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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Taboo Episode 2 Review - Killing Delaney is not easy

Honourable East India Company takes a deep breath at the edge of madness. Because, killing Mr. Delaney is not that easy...

After a very, very long break (my apologies) I decided to write down my feelings about 2017's beloved TV series 'Taboo' and its episode 2. 

I would love to talk about its music at first. Max Richter did a great job with composing all the music in BBC's drama. Especially the piece that used while Delaney was heading his way to buried diamonds on his white horse was so ominous, I couldn't help myself getting goose bumps on that scene. There was a feel of darkness and death. The air always depressive already and that tone of direful inauspiciousness was enough to make me prepared for the things that will come after...

Delaney bought a ship! Its name is Felice Adventurero. There is a true story about this ship in history actually. A captain, John Meares, sailed the same named ship to Nootka Sound under the Portuguese flag in 1788. Meares is mostly known as a navigator and explorer who had a great role in the Nootka Crisis between Britain and Spain. So we see Felice Adventurero in the show as a fictionalized version. 

The head of East India Company, Stuart Strange gets mad at this situation. "How the hell has Devil Delaney found that much money to buy a fucking ship?" Delaney's debut is exactly as Count of Monte Cristo, don't you think? A dead man with an unknown past and wealth, returns for revenge and justice... Voilà; James Keziah Delaney.... 

The debts of his mad father comes to light one by one. The shadowy skulkers rise from their caves with never ending rages to seek shillings in the pockets of Delaney... Stephen Graham enters to the scene as "Atticus". A former butcher of his father. Let's take the guesses; of course Horace Delaney was in debt to Atticus. Surprised? No :) 

The mannishly talk between Atticus and James was intense. Both of them showed their teeths as wild animals. Delaney underhandedly was holding a knife just in case. Fortunately the money solved all problems radically (as always). Our anti-hero James learned the good sides of being a wealthy man in this world while he was known long dead in Africa.

 If you have money, your word will be listened. If you have money, you will make new friends and allies. If you have money, you can ridicule everyone who goes wrong with you... And James did it. He made new allies as Atticus (the father of crimes, mysterious deaths, hit-men) and Helga (the mother of whores). 

And we have Lorna Bow; James' step mother.

Will she be a good ally? Time will show... Her arrival in London will make East India happy for sure. On the other hand, they will be very angry when they hear the brutal end of their assassin; 'The Malay'...

The relationship between Zilpha and James has come into open before the eyes of audiences already. Even though they look perfectly fit each other, they are sister and brother. The secret that Zilpha doesn't want to talk about may be a taboo that broken in the past (a child of siblings)? 

James seems to having fun while delving into the past... So we do.

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Taboo Episode 1 Review

I have finished watching the series of  "Taboo" yesterday night...

I am truly sorry that I hadn't heard of the show until this week, but I didn't miss much, did I? The last episode has been just released so...

I deeply loved 'Taboo". The terrifying, dark atmosphere pulled me directly into the 19th century of London. An era with regency just before Queen Victoria's reign, the architecture of royals and the poverty of back streets. The nasty air is circulating above London while our anti-hero James Keziah Delaney (Tom Hardy) shooting a wrathful glance at the city. The light seems not to be able to drop its gleam to surface at all...

There is a dead man's funeral by the way. A lady rides her horse side-saddle as she is supposed to do in 1800s. After this cold and nervous screen, a dead man enters the holy church. The lady on the horse, Zilpha gives a quick look to the stranger and these words falling from her lips:

 -Has Hell opened up?

James Delaney as I mentioned my preview was known long dead by everybody. It had been heard that he moved to Africa and died in a sunken ship. But he has returned in the first episode with poisonous desires and plans as we understand from the first minutes. Lots of rumours were told about him. Some said he learned witchcraft in Africa, some said he is a mad man as his father, some said he is a cannibal...

I have watched all episodes and I can guarantee to you, he is a clever man in a Sherlockian way. He never shouts or speaks loudly. He has a dark side that you will not understand if it is a good thing or bad thing. I guess it is a good thing for audiences who loves mystery ( and I loved it). 

And beyond this darkness there is an organisation called 'Honorable East Indian Company'. Mr. Delaney of course didn't return for nothing. He wants to drink the blood of his mystical enemies. He is so pleased to have that toxic land 'Nootka Sound'. I have asked myself so many times " Why does Delaney want to go into a war with Prince Regent and East Indian Company?", " Why is he so eager to make fun of them every time?" Maybe because he is actually and badly mad?

It is a fascinating thing to try so hard (hmm maybe not that hard) for learning the sneaky demons inside a character's mind. From the first episode till the last episode ( I am not gonna give spoilers, no worries ) James Delaney will murmur deep down in your head as he murmurs in front of his enemies or friends. That doesn't matter for him. Murmuring is a way of replying for him and I have found it quite funny. At the very last minutes of first episode, while he was talking with Sir Stuart (Jonathan Pryce) and his brazen faced comrades, Delaney watched well dressed men in front him with an emotionless temper of him and while even a so-called sophisticated gentleman Sir Stuart was using a Taboo word in those times which is 'fucking', he replied excessively with ease "hangee"... 

The expressions of gentlemen in the room were priceless there and they were just like "What did he just say?" Oh I laughed so hard.

I will have to say before I finish my review of this episode; Tom Hardy and Jonathan Pryce suits their roles perfectly. Tom Hardy's acting is breathtaking and I would have watched this high quality show only for Hardy if I hadn't enjoy the theme already....

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