Fanfic can fix a lot of things. Sometimes, if your show ruins your ship, you can easily just fix your pain with a little fic. While Our Flag Means Death doesn’t really ruin anything, it does embrace a lot of our ideas from fanfiction to help bring our beloved pirates to life. A show that delivered a fatal blow to the idea of queerbaiting itself, it feeds into tropes in a beautiful way that makes fanfic an easy thing to fall into.
In the season 2 finale, titled “Mermen,” we got to see a setup for a lot of fanfic dreams unfold in the final moments, in how the season ended for two characters in particular.
Spoilers for the finale and all of season 2 of Our Flag Means Death lie ahead.
It hurts to know that in order to see Izzy Hands (Con O’Neill) again, we will have to pretend that he’s not dead in our fanfiction, or that his ghost is hanging out with Ed (Taika Waititi) and Stede (Rhys Darby), but there is a moment at the end of the season that’s literally the stuff of fanfic dreams: our ship, Ed and Stede, running an inn together.
This was set up when Ed was dying, as he said he wanted to have his own inn, and when it seems like piracy is dead and no one is sure what to do after Izzy’s death, Ed and Stede find a little home together that they can fix up and make an inn all their own. That? That’s fanfic right there!
Two innkeepers and their time together
While the ending of the season has Ed and Stede separated from the rest of the crew, it doesn’t feel like a goodbye. It feels like a change for the better—a separation that was just needed so that they can have time to actually talk to each other. Seeing Ed and Stede start their inn together is just the sweetest moment of two people caring about each other and starting a life together. They aren’t perfect and they have things to work though, especially in regards to how they talk about their relationship and their time together, and maybe this will help.
But seeing their relationship grow and the two actually talk to one another and work together to build a healthy dynamic? That’s something special, and if it means we get to see them run a little inn at the same time? Well, that’s just a little bonus for us all. We don’t know what the future holds for piracy or whether Stede and Ed will be back on the Revenge, but at least the crew will always have a place at their new inn if everything falls apart. Maybe season 3 will just be everyone working with them and visiting Izzy?
(featured image: Max)
