Amazing post to wake up to @TriceratopsRocks I hope you don’t mind if I build on some observations and I also have some questions. One in particular that’s been bothering me for a while.
Sorry, folks, this is long.
Stede admits to stabbing Nigel rather than telling the truth. Why?
I completely agree it’s because Stede thinks he wouldn’t be believed. What is interesting is it doesn’t matter if he’s not believed. ‘Blackbeard’ has already confessed to the murder of Nigel. Ed is prepared to die in Stede’s place and I think Chauncey would possibly accept it if Stede agreed BB did it, though it’s clear Chauncey doesn’t believe BB. However, Stede won’t let Ed die for him, but on top of this, Chauncey pushes Stede’s buttons. Says he knows Stede couldn’t possibly have done it as he doesn’t have it in him. I haven’t re-watched recently, but I think there’s a flashback to boy Stede, and it’s that which makes Stede say ‘I did it’. It’s the same thing that makes him kill Ned Low. He still wants to do masculinity ‘correctly’, and what better way to do so, in Stede’s mind, than to murder a foe. It’s a warped psychology that makes him confess without further clarification.
Stede crying I don’t want to die Oh, this. And the change from episode 1. Ed’s journey struck me recently in this regard too: 1.4 - ‘Death… I haven’t tried that yet’ / ‘Death it is…’ / ‘We’re gonners…’ . Shift to 1.8 ‘Better alive than dead!’. Ed and Stede now want to live, and it’s all because the other is alive in the world.
Izzy- a white man who has bargained with the British for a man of colour to be ‘handed over to him’ as payment for services to the Crown ~shudder~. There’s more I want to say about Ed and race over the course of the show, but I’ll leave it there for now.
Just to add Ed’s ‘he betrayed us’. Jack clarifies in 1.8 that Izzy only betrayed Stede to the British, but to Ed, that is still betraying ‘Us’, because Stede is he, and he is Stede, and ‘either was the other’s mine’. They are one.
The way Stede says ‘China? That’s quite far away’ is delivered with utter awesomeness.
I love Ed, but he can’t listen for toffee. Or understand nonverbal cues. The neurodivergence is strong in this one. Trust me, I say that without prejudice.
This is now my question (sorry for the long ramble). Is there any way, any way, the Chauncey event is a night terror? An hallucination? A figment of Stede’s extremely troubled mind? Because it’s the only way I can square the circle. Especially after S2 and no mention of what happened with Chauncey.
Evidence: no-one else sees Chauncey, he arrives in nightclothes and appears drunk. Stede is asleep when he arrives. At one point, Stede says ‘just breathe’ seemingly to Chauncey, but is it in fact to himself. Is it a panic attack?
The words Chauncey says mirror exactly that stream-of-consciousness that must be running through Stede’s mind. Yes, Chauncey is a device here, but is in fact only a device? Further evidence…this is what Stede does when he feels guilt. He projected Nigel in the same way in episode two as an external manifestation of his guilty conscience.
Finally, the way Chauncey dies as a mirror to his brother. No-one appears to hear the shots, Ed doesn’t hear anything. There is no commotion later either, and Ed is on the jetty all night. Stede then appears to walk all night in his nightclothes, barefoot back home. Does he sleepwalk home?
He does remember the event in the future as when he is talking in 1.10 about being the ‘cause of death’ it flashes back to both Badminton brothers. But was it real? Does Stede think it was real? I like to think it wasn’t. I think it makes for better drama that this is all Stede. His mind ‘invents’ the situation out of guilt, but mainly to get out of running away with Ed. He’s not ready. He hasn’t yet finished his character arc.
Feel free to prove me wrong. I’ll take on all comers 🤣😆
Right. Must get up and do weekend life.