Crossbones

Series Finale:     
Episode #9 — Blackbeard
To the shock of the island, Blackbeard returns from the voyage empty handed. Instead of trunks of treasure, his crew talks of injustice, spurned by the loss of Rider. They accuse Blackbeard of murder and demand he pay for the act, but their negotiation ends with a canon blast that rips through the wall – it’s Jagger, firing from offshore!

Fire rains down on Santa Campana as Jagger attacks with his full arsenal and decimates building after building. Despite Jagger’s men outnumbering the pirates by a significant ratio, Blackbeard rallies the island to fight off the invaders. An intense battle follows with high casualties on both sides, signaling to Jagger that he should reveal his secret weapon – Antoinette. While she screams the name of her former husband in an effort to lure him away, the war rages on, and the tide swings in Jagger’s favor. Lowe ends up surrounded by redcoats until an unlikely savior ravages through unannounced – Rider. The wounded warrior slices his way through the British forces, and suddenly Santa Campana has a chance to survive.

Jagger breaks away from the action to track down Blackbeard, and once they spot each other, both fire their weapons – and both bullets connect. While they limp and reload, Jagger mentions he brought Antoinette to the island, and they once again exchange bullets – with Jagger’s attempt ricocheting off Blackbeard’s nickel-sized head cap from his brain surgery. Unfortunately for the Governor of Jamaica, his enemy’s bullet hits its mark right between the eyes.

Meanwhile, Antoinette marches free across the island and locates Selima, who defends herself with a rifle blast that passes right through Antoinette’s shoulder… and merely slows down the ghost-like woman’s pursuit. Selima hides to no avail, and Antoinette disposes of her in short order, moments before the arrival of her true object of desire, Blackbeard. Covered in Selima’s blood, Antoinette walks to her former husband, smiling, transfixed… even as he plunges a sword through her body. She joins his second lover on the floor – both dead, both murdered in revenge.

With Rider’s help and Lowe’s leadership, the islanders defeat the redcoats and agree upon the final step to their own freedom – Blackbeard’s throne. Lowe finds the commodore in that very spot and challenges the weary pirate to defend the actions that slaughtered so many innocents. Blackbeard disagrees with Lowe’s assessment and refuses to relinquish his role, and thus fuels a brutal fight between the two. But Lowe now stands as an equal and outsmarts Blackbeard in the duel, leaving the legend bloodied and conquered.

Six weeks later, Lowe returns to Jamaica and confronts the new governor, threatening him with certain death unless he leaves Santa Campana alone. He offers a valuable item in exchange – the severed head of Blackbeard and, in turn, the promise of fame as the man who killed him.

Yet, on a deserted beach, a small sack in hand, stands a very alive Blackbeard, the deposed commodore, his eyes focused on a ship in the distance. The Reaver, perhaps? Was another deal struck between him and Lowe, a fake head for a real banishment? In any case, the world again believes the infamous pirate is dead, and so it shall seem forever… Or at least until his legend rises once more. Summary courtesy NBC.
First aired: August 2, 2014.