The Starz drama Black Sails revealed over the weekend that series lead, pirate Captain Flint (Toby Stephens), was previously in love with a man. Much of the series' second season has revolved around exploring the mystery of Flint's backstory, with the audience learning that he was previously an officer in the British Royal Navy. As a naval officer, he worked alongside the aristocrat Lord Thomas Hamilton on a plan to retake the Bahamas from pirate control and put it back under Britain's control. Audiences already knew that Flint was having an affair with Hamilton's wife, Miranda, but Saturday we learned through flashbacks that Flint and Thomas were deeply in love as well.
Miranda and Flint both live on Nassau now, and in Saturday's episode Miranda confronts Flint about renouncing his violent ways and returning to being the idealistic man she once knew. She says she believes he is only fighting now to drown out the voice in his head "telling you to be ashamed of yourself for having loved him. You were told that it was shameful, and part of you believed it. Thomas was my husband. I loved him and he loved me. But what he shared with you, it was entirely something else. It's time you allowed yourself to accept that." Flint replies, "The only thing I'm ashamed of is that I didn't do something to save him when we had the chance. Instead, I listened to you."
Thomas Hamilton and Flint had made many enemies in the British government with their plan to re-take the Bahamas, including Hamilton's powerful father. In retribution, Thomas' father had Thomas committed to an asylum and Flint's naval commission revoked. Unable to challenge Thomas' father, Miranda and Flint fled England together.
In the present day, Miranda leaves Flint a book with an inscription from Hamilton: "James, my truest love. Know no shame. T.H." The series has left Flint's orientation up to interpretation, but it does seem that Thomas is the only person he has ever truly loved.
Stay tuned to Black Sails, Saturdays at 9 p.m. on Starz, for more on how Flint went from being a naval officer to the most feared pirate on the seas.