Transcript
Speaker: Hi, all.
Speaker: Nice to be here.
Speaker: Well, hello.
Speaker: We're not landed gentry, but we're thrilled to recap with the same energy.
Speaker: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker: This is Cheers McQueers.
Speaker: It is an Our Flag Means Death recap podcast.
Speaker: I'm Alexa, they, them.
Speaker: I'm Catherine, she, her.
Speaker: We'll be taking you on the open seas as we recap each episode of Our Flag Means Death season one.
Speaker: I'm sure we'll do season two because it's a coming.
Speaker: And at the end of every episode, there will be an original song from the perspective of a character written by us.
Speaker: Hoping to get those streamed separately for all of you at some point in the future.
Speaker: So without further ado, cheers, Catherine.
Speaker: Cheers, Lex.
Speaker: My tiny little bit of coffee.
Speaker: This is my fourth cup of the day, so buckle up.
Speaker: This is only my first one, but you know me.
Speaker: I like can't drink coffee without feeling like I'm on crack.
Speaker: Well, it's fine.
Speaker: I can't not drink coffee and function.
Speaker: We're on the opposite ends of the spectrum.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: Season one, episode one.
Speaker: The pilot directed by Taika Waititi and written by David Jenkins, who's also the showrunner.
Speaker: We open with like an intro card setting the time frame we're in.
Speaker: 1717, Golden Age Piracy.
Speaker: Wealthy landowner Steed Bonnet set out to find adventure and renown on the high seas.
Speaker: Things did not go as planned.
Speaker: What?
Speaker: What?
Speaker: You don't say.
Speaker: We kind of start to hear some kind of strings plucked instrument.
Speaker: It is the character Frenchie played by Joel Fry.
Speaker: You might know him from Game of Thrones.
Speaker: And he's singing a little ditty, a little pirate ditty.
Speaker: I think it's like the perfect introduction because it's the soundtrack we need to just take in this crew for the first time.
Speaker: Because the sweep they do over them, you're like, what are we looking at?
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: I know I gushed about this show to you before you watched it, but I kind of watched it with like very little information about the show.
Speaker: I just kind of knew what
Speaker: I just kind of knew that Reese Darby was in it.
Speaker: I knew that Taika Waititi was in it and I didn't really know much else.
Speaker: I just knew pirates and them.
Speaker: And I was like, all right, let's try this out.
Speaker: Like I wasn't even at home.
Speaker: I was in Texas and I watched it on an iPad for the first time.
Speaker: So I mean, obviously you're the one who pushed me to finally like watch it.
Speaker: But like you, I'm like all Taika all day, you know?
Speaker: All day.
Speaker: So anything he's involved in, I'm about.
Speaker: But also, it's just like very –
Speaker: very wholesome pirate humor, which is like not something we've necessarily seen before.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's usually very macho, very toxic, masculine.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: We're all in Pirates of the Caribbean mindset.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: After the last eight movies or whatever we're doing now.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: After the last like 12 years or more, we're like, this is the only brand of pirate there is, right?
Speaker: But-
Speaker: They really, right from the beginning, told us, no, this is not that, which is wonderful.
Speaker: It immediately had me go, okay, this is going to be different.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: From the very beginning, them being like, it didn't go as planned, lets us know, oh, there's going to be shenanigans.
Speaker: So yeah, buckle your bootstraps up.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I think just some lines that stand out in Frenchie's little ditty.
Speaker: I love smash and gouge and stab and poke.
Speaker: Like so silly because it's such a upbeat, goofy kind of tune.
Speaker: But he's like, no, like we still want to stab people.
Speaker: We're still pirates, but we do it our way.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And then pirates life short, but nice, which is very true.
Speaker: You know, pirates did not live very long lives.
Speaker: It was a very...
Speaker: risky profession.
Speaker: After the song, we close in on our boys.
Speaker: They are playing cards on the deck.
Speaker: It is Black Pete played by Matthew Mayer.
Speaker: It's his turn.
Speaker: He's taking too long.
Speaker: Alawande played by Samson Caio is like, dude, like, just go.
Speaker: It's your turn.
Speaker: Why are you always taking so long?
Speaker: And just on those two actors, those are two people who
Speaker: We've definitely seen in other things, but I'm so glad they have this, these roles to like shine in, you know?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And that's the thing about this show too.
Speaker: It's such an ensemble show.
Speaker: Like everyone, I think has their moments where they really get to, and some more than others, but they really get to establish like very clear characters all across the board.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And everyone has a quotable moment and everybody has that story arc for themselves.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Which is, oh, I can't wait to dive into some of the characters.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: So Black Pete like basically throws a tantrum, which I think.
Speaker: Which sets up his character perfectly.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's the guy that's like pushing for all the macho shit, but he's also at the same time being like kind of a whiny little bitch about it.
Speaker: Like, you know, didn't sign up to play cards.
Speaker: He feels like he should have had 20 kills by now at least, which is like, so they've been out there for weeks.
Speaker: I was thinking about that line too, because
Speaker: They have been out there for weeks and something that I do hope that they go into in season two.
Speaker: I'm looking forward to more backstories for more of them because we don't get to see how all of them got recruited necessarily.
Speaker: We got a little bit of information about Alawande and Jim, but that's pretty much it really.
Speaker: We don't really know how anybody else kind of came to be on Steed's revenge.
Speaker: Black Pete is not satisfied with
Speaker: the pirate or lack of pirate atmosphere.
Speaker: They wrote down slow pirating someone said they were doing.
Speaker: So Black people are not content with the slow pirating.
Speaker: Frenchie.
Speaker: Yep, yep.
Speaker: Maybe Captain's trying a new kind of slow pirating.
Speaker: So fucking funny.
Speaker: Shortly after that, we get Buttons, who's played by Ewan Bremner, who is like iconic, train spotting, the most gorgeous, thick,
Speaker: accent, telling everyone to get on their feet for their captain.
Speaker: And it is just.
Speaker: So good, because you're like, what is this person we're about to meet?
Speaker: And then he dives into his whole speech about the raid they're going to do and pumping it up and going through every scenario of what could happen.
Speaker: I wrote down when he says some people who come back will be mentally devastated by what they witnessed.
Speaker: He's really, he's really blowing hot air into this.
Speaker: I want to comment on his attire immediately.
Speaker: I mean, I think that everything that Steed wears throughout is just gorgeous and flamboyant, really gay.
Speaker: Like, like you look at this man and you're like, this cannot not be a very queer man.
Speaker: Like you have this turquoise ruffled suit.
Speaker: It's pirate style, but it is steed.
Speaker: And I think that that is kind of just his whole thing, right?
Speaker: He loves clothes.
Speaker: He loves fabrics.
Speaker: He loves sensible things in life.
Speaker: He likes books.
Speaker: He likes fabrics.
Speaker: I think there's something to be said for a lot of the fandom theorizing about Steed being on the spectrum.
Speaker: I think that that's super valid.
Speaker: He clearly has very specific special interests and has some meltdowns and gets kind of overwhelmed.
Speaker: And what happens when you have enough money and you have enough privilege to decide, I'm going to make my special interest my new life?
Speaker: And like how that doesn't always go as you think it's going to go.
Speaker: So we have this whole bit where Steve, you know, we do the whole, you know, some might be mentally devastated what they just witnessed.
Speaker: And if that's the case, what do we do?
Speaker: And the crew is kind of, it's like very almost kindergarten teacher talking to the class in a lot of ways sometimes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Frenchie says we bottle it up, which, which is the opposite.
Speaker: And he's like, no, don't you remember the rhyme?
Speaker: So it even is more like that kindergarten thing where they're teaching you the golden rule.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: It's just really sweet.
Speaker: It, it, again, you know, I think that this episode is such a perfect pilot where it very intentionally, but naturally sets up the tone that's going to carry us throughout the whole season.
