PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: "Consequences"

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: "Consequences"

Has anyone noticed something odd about the main characters in "POTC: At World's End"? Most or all of them either ended up with a less than happy ending or with their fates up in the air.

If one must be brutally honest, the trilogy's main characters had committed some kind of questionable act or one dangerous to others. Jack Sparrow was a pirate, who had no qualms about using others for his own personal gain. And that included bartering Will to Davy Jones in "Dead Man's Chest" in order to avoid paying his debt to Jones, lying to Elizabeth about it, and contemplating leaving the other pirates to the mercy of Lord Beckett and the East India Trading Company. Hector Barbossa, as we all know, was a murderous pirate who led a mutiny against Jack, threatened the lives of many and also double-crossed Tia Dalma by tossing her into the Black Pearl's brig in "At World's End". And then there is straight arrow Will Turner, who turned out to be not so straight arrow. He had left Jack to the mercies of Barbossa and the latter's crew in "Curse of the Black Pearl" and double-crossed the Pearl's crew to Sao Feng and the East India Trading Company in order to get his hands on the ship in "At World's End". Will's beloved and the future Pirate King - Elizabeth Swann - committed one of the worst acts by leaving Jack shackled to the Black Pearl for the latter to be killed by the Kracken in "Dead Mans Chest". And in that same movie, James Norrington betrayed his new crew members from the Black Pearl by stealing Davy Jones' heart from Jack and handing it over to Lord Cutler Beckett in order to regain his military position in society.

Not exactly a sweet bunch, were they? Many societies, religions and what-have-you seemed to believe in the old adage of what goes around, comes around. Or paying the consequences of one's actions. My favorite happens to be - "Payback's a bitch". And judging from the fates of the major characters in the trilogy, all of them - in one form or the other - seemed to have paid the consequences of their actions.

For Norrington, payback came in the form of death at the hands of poor deluded Bootstrap, when he helped Elizabeth and Sao Feng's crew escape from the Flying Dutchman's brig. After marrying Will during a battle against Jones and his crew, Elizabeth nearly found herself a widow and facing the first ten years of marriage . . . without her husband. And where was Will? During that battle, Jones stabbed him with the sword he had made for Norrington. And when Jack helped him stab Jones' heart before he could die, Will became the new captain of the Flying Dutchman, ferrying souls lost at sea to "the other side" . . . apart from Elizabeth and their child for ten years. Barbossa seemed to have had it made in the end. He managed to get back the Black Pearl from Jack. Unfortunately, he found himself facing a possible mutiny due to Jack's theft of Sao Feng's chart that could lead them all to a new treasure. And what about dear old Jack? Well . . . he found himself abandoned at Tortuga, after Barbossa took the Black Pearl from him again.

Mind you some of the characters like Norrington and Will suffered a more severe consequence than the other characters. But not one of them had the glowing "happily ever after" that was seen in the conclusion of "At World's End". Even though Will and Elizabeth were finally reunited in the film's post-credits scene, I wonder if there were some shadows in their reunion. After all, Will and Elizabeth have to adjust to being married. And Will has to learn to be a father . . . something of which Elizabeth already has ten years of experience.