Black Sails S1E5 - "V." Review

In this episode of Black Sails, viewers can be expected to experience a heavy dose of reality. Many of the brutalities of the pirate period pieces are often glazed over but Black Sails instead chooses to take these issues and run full throttle with them. For one thing, Max has an abortion. Given the fact that this show is set long before the time of birth control pills, it should come as little surprise that a lady of the night would find herself having to cope with unwanted pregnancies. The abortion scene is tastefully gruesome, neither lessening the magnitude of her experience nor exaggerating it to sell gore. The other main point of brutal honesty in this episode is when the crew's accountant is forced to join the pirates in their raid on another ship. Beforehand, he is incredibly anxious, telling Billy Bones that he has never been in battle nor fired a pistol. But when faced with his own mortality, he goes so far as to tear a man's throat out with his teeth. It's enough to make you wonder what you're truly capable of in the most extreme of circumstances.

Black Sails airs on Saturday on Starz at 10PM.