Taboo Episode 5 Review - A Duel with No Death

On a small hill in the middle of the river, when the sun rises, Thorne tried his best to get revenge from James Delaney...

Unluckiness or failure doesn't fit the scene with Tom Hardy and Jefferson Hall. As a dark thriller, built on conspiracies, Thorne had made his shot in cold blood. And the other side (James' side) was not in so rush about it... I hear your voices, let the silence turn into concrete words; he already knew that the Company or Crown would take precautions to keep him from dying. While Lorna was very much concerned for the sake of James there, all happened in the blink of an eye. Thorne chose to fire his gun at James and James chose to kill Thorne's second with an excellent shot. (It's been learned that Thorne's supporter was Company's man on a mission to prevent James' death). 

Waiting for the death news of her husband, as being sure of James winning the duel, Zilpha seemed unhappy when Thorne returned to home without even taking a scratch... Potatoes or champagne? Such a misery dilemma in their situation. Thorne revealed his endless aggression and anger towards Zilpha and James. He did not just sense it, he also heard the gossips about his wife's forbidden background with African Devil... 

"So I shall hear through gossip?" Zilpha asked  Thorne when he didn't want to share the details of that duel with no death in the end, which is very odd... And Thorne replied in grief, "As I hear about you." 

Until that moment in the show, I fed antipathy against Thorne, hands down... But with this particular moment, I felt pity for him. The exorcism which occurred at the end of the episode made me very frustrated about the narrow minded mankind... and just that. I was not yelling at Thorne for doing this to his wife. As he learned from his ancestors, the only way to see light again (according to him) goes through firstly beating his wife, then hiring an exorcist and as last letting that exorcist disturb his wife sexually. So, the suffering of Thorne caused his wife to plant the seeds of revenge in her secret garden (unforgiving memory of a sorrowful woman). 

In this world where the ugliness and the beauty blended violently by the hands of evil men, we can't pretend not to see Regency England, right? While Mark Gatiss is highly unrecognizable under the heavy make up, the skin discolouration of Prince Regent we have witnessed on the show, evokes as if the selfishness of that character turned into ugly bubbles on face.

There were abandoned letters in small boxes for nine years...until now. The Crown (Prince Regent and Solomon Coop) decided to hear the voices of 280 souls after so many years with the purpose of blaming Sir Stuart Strange. Because as you recall from the previous episode, the saltpetre had been stolen by the league of the damned.  To make someone responsible for this treachery, because, searching the whole city from head to toe wasn't enough, the Crown has found the solution with delving into past. 

Lucian Msamati has joined to the cast as George Chichester, a black man who works for the Sons of Africa, and also he was the person that sent letters every year to Solomon Coop. Almost 300 slaves died years ago within a sunken ship.. wait for it...which was called "Influence". The ship that James was on and known to be dead after it sank... The justice and revenge that James was seeking from the beginning rests in the ruins of the Influence, without a doubt... 

Meanwhile, having the knowledge of James Delaney's gunpowder business, Doctor Dumbarton wants to buy some... James sees this as an opportunity to get a safe passage in return. He also knocks the door of Countess for another safe passage promise... James seems like he doesn't trust to Doctor, does he?

It will be tough to finish the work in time, while dealing with Mr. Cholmondeley who has a crush on Lorna Bow perversely, and also dealing with the soldiers of the Crown who search for each hole in town...

I am sure James will find a workaround for all these easy problems. After all, he can speak to dead. He will take his revenge as he tore off the betrayer's finger... 

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The Battle for Benefits - Taboo Episode 4 Review

Taboo's Episode 4 brought a new ally in the show: Lorna Bow...

As James had predicted (or planned) Solomon Coop's men came for Lorna to make her pay off for the crime that she committed against Duke of Richmond (big headed psycho). The incidents in that small cell made me very uncomfortable with the situation. In their little world, taking care of business with man and woman separated in different ways horribly. If Solomon Coop or Company wants to get things done with a man, they can simply assassinate that man. It's a simple simple world... But if it is a woman, oh boy! There are plentiful things to do on that matter. We have seen the most sorrowful moments in Lorna's life along with it.

Insulted while the laces of her corset were untied one by one, threatened with rape by a superior agent of royals who was expected to be a gentleman; nevertheless, she resisted it. Hell yeah! She hit the real deal to her villain (from now on) as spelling James' name in that dreary place where the lights were reflecting only the desperation or evilness on faces.

Thanks to Delaney, her suffering didn't last long. The big game between James and his enemies eventually started to bear fruit. The battle for benefits showed its true face. The Crown and Company fell out with each other. We took a deep breath, didn't we? Now it's time for them to fight over Nootka Sound. It was a well planned bait, James Keziah Delaney, we see you...

Brace, wise and old manservant of Delaney's, cleared up everything for us actually as saying "We're all just part of the plan, aren't we sir?"

I feel, as audiences we are, that part of the plan includes us, too. We try to solve the mystery of James Delaney's intentions with every episode, right? We got the main idea. The whole purpose is revenge. Let's make them fight each other. Let's make them dig a pit for each other. Let's let daylight into this rotten city and its nihilist folk so they can see their true colour with its all bleakness...

In fact, James Delaney is not the main enigma to be solved. The enigma is there in its dark air and mud. When we see the clear sky one day in episodes, we will learn the mystery as I believe...

