Welcome to Spacing Out with BB and Jason, this week covering our Flag Means
Death, Season one, Episode two, a Damned Many. Welcome to spacy
Now. I'm BB and I'm Jason, and today we will be discussing our
Flag Means Death. Before we start, you should know this podcast is being
released on two different feeds, So if you found it through these Spacing Out
with our Flag Means Death feed then you're welcome to check out our main feeds
Spacing Out with BB and Jason. Well, you'll find this show plus others.
We've covered all the Battlestar Galactica, some Star Trek, and we're going
to hit some more shows after we finished this one. Yeah, this one's
pretty short and sweet, so I'm really excited to see what we move on
to. Yeah, so if you want to stay with us, you should
hop over there. You should also know that this is a rewatch for us,
and so we're going to have a spoiler section at the end of the
podcast where we are free to discuss any future events from the timeline of this
series. If it's your first time watching the series, you are I just
need to skip that clearly marked section at the end of the podcast, but
otherwise we won't be spoiling anything past this episode, which is our flag means
Death. Season one, episode two, A Damned Man. This originally aired
on March third, twenty twenty two, which is the same as last week,
because they did release these in chunks, so I think the first three
episodes came out on the same day. Well, I would have loved that.
I didn't watch it right when it came out because we didn't have HBO
then, But oh, I got three episodes in a row out my pants.
I mean that's how they did the whole series that came out in chunks
like that, so, which I'm not always the biggest fan of like especially
like this show built a lot off of word of mouth, and if you
release it over you know, ten weeks as opposed to four or five weeks,
and you have kind of a longer period for it to grow. This
was written by David Jenkins, who was the creator and Joe runner, and
was directed by Nacho Violando, which put aside about him Phoebe, we watched
well, so there's a podcast called How Did This Get Made? Which is
where they watch bad movies and talk about them, joke about them, and
We went to a live show for that. In the movie we watch was
called Open Windows, and he was the director of that movie, the one
with Elijah Wood. Yep, oh dear, oh wow he got to work
with Elijah Wood at least. Oh wow. Well he's doing better, so
he's Yeah, he's definitely grown a lot since Open Windows. Veja, you
know his real name is Ignacio, Yes it is. He directs a few
of these. In this episode, the Revenge runs aground on an island and
Steve orders the crew to take a vacation. Steve, Black, Pete,
and Alu Wande set off to retrieve their escape hossages, but are captured by
the local tribe on the island. Steve struggle struggles to be at peace with
Nigel Badminton's death. Were sold to another group of pirates, who, after
a brief skirmish, agree to return one hostage. The rival pirates secretly follow
the Revenge, revealing their captain to be Blackbeard. Meanwhile, Lucius discovers Jim's
disguise and Jim knocks him unconscious. All right, vibe check, vibe check.
Did we like the episode overall? How does it stand the test of
time? I love this episode. You love it. I love it.
It's great. It's not the best, but it's really great. Yeah.
I don't think it ranks quite as high as the first episode, but I
mean it's still as good. Yeah. There's my personal favorite thing is the
interactions between the natives and the different people that they encounter on their island.
Yeah, and how they deal with that and how they're like, for me
once, shame on you, for me eight times, you fucking gonna die.
So yeah, I like that. I think it was really real and
honest, and you don't see that kind of portrayal of Native people on TV.
So that was really cool where they're like in their traditional like homes and
settings, but they're also like, bitch, we speak English, we know
what you're saying, and we're not savages, Like we're just upset that you
guys keep coming over here and our shit. So that was Yeah, this
is why I really enjoyed this episode. And then it just moves the plot
forward in a way that's interesting. We add more characters and I don't know,
I'm just really excited to see more. Yeah, it builds on some
things and that you know, not a whole lot has changed by the end
of it. But we see like some character growth, I mean, Steed
is processing and we learn a little bit more about some of our characters.
Trivia time. What facts could we uncover for a damned man? Well,
it's stock a little trivia. So it's said that the real Blackbeard had a
practice of tying lit fuses into his beard to scare his opponents. Oh that's
funny, And so the idea of his whole head being made of smoke might
have been tied to that. Yeah. And you can see images of him,
like drawings and stuff of him with like the smoky beard too. Yeah,
that is an established thing about him, like historical drawings of him.
