The first season of Our Flag Means Death has concluded and is EASILY one of the best shows of the year.
(Spoilers Ahead)
First, part of the genius of the representation in this series is that everybody is allowed to just “be.” When Lucius and Black Pete are caught hooking up, the rest of the crew just carries on and doesn’t make a big deal about there being gay or bi sailors on the ship. There’s also a scene after Jim’s true identity is revealed, and everybody is confused and asking “what do we call you?” Jim answers something like “I was a woman, and now I’m not. You can still call me Jim.” Afterward, everybody continues to treat Jim as Jim, and the rest of the crew also start using “they” pronouns without calling explicit attention to it. Historical accuracy might have called for more bigotry, but by making it no big deal, they show that finding out someone you know is gay or trans is no big deal. They’re still the same person you knew before, and you should continue to love and support them just as you did before.
Also, about Stede Bonnet … I’ve done some of my own research.
While they have taken certain liberties with the timeline, the real Stede Bonnet wasn’t stabbed during the confrontation with the Spanish armada, he was shot … in the face! He had a musket ball lodged in his lower jaw for months. He also had his heel shot off. It was nothing short of a miracle that he didn’t die from infection. The whole bit where Blackbeard got pissed and took off with the Revenge and left Stede’s crew to die on a sandbar REALLY happened.
While it technically occurred before the sandbar incident, I’m guessing season two will pick up with Bonnet attempting to live a double life (and keep his pardon), by pretending to be a regular merchant and pirating under the assumed name of “Captain Thomas.” Yes, the guy literally just painted a different name on his boat and told his crew “call me Thomas when we’re on a raid” assuming he would never get caught. Unfortunately, he was an even worse merchant than he was a pirate, and after resorting to pirating several of the same vessels he had tried, unsuccessfully, to do business with (because the crew were low on supplies and getting desperate) he eventually gave in and just returned to gentleman piracy full-time.
For a little while, until after a few successful attempts where he actually gets as many as three ships to his name, The Revenge started taking on water and he was forced to put in at Cape Fear for repairs, which took longer than expected, allowing the South Carolina navy to catch up with him, where (after a lengthy and unusually bloodthirsty battle) he and his entire crew were captured and imprisoned. But Bonnet, being a posh gentleman, didn’t get thrown in regular jail with the rest of the plebs. He was “imprisoned” at the home of the local Town Marshall, and promptly “escaped” (aka bribed his way to freedom) though that was relatively short-lived as poor weather meant that he only made it as far as the nearest island before he was recaptured and brought to trial.
Even his trial was crazy, because the prosecution had an air-tight case against him, including a parade of witnesses of all the various captains who’s ships Bonnet plundered but allowed to live, yet he still decided to plead “non-guilty” to the charges of piracy and act as his own defense attorney, even calling in “character witnesses” to speak on his behalf. He was, of course, found absolutely guilty, and sentenced to hang (Bonnet suggested a counter-offer, which was to let them chop all his legs and arms off), but many of the inhabitants of Cape Town actually felt sorry for Bonnet, and there was even a riot on his behalf that nearly burned down the entire town. Bonnet actually had so much sympathy among the general populace, especially from the ladies, that his execution got delayed several times before the governor finally decided enough was enough and sent him to the gallows a couple of weeks before Christmas.
While they’re definitely taking historical liberties with his life, I hope every single one of those beats make it into future seasons because they sound exactly like the sort of weirdness the fictionalized Bonnet would have gotten up to. Our Flag Means Death Season 1 is now streaming on HBO Max.