#i understand why they did away with the whole concept of odysseus telling this story to the king and all that bc it would clogg things

[poignardeparlebeau]

really loved the last saga of ep*ic and i understand why they choose to not include it but i really wanted an open arms reprise from nausica or a song or two abt the phaeacians.

[wardensantoineandevka]

As I was watching Black Sails for the first time last month, there was a point relatively early in season four where I felt, “Thomas has to be alive. The only way for how Flint framed his future with The Odyssey, and the series’ thematic on hope, works out is if Thomas is alive.”

Why, and why specifically Flint’s anecdote about Odysseus? Because it becomes increasingly apparent that Thomas is Penelope.

[This post is also available on Medium, if you prefer to read it on that platform. See it here.]

There’s many other indications that Thomas is alive throughout the series since season two, but this is one of the subtler ones and my personal favorite. In the second episode, Flint speaks to Eleanor and Mr. Scott about the future of Nassau, of his own future. He illustrates it with an episode from The Odyssey:

“Odysseus, on his journey home to Ithaca, was visited by a ghost. The ghost tells him that once he reaches his home, once he slays all his enemies and sets his house in order, he must do one last thing before he can rest.

“The ghost tells him to pick up an oar and walk inland, and keep walking until somebody mistakes that oar for a shovel for that would be the place that no man had ever been troubled by the sea. And that's where he'd find peace.

“In the end, that's all I want.”

Flint, like many characters, frames his life through narrative. Especially he, Jack, Rogers, Silver tie their senses of self and their concepts of identity through the stories they shape around and about themselves, and they and much of the rest of the cast shape their world through story. It's a major thematic and structural pillar of the series.

Unlike the others, however, Flint additionally uses narrative as a framework for his life and identity by repeatedly using famed literature from the classical Western canon to frame his life, help him understand it, and represent stages or concepts within it. He shares this with one character: Miranda, “who shares his love of books”.

He brings her novels from the libraries of ships he raids, and they express to each other through books. Miranda, ten years ago, wryly tells Flint he'll understand the quixotic Thomas if he reads Cervantes’ Don Quixote. She tells Guthrie he'll understand Flint by reading Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. Meditations also signifies to her and to Flint their lives and relationships with Thomas. After they argue over his decision to keep pursuing these fights rather than accept a peace and live quietly, an argument that implicitly is about his then-unrevealed relationship with Thomas and their shared situation, Flint apologizes to her with Cervantes’ thematically appropriate La Galatea. Miranda attempts to prompt Flint into self-reflection upon why he fights and appeals to his better side, to the values and virtues he had in common with Thomas, with his copy of Meditations from Thomas.

It's fascinating the specific titles they exchange and attach meaning to, but that’s another discussion entirely. The point I’m making here with all that is: in addition to the series’ thread on stories and to Flint’s own methods of storytelling to craft his public image, as a channel for his charisma, and to control and influence others, Flint spends a lot of energy navigating and unbundling for himself his emotions, identity, relationships, hopes by framing them with literature.

So, The Odyssey. He communicates his dream of Nassau as a nation free by relaying this specific episode from literature. In doing so, he casts himself as Odysseus and casts Nassau as his Ithaca, the home he's struggled to journey toward all these years. This is how he understands his hopes for the future, with this specific narrative reference.

As the series continues on, as Flint wages war to make Nassau the Ithaca he wants it to be and struggles to achieve such, as the show approaches endgame—the question arises (at least to me): if Flint is Odysseus, then who is Penelope? After all, the story of Odysseus is not just about his journey to Ithaca, it’s also about the journey to reunite with his wife.

Now, it’s a bit of a cheat because I posed question to myself in season four, where what would be the seemingly easier conclusion to arrive at is already eliminated. Miranda—the woman he fled England with, deeply loves, and leaves ashore while he goes raiding ships—is killed at the end of season two.

However, even before the events in Carolina, Miranda cannot be Flint’s Penelope.

Penelope, within The Odyssey, is left behind at home in Ithaca when Odysseus sails away to fight a war. She is at home, waiting across twenty years for his return—and keeping faith that Odysseus still lives. When Flint left home in England for Nassau to war against empire ten years ago, Miranda went with him. Even now, as she expresses to Flint en route to Carolina, she still feels she is in exile, that after all that time spent in Nassau she still considers England to be her home. Though she stays ashore in Nassau whenever Flint raises his sails, Miranda is not being left behind at home.

