WARNING: Per wiki policy, all spoilers are unmarked on Awesome Moments 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
- One of the British officers makes a racist remark about Frenchie while Nigel Badminton and Stede are out of the room. The crew immediately come to Frenchie's defense, starting with Jim throwing a knife through the officer's hand.
1x02 - A Damned Man
- Stede managing to get back one of the hostages from Izzy, despite being clearly outmatched in both skill and bloodthirstiness, using the element of surprise and being really annoying.
1x03 - A Gentleman Pirate
- Blackbeard's introduction: he arrives in the middle of an absolutely chaotic fight, clad entirely in leather, with a badass cello motif announcing his presence.
1x04 - Discomfort in a Married State
- The lighthouse ploy.
1x05 - The Best Revenge Is Dressing Well
- After twenty minutes of the aristocrats being absolutely insufferable, it is immensely satisfying to watch Stede tear them to shreds with only a few questions.
- Lucius spends the entire episode cunningly evading Izzy's attempts to get him to do chores around the ship, cumulating in him turning the tables on Izzy when he tries to blackmail Lucius.
1x06 - The Art of Fuckery
- Stede uses the episode's Chekhov's Skill — avoiding major organs while being run through — in combination with his knowledge of the ship's construction and Izzy's impatience to win an otherwise-hopeless sword duel on a technicality. He ensures that his back is pressed against the mast when Izzy takes his chance, so the blade lodges firmly in the high-quality wood. The hilt snaps off Izzy's sword, leaving him unable to complete the duel.
- Making this even better, it's clear if you look closely at Stede's behaviour that this was his plan from the moment Izzy suggested the duel - the first thing he does upon having the sword thrown at him is to examine and test the strength of the hilt, assuming that both swords work the same way and would thus be vulnerable to the same trick, and he's the one who asks for 'standard duelling rules', including the detail that if one participant ceases to be able to use their sword, the other wins by default. He then proceeds to bait Izzy deliberately throughout the duel, leading him around the ship without his ever realising it until Stede is in the right position for the trick to work.
1x07 - This Is Happening
- Jim's entire backstory. They were raised by nun assassins to take revenge on their father's killers.
- Lucius absolutely tearing into Blackbeard for not appreciating Stede's attempt at giving Ed an adventure.Lucius: I said "don't be a dick," okay? 'Cause he's put together this whole outing for you.
Blackbeard: For me? Why?
Lucius: Look, you're very cool and you wear leather, okay, so maybe you won't understand this, but everyone is worried, all of the time, whether they're interesting or adventurous enough for you. And that bizarre little man over there likes you very much, and you like him, and if you can't get over yourself enough to realize that, then you're going to end up another leather-clad, middle-aged sad sack dying alone in a puddle of his own piss. [Beat] You can stab me in the face now.
1x08 - We Gull Way Back
- Lucius continuing to defend Stede by taking care of his breakup with Blackbeard for him.Lucius: You know, he really liked you. I hope you know that.
- Buttons' hex apparently actually working, because Calico Jack gets hit with a cannonball after Olivia lands on his boat.
1x09 - Act of Grace
- A member of the invading party makes a racist remark to Roach. He responds sarcastically, slaps the man in the face, and then bolts off grinning.
- The crew deciding to mutiny against Izzy, electing Oluwande as captain instead, and preparing to throw Izzy off the ship tied to an anchor.Izzy: Y-You, you, you don't have to do this. Part of good leadership is restraint!Oluwande: Everyone has their own style.
1x10 - Wherever You Go, There You Are
- Four words: "Unhand me, or bleed."
- After being pretty incompetent at all aspects of piracy all season, Stede pulls a spectacular fuckery that fools the entire town. His theatrical talents are finely honed!
Season Two
2x02 - Red Flags
- The entire crew finally standing up to Ed's insanity and banding together to kill him. Special mention to Izzy, who somehow gets up on deck during a storm, while feverish and missing a leg, having just failed to kill himself, and shooting a torch out of Ed's hand.
