Israel 'Izzy' Hands is one of the major characters in Our Flag Means Death. He serves as Blackbeard's first mate and is portrayed by Con O'Neill.
Bonnet comes along and he's like 'oh, oh, Blackbeard I really love- I love the way you dress. I love the way your hair, your beard', and all that.
Israel 'Izzy' Hands, This is Happening
Physical Appearance[]
Izzy is relatively short, standing at roughly five foot and seven and a half inches. His beard and slicked back hair are a graying black, his eyes are green-brown and he is somewhere in his mid fifties.
His outfit fits the black and leather dress code of Blackbeard’s crew. He’s dressed in a pair of leather trousers and leather waistcoat, knee high boots and a slightly oversized greenish-black shirt, which he wears with the sleeves tied above the elbows. He accessorizes with a single black glove on his right hand and a black cravat with a golden ring with an emerald placed above the knot.
Izzy has three visible tattoos, the largest of which is a swallow on the right side of his neck, partially concealed by his shirt. There is also a small spade symbol between his thumb and index finger on his left hand and, probably most notable, a small ‘X’ under his right eye. When his glove is taken off following him getting shot by Blackbeard, it is revealed that he also has a red heart tattooed below his right thumb.
Early in season 2, Izzy has his left leg amputated above the knee after a gunshot wound. For a while, he uses a prosthetic made out of a table leg, but when it breaks the crew fashion him a new one from a sawed-off leg of the Revenge's unicorn figurehead, which they paint gold. When Izzy is retraining topless after getting his new leg, lashing scars can be seen on his back.
Personality[]
History[]
Izzy Hands has worked for Edward 'Blackbeard' Teach for years and acts as his first mate. Somewhere prior to his debut episode, A Damned Man, Izzy hears about Stede Bonnet’s success at killing and capturing British officers and seeks them out. Izzy meets the crew of the Revenge after they run their ship aground and manages to acquire both of Bonnet’s hostages once he loses them to the island’s natives, meaning to sell them off for ‘a pretty penny’. In the jungle, he loses one back to Stede once he gets ambushed by him. After Blackbeard hears about Stede, Izzy is sent to follow and find the Gentleman Pirate and request a meeting. Unhappy about the idea of interacting with Bonnet again, Izzy asks if he can send lower-ranking crew members, but Blackbeard denies the request and orders Izzy to handle the invitation personally.
Izzy finds Stede in Spanish Jackie’s bar and issues the invitation but carefully does not specify that it comes from Blackbeard, saying only that "my boss would like a word with you." Having no idea who Izzy works for, Stede angrily refuses, telling Izzy that his boss could "suck eggs in hell." Izzy repeats this to Blackbeard and insists that Stede seemed to know who Blackbeard was, apparently hoping the rudeness would dissuade Blackbeard from further interest in Bonnet. However, this backfires - Edward is all the more intrigued by Stede's being bold enough to insult Blackbeard. At his orders, Izzy and the rest of Blackbeard's crew attack the Spanish naval vessel that had taken custody of Stede and his crew, ultimately helping to save Bonnet's life.
After Blackbeard joins the Revenge, Izzy argues that in keeping with their usual policy when taking a ship, they should force the crew to repair the ship and then execute them all; Blackbeard ignores this suggestion. Izzy is increasingly frustrated by Blackbeard's interest in getting to know Stede and repeatedly urges him to quit playing around and come up with a plan to escape the Spanish, but Blackbeard is clearly annoyed by this and ignores him. When Blackbeard and an injured Stede decide to trade clothes and lives for the day, Izzy pulls Blackbeard aside and threatens to resign, calling him an "insane, unpleasant shell of a man" and an "absolute twat." After Bonnet and Blackbeard manage to save the crew with their lighthouse plan, Izzy apologizes for what he'd said and begins to leave in a dinghy, but Blackbeard stops him and tells him he needs him on the Revenge, promising him Bonnet’s murder and subsequent captaincy of his very own ship. Drawn in by the promise of becoming a captain, Izzy agrees.
When he tries to run the Revenge while Bonnet and Blackbeard are away, Izzy quickly realizes that his usual insults and threats don't work on Stede's crew - especially not on Lucius, who points out that Izzy has no authority to assign him tasks - and that they'll defend one another. Fang reveals that Izzy isn't liked or respected by Blackbeard's crew either: he regularly bullies the crew in petty ways like pulling Fang's beard, and while they generally tolerate this because his authority is backed up by Blackbeard, they ignore Izzy otherwise, calling him nicknames like "Dizzy Izzy" and "Izzy the Spewer" because of the time he got seasick while in command of the ship.
