but i'm a cheerleader criterion release

A closed mind is the worst defense against the supernatural. If it happens to you, you’re liable to have that shut door in your mind ripped right off its hinges!

The Haunting (1963) dir. Robert Wise

I really wish I could get over all this considering I actually never thought OFMD was amazing television, but currently obsessing over how messy the Jim and Oluwande arcs have been for no reason.

Just... why on earth did they give them a lovely friends-to-lovers arc in Season 1 along with Jim's revenge arc, have them torn apart by circumstance in the finale, and then in Season 2? Oh yeah they're just not together anymore. Yeah, they both have separate brand new love interests we have to get quickly invested in with very little screentime. No, no mention of Jim's family or Oluwande's possible leadership journey either.

And the thing is, I'm easy. I love Archie and Zheng and like both Archie/Jim and Oluwande/Zheng, especially Archie/Jim because there's slightly more time for us to see them interact and get attached. I just don't understand why Jim/Oluwande were broken up and there was never even an in-universe reason given. I could've accepted, for example, that Jim was struggling having thought that Oluwande was dead for months and being deeply traumatized by everything that happened on the break-up boat. Maybe it felt easier for them to be with someone who was also on Blackbeard's crew, or just someone "harder" than Oluwande. But the show didn't even bother. Instead, they broke up because I guess Jim likes Archie now, and I suppose it's too much for us to believe that Jim and Oluwande might be okay having an open relationship, or that Jim might be able to love two people at once.

I genuinely spent 3/4ths of the season delusionally convincing myself that they were in an open relationship and it was just entirely implied and off-screen (also weird and bad writing) but no. They're just exes now and they don't even have any feelings about being exes.

One of the strangest things my mind keeps fixating on is the opening sequence to the season, where Izzy and Stede are sword fighting, Stede kills Izzy for crimes against Ed and Stede, and then Stede and Ed run into each other's arms and all is forgiven without actually addressing any of the issues. At the time, I thought this as Stede's dream was really fun and great because it highlighted how much Stede needed to learn and how much more complex the real show would be. Ed's actions had escalated in a way that Izzy clearly didn't want and that he wasn't in a position to try to stop. Stede had been the one to leave Ed, which wasn't actually Izzy's fault. Ed was furious with Stede and they definitely wouldn't just be getting back together without any proper communication.

And then, in the end, it wasn't meaningfully contrasted by the actual end of the season. Ed and Stede run across the beach into each other's arms after having fought/broken up/a fundamental disagreement about what they want to do with their lives. And all that happens is that Ed vaguely apologizes for being a dick and says he loves Stede. Did they talk about anything that actually happened? Is Ed the (only) one who needed to apologize? Did that solve anything deeper? No, and they never do more later in the episode, either.

Izzy dies, and he dies apologizing to Ed for his actions in encouraging Blackbeard, despite none of this occurring or being brought up the entire season. Like Stede's dream sequence, it feels outdated compared to the information we currently have, a relic that might've made sense in Season 1. And then Stede and Ed go off happily.

Obviously Stede didn't kill Izzy (though he did die during the execution of Stede's plan) and now Stede likes Izzy. But when David Jenkins said something about the opening sequence coming back at the end, I had several theories, and a few involved Izzy dying. I thought the key would clearly have to be the importance of the Stede, Ed, and Izzy dynamics as a trio. That Izzy would get hurt protecting Stede or Ed, that Stede would save Izzy's life, that Stede and Izzy would be fighting together to rescue Ed, or that as a twist Ed and Stede would be attempting to rescue Izzy. But in the end, it was all meaningless. Izzy got shot in a totally random way that could've happened to anyone. Neither Stede or Ed had any proper interactions with or were thinking about Izzy in the episode until Izzy was dying, and even as he was dying, Stede's only role was to go get bandages and then stand around awkwardly with the rest of the crew.

This contrast from the beginning and end of the season could've hit so hard on rewatch. But right now it feels like a lot of the season: a shallow parallel that doesn't actually say anything.

Also Izzy spending his whole death scene apologizing to and reassuring Ed sucks in the sense that he'd become a bigger character and had a lot of things going on other than Ed this season that maybe deserved to be spoken about, but it also just kinda sucks in paying off their relationship and for Ed's character.

This season, a lot of things happened that needed resolution/pay off in some way. Some of it could've happened in a Season 3, but even if that season happens Izzy is already dead. Izzy asked who he was to Ed and never got an answer. Ed did say he loved Izzy, best he could, but this came directly after he thought Izzy had killed himself. After Ed came out of his spiral and started to heal, there was clearly a struggle about Ed needing to apologize and heal his relationships with those he had hurt. Izzy tried to move on but still couldn't help but ask what Ed had said about him to Stede, specifically, and had to make up a story about his shark biting off his leg, which served him right. And then he has come to the realization that the reason Ed shot him is because Izzy told him he loved him, and Ed is a complicated man. That's just a lot going on!

And how much of it came back in the end? Ed did eventually apologize to Izzy, but it was a shitty small one and I really assumed there would be more conversation about all that. Never happened. Ed's answer to Izzy's question might have been that Izzy is his family, but that wasn't really presented as something that reassured Izzy as he died and affirmed how much they care about each other. Instead, it's a vehicle for Izzy to say that everyone loves Ed. The crew he tortured who wanted him banished from the ship a week ago! And Ed never told Izzy he loved him. Before this season, I never thought he would (and I don't mean romantically, just in general) but it was set up so clearly in episode 1/2 and then mentioned again in episode 7! It would've been perfect and beautiful growth for Ed to be able to say it, and to say it when Izzy can hear. He's complicated, but he's growing and able to be vulnerable and it's another answer to what Izzy is to Ed. That would be closer to actual closure.