Speaker: Steed is,
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: which I think is really interesting since he's like clearly very well read and probably read a bunch of pirating books and knows that like, that's not normal.
Speaker: But that's his whole shtick.
Speaker: He feels like it should be normal to like treat your crew well.
Speaker: No, for sure.
Speaker: He does talk about that later, how when there's, when the mutiny starts coming up where he's like, I pay them a salary, I feed them.
Speaker: Like, what else could I do?
Speaker: I'm supportive.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So he's really, he wants to be one of those classic pirates, but in his own way.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: He's like, I'm going to do it right.
Speaker: They pan out before the raid so we can see the full boat.
Speaker: Its name is the Revenge, which is just a very classic, like, what will I name my pirate ship name?
Speaker: I'm sure.
Speaker: I'm like, who was he taking revenge on?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So this was the actual name of like real life Steve Bonnet's ship, which is, and you know, I don't think we should spend a whole ton of time talking about the real people because that's not who we're dealing with in this show, obviously.
Speaker: However, it is interesting the things that they retained from real life.
Speaker: And this is one of them.
Speaker: And I think it's interesting to point out that like,
Speaker: The other famous revenge is Blackbeard's Queen Anne's revenge.
Speaker: Like obviously Steed is very, I think, aware of Blackbeard and maybe even named the ship as an homage to Blackbeard's revenge.
Speaker: But separately, it's kind of like, what were you thinking there, buddy?
Speaker: You didn't think anyone would notice?
Speaker: But anyways, this raid is exactly what needed it to be.
Speaker: Ridiculous.
Speaker: This raid is less of a raid and more like almost like a Monty Python sketch.
Speaker: It's just the tiniest little fisherman's boat.
Speaker: They help him off and on his own ship.
Speaker: He tries so hard to make it like real and a big deal, like, like really laying it on thick, like, ahoy, surrender, you have no chance of escape.
Speaker: And like dropping that single cannonball in the water.
Speaker: That was a warning shot.
Speaker: That was also our only cannonball.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Prepare to be boarded, curs.
Speaker: Like, it's just so absurd.
Speaker: I also had to look up what a cur is.
Speaker: It's an aggressive dog or like one that's in poor condition.
Speaker: Right, so it's an insult without actually saying anything too insulting.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I guess it's a fancier way of calling someone a dog, which was very common pirate slang.
Speaker: I thought it was a very good showing of how seriously Steed treats pirating, even though he's going about it ridiculously.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: I mean, like, he has the character down.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Because he's such a theater nerd, I think, too.
Speaker: If he was auditioning for, like, a play that involved pirates, he would be great.
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: Like, he knows how to be a character of a pirate.
Speaker: I wrote this down later in the episode, but I think that
Speaker: This episode just shows that Steed should have been a community theater director.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: He just wants to put on a production of being a pirate.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like, this is an immersive pirate experience for people who don't actually want to...
Speaker: do any of the dangerous things pirates do 100 yeah if he if he were around today he would be like great as like some kind of theme park attendant there's pirate dinner shows in orlando that he would absolutely thrive at he would be fantastic
Speaker: Fun fact, Catherine and I lived in Orlando for a long time.
Speaker: We did, but we met on Tumblr.
Speaker: We did.
Speaker: We met on Tumblr and we've been in love ever since.
Speaker: I want, I want to just, there's so much to say about this particular scene, which is so short, but there's so much to say.
Speaker: I think it's really funny watching this scene and knowing that Reese Darby is actually in great shape.
Speaker: And he was like in the New Zealand army as like a Morse code signaller.
Speaker: So like,
Speaker: Like he talked about in a couple of interviews how it was kind of hard to be incompetent at like climbing a rope ladder and like...
Speaker: What a good actor he is.
Speaker: Oh yeah, he's amazing because he actually really knows what he's doing.
Speaker: Steed's like looking around the boat for like something to make this raid a raid, I guess.
Speaker: Something he opens up their thing of fish that they've caught, which granted is food.
Speaker: You could tell that Steed, it's food, but he thinks it's gross.
Speaker: He's like, oh, fish.
Speaker: And it's the plant.
Speaker: It's ultimately, like you said, it's this little pathetic looking plant.
Speaker: But he can nurture, though.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Again, so gay of him.
Speaker: Like, it's so freaking gay of him to decide, this is it.
Speaker: Aha!
Speaker: I'm gonna be a pathetic now.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I did like when they were leaving and the fisherman said, take care of the plant.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Love that.
Speaker: And then the man on the boat said, good luck with your fishing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Such a, what a polite raid.
Speaker: Cordial separation after a raid, you know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I like, I like too that like.
Speaker: When Steed finally gets back on the revenge, he's like, yes, tell them what happened here.
Speaker: It's like we took the bag on our boat and took our plan.
Speaker: Can you just imagine them going back to the pubs and explaining to their friends what happened?
Speaker: God, so funny.
Speaker: I mean, to be honest, with crazy stuff like that, no wonder Steed
Speaker: did like gain infamy you know like he was known around the pirating circles so if he's pulling stuff like that no wonder it is just absolutely ridiculous i mean they made a tv show about him and we're now recapping that tv show so yep something to be said for steed exactly
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, Steed is like so proud of this plant raid.
Speaker: When we get back into what is like Steed's quarters, he places it so intentionally on like its own little doily and he says, really fills the space, doesn't it?
Speaker: It's just.
Speaker: It's very sweet.
Speaker: He's such a genuine guy.
Speaker: Our baby.
Speaker: We find out that like this voiceover that we've been hearing the whole time is Steed kind of orating to Lucius, who is transcribing everything.
Speaker: I love all the physical stuff that Reese does in this scene.
Speaker: He does this thing where he like goes over to the couch and like whips his his his tails to his jacket to the side, crosses his legs real quick and then gets up.
Speaker: Like, within a matter of, like, two seconds, he does this little move.
Speaker: It's so silly.
Speaker: And he, like, moves over to his little, like, bed, which is, like, nestled in this window.
Speaker: And, like, I don't even understand why he's doing this.
Speaker: I mean, like, from an audience perspective, of course, we're, like, being shown his living quarters.
Speaker: Right, but you're also thinking, what was Steed's motivation?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Like, why is he like showing us where he's sleeping?
Speaker: Like, why is he showing Lucius where he sleeps?
Speaker: You know, and it's how you see pirates be.
Speaker: They're always moving around.
Speaker: Captain Hook is always using the space.
Speaker: He's just a ridiculous man, and I just love him so much.
Speaker: He thinks about his mission of wanting to change the idea of pirating, which we've already touched on a little bit, where he wants to do the pirating with none of the danger and...
Speaker: Actual violence.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Another word that I was unfamiliar with, but he says, uh, piracy is a culture of abuse, floggings, keel hauling.
Speaker: I was like, what the fuck is keel hauling?
Speaker: Um, it's apparently a punishment or like even potential execution specifically for sailors, but
Speaker: where they're like tied to a line beneath the vessel, thrown overboard the side of the ship and like dragged under the ship's keel.
Speaker: I don't like that.
Speaker: I don't blame him for not wanting to do that.
Speaker: That's awful.
Speaker: And then he kind of goes on to talk about like what he's doing differently, right?
Speaker: And like he's paying them all a wage every week no matter what.
Speaker: I think it's funny that like he says that it took them a while to come around to that idea.
Speaker: telling of the kind of culture around piracy that all of these guys decided they were going to run away from whatever they were running away from, which is like typically why you would become a pirate.
Speaker: There's something to run away from, but they didn't want to take a wage.
Speaker: Well, it seems like, because I felt like it was in a different way where it's, they want to be pirates to do the pirating, right?
Speaker: They're not necessarily doing it for wealth.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: They're doing it for the thrill of doing the pirating.
Speaker: That's why we, John, always wants to set everyone on fire.
Speaker: And Black Pete is always like, well, with Blackbeard, we used to kill many people a day.
