My favorite thing to do when consuming a new piece of media (be that a show, book, or anything of the sort) is to analyze it as if it’s an assignment in my IB English class. I adore going over every delicate intricacy woven into the foundations of a show and picking apart why it’s been placed there. The more symbolism and metaphors a show includes, the more enamored I will be with it. That being said, I tend to be a bit critical when it comes to my taste in media for this very reason. There’s a very distinct line between me simply liking something and me loving it.

I like Casey McQuiston and Amazon’s Red White and Royal Blue. I adore Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper (the show but especially the books). I’m a fan of Rainbow Rowell’s Simon Snow Trilogy (Carry On, Wayward Son and Anyway The Wind Blows).

I love Max’s hit show Our Flag Means Death. I love the story David Jenkin’s has expertly crafted.

I have since its debut in March of 2022. Everything this show does has a purpose; every detail, every line, every article of clothing serves to build the beautiful narrative so many have come to love. This show is deserving of every ounce of love poured into it by its fanbase because of this. I could go on about the show, every little thing that I love and why I love it, but I would not be able to release an article in a timely fashion if I decided to do that. Even the article you’re reading now is going to be split into parts, although it’s only focused on one season. Even if I felt I could complete an article on the season as a whole in one fell swoop, I would make my lovely editor’s life miserable.

Jokes aside, the symbols, parallels and various other portrayals of meaning throughout Our Flag Means Death elevate the show above its competitors and makes it stand out in a sea of streaming service exclusives. With the finale of season two airing on Oct. 26, I want to dive into my favorite example of the literary techniques displayed both narratively and visually throughout its 8 episode span. While I would love to write about the full season, this article has surpassed 2000 words and is only over one episode, so I just won’t be able to do the entire thing. Instead, I’m going to pick my favorite episodes of the season to write about, with my next article likely being episodes 4 and 5 with a summary included beforehand of previous episode’s content. All observations come from my own understanding of the show, not influenced by the internet or other outputs of that nature as I do not want to claim someone else’s original ideas as my own.

But first: A summary of season one of Our Flag Means Death.

Our Flag Means Death is a show focused largely on two characters: Stede bonnet (he/him), a wealthy landowner turned history’s worst pirate and Blackbeard, named Edward “Ed” Teach (he/him), the most feared pirate in the world. The series explores themes of morality, black and white thinking, how toxic masculinity interacts with queerness, and much more. Season one introduces Stede Bonnet as a very soft but even more so privileged man. He sees himself as above all the pirates around him in practically every facet. After a scrape with death caused by his own hubris and gullibility, Stede is rescued by Blackbeard. Quickly, a bond between the two begins to form. Starting friendly and quickly snowballing into unspoken romance, Ed and Stede learn from one another. Ed teaches Stede how to become a better pirate while Stede guides Ed to let go of his persona and take things easy. There’s a heavy focus on not being who society expects them to be. Ed is mythologized to be brutish, cruel and unfeeling, but we quickly find out he’s anything but that. He has only killed one person (that being his abusive father), is naturally playful and is an overtly curious man. He’s also insecure about that, hating the reputation he’s garnered and how different it is from who he truly is. Stede, on the other hand, is tired of submitting to a monotonous life so many seem to love. He doesn’t like being, as his own father calls him, a “lily-livered little rich boy”, but instead craves adventure, danger and freedom. The two pirates change each other’s lives for the better, giving each other the freedom they dreamed of but never thought they would attain, sticking by one another when things come crumbling down. The season focuses on Ed and Stede’s whims and impulses and how, in the end, the things that brought them together will be their downfall. When Ed and Stede resign from fighting in the British navy rather than ending their lives, they quickly plot together. All in quick succession, Ed and Stede confess their love to each other, plan an escape from the British, plan to run to China and to start new lives. When Stede is faced with the sobering reality of the intensity at which they’re moving after being threatened and berated by a British officer, Stede runs away, leaving Ed to wait for a Stede who will never show up. Stede goes home, and Ed is forced to go back to the life he once led. He’s wholly miserable and giving in to what the world sees him as, as Stede goes through a period of self-actualization that reminds him how much he loves Ed and sets Stede  sailing once again to find him.

