#nana is super cool and funny and all but she's also toxic as hell

[sarucane]

Do we just keep telling the same story forever? Meta on OFMD S1E7 "This is Happening"

In this S1E7, two characters--Ed and Jim--have to answer a simple question: Am I ready to tell a diferent story?

At the start of the episode, Ed's framing his time on Stede's ship as "sitting idle." He's thinking about preparing for the next adventure, whatever that may be--the next chapter in a story he knows and understands. Because there are rules. A ship has only one captain.

When Stede tries to prove that Ed can tell the next chapter in that story without leaving the Revenge, Ed is pretty unapologetic in his disdain. But he does come along, even while moaning and complaining.

And Stede's just trying to tell the same story, too. What he imagines a pirate's tale is supposed to be, not what it actually is. He doesn't recognize the difference between nonsense and truth, he's so caught up in "entertaining" Ed that he doesn't realize he needs to feed Ed.

But in fairness to Stede, Ed has a poor grip on what he really wants as well. When he fantasizes as he flirts with Stede, he's not imagining a swashbuckling adventure. He's imagining opening a restaurant. He's half in his old life, and half out.

Lucius, the unemotional observer, figures all this out of course.

He sees that Ed is absolutely very receptive to Stede, and that Stede is crazy about Ed. But Ed is caught up in who he's been, without seriously considering how to move forward in this story he's in now. So Lucius confronts Ed. He points out that Ed's story as it is going now ends one way: pain and loneliness. And he asks if Ed wants that.

Stede didn't want Ed to leave, so he told a story about treasure hunting. And Ed doesn't want to leave and be alone again, so he tells the story too. And by telling that story together, Ed and Stede find their way to the same place: beginning a new chapter. Imagining a life they can live together, without devaluing or overwriting anything that came before.

It sounds nice, although it's shallow (Ed's not going to be happy as a pirate, Stede is bad at telling this pirate's story and he'll never be a successful traditional pirate). But it's still a hopeful story, because they're still moving forward. Right on the edge of telling a different story.

And resolving in the opposite direction is Jim's plot. Jim's story is relentlessly upbeat and funny in this ep, but it's a tragedy through and through. Jim, like Ed, is half in their old life and half out. Has been with Olu for more than a year, without actually doing anything, while keeping him at a distance.

And it turns out they were "raised by a nun to be a killing machine." That Nana projected all her own trauma and righteousness onto Jim, and passed cruel judgement when Jim says that they already killed "the only one that matters." When Jim suggests that they might have moved on, and be ready to tell another story.

Jim regresses in this episode. They let Olu walk away instead of telling a new story with him, one where he's their family. They take the petrified orange as a sign that they should go back to being who Nana told them they were, to being obsessed with revenge. But really, it's more like a warning of what they'll become if they cling to the same old story.

It's sad. And it's a painful foreshadowing of what awaits Ed and Stede when they falter on the path forward, when they think their past defines their future. When they tell someone else's story, instead of their own.

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd s2 #ofmd meta #ofmd spoilers #ed teach #stede bonnet #blackbonnet #jim jimenez #oluwande boodhari #ofmd oluwande #legit i think this is my least favorite ep #the plot with ed and stede is nice because it gives them something to aim for in terms of how they can just be chill together #and the conversation with lucius is good for ed pushes him in an interesting way--does he REALLY want this he has to figure that out #it's a nice bit of nuance for his character and the story's richer for it #and it's great crew development in this ep sure #but they really pulled their punches with Jim's plot #nana is super cool and funny and all but she's also toxic as hell #and jim's plot feels like the writers just played everything safe and it's annoying