Two weeks go by on the Revenge without Blackbeard making any attempt to follow through on his plan to kill Bonnet. It becomes increasingly obvious to everyone else that Edward genuinely enjoys Stede's company, but Izzy, who despises Bonnet, cannot understand this and insists that the plan is still on. Finally Izzy overhears Ed teaching Stede to fence and mistakenly believes they're having sex. He is deeply horrified by this and begins repeatedly urging Edward to go through with the plan to assassinate Stede.
Finally realizing Ed will never go through with it, Izzy challenges Stede to a duel on the terms that the loser - if he survives - must leave the ship. Edward tells Izzy that the plan is off, but Izzy refuses to back down. Edward and the crew advise Stede to refuse the challenge, but he accepts. Despite being far outclassed as a swordsman, he easily outwits Izzy: although Izzy easily disarms Stede and nearly kills him, Stede tricks him into breaking his sword in the process, thus forfeiting the duel.
Now banished from the ship, Izzy goes to Spanish Jackie’s and invites Chauncey Badminton to meet him there. Although Jackie is uncomfortable with the Navy's presence in her bar, the three of them make a deal: Izzy will betray Stede’s whereabouts to the Navy. Izzy sends Calico Jack to tempt Ed away from the incoming British vessels in an attempt to save him from them, but when that doesn’t work and Blackbeard leaves Jack and returns to the Revenge, the British give Izzy "custody" of Edward. While a terrified Ed helplessly watches the Navy prepare to execute Stede, Izzy attempts to explain himself, insisting that he was acting out of loyalty and did this for Edward's own good. Ed responds by punching him in the face, then demands an Act of Grace for himself and Stede, ignoring Izzy's continued protests.
Once Edward and Stede are taken away, Izzy is left in charge of the Revenge. He is a cruel captain who lords it over the crew, showing them no respect and harshly punishing insubordination. They meet in secret and vote unanimously to mutiny against Izzy, kill him, and install Oluwande as captain. Izzy is about to be thrown overboard with an anchor tied to him when a beardless Edward suddenly returns to the ship. Preoccupied with his heartbreak, Ed seems not to notice the mutiny in progress and addresses Izzy as first mate; uncertain what's happening, the crew releases him.
Heartbroken over Stede's abandonment, Edward refuses to leave the captain's quarters for the next few days. Resuming his post as first mate, Izzy tells the crew that Blackbeard is ill and works to prevent them from finding out what's actually going on. Despite Izzy's best efforts, Ed eventually calls Lucius into the captain's quarters. After a brief conversation where Lucius encourages Ed not to despair, Ed emerges wearing one of Stede's dressing gowns and opens up to the crew about his feelings, singing a sad song he wrote, which seems to cheer him up. He asks the crew to call him Edward rather than Blackbeard (over Izzy's protests), and suggests that the crew should give up piracy and hold a talent show.
The crew are excited to plan the talent show, but Izzy is disgusted to see the once-fearsome Blackbeard openly display such emotional vulnerability in front of everyone. He confronts Edward about it in the captain's quarters, saying he wishes he'd let the Navy kill Ed. Izzy insists that "whatever it is you've become is a fate worse than death" and that Izzy serves Blackbeard, not "some namby-pamby in a silk gown pining for his boyfriend." When Edward reacts by shoving Izzy into the wall with a hand around his throat, Izzy strokes his face and says approvingly "there he is." Izzy then leaves after reiterating that his captain is Blackbeard, not Edward, and that "Edward better watch his fucking step."
The confrontation triggers an emotional breakdown in Edward, who had always wrestled with the belief that he was a monster unfit for love or friendship, and he seems to come to the decision that Izzy is right. He punishes Izzy's insubordination like the Blackbeard Izzy seems to demand - by entering Izzy's bedroom that night, cutting off his pinky toe, and forcing him to eat it. Blackbeard then instructs Izzy to have the crew throw out Stede's possessions and then maroon most of Stede's crew on a small island. Izzy does so, seeming proud that his boss is back to his old self.
At the start of season 2, Blackbeard has been running the crew ragged with nonstop raids. Izzy is as stressed as the rest of them, and becomes especially upset when Blackbeard casually threatens to fire him. The crew attempts to comfort him and reveals he's lost two more toes. Although Izzy angrily rejects the crew's offer of empathy as usual, he seems touched by their support, and it inspires him to attempt to talk Blackbeard around - but when Izzy accidentally echoes Stede's "talk it through" catchphrase, Blackbeard becomes very upset, threatening the crew and then threatening to shoot himself. Fed up with this, Izzy finally brings up Blackbeard's feelings for Stede Bonnet in front of the crew and is shot in the leg for his trouble.
