Our Flag Means Death Season 2 Episode 8 Review: Mermen

* This review contains major content spoilers. Please be sure to watch the episode before you continue reading!

Finding a way to wrap up all the current storylines in a meaningful way is a tall order. It’s one that Our Flag Means Death Season 2 Episode 8, “Mermen,” manages with more ease than anticipated.

Between the big showdown with the English led by Prince Ricky and needing to bring Ed and Stede back together, the show gives the fans exactly what they want. That’s not to say things don’t fall a bit short of expectations in some areas.

While, as a whole, the episode does everything it needs to wrap up the season nicely enough — in case we don’t get a Season 3, there are still some things fans would have liked to have explored a tad bit more.

Ed Comes Back to Stede

This episode is the biggest reunion of the season, actually eclipsing the first one they have once Stede comes back to pirating after his departure during Season 1. Ed and Stede have gone their separate ways due to miscommunication and a severe lack of emotional maturity.

However, the bombing of Zheng’s fleet by the English alerts Ed to where he really needs to be, which is with Stede. The sequence in which he miraculously finds his leathers and one of Stede’s letters from Our Flag Means Death Season 2 Episode 1, “Impossible Birds,” is extremely farfetched. 

That improbability is exactly what the show is all about, so it brings levity and humor to an otherwise fairly intense episode.

Seeing their reunion mirror Stede’s dream from the first episode is also a nice way “Mermen” works to bring things back to the center. These two needed to be on the same page in both their romantic feelings for each other and their careers as pirates. 

Ed and Stede finally exchange those much-anticipated words, “I love you,” and it allows them to put aside their current emotional issues and trust each other enough to do battle together — which they need to. It’s a moment that teeters on the edge of heartfelt and comical, showing the strength of the Our Flag Means Death writers.

Seeing them fight together at a point where Stede is a much more capable swordsman, and pirate is beautiful and gives fans the closure and growth they’ve been looking for all season. Mind you, Stede isn’t an expert by any means, and his companions do more of the slicing and killing, but this time around, Stede actually lends a helping hand.

The Revenge Crew Proves Once and For All that Pirating is a Community

One of the strongest scenes of the whole finale occurs between Izzy and Prince Ricky. The two sit down at Spanish Jackie’s and have it out about what it means to be a pirate.

This season has been Izzy’s redemption tale so to speak, and this conversation serves as his final moment of wisdom. It’s refreshing to see him dispense with all that he’s learned as part of The Revenge Crew while still sticking to those personality traits we’ve always loved in him.

He manages to respectfully tell Prince Ricky that the way he goes about pirating is all wrong, which is why he hasn’t been successful. Then he closes everything out with a typical Izzy-fashioned insult.

Izzy: Because we’re good and you are a rancid syphilitic cunt.

It’s the perfect way to send off Izzy Hands because it shows his growth alongside his snarky demeanor fans fell in love with during Season 1. While the next chapter of his story is somewhat predictable at this point, it still hits us hard — but more on that later.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew are locked up and working together to escape. This is a level of unity we’ve been aching for all season and gives us comfort knowing everyone is finally able to trust that the others have their back.

There is even a moment of unity for Olu and Jim when it’s discovered that Auntie is in there with them — alive and mostly well. These two work together to keep Auntie calm while Jim also pulls out some debris from her shoulder.

By allowing the crew time to rely on one another for escape and survival, the writers have solved the season-long disconnect issue. It makes the battle between the pirates and the English that much stronger.

Izzy’s Ultimate Sacrifice

In the end, the battle with the English comes at an extremely dire cost. The crew loses the one member of their team who had the most living left to enjoy and had grown the most this season.

It’s a loss that at first viewing seems unnecessary and cruel. However, after viewing the episode a couple of times the reasoning behind it becomes crystal clear which makes it hurt a little bit less.

Ultimately, Izzy will always be Ed’s crutch and his connection to his Blackbeard persona. In order for him and Stede to move forward as equals and partners, the Blackbeard side of him needs to be put to rest.

This means that the connection Ed has to Izzy needs to be dealt with — or buried if you so choose. Therefore, Izzy getting shot by Prince Ricky and then allowing himself to die instead of being treated is him giving Ed his future.

After all, one of the final things he says to Ed is that he’s not alone, he has a family. Then he looks beyond Ed and states, “They love you.” It’s a heartbreaking moment because Izzy is just starting to fully understand himself.

These people that he has realized love Ed and have become his family are the same people who have helped him to grow into the man who can give this to Ed. This family isn’t just Ed’s it’s Izzy’s too and their love has allowed him to be less self-serving and to give it all for their continued happiness.

Izzy has grown so much this season, and people will argue he deserves to be happy, but I’m here to argue that in his final moments, he is happy. For him, giving Ed, the one person he loves, the love and life he truly wants is the ultimate happiness.

That being said, the death and its subsequent memorial feel extremely rushed to the point that viewers aren’t given the time to really sit in their grief before the episode moves on. This comes down to what I’ve been saying all season, things are rushed which is understandable with the number of episodes given.

Happy Endings Make for Happy Finales

The way the writers wrapped up everything during this finale is worth mentioning. After all, it gives fans just enough to be satisfied if a renewal doesn’t happen. 

There is the imagery of Ed and Stede living together on the beach with plans to be innkeepers while also agreeing to help out Zheng whenever she needs it. Then there is the imagery of the crew heading off into the sunset with Zheng as their captain — something a few of them have been voicing positive opinions on all season.

The biggest pay-off of those final moments comes with Lucius and Pete getting married aboard The Revenge with Ed and Stede also in attendance. These two have been through hell and back and still manage to make a happy go of things.

It eludes to a similar happy ending for Ed and Stede once they work on their relationship a bit more. 

It is one of those minor details about the episode that doesn’t sit well because of how happy and together they are at the end. It’s an ending that implies the two have had a deeper conversation than has been shown. If it is something that has occurred off-camera, then fans deserve to have an elusion to it on-screen.

But, in the end, everyone is happy and the conflicts of the season seem to be dealt with in a satisfactory manner. It’s not perfect by any means, but then again what pirate tale is.

Stray Thoughts:

• What kind of weddings has Roach been to that slashing the face of the happy couple is an alternative to kissing?
• Stede hatching a plan that everyone else calls suicide and still having the confidence to assure them it’ll work is the most Stede thing to happen all episode.
• Trust Jackie to poison-train all of her husbands so that she can double cross the British and poison them
• When everyone dresses as British soldiers to catch the rest of the soldiers off guard, I love that Pete still rips off the sleeves. 

 

 

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Our Flag Means Death Season 2 is now streaming on Max.

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