Taboo, episode 2

Taboo, episode 2

Last week laid a nice foundation of mystery and tension as the viewer followed James Delaney’s return to London after the death of his father.  Macabre elements were woven into the dark tapestry, James exhumation of his father’s corpse, his visions of ghost slaves and his chanting in an obscure language whether alone or in private.  The “villains” are those employed at the British East India Company, an unknown hit man, and James’s brother-in-law Thorne Geary.  Throughout this second hour, James is steadfast in his desire to reclaim the glory of his father’s business and hang on to the Nooka land in the far away Pacific Northwest.

The episode opens with Sir Strange throwing a wad of paper at the hapless Mr. Pettifer.  When the big man bends to pick up the paper, Strange yells at him, “At least it appears you are capable of following orders!”  Sir Strange threatens him, if he does not kill James Delaney within two days he will be fired from the company.

James rides his white horse outside of London.  He unearths a bag, which he had buried in the previous episode.  James returns home.  Brace grumbles as he deposits a large safe on his desk.  Brace balks when James gives him a pistol, muttering that he again finds himself in the company of a “mad Delaney.”  James inquires about his father’s last days.  Brace informs him that his father hardly ate, subsisting on beer, which was brought to him from a pub on Featherlane.  James wants to find this pub owner but learns the man is dead and his wife has fled town. (Perhaps they were responsible for poisoning the father with arsenic.)  James opens the muddy bag to reveal a cache of large clear stones. (Diamonds)  He locks them in the safe.

James walks with purpose to an auction of ships.  He bids eight hundred pounds on a seized Spanish vessel know as the Feliz Adventurera. (Translates to happy female adventurer.) James declares the ship now belongs to the “Delaney Nooka Trading Company.”

At the East India Company, Wilton relates the auction story to fat Pettifer.  Sir Strange listens impatiently, “Why defy logic and the King?”  Strange is dismayed that James knew about the secret peace talks in Ghent.  He deduces that James much have contact with American spies.  Strange also wonders where James got such a large sum of money.  Sir Strange wants the James “taken care of” as soon as possible.

When James leaves the auction he finds a note with the name “Atticus” on it where his horse was tethered. He enters a rough looking pub and calls out for Atticus.  A man with a compass tattooed on his bald-head appears.  He pumps James for information about his African travels, stating he’s planning to write a book.  James impatiently asks for his horse to be returned.  Atticus wants money James’s father owed him, he states he has information regarding the old man’s death.  James tries to get Atticus to give him information.  He agrees to be James’s “eyes and ears” for the fee of fifteen pounds.

A man named Coop is presented to the King. (King George III, whom suffered from mental illness and a blood disease known as porphyria which effects the nervous system and the skin.) The King looks unwell and complains about his stomach and his toe.  The King is distracted by Coop’s presentation of the naval positions in the Atlantic.  The King insists a red not blue “X” should have represented the English ships.  Instead of listening to military strategy, he tells Coop about a dream he had in which he was an island and surrounded by shrimp who were gnawing at him. The King interprets the dream to mean the Americans are the shrimp, trying to eat Britain. He wishes to attack offensively.  Coop states he has other news regarding the East India Company, King George exclaims, “Fuck them as well!”

James ventures out to the docks at night.  A teenage girl approaches him and introduces herself as Winter, stating she lives at the brothel but does not take part in it’s business.  She informs him Helga has a man sent to kill him, so that she can get her brothel back.  Winter offers to show James where the man is moored on a boat with but for a prostitute.  The pair row off in a small boat.  Winter asks him about Africa.  Winter tells him she dreams of going to America.  James asks her again who has sent this man to kill him but the girl does not answer.  He asks her to wait as he swims towards the larger vessel.

Once aboard, James lights a lantern and wanders the empty vessel.  He sees ships hanging to dry, and sniffs a powder in a container.  He spreads the gunpowder and sets the cabin ablaze.  He quickly abandons the ship.  A huge explosion destroys the vessel.  James climbs back aboard the canoe but it appears Winter has left.

James returns home at dawn still wet from his adventure. Brace notes how his behavior is similar to his father’s.  James inquires where his father stored important documents in the home.  James needs to find the treaty.  Brace quips the treat will be “his own death.”  James has a pragmatic need for the treaty, without it the Crown may seize his land as a “spoil of war.”

Brace believes the land is best left alone.  The servant is certain the East India Company will kill James for it.  James mutters again in an unknown language. A brief vision of a ghostly woman dressed in black with a white painted face appears. (Is this perhaps his native mother?)

James continues to search through his father’s papers.  He finds a theater advertisement for a show called the “Painted Savage.”  The drawing of the “savage” has tattoos, which resemble the one’s on James’s body.  A name “Lorna Dow” is circled on the program.  A portrait seems to stare down at him in disdain.

James takes to the streets again heading toward the dock offices. Despite the eviction notice Helga is still using the offices to “entertain” men.  James interrupts her with a client.  She thanks him for the disturbance.  James asks if she has a “mulatto” girl there.  Helga denies it, stating she’d love to have such a girl because “The Danes will pay double.” James removes the madam’s blond wig to reveal her shorter darker hair.   He tells her, “I like to see what lies beneath.  I know you have goodness inside you yet.”  He deduces that Winter is her daughter that is why she doesn’t participate in the “business.”  James implores Helga to work with him.  She crudely asks for physical affection but James simply asks instead “Where is the silver tooth man?”  Helga says she’ll ask after the “Malay.”  James curtly thanks her and leaves.

James signs papers of ownership to complete his purchase of the Spanish vessel.  He ventures inside and finds red beads on the floor.  He lies down on the floor and finds chains bolted on the floor. James speaks to himself in the foreign tongue and undresses completely.  On the floor, he has flashbacks to slaves in chains drowning in the sea. He carves a bird on the ship’s floor, it matches the one tattooed on his upper back.