Speaker: Like, it's like, that's their payment is like living the life.
Speaker: Whereas Pete is thinking, oh, well, if I pay them, then we don't necessarily have to do those things.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: We can just play pirate on the ship.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: I love that interpretation.
Speaker: He's basically paying people to be actors who don't know that they're actors in his play.
Speaker: God, yes.
Speaker: I mean, I think we're remiss if we don't talk about the immense privilege of Steve.
Speaker: The fact that
Speaker: We'll get to all the amenities that he talks about on the ship in a second, but I want to skip to him talking about the library and saying to Lucius, you're all free to take any books anytime because that's his love.
Speaker: He loves books and he loves reading.
Speaker: And Lucius is like, well, I'm the only one who can read.
Speaker: And Steve can't believe it.
Speaker: He's like, what's that for you?
Speaker: what he's like almost disgusted by I don't know if he's I didn't read it as disgusted I'm as confused because I think he is just oblivious right like he knows that he's a privileged little boy because that's his trauma right true but at the same time he just sees everybody as people which is very nice but also naive right yeah so I think
Speaker: that's a lot of his story arc as well as seeing other people's perspectives and like figuring it out and who he wants to be.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Agreed.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So amenities, which,
Speaker: I really appreciated taking the notes for this section because there were a couple of them that happened so quickly that I actually don't think I even registered them.
Speaker: And I've watched this show.
Speaker: I don't even know how many times at this point, Catherine.
Speaker: The amenities part is one of my favorite parts of this episode because it's so silly.
Speaker: So like the rec center is the first one he talks about, which is.
Speaker: They're like basically playing tennis or something tennis adjacent.
Speaker: Are they playing tennis or are they playing badminton?
Speaker: Badminton, maybe badminton.
Speaker: Or shadowing?
Speaker: With a fishing net, which is hilarious.
Speaker: I mean, what else?
Speaker: You know, that makes total, total fucking sense.
Speaker: Black Pete.
Speaker: What is this fucking game?
Speaker: Yeah, he's just a sore loser.
Speaker: I feel like that's what we're being told up front about Black Pete is he he wants to be the best.
Speaker: And if he's not the best, then it's not his fault.
Speaker: It's the game's fault.
Speaker: So, mm hmm.
Speaker: Yeah, through the rec center, I think it's the en suite, which is just ridiculous.
Speaker: Just Black Pete's on the toilet.
Speaker: Roach is in like a very small washing basin.
Speaker: Lucius is just horrified.
Speaker: Like he's like, why are we here?
Speaker: Like, why did you have to take me here to talk about this?
Speaker: But also it's a very neat thing to have.
Speaker: It's like, oh, an en suite.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: I mean, like, toilets on ships like that were actually, like, totally unheard of to have, like, some kind of plumbing like that.
Speaker: Something that when he was having this boat built, he was like, oh, no, like, we need a toilet.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, non-humans is one of the ones that I don't think I caught because it happened so quickly.
Speaker: Um, they're like standing in the hallway and Steve says non-humans and you hear some like sounds of animals and livestock, which never fucking comes up again, which is really, I'm like, what happened to these animals?
Speaker: Steve, like, what did y'all do?
Speaker: I think, you know, what they did.
Speaker: I know what they do.
Speaker: We don't have to talk about it.
Speaker: We don't have to talk about it.
Speaker: Two vegans talking about what happened to the livestock.
Speaker: They just lived there on their stock.
Speaker: It's Noah's heart.
Speaker: They're just always there.
Speaker: The ballroom, which is hilarious because it's a literal ballroom, not like the dancing kind.
Speaker: And they're shining the ball.
Speaker: And it's like, is this a necessary task for the Swede to do?
Speaker: Well, they have to be good for when they get on the enemy's vessel.
Speaker: Of course.
Speaker: He would never send over unpolished cannonballs.
Speaker: How foolish of me.
Speaker: What would they think of him as a pirate?
Speaker: You're absolutely right.
Speaker: The jam room.
Speaker: So good.
Speaker: So good.
Speaker: I also like that they set up in this episode that you never know whether the music is going to be coming from the soundtrack or the people on the boat.
Speaker: So in the band that we have going on in the jam room, we have Frenchie on his mandolin.
Speaker: We have Ouija on with a ladle in a barrel.
Speaker: We have Oluwande, who looks like he actually brought like a traditional like hand drum with him of some kind, whatever his background is, which we don't really get too much.
Speaker: But like maybe this is something that he's had for a while, which is interesting.
Speaker: Black Pete has two metal plates, it looks like, that he's just like clanging together.
Speaker: Roach is blowing into a bottle.
Speaker: The Swedes is interesting.
Speaker: It's just like this wooden circle.
Speaker: It kind of looks like it was a tambourine, but it has strings in it.
Speaker: Like, it's really weird.
Speaker: I'll never knock anyone's musical instruments in a band like this because lest I remind you, when we were younger, I don't know if you ever played one of those
Speaker: like wooden fish with the like ribs in it.
Speaker: And you just, it's like.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: I mean, like playing around with stuff like that, like this, like they're doing is like how we came up with instruments in the first place.
Speaker: All the ones that we have now.
Speaker: I think the jam room also doubles as their like sleeping quarters.
Speaker: You have like hammocks down there and stuff like that.
Speaker: So that's funny that like Steve kind of refers to it as like a separate,
Speaker: but it's like actually just like their bedroom.
Speaker: We already talked about the full library, but it's worth like just briefly saying like it's extensive.
Speaker: You know, this guy brought every single book he's ever owned onto this ship.
Speaker: It's like it's a full library.
Speaker: It's not just like a couple little shelves.
Speaker: It's reminiscent of the library from Beauty and the Beast.
Speaker: on a boat yeah oh in this scenario steed would be bell are you casting them steed would be bell i think right um but i'm like then bell starts out with a bunch of with all the cups and saucers
Speaker: I'm getting too involved in this.
Speaker: We'll come back to the crossover of Beauty and the Beast and our flag eventually.
Speaker: Back on deck, Steed makes like an official presentation of the raid winnings.
Speaker: Is it a presentation or is it a post-mortem?
Speaker: Like I said, he's a theater director.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: You're so right.
Speaker: Notes on their performance, including his own.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: That's exactly what he goes on to do.
Speaker: He's, you know, pleased with the opening speech, feels that it went really well.
Speaker: But what they were lacking was more energy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: more swashbuckling, more looting.
Speaker: Let's have fun with it.
Speaker: God, at our next dress rehearsal.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: Such a theater director thing to say.
Speaker: And of course, the first person to talk shit is Black Pete again.
Speaker: He feels that stealing a plant is hardly swashbuckling.
Speaker: Wee John tags on with him.
Speaker: It's a fecking disgrace is what it is.
Speaker: And I just made a note here because it's the
Speaker: this is the first time I think we hear we john's yeah name you can have a period piece without a big guy called we john right right that's always the joke and um for everyone out there uh we john is also a game of thrones alum it's christian karn he played hodor um in game of thrones as well i know hodor
Speaker: That's actually how I knew one of my ex-boyfriends was a psychopath because when he watched that scene, he didn't cry.
Speaker: Yep, yep, no.
Speaker: I had to get rid of that one.
Speaker: Steed immediately interjects into this shit talking.
Speaker: He tries to act tough about it, but then when he realizes, you know, that he could not possibly physically overpower Ouija, Lucius even gives him a little bit of a look like, come on, man.
Speaker: Like, are you really going to talk back to this guy?
Speaker: It sets the stage for him very well to ask for suggestions, another real thing that you would do at a company.
Speaker: It's like, you've got any suggestions for the business guys?
Speaker: He wants him to reframe it as a criticism or a suggestion.
Speaker: A reframe that criticism as a suggestion.
Speaker: And Wee John, actually, I will say it's a constructive suggestion.
Speaker: He feels that they don't even have a flag in any pirate worth a damn situation.