Even though her efforts during the series largely focus on pulling Flint away from fighting and toward seeking peace for themselves, she too had a stake and a hand in his crusade against the world. She knowingly steered him toward violence on the Maria Aleyne. She calls for Ashe to die and Charles Town to burn. She declares the war that Flint wages through seasons three and four.

She cannot be Penelope because Miranda went to war with Odysseus.

(And, well, nobody who left Ithaca with Odysseus survived to accompany him home.)

So, if it isn’t Miranda because she too sailed from home to war, then who remains to be Flint’s Penelope? The answer is simply: who did Flint, and Miranda, leave behind at home in England when they sailed to crusade in Nassau?

Thomas.

It’s an easy answer, now that the finale has proven it. But, from the perspective of before the finale when Thomas was stated to be dead, the answer is clear and the implication that Thomas is alive certain because this is the only way that the usage of The Odyssey as a framing device for Flint’s future works properly in conjunction with the series’ stubborn narrative belief in hope, presentation of love as best of all things, and both as best healer of deep wounds.

For Flint as Odysseus, this isn’t actually about Ithaca. This is about Penelope.

The show is immensely clear about this in how it lays out Flint’s relationship to Nassau, this war against England for control of it, and how Thomas’ apparent death relates to and pushes Flint to seek these things. It repeatedly states in no uncertain terms that Flint’s exile for loving Thomas and Thomas’ apparent death is what comprises a large portion of his motivation to war over Nassau.

Flint cannot bear his grief nor can he move past it. Even as he finds a steadying and mitigating force in his relationship to Silver, this gaping wound still bleeds and that pain continues to spur him to raise armies and wage wars in attempt to take from England enough of something to fill the gap left by what it stole and separated from him. But if Flint is to feel whole again and be alleviated of his violent grief, if his journey here is understood by him through analogue to The Odyssey, then he must be allowed to complete his own odyssey and reunite with his Penelope. Ergo, it is apparent thematically much earlier that Thomas must be still alive.

As the finale completes the arc into Flint’s ultimate fate, it does so by mirroring the episode from The Odyssey with which Flint frames his future in 1.02:

Odysseus takes an oar ashore, carrying it inland until it “becomes” a shovel. There, he attains a peace that ends his struggle and allows him to return home, to return to Penelope.

Flint takes a shovel ashore, carrying it inland toward his buried cache. Instead of unburying it to continue his struggle, he is given a means to end his pain and return to Thomas.

Just as at the beginning Flint outlines his future in terms of The Odyssey, the series crafts him an ending that speaks in the same language of that anecdote he uses to understand his own future and dreams, even if he doesn’t understand at the start where that framework will take him. With that mirroring, he completes his own journey through war and strife in reunion with his truest love Thomas after (give or take, rhetorically) ten years.

And Thomas says in England, years ago, after James returns to him from a long journey overseas, “Three months. Feels like twice as long.”

Ten years, twice as long, is twenty.

Twenty years is the length of time Odysseus was separated from Penelope.

[ghozt1ng-blog]

Mysteries of the Q Files

Chapter 4: Arriving

The trick had been for Trick to play on Naomi’s sensibilities. Once he knew that she favored brains over brawn, he only had to speak about uncovering whether or not the impossible was actually possible. Could there be such things as werewolves? She had opened up about everything she knew about ancient lore on werewolves, including the fun fact that Odysseus from greek myth supposed to be descended from werewolves, which was supposedly what made him super smart in the first place.

She is a mega bookworm, too, apparently, Trick thought with amusement.

Naomi had said that it was remarkable that cultures all over the world had legends about intelligent wolves or men becoming wolves. She figured that was because wolves played such a major role as a threat to pastoral and hunting communities. Also, dogs and wolves are incredibly intelligent and when men became more bestial, a good likeness was to compare them to a wolf. While this was all fascinating and whatnot for Trick, the big prize was getting them out to Hardinsburg.

