Rodrigues Reunites with Blackthorne and Admits He Tried to Kill Him

Rodrigues Reunites with Blackthorne and Admits He Tried to Kill Him centers on a reunion that turns an old act of betrayal into an explicit warning about the friendship that remains. Rodrigues arrives at the inn where John Blackthorne is staying, and Blackthorne welcomes him warmly. But the guards’ demand for Rodrigues’s weapons exposes the limits of that welcome: the two men can greet each other as friends while standing inside a conflict that neither friendship can dissolve. In private, Rodrigues acknowledges that he once tried to put Blackthorne overboard and sets out the boundary of their present understanding. He does not want Blackthorne dead; he does want the Portuguese Black Ship.

An Unexpected Arrival

The reunion begins in the hours after Blackthorne has spent an intimate night with Mariko. He falls asleep, then wakes to voices, quarrelling, and Portuguese filtering into his dreams. Recognizing Rodrigues’s voice, Blackthorne calls out his name. When footsteps approach, he reacts in controlled panic: he lifts the still-sleeping Mariko, carries her to her own quilts, and returns to his room before hurrying out to meet the visitor. The brief concealment gives the reunion an immediate private complication, but the scene does not turn on discovery. It turns on the sound of a familiar voice arriving unexpectedly in the night.

Yoshinaka explains that Rodrigues is waiting at the inn’s gate, where flares are burning. The Portuguese sailor has refused to wait and tried to push past, behaving, Yoshinaka says, as though he were a daimyo. Rodrigues has also claimed to be Blackthorne’s friend. Blackthorne answers that he is, and goes out barefoot, visibly delighted. The contrast between the gate’s guarded threshold and Blackthorne’s open welcome establishes the scene’s central tension: his personal recognition of Rodrigues must operate within a guarded political world.

Friendship Under Guard

Blackthorne greets Rodrigues by asking after his leg and how he found him. Rodrigues answers with exuberant teasing, calls attention to Blackthorne’s changed appearance, and pulls him into a bear hug that Blackthorne returns. The physical warmth is unmistakable, but it does not make the meeting unguarded. Yoshinaka and the samurai remain present, and the guards insist that Rodrigues surrender his arms.

When Rodrigues resists, Yoshinaka orders the samurai forward and holds out his hand for the weapons. Blackthorne tries to intervene, telling Rodrigues not to act and asking Yoshinaka to recognize him as a friend. His attempt shows the difference between vouching for Rodrigues and controlling what the guards will permit. The samurai surround the visitor; Blackthorne’s friendship can soften the confrontation but cannot cancel its security rules.

The dispute continues after Rodrigues has been brought inside and most of the samurai have returned to their posts. Rodrigues complains that he has been treated like a common criminal and asks whether Blackthorne thinks him an assassin. Blackthorne answers that Rodrigues lied when asked whether he had handed over all his weapons. Rodrigues admits that he was not listening, then changes the tone of the encounter: he forgives the guards and Blackthorne, apologizes, and offers him brandy. Blackthorne asks Rodrigues to drink first. The small exchange of grievance, apology, and caution makes their warmth credible without pretending that trust is effortless.

The Confession

The conversation becomes more difficult when Blackthorne asks directly about an earlier moment at sea: when Rodrigues swerved into the wind while Blackthorne was amidships, had he meant to put him overboard? Rodrigues answers yes at once. He says the act has weighed on his conscience, and that he is glad to confess it to Blackthorne’s face while alive. He does not ask for forgiveness or understanding. The confession therefore offers no easy restoration: Rodrigues names what he did and acknowledges its shame, but leaves Blackthorne free to judge it.

Rodrigues also refuses to make the friendship a guarantee against future violence. He says that, if the two men meet at sea with their ships armed, Blackthorne should look to his life. He came to make that promise as a friend, believing that such a warning could be spoken without ending the friendship. The candor is itself the scene’s unsettling form of loyalty: Rodrigues does not disguise the danger or claim that personal attachment will defeat the demands of country and conflict.

A Friendship with a Boundary

Blackthorne asks whether Rodrigues came to kill him. Rodrigues says he does not think so, while acknowledging that, for his people and country, Blackthorne’s death would be better. Blackthorne then states the distinction that frames their parting: “I don’t want you dead, Pilot. Just your Black Ship.” Rodrigues responds that he is forever in Blackthorne’s debt outside the prospect of meeting him at sea, where he would fight for his own ship and urge Blackthorne to protect his life. Their relation is neither simple reconciliation nor a return to uncomplicated enmity. It is an attachment forced to speak openly about the violence it cannot rule out.

The scene closes without a renewed embrace or a settlement. Blackthorne says he hopes to catch Rodrigues’s Black Ship at sea; Rodrigues leaves with Yoshinaka and the samurai, collects his arms at the gate, and disappears into the night. The weapons returned at the end echo the guarded demand at the beginning: the men can share brandy, apology, and an honest account of the past, but the arms—and the contest they signify—remain part of the encounter. Rodrigues’s confession deepens the friendship by making its cost explicit, while his warning leaves the possible sea battle hanging over their farewell.