Speaker: has a flag.
Speaker: And this brings us into, I think, my favorite scene of this episode.
Speaker: Oh, it's so good.
Speaker: It's so great.
Speaker: It is, again, a sort of kindergarten-esque kind of scene.
Speaker: You're doing art and craft, Alexa.
Speaker: You don't have to be.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm not judging.
Speaker: Hopefully everyone's watched the scene.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm not judging.
Speaker: I'm just saying that's exactly what it is.
Speaker: You know, they basically say everybody create a flag who wants to and will vote for the road for the best one.
Speaker: They all fight him on it because sewing is women's work.
Speaker: It can be hard work because right.
Speaker: So to sew an arm back up.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I love Steve pushing back on the toxic masculinity norms.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Our sweet baby Steve.
Speaker: This portion from everything that I've heard from all the actors was like heavily improvisation.
Speaker: Steve goes around to Oluwande, who says he's making a flag extender.
Speaker: And it's literally it's a little fluffer.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But it is just like a crumpled up piece of gray yarn.
Speaker: But to him, to him, it's a flag extender.
Speaker: I imagined that it was something you would attach to a flag to make it longer than the flag.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You know what I'm saying?
Speaker: Yeah, it's just lovely.
Speaker: He like says it's so it can flap, which is just pure.
Speaker: It's just so pure.
Speaker: We get Wee John and we actually like almost get a little taste of Wee John backstory, which is exciting because Steve compliments him.
Speaker: I think he says, you look so holy because he has this fabric.
Speaker: He's got a whole gown on.
Speaker: draped over him it's so cute and he says i used to make dresses with my mother and steed says well now you're a pirate and uh fun fact christian karn used to do drag and he actually learned how to like sew and like make his costumes from his mom and they used to like
Speaker: sew together and stuff like that.
Speaker: We get a little more Steed voiceover says, you know, a lot of the guys are sweethearts deep down.
Speaker: They're just dealing with a fair amount of trauma, which is creative projects give them a chance to work through it, which is very real.
Speaker: Steed is a fan of art therapy, folks.
Speaker: He really believes in art as therapy.
Speaker: And then inevitably with the arts and crafts hour with your kindergartners.
Speaker: Steed has to break up a disagreement because Roach and Swede, the Swede wanted the same piece of fabric at the same time.
Speaker: So he has to give them a little lecture about sharing.
Speaker: But it's a little bit confusing because he does try to lead them a little bit.
Speaker: And they're like, what could you have done with your large piece of fabric?
Speaker: And they're like, talk it.
Speaker: through.
Speaker: And that's such a kindergartner thing to do too because it's something you just learned.
Speaker: What's the last thing you told me?
Speaker: Which isn't incorrect either.
Speaker: If they did talk about it, maybe they could have come to the same thing, but...
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: You know, they're pirates.
Speaker: They can't do that.
Speaker: So Steed leaves them to their flags.
Speaker: But, of course, Black Pete... I do love this line where he's like, guess it's time to kill Captain.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It can't just be a nice arts and crafts hour.
Speaker: Black Pete has to insert his shit into it.
Speaker: I mean, he's consistent.
Speaker: I gotta...
Speaker: We've got to give him that.
Speaker: He wants to be a pirate and talks about his old school a lot, you know?
Speaker: Like at my old school, we used to kill 20 people a day.
Speaker: And to clarify, when I say his old school, I mean when he transferred from Blackbeard's ship.
Speaker: Yep, exactly.
Speaker: That's exactly it.
Speaker: He is the student that was like, I don't know, like his parents like forced him to move and now he's at this new school and it's not as good as the old school.
Speaker: We've all known that person.
Speaker: Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: I also just noted that this is the first time Blackbeard is mentioned.
Speaker: So they're all talking about mutiny buttons and his infinite lurking-ness overhears this conversation and
Speaker: Like any crew member should, he alerts his captain and he tells him what's going on.
Speaker: It's a funny little exchange because Lucius is taking down this whole conversation about mutiny, which Steed does not want in his memoirs.
Speaker: And they do that little bit where it's when someone's writing and you're like, stop, don't write this.
Speaker: Stop.
Speaker: Don't write this.
Speaker: Stop.
Speaker: In Lucius's defense, he does say, you know, you told me to record everything, warts and all.
Speaker: And this is definitely a wart.
Speaker: But nevertheless, he tells Lucius to take a walk.
Speaker: And he joins the rest of the crew on deck.
Speaker: I don't want to skip past a very important part, though.
Speaker: Before that exchange, when we're still with the rest of the crew and they're working, we get Frenchie introducing our namesake line.
Speaker: Cheers, my dear.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: No, I have it.
Speaker: I have it here.
Speaker: Would never, ever dream of skipping that.
Speaker: Yeah, Frenchie is like unbothered by this mutiny conversation.
Speaker: He just wants to continue making his flag.
Speaker: Which is of a cat.
Speaker: Because cats are witches.
Speaker: They've got knives in their feet.
Speaker: I just could not have any more love for Frenchie and his weird superstitions than...
Speaker: Like he is just so hilarious.
Speaker: Those little one liners are some of my absolute favorites in the entire show.
Speaker: He has them throughout the entire series and I'm just, I'm just here for all of them.
Speaker: I can't wait for new ones in season two because we know, we know it's going to be a reoccurring theme for him.
Speaker: Also another thing, the unicorn carving on the front of the boat.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Oh, good call out.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I just, it's just amazing because on the one hand, the unicorn is the national animal of Scotland, but none of these people have anything to do with Scotland.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: I think, is Button Scottish or is he like Northern England?
Speaker: I'm not sure.
Speaker: But like, Steed very clearly isn't.
Speaker: So why would that be the front of the boat that he designed?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And I mean, the only logical explanation is gay.
Speaker: I mean, gay.
Speaker: It's beautiful.
Speaker: It's so good.
Speaker: gorgeous.
Speaker: But also I like to think about, can you imagine that being commissioned and the people who actually were building his ship being asked to carve this unicorn to the helm?
Speaker: We'll obviously get to it later, but I think his original intention was for some of it to be an homage to his wife.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: Yes, we'll get into this later, but I think very clearly that
Speaker: He originally thought when he started commissioning this boat that his whole family was going to join him on this adventure, which is kind of sad.
Speaker: Why I bring that up now is that it's kind of like when you go to a bar with a guy and the guy is like, can you order me a Cosmopolitan?
Speaker: And you're like, can you order yourself your own drink?
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Witches, they have knives in their feet.
Speaker: Fair.
Speaker: It's honestly fair.
Speaker: It's actually the less weird superstition of Frenchies.
Speaker: Like cats do have knives in their feet.
Speaker: They have very sharp claws in their feet that can slice you like a knife.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Pat Allen will tell you.
Speaker: Pete would like everyone to refocus onto the mutiny.
Speaker: Wee John says he's in as long as he can light some shit on fire, light the captain on fire.
Speaker: But they start to wonder who would be the captain if they kill the captain, which is a very good question.
Speaker: They're thinking...
Speaker: Obviously, Black Pete thinks it's going to be him.
Speaker: But Swede points out... Is it Swede?
Speaker: Someone.
Speaker: Someone points out that maybe Jim would be a good fit.
Speaker: But then Black Pete immediately is like, Jim's a mute.
Speaker: That would be problematic.
Speaker: Which, ableist!
Speaker: You mean ableist, but...
Speaker: Jim also doesn't really seem to want responsibility.
Speaker: Hell no.
Speaker: I mean, I think that's Olu's response is Jim isn't into politics.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: In an attempt to counteract this mutiny, Steed and Buttons have decided that they're going to find a real ship, a real ship to raid.
Speaker: They've spotted one on the horizon that looks sizable to Buttons.
Speaker: Buttons feels that it's rather impressive.
Speaker: Oh, I can't skip over.
