It sure looked like Friday was a goner. But, Crusoe was able to rescue him in a fairly satisfying and inventive way. In “High Water,” the show seems to have returned to its initial quality. We learn more about Crusoe’s past through his flashbacks–what drove him to leave England, the deceitful brother-in-law that had gotten him involved in piracy (eh hmm, I mean privateering), private moments with his wife and family; even past moments on the island spent with Friday. All of that was here. Plus, the mutineers were still about, trying to fix their ship, of course, after it had run aground.
While finding a boat in the trees probably isn’t very likely–Well, this is fiction, so I’ll go along with it. Heck, maybe a huge tidalwave had washed it up into the canopy. That would be the only way that it could have got there. Of course, that was the precipitance (finding the boat and compass) that got Crusoe’s mind working again on a plan for escape off the island. The only problem was the boat was in terrible shape, not having a bow or stern, but, as we saw, he and Friday were able to put it back together.
The time-lapse of them repairing the boat wasn’t really that exciting, though, but it did lead to something a little more action-packed and tense, which was definitely a welcome change from the initial start of “High Water”, as the first twenty minutes or so not much else seemed to be happening, other than them trying to figure out how to patch up that boat. When Friday “accidentally” knocked the compass into the fire…
Tongayi Chirisa as Friday
It did make sense that Crusoe would try to hide his suspicions (and he was probably trying to convince himself otherwise) that he thought the accidental compass-melting probably not-so-accidental. But, even to the end Friday said to the contrary, that he hadn’t planned for it to happen at all. Regardless if it truly were an accident or not, the quest for finding another compass in the mutineer’s camp did give us some action, like I said.
Naturally, the finding of a compass wasn’t the hard part for Crusoe and Friday. It was more the escape with it that they ended up nearly botching. Of course, Friday kept having to remind Crusoe of how bad of an idea it was in the first place, which did start to wear. I think I might have told him to go jump off a cliff–again. But, that’s not Crusoe’s way, as we know.
I was glad to see the girl-dressed-up-as-a-man pirate again. At least, there seem to be some recurring characters in this series other than Crusoe and Friday. And one of the best, besides Olivia, might just be the leader of the mutineers, Atkins. He’s a pretty nasty fellow; a good antagonist to Crusoe, if the writers really want to pursue that line of thinking, anyway. They did try here, though, it seemed. Atkins gave a few memorable scenes, no more so than the one where he was about to shoot one of his men–all because the guy had stumbled into one of Crusoe’s hastily planned traps. That was definitely one of those ”yeah, that’s what a hard core pirate might do” moments.
However, the ending of “High Water” was probably the best part. I’ll admit I saw most of it in my mind how it might unfold. I saw the tide rising and somehow Crusoe saving his friend, and the boat being swept out to sea. I just couldn’t figure out how Crusoe was going to move that log before it was too late. I should have known it’d be something genius like it was. The only thing here was they didn’t exactly show just how Crusoe could have climbed in and out of that tidal cave so quickly. I mean, that thing was pretty deep, and there was no side entrance to it. Well, again, that’s fiction.
Anyway. “High Water”, while not perfect, was definitely a markedly improved experience over last week’s episode. It should be interesting to see where they go with the mutineers, though. I still feel there’s a disconnect between them, or any other characters introduced for that matter. I’m starting to get a sense that there is no real overall story arc, which is just a shame. Again, there’s so much potential here! I suppose we’ll just have to wait things out and see how things further develop. Overall, this was a pretty decent episode.
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