With all the strikes that were going on late spring to late fall, I feel like the second season of Our Flag Means Death went out into the world with very little fanfare. In fact, it may have taken me a while to wise up to it were it not for a small, but very dedicated fanbase I follow on Twitter (lol “X”).
Anyway, the second season picks up right where the first season left off. Stede’s ship has been overtaken by Ed, aka Blackbeard, after Stede left to be sure he hadn’t made a mistake in leaving his life with his ex-wife Mary. Ed is a monster on The Revenge, taking out his heartbreak on the crew, which only maintained Frenchie and Jim from Stede’s original gang. He’s relentless, even leaving Izzy on the brink of death. Meanwhile, Stede has taken his remaining crew to the Republic of Pirates and working for Spanish Jackie to get funds together to get a new ship. They are all managing okay, but are eventually “taken” by Chinese Pirate Queen, Zheng Yi Sao.
Life with Zheng is pretty sweet for Stede’s crew, but Stede eventually grows restless, wanting to be the captain of his own ship again. His prayers seem to be answered when The Revenge sails by and he finds that they’ve killed Ed. Similar to Izzy though, Ed is hanging on by a thread. Stede manages to bring him back, but it takes a while before he is square with the world, and even longer to forgive Stede. The two go through all sorts of hijinks, but eventually, they rekindle their romance. I think the show would have really felt the wrath of the show’s fans if they hadn’t. Though Ed is happy with his life with Stede again, he’s sort of thrown into an identity crisis, which of all people, Izzy helps him get over.
Izzy somehow became my favorite character this season, and almost from the first episode. He kind of got what was coming to him, even if all he ever did was speak the truth. He just never softened it enough. The crew, too, grew to like Izzy, shown by the fact that they made him a special peg leg. That thing was hilarious. He got even more mushy as the season went on, fully integrating himself with the crew of The Revenge. So that makes what happens to him at the end that much more impactful. I also found Buttons and Roach to be the top-tier comedic performers this season – I found myself cackling the most at what they said.
Aside from Ed and Stede’s romance being rekindled, Black Pete and Lucius took their love a step further – they got married in the season finale! There was also an epic party! But then there was also an epic and tragic war between all of the pirates and the British. They were bamboozled, and even though their thrown together counterattack was sloppy, it gave us the most wholesome team-up. By the end of the season, a lot of major players end up onboard The Revenge, so I’m really curious to see where the story goes from here.
As with the first season, I found it really interesting how many real characters and events they managed to weave through this semi-fictional series. Given how quiet things were with this second season, I have my doubts of their being a third, but it doesn’t seem like Taika Waititi’s money train has stopped running yet.