Welcome to Spacing Out with BB and Jason this week covering Our Flag Means Death Season two episode one, Impossible Birds. Welcome back to spacing Now. I'm BB and I'm Jason, and we are discussing Our Flag Means Death one episode
at a time, spoiler free. The series is available to stream on the service Max, which is formerly HBO, and I remind you this is being released on two different podcast feeds, so if you're listening on the Spacing Out with our Flag Means Death feed that I invite you to check out our main podcast, Spacing Out with BB and Jason, where you can find all of these episodes, plus our coverage Battlestar Galactica Star Trek and by the time you
hear this, probably a lot more. Assuming you're listening in the future, this is a rewatch for us, so we will have a spoiler section at the end of the podcast where we are free to discuss future events in the series. So if this is your first time watching and you don't want any spoilers, you'll just need to skip that clearly marked section, Otherwise we won't be spoil anything past this episode, which is Our Flag Means Death Season two
episode one Impossible Birds. This originally aired on October fifth, twenty twenty three, about a year and a half after the show ended season one. This is written by David Jenkins and Alyssa Lane and Alex Sherman, and directed by David Jenkins. He's also the creator of the show. In this episode, the crew of the Revenge have been rating ships regularly due to Blackbeard's increasingly erratic demands. When Izzy brings up Steve, Ed shoots him in the leg and
names Frenchy's new first mate. Steve and his crew have taken up residents on the Republic of Pirates and are working at Spanish Jackie's. Richard Baines, a minor noble turned pirate, tells Steve about a Roman puzzle chess in Jackie's possession. Steve and the crew are caught trying to steal it. A local soup vender named Susan suddenly arrives and buys both the chests and the crew from Jackie. Susan is then revealed to be Jong Sal pirate queen and conqueror of China.
I hope I was somewhat close on her name. You forgot the ye well, I basit on how I heard Auntie say it. Oh, so that's the only reference point I had. I got it. Vibe check. Did we like the episode overall? How does it stand the test of time? But vibe check is before Trivia. Oh, you're right, you're right. It's my first day. This is a fun episode to come back to, and it's really good. It's juicy. Yeah, and it really it
makes a lot out of the bad situation of Ed Insteed. Yeah, it's really interesting to see the juxtaposition of experiences between the two characters and how they're dealing with their separation. Yeah, and how that carries down to their crew as well. Yeah. So yeah, I think it's a really strong opener. Yeah, it's really good, Like it's after a year waiting, it's so like wanted and when you finally get it, it's so satisfying to have
this as your first episode. It answers a lot of question uestions, but it also leaves things to be built up, so very good world building. Yeah, and it sprinkles in some new characters, so we can see that, like there's some new dynamics coming for the season. So yeah, it's fun trivia time. What facts could we uncover for Impossible Birds. A set photo was published proving that the intervention scene was originally longer and involves Frenchy holding
Izzy's hand. In the scene with Spanish, Jackie's husband has shown that two of them are trans This was confirmed on Instagram by Finnhunter, who played one
of them. The other is played by Hayden Bryant. Set decorator Lindsay Cantrell published the photo of the backside of Blackbeard's wanted poster, providing a full list of his crimes, which include climate change denial, wearing a wig as a hat, flash mobbing and prisoning a cat atheism, communism which is about one hundred and thirty years before the idea of communism was created, and witchcraft, plagiarism, improper citations and an academic document and ekin traffic. I don't know
what that is. I've never heard of it, so that's just the fun. The art department has Guz Khan, who portrayed Ivan, did not return for season two. He said the decision was not his, rather, it came from executives and there was no clear reason given, and they did allude to him dying or something. Right, Yeah, it's just a quick line from Fang saying that Blackbeard didn't care that Ivan died. Yeah, that's all
we get about that. The second season's release came shortly after the twenty twenty three Writers Guild strike and during the Sagafra, after a strike leading to a lack of promotional materials by the cast and crew. Yeah, they couldn't post anything relating to production. So I think that's what killed it in a lot
