With two episodes until the finale, the wheels began to fall off James Delaney’s impeccable plan leaving death, despair and misery in their wake. This was not an episode for the faint-hearted – indeed Taboo is beginning to rival Game of Thrones for its ability to dispatch characters with minimum effort and maximum gruesomeness. This week’s horrors included a tongue torn from the mouth of its owner, a heart ripped from the chest of a traitor, a drunken husband doomed by a hatpin and the untimely death of poor, curious Winter who only wanted to see the world but who should have heeded all the warnings about poking the monster in his den.
“Go home to your mother. Helga loves you. You’re safe there. Go to sleep – all will be well”
Winter’s tragic death leaves us with the week’s biggest question: who murdered her? James, who woke face down in the mud after drowning his fast multiplying sorrows, clearly believes he committed the deed in a drunken rage. Helga is likely to agree – and I wouldn’t want to be in Delaney’s mud-crusted shoes when she finds out her only child is dead. In truth, why wouldn’t she and everyone else believe that James is the killer? Much of the episode demonstrated both his ability to commit acts of brutality (ripping out tongues, tearing out hearts) and his increasingly tenuous grip on his mind. By the episode’s end he seemed utterly unmoored – devastated by his near-strangulation of Zilpha, without a ship, and surrounded by enemies.
That said, I think the obvious answer is the wrong one. Somebody certainly wants Delaney to think he killed Winter and they made sure everyone else will think so too. But it’s more likely that he passed out drunk, she kept watch over him and the killer chose that moment to strike. So the question remains: who was it? The most probable answer is someone in the employ of the East India Company, who had after all declared war on Delaney, with outside bets on the Crown and the Americans as always. I’m also tempted to go out on a limb and suggest that kindly Brace may not be so kindly. Certainly he had the best access and viewpoint, being in the house, and he’s definitely hiding a whole host of secrets about Delaney Sr.
“I killed him, just like you said”
James wasn’t the only Delaney with blood on his hands, as a bruised and black-clad Zilpha finally decided she’d had enough of the drunken Thorne and niftily dispatched him with her hatpin. The body was swiftly disposed of thanks to James and Dumbarton’s cunning fake cholera epidemic, but there was no happily-ever-after for the Delaney siblings. James, haunted by Brace’s revelation that his mother tried to drown him as a child, initially seemed rather less enamoured of his one true love now she was free of her husband. It could be argued that he was only ensuring she stayed safe, but it was also clear that Zilpha had issues of her own – not least her belief that James told her to kill Thorne, a statement that was clearly news to him despite his tendency to converse with her through fireplaces. The Delaneys did eventually give in to their long suppressed passion, but it could hardly be called a success given that James, plagued by visions of his dead mother, nearly strangled Zilpha to death. She’d be far better off in her beautifully decorated room alone.
“Chichester is their bishop, the King is safe, Delaney is a horse and Prinny is their Queen. I think it’s time we started moving some pieces”
Much of the past six weeks has involved Stuart Strange looking infuriated yet achieving remarkably little. Finally, though, our man with a fine line in fury stepped into action. Nor was he messing around – within seconds of the declaration, Delaney’s ship had been blown up and presumably next week will see him arrested for Winter’s murder. Strange’s attempts to hush up the royal inquiry proved less successful as the unflappable George Chichester confirmed what we all suspected: the ship was originally called the Cornwallis, it was renamed the Influence, it carried slaves illegally on board because the EIC had sworn not to trade in them and it sunk because there was only a skeleton crew. The ever-helpful Chichester had two further pieces of information – the cargo hold was nailed down thus drowning all the slaves (a fact which is definitely the source of James Delaney’s slave-related nightmares) and Stuart Strange’s brother just happens to own a sugar plantation in Antigua.
Additional notes
• The story about James’s mother and the attempted drowning made me think of Thetis and Achilles. I’m willing to bet she wasn’t trying to kill him but was performing some ritual to preserve his life instead.
• The scene on the boat with the gunpowder looked very much as though they were sailing into the underworld.
• I’m rather fond of George Chichester and his sardonic ability to make everyone uncomfortable by talking about slavery.
• Not as fond as I am of Cholmondeley, however. Tom Hollander is having a ball with this part.
• Nice to know that James’s son has a name, Robert, and the ability to act on his feet.
• Poor Godfrey – I can’t see him making it to the end of this series.
• Lorna’s confrontation with Thorne cemented her place in my heart. I wish her nothing but wealth, happiness and a stage big enough for her to truly shine.
Most magnificently brooding Tom Hardy moment
It’s a close contest between the fantastically growled “take that fucking dress off now” and the immediate aftermath of James’s failed tryst with Zilpha which saw him sitting alone and half dressed while flicking a lighter in despair. James, we’ve all been there mate, admittedly not with our blood relations, but still…
Most fantastically baroque threat of the week
“Think of it as like adding a baby to a marriage. All was ordered and calm and now there is this thing that demands attention, stops you sleeping, belches, farts, screams and she’s going to make this whole process louder, wilder, more insane, more impractical.” Cholmondeley, deployer of excellent metaphors, explains why his gunpowder team have to stir and stir then stir some more.
What did you think? Can James defeat his growing number of enemies? Will Zilpha forge a new life of her own? And who do you think murdered poor Winter? As ever, all speculation and no spoilers welcome below…
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