Blackbeard orders Frenchie as new first mate to kill Izzy, but the crew secretly defy his orders, hiding Izzy in a secret room and amputating his leg to save him when the bullet wound festers. Archie, new to the crew, is puzzled by JIm and Frenchie's willingness to take risks to save Izzy, noting that he "seems like a bit of a dick," and asks if they have some particular affection for him. Jim denies this and explains instead that Izzy is a dick, but that doesn't matter - "life used to mean something on this ship."
Blackbeard discovers the hiding spot. To the crew's surprise, he doesn't punish them but asks to be alone with Izzy - then hands him a loaded gun and hints that he wants Izzy to shoot him. Realizing Edward is suicidal but too afraid to do it himself, Izzy laughs at him and mocks his cowardice. He refuses to shoot Ed, saying he will no longer clean up Edward's messes, and attempts to shoot himself instead.
Still determined to commit suicide, Blackbeard sails the ship directly into a storm and threatens to fire the cannon through the mast in hopes of provoking the crew to mutiny and kill him. They hesitate - but then Izzy reveals himself to still be alive, the bullet having grazed off his forehead, and shoots Blackbeard to prevent him from sinking the entire ship. With Izzy having struck the first blow, the crew unite and mutiny, beating Blackbeard to death (or so they believe at the time).
When Bonnet returns with Zheng Yi Sao and her fleet, Izzy tries to resume his old rivalry with Stede, repeatedly doing his best to pick a fight - but Stede, overcome with worry for Ed, barely seems to notice. When Stede confronts Izzy about Ed's whereabouts and asks point blank if they killed him, Izzy lies "I could never do that" and insists that they simply marooned him instead. He tells Stede that the two of them are both equally responsible for Edward's spiral - but then reveals how much he's already been changed by the crew's compassion by uncharacteristically pleading with Bonnet not to let them suffer any further for his and Stede's mistakes.
Despite Izzy's attempts to hide the mutiny, Auntie discovers clear evidence that Blackbeard was killed by his own crew. Izzy and the other mutineers are imprisoned on Zheng's ship and condemned to execution, in accordance with pirate tradition for mutinous crews. But Izzy is surprised when Stede returns to break all of them out of prison - even Izzy himself, despite their previous animosity and despite Izzy having lied to Stede about his participation in Ed's murder. Ashamed of himself, Izzy attempts to thank Stede, but Stede is too overwhelmed by his grief to speak with him and leaves.
Back on the Revenge under Stede's captaincy, Izzy sinks into despair and begins drinking heavily, but the crew rally to support him and fashion him a prosthetic leg made from the broken unicorn figurehead, dubbing him "the new unicorn" in a note. The crew's kindness seems to deeply touch Izzy and helps bring him out of his depression; he even begins to strike up a tentatively friendly relationship with Bonnet, attempting to teach him to be a more competent pirate and expressing approval at Bonnet's progress. He counsels Lucius through his trauma, telling him that a shark took his leg and, while covering the trauma with a different story may not be the healthiest way to do so, "not moving on is worse," handing Lucius a small wooden shark he has whittled.
When the crew throw a party to celebrate the made-up holiday of Calypso's Birthday, Izzy appears in drag make-up done by Wee John and sings La Vie En Rose at the party. Seemingly comfortable now with the relationship between Ed and Stede, he is able to tease them gently about their first night together. Izzy does his best to cheer up Stede when Ed leaves him in a panic.
After the crew and many others in the Republic of Pirates are captured by Ricky Banes, Izzy delivers an impassioned speech about the camaraderie of the crew and the family they represent to him. As the crew make their escape, Ricky shoots Izzy in the abdomen. Izzy is able to make it back to the ship, but dies in Ed's arms.
On his deathbed he admits that he knew years ago that Ed had grown past the Blackbeard persona and had spent those years pressuring him to cling to it anyway despite knowing this was hurting Ed. He offers a sincere apology, reassuring Ed that he is loved by the entire crew; in an implicit reversal of their confrontation at the end of season 1, Izzy tells Ed to "just be Ed" and then touches his face gently, saying "there he is."
The crew bury him beside the home Stede and Ed intend to make into an inn, with his prosthetic leg and cravat and ring used to mark his headstone.
Quotes[]
Geraldo: "Mr. Hands, welcome. It's been a while."
Izzy: "Yeah, because I hate this fucking place. But for some inexplicable reason my boss would like a word with you, Bonnet."
Izzy: "So what's the plan, sir? Do we open fire? Or would you rather we just attack them, kill them, throw them out to the sharks, sir?"
Blackbeard: "Wait 'till they make landfall then invite 'em aboard. And Izzy, I want you to handle this personally."
Izzy: "Oh, Edward, can't I just send the boys?"
Lucius: "Have you ever been sketched?"
Izzy: "Fuck off."
-Discomfort in a Married State
Izzy: "I will very willingly offer you this, my fucking resignation, you absolute twat!"
