Stede, recovering from being gut-stabbed and nearly hanged, lies unconscious with a fever, watched over by Blackbeard. He dreams about his wedding, where the officiant told him and his wife Mary that they were to be lighthouses guiding each other through life. On the Revenge, Izzy tries to get Blackbeard to come up with a plan to escape the pursuing Spanish Navy, but Blackbeard does not seem to take the danger seriously.
In another fever dream, Stede remembers a wedding anniversary where Mary gave him a painting she made of the lighthouse from their wedding and Stede gave her a model of the Revenge, which he was secretly having built. Neither of them understand each other's gifts, and Mary is upset by Stede calling their lives monotonous and suggesting the two of them and their children should go live on a ship. Mary later tries to talk to Stede about their marriage, saying that she knows they're both unhappy and never would have chosen each other, but that they still should try to make the best of it. Stede avoids the conversation by pretending to be asleep. Once Mary falls asleep, he sneaks out of the house and sails away on the Revenge, leaving behind a letter saying that they both deserve happiness. In the present, Stede imagines Mary, his father, and his daughter mocking him, culminating in a hallucinatory version of Blackbeard stabbing him. He is awoken by the real Blackbeard, who introduces himself as Ed.
The crew of the Revenge, repairing damage that the ship sustained in the battle, bother Jim with questions about being a woman; Jim expresses discomfort with the label and tells the crew to just keep calling them Jim. Stede and Ed bond over both feeling trapped in their lives. The two of them decide to switch clothes and roles for the day. Stede quickly discovers how hard it is to be Blackbeard when Izzy demands that he come up with a plan to deal with the rapidly approaching Spanish Navy. Stede doesn't know what to do, and Ed reveals that he has had a plan for escaping the Spanish the whole time: realizing that a heavy fog would set in around dusk, the ship can simply lift anchor and let the full moon tide carry them unseen out of the path of the Spanish. However, Izzy tells Ed that his plan won't work because he got the date wrong and it's not yet the full moon. Ed and Stede retreat to Stede's quarters to wait for death, but upon seeing Mary's lighthouse painting, they realize they can trick the Spanish into leaving by pretending to be a lighthouse. The new plan succeeds.
In the morning, Ed expresses his admiration for Stede's comfortable lifestyle, while Stede says that he should learn more about being a pirate from Ed if he wants to survive. The two of them agree to show each other the ropes of their respective lives. However, Ed reveals his true plan to Izzy: he intends to fake his death by killing Stede and dressing his disfigured corpse in Ed's clothes, while Ed will steal Stede's identity and retire to a life of luxury.
This episode provides examples of:
- Actually, I Am Him: Stede initially thinks Ed, the nice guy he meets after getting stabbed, is one of Blackbeard's crew. Blackbeard introduces himself as "Ed", and when Stede asks if he works for Blackbeard, he says he does, though he'd never thought of it that way before.
- Booze Flamethrower: Used to make a lantern flare up and look like a lighthouse beacon.
- Clothing Switch: Blackbeard and Stede switch clothes so they can "switch lives", after both express their dissatisfaction with their current circumstances.
- Foreshadowing: Heavily foreshadows the end of the season.
- The episode shows the officiant at Stede and Mary's wedding telling them they are to be each other's metaphorical lighthouses guiding one another through life, and Mary gives Stede a painting of a lighthouse as an anniversary gift. Later in the episode, Blackbeard remarks that people always forget that you're supposed to avoid lighthouses, as getting too close to one means you'll break apart on the rocks. The season ends with Blackbeard, utterly broken after getting close to Stede and being abandoned by him, sobbing as he stares at the lighthouse painting.
- Stede mentions in reaction to his Arranged Marriage that he had always wanted to marry for love, to which his father replies that "peasants marry for love". In Episode 10, Stede has faked his death and left his entire estate and inherited wealth to Mary and Doug to return to Blackbeard.
- Freudian Couch: Ed lies on Stede's couch as he vents to him about how boring and stifling it is to be Blackbeard.
- Funny Background Event: When the Spanish fleet is first spotted in pursuit of the Revenge, Blackbeard tells Lucius to count backwards from one hour, forty-seven minutes. He stumbles out of the room doing just that...and can be seen continuing to count down on his fingers in a couple more scenes until reaching "...zero!" when the fog bank hits.
- Love at First Sight: Blackbeard is fascinated by Stede from the first.
- Mistaken for Servant: Stede initially thinks Ed is one of Blackbeard's crew.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: When Stede asks Ed if he works for Blackbeard, Ed says he does, From a Certain Point of View.
- That Cloud Looks Like...: Ed asks Izzy if the clouds look like frankfurters to him.
- This Is No Time for Knitting: In the first half of the episode, Blackbeard ponders the shapes of clouds and plays dress-up in Stede's clothes. The latter half of the episode reveals the clouds were important because they foretold extremely thick fog, and he dressed in Stede's clothes to prepare to steal his identity.
- Unbroken Vigil: Edward does this for Stede while he lays in bed with a fever. Notable because they haven't even properly met yet.
