finefoxyladies | Bigger, beefier 2x04 and 2x05 (Reply)

It's just my Google Doc barfed out. Only one person is reading it with any veracity so... unpolished moonstone it is.

I think there’s something beautiful in how we’ve gone from “Whoa, way too personal!” re: Buttons’s life goal to make sweet love to the sea to “Fly, brother!” Even the mini-walk Ed takes from “I need you to not be weird right now” to celebrating Buttons’s achievement is a sort of life lesson. I think even when we don’t understand the enthusiasms of the people in our lives, it’s both a gesture of love to that person to embrace them for (reasonable) joy in things and stuff and also a sort of self-acceptance and self-love as well. Anyway: congrats to Buttons for becoming a seagull and, one assumes, finally fucking the ocean.

I remain surprised at how much David Jenkins’s love of Con and Izzy is resulting in me engaging in this S2 journey (though… it may be the chest pelt talking; I may not stan a short king here, but I do have an appreciation for a pelt). I kind of joked about Jim and Dwight, but… Stede and Izzy’s whatever-it-is (frenemies seems too cutesy, but it’s a little more layered than co-workers at this point) was a true comedy treat AND was a believable continuation of where they both seem to be emotionally speaking. And since this is my safe space: I do not want them to fuck or be in a throuple with Ed. Not in fic and not in the show.

More people should celebrate Frenchie and Joel Fry. Not enough of it, in my opinion. His reality show host energy on the banishment has made me laugh each time I’ve seen that scene. Even off-camera: “Oy, shut up!” to Stede practicing his mean voice. LOLZ.

Ed identifying a rabbit as a wolf, then immediately bonding with it/seeing it as an emotional support animal seems to say a LOT about Ed, right? Someone smarter than me?

I love the mods on the Red Flag unis: Buttons keeps his mostly intact; Black Pete has used it to recreate his S1 look, complete with horseshoe belt buckle (god I love that thing).

I like that “rude” has been a mini-running gag between Frenchie saying it as Ed kicks him, and Izzy saying it when Stede petulantly screams “FUCK OFF!” the second time Izzy launches into his “A curse… is a curse” monologue.

For as much as fandom is all “LESBIAN PIRATES,” I feel like Anne is more bisexually coded, what with her immediate elevator eyes on Stede and her Frenching him despite his protests. A psycho…is a psycho, and clearly she was a spider in her web looking for a fly, but part of that seemed to imply genuine attraction. And who can blame her with Stede’s open-necked shirt, frankly. (Can't say enough about how this Fabio romance cover look is a home run from the costume department in terms of their "Make Rhys Darby sexy" efforts. No more neutral suits and too much with the bangs, eh, Murray?) Also: she has a tattoo of a spider on one of her ample bosoms. Not that I was looking at them thaaaaaaangs. Too much.

I didn’t notice, until time 3, that Roach is emphatically describing a “safe space” while rattling a cleaver over and over.

Second to Stede’s embrace of “doggie heaven” is his enthusiasm for saying gut-stabbed, first to Calico Jack in S1, then to Anne and Mary. I love how Darby makes a meal out of that phrase. Punching "gut" with verve.

BTW, Wee John definitely knitted Oluwande a scarf, which is THE CUTEST THING EVER. Of COURSE his first knitting gift would be to Oluwande, because Oluwande is the best.

I don’t know that I would have described Calico “King Coconut” Jack Rackham as an “artsy outsider” but who knows what passes for art in the Real Pirate world.

“I had a sore back and she’s, uh, medically trained.” Perfect, Stede. Perfect interpretation of that event. Virgin who can’t drive.

Taika’s delivery of “See you guys” as they flee the burning antique store cracked me up each rewatch too.

I liked the reappearance of “whim.” Mary introduced it in S1 (“I won’t destroy that life just because you’ve decided to un-abandon your family on a whim”), and then Ed unknowingly repeats her word following the reveal (tee hee, Anne, Stede told you in confidence, because he’s a ding-dong) that Stede had returned to Mary after the academy… then brings it up again after their second kiss. The look that flickers across Stede’s face when he says it too… there's a moment of wounded doubt there, whether about himself or the situation.

If I may: urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh my heart literally ached looking at Ed’s face when Stede said he loved him and then followed with “You don’t have to say it back.” And then their little head dance so reminiscent of what happened in silhouette during the first “You wear fine things well” (never enough talk about how you can see Stede move juuuuuuuuuust a bit too; it’s there, so slight and subtle).

Stede’s too loud, scaring-the-wildlife “Yes!” after Ed says it’d be nice to come back to the ship (making this a one-day banishment, which… God, I’d read little drabbles about how Stede’s conversation with the crew went to make that happen; I suppose the team was primed for forgiveness and reconciliation after the thing with building Izzy’s leg) also LOL.

Ed’s apology to the team is the best parody of the over-PR-and-legal-team massaged public apologies I’ve seen thus far. “Move the culture forward” literally made me clap my hands in joy. And then it’s echoed in Stede’s non-apology for the cursed suit.

Black Pete emphatically nodding as Ed begins his apology… shit, bro, not even Ed pushing Lucius off the ship has dulled his hero worship/”hero worship.” Incredible.

Samba’s clenched-jaw “Still sticking to that one” another cackle-out-loud moment.

“Twatty” is a cute little nickname, isn’t it?

Nathan Foad, everything about him, every time he gives the middle finger, his face in every scene of 2x05 is a marvel to behold. I love every choice he makes, and I probably love the takes they don’t use. His manic directing of Ed’s “performance” before pushing him off the ship, I wish I could bottle it. The way he slinks down the stairs to Izzy’s “Still mopin’” as physical embodiment of moping… anyway I celebrate his entire catalog.

Also: this is the face of a man who just said "Oh yeah [Izzy] is way more disturbed than the rest of us":

They are gonna do something about this. Mark my words.

“So this is where all my candles went. And you’ve used the good ones.” And Izzy just launching into a normal conversation where he REVEALS something about himself. Witchcraft. Magic. Magic how much I was like, “Of course!”

Rhys’s awkward shuffle during the “Punch me” scene = always a laugh.

The sound editing to make each of Stede’s little swirls and flaps louder scratches my Looney Tunes loving heart.

Hahahaha the return of Sign of the Cross as a bit with Archie. Always good.

Lucius says he loves the shark carving, which was whittled, is the other echo of S1, as it’s nearly what he said about Black Pete’s whittled finger replacement. Hmm. HMMMMMMM.

IZZY THUMBS UP TO STEDE. Seriously. The show’s doing a good job. Good job, writers. Good job, Con O’Neill.

Hearing Ed say “I’m the man, and the beast was beneath the sea” during the course of telling a dumb story about his teeny fish should fill all of our hearts with joy. The Kraken rests.

Stede’s in a red shirt, now he’s the red silk in Ed’s heart and pocket and everything it’s just crushing the weight of how ridiculously romantic this is.

And it was kinda hot when Stede wanted more. There. I said it. I was into that moment where he was going for it and presumably gonna press his body on Ed's.