*Blackbeard-related spoilers.*
The first couple episodes of Our Flag Means Death need room to find their footing. It takes a little while for the show to settle into itself. But while the episodes flow better as they go, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the whole series seems to level up almost the instant Blackbeard appears onscreen. He’s the final piece, what makes the show click into place and what sends the story on its true trajectory.
Blackbeard is namechecked before we ever see him. Black Pete claims to be a former crewmate of his, and on the Revenge, he tries to impress the crew with stories of the infamous pirate’s barbary and badassery. In Black Pete’s stories, the captain is depicted with glowing red eyes shining through a demonic swirl of smoke that obscures his face. Everyone knows that Blackbeard is the baddest of the baddest, the coolest and most ruthless pirate to sail the seven seas.
And when we finally meet Blackbeard for ourselves, he is cool and he is ruthless. But he’s not a legend or a boogeyman; he’s a person. He has a genius for piracy, but his very notoriety is beginning to weigh on him. He’s bored, sick of doing the same old thing and sick of his scary reputation meaning that no one even puts up a fight against him and gives him a challenge.
That’s part of what draws him to Stede Bonnet, the self-styled Gentleman Pirate. When they board the Revenge, Blackbeard is charmed by the evidence of Stede’s aristocratic idiosyncrasies on display everywhere: his miniature model of the very ship they’re on, the finery of his wardrobe, the fact that he brought a complete library onto a ship. Other pirates look at these things and see weakness, but Blackbeard is fascinated. When Stede wakes—he’s been injured and was sleeping in his cabin—he doesn’t recognize Blackbeard, so the famous captain introduces himself, not by his moniker, but by his name, Ed.
From there, we the audience join Stede on the excellent journey of getting to know this very complex character. Ed is clever, bold, skilled with a blade, and has an imposing nature that he can turn on and off like a switch. He’s also sensitive and insecure. Growing up in poverty with an abusive father, he longed for fine things but was told he belonged in the gutter. He has horrors in his past, and the persona he’s built around himself is in some ways an attempt to guard against the very real guilt he feels about that. Stede’s crew easily falls into hero worship of Blackbeard, but he’s often easy-going and personable, not lording his fame over them. He and Stede become friends almost immediately, and it’s not long before it’s clear just how deep their feelings are for one another.
One of the most interesting things about Ed is that he’s open and guarded in almost equal measure. This a man who happily passes the time with Stede talking about nearly anything under the sun, who cries in a tub as he confesses his most secret shames to him. Who offers up his own freedom to save Stede and later confides that Stede is “what makes Ed happy,” kissing him on the beach. But he’s also a man who’s prepared to burn down a boat full of French aristocrats who laugh at him when he can’t remember which fork to use when, who continually puts on a front to his suspicious first mate Izzy (who thinks he’s going soft.)
When Stede appears to have abandoned him toward the end of the season, Ed at first gives himself over to his heartbreak, building sad blanket forts and pouring his heart out to the crew. But when Izzy confronts him and essentially demands that he “become” Blackbeard again, Ed walls off his heart, burying himself in hardness and callous cruelty in a futile effort to keep himself from feeling his pain.
The Blackbeard/Ed that we meet is miles apart from the one Black Pete tells stories about, and by the end of the season, he’s miles apart again. It can be a devastating character journey to watch, but it’s compelling as hell, and one of the biggest reasons I’m anxiously awaiting season 2 is to find out where his journey takes him next.
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