Tonight CROSSBONES returns on NBC with a new episode called, “The Covenant”. Tonight, Blackbeard’s master plan faces obstacles when a popular pirate captain arrives. Elsewhere, Tom Lowe becomes an instrument of Blackbeard’s designs.
On the last episode the Longitude Chronometer, a device that will change the world, was stolen from HMS Petrel by pirates working for the legendary but supposedly long dead Edward Teach – better known as Blackbeard (John Malkovich). On board the Petrel was Tom Lowe (Richard Coyle), an English spy working undercover as ship’s surgeon. Lowe’s mission was to prevent the Chronometer from falling into the hands of pirates… and if the opportunity should arise, to assassinate Blackbeard. Also starring Tracy Ifeachor, David Hoflin, Yasmine Al Massri, Chris Perfetti and Claire Foy. Did you watch last week’s episode? If you missed it we have a full and detailed recap, right here for you.
On tonight’s episode Blackbeard’s (John Malkovich) plans are complicated when a popular Pirate Captain comes to town and violently disagrees with his grand design. For his master plan to survive, Blackbeard must weigh the risks of ridding himself of a dangerous old friend. Meanwhile, trying to gain insight into the Commodore’s mysterious endgame, Tom Lowe (Richard Coyle) finds himself an unlikely instrument of Blackbeard’s will. Also starring Tracy Ifeachor, David Hoflin, Yasmine Al Massri, Chris Perfetti and Claire Foy.
Tonight’s episode is going to be great and you won’t want to miss it. So be sure to tune in for our live coverage of NBC’s Crossbones tonight at 10 PM EST! While you wait for our recap, hit the comments and let us know if you are looking forward to Crossbones?
LIVE RECAP:
The Commodore watches his collection of clocks and the chronometer that James managed to reconstruct. He tells him that’s outstanding. A pirate ship rides the seas with blindfolded men on board – all but the Commodore’s men. Selima tells BB that he can’t trust Valentine and he should think again. He asks her who he can trust if not Valentine. Lowe sits scribbling and Fletch asks if he’s doing it from memory. He asks what that one is and he says it’s an underwater ship and Fletch asks if it’s on purpose. Then asks what’s the point and he says secrecy.
He’s also sketched out the Spanish guy that was meeting with the pirates. He tells Fletch to go and be useful. Kate asks if he’s found suitable accommodations and Lowe says he has agreed to serve as the island’s surgeon. She says he needs a roof and tools and he says he has no money but she offers to swap him goods if he will help her husband and she says he’s in pain. Lowe says he can’t make any guarantees.
They look at Valentine’s ship coming in and he says that he thought the island was a secret. Kate says it is and that she has to go. She extracts a promise for him to see James today. He calls for a spyglass from Fletch and looks at the ship. On board, Nenna tells the men they can take off their hoods and welcomes them to Santa Campana with the Commodore’s compliments.
The ship pulls into harbor and the head trollop wakes up the prostitutes and tells them to limber up. She asks where Maggie is. Fletch is approached by one of the pros who shows him a sponge and tells him that the girls have urgent need of them. She gives him one and tells him good boy and walks away.
Sam Valentine greets the Commodore and he says it’s a pleasure to finally be there to see the fabled kingdom. He calls him Ed and asks why he’s there since he’s so despised and mistrusted. Lowe sneaks along the rooftop and crouches down to eavesdrop. Ed tells him that he can’t trust anyone with his location and Sam says they will find him eventually.
He tells Sam that an item of value has come into his possession. He says it’s a chronometer and Sam says he’s heard those are impossible but Ed says he murdered and killed to get it and says it’s worth a king’s ransom. He says owning it leaves him disadvantaged since it means Jagger will come looking for him to recover it. He tells Sam that it’s his and Jagger will pay a fortune to recover it. Sam asks how that benefits him and he says Jagger will be recalled to England and be out of his hair.
Sam asks if he stole it to return it to prove he didn’t exist and Ed says he can’t have stolen it if he doesn’t exist. He asks for a hellburner or two. Sam says that in the hands of the English it means the end of the shipping lanes and the end of piracy. He tells Ed no and says to destroy it and they will go on as they were. He asks Sam if he’s sure and he says he is and walks out.