On the other hand, we have Mr. Cholmondeley as Tom Hollander. He gives life to an experimenter chemist. Ironically, I liked the chemistry between Tom Hardy and Tom Hollander. They fit the scenes very well together. The moment they have met, the moment they saw each other again in the ball was hilarious.

The gunpowder will be the key part of their relationship as that powder is actually a key part of everyone in the show. And now the refined salt peter has been stolen... James likes to play Sherlock. Clever man and his mad chemist is in the ball with his step mother while his league of the damned stealing the needed materials for them which will cause the Crown to fall out with EITC...again!

Americans want gunpowder. The Regency wants gunpowder. The Company wants gunpowder. Indians want gunpowder. So, Mr. Delaney has gunpowder... Selling some to Americans in return for a safe passage to the US, James is a traitor now from a nationalist angle. As he said in the first episode, he is so eager to do very stupid and dangerous things.

Dangerous man, playing dangerous games, couldn't get away from Zilpha's obsessive husband Thorne Geary's radar. As if the way of visiting Zilpha in her very bedroom wasn't creepy enough, he even managed to talk about it with his sister in the ball. We have a man with incomprehensible magical powers by birth. It is highly possible these powers passed from his native American mother.

And also we have a jealous husband who seeks a satisfaction with the death of Delaney. While Lorna tries to learn the real relationship with Zilpha and James in her own feminine way, Thorne wants his revenge in his masculine way.

Who will see the sunset after morning? Who will get his revenge in this world of men?

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Taboo Episode 3 Review - The Dark Horse Revealed

At long last, we have learned what Delaney wants: Tea..

A body of a dead man that his heart dug out of his rotten chest, lying on the shore. There are teeth marks on that very neck. As it seems someone had ripped the flesh of from his throat. Winter finds out the dead body, Helga's mulatto daughter... As we have seen in the first episodes, Winter wanted to be ally with James on her own will. He didn't have to give golds and shillings to count her in his league of the damned. And here we go... Winter is there to claim the silver tooth of 'The Malay'...

Then we see Doctor Dumbarton (Michael Kelly) right beside James who was stabbed by that assassin. Is this a coincidence? Nope... Dumbarton's man was following Delaney yesterday night as The Malay did . After witnessing the cannibalism of our African devil, Dumbarton decides to make deals with him and finally the audiences has learned the real purpose of all this madness. Stabbings, bitings, witchcraft's, threatenings... for a Tea Monopoly on the trading route with China. 

Are we satisfied? I guess we are not. Trying to be a part of trading post in Nootka Sound while the mighty Crown and honourable EITC (East India Trading Company) gazes upon it in addition to an ongoing war between Britain and America, may sound maniacally crazy for an ordinary man. But James Delaney is not an ordinary man and these desires of having a direct trade route with China are not the signs of insanity. He is up to something that is more important than trading, wealth, and legacy. Actually we heard the whole reason from Sir Stuart himself. Let's remember the conversation between him and Solomon Coop:

Strange:" You do realize this whole business about revenge..."
Coop: "And why would James Delaney hate the India so? What the hell did you do to him, Suart? Always assume I just know."

To reach his main goal, Delaney climbed the stairs step by step. He mentioned his intentions to Doctor Dumbarton, he learned that Carlsbad is a shadowy woman, he fought off the assassin and survived. There will be a revenge I assume and for this deadly objective he did his move. He came up with a testament for Nootka Sound. A testament that will drag East India and the Crown into a powerless situation as being bound hand and foot. Upon his death, James declared that the all inheritance belongs to him will be the property of America.

That African Witch did his magic again and he gave heart attacks to Sir Stuart and Solomon Coop with his brilliant trump...

I feel like in this chess game, if you know the essential secrets of your opponents, you will win at the end. James knows those secrets. Didn't he knock his old friend Godfrey's door with his sneaky informations? He uses the secrets, 'the taboo's to possess all around him. He have East India and the Crown, now. They can't kill him if they don't want to lose Nootka Sound to 'fucking' Americans as Sir Strange's statement.

He needs to know the secrets. The secrets in the whorehouse, in Atticus' place, in the company's room when hands are raised... All will serve him well...

There is a secret with Delaney, too. The things between Zilpha and James still bother me. I couldn't give a meaning to the scene in the church. Zilpha, for a request to give an end to her relationship with James, set up a meeting there and on the contrary to goal of this meeting, sat on him and kissed him. Then she just straightened her skirts and walked away like nothing happened as saying "Now I never want to see you, again." So, what now? She wanted to make James remember the good old days? She wanted to see if that classic trick will work on him? I guess it worked because her brother insisted that she will see him again. Zilpha talks with her eyes and behaviours. As Africa couldn't cure James of his love for Zilpha, that sister still has desires for the devil... 

As you know, the episode finished with the big game played by Coop. A name has been given and James' stubborn step mother fell into this trap. If I am gonna tell the truth, she seemed nice to me. Lorna Bow has a very pretty face and her squabbles with Brace and James upon being called Miss Bow (she wants to be called Mrs. Delaney) were quite cute moments in this dark drama. After Delaney's immortality with his wisely testament, it was obvious that she will be the new target in this battle for Nootka Sound...  

Will she be weak? Will she submit? We shall see in the next episode if she is gonna be the weakness that James stated about her...

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