WARNING: Per wiki policy, all spoilers are unmarked on Tear Jerker pages. As such, this page will contain no spoiler markings of any kind. If you have not watched an episode, read at your own risk.
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Season One
1x01 - Pilot
- The flashbacks to Stede's childhood, when he was belittled by his father and bullied relentlessly by his classmates. Even decades later, as a middle-aged adult, they still affect him.
1x04 - Discomfort in a Married State
- Stede and Mary's marriage. It's entirely the decision of their respective families, they have absolutely nothing in common, and their daily existence is ignoring each other. It's so miserable that Stede cries when he thinks he's alone, and latches on to being a pirate because it's the only way he can even consider escaping.
- Stede's relationship with his kids. Their dad abandons them in the middle of the night without even telling them goodbye, so it's probably no surprise they're so resentful when he reappears out of nowhere. However, Stede's flashbacks show that he felt that his own children had begun to regard him with the same contempt and scorn as everyone else: they clearly "side" with Mary during the portrait and at the dinner table, and he's discouraged from playing with them, leaving Stede an outsider in his own home.
1x05 - The Best Revenge Is Dressing Well
- After spending most of the party charming the aristocrats, Ed is left alone during dinner and panics at all the cutlery, and ends up using the wrong utensils. They immediately make fun of him, and the shots from Ed's perspective make it clear how overwhelmed and upset he is.
- Stede initially tries to get out of going to the party, and only goes because he realizes letting Ed and Frenchie go alone is a bad idea. Given his past experiences with high society and the behavior of the aristocrats, it's no wonder why he left all that behind to become a pirate.
1x06 - The Art of Fuckery
- Poor Fang. He had to put his dog down to join Blackbeard's crew, which clearly affected him.Ivan: It's alright, Fangy. He's up in doggy heaven now, mate.
Fang: Yeah, but we go to different heavens! [Inelegant Blubbering] - Ed's reaction to the Kraken part of the fuckery, which reminds him of his abusive childhood (more specifically, strangling his cruel drunkard father and blaming it on the Kraken). He ends up having a panic attack and locking himself in the bathroom.
- When Stede comes in later to find him, Ed confesses his plan to kill Stede and says, "I'm not a good person, Stede. That's why I don't have any friends."
- Enforced by the Dutch crew managing to get through the entire fuckery (complete with Lucius cutting off his own finger) and then only running away at the sight of Ed's panic. Ed is so trapped within the Blackbeard persona that the mere act of him openly expressing his emotions scares others off...except Stede.
1x08 - We Gull Way Back
- Oluwande is so broken up over Jim leaving that he can't even sleep in the cabin they shared.
1x09 - Act Of Grace
- Stede being executed. He rather realistically starts crying when he thinks he's going to die.
- Ed waiting all night at the docks for Stede, before finally giving up at dawn and making the escape on his own. Even then, he rows facing the island he's rowing away from, as if he's still hoping Stede might come to join him.
1x10 - Wherever You Go, There You Are
- Ed in the blanket fort. He's so depressed by Stede abandoning him that he doesn't leave it for days.
- Stede being crudely painted out of the family portrait. No doubt his wife and kids had every right to be angry at him, but it really hammers home how much he isn't wanted in his old life.
- Ed reverting to Blackbeard/The Kraken is brutal enough, but seeing him alone (having marooned, alienated or thrown overboard anyone who would have provided some comfort) and sobbing in Stede's ransacked cabin, unaware that Stede is heading back to him, is heartbreaking. He was so close to finding happiness...
Season Two
2x01 - Impossible Birds
- Stede is not okay being separated from Ed and has clearly not gotten over his fears from the first season. At one point he tearily confesses to Ed's wanted poster that he's afraid Ed's life is better without him.
- Fang spends nearly the entire episode crying, first over Ivan dying and Ed not caring, then over Ed shooting Izzy in the leg.
- Izzy fucking Hands.
- He is only barely holding it together at the start of the episode, and starts crying when the crew stages a mini intervention for him about his "unhealthy relationship with Blackbeard" and points out that he's lost another two toes since the last season. He tries to keep them from touching him, but eventually ends up in a bear hug from Fang while Frenchie holds his hand.
- Privately, he tries to reel Ed in, trying to stick up for the crew ("the crew are looking a tad... worse for wear"), which only causes Ed to demand another of Izzy's toes. Izzy's response is to ask Ed who he is to him, reminding him of the friendship they've had for so many years and telling him that he "has love for" Ed.
