Okay, so I just finished watching the last episode of OFMD for the thousandth time and I just remembered a review I read before it came out that teased Stede getting a more comedic story in the episode while Ed got a darker one, and having watched that, it’s actually not 100% true, but it is super interesting because I thought the same thing until this rewatch.
The first two thirds of the episode, Stede is 100% the dramatic crux of the episode. After everything that happened in the last few minutes of episode 9, where his guilt completely overpowers him and we see him at his lowest so far in the whole show, it’s devastating to see him trying to force himself back into those strict social guidelines that we know he hates so much for the sake of two people who would clearly have been happier if he didn’t (Ed and Mary.) Seriously, this is probably him at his darkest. He pulls a knife on an innocent man. His family painted him out of their portraits. His wife wants to keep pretending he’s still dead. His daughter hates him and his son doesn’t know who he is. It’s depressing as all hell.
Meanwhile Ed is comparatively pretty lighthearted. He’s clearly heartbroken, but it’s not anywhere near as devastating as any of the stuff happening with Stede at that point. The crew are still supporting him in his awkward song-writing and crying in blanket forts. His talk with Lucius shows that he has an actual support structure for the first time in his life. And most importantly, for a while he actually seems to be getting better. He doesn’t immediately lose all his development from throughout the series. He gets genuinely excited about the crew putting on a talent show and seems like he wants to be a part of it. Most vitally, he asks them to keep calling him ‘Edward,’ which is as we all know the name he uses when he’s willing to be open and vulnerable with people.
The beauty of the episode is the switch we get in two consecutive scenes; Stede coming out to his wife, and Ed killing Lucius.
The coming out scene is unironically beautiful. It walks the line between being a revelation which was incredibly brave of Stede to do, and him just casually admitting a fact that he now knows to be true. When Mary hugs him, it’s really the apex of his character arc. He can finally let go of the guilt he feels about abandoning her, knowing she has a better life without him in it, and he’s no longer confused and tormented by his feelings for Ed. He finally lets himself be driven wholly by his heart and not by what he thinks is expected of him. By the end of the episode, this is probably Stede at his best emotionally. So from here, he gets a comedic arc where he gets to go all out faking his death. And it’s hilarious. The last impression we get of him in the series is him finally free, ready to return to his love, something unambiguously happy. And all of the comedy of the last few scenes with him is still present in the viewers’ minds, so we naturally associate his story now with all the lightness and brevity associated with the show’s humour.
In the meantime, immediately after the scene that gives us Stede at his best, we get the scene that gives us Ed at his worst. Him killing Lucius hurts so much, not only because it’s Lucius and we all love him, but because it’s so counter to everything Ed has shown himself wanting to be until now. He claims he doesn’t kill people in spite of evidence to the contrary, and out of the entire crew, he’s probably the closest with Lucius out of everyone minus Stede. He’s the one who convinces Ed to tell Stede how he feels about him. He’s the one who sees Ed crying in his blanket fort. He’s the only one who snaps at him when he’s making bad choices. So the sudden shift in their relationship portrayed so beautifully by Edward just smiling as he pushes him overboard is devastating, because if Ed doesn’t care about Lucius anymore, who does he care about?
The scene with Izzy immediately afterwards only makes it worse, because right now, he agrees with Izzy, but he’s still willing to mutilate him to prove a
point; he doesn’t care about anything anymore. And Izzy understands that. His glee immediately afterwards is proof that he’s won, and he knows he’s won. Blackbeard is himself again. From there, it’s all downhill as he kills off every part of Stede he has left, from taking his ship, to destroying his books, to leaving his crew to starve. Our last image of him is him alone in his room, after adding a bloodied heart to his flag as a literal way of expressing to the world that he will never love anything again, crying at a picture of Stede’s lighthouse, a parallel to the closing shot of Stede stood on his boat with one hand raised, emulating a lighthouse as he prepares to lead his crew away from danger, proving that even after everything he did to close himself off, he’s still fundamentally broken. Symbolically, our last shot of Edward is a man who has driven all of the light out of his life, and our last shot of Stede is a man who is returning with a newfound light in himself.
