Something goes here

here is a map of the path of the eclipse (from timeanddate)

The whole setup of the scene has me feeling incredibly not-normal. Both these characters are good at presenting the face they want other people to see, but the scene is blocked so they go through this entire conversation without once looking each other in the eye. So they keep their voices as steady as they can while a completely different story plays out on their faces. :flails: God, I love it!

I still find it really interesting that Frenchie seeks Ed out in the first place, given that he clearly doesn’t want to be first mate. Aside from the larger narrative purpose of giving Ed a screen partner, is this Frenchie playing the part he needs to, wanting to do a good job so he stays on Ed’s good side? Is it his discreet way of checking in on Ed? Either way, it intrigues me.

Ed is depressed and in pain, and he’s been isolating himself from the crew while he plans his own destruction, but when Frenchie comes along, what does Ed do? He opens up!!! In a roundabout way, through metaphor, like Ed often does, but this isn’t the businesslike Ed post-shooting of, “Throw this shit overboard and get suited up.” Frenchie asks what the plan is, and Ed doesn’t give him an order. No, Ed tells him a story that’s an expression of this pain. (Coming right on the heels of Jim telling Fang the wooden boy story to ease his sadness and fear??? THIS SHOW!!!)

This moment isn’t enough to make him express any hope for the future—they’re “never going back to land,” after all—but some tiny flicker of Ed wants to reach out, wants to tell someone what it feels like in his head and his heart. Is this the same part of Ed that will wrestle to untie the rope when Hornigold says he’s already made up his mind?

After Ed tells him about the impossible bird, I adore Frenchie’s response so much: "Sounds like something that maybe actually can't exist, captain." It’s the smallest, most cautious nudge imaginable, gently intimating to Ed that a bird couldn’t live like that. He just saw Ed shoot his previous first mate for speaking out of turn (and doesn’t have the full context of everything that had been loaded into that moment,) but Frenchie still makes this slight overture. As with Ed’s story, it’s not enough to change things, not enough to right the ship. But it’s there, and that matters to me.

Just a feast of a scene, wow! While 1x05’s superb “what’d they do to you, man?”/“they’re such dicks about spoons!” will always be my favorite Ed-Frenchie interaction (my thoughts on this are well documented, lol,) this one is incredible too. They’re so different from one another—in 1x05, they’re both being quite open, while in 2x01, everything they’re saying is much more veiled—but both scenes do such a wonderful job of showing how they understand and relate to each other.

Anyway…

I want to talk about Stede and Mary.

They are so wrong for each other for many reasons, but there is no fear or hatred between them.

Mary can look tired and exhausted with the entire thing as she retires with her glass of wine, but is also still trying so hard.

Her body language here isn’t one of a wife exposed to cruelty, verbal or physical. Stede is indifferent, but never violent or deliberately hurtful. They’re both trying to desperately understand each other. Mary calls him ‘darling’, she tries to remind him of the commitment they made. A woman defeated does not do that. A woman in fear doesn’t do that.

By the standards of the day, this isn’t a bad marriage. But OFMD doesn’t measure against what’s simply acceptable. It asks people to imagine lives in which they can be their best selves.

The issue isn’t entirely that Stede is a gay man. It’s that neither got to choose their life partner. I think also we have two incredibly intelligent, creative people pulling in entirely different directions. A duller couple might’ve continued to tick along.

The bottom line is both deserve better, and they get that better. They get the best, and it’s thanks to Stede’s courage in leaving no matter how clumsily he went about it. And Mary then refusing to give up the freedom she discovered. Between them they figure it out in a very messy way, but they get there.

And I adore that there does seem to be sibling care underneath it all. Stede calls Doug ‘wonderful’. Mary genuinely wishes for her soon-to-be-ex-husband to find the love she has. And I think that’s beautiful.

And so:

My Blackbeard + Greenery embroidery is finally done! Yay!

leaf obtained, purpose unclear

ground:

unclear

sibling obtained, purpose: biting

Option one: The murder victim was innocent while the killer was an abusive bastard, see Speckled Band. Conclusion, arrest and have the killer charged (Or in the case of Speckled Band, indirectly murder him yourself then shrug and go home)

they were POPULAR

the Victorians LIKED reading about women who won out over shitty men in their lives, even when that plotline reaffirmed a woman’s power and agency or put an active sexist in his place (ie Irene Adler besting Holmes)