of ways, very possibly. I remember you said that once the the strike was a deal was made, like there was a flood of content for everyone because they've been holding onto it. It looked like they had so much fun on set too. Yeah, we got like that post credit scene which seemed like just improving from Vico from Vico the Deep Sea Dive. Let's break down some of our thoughts on the episode. You can share your thoughts with us
through email or social media. We may use your comments on an upcoming episode. So this episode starts off with the beautiful reunion of Blackbeard and Steed after Steed takes down Izzy and all is right in the world, and then we turn out it's just a dream that's interrupted by farts, likely John's gas. Good old fart jokes. Yeah, it seemed too good to be true that Steve Bonnet could grow a perfect beard and beat up Izzy, and that Blackbeard
would just run into his arms on that beach when they made impact. It was so funny that they like knocked each other down. Yeah, so I'm glad they shot that, Like we got that. That was like the dream, right, that's very much what we wanted for this to happen. But then we cut to reality and you're in a small little room full of dirty men. Yes, they're all upset about you, crying about your boyfriend and crying about the farting. They're just trying to sleep because they've been working at
Spanish Jackies from like seven to nine or something stupid. Yeah, so since we saw a Steed renounce all of his wealth in the previous episode, he and his crew have nothing. Yeah. I like that they kept that as an art that continued, so that there was consequences to his actions, because in a different show, it would be like, oh, they're magically back on the ocean looking for black Beard or something. Yeah, it's interesting that they all stuck together, like no one went out to like find a new
crew to join or anything. Well Swede did well. Swede was like chosen, Yeah, he was chosen. That was part of the bargain for them working at Spanis and Jackie Jackie was like, I like that blonde guy with the missing teeth. Swede was pulled into a life of luxury as we all hope to be, and he stays with her. That's so interesting. Well, he said himself. He's he's found ways, like things about himself that he never knew he had. He's channeling himself in ways that he couldn't understand
before. And he's learned to like access old parts of him that he thought he had lost. And I'm like that's so beautiful. Yeah, Like I'm glad that it was like not like one of those creepy situations where you hate the person you're with. Like he seems to be happy in this relationship, so it doesn't feel creepy or wrong. No, we're all happy for him. Yeah. What does it mean when he said Steed a life that Steve found him deserted on an island about to be eaten. Oh, that's what
they're referring, Like Steed saved his life. That's where all the loyalty comes from Yeah. Yeah, yeah, so they all just want to get back to see but they're stuck working Spanish jackies. No one seems happy there. Steve is trying to He's writing that letter to like narrate to everyone, like what a nice experience they're having. Yeah, well, I think that's like Steve's toxic positivity at play. You know, he has that like no must
stay, everything's gonna be okay kind of vibe to him. And he's writing this letter in hopes that it will reach Blackbeard because he has no like there's no way to call him or text him or you know, send him a message somehow. So he's throwing like he's putting all of his like thoughts and feelings out into the ocean, hoping that happenstance will help him reach his love once again. And in his dream even is he told him you're the one
who left him. Yep. So he's very aware that he's in the situation because he put himself in it. But you know, Steed, he's going to keep it light, he's going to keep it airy. He's always a gentleman. Yeah, So he finally has moved past the guilt of leaving his wife and kids, and now he gets this new guilt of leaving Ned the love of his life potentially. Yeah. So, and he's worried about like
the consequences of his actions now again. Yeah. He also he appears to be scared of him because they're getting all the news of what black Beard is doing at sea, right, and he's like, all they have to do is ad the horns to him, and he's like a true demon. And Blackbeard in this episode says, I am no demon, I am the devil. So this is like a transition and black Beard that Steed would not recognize.