Season two opens with the continuation of this plot line. Stede has found his crew abandoned by Blackbeard and is working to reunite with his true love, as Ed intoxicates himself into a stupor fueled by raids, pillaging and horrific bloodshed. While Stede has come to his senses about his feelings, Ed is suffocating his own and doing the same to his increasingly damaged crew.

Episode one: Impossible Birds

The new season opens with a ridiculous dream sequence. Within it, a bearded Stede sword fights and kills Izzy, Ed’s first mate whose jealousy led to Ed and Stede’s surrender to the British in season one. After doing this, Stede sees Ed and cries out for him. They run to each other, embrace and lie in the sand. As they lie down, they talk, and  whenever Stede asks Ed if he is upset, Ed redirects the conversation, instead assuring Stede that he knew he would find him. Immediately, the audience is introduced to Stede’s predictions for their reunion, or rather his fears surrounding it. In Stede’s idealized visions, he completely circumvents the idea that Ed may be upset, even though it is something he knows is true. Throughout the episode, Stede’s denial of his effect on Ed persists. When his crewmate and friend, Oluwande, tells Stede he thinks that Ed will kill him, Stede assures Oluwande that Ed is a “good guy” as he stares at a wanted poster listing his love’s increasingly drastic and violent crimes. Another memorable part of his dream is the physical appearance of both Ed and Stede. Ed, despite shaving his beard off last time Stede saw him, is shown with his signature wild curly beard and traditional leathers, just like the Ed that Stede found comfort in before he ran away. Stede is in a stereotypical pirate’s outfit; red sash around his waist and low cut flowy shirt. This starkly contrasts Stede’s wardrobe in season one, which was filled with wildly fancy clothing that reflected his status as an aristocrat in Barbados society. As previously mentioned, Stede has a beard just as shaggy as the one Ed used to have. For the audience, this is a big shock compared to what we are used to Stede looking like, and it shows deep truths about Stede’s personal insecurities. Stede’s appearance in his dreams is meant to mimic that of Ed’s, the stereotypical picture of a pirate. In his dreams, Stede forms himself as someone he is not, instead trying to elevate himself to Ed’s level, or a true pirate instead of his pompous and prissy self.

Stede and his crew have settled at the republic of pirates, picking up jobs from Spanish Jackie to create a fund to buy a new ship. A new ship, of course, so they can all clamber on together and set sail on the hunt for Blackbeard. This in itself is quite humorous, all things considered. Stede Bonnet, a man who ran away to fully commit to piracy, insists on legally buying a ship. In a moment of irony, Stede runs into a man named Ricky Banes, a prince turned pirate inspired by Stede’s endeavors as The Gentleman Pirate. He tells Stede he aspires to be like him. Near the end of the same episode, Ricky stalls Stede from an ongoing mission, attempting to show himself off. However, much like Stede in episode two of season one, he is caught by Spanish Jackie causing a ruckus. Like she did with Stede, Spanish Jackie hands a knife to Ricky’s nose, threatening to cut it and take it for his infamous Nose Jar (an ongoing bit). Stede by some luck is spared, but Ricky on the other hand has his nose cut clean off. Ricky as a character, and this season’s upcoming antagonist, is who Stede could have been if Ed had not redirected him, and Stede is appalled and annoyed by the man, a tremendous show of growth in Stede as he realizes he does not like who he was before.

