Crusoe Episode 1.07 Heroes and Villains

A week since they've had meat, Crusoe and Friday come across a fire ant colony during a fruit foraging outage. Friday puts a few ants in a container, keeping them for their medicinal qualities. As Crusoe watches, he gets ants in his pants. Upon returning to the tree house, they see Olivia sitting with Dundee in her lap. She tells them that the mutineer's ship is repaired and will sail in 48 hours. Captain Taylor and the prisoners have been moved to a brig on the ship. Olivia convinces Crusoe he needs her help to take the ship.

In the holding cell, Olivia, as Oliver, tends to Captain Taylor's wound. She slips anesthetic in the jailer's drink to knock him out, then sneaks Crusoe and Friday aboard, who go unnoticed by drunken mutineers celebrating leaving the island tomorrow. Taylor, glad to see Crusoe, assures him their agreement still stands for Crusoe and Friday to sail with them to England when he regains control of the ship. Crusoe tells them their plan to take back his ship, which will happen at dawn. Lt. Davenport accuses Crusoe of being afraid to fight them now to take the ship. "Think what you like," Crusoe says.

Crusoe remembers fighting for his life the day he sailed from England. He didn't know who the man was or that he was an assassin hired by Blackthorn, who wanted custody of Crusoe's children. He attacked Crusoe under decks, but Crusoe bettered his knife-wielding assailant and felled him with his own blade. They hide when Atkins returns to taunt Taylor, who insults him back. Atkins mocks the proud words coming from a financially ruined man, then leaves. Jennifer apologizes to Friday for her previous behavior toward him, asking for his forgiveness. Friday gives it. After they leave, Taylor asks what the savage wanted. "Nothing," she says.

Jennifer asks Taylor if it's true that the cost of this voyage has ruined them. Taylor assures her that if Crusoe can restore the ship to his command, he can begin to trade again. They may be about to avoid poverty just yet.

On the beach, the jailer hands a note to Atkins. Oliver tells Atkins she found the castaway's treehouse while collecting plants. Atkins assembles a few men to follow her as Crusoe and Friday watch through the eye piece. Friday follows Atkins as Crusoe frees Taylor and the other captives on the ship. They get on deck, only to be betrayed by Davenport. His reason -- he wants to be on the winning side and thinks Crusoe is too soft to take back Taylor's ship. He passed the note to the jailer, who gave it to Atkins. Crusoe is helpless, knowing Atkins is onto Olivia's ruse.

In the jungle, Atkins confronts Olivia with the note. He demands she tell him where Crusoe really lives, because he has a savage to catch. On the ship, Davenport taunts Crusoe about selling Friday, "an educated savage." Taylor's wife surprises them all with a musket. Davenport bets her that she can't hit him. She fires, and barely misses, sparking a fight between the two sides. Taylor tells Crusoe to save Friday and Oliver, and he dives off the ship. Taylor turns, and Davenport has him again at gun point. "Surrender or die," he says. Taylor has no choice.

Crusoe races toward the treehouse and sees Atkins sitting in a chair, enjoying a cup of tea. The mutineers emerge from hiding and surround Crusoe. They tie Crusoe up and Hodges whips him. Atkins yells at Friday to save Crusoe, while Crusoe yells out not to listen to him. Knowing he's nearby, Atkins commands his men to find him. They take Crusoe up the tree house, tying him up next to Olivia. Crusoe says Friday will kill them one by one. "Plenty of time to trade sides," he says. They don't believe him until Friday starts to pick them off.

Friday hurls a knife, impaling it in wood near Crusoe's and Olivia's binds. Olivia cuts free and kicks Atkins right where it counts, Friday thrashes another mutineer while Crusoe grabs his sword and goes at Atkins, who's ready. They duel until Friday has Atkins at arrow-point. Hodges takes Olivia at gunpoint and demands they free Atkins. Friday trains his arrow on Hodges, "If he dies, you will die also." Faced with that threat and Crusoe telling him he can be a free man if he switches sides, Hodges weighs the odds and lets Olivia go.

Atkins surrenders, asking them to do the honorable thing: kill him now. Crusoe says he would if Atkins were honorable, just as Atkins makes his move and grabs Hodges' musket. He turns and fires at Crusoe. Olivia jumps in the way and takes the bullet. She falls, shot in the side. Crusoe tells her that's two times she's saved his life, and then realizes how serious it is. Olivia thinks the ball went through and through and tells Crusoe they need to keep pressure on the wound. Friday stays by her as Crusoe runs to get help.

Crusoe takes the tied-up Atkins to the beach and tells the mutineers they can be free if they rejoin Captain Taylor. Because they feared for their lives under Atkins and his men, who are now dead, the law grants them immunity from the gallows. Crusoe tells them to abandon this mutiny and return to England as free men. Taylor says he'll vouch for their character, all except for Davenport. Panicked, Davenport grabs a gun and points it at Crusoe, but another mutineer shoots him dead.