Yeah, that's cool. Those historical drawings of black Beard are really interesting,
though if you look through them, most of them are like wanted posters and
shit like that, but they're really interesting. Vico Ortiz revealed that when filming
the scene where Jim swims naked in the ocean, got the production in trouble
with the Malibu police. When in the water, Vico would roll their wetsuit
off so it wouldn't show above the water, and police didn't like that their
chest was visible. Yeah, because Vico is assigned female at births, even
though they are non binary and they're totally okay with exposing their chest. The
Malibu police was so not cool with it because they are a side female for
it sucks. Yep, free the nipple. And that's all the trivia that
I have. I don't think most of these episodes are going to have like
a lot of trivia, not like when we were doing Battlestar, when there
was like pages of things I could scroll through and find. I'm sure you
could find stuff, but it's just like so niche for this show specifically.
Yeah, and some trivia is just like pointing out historical inaccuracies. But I
don't think this show is like trying to be that accurate. No. I
mean, yeah, the writing in itself and the way that they speak to
each other is like a testament to that. When he says we have DIBs,
you think that's historically accurate? Yeah, I mean it's so clearly not.
And like they do that fist bump and so yeah, there's something in
there like pina coladas, which is basically what Aluwandi has from the natives,
like that wasn't invented yet in Pinocchio. I know that maybe indigenous people did
event the I like that retelling of history. Personally, his crocs as well.
Yeah, that's my favorite. That's my favorite thing. That he's wearing
crocs this whole time. And I don't know if they're is from home or
if like the prop Department's like, sure, why not? But it's iconic.
Uh. Yeah, So let's get into it deep space 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. Start off with black Pete spinning a tail about Blackbeard and serving
on his crew. Nobody's buying it except for Steve Bonnet. Yes, everyone's
tired of Black Pete's bullshitt. The episode just keeps asking what would Blackbeard do?
Yeah, because a big, big theme of this episode is like seeds
guilt over what happened with Nigel last episode and how responsible he is for his
death is up for debate, but he certainly feels it leads himself to be
a murderer, especially since he's claimed it among his clue crew. Yeah.
Yeah, I think the weight of the guilt is really heavy on him at
the beginning of the episode, because he admitted he did it, and he
did do it, more or less the fact that he like he rendered him
unconscious and then he fell on his sword, so he would have never fallen
on his sword if he was never unconscious. So more or less he did
kill him. It was more of an accident than like planned murder. But
the ghost of Nigel really taunts him at this island. I think that's where
we see him a lot in this island setting. And it's interesting that he's
seen him, like even when he's not there, and that he's seen him
when he's having conversations with the crew. I like that what's his name?
The witch? What's his name? The one with the thanks when I want
to eat Lucius Buttons, Buttons, Buttons. I like that. Buttons is
like ready for a stranded island. We're gonna have to eat somebody right now,
He's like, but eventually and he's like, no, we have food
for months weeks, which Buttons is. I think the reason that they ran
aground is he wasn't at the Yeah, he was listening to the story.
You know. There was a piece of trivia for the first episode that I
found after we recorded that. Buttons is established in the script as the first
mate on the ship, but it's not set in the episode, so he
is the right hand man first Steed. That's what the loyalty was about,
huh. And he can name so many birds and fishes and sea creatures yep.
I like that. They're like, what the fuck is a vacation?
What are you talking about a vacation? Like, we don't do vacation.
We're pirates. And Steed was like trying to explain to these people what a
vacation was, and what they end up doing is like pirate shit. Yeah,
they're like fighting and wanting to torture hostages, like exploding things. Yeah.
And it's just like very obvious that they don't know how to like relax
and be at leisure. I like that they were confused so they didn't know
if like the hostages get a vacation too, and that's what leads the hostages
to take advantage of their like ignorance of like the situation to run away.
But then they get captured by locals and that's pretty good. I don't know.
I like that there they all get captured for the most part. Yeah,
so the only ones who don't get captured and like deal with the locals
in a business transaction is the other crew, Blackbeard's crew, Like they're smart
enough not to get captured and smart enough to negotiate and take the captives.
Yeah, we don't see how that goes down, but they apparently walk up
and just purchase these hostages. But yeah, I thought it was interesting that
the white people were in cages and Oluwan Day was chilling. He's like,
hey, guys, talk to the chief. They made you a drink.
He had a pina colada. It's really good. He's like, you want
to taste it? And the guard was like, ah, that's not a
good idea. But I love the black and brown solidarity that was present.
