Review: Our Flag Means Death, "This is Happening" & "We Gull Way Back" | Season 1, Episodes 7 & 8
Blasts from the past shake up the Revenge's burgeoning romance
Historical pirate rom-com. That’s it. That’s the pitch. #OurFlagMeansDeath #blackstede #stedebeard #blackbonnet #gentlebeard #stEDe
This tweet from Our Flag Means Death showrunner David Jenkins was made the day after this brace of episodes aired, about as unequivocal a mission statement as any showrunner proclamation I can think of. Plenty of shows and showrunners like to toy with the idea of shipping their main characters, but it’s rare to see them come out and say what we’re all thinking, and say it with a series of hashtags that were already being well used on Twitter and Tumblr. Not that it came as a complete surprise—the scene between Stede and Ed at the end of “The Best Revenge is Dressing Well” made the spark between the two as clear as moonlight—but it’s impressive to see a show out itself so directly.
To make its subtext text to such a degree reframes the journey we’ve been on over the last few episodes in Our Flag Means Death, casting its varied focus and shifting in…