silver doesn’t appear to have much of a taste for leadership, maybe he’ll give Nassau to Max *wishful thinking*.