Starz has provided ComicBook.com with an exclusive sneak peek at this weekend’s new episode of Black Sails, “XXXI,” which will air on Sunday, February 12, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the network.
You can check out the clip, titled “The Dread Moment,” above.
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In this week’s episode, Max runs afoul of the law. Rogers reckons with his past. Flint and Madi reach an understanding. Long John Silver makes his return.
That last bit makes sense, of course: Black Sails has not only been creating the story that led to the “golden age of piracy,” but also serving (by Silver’s mere presence) as a prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, in which Silver was the primary antagonist.
“It would have been heartbreaking for me if we’d only done one or two seasons,” Arnold told ComicBook.com during a recent interview. “You start a pirate show and then as we’re building the character. At the beginning, you go, ‘well the fun is to not be a pirate, to be the guy who doesn’t want to be a pirate, who doesn’t feel like a pirate yet. He’s kind of the fish out of water,’ then having the trust that that journey’s going to be the satisfying part of the story.
Seeing him go from someone so different to the Long John Silver in our heads is going to be what’s going to feel so rewarding by the end of it. To get to that point, the first point was losing the leg which was really important. Then some of the journey in Season Three, like I think the scene with Dufresne and the stomping. That stuff was like okay we’re really getting into it now. This darkness is starting to come out. This leadership role is starting to come out.”
Just because he’s come a long way since hiding under a table in season 1, though, that doesn’t mean he’s quite done with his evolution yet.
“In season 4, it’s a whole other part of the journey again,” Arnold said. “He really is becoming from boy into a man and from an individual into a leader of men. I think the character goes through another three evolutions within this fourth season.”
More Black Sails: Luke Arnold interview | The Evolution of Flint [VIDEO] | Toby Stephens joins Lost in Space | Exclusive Clip: “Rewarding Ambition”
