#the innkeeper

[bbyteach]

❌ innkeepers

✅ shepherds

AU post-season 2 where Ed and stede become sheep dads. More thoughts about the idea under the cut from the group chat 💕

#gentlebeard #my draws #blackbonnet #ofmd #our flag means death #saveofmd #adopt our crew #the innkeeper #ofmd au

[queerly-autistic]

The thing that gets me the most about this scene is that Stede doesn't rescue Ed. Not in the traditional sense. He doesn't grab him. He doesn't pull him out of the water. Heck, he doesn't even lead him out of the water.

No, what he actually does is just be with Ed, exactly where Ed is. And that's the most powerful thing he could do.

And, crucially, Ed is still underwater. Stede's presence hasn't changed the fact that he's underwater. But the difference is that the weight has stopped pulling him further down, and, most importantly, he's no longer drowning.

I've talked about how much I love the way that this show explores mental health, and this is just a shining example of that. Stede's love for Ed, and his unwavering supportive presence beside him, doesn't fix his mental illness. It doesn't pull him out of the water.

But, fuck me, does having that love and support make it all feel a bit more survivable.

#ofmd #our flag means death #edward teach #ed teach #stede bonnet #ed x stede #blackbonnet #ofmd s2 ep3 #the innkeeper #tw mental illness #tw suicide #neurodivergence #merstede #ofmd meta #erin waffles

[ofmd-ann]

Edward Teach (S02E03 - The Innkeeper)

#just playing around with screenshots #also...ARMS #ofmd #our flag means death #edward teach #ed teach #my edits #ofmd gifs #S02E03 #The innkeeper #ofmd season 2 #ofmd s2 #our flag means death s2 #ofmdann edits

[lookinglass-fic]

Warmth. (I'm processing some stuff.)

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd fan art #ofmd fanart #ofmd season 2 #ofmd spoilers #ofmd s2 #ofmd s02e03 #the innkeeper #blackbeard #edward teach #the gravy basket #my art

[edslacefront]

I was so stoned when I first watched Stede swim out as a mermaid and I think god intended for me to experience it that way

#the innkeeper best episode to watch high im telling you guys #ofmd #ofmd s2 #the innkeeper #blackbonnet #ed teach #gentlebeard #ed x stede #edward teach #stede bonnet #blackbeard #our flag means death

[follows-the-bees]

2x3 Filmmaking Analysis

Editing and cinematography breakdown of the purgatory and mermaid scene in The Innkeeper.

I haven't talked much about editing in all of my previous breakdowns of this season, but I want to start talking about that, and I'm starting with this scene. The whole of 2x3 contains exceptional editing between what is happening in Ed's gravy basket purgatory and the real world.

We start with Stede on the stairs, quiet, only a deep inhale of despair is heard, the heartbreak already evident on his face. He holds up a lamp, one of the only sources of light in the "reality" scenes. Lighthouses and golden lighting in general have been used in both seasons to symbolism the love between Ed and Stede. Stede is literally carrying this light with him, and he sets it down next to Ed's head shining the light onto him. Stede is the one who puts the glow on Ed's face.

The editing then cuts to Ed in Purgatory as he hits the water, a giant light behind him, but he starts to sink away from it, becomes surrounded by water, recalling back to 1x4 when he talks about how he feels like he is just treading. Water shows Ed's mental state: he's expressed in the past that he feels like he's drowning, he wants to stay at sea forever, be the bird who doesn't touch ground, etc.

We end this shot with Ed's bare feet the most visible in the dark blue abyss of the ocean. And in a direct parallel, the next edit is to Stede's feet - which are wrapped in BLUE-dyed fabric, with RED lining - walking into the waterlogged cabin. This immediate cut between their two feet in water shows how Stede is meeting Ed in both worlds. They are together in the water, in the deep blue depth, their connection only picks up from there.

While talking to Hornigold, Ed professed that he didn't think anyone was waiting for him. And he still has that mindset as he starts to sink.

Stede sits quietly down next to Ed, lovingly calls him a nut, and debates about taking the cloth off of Ed's face. We know Stede to be a boisterous man, not afraid to talk, but his voice is quiet here, the sentences short. He covers his face with his hands, hiding and comforting himself. Stede is rendered speechless when he's faced with earth-shattering grief and this all encompassing sorrow tells the audience just how much pain Stede is in.

Stede pulls off the cloth from Ed's face, once again taking a shaky inhale of breath to prepare himself, and the show cuts to Ed's eyes opening in the water as he starts to fight, pulling on the rope tugging him down.