This structure was so well-done here, because honestly, giving all of the comedy to Stede and all of the drama to Ed would have been a disservice to both of their characters. Their arcs in this episode oppose each other perfectly, and the weight of comic relief is passed evenly between them, which is so much more satisfying on both a narrative and character standpoint
This is basically a longwinded way of saying, I love this show, we need a season 2.
Also I refuse to believe Lucius is actually dead. #LuciusLives.
you know how there’s this whole thing in golden age romcom 1999 hit the runaway bride about how the julia roberts character likes her eggs? when she’s with one guy, she likes them over-easy, same as him. when she’s with the next guy, she likes them scrambled, same as him. with the next guy, in an omelette, same as him. and in the end, she can’t marry richard gere because she still doesn’t knowhowshe likes her eggs. it’s not until she’s gone off on her own for a bit and built her own life and discovered how she likes her eggs without anybody else’s influence that she can finally allow richard gere back into her life with hope for a real future.
what i’m saying is this. calico jack takes his eggs scrambled. izzy takes his eggs hard-boiled. stede takes his eggs over-easy.
not canonically of course, what i mean is, each of these men in ed’s life have different views and expectations of who ed is, and ed is so desperate for love and acceptance that he is willing to turn himself inside out to meet this expectations. calico jack wants a party; ed will party. izzy wants fearsome; ed will cut off his toes. stede wants a softie who will talk it through with the crew; ed will talk it through with the crew.
ed leaves with jack because he knows jack does this to him, and he knows jack went too far, and he knows he allowed jack to have enough power and control over him that he allowed jack to go too far. ed concocts terrible plans with izzy in order to try and control the power izzy wields over ed - by keeping up with him, instead of letting him take control. ed allows izzy to duel with stede even though, under command, izzy should have stood down. stede is a gentleman and a silly adventurer, and ed tries to become a gentleman and a silly adventurer.
these are all different theses about who Edward Teach can be. all suggestions. even stede, who we often speak about as being really good for ed and allowing him to be who he wants - it’s impossible to ignore that on some level ed is also trying to form himself around what stede wants him to be. this is imo most obvious in ep 10 where ed virtually hangs himself in front of his own crew by erasing the fear they have and thereby abdicating any power. izzy’s threat is the most upfront demonstration of this, but right after that we hear the crew on deck shouting for eddie to come give them another song. ed has no control. he has no respect. izzy’s a dick throughout, but his threats before were always to leave – now he’s threatening ed himself. ed has put himself in danger trying to be what he thought stede wanted.
so, okay. those are the theses. then we get ep10 dark ed. this is the antithesis. this isn’t who anybody wants. he’s not a fun time. he’s not a fearsome pirate. he’s not soft. he’s not weak, and he will cut any weakness out. he is the kraken.
what we need from the narrative now is the synthesis. the discovery, for ed, of what ed really wants. how does he take his eggs.
ed can’t do this as dark ed. he has to come out of dark ed in order to remember the taste of eggs. he can’t do this as any of the standard theses either, because then he just ends up mirroring whoever has the most power of him at any moment, including stede. he can’t do this as the boy who wanted red silk or who killed his own father. he can’t do this as a king’s privateer. he can’t do this as anybody but himself.
what i’m saying is: i am so fuckin ready for ed to have the pirate version of his eat pray love self-discovery journey off alone with no one who knows him so he can decide for himself how he likes his eggs, and then when he and stede meet again–he’ll be ready.
in conversation about this with the excellent good beans @kai-art and @leilakalomi about how ed really does seem to be the most himself with stede, and i am here to add:
when ed is with stede, stede asks. SO many questions. do you fancy a fine fabric? have you ever considered retirement? everything all right? i couldn’t help but notice. May I?
he doesn’t ask all the time. but he spends a lot of time sort of sussing ed out, trying to put into words what he observes about ed and asking for a confirmation, that sort of thing. and ed is responsive for a lot of it! he has room with stede to be himself - he will threaten, for example, the french officers with no problem, he will be kind of a dick about the treasure hunting and protecting his reputation, he will tell ghost stories, he will let stede see him vulnerable in the bathtub scene.
