For me, Our Flag Means Death is mostly about the mood. The show doesn’t often make me laugh my face off, but it does make me smile. It doesn’t make me sob, but it does make me wistful. Our Flag Means Death has a mild, warm, fuzzy tone to it that’s tricky to pin down; it’s part sitcom, part period drama, part love story. But mostly it’s confidently, pleasantly, enjoyably itself.
And yet, as gentle as this show is with its characters — it wants them all to have happy endings, even the ones whose legs get blown off — it explores some heavy themes. In a way, the whole show is about trauma. Can Blackbeard get over his childhood trauma and have a healthy relationship with Stede? Can Blackbeard’s crew get over him being a complete psycho and running them ragged all over the high seas? Can Lucius get over being lost at sea after Blackbeard pushed him off the ship? (Seems Blackbeard is behind a lot of these.) Can Stede get over his own troubled upbringing?
The two newest episodes of the show dive head first into these questions. Based purely on laughs, the subplot I liked the most is from Episode 204, “Fun and Games,” where Blackbeard’s crew — Jim, Frenchie, Fang and Archie — struggles to readjust to life aboard the Revenge now that Blackbeard is no longer in charge. The crew who stuck with Stede — Black Pete, Oluwande, Wee John Feeney, and Roach — try to make them feel welcome with a cake and a piñata and other assorted welcome home gifts, but they’re so on edge that swords end up drawn, heads end up butted, and everyone ends up screaming at each other, over and over. They’re working through their trauma and I’m giggling through the whole thing.
We get some more good crowd work in Episode 205, “The Curse of the Seafaring Life,” when everyone on board the Revenge becomes convinced that the fancy red suit Stede pilfered from a derelict pirate ship is cursed; the dying priest said so, after all, maybe. I liked when they all pounced on him like a pack of starving hyenas on a wildebeest.
Part of the fun of Our Flag Means Death is hearing all of these 1650s buccaneers talk like wellness influencers about trauma, feelings, and mental health. So it’s funny that the lot of them still fervently believe that Stede’s coat is haunted.
Stede and Ed inch into each other’s arms
But most fans aren’t here for the inter-crew antics. Let’s get to the heart of the matter: how are Stede and Blackbeard getting along?
Overall, pretty well! I didn’t know how long the show would drag out an inevitable Stede and Blackbeard reunion. The answer: not long at all. They’re basically back together by the end of Episode 205, holding hands and contemplating doing more. Maybe that’ll be the season finale.
They take the direct route. In Episode 204, Blackbeard hasn’t yet forgiven Stede for leaving him at the alter, so to speak, at the end of season 1. They have a run-in with a couple of old pirates — one of whom is played by Minnie Driver — who have left the seafaring life behind to sell antiques on a deserted island that no one ever visits. To fill the time, they play mind games: one stabs the other in the back with a dinner knife, then the other poisons the one, and on and on their romance goes until they burn down their antique shop and recommit to finding each other anew every day. It’s love, I think.
I’m not 100% sure what Stede and Blackbeard are supposed to take from this. That they’re doomed to one day find repulsive everything they currently find quirky and delightful about each other? That love can bloom, even on the battlefield? Or maybe the writers just found a way for them to spend more time together while entertaining us. If so, I wish the antique store misadventure had a few more genuine laughs on hand.
My favorite part of Episode 204 was the very end, when Bubbles seems to succeed in his quest to become a bird. That’s what I like about Our Flag Means Death; at any moment you could be in for comedy, drama, romance, or even magical realism. Whether or not Bubbles is eventually revealed to have been hiding in the cargo hold the whole time, it’s still a magic moment watching him fly away.
Our Flag Means Bullet Points
- Izzy is also all aboard the trauma train in these episodes…until he isn’t. Come Episode 206, he’s suddenly moved past the fact that Blackbeard shot his leg off, although I wonder if it will come back around. Also, I think the scene where Stede asks for advice while Izzy is training with his sword was written just so actor Con O’Neill could take off his shirt and show off his physique.
- Also trapped by trauma: Lucius, who cannot forget what Blackbeard did to him, to the point where he’s drawing his face on flowers, doggies, and even the body of Lucius’ beloved Black Pete. But Lucius is able to kick his habit through the healing power of love. His marriage proposal to Black Pete is very sweet.
- David Fane as Fang is one of the under-sung members of the ensemble cast. The contrast between the sea-gladiator exterior and the gentle soul underneath gets me every time.
- In Episode 204, the song “Seabird” by the Alessi Brothers plays over the end credits. I’d never heard of this song before and now I can’t stop humming it. It legit may be the biggest thing I take away from this block of episodes. It’s kind of a perfect fit for the show: mellow, melancholy and upbeat.
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