Graphic by Sofia Savid ‘24
Rowan Bernstein ’22
Staff Writer
In 1717, an aristocrat named Stede Bonnet purchased a ship and set sail with dreams of becoming a pirate, leaving behind his wife, children and sizable fortune. Known as the “Gentleman Pirate,” Stede Bonnet was the inspiration for the seafaring HBO Max comedy “Our Flag Means Death.” The series takes plenty of liberties when it comes to historical accuracy, to its great benefit. Playing fast and loose with history not only leads to great moments of comedy, but also allows for a more inclusive story.
“Our Flag Means Death” follows a heavily-fictionalized version of the incompetent Stede (Rhys Darby) and his pirate crew. During his travels aboard his ship, the Revenge, Stede encounters the infamous pirate Blackbeard (Taika Waititi), and the two form a friendship that develops into a romance.
According to creator David Jenkins, this romance was a part of the plan for the series from the earliest stages of its development. In an interview with IndieWire, Jenkins explained that it was “the reason to do the show.” When Jenkins first learned about the real Stede and discovered that he spent time sailing with Blackbeard, he became interested in filling in the gaps in the historical accounts and exploring what that relationship could have looked like.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jenkins described Stede as a compelling figure to base a series on, since he could “try to figure out why he left his family, and try to see why he had this relationship with Blackbeard.” The show provides potential answers to both of these mysteries through a poignant exploration of the fictional Stede’s background, repressed sexuality and feelings for Blackbeard.
In addition to the romance between the show’s leads, there are multiple LGBTQ+ characters among the crew of the Revenge. Gina Pasciuto ’23 praised the “found family” that forms between the crewmates.
“So much of being queer is finding and choosing your people,” they said. “Seeing this wacky group find each other and fight for each other and fully accept each other for what they are just always makes me emotional.”
One particularly noteworthy character is Jim (Vico Ortiz), who is in disguise on the Revenge as a mute male pirate and on the run due to a bounty on their head. When their identity is revealed to the crew, they explain that they don’t actually consider themself to be a woman; they’d like to continue being “Jim,” and nothing needs to change about how the crew sees them.
Soli Guzman-Rubalcaba ’24 found this character particularly meaningful to them.
“I have not seen a trans — specifically nonbinary — Latine character in any form of media,” Guzman-Rubalcaba said, explaining that it was exciting “seeing someone who is nonbinary, who is trans and Latino that looks like [them].”
Guzman-Rubalcaba also found Jim’s storyline of taking revenge on the men who killed their family to be an important narrative about colonialism. “We never hear the stories of people being colonized,” they said. “When we do, it’s always … watered down.”
Jim’s family lived in what is now St. Augustine, and when most of them were killed by a Spanish man, Jim was forced to leave their family’s land. Guzman-Rubalcaba said that they appreciated “seeing that it’s a Latino person being killed, and their land being colonized by a Spaniard. … I’m Mexican, I’m also Apache and Navajo,” they said. “My people were colonized, so seeing that story portrayed so explicitly was really refreshing.”
While the show is lighthearted and doesn’t revel in its characters’ suffering, it also doesn’t shy away from acknowledging the realities of discrimination. Homophobia is clearly present in society at large, but is rarely found in the comparatively inclusive world of the pirates. Additionally, members of Stede’s crew face both implicit and explicit racism at times, and the comedy always comes at the expense of the characters who perpetuate that racism. In one episode, the character Oluwande Boodhari (Samson Kayo) poses as Egyptian royalty at an upper-class party, and scams the attendees out of their riches by asking them to invest in his “pyramid scheme” — involving a fortune locked away in a literal pyramid.
Class tensions — and intersections of class and race — are another underlying theme in “Our Flag Means Death.” Oluwande himself mentions early on in the show that, unlike Stede, he isn’t a pirate by choice, but because he has few other options.
“I think there was an interesting conversation happening about [Stede’s] general unhappiness versus his crew’s and [Blackbeard]’s actual suffering at the hands of systematic class discrepancy,” Anna Ange ’22 said. “I think I read into the class politics of the show more deeply than the creators may have intended, but … I hope to see them be even more intentional with these topics if they do a second season.”
On top of these thought-provoking narratives, “Our Flag Means Death” is truly a delight to watch. The show’s comedic tone makes it easy to suspend your disbelief about historical accuracy to enjoy the funny anachronisms. For example, Stede reads Pinnochio to his crew as a bedtime story, even though it wouldn’t have been written for another 164 years. By extension, it becomes easier to imagine things like a group of pirates accepting a crewmate as nonbinary without hesitation. While the comedy is generally more subtle as opposed to laugh-out-loud, it’s hilarious nonetheless. Even if the humor is not your style, it’s bolstered by an exciting and heartfelt storyline, entertaining characters and a fantastic cast that make the series well worth a watch.