it’s only after stede leaves that ed really veers hard into the thesis of what he thinks stede wants. it’s only after stede leaves that ed completely abandons his leathers for stede’s clothes and stede’s marmalade and stede’s comfy cushions and blankets. he does his little performance, he asks to be called edward.
stede never rejects blackbeard. blackbeard is, for stede, always a part of ed.
but in the absence of stede, and in the wake of stede’s apparent rejection, ed leans in hard and dramatic to what he believes is stede’s ideal. worth noting that even stede doesn’t live up to stede’s ideals - he never talks it through as a crew! he’s not all soft all the time (in fact stede is kind of an ass lmao) and when stede and ed are together, he doesn’t ask ed to be.
so when i talk about stede’s thesis of what ed can be, there is a divide also between how stede actually treats ed in the show and what ed thinks stede wants in the show, and i think that divide is where stede’s thesis, this ep 10 softie, lives. given the cyclical nature of things, i also think that divide is probably where ed’s final synthesis lives, but without the pressure and expectation of what ed believes stede wants him to be.
in the end i think it comes down to: stede needs to want ed to be ed, just himself, and i don’t think stede is 100% of the way there yet given stede’s upset in ep 9 over his perceived ruin of ed (that’s another post). and ed needs to realize he can’t be anybody other than who he actually is.
and in all that, there has to be synthesis. they’re setting ed up to take bits of everyone he is and everything he can be and to finally decide for himself, instead of for anybody else.
okay: so whether this is what ed and stede’s literal first time seeing each other in s2 is like, in terms of the first moment of emotional breakthrough here’s what i’d most want.
stede’s s1 arc has approx 272289 moving parts, but one of the deep ironies is the way his liminal space ship allowed everybody willing to take the chance room to emotionally grow and crack open their shells, but stede almost never takes advantage of the same chance in a way that involves him offering up emotional disclosures about himself.
(and when he does, they’re prompted by someone else going first or literally being forced, ohhhh stede. oh buddy. i love you: you’re a lot. you’re family, kiddo, but you gotta learn we can’t blame people for not knowing we want them to walk through doors we keep firmly closed and sometimes lock against them.)
and given stede’s upbringing on about… every level, it makes sense he’s this locked down. putting himself out there verbally and being vulnerable in that way, performing love that way: that’s gonna be hard for him. it’s also going to be one of the things that helps him keep growing, instead of clinging to the damage of his past and calling it Just How It Is.
beyond that, we can be fairly sure ed’s going to still be pissed off. if i had to guess, when this starts ed’s position is he does not want to hear it: he’s walled back up, he’s the kraken and he DOES NOT WANT TO HEAR IT STEDE
and then i don’t know, stede can apologize because he’s going to have to be inconsiderate once again: he really does need to say it, because maybe knowing why might help. not make it right: not take it back. just… help.
and then stede can explain he left because yes: it was late and he was scared and chauncey is a reeeeeal jerk who made stede an accidental murderer in an even more ridiculous way, and nobody makes great choices in those kind of situations.
but more than that: stede left because he thought he ruined ed, like he ruined his family. ed didn’t want to become a privateer, and he didn’t want to run away to china: he was doing those things because he thought he wanted to be with stede. what would happen, the day ed woke up and realized he’d been wrong and stede was nothing like ed had thought and he had been ruined. what would happen? he would hate stede, and he would leave.
at least this way, stede was doing something right. he was going back and being a husband and a father, but then mary helped him realize: he was a husband, and he is a father— well, was on both maybe! legally he’s dead, you see, there was this fantastic fuckery ed, you would have loved it. obtained a jaguar and all!!! and ed is like …i hate how much i want all those details, you mad fucker i’m so mad at you but i can’t seem to quit the other stuff i feel about you, too— but the way he could do right by them was to leave again, and go back to ed. the kids say hi, by the way! very excited to hear about all our adventures. mary, too, some of this was all thanks to her.
oh! like how she’s the one who showed me that i love you, he should probably add as a cheerful afterthought while ed is dealing with all that insanity at once.