Charlie hears the ceiling creak and looks up but then lets it go. Later, Fletch is diving for sponges for the girls when a dead body bobs up in the water. He screams in terror.
Commodore tells Selima that he can’t kill Sam or it would make him an enemy of his own kind and if he lets him go, he will betray him. Selima tells him to rise by first descending. She tells him to build a foundation of humility. He asks her to lay with him now and she says that would make her only human.
Lowe runs into Eisengrim who says – homicide – and says he knows he took Alain from him. Lowe says he’s sorry for his misfortune but he’s been locked up so it wasn’t him that took him from him. Fletch sits on the beach talking to a crab and says they’ll hang Lowe for it. He goes back into the water and weights the body down with rocks and pushes him back under the sea. He turns up at the brothel and is greeted warmly. He asks what they’re for and she says bastard thwarting. She demonstrates with her hand. He’s shocked.
Eisengrim sings while Sam and the other drink and listen. Nenna asks how long he’s known the Commodore and he says back from when he was a skinny lad named Eddie. Lower comes to see James as promised. He tells Lowe the loss of Nightingale is a loss of a great mind. He asks what James does for the Commodore and he says he keeps up his timepieces. He says Kate asked him to come see him to ease his suffering.
James says he’s a lost cause and Lowe says he knows who he is – James Balfour – who backed the wrong king. Lowe says he knows he was betrayed and tortured but wouldn’t yield and says he’s a hero among Jacobites. Lowe says he’s not a Jacobite and James says that makes them enemies and he says in another world far from here, maybe.
Lowe checks his legs and asks about his pain. He asks if he can stand and he says only with support and only sometimes. Lowe says there may be ways to alleviate the distress. James says he uses rum and opium and Lowe says that opium can rob him of vigor and he says he knows, but what’s a man to do. He asks if he’s tried prayer and James says he prayed on the rack to no avail. He says now he is trapped in a broken carcass with a wife he cannot properly satisfy.
Lowe goes to Kate and says it’s not in his power to help him, but it’s in hers’. He says that her husband doesn’t need compassion or pity, only love. She tells him James was in Newgate Prison and that she bribed and conspired, lied and stole to get him out and away. She says she gave away her entire life for James. He says she asked what would relieve his suffering and he has told her so his debt to her is repaid in full. He walks away.
Sam tells stories drunkenly and Charlie tells him to stop. Nenna says to ignore Charlie and tell the story. He says Ed was about to shoot the helmsman and then the ship moves and he shot the first mate through the knee instead – Izzy Hands – who had the nerve to complain. He says Ed got angry and shot him straight through the brain.
Then when someone spoke up – it was Charlie – he asks what he said. Charlie says it doesn’t matter. Sam gets on and says Ed spit on the deck and says if he hadn’t shot him dead, they would have forgotten under whom they were serving. He asks Charlie if he has another tale and says that Ed told tales of himself until others starting telling the tales.
He rambles drunkenly until the Commodore comes in. He asks Sam if he would insult him in his home in front of his crew. Sam asks what his plans are and he says it will be a republic with no kings. Sam mocks him and says who needs a king when you have Blackbeard.
Ed says – we don’t use that name here. Sam asks who elected him Commodore. Sam swaggers up closer and says it was you. He asks what’s to stop him from deciding in his new republic that king or emperor has a merry ring to it. Sam says his ambition will kill them all.
The brothel is busy, busy when a woman comes in and asks to speak to Valentine’s men alone – we don’t see who it is (maybe Selima). BB walks the beach and hears whispers. He looks back and sees his angel hallucination. He turns and runs from it. He says – I won’t see you, I won’t see you. He goes to a candlelit shrine and then hears a noise off in the jungle. He looks around then turns back to the shrine and bows his head.
James tries to move his legs and stand to get into the bed. Kate comes to help him and she takes his hand and tells him to never doubt her, ever. She kisses him passionately.
He hears a sword being drawn and turns. He tells the men he’s unarmed and asks if Sam sent them. They circle him. In town, Lowe creeps around peeking at people. BB grabs a skill form the shrine and throws it and engages the men in fisticuffs. He grabs one of the bells down to defend himself and Charlie hears it then tells everyone to shut it and then goes running to see what it is.
BB is beating one of the killers with the bell. Another gets up and he demands to know who sent him. He slashes the man with the sword he now has. He asks again. The man doesn’t answer. He knocks him down and puts the blade to him and tells him to say the name. He stabs him and demands the name. He calls for Lowe and tells him to save him.
