man how funny would it have been if in season 2 flint walked into the brothel looking for charles to argue with him about whatever and accidentally walked in on him and jack fucking. like Charles Vane is definitely the gay guy that doesn’t identify with it politically, especially seeing as he grew up so lower class and never really interacted with the English Puritan Rules Of Propriety that oppressed flint. Like if Flint found out Charles Vane is gay he would go through three different crises about what it should mean for their rivalry or alliance, meanwhile Charles is just like yeah I fuck men. Who cares.
also this has nothing to do with my last post but i love the way this shot is composed so much. madi is standing visually surrounded by the solid ground of her island, stable, while silver stands surrounded by the sea, constantly shifting. on top of reflecting their respective stances on identity, this also reflects what we already know from treasure island: that flint is right, and silver will eventually leave that stability that he wanted in their final conversation.
and there’s the diagonal line in the middle, between the sea and the earth, accentuating the divide between silver and madi… this shot
for most of the show, billy is waiting for flint to get his comeuppance—he’s certain that fate or the world in general will eventually punish him, because this is the sort of story he’s familiar with. he believes that stories should have fair and rational endings, and he’s very reliant on narrative to make sense of the world. he even describes himself as an audience in 306: “i wanted to make sure i’ve got a good view of the moment the world finally catches up to him, and this story starts to make sense again.”
but he gets more and more impatient, and eventually realizes that the world isn’t going to intercede on his behalf. so he takes matters into his own hands. that’s fantastic writing, imo. they took a character who was an audience surrogate in a very literal sense, and eventually forced him into a position where he felt compelled to reshape the narrative. he’s like an audience member who gets sick of the play and storms on stage to fuck with the actors.