Neurodivergent (Headcanon) Alley: Frenchie (Our Flag Means Death)

Oh, Frenchie! The first handful of times I watched Our Flag Means Death, I went back and forth between him and Oluwande for my favorite crew member. On this latest rewatch, though? It’s Frenchie, all day every day! Shortly after season 2, I wrote about my AuDHD headcanons for both Stede and Ed. They’re the only two I wrote about at the time, but really, most of the crew of the Revenge definitely “pings” as some flavor of neurodivergent. While I don’t know when I might get around to some of the others, I obviously had to talk about my guy Frenchie!

For autistic headcanons, the first thing that comes to mind for Frenchie is “spiky skillsets.” Frenchie is the king of spiky skillsets! He’ll either wow you with his competence or completely flail—there’s nothing in between. Look no further than his ability to lie. If Frenchie is calm and confident, lying is probably his best talent. When he and Olu join Stede and Ed on the fancy party boat in season 1, Frenchie jumps seamlessly into inventing fake backstories for the two of them. He shows himself to be a skilled con man, simultaneously creating both the pyramid scheme and the Nigerian Egyptian prince scam. He milks these racist rich folks for all they’re worth, never once breaking character. By contrast, if he’s nervous or overwhelmed, Frenchie fumbles his way through ridiculous lies that are easy to see through. When the ship is taken by the British navy, he tries to pass off Stede’s journal as his own “fan fiction,” and at one point, he forgets his own hand dominance while being questioned by Ed. In lying, and in most things, Frenchie just does not have a medium setting.

Next, I need to look at how Frenchie inhabits his body. He’s very lanky, and his limbs just sort of do whatever they want, going absolutely everywhere when he’s excited or while he’s thinking. He frequently fidgets, especially with his hair, and he tends to perch on things rather than sit, often with his knees tucked up against his chest. He’s also fairly clumsy, which kind of gives off dyspraxia vibes. Seconds after he convinces Lucius to entrust him with hiding Stede’s journal from the British, insisting he was “born for this sort of espionage,” Frenchie trips over his own feet and falls flat on his face, getting caught immediately. And in one of my favorite sight gags of the whole series, he accidentally nails his sleeve to the deck and flails helplessly as he tries to tug himself free.

Another broad category for Frenchie is his atypical reactions to the situation at hand. Whatever it may be, he often responds in ways that jar with everyone else. While the rest of the crew is discussing a potential mutiny in the pilot, he’s laser-focused on the flag he’s designing and interrupts the surreptitious plotting with, “Hey, can you pass the black thread, pretty please?” When Jim’s nana throws a knife at them, Frenchie calmly remarks, “Now that was incredibly badass, especially for a nun,” and has to be prodded into (very disinterestedly) making the sign of the cross to placate her. When Fang is crying after they raid a wedding, Frenchie’s tone is soothing, but his words are not. “Oh, cheer up,” he says “You gonna—you gonna finish that cake? No?” Still crying, Fang shakes his head, and Frenchie takes Fang’s cake for himself.

We’ll end on a roundup of random traits and moments that add to my ND Frenchie headcanon. Frenchie is smart and observant but also has a number of wild beliefs, such as cats being witches (“And they’ve got knives in their feet,”) and the importance of leaving leftover bread out for the fairies (“They did help the bread rise. They do deserve their fair cut.”) He’s also entirely undeterred when other people think these beliefs are silly or weird. He’s definitely on the germophobic side—when the Swede has scurvy, Frenchie urges, “Don’t breathe over me, man!” and tries to blow the Swede’s breath away from him. (I love him so much!) When he and Wee John get their own room, Frenchie is super excited to “design [their] sanctum” but disturbed when he realizes that this means they might have to have people over. 

Also, side note: while I don’t normally headcanon characters as asexual without some kind of textual coding, Frenchie’s vibes are just impeccably aroace to me. I can’t explain why that is exactly, but if you know, you know. It’s true, of course, that asexual characters aren’t necessarily autistic and vice versa. But when you add it to all the other stuff, it certainly doesn’t hurt. I’d have loved to see this show’s take on canon aroace stuff, and Frenchie would’ve been the perfect character to do it with.

In short, I love the way Frenchie’s mind works. He feels super neurodivergent to me—probably autistic (though I wouldn’t say no to AuDHD,) possibly dyspraxic—but even though a lot of his traits are familiar to me, I think the way they all come together results in a really unique character.