Speaker: I hope there's something I want to do to go back for, so I'm hoping.
Speaker: Olu actually doesn't really have a problem with the captain.
Speaker: And one of the biggest reasons that he brings up is that Steed reads to him.
Speaker: And he does the voices.
Speaker: That's the most important thing.
Speaker: And he does the voices.
Speaker: He's reading Pinocchio to them.
Speaker: And he does the wooden doll voice.
Speaker: Sweet is like, yeah, but like Lucius can read too.
Speaker: And Lucius, who's joined them and said he's in on the raid,
Speaker: is now being put in a position to basically audition for the role of the red boy.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah, no.
Speaker: They essentially want him to voice match for Steed.
Speaker: And Lucius is not, he's not trained.
Speaker: I'm a little wooden boy and me legs are sticks.
Speaker: Weijon is not impressed.
Speaker: He's like the most disappointed.
Speaker: He's like, that was horrible.
Speaker: So that is not a viable solution to making up for Captain Lucius.
Speaker: reading to them and like they'll never know what happens because they can't read so um they have to they have to keep someone around who's a capable of reading it and b can sufficiently do right um but anyways buttons and steed come in and they're telling them about the ship everybody's very skeptical roach
Speaker: needs Buttons to confirm that the boat is actually real, that it's actually a real ship.
Speaker: Buttons does confirm, and that kind of makes everyone a little bit like, oh, okay, all right, yeah, let's do this.
Speaker: Steed even tells Weijon that he can light things on fire.
Speaker: He'd be disappointed if he didn't.
Speaker: That's very exciting for Weijon.
Speaker: That's enough for him.
Speaker: So we start getting ready for battle.
Speaker: We get another Frenchie song, which is lovely.
Speaker: It's very morbid.
Speaker: And I'm like, what a funny tune to play to pump everyone up for the big raid.
Speaker: Like, we're all probably going to die, but we'll get pirates.
Speaker: Buttons is trying to, like, kind of chat with Steed as everybody else is.
Speaker: Essentially getting ready, getting all their weapons ready, practicing smashing heads that are actually watermelons.
Speaker: And Sweet Steed is, like, seeing them being kind of violent already.
Speaker: And he's like, Mr. Buttons, do you think it's going to, like, actually get that bloody?
Speaker: Buttons says, raids are like snowflakes.
Speaker: And Steve says, no two quite alike.
Speaker: And he says, they almost always end in terrible bloodshed.
Speaker: Actually, Snowflake might not have been the best comparison.
Speaker: Buttons puts in these terrifying looking.
Speaker: Terrifying metal things.
Speaker: Out of nowhere.
Speaker: He's like, I'm getting too old for hand to hand.
Speaker: Yep, yep.
Speaker: It's so fucking funny.
Speaker: And the steed really starts to process what he's gotten himself into.
Speaker: You know, like we've kind of been talking about so far, he really just hadn't considered that actual raiding would include some violent bloodshed.
Speaker: He's having a little panic.
Speaker: He's having a little spiral.
Speaker: Oh, honey.
Speaker: He needs his quarters to put on his robe.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's this very ridiculous, like, feral montage of the crew.
Speaker: Slopping paint on their faces.
Speaker: Getting ready for war, basically.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And we get our first Steed flashback because this is invoking Steed's trauma.
Speaker: I have thoughts on this.
Speaker: So do you want to go first or do you want me to go first?
Speaker: I'll set it up and then we'll- I'll do a little rain on my thoughts on this scene.
Speaker: So we have Steed's father, who's played by the wonderful Boris MacIver.
Speaker: Most recently, I've seen him in Servant.
Speaker: He's just like really, really good at his craft.
Speaker: And he chops off the head of the chicken, which is...
Speaker: Very upsetting.
Speaker: Like blood on sweet little baby steeds face.
Speaker: Father Bonnet like forces him to look at it.
Speaker: Like he, he turns away and he is forced to look at this.
Speaker: Let's pause for thoughts.
Speaker: I just, I, these are my thoughts, right?
Speaker: If you are someone who butchers your own chickens, but you're also a wealthy man.
Speaker: And you know that when you butcher a chicken, you're going to get blood spatter on you.
Speaker: Why wouldn't you wear a face covering or like change out of your fancy clothes?
Speaker: This guy is a psychopath because also if you were a fancy man like that, who spent a lot of money on your clothes and your son's clothes, you wouldn't let them get spattered and like stained with animal blood.
Speaker: But he is a psychopath.
Speaker: Like he's such a conundrum.
Speaker: He wants Steve to understand how freaking privileged he is.
Speaker: But also it's not like the – like I think it's healthy when you come from money to explain to your children that you come from money and that you are privileged and, you know, explain to them that privilege.
Speaker: But he's doing it in a way that's –
Speaker: intrinsically connected to toxic masculinity like it's it's all about the fact that he sees steed as weak already as like a child you know you know that has followed us into 2023 culture where yeah we're still getting away from men being like oh little boys don't right sports and cutting chickens heads off but
Speaker: the next portion of this is just father bonnet walking little baby steed out into the fields and saying like basically like a fucked up version of the lion king.
Speaker: Look at our land.
Speaker: This is our land.
Speaker: It will soon be your land.
Speaker: You don't deserve baby bonnet.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You don't deserve it.
Speaker: You're weak hearted, soft handed, lily livered, little rich boy.
Speaker: And that's all you'll ever be.
Speaker: You know,
Speaker: Things you say to your kids.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Normal.
Speaker: Normal father-son bonding things, you know?
Speaker: And Steed kind of comes to from this recollection.
Speaker: We're back in his room.
Speaker: I think this is really cute and silly and funny because I guess Buttons has grown concerned about Steed and has sent Olu and Jim to check on him.
Speaker: So Olu opens the door and the first thing he says is, why are you in your pajamas?
Speaker: Because he's wearing this like long, lavish gold robe.
Speaker: Yeah, it's gorgeous.
Speaker: It does look like a house coat.
Speaker: It does.
Speaker: It definitely does.
Speaker: But apparently it is a battle jacket.
Speaker: He says, I find the feel of silk very invigorating.
Speaker: If I had to describe this feel of silk, I wouldn't say invigorating.
Speaker: I mean, this is Steed's whole personality.
Speaker: He's the clothes.
Speaker: It's all about the clothes.
Speaker: Steed is immediately kind of like, oh, I'm glad you're here because I would really like you guys to very quickly before the raid refresh me.
Speaker: Just remind me.
Speaker: How to fight.
Speaker: Hand to hand.
Speaker: Those of us who might not remember how to do it.
Speaker: And, you know, Jim, there's not a lot to say about Jim in this episode.
Speaker: There, you know, is a big reveal of Jim at the end of the episode.
Speaker: But we do get a little bit of Jim is very skilled with a knife.
Speaker: They very quickly run through some fast.
Speaker: It's kind of funny because as Jim is throwing around their knife, Alou's like, that's a kill, that's a kill, that's a kill.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which is not what Steed wants.
Speaker: Steed has no intention of killing anyone.
Speaker: That is not his bag.
Speaker: So he wants more of a stun move.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So they kind of show him how to knock someone out by hitting them on the back of the head with something heavy, which is important for later.
Speaker: Steed is clearly very anxious.
Speaker: He asks them both to sit down on the couch beside him, which is so awkward.
Speaker: Or he's like, here, sit next to me.
Speaker: Yes, please.
Speaker: Please sit next to me.
Speaker: Olu kind of starts to...
Speaker: convinced steed that this is not for him that that you know me and jim we did this because we don't really have any other choice and um you're just not cut out for this and steed is really fighting fighting it he's like some of us thrive on on danger it's like baby you
Speaker: You're not the they that Olu is talking about, you know?
Speaker: But, but Steed does start to really take it in.
Speaker: I think when Olu really starts to talk explicitly about killing, meltdown, complete meltdown from Steed.