The editing takes us back and forth between Ed struggling with the rope in Purgatory to his fingers and hand twitching as he fights in the real world, all voiced over by Stede's mournful apologies to Ed. When Stede's voice comes through to Ed, it sounds muffled, like it has to travel through a tube to get to him - through the water and Ed's coma-induced brain.

As soon as Stede touches Ed's hand in the real world, squeezing it, Ed stops sinking further into the watery depths, and instead his focus is before him where a large light has appeared. This editing shows how Ed feels Stede's presence, not only his voice but how the touch grounds him, or at least prevents him from further sinking.

Stede's voice changes here, getting louder as he yells at Ed to come back to him. The quiet grief is replaced by twinges of hope, the deep sobs escape in raspy pains of anguish.

The light first appears to Ed in Purgatory when Stede holds his hand, and as Stede starts to hammer on his chest, to try and bring some life into him, the scene cuts to Ed seeing movement in the light as Stede in mermaid form starts to swim closer.

The scene then goes from both POVs to just Ed's. We see the rope come off as he decides to live. We can hear the muffled cries of Stede breaking in from the real world, and we see a sequence of scenes from the first season of Ed and Stede as Ed remembers all of their moments together.

Right when Stede pounds his chest for the last time and says he will never leave again, that's when the mermaid version of him comes into full focus. And we again spend time in just purgatory, in Ed's POV.

Mermaid Stede swims up to Ed and stops right in front of him, not touching, not pulling him to the surface. Instead he just stays there with him, smiling, and letting him know he's there. It is Ed who decides to live, and I think that's an important distinction. Stede doesn't save him, he just exists in Ed’s space, floating in the water, and ushering in light and hope.

The last moments are Ed waking up as Stede cries, their hands gripping onto each other in a symbolic meaning of them choosing each other, Ed choosing life. The last shot is no longer the fantastical purgatory place with bright white lights and blue water that symbolize the all encompassing pressure around Ed. Now it's the real world, where Stede is wearing blue and red, his feet are in water, and his lamp shining the light onto Ed. Their hands are clasped together as Ed takes a large breath of air - coming to life. Reborn not on the seas or water, but the boat that they fell in love with each other on.

We see continued symbolism throughout this scene. The red representing their love, the lamp set next to Ed by Stede and the bright light in the ocean that mermaid Stede brings in, showing the light and hope in Ed's mind now. And the blue colors that Stede wears, and Stede stepping into the water-logged cabin, showing how he is joining Ed in his world. And when Ed chooses life, all of those things are there to greet him but not in the bright fantasy colors of his mind, but rather the muted colors of the real world.

The cinematography of purgatory is lighter in tones. The ocean is dark until Stede brings in the white blinding light, which then surrounds them, turning the water around them to a soft blue. On the other hand, the lighting on the ship is darker. The brown wood of the cabin are just shapes in the background. The only light is from the deep orange lantern glow. The contrast in colors representing the fantasy from reality.

Every single cut in the editing has a purpose. Each action that happens in the real world is immediately reflected in the purgatory mindset. Not a single shot wasted. This scene is beautifully put together in all aspects of the filmmaking.

Hand gif credit

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd spoilers #ofmd s2 #ofmd season 2 #our flag means death s2 spoilers #stede bonnet #ofmd stede #ofmd edward teach #gentlebeard #blackbonnet #queer cinema at its peak angst #cinematography #ofmd season two meta analysis #ofmd meta #meta analysis #editing #The Innkeeper #ofmd 2x3

[spirker]

Ok so I’m taking a break from shitposting to talk about the use of ‘This Woman’s Work’ in episode 3 because I’m a massive Kate Bush fan as well as OFMD - it’s taken me a minute to process my feelings about this because it’s also super personal.

This song is sung from the perspective of a man whose partner is going through a traumatic childbirth - in the video you see him in a waiting room, alone, trapped in a kind of limbo:

You can see both the visual and symbolic similarities with Ed’s experience in the ‘gravy basket’ - he is also stuck in a blue-toned, washed out limbo, effectively alone (as Hornigold is really just a projection of himself)

The man in ‘This Woman’s Work’ is also starting to drown, he’s drowning in his feelings of regret, fear for his partner, his helplessness in the face of her suffering, just as Ed is drowning in his self-loathing, his fears of being unloveable, his trauma and the suffering he has caused to others:

But in both of these situations, they are visited by a vision of the one person who can pull them out of their downward spiral:

In each of these situations their partner is just there with them, being present without interacting but this presence alone is enough to give them the strength to pull out of their drowning.

