Stede, wracked by fever and still recovering from the near-fatal gut wound and the brink of death by hanging, lay unconscious, tended by the watchful gaze of Blackbeard. His fevered dreams took him back to his wedding day, where the officiant had blessed him and his wife Mary, declaring them as lighthouses, guiding each other through the tempestuous seas of life.
On board the Revenge, Izzy pleaded with Blackbeard to devise a strategy to evade the relentless pursuit of the Spanish Navy, but Blackbeard seemed to shrug off the impending danger with nonchalance.
Amidst another feverish dream, Stede relived a wedding anniversary where Mary presented him with a painting she had crafted, depicting the lighthouse from their wedding. In turn, Stede gave her a miniature model of the Revenge, which he had commissioned in secret. However, neither of them grasped the profound meaning behind each other's gifts, and Mary was distraught by Stede's remark that their lives were monotonous and that they should seek a life afloat on the ship with their children. Later, Mary attempted to broach the topic of their troubled marriage, acknowledging that they had never chosen each other but insisting that they should strive to make their union work. Stede, however, evaded the conversation by feigning sleep.
Once Mary succumbed to slumber, Stede slipped out of the house, stealing away on the Revenge, leaving behind a letter confessing that both of them deserved happiness elsewhere. In his feverish delirium, Stede envisioned Mary, his father, and his daughter taunting him, ultimately culminating in a hallucinatory vision of Blackbeard, now revealed as Ed, stabbing him mercilessly. It was this gruesome vision that jolted him back to consciousness, only to find the real Blackbeard, Ed, standing before him.
The crew of the Revenge, as they mended the scars left by the furious battle, bombarded Jim with inquiries about her femininity. Jim, feeling uneasy with the label, firmly requested they continue addressing her as Jim. Meanwhile, Stede and Ed, two souls aching for freedom from their current roles, struck a bond. They impulsively decided to swap attire and personas for the day.
Stede soon realized the weight of Blackbeard's mantle as Izzy pressed him for a strategy to confront the looming Spanish Navy. Stumbling in confusion, Stede turned to Ed, who revealed he had a plan in mind all along: waiting for the heavy fog that settled each dusk, the ship could slip its anchor and drift unseen, aided by the full moon's tide, away from the Spanish. However, Izzy shattered Ed's hopes, informing him that he had miscalculated the date, and the moon was not yet at its fullest.
Desperate, Ed and Stede retreated to Stede's quarters, resigned to their fate. But upon gazing at Mary's painting of a lighthouse, they saw a ray of hope. They devised a new plan: by pretending to be a lighthouse, they could deceive the Spanish into leaving. And it worked.
The next morning, Ed marveled at the ease of Stede's life, while Stede acknowledged that he must learn more from Ed's pirate ways to survive. They agreed to guide each other through their respective worlds. But Ed revealed his true intention to Izzy: he planned to stage his own death by murdering Stede, disguise his corpse in Ed's clothes, and steal Stede's identity to lead a life of opulence.
