Thank you for 2.6 @TriceratopsRocks
I know this episode had significant rewrites. There should have been an episode between 2.5 and this one, I think. For the first time for me, this is where the entire series wobbles and the story doesn’t flow smoothly. We’ve thrashed out enough why this happened. It’s no-one’s fault other than the uber capitalists so I will save my criticism for them.
You’ve covered so much, Tri. I’ll just add a few more things that stand out to me.
Absolutely with the lighthouse symbolism as a parallel to Stede. I think the lighthouse also represents traditional masculinity and patriarchy. We see it when Ed kills his father (but also the Light of Stede is shining into that memory as Ed confesses). We see Ed ‘crack up on the rocks’ when Stede goes back to his traditional role within a patriarchal society. We see the lighthouse pic behind Izzy when he threatens Ed. So is Stede a lighthouse? I think Stede is the light within the lighthouse, and needs to get rid of the ‘house’ part. The vertical masculine. We see a ‘good’ lighthouse in 1.4, all light and pretend house. We see a different lighthouse in 2.3 when Stede brings it down to Ed’s purgatory. The fact that Ned is using the heat from the light in his torture has just struck me as symbolic. Weaponising something good and changing it. Does that happen to Stede in this episode?
No criticism of Con, but what is that line doing where he’s drunk and says he’s mistaken Ed for Roach? Why on earth did the writers, many whom are people of colour themselves, put those words into Izzy’s mouth? It’s a sort of parallel with 1.9 when Ed tells Badminton all white folk (implied) look the same.
Ed’s odd in this episode. It feels like Taika’s checked out a bit. Maybe that’s deliberate. I’d like to know the sequence of filming as this feels end of series and time for Taika’s nap.
I wish they’d kept the original line with Taika’s kids as ‘Are you two boyfriends?’ rather than ‘Are you pirates?’ Both answers to those questions need to be asked and answered.
The party’s lovely. Great to see the crew having fun. Set design is amazing. When Ned attacks, one of my favourite parallels is Ed’s physical defending of Stede as a mirror of the 1.9 blindfold scene. Ed’s defending of Stede is: I will risk being killed trying to defend you from hurt (1.9, 2.6), and Stede’s defending of Ed is: I will kill anyone who tries to hurt you (1.5, 2.6).
I love Stede’s ‘oh shit’ and Ed’s ‘you torture like a bitch’ 🤣
I adore Ed’s ‘it’s me you want, it’s me you want!’ in defence of Stede’s imminent torture. Ed would take a thousand burns over one for Stede. They may not literally have their names written on each other in permanent ink, but they both came out of this encounter with similar Marks of Cain burned into them, figuratively and literally.
Stede using emotional intelligence to turn Ned’s crew. I read a comment from DJenks that Stede doesn’t know his own power in this regard.
Was there an alternative to killing Ned? I don’t understand the criticism of Stede here. I don’t see the great mastermind, Ed, coming up with an alternative. Ed should’ve done it himself if he’d wanted to spare Stede’s soul.
The look on Ed’s face are where the seeds are sown for 2.7.
Izzy’s traditional masculine response to leave Stede on his own to process what has happened immediately counteracted by Ed who goes to him immediately. Such growth.
The next scene is a parallel of the bath tub scene in 1.6. Stede is alone and ruminating. Ed knocks the door, but doesn’t need to knock the door down as Stede did like the sexy rectangle he is, as Stede opens it immediately. The trust has grown between them so much. Stede knows this is Ed and he’s come to offer comfort. Ed’s voice is so soft. I like that chatterbox Stede doesn’t speak here. It really ramps up the tension. Ed’s empathy here is really something. The line ‘well, it was my Dad’ is the same black humour we see in 1.6, but it is so brave. Stede is the only person he has ever told this to and he thinks it’s why he left him. Yet he still offers it again as psychological support. I have never loved Ed more. And neither has Stede, it seems.
The grab and twirl needs to be watched in slo-mo. Both their faces are really something. As Tri said, mirrors are so important again here. In 1.6, the boys are reflected apart in the mirrors. Ed and Stede are separated by Ed’s Mark of Cain. Stede cannot know what it is to kill in cold blood. In 2.6, they are shown intertwined in the same mirror. No longer the Gentleman Pirate and Blackbeard, but simply Stede and Ed. They’re equals in their goodness and their sins.
I love their little ‘tells’ whenever they kiss. Ed plays with the collar on Stede’s shirt and Stede clutches Ed’s hair. Beautiful.
The curtain in the bed-nook is very ocean-coded to me. Ed is below Stede in the same clothing as he was in the gravy basket water. Stede is above, bare-chested, ready to ‘rescue’. He’s forever Merstede to Ed.
I’ll put the parallel pics separately. Sorry this was so long!