Yeah, it almost like it is somewhat the opposite of what we saw in
the previous episode where they had to pretend to be a part of society on
their ship, like where all the white people are to table and the black
people are serving. Yeah, and this one is just like Aluwandi. He
gets to walk around for you and have chats and get drinks and so having
a good time. He's the hero in this tale because he like advocates for
his white friend. He's like, Hey, look, we're just dumb ass
pirates, and I think we need a break. And I love the distinction
between pirate and colonizer. I think that's really clever and interesting to think about
in terms of like the historical nature of the pirate versus the colonizer in that
time period, because the colonizer was probably wreaking more havoc and causing more deaths
than the pirate class in a lot of ways. So I like that they
were like, you're right, you know, a pirate is not dangerous to
us, so we're going to let you go. That's really telling and accurate.
Although if you were to tell that to society back in that time,
you would be like ostracized because like, how dare you think that the betterment
of the like empire is bad and that these people who are stealing from the
rich like are bad? Like they're bad people? How dare you think that
they're worse? They're not as bad as that we the colonizers are the we're
the good guys. Those pirates they're the bad guys. Okay, they're the
ones stealing from people and taking jewels and shit. I don't know, it's
just really interesting. They're probably stealing from the Queen or the kings that like
put a bunch of loot in their boats, and they could afford to lose
some of that shit and still be okay. You know, a common person
isn't going to have access to rubies and shit. They're very Robin Hood esque,
I think the pirates, and they have their own like moral code,
I'm sure, but I like how Steed was like, we're not the colonizers,
we're pirates, and then he confesses the murder. Yeah, and all
the one they has to step in clear everything up, and Steed gets like
a therapy session. I feel like, yeah, it looks like their medicine
man is present to help him deal with like the trauma of potentially killing somebody,
and I think that helps him in a lot of ways, because at
the end of the episode, Nigel is left on the island. Yeah,
yeah, so we kind of see Steed is moving past that. Yeah.
So we also meet three other pirates. We have Izzy, Fang and Ivan
who come onto the scene and like, who are these idiots. It's the
first time we really get a contrast between the Steed's crew and like other actual
like functioning pirates, they're meaner. Yeah, they're way meaner, and they're
mean to each other. Yeah, like when Izzy grabbed Fang's beard and yanked
it, that's abuse and he says he does it a lot and that's terrible.
I don't know. I'm interested to see the dynamic between the two groups
for sure. And like you could tell, Izzy was super upset that Steed
was like negotiating with him, And I'm worried about like them splitting up those
two hostages, right, Like what's gonna happen, Like what's the difference?
What kind of treatment is one hostage going to get over the other? Yeah,
you can see that Izzy is no fan of Steed's. You can see
the grudge in his eyes. So yeah, after that negotiation, we at
the end of the episode, we get to learn that this they are part
of Blackbeard's crew. He's also a funny bit where Fang and Ivan are talking
about how mean Izzy is. Yeah, they're clearly not allowed to talk about
it on their ship. Yeah, they don't talk it out as a crew.
Let's talk about Jim. Jim stinks and they are tired of it.
They're like, I smell almost as bad as you motherfuckers. And they were
writing in their diary in Spanish, and I was like, this is the
most dramatic I have ever seen anything like this is drama. Like just standing
there writing feverishly sweating, talking in Spanish and writing in Spanish about how they
put themselves in this situation. It's like a prison of their own making,
and how terrible it is to be so gross and sweaty. It was just
really like dramatic. It's like that meme cries in Spanish where it's just I
don't know. In my head, like the way I interpret things, things
just happen to be more dramatic and Spanish. Did you feel that drama?
I don't know. I don't recall the diary. Yeah, they were writing
in Spanish and sweating in it was that. That was before they went in
the water, after they talked to Oluwan Day Okay, So it was in
between that. I must have been making a note or something on something else.
Yeah, they were just and then they threw a knife out a roach
and killed it. But then they're like fuck it, and they went out
and they got in the water and fucking lucious Lucius was tired of hearing fucking
buttons talk about fucking all the animals in the sea he could name well,
and the cannon fire going on behind him. Oh yeah, there was.
Yeah, it was a little too close for comfort. And you can tell
Lucius is softer than the rest of the boys. He's he knows how to
write, he reads, and he's obviously like not into what they're into,
and so he's like wandering around and he runs into Jim's disguise and he notices
Jim's brists as they're bobbing along in the ocean getting clean, and they try
to hide, but Jim is too fast and stealthy, and they like come
up and they're like pin. Jim pins Lucious down and is like, I'm
gonna fucking kill you, bro. You saw too much. And Lucia's is
like, no, I can keep a secret. And this he's like my
mom that I like girls until I was like eighteen or something. Yeah,
so lucius sexuality is outed there. M hmmm. I don't know that anyone
has really had the explicit in the show yet. He also said not all
beards are actual beards, which was interesting line. Yeah, you know what
a beard is yes, okay for the uneducated, a beard is usually a
person of the opposite sex who is used to conceal the queerness of somebody.
