As is always the case with our favorite pirate couple, Edward “Blackbeard” Teach and Stede Bonnet cannot talk to each other to save their lives. Ed (Taika Waititi) would rather run away than tell the truth about his feelings, and Stede (Rhys Darby) is too lost in his own head to express exactly what is going on. This week’s episode of Our Flag Means Death, episodes 6 and 7, had quite the journey for the two that all boiled down to neither of them talking to each other. From the start of their reconciliation, Ed and Stede agreed to take things slow. That is, of course, until adrenaline was running too high and they fell into each other’s arms and slept with each other for the first time.
At first, Ed and Stede seem to be happy the morning after. Ed makes Stede breakfast in bed, the two are having a great morning, and they’re happy. But as with everything in their relationship, neither man is talking about what is actually going on in their lives. Ed said to Stede that he needed their relationship to go slowly. Stede and Ed having sex with each other after their near-death experience was decidedly not slow, but neither of them said “no” in that moment. Instead of Ed talking about how he still needs to takes things slowly, he makes excuses with Stede to tank their relationship.
On the flipside, Stede refuses to recognize that Ed is struggling in their relationship. He is so blissed out because of the captain being “docked,” as Izzy so politely put it, that he doesn’t care that Ed is clearly struggling with his own thoughts. It’s almost as if the two of them should actually communicate with each other.
Ed’s admission to Stede doesn’t seem like the whole truth
For all their lack of talking, Ed tries to tell Stede he’s not okay with how their relationship is moving forward, but he doesn’t take accountability. He pushes the blame onto Stede, saying he wanted to move slowly, instead of pinpointing exactly what is off about how he feels. And then, in typical Ed fashion, he just leaves without solving their problems first. I don’t think that the two sitting together, expressing all their feelings and thoughts, and then making out would solve everything, but it would at least get their issues out on the table, instead of going around this carousel every time they have an issue.
Stede’s success scares Ed, who believed he’d be trapped in a life he didn’t want anymore, but barely knows how to express this. Ed isn’t sure what he’s going through, so he can’t really talk with Stede and instead of telling him that, he’s just blaming whatever he’s going through on Stede. And so whatever good moments they do have are instantly tanked because neither can express their feelings properly.
We have one episode to figure out what is going on with them. One episode to see if they can communicate or if they’ll stay apart. Honestly? Thinking about that ending just hurts.
(featured image: Max)
