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Things get tough for Jim in episode nine. I suppose it could be argued that they've got pretty tough already over the previous eight episodes, but episode nine is particularly rough. For starters he spends most of it abandoned in a tiny dangly cage, slowly cooking. Then he gets shipped off to a murder trial, which mostly involves being manhandled a lot; gets completely fitted up in the most crooked court in the history of corruption; and then gets taken back to the tiny dangly cage (more chains and manhandling, then some more manhandling, and finally quite a bit of being thrown around). Also there's a lot of exposure to Garcia's accent, which is like the verbal equivalent of a manhandling. Meanwhile Silver masterminds an escape, involving cunning use of sleeping leaves. I think he means that the leaves cause sleeping, rather than doing the sleeping themselves, the latter not being especially helpful. With the entire prison asleep, Silver escapes with the assistance of a splendidly dissolute English doctor who's been sort of inadvertently working for Garcia. Silver being Silver, he plans to rescue Jim, but he also plans to rescue all of Garcia's gold at the same time. Needless to say, this doesn't go well. Who'd have guessed. While a barely conscious Jim goes a-galloping off to rescue Isabella - why, Jim?! Just... why?! - Silver, Abed, Vanderbrecken and a few others who have managed to survive this far, most of whom don't have names, manage to lose all of the gold down a cliff, before carefully losing practically all of the support cast in a shoot out on the beach. Bye bye splendidly dissolute English doctor, bye bye Garcia and your rather marvellous accent, bye bye anybody who doesn't have a name - but sadly Isabella survives. And so we all set sail for Treasure Island, having decided that buggering off back to Britain to continue Jim's name-clearing lark is too much to bother with. The delightfully gittish Hallows is already there; Squire Trelawney and co, rounded up by Ben Gunn, are also on their way; so Jim and his jumbled crew might as well follow suit. Maybe things will get better for Jim once he gets to the island, hey.
Or not. As it turns out, not. He's barely arrived on the island and he's getting himself captured by Hallows and Gaynes. Possibly shot up and captured, it's a bit unclear on that. Certainly it looks as though he's been shot - there's the sound of gunfire, and he falls down and says "ow" a lot. In the novelisation he's shot, at any rate. In the TV version they seem to have changed their minds, as there's no sign of blood, and if there was a bullet hole then it healed itself almost instantaneously. But that's by the by. Hallows has been looking for treasure and failing to find any, and immediately thinks that the arrival of Jim Hawkins of Treasure Island notoriety will change his fortunes. This basically involves more bondage and manhandling for Jim, who by now must surely be getting thoroughly used to both. Elsewhere a game of musical ships is going on. Firstly, Abed and Silver's piratey mate Boakes capture Hallows' ship. Then Gaynes captures it back; and at much the same time, Hallows' people are capturing Vanderbrecken's ship, which Squire Trelawney and co then capture back. This is all supposed to subtly alter the balance of power as Silver and Hallows attempt to outmanoeuvre each other from one end of the island to the other, but mostly it's just an excuse to fire guns a lot, and have lots of extras swim about with cutlasses between their teeth. Silver and Jim between them manage to figure out the secret hiding place of Flint's jewels, which proves to be a fine and sparkly collection in a very satisfyingly buccaneery sort of chest, only to promptly get captured by Hallows again, and lined up with Isabella and Abed for a swift execution. Happily, Jim, Silver and Abed all survive. Unfortunately, so does Isabella. Hallows and Gaynes have meanwhile done a bunk with the treasure in a rowing boat, just as Squire Trelawney and co catch up, and decide to let them have it with muskets. And how great is it that the rescue party is almost entirely of pensionable age? Sadly this is the very same rowing boat that Abed decided to fill up with barrels of gunpowder earlier in the episode, for no readily apparent reason. What his plans for it were, we shall never know, and I doubt he knew either. They have a purpose now, though, neatly exploding and taking Hallows, Gaynes and Flint's lovely sparkly treasure to the bottom of a very pretty bay. So it was all for nothing, then. Were I Jim Hawkins, and had just been through those ten episodes worth of beatings, manhandlings, bondage sessions, slavery, near death experiences and tiny dangly cages, I'd be a mite pissed off now, I think. In actual fact he takes it rather well, though - or possibly not, since he proposes to Isabella shortly afterwards, so there may actually have been some sort of trauma. As everybody sails off back to Britain, all that remains is to make sure that Silver gets away, as Trelawney is permanently determined to hang him for one thing or another. Jim sends him on his way with an inspiring "Until we meet again!", although sadly the production company went bust, so any future meetings they might have had have to remain solely in the mind. And so Silver rows away into the night, waiting until he's out of sight of everybody but the TV audience to reveal that his crutch is now full of Flint's jewels. Twenty-two years I've pondered over that one. At no point was it remotely possible for him to have snaffled the bloody things. Still, it's a nice ending. It really, really is.
So that's that, then. Ten episodes of just about the best mini-series TV has ever made. Ten episodes of treasure and pirates and swords and sailing ships, and all manner of fun. Not much fun for Jim, admittedly, but that's his hard luck - and it's not my fault he's such a blasted danger magnet. Not that I'm complaining about his habit of falling into peril every twenty seconds, obviously. He might, but that his lookout.
Pictures:
English doctor feller. Does have a name, but I can't remember it.
It's not Livesey, he's elsewhere.
Boakes. Unexpectedly important by virtue of managing to not be dead at the end of episode nine.
Doesn't make it out of episode ten, though.
Kangaroo Court.
Tiny dangly cage.
Welcome to Treasure Island.
