‘Our Flag Means Death’ Brings Me Queer Joy
By Anne Gregg
Spoilers Ahead
Our Flag Means Death (OFMD) has cemented itself as part of the triumvirate of new queer comedies. If you are one of the poor souls like me who still uses Tumblr you know that OFMD, What We Do In The Shadows, and Good Omens are the new trio of queer comedies. I love all of these shows. However, I don’t love them for the will-they-won’t-they 500k slow burns they have going on with their main couples. I like these shows, especially OFMD, for its depiction of queer joy.
OFMD follows Stede Bonnet, a wealthy gentleman, who gives up his comfortable life for one of piracy. He along with the motley crew of his ship, The Revenge run into Blackbeard’s crew. Instead of being looted by the infamous pirate, they are taken under Blackbeard’s wing. Time with the crew and Stede soften Blackbeard, and he and Stede fall in love. Blackbeard’s right hand man, Izzy Hands, works to pull Blackbeard back into his malicious ways. At the end of the season, Stede leaves Blackbeard to make amends with his wife. Blackbeard, heartbroken, strands most of Stede’s crew on an island, and returns to his violent ways. Season 2 picks up in the midst of Stede and Blackbeard’s separation and follows their journey back to each other.
However, the highlight of Season 2 is Izzy Hands’ journey. Izzy is not a joyful man. He does not get along with anyone in Blackbeard’s crew, except for Blackbeard, because he loves him even though he is treated terribly by him. Izzy is consistently juxtaposed with the rest of the crew, shot alone or watching the crew from a distance, brooding in black leather. In the first episode of Season 2, Blackbeard’s crew confront Izzy about his unhealthy relationship with Blackbeard. The support from the crew and Blackbeard’s increasing violence marks a turning point for Izzy. He mutinies against Blackbeard, siding with the crew, which he would have never done before. After severing himself from the person who defined him, Izzy spends the rest of Season 2 trying to discover who he is as a person without Blackbeard. Izzy tries to find his joy.
In Episode 6, of OFMD, “Calypso’s Birthday,” the crew of the Revenge throw a birthday party for Calypso (a mythical goddess who is used as an excuse to throw a party). The crew excitedly plans the party and decorates the ship while Izzy watches awkwardly. He’s not used to frivolity and celebration. He escapes the party preparation to the lower deck where Wee John is sitting in front of a mirror drawing on Divine-esque eyebrows. Instead of insulting him in his usual callous manner, Izzy wants his makeup done too. It’s a quiet and powerful moment for Izzy, who musters the courage to express himself through drag.
Izzy arrives at the party in his traditional black attire, his face painted. There is a pause, a moment where the audience suspects that the crew is going to laugh at the makeup on Izzy’s face. When that doesn’t happen his anxiety fades. He smiles. He embraces the merriment of the crew. For the first time in OFMD, Izzy expresses unbridled joy and freedom. The episode ends with Izzy passionately singing “La Vie en rose” while the crew dances, celebrating Izzy.
Shows with queer characters often center their characters’ happiness and freedom of identity around finding a relationship. Because what defines queer freedom more than being in a queer relationship? While queer joy can be expressed through a relationship, queer joy refers to the happiness and freedom queer people experience when they are allowed to exist as who they want to be. Drag allows queer people to experiment with gender and sexuality. It allows them to try things the rigid confines of their gender roles will not allow them to do. Donning heels and a big wig, or a mustache and a suit — or both — for the first time is a euphoric experience for some queer people. They finally can stand in a mirror and see themselves as all they want to be.
Izzy discovering himself and opening himself up to friends through drag is part of his queer experience. Finding the clothes, the make up, the hair, that makes you feel like you are you is an important milestone for many queer people on their journeys of self discovery. Although homophobia is never explicitly talked about in OFMD, it is referenced that the world outside of piracy is not kind to queer people. Izzy has forced himself into a box of cool masculinity. He is ruthless and violent. He became everything that he believed that Blackbeard wanted. He has made himself deeply unhappy and alone in an attempt to please a man who never loved him back. When Izzy sees Wee John done his makeup and sparkly costume he sees a chance to feel, to express the emotions, the femininity, and the color that he has pushed out of his life. Drag provides Izzy community, connection, and joy that he has never felt before.
The crew is imprisoned in the final episode of the show. Many pirates were killed in a mass explosion of ships in the harbor caused by Prince Ricky Banes who now holds the crew’s fate in his hands. He leads Izzy out of prison and buys him a drink while trying to pick his brain. Izzy does not take the opportunity to switch sides. Instead, he reprimands Ricky, “You don’t know the first thing about piracy, do ya? […] It’s not about glory It’s not about getting what you want. It’s about belonging to something when the world has told you you’re nothin’.” The strength of OFDM is how much the main characters love,care, and accept each other and how they are willing to help each other. The crew of a ship is like a family full of rejected misfits. OFMD goes further by making almost everyone on the crew of the Revenge queer. The culmination of Izzy’s arc is him embracing himself as part of the crew, embracing his identity, and understanding that he has a network of people who support him.
OFMD is a show about community, acceptance, found family, and freedom. Over the course of the show the characters learn and grow with each other and learn how to express their desires. With the support of their crew, the characters are emboldened to embrace the parts of themselves they keep hidden. They find the freedom to be who they always wanted to be. And the joy of that journey, the catharsis of the end, is no more perfectly expressed than in the journey of Izzy Hands.
About the Author
Anne Gregg is a poet and writer from Northwest Indiana. She is an English Writing major at DePauw University and is the editor-in-chief of her campus’s literary magazine, A Midwestern Review. She is a Media Fellow at her university and loves dissecting how LGBTQ+ people are portrayed in film and tv.