After a glimpse at the current life that Stede is leading along with the beloved crew, we are then shown Ed and his sorry state. Immediately, Ed is sitting in on a wedding, taking his chance to object to the wedding. He calls himself the devil, and sends his own crew out to attacks, once familiar faces having undergone dramatic changes. As the crew attacks, Ed goes to the cake and takes off the cake toppers of the bride and groom. The groom is blonde, white, and in a brown suit, remarkably similar to Stede, even down to an outfit he previously wore in episode eight of season one. The audience is then shown various incidents that have occurred over the last week. Ed, who had never killed since his father, has nine guns strapped to his chest and we see him pull the trigger. Not only is it intensely jarring to see Ed commit murder, but also the nine guns are a call back to episode four of season one. In that episode, as the two get to know each other, Stede shows Ed a picture of him in a book where he has nine guns on his person. With great annoyance, Ed rants about how stupid of a concept that is and that he only needs one knife and one gun “just like everyone else”. However, now that Ed is trying to become the mythologized Blackbeard the world fears, he now is armed just as heavily as the fictional description of him. After a scene in which Izzy and the crew lament over their abuse at the hands of Ed, Izzy reports to his captain and for just a moment, we see the old Ed as he asks, “Did they get cake?,” a tell sign that the true Edward Teach is hidden under the leather, makeup and pain of Blackbeard. However, when Izzy tells Ed he believes the energy of the ship has been poisoned, Ed becomes Blackbeard once more. Ed wanders out to yell at the crew about the information relayed to him. Cowering, the whole crew denies that the ship’s energy has gone down the drain. The crew Ed is now causing to cower are the same people who nearly mutinied against Stede and Izzy at two separate points. In fact, they nearly threw a tied Izzy overboard before Ed retakes position as captain. This shows how terrifying Ed has become to this ferocious crew. They know their worth and usually are not afraid to fight for it, but this time Ed is too dangerous for the crew to even consider mutiny. A shocking example of this is given when Ed shoots Izzy for mentioning Stede’s name. Izzy has been Ed’s friend and implied mentor since they were both young, sailing with one another for practically their entire lives. Now Ed has no regard for anyone’s lives. Not his own, not that of his life long companion. Set in 1717, a shot to the knee is a near sure death sentence for anyone, but especially a pirate who does not have medical aid readily available. As Izzy coats the deck in blood, Ed lazily and uncaringly appoints Frenchie to the new first mate position, one Izzy held Ed’s entire life as a pirate. Another instance of this occurred earlier with an off-handed comment about Ed not caring when a character named Ivan, someone who fans met last season and has also been sailing with Ed for ages, died.

That night, Jim Jimenez (they/them) sits with Fang (he/him) and Fang is crying. Fang is known to be one of the softest crew members, previously crying earlier in the episode. Fang, despite his general loving nature, has been sailing with Ed for 20 years and is naturally attached to Izzy as well, no matter how harsh, snappy and rude he could get. Fang is heartbroken over what has become of his crew. Jim, who is not used to comforting people because he was raised to be a strong and uncaring assassin and likely never grew up being comforted either, decides to tell Fang the story of the wooden boy. In the pilot of season one, Stede bonds with his crew over the same story. They slept out on the deck as Stede read them the story, adding his own voices which were beloved by the crew and are a core reason why they didn’t mutiny him. Now, instead of surrounded by friends in comforting lamplight, the two sit in the dark, Jim doing their best to mimic Stede’s story and his voices. The memory of it all soothes Fang from his tears, now laughing with childlike wonder. The saddening parallel between the two scenes demonstrates how life has changed and declined on The Revenge, with the good days behind the crew and the lonely nights left with nothing to comfort themselves but memories of the past.

Closing the episode, Stede stares out at the moon hanging above the sea, lovingly saying, “Good night, Ed Teach,” before the camera pans to Ed under that same moon, holding the groom’s caketopper in his hand before growling “F[***] you, Stede Bonnet.” They stare at the same moon, likely miles away, both thinking about each other and the permanent marks they have left on one another.

Ed takes the two cake toppers he stole and paints the bride. He gives her darker skin and darkens her hair. The bride has now become Ed down to the skin tone and makeup. He pushes the cake toppers back together, sadness pouring from his eyes as he stares at them. While this happens, “Run From Me” by Timber Timbre plays; “Run from me darlin’/ Run my good wife/ Run from me darlin’/ You better run for your life,” and Ed pushes each of the cake toppers overboard through his window, sinking their relationship. Ed is obviously angry, but the usual cruel hard face he has is one of steep depression. Ed uses his state of anger and numbness to hide the immense pain he is feeling. In the episodes leading up to Ed and Stede’s reunion, Ed will grow more and more careless with his life before eventually deciding to end his own life and take his crew down with him. As he sits on the deck, about to be killed by his own crew in their final revenge, “Run From Me” by Timber Timbre plays, this time the lyrics only chanting “run” over and over in dark and haunting tones before Jim towers over Ed and brings a barrel down onto his head. Ed tried to run from his life, from who he once was and ends up getting himself killed. The darkest part of this is how Ed murmurs “finally” before being “killed”, showing how he, in his eyes, was successful in his attempts to run from his pain instead of confronting it.