Love isn't always smooth sailing, and no one knows that more than the characters in Our Flag Means Death season 2. When the latest installment of the pirate comedy kicks off, the crew of Stede Bonnet's ship, the Revenge, are divided – literally. "It was fun to break up the family into halves," showrunner David Jenkins laughs when 12DOVE sits down with him over Zoom.
When season 1 wrapped up, Stede (Rhys Darby), the so-called 'Gentleman Pirate', had tried and failed to return to his life on dry land – he realized, too late, that he was in love with Blackbeard (Taika Waititi) and needed to be back at sea. That's not such an easy task, however, when an angry and heartbroken Blackbeard, feeling jilted, leaves the majority of Stede's crew – except Frenchie (Joel Fry) and Jim (Vico Ortiz) – stranded on a deserted island. Ship-less and treasure-less, the motley crew heads to the Republic of Pirates to try and get back on the water – and back with Blackbeard.
While the crew is apart, both groups encounter some new faces – including the mysterious Susan (Ruibo Qian), a soup seller with some secrets up her sleeve. "One thing that is a wonderful difference [from season 1] is just how many more women we have on the show in the second season. It's a very dude-heavy show in the first season," Jenkins tells us. The challenge, he says, was "expanding the world, but doing justice to the existing cast, which is huge and excellent."
Rocky waters
Jenkins, who also writes and directs on the show, was thinking about future installments while making season 1, but not in concrete terms. "It's more questions that are raised. You know that Stede messed up and he realizes he messed up, and then he learns what love is, and Blackbeard is really hurt, so [it's] just imagining how those guys are going to react to that. Naturally, you get excited about those questions, because you're seeing what Rhys is doing, and what Taika is doing, and then imagining what they're going to do with those characters in the second season."
Stede and Blackbeard's relationship has always been the beating heart of Our Flag Means Death, and season 2 sees it grow and develop further. Of course, the waters are still rocky, and the duo continue to be pushed and pulled by those around them. In one episode, this comes in the form of lively cameos from Minnie Driver and Rachel House as real-life pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read.
In the show, they're a dysfunctional couple hosting a newly reunited Stede and Blackbeard for a predictably idiosyncratic take on the awkward dinner party sitcom trope. "That episode is very crudely cribbed from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf [with] the idea that there's a George and Martha-like couple in Anne and Mary – Anne's Elizabeth Taylor and Mary would be Richard Burton. That story is just about trying to process somebody else's marriage, that it's really dysfunctional and scary but they still love each other," Jenkins explains.
He continues, "At a certain point at the end of the episode, Mary says, 'You're like 14-year-old boys, you don't understand what a relationship is.' And she's not wrong, so we're watching this very immature couple process a more mature one and be scared at the prospect of settling in with each other. That's the journey they're on [this] season where it's like, 'How do we have a more mature relationship? We may not want Mary and Anne's relationship, but what is our relationship going to be?'"
New chapters
The show doesn't start and end with Stede and Blackbeard, however – if they're the beating heart, the relationships between the supporting cast are the other vital organs. At the start of the season, level-headed crew member Oluwande (Samson Kayo) and love interest Jim are split between ships. When the pair reunite, they've already set their sights on other shipmates, but there's no bad blood between them. Jenkins explains that he was keen to push boundaries of what exes look like, queering familiar, unhealthier relationship tropes.
"That relationship always felt like a friendship that got romantic, and it's fun to play with that. If you do have romantic feelings for a friend, and they meet somebody, you're happy for them because they're happy. But then you're also a little bit like, 'That's mine, they're mine,' so the push and pull that is sweet," he says. "A lot of times you see that, it's about the drama of jealousy, and I like the idea that, actually, they're happy for each other. They just want to see the other person be happy and healthy, and I don't think you see that a lot on television. They usually play more to the angst and the negative drama of it."
Romance aside, there's a slightly more unexpected highlight of the new season: Blackbeard's former first mate Izzy (Con O'Neill), who undergoes physical and psychological transformations over the course of the eight-episode run. "The season for me is very much about Izzy. I just love Con O'Neill as a person and a performer and I love the work he's done with Izzy," Jenkins says. "Taking that character, who's such a messed up guy and in this toxic relationship with his boss, and trying to move him past that and through a few stages of it, and really give Con something meaty to play. That's the arc that I was one of the most interested in. He did such a beautiful job."
Ahead of our chat with Jenkins, 12DOVE has only been able to watch seven of the eight new episodes, leaving us with some big questions. Jenkins remains coy, teasing an "unbelievable" finale. "They're all fighting for their lives," he continues, hinting at dramatic events on the horizon. "We want to see these folks fight for their lives and what they believe in, and we want to see if those things endure. Not everything might be the happiest of endings, but we want to see how they'll make it through."
The first three episodes of Our Flag Means Death season 2 are streaming now on Max, with subsequent episodes releasing every Thursday. For more, check out our guide to the other best new TV shows coming our way in 2023 and beyond.
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