Towards that end, he played on the question that it was weird that this would be the first “credible” sighting of werewolf in a long time. The Q Files, while ridiculous in concept, was actually very practical in execution. The Sphinx did not raise Trick’s mother and Agent Miles out of the office just to chase fancies, whatever else the other other agents might say. If Agent Conturbatio thought that this was a case worthy of leaving Washington for, it most likely had some real credibility as a case. If that were the case, wouldn’t naomi want to be there to see these claims either confirmed or debunked.

“That would be really cool and educational,” Naomi had conceded. “But this does not convince me that we should just pack up and leave without our parents knowing and get involved in a potentially dangerous case.”

Those were the words Trick had wanted to hear. So long as he knew that she was willing to give, he knew he could win her over. But why do I want her to come? Trick had asked himself. He had figured it was because she appeared to be the package deal as far as adventuring companions went. You didn’t get an athletic build by not trying; Naomi was probably pretty strong and capable. She was also very intelligent. Combine that with his knowledge of teenagers, and he thought that they could infiltrate the school and get some nuggets of important information from the other students.

He had reasoned this to her, “Look, the police are only letting the FBI in on the case, because they are stumped! The FBI will have greater access to technological resources. I think they will be able to confirm that ‘yes, this is a monster!’ But other than that, it could take them weeks or months, if ever, to determine who actually took the girl. Who knows who else could be attacked in the meantime? The kids will be scared and they won’t open up to adults. But they will talk with other teenagers. My guess is that the girl-”

“Samantha Haymore,” Naomi had interjected.

“Yes, Sam,” Trick breezed on, “She most likely knew her attacker. In a small town everyone knows everyone!”

“What makes you think it’s a small town?”

“Ever heard of Hardinsburg, Kentucky before?”

“No,” Naomi had answered with a frown.

“Exactly! Guaranteed backwater part of the state,” Trick had said with a wave of the hand. “The important thing is the makeup of the town and its social structures. Those structures will be played out to the max at the local high school. This means that there is a wealth of helpful gossip and knowledge among the students. We just have to get it out of them, and we can then pass on the information to the FBI.”

“And they can’t get it themselves because they are adults, right,” Naomi had then confirmed.

“Yes. But you and I can blend in.”

“In a small town,” she had laughed skeptically.

“All it takes are some reasonably fake names and a poker face, and total strangers will lap up just about anything you say,” Trick had maintained.

“Okay, you might be right about all of that, but then how are we supposed to get there?”

“That’s simple, really. We take the second most available flight out of here towards Kentucky and then we grab a bus. Both of them will be modes of transportation, both in style and in timing, that the agents will not suspect that we’d use them. Not even my mom,” Trick had added gleefully. “And I can pay, too! I work for my uncle at a farm out of state over the summer breaks, and he pays me good money. Plus, a key to concocting great pranks is to keep them cheap and manageable. So, with all of my summer earning and saved up allowance,we can afford the trip!”

Naomi had given the beaming Trick a flat stare and asked, “Your parents still give a troublemaker like yourself an allowance?”

“Yup! My dad is impressed with my savings, and he thinks it keeps me somewhat responsible.”

“Your dad is a moron,” Naomi had summed up.

“Maybe so,” Trick had agreed. “But his odd tendencies are about to pay off! What do you say?”

Naomi had still not given in entirely to the idea. She looked willing, but there was something warring inside her. Trick wasn’t sure what it was exactly, but he needed a partner in crime, and so he took a big gamble with his next words.  

“Look Naomi, you know a lot of things and I bet you are very accomplished. But life is not just meant to be lived out in a room crammed with fun things or in front of a computer screen. It’s out there!” Trick gestured vaguely in front of himself. “We all need an adventure once in while, otherwise we never truly live. I know we just met and all, but this could be an experience unlike any other. It might be one that you could use to find that answer for your mom. I can’t guarantee that, of course, but you’ll never know and you’ll never live if you don’t try!”

After a long pause, and Trick worrying that he might have overdone it, Naomi finally responded, “You are right Trick, in a very odd way you are right. “ She had then rounded on him. “But don’t ever again dine to believe that you really know anything about me! Especially since we just met! But I’ll come along with you on this adventure of yours, this stupid idea of an adventure. I have four days to kill and it might just give me a laugh at the very least, and get my mom out of my hair.”

“So you’ll be able to ditch your mom pretty handily? I know that as far as my dad is concerned, if I say that I am going to be hanging out a friend’s in the evening, he’ll believe it. He’s so scattered brained most of the time!”