So you have a quote unquote girlfriend, but she's actually your beard, so
that people don't know that you're a flaming homosexual loves men or something and can
go both ways like lesbians can have beards too. But yeah, it's interesting.
Yeah. So I mean Lucius escapes and gets on the boat, I
guess, yeah, and then Jim finds them eventually at the end of the
episode, were left kind of cliffhanger, yeah, on that, but we
also get some insight into Aluwande and how he feels about Jim. They're friends,
what do you mean, Yeah, I mean he's I mean there's clearly
some like romantic or sexual tension between them. When they're talking about Jim taking
a bath, I can watch. I mean, I'll be a lookout.
And then he turns down the offer to stay on the island with the natives,
even though he would have he would have thrived. He would have thrived.
Yeah, he would have been great with his crocs. Just you out.
Yeah, I think he says he has a friend on the boat and
that is interesting. There's romance afoot. Feels like we're at least like a
romantic confrontation. I don't know though. Jim's tough. Jim's like tough,
and I don't know, Like, yeah, I don't have a read on
how if Jim reciprocates this or not, So we'll see how it goes.
Do you have anything else you want to talk about? I don't think so.
It was a pretty short episode. It feels like, Yeah, they
were on land, which is interesting when they're on land the boat show.
Oh you know what was interesting to me when he was flashing back to the
things because the medicine man told him, you know, I don't think you're
guilty about the murder. I think there's something deeper that is giving you guilt.
And when Steve Bonnett looks back, he's like recalling going to being in
his home and looking at his children laying in their beds as he sneaks off
into the night with his little replica ship. Yeah, and I thought that
was interesting, like when we talk about like how sometimes we think one thing
is the problem, but in actuality, the problem's deeper than that. And
I think it's pretty significant that he loved his family to do this. Yeah,
and he Steve carries a lot with him, and he's as outwardly as
a character, Like he's so like optimistic and positive chipper. Yeah, he's
got a lot of baggage with him. Yeah. I think they all do
in their own ways. But we we definitely because Steve is like the main
character. His is more fleshed out and obvious to us. Yeah, we're
exploring that a lot more. Astral Queen, who was the standout character in
the episode? All right, who's your astral Queen? I've got a feeling
we're going to pick the same person. Oh yeah, it's going to be
the same as last week. Yeah, so aland please step forward again again
with those crocs you queen. Yeah, I mean, I hope not that
picks the same character every time, but it is all the want in my
favorite character. Maybe I'm starting to realize that. But he is the one
that again like kind of saves the day and like stops them from being executed
by the tribe, and he makes a difficult decision to go somewhere where death
is certain versustaining somewhere where it is comfortable and you are welcome. Yeah,
he follows his heart. Yeah, and we award that here. Yeah.
Yeah, that is my astral queen as well. Yeah. So I hope
that we're not always picking the same character. Yeah, but maybe it will.
I mean, if you keep rocking it, you just are the queen.
Yeah. I'm not going to change my vote just because of you one
before. So I'm taking it episode by episode and going with what I believe.
So that will wrap us out of the main part of the podcasts for
a damned demand. We're going to the spoiler section here in a moment,
So if you haven't seen next episode or any of the following episodes, you
should not continue listening. The next episode we will watch is called a Gentleman
Pirate, a term they coined at the end of this episode. It has
a nice ring to it, sure does, so join us for that.
We're going to go into spoilers. Let's put our living stereo stylists in this
group. Brace 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, Quoe, do you think the damned Man is because Lucia
seems to be the most damned in this in this like ending and knowing what
I know about what's the lucious storyline and arc, he's definitely a damned man
maybe. I mean, I just don't know if they'd name the episode after
that when I was kind of the b story. Yeah, So, like
why would Steve be the damned man because of like the it's like he's damning
himself with his guilt? Yeah? Or is it because he's being followed by
Blackbeard? But like at the end of the day him Blackbeard hook Cook and
he ends up breaking Blackbeard's heart. So, but I don't know if they
know all this yet, like in the writing room, do they like this
is something that I always think about when after I watched the show, Like
did they know where this was going the whole time? Yeah? I mean,
at least like benchmarks. I'm holding off on some of the trivia just
because it will spoil things. But you know this is the spoiler section.
