Taboo Episode Three Recap: American Idiot
Taboo is clearly not a show that is going to let us get too comfortable. Right when we thought we had this show figured out, a swashbuckling adventure following a growling and grumbling Tom Hardy as he takes on the evil East India, last night totally pivoted. Now in front of us we have something completely different: a highly complicated espionage show with multiple actors, mystery and intrigue, and mysterious intentions. The first two episodes were Peaky Blinders. Now we’ve injected a little bit of Game of Thrones.
Delaney is now in the center of a tangled web of conflicting interests and competing factions. How he manipulates and plays them off against each other will determine how long he’s able to stay alive. If the American government, British government and East India all want him dead, it’ll probably only be a few hours before Delaney will be the next body to turn up at pier for kids to rummage through his pockets. If he is able to successfully play off the different parties against each other or ally himself firmly with one of them? Well then he might have a chance.
As it currently stands, Delaney is bulletproof (for the time being) to the East India because his death would cause the Americans to inherit Nookta, making the trading post and subsequent routes through Vancouver useless to them. Their challenge is finding a way for his claim to be forfeited by legal maneuvering or force, then subsequently eliminating him. The Americans know Delaney owes his life to them for finding him in an abandoned alley, but also think an alliance with them is his only chance of surviving in London. They have no idea that for now he’s invulnerable to the East India, meaning they grossly overestimate their strategic to importance to him (although it is nice to see Doug Stamper was doing Doug Stamper things for a full 200 years before he started working for Frank Underwood). Meanwhile the British government thinks Delaney can be had through good old-fashioned business negotiations, meaning that while they have no reason to want him DEAD, it’s in their best interest to do things like lure out his step-mother with rapacious lords so he’s in a position of weakness and has as little bargaining power as possible.
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Do you see how complicated this all gets? And how fragile, untenable and ready-to-explode this situation is? This is the bomb that Delaney has to defuse in order to stay alive, keep Nookta and stay strong against his enemies. One little slip-up and it’ll all blow up in his face. Throw in the wrenches of a meddling mother-in-law who is ready to throw his carefully made plan out the window for a room with a water view and good commute to the theater AND a mysterious secret about his own mother leading to some psychosomatic hallucinations AND a brother-in-law who’s like Commodus from Gladiator crossed with every British asshole from every movie set in the 1700s ever who is CLEARLY trying to antagonize him to come after him which he would only have the balls to do if he knew he had some serious allies behind him in that fight, and our hero Delaney has quite the waters to navigate. Ugh, can’t family reunions just be the worst sometimes?
The biggest mystery of the show, however, isn’t how Delaney thinks he is going to juggle all of this. That will be found out in time. The biggest question, both to the other characters in the show and to us the audience, is what exactly is it the hell he wants? Delaney in all his negotiations says he’s looking for trade monopolies. I don’t buy that. Smells too ordinary for him. The East India acknowledged “this whole business is about revenge” but then immediately showed they still are trying to view him through a business frame of reference by saying “He’ll give (Nookta) to the Americans if they offer him the same monopoly.” I have a feeling Delaney doesn’t really care that much about business and everyone who thinks he does doesn’t truly understand him. The only thing we know he wants for sure is his sister in a way I can’t even type out without gagging. No one really understands Delaney it seems. Maybe not even himself. But he better have a clear endgame in mind and a good plan of how to get there, or he isn’t long for London.
Twitter is @CharlieWisco if you want to talk about the show.