Round Two: Our Flag Means Death

Our Flag Means Death: Season 1, Episode 2 “A Damned Man” (B+)

It seems like Stede isn’t the only one who’s propping up a lie, though Black Pete may indeed have served under Blackbeard even if things didn’t play out quite as extravagantly as he claims, namely his eyes being on fire and his head being made of smoke. It’s not much of a surprise that, during this ship-wide storytime, there would be no one steering the ship, which is just as metaphorically true as it is literally. Getting captured by other pirates while looking for their lost hostages because his crew didn’t understand the meaning of vacation presented a new problem for Stede, who fortunately had Oluwande there to advocate that they shouldn’t be killed or roasted over a fire, as he mistakenly thought the Englishmen had been. Oluwande being treated as an equal made some sense, and I’m glad for the sake of the show that he didn’t decide to stay with them, due of course to his affinity for Bonifacia, who may well take out Lucius since he knows her secret, even if he’s protecting his own hidden identity. Claiming to have “dibs” on the hostages before being accosted by some serious swordplay from Izzy somehow worked out for Stede, whose crew showed up at just the right time to make him look skilled and dangerous. He may be breathing easily for the moment, but he has no idea that he’s just messed with Blackbeard, who might not be quite as terrifying and supernatural as Black Pete made him out to be but is surely going to have a bone to pick with Stede when he catches up with him.