And of course there is the significance of the line “give me your hand…”

Both Stede and the man in “This Woman’s Work” are powerless to help their partner through their suffering, the work of birth (or rebirth on Ed’s part) has to be done alone - but they can be there, and they can hold their hand.

I was in labour with my first son for 30+ hours, ending in an emergency c-section and my son being taken straight to the NICU because he wasn’t breathing. This song and this use of it in the show will always mean a lot to me because I know what it’s like to be drowning, in a kind of mental limbo with all this scary crap going on around you, but having a partner there to hold your hand through it, grounding you and bringing you back to the surface.

Anyway, I’ll go back to shitposting now ;)

And my son is a happy and healthy 6 year old now, just in case anyone was worried!

#ofmd #our flag means death #ed babygirl teach #edward teach #gentlebeard #stede bonnet #blackbonnet #ed and stede #princess teach #ofmd edward teach #kate bush #the innkeeper

[celluloidbroomcloset]

An underrated moment, in "The Innkeeper.

Piss off, Izzy, I don't want to hear from you.

It's easy to forget that literally the last time Stede saw Izzy was when he was about to be executed by the English and Izzy was trying to convince to Ed that it was totally fine.

The only time Stede talks to Izzy in "The Innkeeper" is when he's cornered in his cabin, and then he talks over him, trying to get Izzy to tell the truth about what happened to Ed. The next time he willingly talks to Izzy is to get him to vote to keep Ed on the ship.

Stede's emotionally intelligent and very kind, but he's not a pushover, and I like that they let his anger run deep.

I am absolutely convinced that Stede does not forgive that man, at any point. He puts up with him, and he's willing to accept him on the ship and try to absorb him into the family, but he does not forgive him.

#ofmd #our flag means death #stede bonnet #izzy hands #gif #the innkeeper #ofmd season 2 #ofmd meta

[khruschevshoe]

OFMD Critique: Mermen, the Gravy Basket, and Cognitive Dissonance

Warning: this is going to be a bit rambly.

So, I can't stop thinking about the end of "The Innkeeper." (OFMD 2x3, if you need the reminder.) About how I have completely different reactions to the final scene of the episode depending on who's POV/plot I'm considering it a part of.

As part of the Stede/Ed plot, and as part of Ed's personal character arc, it's masterful. The cinematography, the swelling music (and music choice, god is "This Woman's Work" a fantastic pick), the acting, the lighting, everything about it is so well done. It's a story about a man who has hit the absolute bottom of a depressive episode because he believes that love is only meant to hurt, that no love can exist without it dying, and who is pulled from the absolute Darkest Night of the Soul by the man who loves him- in the form of a merman. (I'm not going to harp on the symbolism and the perfection of choosing a mermaid, a rainbow, beautiful, queer-as-hell mermaid, as Stede's form here because others have done it so much better than I ever could.)

This final scene is PERFECT for the Stede/Ed plotline. I will give it all the props in the world for its gorgeous portrayal of the healing, divinely-coded power of queer love.

But from the crew's POV? From the end of a plot that was literally about a man spiralling and taking everyone down with him? From the POV of people who were just forced to shoot themselves, to fight to the death, to amputate limbs, who finally got to stand up to their monster after months of fear, of sobbing when Blackbeard couldn't see, of living on a knife's edge because if they put one toe out of line they'll get shot in the leg or pushed off the ship or worse?

I'm not looking at a man's rebirth; I'm looking at a villain's resurrection.

All I can feel is dread on behalf of a crew that literally just admitted to having been "living second to second" for months now. A crew that was ready to die at Zheng Yi Sao's behest because that's what they had been expecting from the man they just had to kill to survive a storm.

I can't ever fully immerse myself in the scene as I did the first time around, because I know how the crew's subplot is going to go. I know that they are going to vote Ed off the ship, finally gaining some agency, and then Stede is going let Ed back on the ship within a day with a slap on the wrist. Ed is going to give an "influencer apology" and that'll be that, because as Archie says, "they just kinda get away with these things." The crew will get no more agency in their own trauma recovery or their reactions to Blackbeard beyond Lucius' (very questionably handled) trauma recovery arc. This season is going to end with a character dying from a random gunshot wound to the side after Ed survived a CANNONBALL TO THE HEAD. (A character who, by the way, Ed put a gun in the hand of and told him to shoot himself. A man who, by the way, Ed shot in the leg, permanently disabling him. A man who, by the way, dies by apologizing to Ed for Ed tormenting him and the rest of the crew for months on end and driving them to the point that they would kill him.)

