TV Review: "Our Flag Means Death" Season Two
The second season of the hit HBO Max series is funnier, queerer, and messier than its predecessor.
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Warning: Full spoilers for the series follow.
Like many other people, I was totally enchanted by the first season of Our Flag Means Death, which began as a quirky take on the life of renowned “gentleman pirate” Stede Bonnet and slowly transformed into that most exquisite of all things: a tragic queer romance. Both Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi were perfectly cast as Stede and renowned buccaneer Ed Teach (also known as Blackbeard), respectively, and watching the former’s earnest whimsy clash and mesh magnificently with the latter’s brooding intensity was one of the highlights. If anything, the second season makes even better use of the pair’s undeniable chemistry.
When season begins, Stede and Ed are each contending with the previous season’s actions. While Stede and his crew are trying to raise funds by working at Spanish Jackie’s, Ed is busy reinhabiting his former Blackbeard persona, with all of the torture, mayhem, and bloodshed that entails, egged on by malevolent first mate Izzy Hands. Gradually, though, the two men are slowly drawn back together and, after many trials and tribulations and interludes, they finally find their happy ending.
I think it’s safe to say that the sophomore season of the unexpected hit is funnier, queerer, and messier than its predecessor. Which is to say: it’s an absolute joy to watch. As was the case with the first season, this one was a bit of a whirlwind, and it manages to pack a lot of action into 8 episodes. Some will no doubt think that this makes for a rushed story, but for me this is part of the pleasure of Our Flag Meets Death. It throws both us and its characters headlong into various conflicts–whether it’s with the Chinese Pirate Queen Zheng Yi Sao or the music-loving (and torture-inflicting) Ned Low–but usually rescues them within the course of a given episode. This madcap energy has always been one of the show’s key strengths, though in the second season it takes a bit of a backseat for the first half, before coming back in full force in the second.
At the heart of the story, though, are the many queer relationships. I’ve always found Black Pete to be a uniquely charming character, and it’s been a joy to watch his burgeoning love with the wry and somewhat cynical Lucius. Though Lucius’ fate was left ambiguous at the end of the first season, he’s revealed to be alive very shortly after the second season begins, and he resumes his romance with Black Pete, leading to their little gay wedding in the finale. There’s something uniquely magical about this moment, serving as it does as an important climax for their bond. Their romance might not have the rich emotional texture as that between Stede and Ed, but its uncomplicated sweetness is key to its appeal. I dare anyone not to shed at least a little bit of a tear when these two men finally bond themselves together for life.
None of these bonds, however, is as important or as troubled as that between Stede and Ed. Theirs is truly a love written in the stars, but it takes them quite a while to get to the point where they can truly be a partnership of equals. This is particularly true in the first half of the season, when Ed gives himself up to the dark well of self-loathing for which piracy serves as an outlet. Even when they are reunited they face a rocky road, but it’s one that they are uniquely suited to travel together. So much of what makes them a believable and lovable queer couple is the palpable chemistry between Darby and Waititi, but it’s more than that. Stede and Ed are opposites in almost every way, but like the best on-screen (and real-life) couples, they manage to take those differences and forget something uniquely potent. Stede brings out the inner goodness in Ed, just as Ed gives Stede the stiffness to his spine that allows him to not just survive but thrive as a pirate.
What I’ve always appreciated about this series is the extent to which it writes queer people of all varieties back into the past. So often in historical dramas queer characters are doomed and tragic, their lives and loves inevitably circumscribed by the homophobic times in which they are enmeshed, never able to find the happiness they so desperately crave and which they clearly deserve. One need look no further than the foppish Oliver in Julian Fellowes’ The Gilded Age to see this phenomenon retains a powerful hold on the pop culture imagination. It’s thus all the more refreshing that Our Flag Means Death has decided to go in the totally opposite direction, inserting queers into the fabric of history. Though there is tragedy here to be sure–one need look no further than the life that Ed has led to see how this plays out–there is happiness, too. Trite as it might sound to some, love conquers all in this series and, given just how ugly the world outside the frame can be, and given how so many want to force queer people back into the darkest parts of our history, this rewriting becomes all the more powerful.
The ending was everything that you could want from Our Flag Means Death, as Steve and Ed set out on a new path: as owners of a small inn. It seems pretty clear that they wrote the finale with the expectation that there wouldn’t be a third season and, honestly, I’m okay with that. The characters ended up where they needed to be, and all of our queer pirates got the happy endings that they deserved. I would, of course, take a third season if we’re lucky enough to get one, but if we don’t, I can at least rest easy knowing that Ed and Stede have managed to find their way back to one another. If we do get a third season, we already know that it will be the series’ last, but perhaps it’s best that we leave our gay pirates just where they are, happy and contented at last.