Yeah, I know, that's what I'm about to talk about. Okay,
okay, go ahead, But so you know, he the reason he got
involved was because like the romantic storyline between him and Steve would be like the
reason to do the show. He wanted to play a gay character. He
thought that's what made like the whole story worth telling. Hmmm, that's why
he's a producer too. Yep. Okay, So the queerness is the heart
of it for a lot of it. Yeah, okay, I'm so excited.
I love that part. So I think it is an active choice that
these first few episodes don't dive too deep into that, and they're just kind
of establishing this world. But they're like outing pirates. Yeah, they're like
pirates are gay. But it's like, for me personally, it was such
a slow burn that I was shocked. Yeah, in a positive way.
I was so excited. You might think that, like this is going to
be kind of like queerbaiting, that they're just going to kind of tease this
idea that they're into each other and never actually act on it, right,
because a lot of shows do that. They're like, oh, they're great
friends, such great pals. Yeah, they're so close, they're roommates,
but for them to act on it to move forward into this like love Affair.
It's so good. It's so good. I was so sad when they
canceled it. I really But I guess it ends well. If this is
the ending, that's the silver linings. Like it did have like a lot
of closure the ending. Yeah, like the ending, like it's still open
to where if they were to come back, we can we can learn about
how the characters have grown. But like, I just wanted to see them
together more because you barely got it. Like it's it's very like, I
don't know. There's moments where, like particularly in the episode where they go
into the fancy boat and Steed is teaching him about how fancy people use passive
aggressive like behavior to be bitchy at each other, and he shows him how
like polite society engages in warfare. Basically that their relationship really gets cemented in
a lot of ways, And I'm so excited to see that. Yeah,
that's a that's gonna be a fun episode coming up. Yeah, a lot
of guest stars too. Yeah is he hands we met him. He becomes
a pretty big character through the show, and he's also a gay diva.
He used to have a relationship with black Beard. They have a love hate
relationship. There's a reason he follows Blackbeard and and he loves him so much
that he destroys himself for him. And then there's also when they make like
the bitch wears makeup like a bitch, like, oh my god, Like
even in this episode there was like a little star on the cheek, like
very coquette. Yeah, he's he's such an interesting character in the show,
and most of the time he's a fucking asshole. Yeah, and I think
part of that is because his love is not reciprocated in the same way Blackbeard.
Doesn't love Izzy the same way that Blackbeard loves Steed Bonnet, and he's
jealous of that and he acts out because he doesn't receive the type of love
that he deserves. Rightfully, is all we all deserve. And so that's
like the tragedy of Izzy. Yeah. So, like having seen his full
arc, I was excited to come back to see see that from the beginning
because again, like we've met so many characters. Yeah, and it's like
it was a lot to keep track of on the first watch. So yeah,
now Izz, he's on the radar and he's you know, he has
a grudge against Steed already, just for like the stile interaction that they have.
But like once Steve and Blackbeard becomes entangled, like he really does not
like Steve, Oh he hates him. Yeah, but he teaches Steve a
lot about being a pirate. Yeah, and then the crew eventually comes around
to accepting him and showing him that, like he's a valued part of their
team and a purse, like a valuable person because they're Yeah, we'll talk
more about it for sure when it comes up, like the aftermath of Steed
and Blackbeard's breakup and how like toxic black Beard is Toozy specifically is horrible,
and I'm not looking forward to that part. I like the beginning, you
know, when there's love and like so much potential just brewing of this like
love and sexual tension. I love it. I love that. I don't
like the breakups and the sadness. Well they won't they kind of thing.
I don't know. I'm excited. Yeah, we met Fang and Ivan two
who stick around. Thing is so cool. Yeah, I like I didn't
remember like things origin that he came from black Beard's crew, so I was
wondering where he was in the crew. He's a really great actor. And
I think he's also in that new movie by Taiko Hye t Ti The Who's
Keeping Score or Next Goal Wins or something yep. So I'm excited that he's
doing more work and hopefully we'll see more of him because he's really funny and
there's like a genuineness about him as a character and as an actor that we
don't get to see on screen a lot because he's like an older like brown
man who's also like heavy set. That's not your typical actor that's like a
background actor if anything, but even background actors like are hot and sexy actor
people. But yeah, and he's also a very like emotional character. Yeah,
he gets space for that when he's with the Steed Screw. Yeah.
I think that's all we got, right, Yeah, I think that's it.
And that an episode as an episode that was some spoilers, and so
we'll be back next time for the episode A gentleman pirate, thank you for
sailing on the Revenge. Try not to run your ship aground. Yeah,
and if you do be kind to the natives, thank you. 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 one, episode three, A Gentleman Pirate. We hope you
will join us