You’ve been cordially invited to a fancy-schmancy party! Lead-based makeup and powdered wigs may be optional, but passive aggression is required. This week on Our Flag Means Death, some of our pirates dress up while others get undressed, and as always, Izzy Hands is furious about all of it.
1. Note the gusto!
As promised in the last episode, Blackbeard takes Stede and his crew under his wing and teaches them how to be scary pirates. (Stede tries, bless his heart, but doesn’t quite make for an intimidating figure.) Ivan, one of Blackbeard’s crew played by British comedian Guz Khan, shows Stede how to search a body for gold teeth, while Lucius dutifully takes notes.
Making good on his own promise, Stede teaches Blackbeard about the intricacies of fine dining. Bewildered by all the fancy spoons, Blackbeard is insulted by the ship’s captain and reminded of a childhood spent in poverty. We see a flashback to Ed’s mother, a servant to a wealthy household, giving him a fine piece of silk. When a young Ed asks why they can’t have such beautiful finery, his mother gently tells him that being born poor is simply a choice made by God. It’s a heartbreaking justification for the rigid class structure that really did lead many desperate men into a life of piracy. Ed’s mother seems to honestly care for her son, but she leaves him convinced that he’s not deserving of nice things.
2. Jeff the Accountant
While taking ‘piracy 101’ lessons from Blackbeard’s crew, the ship’s musician, Frenchie, intercepts an invitation for a fancy party on board a French leisure ship. Ed clearly wants to go, while Stede is less than eager to return to his former life of small talk over hors d’oeuvres. Frenchie, Oluwande, and Stede accompany Ed to the party boat and introduce themselves as their alter-egos for the night. Ed becomes “Jeff the Accountant,” and after some initial hesitation, he wows the crowd with wild tales of his life as “an accountant.” Making appearances as party guests are two faces familiar to fans of Flight of the Conchords and What We Do in The Shadows, Kristen Schaal and Nick Kroll. They play caricatures of high society aristocrats and are two more excellent guest stars that Our Flag Means Death adds to its impressive list.
3. Have you been sketched?
Back on the Revenge, Izzy Hands is having a hard time. The crew, while loveable and funny as heck, are not hard workers. Izzy struggles to get them to do basic tasks and walks in on an intimate rendezvous between Lucius and Black Pete in the storeroom. Instead of being ashamed, both men are unabashedly affectionate and coy, even in the face of Izzy’s sputtering rage.
Izzy has been described in the OFMD fandom as the only human in a cast of muppets, and this episode is a great example. He tries to bully Lucius using threats but Lucius charms his way out of work. He then tries to use Lucius’s sexuality against him by making Pete jealous of the nude sketch he did of a fellow crew member. In any other show, Izzy’s threats would be taken seriously, but this is not your usual pirate show. Lucius defangs Izzy by being completely shameless about who he is. The hookup between Lucius and Black Pete is unexpected but terribly sweet. They throw cute glances at each other when Lucius tells Izzy off and it feels like a victory when Lucius says, “We don’t own each other.” Characters in this story aren’t defined by who they love or who they have relationships with, nor are they shamed for them, and that’s a lovely thing to see. Izzy, of course, is not amused.
4. When you cut loose, you really cut loose
Jeff the accountant falls out of favor with the party guests, much as Stede predicted he would. Ed finds himself again bewildered by spoons. (And who can blame him? Honestly.) Nick Kroll and Kristen Schaal scorn him with backhanded comments that enrage and embarrass Ed, who is accustomed to being met with fear. He prepares to storm in and kill everyone when Stede orders him to stand down, offering to deal with the rude party guests himself.
Continued belowMeanwhile, Oluwande and Frenchie have been conning the clueless guests into investing in a bogus scheme to find wealth supposedly hidden in a pyramid. (A very early “pyramid scheme.”) They pretend to be exotic African royalty and trade on the European aristocrats’ ignorance to swindle them out of their cash. Instead of turning them in, the servants on the boat lend a hand to assist — for a cut of the profit. Stede uses the servant’s intimate knowledge of their employer’s secrets to turn the wealthy fools against each other, leading them to brawl and accidentally set fire to the vessel. As they sail away, Ed marvels at Stede’s use of “passive aggression” instead of violence to get revenge.
5. You wear fine things well
After Stede bests the snobby French party guests, he and Ed share a moment on deck set against a romantic, impossibly full moon. Ed again ponders the piece of silk given to him by his mother. It’s clear from his face that he thinks she was right — he’s not the type of person who is meant to wear finery. Stede takes the silk and folds it into Ed’s breast pocket, then unintentionally utters what I think may be the most romantic five words in the whole series: “You wear fine things well.” Ed falls in love before our eyes, as Stede’s words cut neatly through the emotional trauma he’d been holding onto since childhood. Stede sees Ed for who he is, not as Blackbeard or the poor young child who wants what he can’t have. Though the impact he has on Ed doesn’t seem to sink in for Stede just yet, he smiles and they part ways, then pause to look back at each other.
With lingering glances and significant pieces of silk, this episode uses visuals and a romantic score to signal that Ed and Stede are falling for each other. Before all the episodes had been released, I watched along with other fans, wondering if the chemistry between the two would be something more than a “bromance” that teases a romantic relationship between the two men but backs away from showing it. But while Our Flag Means Death is a funny show, it’s also an earnest one. And this is an earnest love story between two men who learn how to break free of the expectations foisted on them by their parents and the world. “You wear fine things well,” is said without a trace of irony or sarcasm, and it’s an earnest promise both to Ed and the audience that while this story may be funny, the central romance itself is not a joke.
Other things:
- When the sketch Lucius does of Fang, played by the charming New Zealand actor David Fane, is revealed, I nearly spit my drink. It’s a completely unexpected gag and one that is not safe for viewing at work. You’ve been warned!