- And then, when he tells Ed that the atmosphere on the ship is toxic and says straight out it's because of Ed's feelings for Stede, Ed shoots him in the leg without even looking at him.
- Ed himself is quite pitiful. He has completely lost all of the light in his eyes and pillages ship after ship as if on autopilot.
- Even the scene where he completely dismisses the idea that Izzy has 'love for you' is this when you remember the end of Season 1, where Ed was emotionally vulnerable with the crew after Stede left.... and Izzy told him he was better off dead then show weakness.
2x02 - Red Flags
- Ed in the opening scene. Despite his actions undoubtedly being too excessive, him playing the figurines that he's painted to look like him and Stede and lying on the floor sobbing, reminds the audience of the heartbreak that set off his current rampage.
- Izzy begging the crew to kill him, either because he can't bear the thought of trying to live while disabled or because he's afraid that Ed will kill them if he finds out Izzy's alive.
- Ed and Izzy's conversation when Ed finds where the crew has been hiding Izzy, and Ed hands him a gun.Ed: I dreamt... that you killed me. Shot me right through the skull.
Izzy: Good for you.
Ed: It was good for me. It's just what the doctor ordered. Anyway, it wasn't even like that. Not in my dream. I was standing... just like this. [deliberately turns away from Izzy]
Izzy: [Mirthless Laughter] Aw, you scared, Eddie? Too- too scared to do it yourself, eh? Go on. Clean up your own fuckin' mess. I'm not doing it. I've been doing it all my fucking life. Fuck off. - Izzy trying and failing to shoot himself in the head. Ed, who is outside and doesn't know Izzy is still alive, says, "I loved you. Best I could."
- Izzy, who hours earlier refused to shoot Ed even when handed the gun and told to do it, does shoot him - because Ed is about to kill the entire crew by blowing up the mast while they're in a storm, and it's the only way to stop him.
2x03 - The Innkeeper
- Ed's time in the gravy basket (he's hovering between life and death) when his hated former captain Hornigold antagonizes him and taunts him about killing his father and that Stede has left him, that nobody alive is waiting for him. As far as Ed knows, he has nobody who wants him.
- After Stede and the crew escape to the Revenge, Stede finally takes the chance to go belowdecks to finally see Ed's lifeless (as far as he knows) body lying on a bench. He pours his heart out to Ed in an anguished apology and declaration of love, unaware until Ed's hand begins twitching that Ed is still alive. Then he clasps Ed's hand, begging Ed to awaken. That Kate Bush's song "This Woman's Work" plays in the background makes it all the more poignant.
- It becomes heartwarming as Ed hears Stede's voice, hears him begging Ed to return to him, that he begins fighting for his life, realizing that Stede is waiting for him. When he sees Stede in the form of a merman swimming toward him, smiling at him lovingly, Ed can't help but smile in return.
2x04 - Fun and Games
- It's Played for Laughs, but the half of the crew that stayed with Blackbeard is severely traumatized, trying to clean blood off the deck, assuming that everyone is planning to kill them, and being extremely badly triggered by even mundane things that remind them of the Kraken, like tiered cakes.
- Izzy was the one who wanted to keep Ed's body, which is the only reason he's still alive.
- Izzy’s depression over the loss of his leg and refusal to let any of the crew help him out of his own stubborn pride when his crutch breaks after cutting off the unicorn’s legs, dragging himself away from everyone while muttering that he’s “already gone” and a Madness Mantra that “you're born alone, you die alone”.
2x07 - Man On Fire
- Apparently, any time the universe notices that Stede Bonnet is genuinely happy, it will rush to correct this. He's just slept with Ed, gone on a rather sweet date with him, and rather than being the laughing stock of the pirate community, he's now respected as the guy that took down Ned Lowe. By the episode's end, he's been dumped by Ed, abandoned by at least one, if not three, of his crew, and humiliated by Zheng. And that's not even getting started on the unaddressed trauma of his first deliberate kill. It's so bad that Izzy steps in to be a sympathetic ear.
- The Revenge's crew continues to dwindle: Swede left for Jackie, Buttons left for the sea (as a seagull...) and now Olu is leaving for Zheng, possibly taking Jim and Archie with him. The found family that started Stede's adventures with him is fracturing.
2x08 - Mermen
- Izzy's death. After a whole season of character growth and finding a family, he's shot by Ricky and dies in Ed's arms onboard the Revenge.
