William Jagger is a crazy person. This is the central premise of Crossbones’ latest episode, The Return. Actually, Jagger’s mental stability is quickly becoming a main part of the first season. Jagger’s obsession with tracking down Blackbeard puts a strain on his relationships, and his violent torture of prison inmates makes the other British officers doubt his ability to lead. However, Thomas Lowe isn’t aware that Jagger is crazy, so he plans to escape Santa Compana and return to Jamaica with news of Blackbeard’s violent plans against the British.
However, Lowe has no actual method for finding his way back to Jamaica, so he has to convince Blackbeard that his journey is essential. How does he do that? Well, Lowe figures out that certain devices exist that would ease the pressure on Blackbeard’s brain, so he devises a plan to travel to Jamaica and pick up one of the devices while also informing Jagger about Blackbeard. In his absence, Lowe convinces a nervous Fletch to follow Blackbeard around and search for the hidden weapons being developed on Santa Compana. In addition, Lowe takes Nenna to Jamaica, which works well because she also has a hidden agenda. Unfortunately, this journey doesn’t work out well for either Lowe or Nenna.
The Return was an episode that focused on two main topics, Jamaica and Santa Compana’s view of Selima El Sharad. While Lowe and and Nenna are traipsing around Jamaica, Blackbeard is trying to convince Selima that she needs to stop being a shut-in and actually leave her house. This seemed like a fairly random storyline at the time because Selima’s shut-in nature had never been mentioned in any other episode. Apparently, this was actually a big deal because every main character in Crossbones had an exaggerated reaction to Selima’s public appearance.
Selima during her pivotal moment.
The Return wasn’t a phenomenal episode, but it did clear up some important information. For example, we finally received an explanation about Nenna and what she is trying to accomplish. She doesn’t seem to be quite as downright evil as she once appeared. Of course, Nenna’s entire story is still being told, so she could definitely swing back to being an evil pirate once again. One strange aspect was that Jagger’s mental instability starts as a main premise, but it quickly disappears before popping up at random moments.
Lowe’s story is starting to become more interesting as well. He started out as a super-spy with orders to assassinate Blackbeard, but all of the new friendships and relationships started to change Lowe’s view on pirates and the other criminals. Lowe even reached a point where he couldn’t decide between telling Jagger the location of Santa Compana and joining the pirate group that ran the island. I’m curious as to whether Lowe will fully join the pirates, or if he will keep playing both sides for unknown reasons.
Lowe had a bad day.
The Return made progress with more character reveals, but some of the other episode moments seemed to come out of nowhere. Both Lowe and Nenna had logical storylines, but Selima’s story didn’t make any sense at all. One aspect that I did enjoy about this episode was that a new character was introduced that should play a major role in coming episodes.
Crossbones continues to alternate better and worse episodes throughout the season. The prior episode, Antoinette, was one of the best episodes so far, and it ended with a stellar last moment. The Return failed to capitalize on this moment, which was slightly strange. I still enjoy watching Crossbones each week, but the constantly changing quality frustrates me.
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