Naomi grunted, “Yes. I get such good grades that no one cares if I skip home or classes. My mom’s counselor told her long ago that she needed to stop being a control freak and let people do what they want. She took that to heart in maybe the wrong way. But it’ll be just fine, so long as we are back in four days!”

Trick had nodded happily. “Sure thing! What’s happening in four days though.”

“Midterms.”

Trick had winced. “I hate those.”

Naomi had then raised an eyebrow at him. “Really? They are the best thing ever for preparing for finals! They always give away what it will be like at the end of the semester. And I always get my teachers to give me the extra hard versions. It’s a lot of fun.”

You need a different kind of fun in your life, Trick thought to himself, but instead he said out loud, “This will be perfect then! And, we can actually get well acquainted on this trip so i won’t have to assume anything about you anymore. I think it’s a win-win all around.”

They had exchanged contact information and Trick dropped her off where the computer labs were. He then made his way back to the Q Files, cementing his plans firmly in his mind. It had not taken long for his mother to bring him back home and get packed herself. Trick promised that he would tell his father what was going on before Susan left for the airport. He had then texted his dad the details and then went straight to booking his own flight and getting the bus schedules down to get him and Naomi to Hardinsburg.

Trick could have danced around the house with excitement. What had started off as an abysmally boring day had turned into a real adventure. It would be one with a new friend, going somewhere new, tracking down something that shouldn’t exist, and finally using his skills on a new group of unsuspecting teens. He could barely wait to get underway. His father had bought the whole cock and bull story of going to hang out with a friend for a little while so that his dad could bring work home and get ahead. His dad always loved that. Honestly, Trick’s father did that so he could have a real vacation at some point with his wife and son. Trick did appreciate that, but it was even better for supporting Trick’s habits of planning big pranks and escapades.

Naomi and Trick had stayed in touch via text and before Trick could believe it they were finally at the airport and boarding a plane. He got the feeling that some people thought the two of them were off on some kind of romantic getaway. Young love and all that.

Ew, no. None of that, Trick thought. He was not that kind of guy at all.

Once they were in the air Trick talked with Naomi about her life and ambitions, trying to get a better understanding of her. She went to a private technical institution that specialized in giving its student two legs up in going to college. Naomi was well ahead of anyone else Trick knew in terms of academics. She also loved to read when not fidgeting and tinkering with a computer. Once again, Trick had surmised some things. He figured from her body type that she probably listened to a lot of e-books since she seemed built like a runner. The advantages of multi-tasking!

Naomi also gleaned from him that Trick was not dumb either, though employed most of his brains to tormenting others. He was actually a top student as far as grades went, and he was very good with complex thinking. Though she could not understand the “game” he kept playing. He told her about how he just so good at reading people it got boring. He was wise to lie and say that Naomi had been unreadable to him. That made her pretty happy.

It startle him to realize that both Naomi and himself were kind of outsiders. She was too brilliant and detached for her own good. Trick had just made himself too many enemies and was considered to be untrustworthy. That was why he was excited to get involved in this Q Files case. Once they landed they boarded a bus, and soon their miraculous plan was underway. They took a rest on the bus before they got to the town, knowing that there would be a lot to do once they got there.

When they arrived at Hardinsburg, Trick was surprised at just how behind the town was. It felt like he had stepped back at least thirty years in time. The cars were all old and the town looked like it had been used to shoot Stranger Things. They got themselves a hotel room for cheap and shared the bed with a rolled up blanket to separate them. He was happy that Naomi didn’t make him sleep on the floor. They were up bright and early to go to school and get started with their day of sleuthing.

“This is so weird,” Naomi said. “But it is also exciting! We’d better find something out around here, Trick, or I’m going to knock you about the head hard.”

“Don’t worry, it won’t be bad. We’ll find something,” he soothed.

If Trick thought that the town was weird, the teens were even more so! In the morning he saw the boys sporting their lettered jock jackets. And everyone looked like they were just stepping out of or into Footloose.

“What!? People actually wear those things,” Trick pointed out the jackets to Naomi indignantly.

“Oh just shut up and follow them! We have to get to school.”

“Right,” Trick agreed, a grin coming to his lips. “This is where the fun truly begins!”