And I think, if I had to choose, I would rather be in that stinky little dingy room with Steed than in, you know, a room full of riches miserable with black Beard. But there's wedding cake. Yeah, but it's so sad. It was the saddest, like I've never seen somebody on TV eat wedding cakes so sad, like Fang couldn't even eat it. Frenchie good though. Frenchie was compartmentalizing and he's like, it's so easy, you guys, this is great. And I think that's the attitude that
got him promoted. Yeah, but they all look really good in their guyliner. That this new grunge like metal look is working for me. So do you think that was like a group decision to do their faces like that, or did they come down from black Beard or are they just like following his lead. I think they're following his lead, but because there's like a new vibe and aesthetic that needs to be like we're elevating to this level of real piracy and we're like goth demons. I love it. I really do like
it. Like Frenchie looks good, Vico looks good, looks good. They all look good in this new like dark element. And I'm sure you know this is like representation of their era right now. They're in their like miserable pirate era and you can tell, like the tension in the room is like so high, like they don't want to do this anymore. It's like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, we plummet, we pillage, we continue to like Maine and mangle and it's not fun anymore. Yeah, to the
extent that they have to throw treasure overboard. Yeah, they're they're plundering so much that they have they're it's slowing their ship down, and Blackbeard's like, we're not going to slow down. He's like a girl boss. He's got a girl boss his way through the pirrating world. And he fucking kills Izzy. He shoots him. Yeah, he shoots him in the leg. Oh
in the leg. Oh Okay, I didn't see that, but is he Like all he did was like kind of talk like Steed, Like Izzy was finally seeing the light and the purpose and the goodness of what it was to be in Steed's crew, even though it irked him to all hell that it was like the right thing to do. And it literally killed him or injured him, maybe mortally because we don't know what kind of medicine they have on board, Like how clean is it? Like they're so nasty and dirty,
Like he could die of infection. It's crazy. Yeah, Like is he's I feel like this whole series, he's been trying to like calibrate black Beard and he's like he's swung too soft and he's like, we got to give ri a Steed and then it swings them too far the other way, and he's like he's trying to find that perfect black Beard that he loves. Yeah, he pushed them too far. And now he doesn't like where he ended
up. Yeah, and we see is he like having a bit of a breakdown in front of everybody, Like he's having trouble like giving commands and following orders, and apparently he's lost more toes like he is a victim of black Beard. They all are like, this is abuse, and it's so scary because hurt people, hurt people, But like, is that a good excuse, Like that's that's not in my opinion, that's not a good excuse, you know, to like hurt others. But it's kind of something that can
happen with trauma. It's there's a cycle of trauma that can exist in a person where if they experience deep trauma and hurt and sadness and pain, then they will instead of like examining it and processing it and putting it to rest and living with their life and in a new way where they can acknowledge their trauma and you know, live with it and be able to move forward from it, they instead perpetuate that trauma. They're like, if I feel bad,
everybody around me's gonna feel bad. And when Frenchie went to talk to black Beard, and black Beard was talking about that bird that never touches the ground and then he says he's never touching the ground, frenchie. You could tell he was like, fuck, we're all stuck here where his prisoner's essentially at sea, Like this is just a vicious cycle we're stuck in and it's so sad. Yeah, he was kind of stuck in this like middle management
role where he has to relate Blackbeard's orders to the crew. But then he's also trying to like stick up for the crew with black Beard get some shot. Yeah, yeah, because he had the balls to say, hey, this isn't working. And he said the name Steed fucking Bonnet. Yeah, you're not allowed to say the name of that person who used to be the owner of the ship. Then on the other side, Steed meets that one fella who wants to be a gentleman pirate too, but he apparently wants to
do it with more pozzizz. Yeah, and I'm like, oh, girl, Steve is a unique character. I don't know if we can have another one. We shouldn't need two Steed Bonnets. No, And he could tell he's over eager by his approach. And then when they're doing that raid at Spanish Jackie's because he told them like, hey, she has a treasure chest with something in it that's worth some goal, some you know, we know what it's worth. These people here, they're like below us, they don't
know shit about shit. And I'm like that was strike one. And then he was gonna make his lime Ricky, He's gonna leave his colleague card and I'm like, signature cocktail. What the fuck leaves a drink? Gets cut yeah, and he's alone. Steed's like, no, we gotta go, and he's like, nah, you don't understand, Brandy. You don't understand like how to build a brand. And Steed's like fuck you then and he leaves him and he gets caught and gets his nose cut off. Who the