Speaker: I'm, I'm not a pirate.
Speaker: I'm an idiot.
Speaker: Just absolute full on meltdown.
Speaker: Poor guy.
Speaker: Anyways, the little rhymes.
Speaker: Yes, we hear a cannon fire.
Speaker: Buttons says it was a warning shot from the ship that they've been tailing, which turns out to be a massive British Navy warship.
Speaker: No big deal.
Speaker: No big deal.
Speaker: They'll take it down fine, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: The British do fire on them again and they do hit their mast.
Speaker: I need to brush up on my ship parts while we're doing this podcast.
Speaker: I wish I could be more helpful because we did a whole unit in middle school on ships and their parts.
Speaker: I know we did too.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Too long ago.
Speaker: We're too old now.
Speaker: That you'll use a lot later in life.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: We zoom over to the British ship where they're deciding what to do.
Speaker: We meet Captain Badminton.
Speaker: Rory Kinnear.
Speaker: Who will come in to trade and play.
Speaker: Someone describes Steed as a heavyset woman in a silk dressing gown.
Speaker: Seeing him through the eyeglasses, what's making them hesitant to think that this is a pirate ship.
Speaker: Captain Batminton wants to see for himself and recognizes Steed right away.
Speaker: I like when he calls for the spyglass and he says, I?
Speaker: Like, what?
Speaker: And they cover one of his eyes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's like, all right, this is what.
Speaker: It's so ridiculous.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think it's also worth mentioning.
Speaker: And I think this is very intentional.
Speaker: Like the British are very shitty.
Speaker: So like we have, we have this comment about a heavy said woman in a silk dressing gown.
Speaker: We're already setting up that these guys are like fat phobic, which comes into play with bad men.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And like a lot later.
Speaker: Very fat phobic, very misogynistic.
Speaker: Like they're like shitheads.
Speaker: They're racist.
Speaker: We're not saying that about British people.
Speaker: We're just saying that's how British are portrayed in this show.
Speaker: In this.
Speaker: In particular, the Royal Navy.
Speaker: So they send over a tender to alert Steed that badminton.
Speaker: recognizes him apologizes for firing on him and would like to board their vessel for tea.
Speaker: Um, to which everyone says, please Steve, no, like do not do this.
Speaker: Um, um,
Speaker: I kind of think if I were in this situation, I would probably acquiesce to because it's like, what do you do?
Speaker: Like, like, how do you get out of this?
Speaker: If you say no, they're just going to kill you.
Speaker: So I, I feel like that this really was the only way to get out of this or to have a hope of getting out of this is right.
Speaker: Which is, it's kind of the first thing.
Speaker: look we have and we do explore this later in the season on how steed understands how this other half yeah how interacting with the other half works more than he understands how interacting with pirates work but that hasn't been set up yet too much so it seems a little out of character for him making the correct choice in this situation
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: But yeah.
Speaker: The correct choice.
Speaker: Like the better of two evil choices, you know?
Speaker: No, you're absolutely right.
Speaker: Because the majority of the time when he does have some wins, which I know a lot of people maybe just tuning in might find this surprising, but Steve does have wins.
Speaker: And when he does win, it's because he has this insight into how the other half live and how the proper folk live.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: He asked them to give them a few minutes to tidy up, which is hilarious.
Speaker: It's like your parents are coming.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And you're like, oh, I'm just, you're coming from the train station now.
Speaker: I better clean my whole apartment.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: This is another like very theater kind of bit where he brings all of them into his room and dresses them.
Speaker: And gives them backstories and characters to play.
Speaker: Yeah, it's so good.
Speaker: It's so theater, so queer.
Speaker: Steed also drops the little tidbit to them that he knows badminton from boarding school.
Speaker: He hasn't seen him since they were 15, though.
Speaker: So they've been like.
Speaker: in the same circle, but they really haven't interacted with one another since they were boys.
Speaker: We're at the table.
Speaker: We're at the table with the Brits.
Speaker: It is so uncomfortable.
Speaker: So, you know, obviously comedic to see all of the white people.
Speaker: I think it's very important to note that all of the white crew members are playing the part of royals who are...
Speaker: hanging out with steed on his boat.
Speaker: Like we just decided to be on this crappy boat.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And then you have all the black and brown people are serving.
Speaker: I know that the Brits are assuming that they're steed slaves because we're in 1717.
Speaker: We get, you know, we do get that little taste of racism from the Brits.
Speaker: Wellington,
Speaker: says, you know, the tea is horrible.
Speaker: It's clearly been made by savages, to which Olu gives a very exasperated facial expression.
Speaker: We do have, and this took me a couple of watches to find him, but David Jenkins, the writer of this episode and the showrunner is actually in this scene playing one of the British.
Speaker: He's to the right of Wellington.
Speaker: He gives out a very lovely scream later in the scene.
Speaker: Badman is already, he's being a fucking asshole.
Speaker: Like he, he is, um, totally infantilizing Steed, um, calling him his, you know, school nickname, baby bonnet and talking about the, you know, telling embarrassing stories about how they bullied him and how they got away with bullying him.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: How they hazed him.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Steed is brutally like,
Speaker: Yeah, I didn't see you doing it to anyone else.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: And we do get another little flashback where the –
Speaker: Little Steed is like smelling flowers and like picking flowers and they just rush him, man.
Speaker: They just rush him and chase him, calling him baby bonnet.
Speaker: Steed, it's worth a chuckle because it is physical comedy and funny, but he like runs into a tree like and they tie him to a rowboat.
Speaker: It's sad.
Speaker: It's really freaking sad.
Speaker: Anybody who has ever been bullied, you know, you have to.
Speaker: uh feel for him in this moment of having to relive this in front of his crew who he's desperately trying to to uh gain their respect god i hate i hate badmen so much i think they're very quick about setting up who we hate yeah and who's sad we're on
Speaker: They like made him French kiss a horse at one point.
Speaker: Like, God, like just the fucking worst.
Speaker: Also the logistics of that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like, terrible.
Speaker: How did he still have a tongue?
Speaker: Badminton insults the ship at first, calls it efficient and tiny, but then demands a tour.
Speaker: Steve takes him into his captain's quarters.
Speaker: Badminton's
Speaker: The most passive aggressive continuing to just really be a dickhead.
Speaker: We get a little flash when he asks about the books.
Speaker: Don't all the books fall out during a storm?
Speaker: And it flashes to Steed trying to hold all the books in during a storm.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: There's not any more explanation given for it.
Speaker: But it's one of those things where like in improv we would be like cut to that moment.
Speaker: Cut back.
Speaker: And it's just the perfect amount of comedy for it.
Speaker: We get Badman telling him that there are rumors about him back home.
Speaker: People are talking about the fact that he left his family, you know, uprooted his comfortable life to become a pirate.
Speaker: We get a really quick flashback of him with his family having a portrait done.
Speaker: And we're literally having the picture being painted of what Steed's
Speaker: I should say what Steed's impression of his life back home is, which is very removed.
Speaker: He felt like an outsider to his family.
Speaker: He really felt like he didn't belong because you have, you have Steed literally having his arm.
Speaker: It's he's like arm length away from the rest of his family in this portrait.
Speaker: And they also show that scene of him with them at dinner where he's,
Speaker: Obviously at one end of a long table and his wife and two kids are at the other end having a conversation.
Speaker: And when he tries to interject, they just kind of look at him like, did you guys hear anything?
Speaker: Why are you trying to talk to us?
Speaker: It's a very sad setup for our first conversation.
Speaker: insight into his home life it's really sad back at the dining area did i miss anything i don't think so oh wait real quick have to mention badminton laughs when steed confirms that it's true that he did um in fact do that um and steed eyes this paperweight this uh whale paperweight on his desk um
Speaker: Oh, because earlier when he was getting the hand-to-hand refresher with Jim and Olu, he asked, does it have to be a sword or can it be something heavy?
