Crossbones premiere episode, “The Devil’s Dominion,” was written by series creator Neil Cross, James V Hart, and Amanda Welles and directed by David Slade. Cross’s other credits include Luther (also as creator), Doctor Who and MI-5. Hart was an executive producer on Hook and wrote Treasure Island: The Adventure Begins, so knows his way around a pirate-based franchise. Slade’s credits include Hannibal, Breaking Bad, and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. As I mentioned in my preview, Slade’s direction is solid without the overtly ‘artsy’ overtones that I sometimes find a bit much on Hannibal. The dialogue – which star John Malcovich (Blackbeard) says is what drew him to the role – is terrific.
A first episode always has a lot of back story to establish and this episode is full of information, but it doesn’t slow down the forward momentum of the story. There are lots of questions posed by the story and the acting is terrific, so I’m definitely looking forward to the next episode! While some of the costuming seemed a little less than accurate for the period – I’m thinking that worn by the women in particular – the sequences at sea were very satisfyingly well done.
The episode sets up the three main protagonists: John Malkovich as Blackbeard, Richard Coyle as Tom Lowe, sent by Julian Sands as William Jagger, Governor of Jamaica, to kill Blackbeard. Jagger and Blackbeard have a long history as everyone thinks that Blackbeard is dead at Jagger’s hands. Coyle is both a spy and a doctor. Rounding out the cast of characters is Fletch (Chris Perfietti), Lowe’s lob-lolly boy from the ship who he takes under his protection. We are also introduced to Selima (Yasmine Al Masri) the Commodore’s (Blackbeard) right hand or second in command, and Lady Kate Balfour (Claire Foy) who acts as his Quartermaster. Lord James Balfour (Peter Stebbings) also works for the Commodore but is confined to a wheelchair. It’s unclear exactly what his infirmity is as he can stand but also appears to be addicted to drugs to deal with the pain that he’s in. Lowe recognizes her immediately upon seeing her and tells Fletch that she is a fugitive accused of high treason. She does not appear to recognize him, however.
There would appear to be any number of ways that Lowe’s training as a doctor may stand him in good stead. The initial plan is for him to be the ship’s doctor on the ship carrying Frederick Nightingale and the navigational device that he’s created, the Longitude Chronometer, with the understanding that Blackbeard’s pirates will attack to try to steal the device. When they do, however, Lowe’s medical knowledge helps him to poison Nightingale – and then keep him alive at the pirate’s insistence – but he also destroys the Chronometer and attempts to burn the cipher that goes with it.
While Fletch comes off as a bit of comic relief, the rest of the cast are all intelligent, and most of the humor is supplied by Lowe’s somewhat sarcastic replies. It’s clear that Blackbeard values Salima more for her intellect than her beauty – which is also considerable! I quite liked the women in the episode, including Nenna (Tracy Ifeachor) one of Selima’s lieutenants. The other lieutenant is Charles (David Hoflin).
So far the only real sexual tension in the show is supplied between Lowe and Kate. She seems to care about her husband, but also welcomes Lowe at the end of the episode when he joins her for a swim – sans clothes. On the other hand, he does lie to her about the cameo and his wife, and he doesn’t seem at all distressed to be leaving her behind when they are about to flee. We also see that Blackbeard may not be interested in having a relationship with Selima, but Fletch does find him in the middle of an orgy when he goes to fetch Blackbeard to save Lowe from Selima’s torturing him. In fact, Selima is clearly jealous of Blackbeard’s interest in Lowe. In addition to torturing Lowe, she also lies to the other pirates when Blackbeard has been poisoned, telling them Blackbeard wants him shot. Of course, she’s not wrong that Lowe is responsible for Blackbeard’s poisoning.
I really liked how the plot unfolded in this episode. It was very entertaining to watch the various exchanges between the characters. I particularly liked the description of Lowe and Blackbeard being “two sharks circling each other.” Lowe’s plan has to change on the fly when Nightingale dies and then he sees the Spaniard. The intrigue is very nicely shot as Lowe goes to poison Blackbeard and it seems very likely that he’s put the poison in his goblet. I loved them toasting to “Blackbeard must die” – a nice reference to both Lowe’s mission and Blackbeard’s own attempts to stay dead – including forbidding the use of his moniker. Blackbeard, of course, chooses Lowe’s goblet instead of his own to drink out of. Could Lowe have planned for this? The look on Lowe’s face as he’s drinking is a bit of a red herring as he looks quite concerned. But in the end, the poison turns out not to be in the goblet but on the pages of the cipher. Of course, that depends on Blackbeard licking his fingers to turn the pages and how could Lowe know he would do that? I know I don’t do that...
I also liked that people are not necessarily all they seem. Jagger is clearly as bloodthirsty and cruel as Blackbeard as we see him torturing one of Blackbeard’s pirates for information. Lowe’s introduction to Blackbeard is Blackbeard slitting a man’s throat. Lowe jumps in and saves the man, and I had to wonder if, in fact, Blackbeard’s intention is to see how good a doctor Lowe is. Blackbeard is actually suffering from some ailment. I loved his using acupuncture on himself – though I don’t believe you bleed from the needle insertions as he does. Lowe’s doctor’s training again stands him in good stead as he clearly diagnoses – or at least recognizes all of Blackbeard’s symptoms. It’s interesting that Blackbeard denies remembering any of his visions. It wasn’t clear to me on first watching whether the vision was just that or a supernatural element being added, but is seems most likely that the woman in white, bleeding from the eyes that Blackbeard sees is just a vision and not a ghost. But why does he deny remembering her? What is her significance?
Our first shot of Blackbeard scans over the flayed body. When Blackbeard shows it to Lowe, he tells him that it’s the flayed body of a man who betrayed him – and then tells him it’s wax. I had to wonder if he was using it in conjunction with the acupuncture charts to determine the best insertion points for relief or simply for research on his ailment. However, he tells Lowe that not all the legends about him are untrue either. Later in the episode, he also tells Lowe that if there is one thing he’s good at it’s creating and spreading a legend.
It’s clearly Blackbeard’s intellect that has allowed him to be successful. He tells Lowe that he rules because his followers want him to. He also identifies the best way to torture Lowe. Unlike Selima, who resorts to physical torture, Blackbeard realizes that the best way to torture Lowe is through his vanity – to destroy his reputation. Blackbeard threatens to use Fletch to that end. While Lowe is concerned about Fletch, he also doesn’t do anything to protect Fletch when it’s pretty obvious that Selima is going to let her men beat him up as a replacement to torturing Lowe himself.
I think my favorite Fletch moment has to be when he tells Lowe that he wants to leave because he doesn’t want to be hung, stabbed, have his eyes gouged out, or be called a monkey. I love that he equates being called a monkey with the others! One of the few things that did bother me was one lapse in the generally above average dialogue. Jagger tells Lowe that the book is decrypted not encrypted. Decrypting is what you do to an encrypted text... Surely somewhere along the line, someone should have caught that mistake!
This was a very promising start. It’s hard not to be entranced by Malkovich’s performance and all the characters are well-drawn. Coyle is also excellent, and I’m hoping we get to see more from Sands, though it seems likely that the action is going to focus on New Providence. There's a great article on what drew Malkovich to the project here. What did you think of the first episode? Are you intrigued by the plot? Will you be tuning in for the second episode? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
