Our Flag Means Death’s Calypso party was designed for you to throw your own

polygon.com:

Everybody needs to cut loose every once in a while… especially pirates. The pirate lifestyle is freeing, of course, but it can also be monotonous. That’s why holidays like Calypso’s birthday are so important to slow down and really properly celebrate.

Of course, the joke of episode 6 of Our Flag Means Death season 2, “Calypso’s Birthday,” is that it’s not a real holiday, holy or otherwise. As a bemused Blackbeard (Taika Waititi) has to tell Stede (Rhys Darby) about the crew’s request to honor Calypso with a big bash: “Yeah, they’re just trying to Calypso you. It’s totally just a made-up excuse for a big party.” But, Stede being Stede, he embraces it all the same. And so, the crew sets about throwing a proper Calypso’s birthday soireé — and Our Flag Means Death’s behind-the-scenes crew had to make it all happen.

The primary goal, as anyone working on Our Flag’s production side will tell you, was to make sure things looked as if they could be properly sourced by pirates scouring through a market for impromptu party trimmings.

“We couldn’t get too commercial with our decorations, because they’re still objects that have to look bought and made available at the pirates’ republic floating market,” Ra Vincent, the show’s production designer, says. “So choosing our materials, we were very careful not to make anything too manufactured-looking.”

Still, the party on the Revenge had to tell a story with all its little facets — and in this case, be a bit of a bright light after a very grim time for the crew. “There’s a little bit of a dark streak that runs through season 2, and this was one moment to really celebrate,” Vincent says. “A little moment of joy for those characters — and actually dive a little deeper into kind of who