Mary recalls how her life has improved since Stede's presumed death: the children have adjusted well, she has found friends in a group of other wealthy local widows, and her painting career is blossoming, as is her romance with her painting instructor Doug. Stede's unexpected return throws a wrench into all of these developments, but Mary tells Stede that she likes the life she has built for herself and won't let him ruin it. As Mary prepares for an art show, her widow friend Evelyn suggests killing Stede, as her family are the town undertakers and would help cover up the murder.
Onboard the Revenge, Ed is not handling the breakup well, spending his days moping around in Stede's clothes and writing depressing songs. Jim finds their way back to the ship and reunites with Oluwande, and the two of them sleep together. The crew tries to comfort Ed, who suggests that they put on a talent show. Izzy confronts Ed and tells him he swore loyalty to the fearsome, legendary Blackbeard, not the pathetic, pining, soft-hearted Edward.
Stede goes to a bar and regales the local men with stories from his time as a pirate. Drunk, he goes to Mary's art show and makes a scene. That night, Mary prepares to stab Stede in the ear with a metal skewer while he sleeps, but he wakes up just in time. The two of them discuss their unhappy marriage and apologize for how they've hurt each other. Stede tells Mary not to be sorry about Doug and asks her what being in love feels like. As she describes it, Stede thinks back on his relationship with Ed. Mary tells Stede that she hopes he finds love too. Stede says that he thinks he's already in love with someone, and "his name is Ed." Mary embraces him happily. The next morning, Stede tells Mary that he has come up with a plan. With help from their children, Doug, Evelyn, and Evelyn's pet leopard, Mary and Stede pull off a fuckery that allows them to fake Stede's death, leaving Mary free to be with Doug and Stede free to go after Ed.
On the deck of the Revenge, Ed contemplates the red silk and drops it overboard. Ed assumes a terrifying persona he calls "the Kraken" and reverts to his old cruelty: he pushes Lucius off the ship and leaves him to drown, slices off Izzy's pinky toe and forces him to eat it, and throws out almost all of Stede's "playthings," including marooning most of the crew on a tiny island. The only members of Stede's crew he keeps are Jim, who he holds prisoner until they agree to join him, and Frenchie, who he orders to sew a bleeding heart onto his flag. In private, however, we see Ed curl up on Stede's bed sobbing as he stares at the lighthouse painting. On the island, the marooned crew members are prevented from turning to cannibalism by the arrival of Stede in a rowboat.
This episode provides examples of:
- Accidental Pervert: Stede ends up The Peeping Tom when he curiously looks in the window of Mary's painting studio to witness her having sex with Doug.
- Belated Love Epiphany: Mary describing her love for her new beau makes Stede realize that it applies to his feelings for Ed, who he just abandoned to try to make things work with his family. Zig-Zagged in that Stede already knew his relationship with Ed was romantic, he just wasn't sure if he was in love with Ed.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Jim and Olu have one after a full season of sexual tension.
- Death By Genre Savvy: Up to this point, Lucius' role in the show has been to act as the supportive friend in a Rom Com who talks sense into the leads. Unfortunately, this means Blackbeard has to get rid of him when he reverts to the Kraken persona and renounces love.
- Dramatic Irony: In-Universe. After helping Stede fake his death, Evelyn smugly tells the crowd "It's how he would have wanted to go."
- Falling-in-Love Montage: As Mary describes what love feels like and Stede realizes that he's been in love with Ed the whole time, there's a montage of flashbacks to moments of Stede and Ed falling in love.
- I Will Find You: Stede realizes that he has no place at his own manor with his wife and his old family, so he fakes his death and sets off in a dinghy to reunite with Ed.
- The Missus and the Ex: For the purposes of the trope, Stede is the Ex to Doug's Missus, despite still being Mary's legal husband. With Stede presumed dead, Mary had fallen in love with Doug and begun an affair with him. She makes clear to Stede that she will not break it off just because he turned up out of the blue.
- Mood Whiplash: The back half of the episode switches repeatedly between the ridiculously absurd lengths Stede goes through to fake his death and Blackbeard coldly brutalizing the crew of the Revenge.
- No Party Like a Donner Party: Narrowly avoided. After Blackbeard maroons half the crew on an island that can barely fit seven people and lacks food sources, the Swede starts to look like the easiest target as food to the marooned. They try to chase him down, and only stop when they notice the arrival of Stede.
- Not So Stoic: Ed embraces piracy, dons the moniker "the Kraken", brutalizes the crew of the revenge (including splitting up every couple), and flies his old flag. However, the episode ends with him crying alone in his empty cabin, staring at Stede's lighthouse painting.
- Once More, with Clarity: As Mary describes what being in love feels like, Stede flashes back to various scenes of him bonding with Ed, now understanding that he was falling in love in those moments.
- Rejected Apology: Stede isn't Easily Forgiven. His daughter is angry at him for abandoning them, his son doesn't remember him, and Mary has moved on to become a painter and fallen in love.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: After a full season of falling in love with Stede and deciding to give up being Blackbeard for good, Ed decides to fully embrace being "The Kraken" after he believes that Stede has abandoned him.
- There's No Kill like Overkill: Stede's fake death involves getting mauled by a leopard, then being hit by a carriage, and having a piano dropped on him. And Mary tells the crowd afterwards that Stede was secretly terminally ill.
- Took a Level in Badass: Both Ed and Stede have this happen in this episode:
- Ed adopts the "Kraken" persona, along with a whole new look to go with it, and while it's clear this isn't exactly new territory for him it's far and away the most ferociously ruthless and evil we've seen him at any point in the series.
- Stede not only shows remarkable aptitude in staging a "fuckery" to fake his death, as well as locating his marooned crew in the middle of the ocean, but he also shows just how much being at sea and surrounded by (and in several cases responsible for) death has changed him, exemplified when Doug tries to calm him down at Mary's art show and Stede effortlessly subdues him and holds a knife to his throat while growling "Unhand me or bleed". Even he seems stunned at this sudden shift in character after a moment.
- Uncertain Doom: By the time the credits roll, we know the whereabouts of all the major characters...except Lucius. At the end of the defenestration scene, he was still screaming for help and we don't see a body or other proof he drowned.
- Wham Episode: Stede reconciles with his family, gives away all of his wealth, and fakes his death. Meanwhile, a heartbroken Ed reverts back to his Blackbeard persona, dumps all of Stede's old belongings, shoves Lucius overboard, maroons Stede's crew, and kidnaps Jim and Frenchie.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Mary chews Stede out for abandoning his family, then falling back into their lives and assuming he'd just be welcomed back.
