#first time viewer

At S1 episode 4 she said something like: "I think Edward offloads all the heavy stuff onto Izzy - he wants to be liked and admired and Izzy has to keep everyone and everything in line. And everyone including Ed hates him for it? No wonder he seems exhausted."

She was really upset by how little respect Izzy got from everyone around him and "how badly the crew treated Izzy" in Ep 5.

We're at episode 6 now and she's horrified - "The uszh meant that Izzy would've had to kill all the people on this ship, didn't it? Probably even including Stede?"

Sometimes, with all the discourse about who's to blame and why is it Izzy, I forgot how tough Izzy's deal was as Blackbeard's first mate.

Of course he gladly put up with it for Ed and their special bond (and she also saw that immediately), but as soon as Stede waltzed in and it all fell apart poor Iz was in hell...

And yeah, of course it's more complex than that (I can't wait for us to get to the last 2 episodes and S2), and this is obviously not a remotely new or original take.

Her first impression of Raven- "Ravens a badass."

Made it to Season Two of “Chuck” and Casey is still my love! Favorite Casey moments so far (in no particular order):

*Spoilers for Season One*

1. Casey’s Car being blown up by a Chuck missile

2. Casey loving on his car

3. Flambe! (Couldn’t resist! LOL)

4. Casey tied to the bed.

5. Casey tied to the bed.

6. Casey on the Truth drug. ( I mean, come on!)

7. Casey tackling a shoplifter

8. Casey honoring Reagan. (Couldn’t help but love those moments.)

9. Casey offering to kill Harry. (”You want me to kill him?”)

10. Casey and Chuck fighting together, tied to the chairs.

Izzy's little wave in Ep9: "It's like: Hi Ed, it's me... Does it even matter anymore that I'm here?"

Izzy's reaction to the toe incident in Ep10: "At first he's almost happy about it, isn't he? We're Blackbeard again, you need me. It does matter that I'm here!"

Me: Oh my god you're killing me 😭

Izzy's betrayal upset her at first (she texted me: "By the way, we have to talk about Izzy selling them out to the enemy, that's actually not cool") but while talking about it she came up with this interesting thing later.

"In close relationships, behaviour-wise, partners often do the opposite of what the other is doing. You're crying, so I have to be strong. It's like a scale - one goes up, the other down.

You can see in the early episodes - Ed is still Blackbeard, strong and confident; Izzy is calm and keeps in the background. He talks softly to Ed while Ed is often hurtful and raises his voice (the model ship scene or the cloud scene). But when Ed is suddenly being vulnerable, Izzy compensates - in Ep4 (the empty shell of a man scene) it's still ok, Ed can deal with it, they're both closer to being equal.

Even Izzy selling Stede out doesn't seem like a total dealbreaker - it's an extreme reaction to Ed's extreme indecision - so Izzy has to be super decisive.

But in Ep10 Ed is all the way down, super vulnerable and Izzy's side of the scale goes way, way up. He's so cruel because Ed is so soft, because he "has to be the tough one" here. Izzy can't be like Stede who'd go right down and be vulnerable with Ed. Someone has to keep watch and compensate. This is how it's always been, it's survival.

Ed taking Izzy's toe is traumatic, but in this framework acceptable for Izzy. Ed's scale is higher up then ever, so Izzy is completely at Ed's mercy (and smiling and whispering to him)."