- The ending montage of the episode shows how Zheng is getting her fleet to the Caribbean from the Pacific: by hauling the ships overland across the Darién Gap.
2x03 - The Innkeeper
- When Stede arrives at the Revenge, none of the crew want to tell him what happened with Ed, clearly believing he's too in love with Ed to understand. When he finally talks to Izzy alone, he proves them wrong with a single sentence:Stede: What'd you do with him? I know he wouldn't have left by choice.Izzy: I know you think you understand him...Stede: He was either gonna watch the world burn or die trying, so which was it?
- Stede continues to show that he Took a Level in Badass after it's revealed that the crew left on the Revenge mutinied and supposedly killed Ed. As they're held in the brig pending execution, Izzy takes the bullet for the team by goading Stede...but Stede just walks away silently, looking defeated. No doubt the crew thought he was leaving them to their fate...but then Stede silently, single-handedly and speedily comes up with a plan to incapacitate Zheng's highly competent and dangerous crew, bust out the Revenge team, get back onto the Revenge itself, and stall the Red Flag so it can't give chase. Bear in mind this is a huge risk he's taking for the crew that he believes murdered his love interest (in self-defense, but still), most of whom have been treating him pretty shabbily since they blame him for just about everything, and he makes sure to take Izzy, who's physically at a serious disadvantage in an escape, having had his leg amputated very recently.
- He then demonstrates emotional courage by going down alone to face Ed's "dead" body — no longer running away from the consequences of his actions. Good thing he does too, since Ed is Only Mostly Dead, and pulls around when he hears Stede's voice.
2x06 - Calypso's Birthday
- Stede convincing Ned Low's crew to mutiny against him, then making him walk the plank (his first confirmed kill).Stede: Don't forget your fiddle!(Stede tosses it at Ned Low, knocking him into the ocean)
2x07 - Man On Fire
- Stede's made a name for himself after killing Ned Low, and Ed warns him that other pirates will be coming to challenge him. Sure enough, a random pirate breaks a bottle of rum over his head and demands Stede fight him. In response, Stede casually grabs a cigar a nearby patron is smoking and flings it at the guy, setting him on fire.
- Zheng effortlessly killing Steak Knife, a Giant Mook fanboy of Stede's before brutally deflating the latter's Acquired Situational Narcissism with a verbal and physical beatdown.Zheng Yi Sao: I've killed mediocre men. I've killed exceptional men. But you're the worst kind! A mediocre man that thinks he's exceptional.
- Ricky Banes capitalizing on Zheng dismissing him as an easily manipulated Upper-Class Twit by sneaking bombs onto her ships under the guise of gifted grandfather clocks. In one foul swoop, he defeats her attempt to threaten him into making her a privateer for the crown and destroys her entire pirate armada.
2x08 - Mermen
- With his own execution on the horizon, Izzy decides to spend his last hours doling out one hell of a "Reason You Suck" Speech to Ricky Banes.Izzy: You don't know the first thing about piracy, do you? It's not about glory, it's not about getting what you want, it's about belonging to something in a world that's told you you're nothing. It's about finding the family to kill for when yours are long dead. It's about letting go of ego for something larger: the crew. [...] Kill me. Kill us all. Our spirit will last through your entire fucking empire because… we're good, and you are a rancid, syphilitic cunt.
- Zheng, Ed, and Stede all going One-Man Army on the British soldiers. Stede and Ed finally get to have their romantic beach run, cutting through British soldiers to get to each other and have their Big Damn Kiss.
- Spanish Jackie poisoning all the British with her "special" brandy. And apparently she was Crazy-Prepared enough to have all her husbands poison trained just in case.
- The crew escaping to the Revenge, having stolen the men's uniforms. Extra points to Izzy for doing half of it with a fatal bullet wound.
