What's it all for if it goes unremembered? It's the art that leaves the mark. But to leave it, it must transcend. It must speak for itself. It must be true.
the way rogers visualised eleanor after her death will always blow my mind.
she was sat in a corner, obediently, quietly, knitting away.
to our knowledge, as a viewer, eleanor didn't knit. sure, there are lots of moments in black sails that happen off screen and are only referred to later on, but the one time we see eleanor taking up a 'wife-ly' duty is when all the women and children were in the fort and she was trying (and failing) at embroidery.
other than that, she also didn't exactly have time to sit there and knit or do anything else like that.
so it's astounding that is the way rogers remembers her or at least how he thinks of what she would be like if her ghost was there etc.
Thinking about Max and how her arc began with her being discarded by Eleanor. And how she then goes on to progressively become more and more like Eleanor until she ends up on the other side of the same choice regarding Anne.
Because Max was discarded by Eleanor just like Eleanor had been discarded by her father. And even if Max wanted to appear much more nonchalant and cynical about it, she did as Eleanor did before her and tied her sense of identity and her worth to Nassau and its success, so she could become someone who couldn't be discarded by others.
And then, the difference ultimately comes not to the choice they make, but how the deal with the consequences. Because Eleanor doubled down on what she did and hung to something that was constantly fighting to slip away from her, because it's just sand. And Max ends up realizing that her relationship with Anne, that human connection is what's going to make her feel fulfilled, more than a position in a system that can replace her as easily as she replaced Eleanor. Their difference comes down to how Max has the chance and the willingness to admit she made the wrong choice, while Eleanor only realized it far too late.
Max is a successful version of Eleanor, not because she's more politically savvy (which she is), but because she is willing to let go of power rather than of people (even if it's a lesson painfully learned).