Taboo this week(UK link here, US link here) came out of the chute bucking. Brace is tired of James’s deification of his late mother, and tells him the truth.
She tried to kill him in the river as an infant.
Maybe James knew this in his heart, maybe that is where his strange gift comes from.
There is a full moon, and James rides to the docks.
Winter is there, and they speak. He speaks in an African tongue to her, and tells her to go to Helga, she truly loves Winter. With Helga she is safe.
Poor Cholmondeley must teach his apprentices to use the chlorate in the making of gunpowder. They must never stop stirring, and his analogy is very…Cholmondeley, and very funny.
Again we see the disdain the EIC sees for George Chichester. Again he must set them straight, and cleverly. He has them by the short hairs, and doubly so to Sir Stuart.
I cannot say I am not pleased.
James is bathing in the pond(sadly with a shirt on, y’all), and an unseen force pulls him down into the water, trying to drown him.
Going to the Delaney home, we see James has been missing for two days.
Lorna is worried, Brace is not. He knows James better. Lorna plans to search, Brace tries to dissuade her.
George Chichester is searching for James as well, and as he is searching, we see that Sir Stuart’s brother is culpable in the slave’s murder that he seeks justice for.
Sadly, now he is ready to play.
Lorna is at the Geary household, and asks Thorne to see Zilpha.
But she asks about James’s whereabouts, and that is the thorn that Thorne cannot abide. Already drunk, he tries taunting Lorna. Zilpha appears and we see the ugly cuts and bruises to her face. Lorna is having none of Thorne’s cruelty. And Zilpha is having none of Lorna’s questions or requests for a carriage.
It seems that the fake cholera is killing people…
Zilpha is in her bath, and Thorne is excited to tell her he has a job in Australia. This will not do, as it is too far.
Too far for what? For her connection with James, for machinations we don’t yet know, too far for society and propriety?
The first batch of gunpowder is ready. Thank goodness there’s a cholera epidemic for cover, and a quick thinking child to keep the cover up, which is fantastic, because lit torches plus gunpowder don’t usually end well.
Just a reminder that Cholmondeley loves his gallows humor, his puns, and his metaphors.
The gunpowder is delivered to the doctor, along with a threat.
James comes home, and Lorna is relieved, and offers him counsel. Whether James takes it under advisement, we do not know. All he cares about is what his sister had to say.
Oh, his sister did not say much, but now we see she is a woman of very un-Christian action. One that requires her to run to James for help. His reaction is not expected, nor is her telling him that he told her to do what she did. He does not recall doing so, but dismisses it quickly and tells her to go home once Brace gets her a carriage. Is it because he is plotting, or because he is afraid of her at this point?
I won’t spoil anything here, so there is much I am going to be skipping over.
Shortly after, we see the main reason I think the show is called Taboo, but it ends differently than I thought.
There was a confession to a priest in the EIC’s pocket, and James and his motley crew are in danger. They were betrayed for £25.
The usual going rate is 30 pieces of silver, but James is “the devil” and not Divine.
James is alerted, and his plans are in danger of going up in smoke. The unstable powder must be moved, and it is a genius plan. James’s crew may be motley, but none of them are stupid, so I do not know who thought of their escape.
Also, this family likes black top hats, don’t they?
We hear the song sung in the very first episode by the children.
James gets his explosion vision fulfilled, oh boy does he get it.
And he is very angry at Godfrey.
He leaves a body to be found.
He tries to get a ship via Helga.
James drinks heavily, and again meets Winter at the docks.
His awakening there is rude, muddy, and has undergone a sea change in the morning.
James’s war has begun, and the EIC struck the first, and possibly second blow.
Thoughts and questions on this episode:
Again, I think Zilpha is no angel. She has a sinister, reptilian quality that lies just beneath the surface of her alabaster facade.
I still stick by my Zilpha is his mother reincarnated somehow theory.
I think she is not helping James’s plans, as her actions seem to damage his near insane levels of calm.
Is the EIC on to Godfrey?
Is James guilty of the heinous crime we see at the end of this episode? Maybe, but it seems too tidy for the EIC.
Taboo airs Saturdays at 9:15 on BBC1, Tuesdays at 10:00 on FX
Pictured: Tom Hardy as James Keziah Delaney
CR: FX
I give this episode 8 stars, because of my disgust and heartbreak.
With only 2 episodes left–It only gets darker from here, my dear Taboo artists.