fuck is this guy? A minor prince just got his nose ripped off because he was fucking with the wrong shit. Yep. And Spanish Jackie tracks Steed and the crew down and they find out that she had indigo in powder form,
which is actually like a crazy amount of indigo. Yeah, And it's like, I don't know if anybody knows anything about dye, No, apparently not, but indigo, especially in that time period, was very expensive, like rich people had clothing made with indigo, and it's there's different types of indigo in the world. But in order to process it, it takes a long time, and it's it's very like production heavy, like you have to boil it and process it and temperate and then to dry it out and create
a powder. That's a super concentrated form of a dye when you powder it. And to have that much of it, like a chestworth, that's crazy of any kind of dye because usually, like I remember when I was in art school, they had us take a dye class and we had samples of like four ounce jars for our dye process, and that was like we didn't use all of that in the whole school year. So it was like crazy to see like a tub full of that shit. And it's interesting that nobody
understands the value of it, except for the pirate queen Susan. This very cool new characters coming in. Three women, three new women on set. Yep. There's Archie, which is that tough mercenary type of broad that's on the crew with black Beard, and then there's Auntie and Susan. I'm just gonna call her by her American name. I'm sorry everybody, I call her the Pirate Queen, the Pirate Queen. It's cool that they added more women. It sucks that they had to cut Iman out. Yeah, I wonder
if somebody didn't get along with him or something. Maybe that's hard to say. I mean, it could just been a budget thing, like we're adding characters and you gotta cut someone, You gotta cut someone. Oh my god, this episode had a lot of fanng crying. Fang was crying like every other scene. Yeah, oh my god. And his crying is so good. It's like so on point that it makes me so sad. Oh. But the Pirate Queen saves them. She's like, I'm gonna pay for this,
indigo, you don't have to worry about it. And I want them to come with me, and they're like, who are you? Are we in soup now? I liked that they were all on board with that. Yeah. Honestly, if a soup entrepreneur decided to pick me up from my like shitty existence, I would be down. But it turns out she's a
pirate queen. And historically this is a real person from China. There was a like very infamous woman who was in charge of like so many pirates in that and she was famous because she had like a work life balance or something. I can't recall exactly her. Uh, there's that puppet history show. They have an episode of her where they talk about her and her like career as a pirate and how she started off as a pirate's wife and then she
eventually became her own like leader and her own like person. It's very interesting, but I'm excited. I love that they play around with like historical fiction. Yeah, it's fun to like see the parallels of I mean, like a lot of the what we know about these pirates is pretty vague and you know, secondhand stories or further distance from it. So they have a lot of creative freedom just to fill in the gaps, as they have done with
Steve and Ed. Those gaps weren't hard to fill, let's be real, Like, I feel like scholars know that pirates tended to be okay to be gay in that situation, Like there were more open opportunities and more accepted of that type of behavior because it was a different society and a different set of norms outside of the like typical behavior. Because in like that era in that time, it was technically illegal for a man to be with another man.
They could be arrested for buggery or whatever, you know, fucking around. So I like this. I'm excited for the next episode. I'm very curious about what Susan's background is going to be like and realize like in the show, because I'm obviously familiar with her like a little bit based on historical like documents. And Yeah, she seems very competent. Yeah, she seems like
she's got it all together. Like out of all the Pirate like leaders, she seems to be the one that's gonna be like on top or the best, Like she's going to have a balance of ruthlessness and community mindedness that the other two pirates leaders didn't have. I also wanted to note that Frenchie seemed to be when they are raiding the ship, he seemed to be portraying himself
as a cat, those claws in his like wolverine clause. He's mighty and scary, So I love that running joke that he thinks cats are the most terrifying thing. Yeah. We also saw Jim be very violent in that scenario too. Yeah, and Jim was tough as they all were Yeah, and then Blackbeard kept that the groom from the wedding cake, which happens to a zimble Steve certat Blonde Pirate. He knows a little gentleman pirate for his pocket.
Yeah, so he's still thinking a lot about Steve. I would be too, man, this dude that like completely changed my worldview and kissed me and made me feel like there was a chance at a different type of future in life, and then he fucking bails on me. I don't know astroal queen, who was the standout character in the episode. I pick the Swede.
