In the season 2 finale of Our Flag Means Death, the surviving pirates attempt to take back the Republic of Pirates from Prince Richard. The episode is streaming on Max.
Episode 8 recap: Mermen
Ed is waxing lyrical about how peaceful and fulfilling his new life as a fisherman is, but the truth is that he’s coasting on the efforts of a father-son duo who have had enough of him.
They send him away and tell him to go back to doing whatever he is good at rather than fail at being a fisherman and waste their time.
Prince Richard is being hailed as the man who ended piracy and destroyed the Republic of Pirates in one swift assault. The Englishmen are celebrating at Spanish Jackie’s with Jackie, Roach, and Black Pete forced to serve their captors.
The Swede is being used as a test subject to make sure none of their drinks are being poisoned by the vengeful survivors. Zheng and Stede have managed to survive and are out in the forest where Zheng grapples with the fact that this is all her fault.
Stede tries to raise her spirits but fails miserably. Two soldiers come across them and Stede attempts to catch them off guard. While they’re focused on Stede, Zheng disposes of them with ease.
She then heads back towards the town to kill Richard and Stede follows, pleading with her to go with caution. Ed returns to the Republic of Pirates and sees the destruction before his eyes.
He kills a couple of soldiers who tell him that these are English waters now and then swims to the bottom of the ocean to fetch his old leathers. He’s back to being Blackbeard now, one of the most fearsome pirates across the seas.
Richard visits the rest of the crew of The Revenge who are being held prisoner in the cell below. He tells them that they’re going to be hanged very soon and their stories will be forgotten.
Izzy dismisses Richard’s threats and makes fun of him, prompting Richard to order Izzy to be brought upstairs for a drink. He tries to establish that he’s accomplished something great by defeating all the pirates but Izzy doesn’t acknowledge him at all.
Jackie has had enough and tells Roach to give her the good brandy, mischievously pointing to a special bottle on the topmost shelf of the bar.
Two soldiers come across one of the messages that Stede had sent out into the sea and laugh over its contents, too distracted to realize as Ed sneaks up on them and kills them.
He reads the letter and is touched by the message as he rushes to find Stede. Zheng and Stede make their way to the beach, chased by a dozen soldiers.
They do their best to fight them off, while at the same time, Ed is fighting a troupe of soldiers by himself across the beach. Stede and Ed see each other and make their way to meet in the middle.
They share a kiss and go back to help Zheng fight off the rest of the soldiers.
Our Flag Means Death season 2 ending explained in detail:
How does the crew escape?
The crew stuck in the cell wrapped a cloth around two of the bars and twisted it to bend the bars and create a gap big enough. While Olu is waiting, he notices someone else in the cell and goes to check up on them.
It turns out to be Auntie who is gravely injured. She says that she failed Zheng by being too hard on her, and Olu is good for her because he is soft.
Olu tells her that maybe it won’t hurt if she takes the soft approach with Zheng sometimes as they tend to her wounds. In the meantime, they get out of the cell and head upstairs to take on the soldiers.
What happens to Ed, Stede, and Zheng?
The three of them storm Spanish Jackie’s and realize that they are vastly outnumbered. The crew of The Revenge along with Auntie arrive to provide support, but it isn’t needed since Jackie poisoned all of the soldiers with the brandy.
Richard is left alive, and Stede comes up with a plan to take out the rest of the soldiers surrounding the place. The others consider it a suicide mission but Stede is confident that they’ll succeed.
They dress up in the English soldiers’ uniforms and use Richard as a hostage to get through the soldiers, but a fight breaks out where Richard shoots Izzy and manages to escape.
Do the pirates take back control?
The pirates fight off all of the soldiers and make it to the ship. Izzy is close to his end after being fatally wounded, and Ed stays by his side right till the end.
They bury Izzy’s body on land and Zheng asks Ed and Stede if they would like to work together to kill Richard for revenge. They are open to her suggestion, and Zheng takes over The Revenge.
Ed and Stede stay behind to fix up an inn close to where Izzy is buried and start a domestic life together.
Review
- Izzy’s death is easily the most emotional moment of the episode and the creators have built up to it spectacularly. Izzy has been one of the most intriguing characters in the series and seeing him go is heartbreaking.
- Stede and Ed’s romance is the primary focus of season 2 and hopefully, we have seen them get back together for the last time. They can be split up by circumstance, but having them argue and drift away from each other would be a mistake.
- Zheng and Auntie have been nice additions to the season and it will be intriguing to see her with the crew of The Revenge and how Richard progresses as a villain going forward.
Also Read: Our Flag Means Death season 2 episodes 6 and 7 recap & review