- The Best Revenge Is Dressing Well
“Stede fucking Bonnet. I fucking challenge you to a fucking duel.”
Izzy: "All right, all right. Listen up, listen up! Work hard, keep a spring in your step and you'll all have a long tenure aboard ... Izzy's Revenge." (Wee John laughs) "What's funny, Mister Feeney?"
Wee John: " It's just that 'Izzy's Revenge' sounds a bit like an intestinal condition." (Everyone laughs)
Izzy: "I wonder what the condition of your intestine might be after, say ... no rations for a week? Any other funny bits? I didn't think so."
Izzy: "I should've let the English kill you. This, whatever it is you've become ... it's a fate worse than death."
Blackbeard: "Well, I'm still Blackbeard so-"
Izzy: "No! This, this ... is Blackbeard. Not some namby-pamby in a silk gown pining for his boyfriend."
Blackbeard: "Choose your next words wisely, dog."
Izzy: (Choking) "There he is. Blackbeard is my captain. I serve Blackbeard. Not Edward. Edward better watch his fucking step."
- Wherever You Go, There You Are
Episode Appearances[]
| Episodes | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| Episodes | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | ||
| Season 2 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Trivia[]
- The real Israel Hands' name inspired a minor character in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.
- In reality, Israel Hands was also known by the moniker 'Basilica Hands', though why is unknown. A basilica (a Latin word which literally means 'royal palace') was an Ancient Roman public assembly building often used as a law court. Later the name was used to refer to certain churches which had been granted privileges by the Pope, and later still became an architectural term. Of course it will likely always be unknown why Israel Hands went by this name, but it could be theorized that it was for one of the following reasons: he was a religious man, as Blackbeard's right-hand he'd been provided special privileges well beyond those of other crew, or that he was an imposing and instantly recognizable man. In one document quoting the Minutes of the North Carolina Governor's Council he is also referred to as Hesikia Hands, although there appears no be no other corroborations of Hesikia being a used name that do not trace back to this one source. It could be a mistake of Basilica.
- Historically speaking, Izzy's birth date is 1701 meaning he should be sixteen; clearly this is not true of the character as Con O'Neill was born in 1966 and fifty-five during season one.
- Izzy's swallow tattoo is most probably meant to indicate his experience as a sailor: sailors would get a swallow tattoo after having sailed 5,000 nautical miles (5753mi/9260km), and another after completing 10,000 nautical miles (11507mi/18520km).[1]
- During an interview with costar Kristian Nairn, O'Neill mentioned that the make-up department had been applying one further tattoo to Izzy that was never shown clearly onscreen. He says it was a name tattooed on his wrist, connected to the ring Izzy wore on his tie. Apparently, both the tattoo and the ring would have been discussed in season 3, if it had been produced.
- Con O'Neill revealed that he initially auditioned for a different role on the show before being offered the part of Izzy, which wasn't at the time particularly well developed.[2] David Jenkins confirmed that casting O'Neill was crucial for the development of the character and that he would rewatch O'Neill's audition tape to find "Izzy's center" while writing later episodes.[3]
- David Jenkins describes Izzy's relationship to Blackbeard as complex; at various times he has described Izzy as acting like Blackbeard's "jilted spouse," [3] as being a co-worker who's weirdly obsessed with his boss' love life, and as being something of a "father figure" to Edward -- though not necessarily in an entirely positive sense, as he also noted Edward has a history of killing his abusive father figures.[4]
- Costume designer Gypsy Taylor stated that the ring Izzy wears on his cravat belonged to his mother.[5] Con O'Neill revealed that the ring has an additional meaning to him personally: he asked the costume makers to make it an emerald ring as an homage to his mother who passed away around the time he was about to start shooting the show and whose favorite stone was emerald.[6]
- Izzy's literacy is debatable. Con O'Neill stated that he doesn't believe Izzy can write.[7] The character is shown with a book in Wherever You Go, There You Are, but it may be argued that he's looking at the picture of Blackbeard and not reading. He is later shown to be able to at least read enough to read (and have a deep emotional reaction to) a note from the crew in Fun and Games.
- Con O'Neill stated on multiple occasions that he believes Izzy is really good in bed.[8][7]
References[]
- ↑ Tattoos with Meaning
- ↑ Florida Supercon 2023 Our Flag Means Death panel
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 How Our Flag Means Death’s creator made a period romance disguised as a pirate comedy
- ↑ ‘Our Flag Means Death’ Creator on That Finale Death — and Why He Thinks a Third Season Should Be Its Last
- ↑ Video on Polygon's Twitter
- ↑ C2E2 2022 Our Flag Means Death panel
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Emerald City Comic Con 2022 Our Flag Means Death panel
- ↑ C2E2 2022 Our Flag Means Death Panel