Taylor's wife, who's patched up many of the drunken Rowley's mistakes, accompanies Crusoe back to the treehouse to tend to Olivia. Crusoe begins to explain that Oliver is really female, but she surprises him by saying she knew. "Credit me for having some intelligence," she says. At the treehouse, when they don't have enough cat gut to close Olivia's bullet wound, Friday uses the fire ants as staples to do it. After the ants bite, he twists off their heads and the jaws hold the wound closed. "You never cease to amaze me," Crusoe tells Friday.

In the brig, Taylor tells Atkins that no one will know he was ever born once he's hanged. Crusoe tells Taylor they can't move Oliver until morning and assures him the tides will be high enough to do so. Taylor warns that they'll sail at dawn whether the boy is on the ship or not. After Crusoe leaves, Atkins taunts Taylor, "Mutiny follows you around."

Flashback to England: Blackthorn and Tuffley search bodies at the river morgue, looking for Crusoe. Tuffley asks Blackthorn if he had Crusoe's mother drowned. Blackthorn doesn't answer. Tuffley reads a corpse's toe tag that matches Crusoe's description, dead by stabbing. When unveiled, they see it's Blackthorn's assassin. Tuffley tells Blackthorn he's worked out his motivations. He knows Blackthorn tried to adopt Crusoe as a boy and now wants his children. But Blackthorn is rich, they have nothing. Tuffley asks if it's not what Blackthorn can offer the Crusoes, but what they could take from him. Blackthorn warns him about saying more than is wise.

At the treehouse, Olivia sleeps under Crusoe's worried vigil. She makes it through the night and is well enough to walk to the ship. Taylor's wife sees drawings of flowers that Friday drew. Taylor wonders where Crusoe is, worried they'll miss the tide. Hodges says perhaps you could ask Mrs. Taylor. Not liking the sound of that, Taylor goes to the treehouse to see his wife chatting kindly with Friday about his drawings, and becomes jealous. Crusoe, on his way to the ship with Olivia, wonders if his children will remember him. Olivia assures him that they will. Crusoe worries if they are safe.

Flashback to England: After Crusoe has sailed, Tuffley barges in on his sister Susannah, brining bailiffs with him. A bailiff tells her that Crusoe's investment didn't cover his liability when his ship was taken, so they are taking the warehouse and her assets. She slaps her brother. She asks where is she supposed to go? He coldly tells her that though he doesn't see it, he's heard she can pass for pretty. Perhaps she can find a benefactor to take her and her brats, but don't think of coming home. Susannah goes to Blackthorn, who takes them in. He tells Sophie that in his house you look, but never, ever touch.

Resting on their way to the ship, Crusoe and Olivia share a close moment. She'd rather stay marooned on the island if it meant staying with him. In another life, Crusoe says. Both know it can't happen in this one. Meanwhile, Friday and Mrs. Taylor are escorted by gunpoint back to the ship. When Crusoe arrives, Taylor says he's thrown Friday in the brig for his behavior toward his wife, and plans to sell him. Mrs. Taylor objects, but Taylor won't budge, saying this is their way out of ruin. Crusoe goes to the brig to see Friday tied up, just about to be branded. He disarms Hodges and frees Friday, then goes up top.

Down in the brig, Rowley goes after Olivia, saying "the boy" is going to learn respect. He moves to hit her but, tired of being beaten by him, she fends him off with the hot branding iron. He pulls a knife on her but she bites his hand and he drops it. She snaps it up, then pulls Rowley closely and out of Atkins' earshot, reveals her name, Olivia Theresa, and says before he dies, her face is the last woman's face he'll ever see. She then plunges a knife into him. Turning around to see a stunned Atkins, she yells at him, "You saw nothing!"

Taylor, fueled by jealousy and financial destitution, won't release Friday. Olivia says if he doesn't, then she won't be the ship's surgeon. Taylor laughs at her until she says Rowley is dead. She points out that his wounded leg is starting to smell, meaning it's festering. Crusoe says he'll need a good surgeon if it has to come off. Knowing Taylor can't afford to hire a new one, Crusoe asks the crew if they want to sail the world without a surgeon. They don't. Taylor has no choice but to set them free, not before telling Crusoe that he hopes they rot on their Godforsaken island.

Crusoe gives a letter to Susannah for Olivia to deliver once she's back in England. He apologizes, but Olivia says he has nothing to apologize for. She was the fool. Crusoe says he meant what he said about them being together in another life. Just not this one. Crusoe leaves, Olivia shields her tears. As they prepare to sail, Olivia says to herself that Crusoe just might have that second life sooner than he thinks. Back on the island, Crusoe longingly watches the ship sail away from the island.