*Spoilers.*
Oh my god. We’re barreling toward the season finale now, and I’m positively beside myself. Let’s get straight into it!
Ned Low, “Artistic” Sadists, and Calypso’s Birthday
You see a lot of “creative” killers in pop culture, characters who need to torture or kill in increasingly inventive ways, or characters who turn corpses or body parts into their "art." (See: Hannibal, Dexter, Sherlock, and I'm sure many more.) That’s the type of pirate Ned Low sees himself as, and it sucks, which I absolutely love. He’s not cool or deep or artistic. His crew is bored and discontented as they go through the motions of his grand vision, and his big "symphony" is just his lame attempt to give purpose to a bunch of people screaming.
What’s more, Ned Low can’t hold a candle to the wonder and beauty created by a ragtag group of misfits who made up a religion purely for the sake of having a big party. For Calypso's birthday, the crew invents traditions on the fly, everyone coming up with their own little twist on “timeless traditions” that are only happening now for the very first time. They fill their ship with colored lanterns and pirate-themed bunting, and they fill the night with fireworks and dancing. Wee John holds court as Calypso the sea goddess while Izzy sings a love song 200 years ahead of its time. Even Stede, who the crew tried to dupe into throwing this party, is fully aware of the con and doesn't care, because he's creating something too: by paying for it with the Kraken-era treasure that reminds Ed of his guilt, he's “turning poison into positivity.”
I love that, that Ned Low’s art is pathetic and embarrassing and that the crew of the Revenge creates so much beauty just through enjoying their time together. Ned Low could never!
Walking the Plank
I hadn’t realized that the real-life Stede Bonnet actually was the pirate who invented walking the plank, but that’s cool to get a bit of real history woven into all the silliness, drama, and romance. This scene is done so well—it kills me that Stede has already defused the entire situation by dealing with Ned Low his way, using his people-first management style to gently prompt Hellkat Maggie and the rest of Ned’s crew into mutiny, that he’s resolved everything bloodlessly, but that he lets Ned goad him into killing him. Even as Ed urges him not to do it, Stede takes this pretty devastating step and takes a man’s life in cold blood.
He doesn’t scream or freak out like he does in season 1 with the Badminton twins. But it’s written plainly across his face that he’s no less affected. That’s why it’s such an “oh no!” moment when Ed comes to his cabin to talk and Stede pulls him inside, where they make out and ultimately consummate their relationship. We know Ed wanted to take things slow. We know Stede and Ed have been through a tremendous amount this season, including in this very episode—they’ve just been tortured! And now Stede has deliberately taken a man’s life, and to quiet the clamor about that inside his head, he clings to his boyfriend and seeks escape through sex. I think it’s an impressive feat for any show to take a ship that people are deeply invested in and show a major step in their physical relationship, but in such a way that it’s clearly a mistake. Which, of course, leads us to…
Things Left Unsaid
Look, I’m obviously not happy that Ed has left Stede, that they have a big fight where everything goes wrong and they both speak at cross purposes. But as I’ve said before, it’s rare to see an OTP breakup over something important, and in this case, it’s once again done well. Of course everything falls apart here. It makes too much sense. It’s episode 9 of season 1 all over again, because Ed and Stede still aren’t saying the things they really need to.
They have been opening up more to each other this season, including right in episode 7. But they’re staying in the shallow waters of it, not addressing the deeper issues each man wrestles with. In this episode, Ed tells Stede about his mermaid vision from episode 3, but not about why he needed a mermaid in the first place. Stede tells Ed about the letters he wrote, but not about what he left out of the letters, his fears that Ed’s life is better without him.
When Stede’s star begins to rise among pirates after he kills Ned Low, Ed gets scared, because he’s already decided he has to be done being Blackbeard. But being an infamous pirate is what Stede has been dreaming of, and Ed doesn’t know how he can possibly ask Stede to give that up for “just Ed.” So he doesn’t try. He plans an exit, because it’s easier to just leave than it is to be rejected. When Ed says he’s leaving the Revenge to become a fisherman, Stede’s right that he’s panicking, but he doesn’t know what Ed is really panicking about. Stede doesn’t know, not really, about how Ed buried himself in his Blackbeard persona after Stede left near the end of season 1, that he’d already felt trapped in that identity before but that he then buried himself in it until he wanted to die. He’s not leaving because he doesn’t love Stede, he’s leaving because he knows he has to change if he wants to be better.
Given all that's been left unsaid between these two, of course they have a big fight after having sex at absolutely the wrong time, and of course neither really understands what's been going through the other's head. The finale looks like it’ll be pretty packed, but I hope there will be room somewhere in there for Stede and Ed to really talk.
A Love Polygon
I’m not entirely sure what’s going on between Oluwande, Jim, and Archie—the dialogue seems to skirt the edges of friendzoning Jim and Oluwande at times, while a lot of the trio’s nonverbal and unscripted interactions seem to flirt with the idea of a polycule. And now Zheng Yi Sao is back in the mix too.
I don’t mind Oluwande still being hung up on Zheng—apparently his type is “ruthlessly capable badass”—but I do wish it could’ve been set up better. Jim tells Zheng that he’s “always” talking about her back on the Revenge, but if he has been, he hasn’t been doing it onscreen. I’m pretty sure episode 7 is the first time we see him mention Zheng at all after the crew escapes the Red Flag in episode 3. We could’ve gotten a quick bit of Oluwande trying to tell a story about her and Jim or Archie going, “You do remember she was gonna kill us, right?”, or lamenting that he might never see her again when they’re being tortured by Ned Low’s crew in episode 6. Just something. If they weren’t going to bring it up at all, they could’ve gone with him not realizing how he felt until he saw her again.
I really like Zheng and I love Oluwande, and they make for an interesting pairing, so I’m definitely ready to see what might happen there in the finale. (Again, there’s so much to do and only one episode left! Where will they find the time?) But for me, this is one plot that could have been handled with more care.
No comments:
Post a Comment