Black Sails - XXXVIII. - Review: "A Legendary Finale"

Black Sails Season 4 Episode Guide:
4.01 XXIX. - Review
4.02 XXX. - Review
4.03 XXXI. - Review
4.04 XXXII. - Review
4.05 XXXIII. - Review
4.06 XXXIV. - Review
4.07 XXXV. - Review
4.08 XXXVI. - Review
4.09 XXXVII. - Review
4.10 XXXVIII. - Review

Black Sails 4.10 XXVIII. - Review:
Directed by Jonathan E. Steinberg & Written by Jonathan E. Steinberg & Robert Levine

And so after four seasons, the end has arrived. Black Sails has wrapped up its final season and has concluded, delivering quite possibly, the perfect ending. In a show on a network that hasn't shied away from brutal, tragic endings before, and given the history of what has happened to plenty of famous characters on this show I was expecting most of them to meet a violent, bloody end, but the biggest and most welcome surprise was that they actually all made it out alive. Even Rogers, sticking true to events of history, he ended up bankrupt an forced to answer for what he has done. It was just as a satisfying ending as watching him getting dragged under the ship would have been, perhaps even more so, as Jack got to record Rogers' history for him, manipulating it for his own means. After all, history has been written by the victors, and it would seem that the person who got the most out of the series finale would have been Jack, who got to build on his reputation as "the" pirate after Flint and Silver had been removed from the picture, and we saw that at the end as he returned to piracy, recruiting Mark Read, which was a very nice nod to the real-life figure of Mary Read, who sailed with Jack and Anne in real life, when they were all captured together, initially posing as a man to join the ship. The fact that we got to see Jack unveil the historic skull and crossbones flag at the end of the series was all the more awesome and rewarding as well, especially with the ironic moment where we got to see him comment that he didn't like it, not knowing how it would become a flag inseparable from the image associated with pirates in the future.

The episode itself was very much an epilogue to events that played out last week and the series as a whole. The most welcome moment of all was seeing Flint not killed off at the end but instead, taken by Silver to return to reunite with Thomas Hamilton again in the finale. Even though they were both removed to a plantation and essentially working in slave labour, they were reunited after so long spent apart, and after all, given that Hamilton's survival is something that has been teased since earlier in the series, seeing him again was a particularly awesome moment that gave Flint the means to finally put aside the character that he had been building up all these years and embrace his James McGraw personality once more, as James essentially awakened from the nightmare that was Flint. This was spectacular acting from Toby Stephens here, who definitely deserved some sort of recognition for his performance over the course of this season. The fact that this show has been snubbed time and time again is nothing short of frustrating, so hopefully it will at least get some recognition this time around. This is a show that has become overtime, one of the best series of television, proving to be incredibly rewarding and satisfying, and even though not many people may have watched it during its run, I hope like the legend of pirates themselves, it becomes more popular as time goes on, much like for example Breaking Bad, which got increasingly popular as time went by.

The suspense was ever present throughout the finale and I really wasn't sure who would make it out. Seeing Jack, Silver and Flint reunite to take down Rogers was a great battle sequence that topped anything that we'd had before and gave some perfect final battles for the show. Jack and Flint both teamed up to take down Rogers in a great fight sequence, and Flint got to face Billy once again after their first fight on the Walrus. That had ended with Billy falling into the water and here again, Flint got another chance to push him into the sea, but even that wasn't the only callback to the beginning of the series as we got another nod to the very first scene with Silver, where he had initially posed as a cook to avoid getting killed by Flint and recruited to join his crew instead. The cook too here was hiding below decks much like he had done, and Silver realised in that moment as well, just how much he'd changed. Then we got to see that Billy it turned out never killed Madi, and as a result, Silver got the ending that he wanted.

At least, until Madi found out the cost that he'd given up to get her back. It turned out that Silver had planned to remove Flint from the picture since before even Madi had been captured, investigating the whereabouts of Thomas Hamilton to come up with an alternative to remove Flint from the game for good. The betrayal was something that Madi initially could not forgive him for, sending him away, but in the final montage, despite the fact that no words were spoken, it looked like he was eventually forgiven, but that ending left it open for interpretation. Given where Silver's character is in Treasure Island though, it does look like Flint was right, when he mentioned that Silver wouldn't remain satisfied with his life, and eventually Silver will be drawn back into the search for the chest that only Flint knows its whereabouts.

Even though we haven't seen much of Max and Anne in the past couple of episodes it was good to see them here as well. Max's deal where she was willing to accept the offer from Eleanor's Grandmother if Featherstone became the Governor gave her what she wanted as well as Anne and Jack what they wanted too, a life on the high seas. This finale was full of plenty of great moments, particularly crowd-pleasing. It's still hard not to love that final scene where Mary(Mark) Read is recruited by Rackham. Everything just works so well, and as a result of just how successfully everything is pulled off, I think I actually have to label the finale as a favourite. It's just so perfect, as everything is wrapped up so nicely in a way that was not disappointing at all. Maybe it would have been nice to see Silver sporting the parrot that he has in Treasure Island, but either way, everything was just handled so well.

Black Sails joins the likes of Justified and Person of Interest as examples of how to do perfect finales (and yes, I'm even going to throw in Battlestar Galactica there for good measure, despite how divisive it was), and it ends on a fantastic note that will make sure this show is well and truly missed.

What did you think of the series finale? Did it meet your expectations and are you sad to see this show go? Let me know in the comments below!

About the Author - Milo MJ

Milo is an Arsenal FC supporter and loves TV shows like Battlestar Galactica, Justified, The 100, The Americans and Person of Interest. He reviews Black Sails, Preacher, Star Wars Rebels, The Shannara Chronicles, Silicon Valley and Veep for Spoiler TV and will be covering Castle Rock, Counterpart, Jack Ryan, Snowfall, Succession, Star Trek Discovery and Tales From The Crypt. He also contributes to comic reviews on a weekly basis for All-Comic. He also regularly watches and reviews films on Letterboxd, and you can find his ever-changing list of 300 favourite movies here.

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