Review: Our Flag Means Death, "Calypso's Birthday" & "Man on Fire" | Season 2, Episodes 6 & 7
Things heat up for Stede and Ed, but everyone might be running out of time
I take a lot of notes when I’m reviewing an episode, both as a holdover from my days as a journalist and because—as any regular reader of my work can tell—I’m not given to brevity. I like to cover the majority of the plot points, capture the best jokes, and in general try to be as accurate as possible. So when I say that I took very few coherent notes during the last few minutes of either of this week’s episodes of Our Flag Means Death, you can view that as one of the highest compliments I can give them. Be it waiting to see how Stede was going to play his hand with Ned Low, or how on earth he was going to get out of the mess he’d bungled into with Zheng Yi Sao, most of my third act notes are along the lines of “...Oh damn,” “Well that just happened,” and “oh no oh no oh no.”
The resolutions of each of these episodes are Our Flag Means Death at its best, showcasing its deft ability to shift between romance, comedy, and action, and now adding a musical touch to the palette. As bright as…