and because ed deserves a little fuck you room to breathe, he could say: well fuck that. you left. taika would do something with his eyes i’ll yell about until i die, the works. maybe even go for the ‘yeah, well? i HATE YOU now’ gut.
and stede can say: i did. and i love you, even if it’s too late. even if you hate me! even if you threw away all my things, even if you marooned most of our kids. (though you will probably have to have THAT discussion with them, edward really i don’t suppose i have much standing here but really. not even leaving them some lunch???? an appetizer or two? you know how buttons gets about this, & etc) i love all of you, & etc.
and then honestly? i want ed to start the process of letting him back in. not just: well okay then. we don’t need to deal with it, because that was one of the mistakes that tripped them up after their breakthrough in the bathtub confessional: they never circled back and actually talked much more about it. if they had, maybe stede could have asked more, and ed could have done the same. instead, they wandered around with half-filled in images of each other, some based on what they learned by being around each other, but still holding onto their own individual baggage about why they assume the other has it made and doesn’t feel downright worthless sometimes.
part of the thing i find most interesting about where we leave stede at the end of s1 is that he’s faaaar from finished with his journey; he’s just ready to start figuring out who the fuck he actually is, now. ed’s had a setback thanks to mister izzy ‘what’s emotional literacy? is that some gay shit? is it about FINDING JOY???? you KNOW how i feel about finding joy and gay shit’ hands, but he was actually on the start of a similar road before shit went sideways.
so: because i’m a big sap but a realist, i don’t know that ed needs to say it back RIGHT then. i… wouldn’t hate it, because i think love is saying: sure, okay. come on in, kiddo, i got cake for us all, but dramatic tension is also a love language.
either way, i want stede to open the fuck up in a clear way, apologize, and profess love to any fucking version of ed alive, because ed doesn’t need to be making stede happy for stede to love him, and stede wouldn’t dream of demanding ed say it back. hope, dream? want? oh yeah. we all want that shit.
…honestly, here’s what my soul really wants: what i think ed probably wanted, when he left that afternoon with jack. the romance movie moment, the big declaration. the moment when somebody takes the risk and says: wait. i need you: don’t go.
if stede goes to leave and ed calls him back, open to trying again even if he’s not fully ready to trust again, that seems right to me. heal the mistakes of their past, do it right this time.
ok crew, i want to talk about myth and meaning making
(and originally petrified oranges but since i’ve already spent 2 hours of my life going red strings and thumbtacks about how that may actually be a possibility lets change course from steering to port and head starboard instead)
first, when i say myth i’m talking the foundation stories of social groups. religions have foundation myths, but so do governments, nations, companies etc.
“this is who we are, and why we do things the way we do.”
and history is a myth too, albeit one reinforced by governments and scholars. and it usually focuses on people with the resources, power and affluence to order it to be recorded. which gets echoed in how Lucius was ordered to record everything,, except for, you know, mutiny and normal mundane things that have no bearing on Stede and his exploits (there really should have been some inventory done to check the orange supply at some point, like inventory and ship’s logs are actually pretty well recorded if the cargo breakdowns in Black Flags Blue Waters 2018 are anything to go by).
but between massive english illiteracy until very very recently, and the bias of what gets preserved and copied down or thrown out, it’s easy to see how the great man of history model was so easy to perpetuate. we don’t really have examples from anyone BUT the “great men” of history, at least not easily accessible or widely distributed. (museums are trying with the massive document uploads, but this is also what makes Anne Lister’s diary such a treasure for queer history).
if you’ve never heard of Jane Elliott’s blue eyes/brown eyes experience i highly recommend looking it up. in essence, school children’s ability to do timed math flash cards is directly linked to whether their teacher and classmates are telling them they are superior or inferior humans based only on the color of their eyes. (their self esteem also took a massive hit but the flashcards were actually trackable). basically, authority figure and peers say ur bad at ____ enough, u can’t perform at ____, even if you’re actually pretty good at it.
and this applies to friend groups too!
are you a mom friend because you are naturally that category? or because someone has labeled you that and you fill that role for them?
now! party time!