Lowe says it can’t be done and BB says to buy him one more minute. He tells the man to confess before he dies and says the name. He dies. BB is furious and asks Charlie where he was. He calls him as slow as a two balled bitch and demands that he find out who sent these men. His crew goes off to find out. Lenna confronts Sam with a sword.
Selima tells the Commodore that he pushed Sam to this and he says he thinks it was Fennigan, the first mate plotting against Sam so he can take over the ship. He’s looking a mirror stitching up his own head. She says she thinks it was Lowe and says he tried to kill him before. The Commodore reminds him that he saved him and asks what her obsession is with the doc’s depravity.
Selima asks what reasons Lowe had to save him or murder him. She says his Englishness is enough. He tells Nenna and Charlie they can lock up Lowe too but says to keep Sam away from Finnegan because Sam has seen his last sunrise. They come to the doc’s quarters and demand Fletch tell them where the doctor is. Lowe comes in and says he isn’t responsible for the Commodore’s attack but says he knows they won’t believe him so he surrenders himself to them.
Lowe now sits in jail tied to the same post as Sam who asks Lowe if he bribed his men to attack the Commodore. Lowe says he has no money and asks him the same. Sam says he didn’t but now wish he had. Sam says he once loved the Commodore but he’s also the most evil man he’s known. He says he’s seen him burn boats full of men and laugh for the fun of it.
Lowe says he can help him and says slow hanging is a cruel death that can take days. He says he can make it easier. He asks what he wants in return and he says information. He asks what a hellburner is. Sam thinks he’s an agent of the crown and says they seem to have a mutual enemy. He says whatever Lowe’s motive is, he asks that he kill him quick and clean.
He tells him that a hellburner is an empty ship packed with rocks, iron shards and gunpowder set with a timing mechanism. He says it’s a weapon of indiscriminate destruction. He asks why the Commodore would want one and he says it could be a bridge, town or port but he can rest assured that innocents will die by the score.
Kate goes to the Commodore and says Lowe is innocent of this. He asks what made her elect herself his defender. She says he spent much of the day in his bed and says if you hang the wrong man then the guilty man goes free and she knows he loves justice too much for that. At the hastily built gallows, Sam and Lowe are dragged out and put to the noose while the crowd screams traitor! They are set up on stools.
Kate watches from the crowd when the Commodore comes up. He tells Charlie that this is Sam Valentine and Charlie says he tried to have him killed. The Commodore says if Sam wanted him dead he would have drawn a sword and put it to him directly. He tells Charlie to cut him down. Nenna says a jury has found him guilty and that it’s the law.
Commodore yells at them and asks them who he is and calls them dogs and bitches. He asks who can tell him who he is. They all stand in silence. He turns to Sam and tells him that he can’t stop them because he’s not their king. Nenna walks forward and the Commodore winks at him. Nenna kicks the stool away. She goes to do the same to Lowe but Kate rushes forward and whispers to her that Lowe was with her. Nenna tells him he’s lucky and innocent and cuts his bonds and lets him go.
Sam chokes slowly on the noose – it’s the next morning. Lowe loads a gun and sneaks about. He loads the gun, takes careful aim and shoots him through the heart. He runs off. Commodore tells Charlie that it was a good lad that put the bullet to him and spared him the agony. He asks Finnegan if he will do what he asked Sam to do and sell the chronometer to Jagger. He says he will if it will make amends. He takes the chronometer and goes.
Selima says that was a lot to go through to get what he wanted. She says those men could have really killed him and he asks if she truly believes that. She tells him not to get himself in harm’s way again and he says he never did it once. He tosses a giant ruby to Rose, the brothel owner and asks how it went. She says she told them that she and the girls were held prisoner there.
He asks if she knows the difference between the legend and the secret and then tells her if she can’t keep one, she’ll become part of the other. Essentially, he told her if she ever tells anyone what went down, she’s dead. She nods in understanding.
Lowe comes home and finds Kate waiting for him. She thanks him for talking to James and says that it can be exhausting and he says he knows. She’s all teary and tells him that she’s glad he didn’t hang. He says she’s not half as glad as he is. She touches his face then kisses him. He kisses her back.
