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Reviews
Our Flag Means Death: Mermen (2023)
Finale!
Love conquers everything, even fishing! Ed, unsurprisingly, isn't very good at fishing, even though he caught one once, and returns to the destroyed Republic of Pirates hoping he can still help Stede, and retrieves his leathers. Once he finds a love letter in a bottle from Stede, he knows his affection was truly reciprocated. They reunite during a beach battle, make up, and head to Spanish Jackie's to rescue the rest of the crew. Izzy Hands has been standing up to Prince Ricky, and Jackie poisons nearly all the British just as Ed, Stede and Zheng arrive. They dress as British soldiers and escape to the Revenge. Izzy is shot by Ricky and his tragic death casts a pall on the end of the season, even with Lucius and Pete's marriage. Ed and Stede stay behind on an unoccupied island to open an inn and keep Izzy's grave company. It probably won't go well, so we definitely need season 3!
Our Flag Means Death: Man on Fire (2023)
Penultimate episode
Second to last episode of a season that should have had twelve or more. While the morning after starts off well with Ed bringing Stede breakfast in bed and confiding in him, he has thrown away his leathers in his hopes to stop pirating. Meanwhile, word has gotten out about Stede's recent kill, so his popularity is increasing. Ed gives him some pointers, but gets a job as a fisherman, arguing that their first time together had been a mistake. Stede lashes out in response and is nearly killed by Zheng when he tries to duel her to avoid losing any more men. Prince Ricky's schemes change the game entirely at the end of the episode...
Our Flag Means Death: Calypso's Birthday (2023)
The best episode?
Stede lets the crew have a party for made-up reasons, makes a villainous torturer party crasher walk the plank, and takes Ed to bed in a heightened emotional state after his first intentional kill. Izzy and Wee John appear in drag, and Izzy sings La Vie En Rose, finally comfortable with himself now that the crew have embraced him and given him the unicorn's leg. Emotions run high, from the glee of party planning to the romantic interludes. Deeply passionate, the pair share a smoldering wall kiss, but Stede still looks to Ed for consent before moving to the bed. Fireworks ensue inside and literally, outside, making "Stede becomes a man" canon.
Our Flag Means Death: The Curse of the Seafaring Life (2023)
Charming respite from the darker start of the season
This episode sees Ed in a burlap sack apologizing to the crew and working with Stede to own his captain role. And his "mean voice." They head off on different quests, one not so successful in allowing Lucius to push him off the boat for closure, though he does catch a fish with Fang. Stede enjoys a training montage with Izzy and goes on a couple of raids acquiring and disposing of a gorgeous red suit that the crew thinks is cursed. Stede does a punch and fires a gun with some adequacy. Then our boys replay the You Wear Fine Things Well scene with an actual kiss, and a triumphant fish display, capped off by taking it slow and a round of thumb war.
Our Flag Means Death: Fun and Games (2023)
Fun and Games Indeed!
One of the best episodes of the season, this one sees the reunited Ed and Stede still working out their differences. Traumatized, the crew banishes Blackbeard, who finds his old friends Mary Read and Anne Bonny on a nearby island, and ends up at dinner with them, Stede, and oddly, Buttons. The latter is looking for a bowl for the rites to turn himself into a bird, while the lovely lesbian pair get off on increasingly dangerous games, one of which is pestering Ed and Stede, trying to seduce the latter, and calling them emotionally immature, which is absolutely fair. Just as Ed starts warming back up the Street, the house catches fire...
Our Flag Means Death: Red Flags (2023)
Second episode surprises
The sophomore season two episode sees Stede on board the Red Sails ship captained highly effectively by Zheng, the pirate queen! He also succeeds in reuniting his marooned crew with Lucius, who is more than a little worse for wear after being thrown off the boat by Blackbeard. The ship is all women otherwise, but the Revenge men are tender enough to fit there. Ed on the other hand slips deeper into violence and despair, attempting to have Izzy kill him, even after he shoots him in the leg so badly it has to be amputated. Then Ed turns his suicidal mood on the rest of the crew during a massive storm in which he pushes them so hard they do in fact turn on him. A troubling but still beautiful chapter.
Our Flag Means Death: The Innkeeper (2023)
Epic third episode
The poetics and pitfalls of purgatory are in full force when Stede and Ed struggle separately to find what they're looking for on the Revenge and beyond. Blackbeard has to look deeply into himself to decide whether he even wants to go on, while Steve is tireless in loving pursuit. This episode struggles with enormous issues of love, loss, life and death, and builds to an operatic conclusion. Auntie continues to do some of her finest work as a crime-scene detective, and the remnants of Blackbeard's crew realize the gravity of their actions. When Blackbeard and the Gentleman Pirate are at long last reunited, it is beyond beautiful. A masterpiece.
Our Flag Means Death (2022)
Perilous Piracy!
Heartfelt and hilarious, both seasons (so far) of this historical romantic comedy from showrunner David Jenkins (People of Earth) have captivated a wide audience. Rhys Darby's first leading-man star turn as a Barbados landowner turned "Gentleman Pirate" in outrageously fine fabrics is evenly matched with a leather-clad and frequently damp Taika Waititi as Blackbeard. Diverse, inclusive, and deliciously written, filmed, and cast, the show doesn't shy away from skewering microaggressions and granting second chances. Lightly based on historical fact, the high seas of the early eighteenth-century will never be the same!