Taboo, Episode 5

Taboo, Episode 5

After last week, it seems as though interest in this show has really dropped off. Instead of a “play-by-play” recap, this recap will just cover some of the highlighted action and my impressions of the show.  Frankly, it seems Taboo is a little too slow and uneventful for warrant a full review.  The current extra-long episodes might have been better in the original hour format.  It's been hard to stay awake and interested in the cluster of unlikeable characters.

James Delaney and his brother-in-law arrive to duel in the woods at dawn. Lorna wades through a creek to observe the action.  Throne has brought a colleague from the East India Company to act as his “second.” James is alone.  The men have chosen pistols.  Throne fires first, a ring of powder forms on James’s chest. James notes the Company man had failed to load Throne’s pistol because they want Delaney alive. Thorne braces for a fatal shot but James shoots the Company man in the head instead. The group breaks up, their grievance unresolved.

Last week Delaney’s team succeeded in stealing saltpeter from the Company.  James explains to Lorna that he won’t hang for the offense because the material had been sold to the Royal Navy and its disappearance will send the Crown after the Company instead of Delaney.  James fears one of his men will seek the Company’s reward and tell on the group.  James cuts off the man’s thumb in a bar as a warning to the others. At the brothel, a customer threatens Pearl with a knife.  Winter alerts James of the attack and that man is killed with his body left for the crabs on the shore. 

James has chosen the farm where his son lives to render the saltpeter into gunpowder.  The chemist Cumberly is forced to accelerate the process to satisfy the American’s needs for the gunpowder.  James offers the chemist to use his son as an apprentice in the work.  A visit to “Carlsbad” aka the Countess, results in a deal; the Americans will agree the Nootka trade monopoly and provide safe passage through the American blockade in return for the gunpowder.  James wants assurances for the deal but Carlsbad notes they will have to trust each other.  James wounds a man on horseback who ventures too close to the gunpowder site.

Zilpha is dismayed that her husband has returned home from the duel alive.  Thorne punishes her in the episode for “uttering his name” while she dreamt.  Thorne again beats and sexually assaults her for her “crime.”  Honestly, Thorne is despicable and tiresome. Is it really necessary to show this violence every episode?  Thorne employs a man to exorcise Zilpha.  She is restrained with coarse ropes as the man takes the opportunity to grab her breasts while she is bound.  Both men seem to enjoy her muttering and writhing on the floor as they pretend to pray for her.  After the ordeal, Zilpha watches Thorne in bed.  She removes a long thin object from her dresser with foreshadowing of murderous intent.

Another major event this episode was the discovery of the original Nootka treaty. (The show’s theme song sounds as he pulls out the parchment!) James has been searching for it since his return to London and finally finds it in a trunk of his father’s belongings.  Lorna watches in horror as James destroys his father’s drawings and letters.  James cries, and explains how horrible his mother was treated, especially after she refused to pretend to be “Spanish or Italian.”  Lorna seems to understand a bit of his pain.  It appears James may have a romantic interest in his father’s wife because he refused to allow the chemist to court her.

Many allusions have been made to drowning slaves on a doomed ship.  The Crown summons an African-Londoner whom frequently writes the King regarding the unsolved mystery of the vessel.  It implicates that the Company may have broken the law by engaging in slave transport.  The Crown would be interested in exposing the illegal activities of the Company.  It appears the ship in question may have not been sunk but is the ship Delaney bought containing evidence of slave occupation.  What use it will be in James’s plans to pit the Company against the Crown remains to be seen.

Overall, my biggest issue with the series is that all the characters are hard to relate to or care about.  James seems to be a nineteenth century “Walter White.” He kills with impunity and is even willing to put his son in danger to achieve his nefarious goals.  I have a theory that the boy may be the child of him and Zilpha.  Perhaps after giving birth to him, she was left sterile.  Tom Hardy is an excellent actor but I feel he plays the same version of a “bad guy” seen in other roles such as in Peaky Blinders or The Revenant. But in those roles, he played an ancillary character.  It’s hard for such a bizarre character to be the led in the series.  I do hold out hope that the series will have a satisfying conclusion but for now, its been a challenging watch.