Sir John Franklin: lbr, at least 90% of us want to fight him. If you are in those 90%, you have a pretty good chance of winning – just make sure Lady Jane isn’t around. And look out for the Rosses, just in case. All in all, do fight.
Lady Jane: DON’T. She will beat you up with her umbrella and then turn the whole London against you and Charles Dickens will mock you in his new novel and you will have to flee the country and even that will not be enough. Do you really want to get in that much trouble? Also don’t let her catch you fighting Sir John – all hell will break loose and Tuunbaq will shiver. Do not fight.
Sophia Cracroft: DON’T either. She will talk you out of fighting her and then Lady Jane will catch you. Plus, why would you do that? She’s nice. Do not fight.
James Fitzjames: he fought off the Chinese, survived a bullet the size of a cherry, survived malaria (twice), walked 500 miles (and 500 more)… This dude will kick your ass like he kicked that ceiling and look fabulous while doing it. Also he has a cheetah. And Le Vesconte. Do not fight.
Francis Crozier: give the poor man a break, will ya? He has enough on his plate as it is. Though if you do fight, he will probably win unless he is too drunk. In which case you will have either Blanky or Jopson (or both of them) to deal with, and you Do Not. Want. That. Do not fight.
Thomas Blanky: sure, go ahead and try to fight him. Just don’t forget to write your will beforehand because you will not be getting out of this alive. Do not fight.
Thomas Jopson: do not let his appearance fool you. He might look and smile like an angel but if you dare to insult his captain or his family hewill fight youandwin. Do not fight.
Lt. Gore: he will probably think you want to spar, so he’ll play along but you have no chances of winning. Might accidentally kick your ass but will apologize afterwards and you will feel like a fool. Seriously though, why would you fight him? Don’t.
Lt. Little: I’d say you have pretty good chances of winning but then again, why would you fight him? He’s just doing his best. Don’t fight.
Lt. Irving: you’ll win, especially if you catch him unawares, and I get why you might want to fight him, but… maybe don’t? In all honesty, the guy isn’t that bad. Leave him to his watercolors and fight someone else.
Henry Collins: is that you, Dr. Stanley? Leave the man be, he’s suffered enough. Do not fight.
Harry Goodsir: YOU HEARTLESS MONSTER, HOW CAN YOU EVEN THINK OF FIGHTING HIM??? But if it comes to that, he will win with the power of science and feel really bad about it. DO NOT FIGHT.
Cornelius Hickey: do not fight Cornelius Hickey. I repeat: do not fight Cornelius Hickey. You might win one battle (especially if he doesn’t have a knife on him), but he will win the war. He will strike when you’re least expecting it and no one will find your body afterwards. Again: do not fight him.
William Gibson: depends on his relationship status. If he and Hickey are still together, see Cornelius Hickey and stay away. If they’ve already broken up, however, you have all the chances of winning and tbh he deserves that. If the breakup happened recently, you might be able to get Hickey to help you. Probe the background, establish the situation, then make your move.
Silna: HOW CAN YOU BE SO CRUEL… and stupid? She will kick your ass without breaking a sweat and Tuunbaq will finish you. Do not fight.
Tuunbaq: you don’t have a chance. Stand still and pray.
Dr. Stanley: watch out for scalpels, torches and toe-cutting things, but apart from that – DO IT. FIGHT HIM.
John Bridgens: the man is a walking library, he will predict your moves and will always be at least one step ahead. Also: wtf? He’s literally done nothing wrong and you will upset Peglar. Do not fight.
Henry Peglar: LOOK AT THIS CUTE NERD. LOOK AT THIS RAY OF SUNSHINE. YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF. DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT FIGHTING HIM.
David Young: THAT’S IT. TURN ON YOUR LOCATION, I JUST WANT TO TALK.
now that i’m through with the whole thing i’ve been thinking a lot about the dynamics that exist in this extreme vacuum of (male-centric) humanity. hickey, by sheer force of will, has perhaps the strongest pull of the lot. he’s proactive in an environment that often appears to leave you with very few choices. the loophole here is to do what’s necessary, to focus on “practicals.” if nature (and the world at large) is unforgiving, then you’d best follow suit, forget morality and opt for ruthlessness as strong as you can muster.
despite the importance given to the hickey/crozier relationship, and despite hickey’s sense of betrayal from one he saw as an equal, his true counterpoint is not, in fact, francis, but goodsir. after all, even francis is aware of the boatload of sins he committed on the expedition. but francis sees that goodsir is clean. goodsir, whose distress it was up to the very end that lady silence had formed a bad opinion of england from the white men who trespassed into her home, killed her friends, and did just as badly to each other. yes, it reads naive, but his is the code of the scholarly gentleman, of a man with a deep respect for life. “practicals” leave out beauty and wonder, decency and honor. hickey, meanwhile, knows there are no decent men. only dead men, or live men.
ultimately, it’s goodsir who makes the definitive play, goodsir who goes toe to toe with hickey, albeit posthumously. and in the middle of these two opposites is tuunbaq, a creature meant to balance the scales. francis crozier is not the hero of the story, though by awareness of his guilt, he certainly exhibits heroism in an attempt to atone for his mistakes. we can’t forget that this is a story about colonialism. hickey does not die because he is evil, he dies because he was presumptuous enough to try to claim something to which he had no right. francis is not the indomitable force of self-interest that hickey was, nor is he, like goodsir, an example of the equally powerful, equally human desire to wonder at the unknown. he is not like sir john or fitzjames either, who are men of the empire through and through, in it because they have something to prove to a “Society” that is often petty and cruel (fitzjames lives long enough to recognize it as vanity).
francis’s role is to witness. he is a deeply flawed man, but he knows it, and he takes responsibility for it. he kills tuunbaq, and he recognizes that he has killed something important and irreplaceable. i think he stays behind to remember, no matter how painful the remembrance is. and silna is out there too somewhere, remembering, the only other person who knows what happened, who could possibly understand. they are the series’ memory.
francis’s misdirection at the end of the episode will buy some time, but we know, and he knows, of the boundlessness of greed and the curiosity of men.
and tuunbaq, the equalizer, is dead—dead because francis killed it.
it’s only a matter of time before many other important and irreplaceable things are discovered, misunderstood, exploited, killed. there is a helplessness in francis and silna’s situations, a loneliness that comes at the end of a story full of isolation and impending doom. but there has also been friendship, and courage, and brotherhood… along with hubris and cold-blooded cruelty. francis and silna have the strength to acknowledge both sides equally, and in the end, i think we’re meant to as well.
