In the recap for the series debut of ‘Taboo’, James Delaney returns home to claim what’s left of his family’s heritage but he runs into opposition from everyone around him…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
No one does dark and brooding quite like Tom Hardy and he’s got that shadowy swagger in full effect in his new limited edition series ‘Taboo’ that debuted on FX on Tuesday night.
The series was dreamed up by Hardy alongside his father — Chips Hardy (how perfect is that name?!?) — and fellow collaborator Steven Knight (best known for his work on another series with Hardy titled ‘Peaky Blinders’).
The period piece set in England in 1814 chronicles the character Hardy created before he even knew what the story would be about. That came later when he handed the character over to his father and to Knight to flesh out the story and what resulted was ‘Taboo’.
The first episode certainly set the stage for an interesting season to come and there was no shortage of talent surrounding Hardy with a cast that includes several ‘Game of Thrones’ alums including Jonathan ‘High Sparrow’ Pryce, Oona ‘Talisa Stark’ Chaplin and Roger ‘Mace Tyrell’ Ashton-Griffiths.
There was a lot of groundwork laid in the debut episode but really it just set the stage for the battle yet to come as Hardy’s character gets ready to face off with the powerful East India Company and a slew of enemies who all conspired to bring his father down.
With that said, let’s recap the debut episode of ‘Taboo’…
Dead Man Walking
Fresh off a boat landing on the shores of England, James Delaney buries a pouch deep in a hole before appearing out of nowhere at a church where his father is also about to be laid to rest. While his father is the person who is actually dead, it’s Delaney who receives looks like a ghost walking through the building as he unexpectedly shows up after going missing for more than a decade after leaving home to explore Africa looking for treasure.
Delaney’s sister Zilpha is particularly thrown back by his re-emergence after all these years while her husband, Thorne, is much more concerned about the claim he stakes to his father’s will despite being gone these past 10 years.
It’s clear James and his half-sister have history together that appears to go much deeper than the typical sibling relationship. While nothing is confirmed in the opening episode, it’s clear the Delaney’s might have something in their past akin to Jamie and Cersei Lannister’s incestuous love affair.
Neither sibling has completely forgotten about the past but while James appears ready to rekindle that relationship, Zilpha is more concerned about what her husband might do if he finds out. Add to that, Thorne is irate that James’ return is now going to cost them a fortune they stood to inherit after agreeing to sell a particularly profitable piece of land to the East India Company that was owned by his father-in-law Horace Delaney.
Prior to his death, Horace had gone quite mad and used to stand out by the sea and shout to his son James for all hours of the night. Before he expired, Horace even named James as the sole heir in his will, but because everyone believed him dead, Zilpha was ready to inherit everything until her brother reappeared out of nowhere.
As soon as James shows back up in town, everybody is greeting him with false smiles because he now holds the key to his father’s possessions — most notably that stretch of land perched near the end of the pig’s ass on the other side of what is now the United States.
His father’s lawyer offers him money for the land before the soil has even been shoveled over the coffin but James is far too savvy to sell what rightfully belongs to him.
Returning to his family home, James is greeted by his butler Brace, who was his father’s confidant for these last few years as his health diminished before he finally expired. Here, James divulges all sorts of family secrets that he should have never been privy to but he explains that he somehow heard those ravings when his father used to go by the sea to talk to him late at night.
James knows that his father purchased the land called the Nootka Sound with beads and gunpowder. Nootka was the name of his mother’s tribe and his mother was one of the purchases his father made when he bought the island. Not only did he purchase the piece of land, but Horace Delaney bought a wife that he took to England, who then gave birth to James.
James also discovers that his father had another illegitimate son that has been cared for by another friend of the family for the past decade that he’s been gone. James ends up paying the caretaker a bag full of money to continue to look after the boy but says after setting eyes on him for the first time that he would never see him again.
As part of his reclamation of the family’s holdings, James even takes back a building that used to be the home for Delaney Shipping that has now transformed into a brothel run by a woman name Hilga, who just so happened to take his virginity when he was a boy. Despite Hilga offering all sorts of pleasurable payments before then resorting to threats, James refuses to cater to her demands and instead tells her to get out within two hours or reap the consequences.
James is taking back what is rightfully his and he’ll kill anybody who gets in his way.
Murder Most Foul
Amidst James continued plan to reclaim his family’s fortune, he also feels that something wasn’t quite right with the way his father passed.
After digging up the body just days after he was buried, James pays a less than scrupulous physician to do an autopsy to discover the cause of death. Sure enough, the doctor finds that Horace Delaney had been poisoned with arsenic in ample doses over a short period of time until he finally expired. That kind of poison would have also drove him mad, which explains how his father’s mind seemed to dissipate in those final days.
James is also haunted by visions throughout the episode including a disturbing encounter with the dead rising from the grave while he’s waiting on the results of his father’s autopsy. It’s unclear if James experienced some kind of magical voodoo while traveling through Africa, or he’s just being stricken with madness — the same kind his mother allegedly had as well before her death. James continues to see flashes of the slave ship he was on that eventually sunk off the coast of Africa as well as visions of a witch like figure that dances in his dreams.
Meanwhile, James’ brother-in-law Thorne demands that his wife send a letter to him offering 50 pounds to relinquish the rights to his father’s will or he will be killed. Thorne already hates James for returning just in time to prevent them from cashing in on his father’s death but it’s clear he suspects something more in the past has happened between the two siblings, one of which is his wife.
As much as Zilpha appears to be the timid wife to her husband Thorne, she eventually challenges him after he continues to make idle threats towards her brother. Either Zilpha wants Thorne to go after James or she knows he’s too much of a coward to actually do anything about it.
The Leviathan
The main crux of the story in the first episode of ‘Taboo’ revolves around the sinister East India Company, who are desperate to claim the Nootka Sound from the Delaney family. They had a deal in place with Zilpha and Thorne, but that is no longer valid now that the island belongs to James.
It seems the head of the East India Company — a brash man named Sir Stuart Strange — had an investigation done on James as soon as he arrived back home.
Before he disappeared to Africa, James was a model citizen and even served under Strange as part of the British military. While training to be a soldier, James was an exemplary student but then one day just went off the reservation while speaking about all sorts of madness including buried treasure. James then got on board a slave ship bound for Africa before going missing where he was believed dead.
One company man even heard rumors — the most disturbing kinds of rumors — about James while he was living in Africa “amongst the savages”. Those rumors interest Strange very much, although we don’t learn what they are — at least not yet.
Finally, Strange sets a meeting with James where they offer him a pile of cash to sell them the Nootka Sound. Strange has clearly underestimated James’ smarts because he knows exactly why the East India Company wants this ultra important piece of lands.
The United States and England are about to sign a treaty to put an end to the war that will draw borders between lands owned by the two countries and the Nootka Sound, despite being a very small island, will actually end up as part of Vancouver — a vital shipping port to China. So whoever owns the Nootka Sounds also owns Vancouver, which means they also own those shipping ports to China.
James rebuffs Strange’s offer and walks out of the office. Not one to be deterred, Strange says he hoped to acquire the Nootka Sound by reasonable means but it’s clear James isn’t going to be reasonable — so he’s going to have to turn to other methods instead.
Back at home, James receives one more letter from his sister Zilpha, who reveals that her husband was behind the original letter he got that day with the demand that he leave England or risk being killed. In this new letter, Zilpha proclaims her love for Thorne while begging her brother to keep their secret buried and never tell another soul what only the two of them know.
James burns the letter but it’s highly unlikely this secret stays hidden forever.
‘Taboo’ returns for a brand new episode next Tuesday night at 10pm ET on FX.