The gang in camera-friendly formation again.
(Abed's just visible in the back).
Jim fails at not getting captured. Again.
Swimming With Cutlasses 101.
Isabella, having clearly taken lessons in capture avoidance from Jim.
Over-sixties rescue party.
Jim models the latest line in bondage. Again.
Advanced map-reading classes.
Jim figures out the secret of the map -
- and reveals the previously oddly invisible watermark.
Sparklies. :)
Oops.
Ka-boom!
Jim comforts an apparently distraught Silver, following the treasure's alleged vapourisation.
Silver wins - gloriously, if unfathomably.
And now I've run out of episodes. Woe, woe, woe, etc and so forth. Damn.
NB: Rather brilliantly, whilst I was capping these two episodes I noticed something that I've never seen before. In episode nine, when a prison guard shoves Abed, Abed's leg irons fall off. :D Oops.
But ssh, don't tell anyone. I think they might have got away with it. ;)
Or not. As it turns out, not. He's barely arrived on the island and he's getting himself captured by Hallows and Gaynes. Possibly shot up and captured, it's a bit unclear on that. Certainly it looks as though he's been shot - there's the sound of gunfire, and he falls down and says "ow" a lot. In the novelisation he's shot, at any rate. In the TV version they seem to have changed their minds, as there's no sign of blood, and if there was a bullet hole then it healed itself almost instantaneously. But that's by the by. Hallows has been looking for treasure and failing to find any, and immediately thinks that the arrival of Jim Hawkins of Treasure Island notoriety will change his fortunes. This basically involves more bondage and manhandling for Jim, who by now must surely be getting thoroughly used to both. Elsewhere a game of musical ships is going on. Firstly, Abed and Silver's piratey mate Boakes capture Hallows' ship. Then Gaynes captures it back; and at much the same time, Hallows' people are capturing Vanderbrecken's ship, which Squire Trelawney and co then capture back. This is all supposed to subtly alter the balance of power as Silver and Hallows attempt to outmanoeuvre each other from one end of the island to the other, but mostly it's just an excuse to fire guns a lot, and have lots of extras swim about with cutlasses between their teeth. Silver and Jim between them manage to figure out the secret hiding place of Flint's jewels, which proves to be a fine and sparkly collection in a very satisfyingly buccaneery sort of chest, only to promptly get captured by Hallows again, and lined up with Isabella and Abed for a swift execution. Happily, Jim, Silver and Abed all survive. Unfortunately, so does Isabella. Hallows and Gaynes have meanwhile done a bunk with the treasure in a rowing boat, just as Squire Trelawney and co catch up, and decide to let them have it with muskets. And how great is it that the rescue party is almost entirely of pensionable age? Sadly this is the very same rowing boat that Abed decided to fill up with barrels of gunpowder earlier in the episode, for no readily apparent reason. What his plans for it were, we shall never know, and I doubt he knew either. They have a purpose now, though, neatly exploding and taking Hallows, Gaynes and Flint's lovely sparkly treasure to the bottom of a very pretty bay. So it was all for nothing, then. Were I Jim Hawkins, and had just been through those ten episodes worth of beatings, manhandlings, bondage sessions, slavery, near death experiences and tiny dangly cages, I'd be a mite pissed off now, I think. In actual fact he takes it rather well, though - or possibly not, since he proposes to Isabella shortly afterwards, so there may actually have been some sort of trauma. As everybody sails off back to Britain, all that remains is to make sure that Silver gets away, as Trelawney is permanently determined to hang him for one thing or another. Jim sends him on his way with an inspiring "Until we meet again!", although sadly the production company went bust, so any future meetings they might have had have to remain solely in the mind. And so Silver rows away into the night, waiting until he's out of sight of everybody but the TV audience to reveal that his crutch is now full of Flint's jewels. Twenty-two years I've pondered over that one. At no point was it remotely possible for him to have snaffled the bloody things. Still, it's a nice ending. It really, really is.
So that's that, then. Ten episodes of just about the best mini-series TV has ever made. Ten episodes of treasure and pirates and swords and sailing ships, and all manner of fun. Not much fun for Jim, admittedly, but that's his hard luck - and it's not my fault he's such a blasted danger magnet. Not that I'm complaining about his habit of falling into peril every twenty seconds, obviously. He might, but that his lookout.
Pictures:
English doctor feller. Does have a name, but I can't remember it.
It's not Livesey, he's elsewhere.
Boakes. Unexpectedly important by virtue of managing to not be dead at the end of episode nine.
Doesn't make it out of episode ten, though.
Kangaroo Court.
Tiny dangly cage.
Welcome to Treasure Island.
The gang in camera-friendly formation again.
(Abed's just visible in the back).
Jim fails at not getting captured. Again.
Swimming With Cutlasses 101.
Isabella, having clearly taken lessons in capture avoidance from Jim.
Over-sixties rescue party.
Jim models the latest line in bondage. Again.
Advanced map-reading classes.
Jim figures out the secret of the map -
- and reveals the previously oddly invisible watermark.
Sparklies. :)
Oops.
Ka-boom!
Jim comforts an apparently distraught Silver, following the treasure's alleged vapourisation.
Silver wins - gloriously, if unfathomably.
And now I've run out of episodes. Woe, woe, woe, etc and so forth. Damn.
NB: Rather brilliantly, whilst I was capping these two episodes I noticed something that I've never seen before. In episode nine, when a prison guard shoves Abed, Abed's leg irons fall off. :D Oops.
But ssh, don't tell anyone. I think they might have got away with it. ;)
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