The Swede, Yeah, that's my astral queen. He has to, you know, give himself up as a husband and enter this matrimony and then he finds himself and he helps his friends, and his wife finds him sexier somehow, even after she double she gets double crossed. So I feel like the Sweet is my astro queen this episode. He's got some really great moments too. And I didn't know how buff he was. I forgot how buff he was, but when he was in there giving her a massage, I
was like, damn sweet. Yeah, he's such a skinny guy. He's no wonder. She was like looking him up and down, she could see through those clothes. That nasty bitch. I love her. Who do you pick? I always like, if there's a character that like clearly saves the day, that I want to pick that character. And so I'm picking the pirate queen. Oh okay, selling all that soup, no for saving them from Spanish Shacki's nose jar. I love her retort where Spanish Jackie's like,
are you the soup bitch? And She's like, I'm the money bitch. That was really good. We'll see how they do on her ship. Yeah. I feel like they were so bad they got left on a deserted island. Let's not forget that. Yeah. I mean, she's the only one that seems to have her shit together, So we'll see how they's fair in that situation. Yeah. But that should wrap up the main part of the episode. So we're going to go into our spoiler section and talk about anything
that might come in the next few episodes. And so if you don't want any of that, then get on now. You should just embark. The next episode we called Red Flags. Oh, and we will see what that's about next time. Let's put our living stereo stylist in this group. Grace for impact spoilers ahead. If you haven't seen the whole series, now is the time to say goodbye. Remember you can contact us at Spacingoutpod at gmail dot com, find us on social media, share your thoughts and be a
part of the discussion. Spoilers in five four three two one. All right, so season two, dude, I can't believe that the fucking guy with the nose comes back and is like gonna fuck them all up. Yeah, so Bains is like the villain of the season, right, Like, yeah, he has a nose patch or something. Yeah, he has like a couple of different noses. He goes through because she fucking vanished Jackie took his nose. He thought he could play around, and he fucked around and he
found out. But then he comes back with the vengeance. Yeah. So I don't really remember what all this whole deal is, but I assume he kind of blames Steed and the crew for Yeah, but he really pays back the Pirate Queen. He does this thing where he gives them grandfather clocks for each of their ships, and they for some reason put them in their ships and then they they're fucking time bombs. Yeah, and like her whole fleet goes down within seconds. And then that's why she gets stuck with them as
a crew and she wants revenge on his ass. And so the Swede stays with Spanish Jackie. I believe we check in with him some more. Yeah, we see more Spanish Jackie, and I believe he's thriving there. Yeah, I think he does well. And with Spanish Jackie, I think he's really happy. There some balance and harmony. What I am failing to remember, and I feel like it's really important, is how Steed and Blackbeard go from not talking or not knowing where each other is to live in an end
together. The transition between that, I'm like, it's escaping me. I think there's an episode where fucking Blackbeard finally finds that bottle, that message in the bottle comes back. Yeah, I don't remember that, but I know that they come upon the revenge and like mutiny has taking place, and black Beard is unconscious and he has this whole episode where he's like in his own like purgatory in his head. Oh yeah, with his dad or something with
his former captain. That's it. And then so Steve is there when he wakes up, very similar to how they met. Yep, all right, cool, So he's not dead and neither is Lucius, right Lucius. We didn't of course I didn't see him, but yeah, we didn't talk about him because that would have been a spoiler. But is he They keep him alive despite Blackbeard's wishes that they they should kill him. Yeah, because Frenchy can't kill him, and that's his job, that's his one job that he's
had from the beginning take care of this and he doesn't do it. Yeah, and the crew really comes around to like show that they care about Eazy because he loses that leg and they have to build him a new one. Yeah. So yeah, it's a lot of all the things developed through the season. Is he like the most pirate of them all with his like missing leg? Yeah, because none of them. I can't think of anyone who has like an eye patch, No, just a nose patch. But yeah,
so fun stuff to come. Yeah, I'm excited for the season. Some new relationships between Jim and Olive Wande and Archie and the Pirate Queen. Yeah, it all gets tangled up. Yeah, hashtag couple goals, all right, I think that does it for us. Then all right, yeah, good, we're done here. Thanks for sailing on the revenge. Did we go over the last month last season's Pirate Queen or Astro Queens? No
we didn't. Did we go over that? Well, that's what we did for Battle Star each season, but I did not tally them up for us. So that's okay. We can do it at the end this season for season one and two. Then yeah, we will see who the overall winner is. All right, we'll see how it goes. I'm going to watch that Pirate History episode again, the Puppet History show where they talk about her. All right, that's it, we're done. We should have cut it
off twenty minutes ago. Thank you for spacing out with BB and Jason. You can help us out by subscribing and leaving a positive rating or review. Next time we will cover our flag means Death season two, episode two, Red Flags. We hope you will join us.