I try so hard to remain in the emotions I felt watching the merman scene the first time around, the hope I had for the Ed/Stede storyline, the hope I had for all of these characters. What I thought I was looking at was a sign of hope for all of them, the idea that they could all heal from their trauma, that everyone could experience some version of this love (whether romantic, platonic, or otherwise) for themselves.

But instead, the only other character to get a song died by the end of the season without ever getting a chance at a Gravy Basket of their own. And thus, I cannot ever feel what every possible Cinematic Cue in his scene is trying to get me to feel, because it will always, always be tainted by knowing that every one of those beautiful choices have been denied to Izzy, Jim, Archie, and Frenchie when it comes to their recovery arcs strangled before they could ever be completed.

#izzy hands #ed teach critical #ofmd critical #the innkeeper #ofmd season 2 #meta #please forgive me for the rambling nature #ofmd 2x3 #ofmd 2x03 #archie ofmd #lucius spriggs #not tagging this ed bc i don't want to upset the fans #jim jimenez #frenchie ofmd

[cahootings]

When I say Red Flags is my favorite episode it’s only because I can’t count The Innkeeper because The Innkeeper resides in another realm. It is not of this plane of existence. The Innkeeper is a category of its own against which it makes no sense to compare any other episode. Red Flags is unequivocally my favorite episode but The Innkeeper is on a pedestal in the largest room of the stone temple with a beam sunlight streaming through the cracked wall, illuminating it perfectly.

#ofmd #ofmd s2 #the innkeeper #our flag means death #ofmd musing

[lululayers]

I know we got a little life in us yet…

I know we’ve got a lot of strength left…

Let’s fight our way out of the gravy basket 🫡🏴‍☠️❤️

#save ofmd #save our flag means death #renew our flag means death #renew ofmd #renew as a crew #our flag means death #ofmd #our flag means us #gentlebeard #blackbonnet #ed and stede #stede bonnet #edward teach #ed teach #blackbeard #gravy basket #the innkeeper

[queerly-autistic]

God, the moment when Ed fights desperately to swim up to the surface before being dragged back, pulled down by a weight that he can't disentangle himself from, is one of the most simple but gut-punchingly powerful symbolic representations of mental illness that I've ever seen.

I appreciate it so much that Ed's suicidality is not just portrayed as 'oh he's given up and wants to die', but is shown as something that he's actively fighting inside his own head to try and stay alive. He's weighing up the pros and cons of living vs dying, he's arguing with himself - one part of him pushing to stay stay alive whilst the other part, the part that represents all his self-loathing, steps in to push him off the cliff - and then he's trying desperately to surface, but is unable to do so, because he cannot free himself from the rope that's tying him to the great weight dragging him further and further under.

Not to be dramatic, or anything, but this silly romcom about gay pirates may be one of my favourite portrayals of mental illness of all time.

#ofmd #our flag means death #cw suicide #cw suicidal ideation #ed teach #blackbeard #ofmd s2 ep3 #the innkeeper #mental illness #neurodivergence

[mothdogsart]

On some level, I think I always understood

That a ship could never really love an anchor

#ofmd #ofmd Izzy #izzy hands #our flag means fanart #our flag means death #our flag means death spoilers #ofmd 2 #ofmd s2 #ofmd spoilers #blackhands #the innkeeper #edizzy #our flag means death season 2 #artists on tumblr

[newnewyorker93]

Thinking about how cold Ed probably is after lying in a watery hold for days, mostly dead and with his feet bare, and how warm Stede's hand must feel holding his.

#he just wants to be warm 😭 #edward teach #stede bonnet #blackbonnet #our flag means death #ofmd season 2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #the innkeeper

[atomicruinsperfection]

Watching 'The Innkeeper". That one scene..Yeah, you know the one. ;)

#ofmd #ofmd s2 #ofmd edit #stede bonnet #edward teach #blackbonnet #gentlebeard #the innkeeper #s2 ep 3 #mental devastation via kate bush #this woman's work #my silly little screencaps #renew as a crew

[spirker]

‘Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version)’

# I’m not crying you’re crying

EDIT: it’s been observed that this is 100% Bella Swan behaviour and this is both very true and something that needs to be explored in 100% more memes thanks

#ofmd #our flag means death #ed babygirl teach #edward teach #gentlebeard #stede bonnet #blackbonnet #ed and stede #ed x stede #ofmd edward teach #princess teach #ofmd s2 #the innkeeper #gravy basket