Dressed again, James wades into the water and throws handfuls of the beads he gathered from the ship's floor into the river. 

James returns home to find his servant furious with him for his unpredictable behavior.  He informs Brace “Someone has been sent from London to kill me. I need to find out why.”

James sets out again, this time to a hospital.  He is searching for a doctor named Dumbarton.   He is led to an office where he tells the doctor he was wounded by a Yankee bullet.  Dumbarton (Michael Kelly, House of Cards) asks if he should call him “comrade” in an American accent.  James is fascinated to find the doctor busy dying linens. Dumbarton explains, “In times of war there is much need for changing flags.” James notes he’s a doctor, merchant and a spy.  Dumbarton warns James the “shoulder wound” is no longer an acceptable password.  James wants a conference with the Americans.  James tells Dumbarton the British are trying to kill him and to get a message to Carlsbad.

Upon hearing this name, the doctor draws a pistol on James.  James remains calm, asking, “Do you treat illnesses of the mind?” Dumbarton pauses, sizing up James before slowing lowering the gun.  The doctor notes, “We are an angry nation!” James replies, “I’m counting on it.” 

Zilpha receives a note but there are no words, only a large clear gem within.  She deposits it into her locked jewelry box.

James meets his father’s attorney Thoyt at his office.  James states he intends to use the land.  He tells Thoyt the ship he purchased used to belong to the East India Company.  James notes the beads he found on the floor were used for trade in Africa. (England banned the slave trade in 1807, although people still owned slaves throughout the empire territories until they abolished slavery roughly thirty years later.)  James chastises Thoyt for “reporting his father’s business to the enemy.” Thoyt defends his actions, noting the East India Company is God, with more ships and weapons then the entire British empire.  Thoyt adds his choice is pragmatic, “I’m merely submitting to what the world has become.”  James replies, “Even the mighty East India Company wouldn’t follow me to Boston.”  Thoyt admonishes his words as treason against Country and the Company.

Thoyt is reading the will to the assembled and rowdy public. The older Delaney died with many debts.  Thoyt confirms that Zilpha will receive nothing; James is the sole heir to the property and business. Throne yells in disgusts and he and Zilpha exit.  Thoyt explains that James does not inherit his father’s debts.  But James dumps a bag of silver coins on the table, stating he will pay every debtor if they line up in an orderly fashion.

A woman approaches James and the lawyer. The crowd laugh, thinking she is a prostitute still owed. The woman states, “I am owed a lifetime of care and everything that is owed to a wife.” She states her name is Lorna Delaney, and she claims to have married the father in Ireland two years prior.  Thoyt escorts her and James into a private office.

Alone in the office, Lorna repeats to herself, “Calm, pretty, certain, fragrant.”  The men join her.  James recalls her name from the program of a show called the “Painted Savage.” (Does he have a photographic memory?) Thoyt asks the former actress if she married Delaney before or after his madness.  James notes his father’s health was ailing and asks for “proof of consummation.” (How on earth can this be proved?) Lorna states she has passionate letters from the deceased, which proved he loved her.  Thoyt requests to see the letters and the actress stammers.  Finally, Thoyt requests to obtain a copy of their marriage certificate and testimony from the priest who married them in Dublin.

Outside, James meets with some rough looking men, including Atticus. They claim the man sent to kill him was present at the will reading. “He’s the man who said your legacy is a death sentence!” Thorne uttered those words as he left.  He hardly seems capable of murder but his hatred for James is clear.

Sir Strange heads a meeting of the East India Company with Thoyt also in attendance.  He chides a young man named Godfrey to read the news about the “Delaney widow.” The young man explains an actress has claimed to be the Delaney widow and their marriage certificate has been found to be valid.

Strange asks if anyone can explain the significance of this development to their plans for James.  Pettifer offers, “The girl is an opportunity, for she will have a shared ownership of the Nooka land.”  Thoyt notes the widow must file a suit to claim such ownership.  Strange adds, the widow would have sole claim on the land in the likely event of James’s death, which maybe “imminent.”

James approaches a grand home where an orchestra is playing Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony.  James eyes his half-sister in attendance.  Their eyes meet.  Moments later, Zilpha joins James outside. “Please don’t!”  James is bemused by her aversion to him. He notes how she used to “Straighten her skirts afterward and walk away like nothing had happened.”  With that one sentence, the viewers learn that they had an incestuous relationship, one that Zilpha is determined to remain “buried deep down.”

Zilpha looks at James deeply, “Did you really eat flesh in Africa?”  He offers to tell her the whole story if she comes with him.  She resists, stating she can’t stand even standing so near him.  James replies, “I’ll always be this close to you.” He leaves down a dark deserted alley.

A figure in black with a veiled hat follows James. A knife is brandished, James is stabbed in the gut. James wrestles with the attacker, breaking his neck. As a final act of rage, James bites the man’s neck savagely. As the man lies dead in the street, a silver tooth shines in the moonlight.

James collapses in the street, badly wounded. He has flashbacks to Africa, where warriors found him in the savannah.

The preview for next week shows that our protagonist is not dead, but will seek out the help of the American doctor. 

This hour continued hint at James’s mysterious past. Having relations with his half-sister certainly is one “taboo” behavior he has engaged in. It seems the East India Company had a hand in murdering his father and now has tried to kill James. Knowing there is an assassin out looking for him, why did he go almost everywhere in this episode alone? Does he want to die? How does James’s know so many of the United States's secrets? Hopefully we will get more answers and meet the mysterious Carlsbad in the coming weeks. So far the story is interesting but a bit coy at sharing its secrets with the audience.