How does the dread pirate Blackbeard inspire fear in his targets? We’ll find out this week as our Summer TV Binge of Our Flag Means Death continues! This episode has terrifying felines, an amputation, implied cannibalism, consensual swordplay, and the first appearance of the most fearsome beast of all — the Kraken.

Stede Bonnet has come a long way since his “regional debut” as the Gentleman Pirate. In just a few short episodes, he’s gone from crying in a dressing gown to sword fighting under the tutelage of Blackbeard himself. Ed teaches Stede how to receive a sword through the middle, pulling apart his jacket and flirtatiously saying, “Stab me.” Stede does, then struggles to remove it while Izzy overhears and assumes the two are dealing with penetration of a very different sort.

Later, the crew tells ghost stories on deck, whiling away the time and enjoying each other’s company. Ed tells the crew that to control a person, you have to use that person’s greatest fear against him. He relates a childhood encounter with the Kraken — the mythical creature who leaves destruction in its wake. As Ed tells it, the Kraken killed his father. He makes light of the incident, though, saying his father was awful anyway. As a demonstration of his skill at intimidation, Blackbeard’s crew stages a “f**ckery” to scare Stede’s crew using fog, sparklers, and a harness. In history, Blackbeard is said to have used sparklers attached to his own long beard to make himself look fearsome to the crews on board ships he attacked, so this “theater of fear,” as Stede calls it, isn’t so far-fetched.

2. Send him to doggy heaven

All the trailers for Our Flag Means Death that I saw featured the central conceit of Blackbeard tricking Stede into thinking he’d teach him how to be a pirate in return for lessons on the fine art of being a gentleman. And indeed that was the bargain Ed and Stede struck in episode four. But everyone in the show except Izzy (and maybe Stede himself) seems to understand that instead of that happening, Ed has fallen in love with Stede and wants to stay on board the Revenge. Izzy is committed to the original plan, though. He doesn’t want a new life filled with bedtime stories and fancy parties — he’s a real pirate, after all.

Izzy reminds Ed of his initial promise to kill stede, using crewmate Fang’s dog as an example. Just as no pets are allowed on the ship (sorry Fang), no pet gentlemen are allowed, either. Izzy is invested in the traditional ways of being a pirate, and of being a man. Talking about feelings, having fun, dressing up, and falling in love are some of the ways that Stede challenges the status quo. But since Izzy is committed to the mythos of Blackbeard, he reminds Ed of their original deal and arranges for Ed to kill Stede, as he once promised.

3. Knives are knives, meat’s meat

The B plot for this episode involves Lucius, the catty scribe who usually provides a withering running commentary on the ship’s goings-on. He’s played with delightful whimsy and a hint of scorn by Nathan Foad. During the foggy demonstration, Buttons bites Lucius and embeds a splinter in his finger, which becomes infected. Lucius’s infection becomes an awful visual reminder of how bad things could be in the days before antibiotics, as it swells to twice its normal size and causes him to become delirious.

In the Golden Age of Piracy, the ship’s cook was often also the ship’s doctor. (Cue Bones McCoy saying, “I’m a doctor, not a cook!”) To deal with the problem finger, the Revenge’s cheerfully unhinged cook offers to hack it off in one go. Or maybe two. Three, possibly. Lucius escapes just before Roach’s knife falls and Lucius’s finger stays intact until places have been called and the show begins.

The “f**ckery” is a smashing success. Each member of the crew provides their own hilarious take on something scary — except The Swede, who expresses himself through song. Wee John and Frenchie collaborate on a cat and witch duo, Buttons gets to metaphorically eat a man, and Jim gets to stab the heck out of a dummy. Lucius appears and cuts off his own finger, surprising even Stede, who is overjoyed at his scribe’s unexpected performance. But the showstopper brings Edward to his knees. Stede does what he does best — he takes other people’s ideas and runs with them. He simulates a great sea monster attacking the ship, accidentally triggering Ed’s PTSD.

Ed has also come a long way since he first appeared as a fearsome devil-eyed apparition. Now it’s his turn to cry in a dressing gown as he relays his plan to kill Stede and take his identity. The Kraken — the real Kraken from his bedtime story — was Ed himself all along. He killed his abusive father and made up stories to protect himself from guilt. He tells Stede he’s not a good person, but instead of agreeing, Stede puts out a comforting hand and insists that he is Ed’s friend. The vulnerable moment in Stede’s bathtub is lit and shot like a confession scene, and functions as one, too. Ed lays his most awful secret at Stede’s feet and receives love and friendship in return. Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby were both recently nominated for Hollywood Critics Association TV Awards in the streaming categories and his performance in his episode shows Waititi’s talent in front of the camera in addition to behind it.

The emotional climax of this episode is Ed’s emotional breakdown in the bathtub. It’s the first time we see Stede reach out to Ed, and the first time they admit their friendship. But there’s still the matter of Izzy Hands. Since Ed refuses to kill Stede, Izzy takes on the responsibility himself. He challenges Stede to a duel. Stede accepts, much to the chagrin of literally everyone on board. Not to be deterred, Stede shrewdly asks Izzy about the terms of the duel before they begin, and baits him into making mistakes by being his usual silly self.

But Izzy is the better swordsman. He pins Stede against the mast and runs him through while Ed is unable to watch. The lesson Stede learned from Ed’s flirting via swordplay in the first scene comes full circle as Stede gets a sword through his gut. He takes Izzy’s sword, positioning it in such a way as not to be lethal, while also positioning it such that the sword gets stuck in the wooden mast. When Izzy breaks his sword trying to remove it, he loses the duel on a technicality, and Izzy is forced to leave the ship in defeat. Stede again shows accidental ingenuity when he uses other people’s weaknesses against them the same way he did with the snooty French aristocrats in the previous episode.

Is this the last we’ll see of Izzy Hands? No. It’s not even the last we’ve seen of the dead British officer from the first episode who taunted Stede and received a sword to the face. But for a brief moment, Stede Bonnet wins.

Black Pete, who is introduced as the poster boy for toxic masculinity in the first episode, emerges as one of this episode’s MVPs. He shares an incredibly sweet moment of relief with a recovered Lucius and gifts him with a whittled wooden finger to replace the one he lost. If you went in prepared to dislike Black Pete, as I did, this episode provided a welcome bit of character growth. Even the side characters in Our Flag Means Death become better people during their tenure on the Revenge, and because their arcs are also still hilarious instead of corny or awkward, we love to see it.

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