#was he trying to force partial culpability for whatever happened to the men in the rigging on Billy before the fact

[starbuck]

A severely underappreciated moment is in 3x02 when Flint asks Billy to lead the men in the rigging stowing the sails (in the middle of a storm) and, before agreeing, Billy briefly has this look on his face

which I can only interpret as him trying to figure out if Flint was Once Again trying to stage his death as a workplace accident. 

#which like. considering how much 3x02 borrows from 1x04 - probably a warranted concern #from 3x01 to You Know When in 3x03 Billy is essentially the embodiment of the This Is Fine meme #things are very much Not Fine but they Have To Be Fine so therefore they Are #Flint orchestrating dangerous raids of questionable motivation? Fine. #Flint wants to sail them into a storm now because Reasons? Fine. #Because Flint sailed them into a storm they're now becalmed and starving to death? Fine. #They're so low on food that they have to cut some of the men's rations entirely and Flint has claimed complete authority? ....F...Fine. #the fact that it literally takes Flint shooting two crewmen in the head for Billy to reach his breaking point is like. #idk whether to say impressive or concerning #both? #regardless early s3 is just a Time... #this post brought to you by: i was going through screenshots for my other post and happened upon this and immediately burst out laughing #like. it isn't funny... poor Billy #but also it kind of is #seriously though this moment is great for how much you can Potentially read into Flint's asking this of him #but literally none of it is provable #like. WAS he lowkey hoping Billy would die doing this and rid him of a potential future problem? idk maybe #was he trying to force partial culpability for whatever happened to the men in the rigging on Billy before the fact? idk maybe! #does it just make logical sense to ask Billy as the boatswain to do this? IDK MAYBE!!!! #you can read everything or literally nothing into it and it's incredible #i don't know what's going on and neither does Billy