There had been other pirate settlements in different places but none of them had worked quite the same way that Nassau did. There was a fort there. People stayed, they built a community on the land. Larger and larger numbers of pirate-minded people were showing up there and starting to develop an economy around themselves. Men like Edward Thatch, later known as Blackbeard, his sidekick, Black Caesar, a former slave, and the pied pirate that led them all there, Captain Benjamin Hornigold.
In the second episode, tensions rise between Benjamin Hornigold and Henry Jennings; their rivalry takes a new direction when Hornigold declares Nassau a pirate republic.

In the second episode, Professor Iain Stewart discovers how flowers have transformed our planet. He journeys to the remote islands of the South Pacific to track down the earliest flowers. In the deserts of Africa and rainforests of Vietnam, he sees how they brought brilliant colour to the most barren landscapes and sculpted the earth itself. And he learns how they drove the evolution of all animals - kick-starting our human story.

The pirates of the Caribbean's humble base in Nassau turns into a boomtown run by Benjamin Hornigold. But Hornigold's crew deposes him for his refusal to attack English ships; but one man, Edward Thatch, remains loyal. Meanwhile, pirate raids on British slaves provokes outrage.

In the final episode, we hear how employees on the 17th floor were rewarded, and we see Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi scheme quickly collapses as investors begin to withdraw their money during the 2008 Financial Crisis. We see how Madoff's sons attempt to stop their father from writing bonus cheques for long-time investors, faithful employees, and extended family to help cushion the blow. Madoff confesses to the Ponzi scheme, and the FBI arrests him.
After pleading guilty, Madoff is sentenced to 150 years in prison. Two years after learning of the Ponzi scheme, his eldest son Mark is found hanging from a pipe, dead of an apparent suicide. His other son dies of lymphoma six years later.

The five directors, John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens, return to Hollywood after the war but are forever haunted by what they saw. Ford goes on a drinking bender after filming the carnage at D-Day. Stevens is wholly unprepared for the horrors of Dachau and realizes he is not there to film propaganda but to capture evidence of crimes against humanity. Wyler, who lost his hearing during the war, fears his career is over. Huston chronicles soldiers suffering from postraumatic stress disorder in the film Let There Be Light, only to have it suppressed by the U.S. government.

The fifth programme explores the alliances formed between the animal and plant worlds. Attenborough dives into Australia's Great Barrier Reef and contrasts the nocturnal feeding of coral, on microscopic creatures, with its daytime diet of algae. Some acacias are protected by ants, which will defend their refuge from any predator. Besides accommodation, the guards are rewarded with nectar and, from certain species, protein for their larvae as well. Fungi feed on plants but can also provide essential nutriment to saplings (Mycorrhiza). The connection is never broken throughout a tree's life and a quarter of the sugars and starches produced in its leaves is channelled back to its fungal partners. Meanwhile, fungi that feed on dead wood leave a hollow trunk, which also benefits the tree. Orchids enjoy a similar affiliation. Lichens are the product of a relationship between fungi and a photosynthetic associate, usually algae. They are extremely slow-growing, and a graveyard is the perfect location to discover their exact longevity. Mistletoe is a hemiparasite that obtains its moisture from a host tree, while using own leaves to manufacture food. Its seeds are deposited on another by the mistletoe tyrannulet, following digestion of the fruit. The dodder (Cuscuta) is also parasitic, generally favouring nettles, and siphons its nourishment through periodic 'plugs' along its stem. The rafflesia has no stem or leaves and only emerges from its host in order to bloom — and it produces the largest single flower: one metre across.