I am so fascinated to see how they can keep walking that tightrope! I do not want it to be an inch more serious (or tonally predictable) than it is and also of course I want the rom-com to work itself out but also Blackbeard and Stede's sadness and struggles are so clearly and deeply Real and it concerns me when the crew's aren't ... like at this point I care about the crew so much that if Lucius getting (nearly?) murdered and the entire crew getting marooned turns out not to matter to Stede any more than Lucius losing his finger did I will have a difficult time with him because of how indignant I will be on the crew's behalf, but! also! it is still so extremely important to me that it keep on being funny! It's a very effective cliffhanger, I'm on tenterhooks to see how this will be handled.