Speaker: And he said, any heavy implement that will get the job done.
Speaker: So you can just see in his mind that he's being pushed to his breaking point, but he's still, he's like, I only need to stun him.
Speaker: Back at the table, the British have found their flags.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The first one that they find... Like it's a skeleton eating another skeleton.
Speaker: Yes, and that is Black Pete's because he immediately defends it.
Speaker: And then I guess it's Swedes, which is the skeleton holding its own head.
Speaker: And they just, you know, they think this is a riot, even though they tell them that they took them... They stole them from the pirates that they killed.
Speaker: I mean...
Speaker: How else?
Speaker: How else are you going to explain that?
Speaker: How else could you explain the plan?
Speaker: And then you get to Frenchies, which is the cat, and we get the gem that is cats are evil because they steal children's breath.
Speaker: And this is when the pleasantries that have been going on on the ship turn from bad to worse because...
Speaker: In the British's mind, Frenchie is one of the help, and they react very rudely to him.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: He says, Wellington says, enough interruption, slave, which...
Speaker: I wrote, Jim does not like this.
Speaker: Jim does not like this.
Speaker: They throw a knife into Wellington's hand.
Speaker: And from there, all hell ensues.
Speaker: I was very deliberate with my notes here because there's so much happening and I wanted to get each little thing.
Speaker: Go ahead.
Speaker: So this is the order in which everything happens.
Speaker: Lucius passes out.
Speaker: Frenchie.
Speaker: Lucius has been having a slow anxiety attack.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They've been like raiding these flags.
Speaker: You can just see Lucius.
Speaker: He's like, this is not going to end well.
Speaker: Which is like, I can really appreciate this moment forward for Lucius.
Speaker: And like when Nathan Fode kind of talks about his character, he says that he really felt like he kind of didn't really fucking know where he was going with the character until like,
Speaker: like a couple episodes from now, but I would actually argue that really this scene is where we kind of see Lucius for who he is, which is also kind of misplaced in, in this crew, right?
Speaker: Like it's not just Steve.
Speaker: Like I think Lucius has absolutely no intention of getting violent.
Speaker: Like that's not, that's not him.
Speaker: So yeah, he passes out immediately at the sight of the hand being stabbed.
Speaker: Frenchie points and laughs, which is also on brand.
Speaker: Alawande pours hot tea onto, it's actually David Jenkins.
Speaker: Roach comes out with a knife screaming.
Speaker: Buttons has his fangs on and a knife to Wellington's throat.
Speaker: Wee John, who, it's so funny because
Speaker: I remember watching this scene for the first time and not even clocking that Weijong wasn't there, which is hilarious because he's such a huge man.
Speaker: But he was not there and he burst down the door, which is I don't know if it was a Hodor wink or what, but that's how I receive it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Black Pete, which is my favorite moment of his so far, I think, just screams, fuck it!
Speaker: And like whips out the gun that he's had underneath the table pointed at the British the whole time.
Speaker: And then finally, Lucius is awake again and just screaming.
Speaker: From Steed's captain's quarters, Badminton hears the gunshot from Black Pete's gun.
Speaker: Steed says, wait, it'll blow over.
Speaker: because badminton he's he's in the navy like he thinks they're under attack right he's ready he thinks everybody collectively is under attack well and i think i think it's
Speaker: I think it makes total sense because he wouldn't think that they would ever be capable, despite what he knows about this whole thing with Steed.
Speaker: He would never think that he was capable of actually overtaking them.
Speaker: Well, I think that it also plays into the fact that, like we said, I think what Steed intended to do was hire actors to be his pirate crew and play pilot.
Speaker: So that might be...
Speaker: what badman assumes right there's no way steed could be affiliated with real pirates they would murder him right it's oh us and these actors that steed has with him
Speaker: are under attack.
Speaker: Batman tells him he's a coward for thinking that it'll blow over and not wanting to like immediately rush out there and help everyone.
Speaker: He calls him pathetic, which, um, really, um, strikes a chord in him and his trauma.
Speaker: Um, and he hits him over the head with that whale paperweight.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: And at first, we don't exactly know what happened except for the fact that there is a sound that he definitely fell on his sword that was unsheathed to some degree.
Speaker: But we don't know until Steve calls out to them in the middle of this battle.
Speaker: I will... Excuse me, guys.
Speaker: Something in my room.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I love...
Speaker: Two things.
Speaker: I love that by the time this happens, actually, the fucking crew got it done.
Speaker: Like, they've already pretty much either killed everyone or, like, tied them up to some degree.
Speaker: Like, they took care of it, which I think... Good on them.
Speaker: Pretty awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I know they don't think of themselves as capable, but, like, this was the first time that they really had to, like, defend the ship and defend themselves, and they did it.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: I think that's awesome.
Speaker: I think it's important to distinguish that.
Speaker: I think individually, all of those people believe themselves capable.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But as a unit, they recognize that they don't have very strong leadership.
Speaker: Also on a subject, just before we dive into what is happening with Stephen Badman, I really loved that it only became fighting when one of their own was being abused by the British, right?
Speaker: So it shows that they actually do care about each other as a crew outside of their own little cliques or pairings off.
Speaker: even if they don't really know it yet.
Speaker: I love that the two people, I mean, obviously it was going to be all a one day, but I love that it was Lucius because Lucius was like, I need to get out of here.
Speaker: Like, I'll get me away from the fighting and the gore and of course walked right into...
Speaker: More.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Murder.
Speaker: So we see Badminton dead on the floor with the sword through his head, through his eye, which is what a horrible accident.
Speaker: If you gotta go out.
Speaker: go out in style i guess he's so fucking deserved it i mean um i think we skipped like there's this moment where he also tries to fat shame steed he like says that he was a plumper when he was a kid like yeah he's like i know i was pretty slender and he's like nope you're a plumper but in the flashback we saw him he looked fine
Speaker: Definitely slim.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Piece of shit.
Speaker: He is a trash person.
Speaker: So I feel fine with this.
Speaker: We're on Steve's side here.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Steve is obviously panicking.
Speaker: And Olu, the constant voice of reason throughout the entire season, is like, listen.
Speaker: Well, first of all, he asked him if he wants to live.
Speaker: And Steed's response is, I think so, probably.
Speaker: Which is, that's a tough question.
Speaker: We're all related to Steed right now.
Speaker: Because we ask ourselves, do you want to live?
Speaker: And you're like, I'm pretty sure.
Speaker: There's a lot of nuance there.
Speaker: Do you have time?
Speaker: Can we dive into this later in separate sessions?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So I love that.
Speaker: But, you know, Alou says, if you want the respect of your crew, you did this on purpose.
Speaker: This happened on purpose.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So when we go back on deck with the body in hand, Steed says, I did this on purpose.
Speaker: On purpose.
Speaker: A very clear ellipses in the middle of that.
Speaker: The crew is fucking pleased.
Speaker: Like, Sweet is like stabbed him in the head with stabbed him right in the face.
Speaker: Wee John is like, respect.
Speaker: They're very, very pleasantly surprised with that plot twist.
Speaker: Discussing what to do next, Steed instructs them to take the remaining British hostage, which they gleefully do.
Speaker: I wanted to ask you if you want to do co-captain awards now.
Speaker: This might be a good time to nominate.
Speaker: Okay, that's fine.
Speaker: Co-captain of the episode.
Speaker: I wanna... There was no clear, like, because we're getting to know everyone and they're
Speaker: their thing together.
Speaker: So I went with Steed and Alwande because Alwande sets Steed on a path to be like set up for success.
Speaker: First trying to like talk him out of the raid and like everything.
Speaker: And then later he's like, okay, well now we're here and all we can do is move forward and this is the best bet for you, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And he wants the things to work out even if it's only for another day because they might kill him tomorrow, you know?
Speaker: So I nominate Steed and Alwande.
Speaker: That's so practical.