the amount of self-policing and pageantry and snobbery rolling off these rich people. who decided dining required a week of personal tutoring so you don’t get laughed out of the room? brutal. i’m with Ed here, these social customs make no sense and are designed to mark out who is wealthy, idle, and in-the-know from everyone else. as if to say ‘you will never be one of us you can’t even eat properly’.
it further underscores the flashback to Ed’s mom giving the 'people like us don’t get nice things’ speech. she’s parroting what’s been drilled into her until she believes it. now it’s her reality and her child’s too. but something in Ed wants to wonder…
hold that thought a moment.
there’s some awesome meta floating around about how Ed is a genre chameleon, or how his personality changes to fit the people around him. and if you listen, everyone wants to tell him who he is. what it means to be blackbeard. how blackbeard behaves. especially Izzy and CJ. they seem to think they have the difinitive take on who he really is.
and none of these versions have room for nice things as anything beyond something to horde or trade. a prize, but not one u can enjoy. they are constructing overlapping cages of identity for him, when humans are more of a constellation of traits influenced by emotions and circumstances. a galaxy among galaxies, all feedback loops and multidirectional gravities. to stop changing is death.
then there’s Stede. “you wear fine things well,” said so gently and without scorn or sarcasm. is there another option? when you have told yourself that you’re a monster, been told you’re a brilliant seaman by someone who wants a version of you you dislike. when you’re feeling at your worst and someone says something nice to you that actually resonates,,, no wonder it takes his breath away. maybe. just maybe. to be worthy of something fine.
stay with Stede a moment. because he says something late in the series that bears unpacking. “it’s a stupid idea. I only have stupid ideas”
who told him that?
was it his dad? badminton? did he decide it himself after the 300th time someone gave him a weird look when they couldn’t follow his logic? when did he lock himself away into “i only have stupid ideas”?
because Ed never thought so.
just like Stede never thought Ed should be deprived of fine things.
and Stede has never really had friends to tell him who he is to them. he’s had parents, wife, responsibilities. expectations. He has run away from those expectations to try to be the version of himself he wants to be. Stede never figured out how to ask what other people actually want or if their interests can be made to align. Ed may be the first person to visibly and consistently enjoy his company. no wonder he’s willing to overlook a little half-attempted murder.
maybe. just maybe. to be worthy of warmth without the weight of impossible expectations.
to find a little understanding. to just pass the time well.
i think ofmd might be a queer myth we’ve been needing. because it asks what happens when we let the myth blind us to the people in front of us. but even more so what happens when we let their myths blind us to ourselves, our possibilities.
it says:
if you cannot bear the weight of roles assigned by outsiders, there is a place for you. if you cannot live up to ridiculous customs, there is a place for you. if you long for a little comfort, a little adventure, a small section of deck to lay your head when the sea turns rough, there is a place for you. come take a turn at the wheel, at the rigging. there is work to do and all talents are needed. and later i will tell you how a little wooden puppet became a real boy, how a boy became a pirate, how a pirate became a myth, and how a myth was only human after all.
Oh my gosh this is wonderful thank you for writing this. I have been PLAGUED by this show, it’s completely changed something very fundamental in me and I’ve been trying to figure out why.
Recently I was at a queer punk show and I looked around at a room chock full of freaks like me and I was struck by a) how amazing it was to be all together but also b) how fucking rough out there it is to be a freak. How many people (personal friends of mine and people I never got to meet) who weren’t there because they are dead. How much of the overarching society wants us dead because we not only dare to dream that things could be different, but also we prove that they MUST be different. That the world NEEDS to be different, and that the freaks are the ones who can make it fucking happen, just by the sheer power of living differently and welcoming anyone who wants to come along to join us.
I’ve also been thinking a lot about Taika’s commentary about humor being an amazingly powerful tool to fight oppression- that through laughter we can break down so many barriers without really trying because people want to be in the room where all the joy is at.
thank you for your addition!
that sounds a lot like what i felt going to the trans march on Washington in 2019. to know we all have something in common and won’t other each other for it. and a lot of it was mourning too, but also the electricity of the collective demand to exist authentically.
i like where you’re going there too. how humor can take away a system’s teeth, show it for the unnecessary construction it is, but in a way that is disarming and inviting. an invitation to joy.
