Ed’s ex is back and he’s looking for trouble. This week on our Summer TV Binge of Our Flag Means Death, a turtle fights a crab, a crewmember dies, a new roommate arrangement is formed, and Stede’s past finally catches up with him.
1. Will Arnett? In my pirate show? It’s more likely than you think
What’s a man to do on a full moon but bask naked in the moonglow with his seagull friend? Such is the life for Mr. Buttons, the Revenge’s first mate. He’s a delightfully weird fellow played by Ewen Bremner, who is probably most well-known for his role as Spud in Trainspotting. Buttons talks to seagulls, might be a cannibal, and uses his fake teeth as a weapon. Among the Our Flag Means Death crew, he ranks among the weirdest, but his quirks are readily accepted on Stede’s ship full of misfit toys.
Buttons’ moonglow session is interrupted by Will Arnett, who brings his distinctive voice and brand of buffoonery to the ship as Calico Jack. He’s looking for Blackbeard and seems determined to have a good time. But he’s also obnoxious, looks down on Stede for his idiosyncrasies, and doesn’t seem to care at all about injuring people. Jack’s crew has left him for dead, and since he saved Ed’s life at one point, Ed feels inclined to indulge his whims. Stede tries to find something to like about Jack, since he’s Ed’s friend but struggles to contain his signature brand of “just bitchy enough to get away with” remarks.
2. Anything goes at sea
The gang goes to a place called “Blind Man’s Cove,” which definitely doesn’t sound suspicious at all. They jump off the yardarm (“yardies”), drink, and pit a turtle with a knife on its head against a crab in a battle to the death. Stede, who is delicate-minded when he chooses to be, isn’t amused by their antics, nor by Ed’s more callous and vulgar behavior when he’s around Jack.
But is it that Stede doesn’t appreciate the rowdy antics, or is it that he’s jealous? In a moment alone with Stede, Jack calls him out for being jealous, then pisses on his boots. Jack acknowledges that he and Blackbeard had “dalliances” in the past, but that it’s nothing to be ashamed of, since “anything goes at sea.” This marks the second person (after Lucius) to recognize that Stede and Ed appear to be more than friends, but it’s not clear that Stede picks up on the insinuation. He brushes Jack off, indignantly saying that Ed isn’t the “Blackie” he was in the past, but it’s clear that Jack has gotten under his skin.
3. RIP Karl
Things get real when Jack, desperate to keep the party going, accidentally kills Karl the seagull with his whip. The crew had been going along with Jack’s antics, laughing and enjoying themselves for the most part, but this was the last straw. The deck goes quiet, as everyone but Jack realizes how serious his infraction is. Everyone on the Revenge may not understand Buttons’s affection for Karl, but they support him. Buttons puts a hex on Jack, muttering and folding his hands in an homage to the film <em>I’m No Longer Here</em>, directed by Fernando Frias de la Parra.
Stede emerges from his cabin. The Gentleman Pirate, dressed in a pink floral nightgown, orders Jack off his ship with a voice that brooks no argument. He means business, and Jack acquiesces. It’s one of the first times in the series that Stede speaks with absolute authority and confidence, acting on behalf of his first mate. But unfortunately, Jack guilts Ed into leaving the ship with him. A confused and sad Stede watches as Ed says, “You were always going to see who I am,” implying that he thinks Stede wouldn’t want the “real” Ed around.
4. Plan A, Plan B, Plan … to heck with it, let’s drink
In the last episode, Jim left the ship (and specifically, Oluwande) to go in search of revenge. Jim killed one of thugs who killed their parents but not the other six. So Jim returns to the Republic of Pirates to find the rest of the Siete Gallos. Jim nabs Fred Armisen’s character while he’s confessing to his many sins, then tries to threaten Spanish Jackie using him as bait. But the plan backfires when Jackie straight-up kills her own husband herself in cold blood. Oh, well, at least she has 17 more?
Continued belowJackie and Jim’s fight scene is brief but hilarious, as Jackie fakes out Jim with a knife concealed in her fake hand, and both acknowledge the other’s prowess. But at the end of the day, two of Jackie’s husbands are dead and Jim was stranded and left to die. That makes them more or less even? I guess? The two sit down to drink and Jackie tries to convince Jim that a life focused on revenge is no life at all. What will Jim decide to do? And will Oluwande get his room back now that Frenchie and Wee John have redecorated?
5. If you don’t love me now…
Every (fictional) love story has to have a breakup (or two). Ed leaves with Jack but doesn’t go far, and Stede obsessively watches them with his spyglass until Lucius insists that he take a break. Lucius, as it turns out, is “an expert at breakups.” He brings a box of Ed’s stuff to him (but no yummy lavender soap) and chastises the fearsome pirate. Stede is trying to explain to the crew that their co-captains are getting a divorce when they’re interrupted by an impending invasion. Admiral Badminton, on a tip from Izzy Hands, is out for revenge for his twin brother, Captain Badminton.
As the British draw near, Jack is blown out of the water by a stray cannonball, accompanied by cheering by a still-naked Buttons. Will Arnett is delightfully smarmy in this episode as Jack. And though Jack is awful, he’s the sort of “love-to-hate” character that plays a necessary role in breaking Ed and Stede apart so they realize how much they want to be together.
Ed swims back to the ship and tells the crew to hoist a white flag so they don’t die. When Blackbeard first came aboard, he was so bored by his life that he toyed with the idea of ending it, so to hear him insisting that they’re “better alive than dead,” shows how much he’s grown during his time with Stede. As the British invade the ship, Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” plays, and the action is perfectly timed to the beat. It’s both funny and moving, much like the show as a whole. We see the crew scrambling, then Ed and Stede being thrown to the deck, hands tied behind their backs. Ed winks at Stede, saying he “never left,” then as the camera zooms out, we see him gently touch his foot to Stede’s, reassuring him that whatever happens next, they’ll be in it together. I’ve watched this scene many times, and I love it each and every time. It’s such a great moment that blends humor with love, all set to the backdrop of a classic song.
For those who watched the episodes as they were released, this was the end of the show for what seemed like forever. (It was only a week.) We had to live with a flirty foot touch and no idea what fate awaited our captured co-captains. But the final two episodes were released as a package deal, and next week, we’ll find out what happens when pirates sign the “Act of Grace” in the second-to-last episode of season one of Our Flag Means Death.
Other things:
- This episode has the best use of Fleetwood Mac in, oh, I don’t know, ever? This year is full of television shows using old songs to complement the action, with “The Chain” here and Kate Bush’s “Running up that hill” in Stranger Things.
- When Jackie, played by Leslie Jones (who is not 25), asks Jim to guess her age and then answers 25 with a completely straight face, I almost spit my drink. It’s a great line and her deadpan delivery absolutely sells it.
- The pink floral nightgown that Stede wears is affectionately known as “the breakup robe” in fan spaces online, and (spoiler alert!) this isn’t the last we’ll see of it.