Speaker: I went kind of abstract and you're free to like come up with more abstract ones because I'm with you.
Speaker: Like this first episode, there aren't like a lot of like actual pairings.
Speaker: So I have a few abstract ones, Steed and Plant.
Speaker: And Frenchie and Cats.
Speaker: Frenchie and Cats is a great one.
Speaker: So to everyone out there listening, we will put these nominations in a poll on Twitter and you can vote for the one that you think should be.
Speaker: What's our Twitter handle?
Speaker: It is at Cheers McQueer's PC as in podcast.
Speaker: I'll tell you shorten it.
Speaker: Yeah, because Twitter doesn't let you
Speaker: be too long with your handles, which is fair.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Participate.
Speaker: Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker: Back into the episode.
Speaker: The episode.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The crew is very impressed with the captain.
Speaker: We have Wee John, you know, saying, do you know how hard it is to
Speaker: drive a sword through someone's skull.
Speaker: Roach is like, it's always the quiet ones.
Speaker: Like, they're just very pleased and willing to, like, give it one more day before they actually kill him and meet me.
Speaker: They're like, we can wait another day.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You have this kind of, like, very quaint moment between Olu and Lucius, where Lucius is like, you know, he's a terrible captain, and Olu's like,
Speaker: Yeah, but like with him, we're going to get paid and fed and like we don't even have to work too hard and we'll be dead soon.
Speaker: So we might as well enjoy it while it lasts.
Speaker: And would you rather be captain by one of the British?
Speaker: You know, like, would you rather be captain by one of them?
Speaker: And Lucius clearly does not want that and agrees.
Speaker: Steed is very introspective.
Speaker: He is alone.
Speaker: I mean, he's having a meltdown.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's really what it is.
Speaker: And I think this is a theme.
Speaker: He clearly has PTSD.
Speaker: I think that is not born from this episode.
Speaker: I think it's born from his childhood with his father.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: That's what triggers his big moments throughout the entire season where he's finally making some progress and then something happens.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That pulls him back into his trauma, you know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I mean, this was certainly on like several different fronts.
Speaker: Like you have him facing someone from his childhood and killing someone from his childhood, whether intentional or not, you know, I mean, it's, it's,
Speaker: it's a metaphor and it's literal.
Speaker: Like it's, it's so essential.
Speaker: I think, I think he doesn't realize how essential it is to his healing quite yet.
Speaker: Because I think a lot of growth often is painful at first.
Speaker: You have to kind of go through the growing pains of it all.
Speaker: And I think that's what he's feeling.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And we get we get a little flashback again, a little family bonnet flashback again.
Speaker: And it's different this time, which I think is such a cool artistic choice from Taika and and David to have Steve now at the dinner table with his family.
Speaker: And he's close and he's laughing with them and seemingly like enjoying his time with his family.
Speaker: Which is to say, like, he loved his family.
Speaker: He loved his kids.
Speaker: I think he loved Mary, his wife, to an extent.
Speaker: Not the way that he should have as a husband, I think.
Speaker: But I don't think that he didn't care for her.
Speaker: And so now embarking on this new point in his life is scary.
Speaker: Like, that's, everyone can relate to that.
Speaker: Well, this is going to be a interesting thing to examine throughout this series because I was wondering whether that was a real flashback or not or whether it was how he's choosing to remember it, right?
Speaker: Because right before that flashback, he says, my family is here now at sea.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I kind of saw it as I wasn't able to be the kind of father I wanted to be and the kind of like,
Speaker: head of household I wanted to be on land so now he's doing it for his crew where he's being supportive and he's reading them bedtime stories and he's trying to put on productions for them you know um and it's also something to think about as like
Speaker: leaving his life behind and the family that he had and the life he thought he wanted or a life at sea or that's a very, it's very close to like someone who comes out later in life and already has like the full family and everything that you have to reckon with leaving behind and everything.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, and I love that point too to tie into, you know, the theme of the show, I think really at the heart of it is found family.
Speaker: And that is so necessary in particular for queer people.
Speaker: I think most queer people feel
Speaker: like they have to develop this found family because they're, they're, um, they're, um, poking a set up in the background and I was like, don't say anything.
Speaker: Their, um, their blood relatives were, um, not accepting of them for who they are.
Speaker: So building that found family who really accepts you for who you are is so essential.
Speaker: Well, not even your blood family accepting you.
Speaker: It's just having a blueprint for accepting yourself because I, people around me, a lot of queer people I know who are still coming into figuring out who they are and what they're about are, didn't have
Speaker: anything to base it on around themselves until they met a certain friend group or whatever.
Speaker: So it's so important to have, um, not just a queer community to be a part of, but like a supportive queer community.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Cause otherwise it's, it's a nightmare out here guys.
Speaker: Hell yeah.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Real quick and then we'll wrap up.
Speaker: I also think it's interesting to look at those family flashbacks a little bit because I'm with you.
Speaker: It's hard to tell which one is the real one, right?
Speaker: Because I think it could go either way.
Speaker: I think it could be that Steed was sort of
Speaker: making his home life out to be worse than it actually was so that he could live with the fact that he left them in the way, the way that he left them.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: But I think it could also be the happy one is the lie too because he has to remember it that way.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I think it could go either way.
Speaker: I think it's such an interesting, subtle artistic choice that like you don't really see in a comedy.
Speaker: I love my comedies with –
Speaker: With a little bit of.
Speaker: With that dose of reality.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: Love, love, love it.
Speaker: To wrap up.
Speaker: Real quick about him reading Pinocchio.
Speaker: We John.
Speaker: Just sobbing.
Speaker: Stupid puppet pulled it off.
Speaker: Like it's just so amazing.
Speaker: What an amazing choice.
Speaker: And then our real like end to end to this episode, which is so cool, is Jim's reveal.
Speaker: Jim, who really looked like this kind of like grubby dude with this like sort of bulbous nose and this beard who's a mute.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: actually reveals themselves to be not that.
Speaker: And we see the beard and the fake nose.
Speaker: Great fake nose, by the way.
Speaker: Great fake nose.
Speaker: And someone who studied, like, costumes and stuff in school and had to make noses like that.
Speaker: Very, very good.
Speaker: Very good costume department.
Speaker: Great fake nose.
Speaker: So Jim is...
Speaker: is revealed.
Speaker: We don't really know.
Speaker: All we know is that they're not mute.
Speaker: Um, Olu delivers them food.
Speaker: Um, and they're speaking Spanish to one another.
Speaker: So, um, that's kind of the end.
Speaker: We have like a little bit of the crew, like falling asleep.
Speaker: We see, I think this is the first time we see Carl.
Speaker: Carl is not named, but we see Carl, um, the seagull on buttons for the first time.
Speaker: I mean, they're definitely on my duo lists on upcoming episodes.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And then we just see that our arts and crafts flags are flying.
Speaker: This was another thing I wrote down because in relation to him having his found family, it's kind of his version of putting their artwork up on the refrigerator.
Speaker: Oh, my God.
Speaker: Because he puts everybody's up.
Speaker: He doesn't want to choose a favorite.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: That's so sweet.
Speaker: I also like that none of those flags got damaged.
Speaker: Our little daddy Steve.
Speaker: Just so proud of his kids.
Speaker: Yeah, so that wraps up episode one of season one of Cheers McQueers.
Speaker: Cheers McQueers.
Speaker: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: I've always longed for adventure, I guess you could say.
Speaker: A lover of delicate things, and I like it that way.
Speaker: My father once told me I never amount to much.
Speaker: So I'm proving him wrong as a pirate with a delicate touch.
Speaker: Got so much to prove to my crew, I'm afraid they won't see.
Speaker: Pirates don't have to be violent, I hope they'll agree.
Speaker: Mutiny is brewing, come on, steed, better show them you're tough.
Speaker: You'll treat them like family, God, I hope that's enough.
Speaker: you
