Our Flag Means Death raises the stakes in Episode 207 and 208

Our lovable crew of sensitive pirates finally faces a fearsome threat in the latest episodes of Our Flag Means Death, “Calypso’s Birthday” and “Man on Fire.” Thus far, the conflicts on this show have stayed relatively small and personal: will Stede and Blackbeard get back together? Can the crew work through their collective traumas? But the end of Episode 208 widens the scope of things, and that’s exciting.

Since that was the best part of this block of episodes, let’s start there. Episode 208 features the return of Zheng Yi Sao, the Chinese pirate queen played with delightful deadpan energy by Ruibo Qian. She hatches a plot with Stede Bonnet wannabe Prince Ricky Banes to use his connections to the British elite to try and tamp down on piracy, presumably so Zheng and her crew will be the only game in town. To this end, Zheng starts recruiting aggressively, but there’s a twist: Prince Ricky betrays her by gifting her with a ton of grandfather clocks, each with a bomb inside. At the end of episode: kaboom! Her fleet is blown to pieces, which can only mean bad things for the pirate community.

This is cool because we really haven’t seen the Our Flag Means Death crew face down anything on this scale. It makes me excited to watch the finale next week!

Stede and Blackbeard take things to the next level, and then back to zero

That said, we still get plenty of the quirky interpersonal drama that Our Flag Means Death fans have come to expect. The most Our Flag Means Death scene in the history of Our Flag Means Death may go down at the end of Episode 207, “Calypso’s Birthday,” when Izzy, done up in full drag makeup, serenades the crew with a rendition of “La Vie en Rose,” the signature song of French singer Édith Piaf, amid the soft pink and orange glow of the festivities the crew has erected in honor of Calypso’s birthday, a holiday they made up so they could party.

This just embodies the show to me: a group of bloodthirsty pirates get dolled up and sway back and forth like a bunch of theater majors at the afterparty for their first play. It’s unabashedly romantic, both in the sense that it’s wistful and stirring and because Stede and Blackbeard have sex for the first time.

These two have quite an arc in these episodes, one that I’m not sure if I’m entirely sold on. At the beginning of the season, Blackbeard hated Stede’s guts, but once they were back in the same space, they quickly grew close again. No sooner do they take this important step in their relationship than Blackbeard decides to leave Stede, since Stede is really getting into the swing of the pirate lifestyle but Blackbeard has had enough and wants to become a simple fisherman. I feel like their relationship might be undulating a tad too much. I’d like to get to spend a bit more time with them as a couple before the show inevitably yanks them apart again.

Our Flag Means Bullet Points

• In Episode 207, Blackbeard is pursued by a sadistic pirate named Ned Low, whom Stede makes walk the plank at the end of the episode. Blackbeard is afraid that killing a man might mess Stede up in the head, but all it does is make him horny. Possibly concerning?
• Actor Bronson Pinchot brings a John Malkovich-ian menace to the role of Ned Low. I also liked his crazy orquestra conductor gimmick. I hope he comes back!

Our Flag Means Death is an easy show to sit with, but can be a tricky show to get excited about. I have hopes that the finale can combine the show’s big bleeding heart with something a little more propulsive.

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