Izzy dying like a week after trying to commit suicide and saying that he's ready to go was incredibly fucked up to me, but Ed was also suicidal for an extended period of time (including season 1), and it was never really addressed after episode 3. I'm not sure Stede ever properly found out or realized the extent of Ed's mental health struggle. Obviously preferable to what happened to Izzy because Ed is alive and happy(?) but it's... weird? It just ended up feeling like actually Stede coming back did fix him, despite their miscommunication and fights, and now everything's okay because of true love. Just feels weird that all of that happened while Stede was gone (and because Stede was gone) and Stede never saw it and they never really dealt with Ed at his lowest as a couple. I don't know!

I really wish that I was just disappointed with one element of the finale and enjoyed everything else. It might make me more bitter, but at least I could say that they did a great job somewhere. But unfortunately, I actually think they made a whole mess of the Ed/Stede arc and with Ed in particular.

Ed goes off to become a fisherman, and he sucks at it. Someone he calls Pop-pop shoves and hits him, telling him to go do what he's good at, and Ed, after being scared that Stede has been killed, does. That thing is killing people, something that Ed had tried to directly avoid/repressed the fact that he's doing for so long. He embraces Blackbeard. Then Izzy dies, tells him to just be Ed, and he decides to forego revenge and open an inn with Stede. All that on paper is like... yeah! I don't hate it, but I would also assume reading it that I was looking at an outline for a multi-episode if not full season arc. And that there would be a lot more fleshed out we get to see on screen. Instead, this all happens in 30 (25?) minutes and is rushed through, so I'm left with not really understanding what the point of half of it was.

Are we supposed to agree with Pop-pop, despite this being a father figure who is physically hurting Ed and telling him (without knowing what he's telling him) to go back to being a pirate who kills people? I'd assume no, but Ed going back reunites him with Stede and some of the killing is shot and written in a triumphant/badass and lighthearted way.

And then you might think that what Ed is so good at is actually the fuckeries and the planning and the sailing knowledge! He's brilliant. But none of it gets showcased here. Stede is the one who comes up with the plan. Ricky tells Izzy that Izzy is the underrated one who is really responsible for Blackbeard, and it's not refuted. Are we just supposed to think Ricky is buttering Izzy up, or saying this because he's racist? I can assume because we've been told before how brilliant Ed is and how much Izzy admired that, but it's never outright refuted or dismissed in the scene.

And okay, maybe the real build up was to Ed and Stede retiring, and Ed being able to move past revenge. Since there's nothing pointing to Ed having the skills to run an inn, the message should be that this doesn't matter. Sometimes you shouldn't do what you're good at if it's just hurting you, and you can instead pursue what makes you happy with the support of loved ones. But this isn't even discussed onscreen! If Ed was able to do this because of Izzy's last words about just being Ed, we can only really assume. But Izzy's last words also included Ed having a family in the crew. Now that isn't at all true or earned, because the only people who are shown loving or even being okay with Ed other than Izzy are Stede and Fang. But it also doesn't happen because they all sail off without him.

Stede deciding to retire when it's empathetically not something he wanted isn't discussed either, so we can't know if Stede changed his mind. Was he impacted by one of his crew dying during a plan he'd come up with, or by the killing he'd directly done starting with Ned Lowe in episode 6? Or maybe it's him sacrificing piracy for Ed. We just don't know. Ed and Stede moving too quickly and their fight in the last ep isn't discussed beyond Ed vaguely apologizing for being a dick.

Will Ed and Stede be happy retiring and running an inn? I feel like several things point to no, from the lack of discussion and Stede's love of piracy to "Hornigold" pointing out that Ed wouldn't do well in customer service and to Anne and Mary being miserable in retirement and burning their house down in episode 4. And honestly I'm fine with a more ambiguous ending to the season and possibly series where Ed and Stede are together but may or not be happy in all their decision-making. But they didn't really lean into that aspect at all. So I guess everything's fine probably?

I think my biggest problem with Izzy's death (aside, from, you know. Izzy is dead) is that it felt completely disconnected from the rest of the story. So many things in this episode felt like they had branched from an alternate universe season 2, or maybe a planned season 3 and they'd just squeezed the ending to that in. Which may actually be what happened; why they'd think it was a good move, I have no idea.

In the death scene, Izzy said things about needing Blackbeard to exist because it was both of them, that he had been encouraging Blackbeard to exist for years, etc. That's interesting and everything but where is it in the text? You can extrapolate from season 1 that some of this may have been happening, but then instead of expanding on it in season 2 to make Izzy's apology really hit hard, they went in a completely different direction. Season 2 Izzy wasn't preventing Ed from being himself and he didn't seem particularly invested in Blackbeard existing. In episode one, he had been pushed to his limits and tried to get through to Ed as a friend, and when he couldn't try with Ed anymore he focused on protecting the crew and mutinied. Then he spent episodes 4-7 trying to move on and strengthening his bonds with the crew, and only started interacting with Ed at all in the last few episodes. Ed, similarly, has been trying to figure out what he wants and who he wants to be. Where exactly is the emotional impact in Izzy ~finally~ encouraging Ed to just be Ed when the last episode had a scene where Izzy encouraged Ed to follow the feeling he had when he threw his leathers away, and then Ed went off to try and become a fisherman?

Izzy's death representing the death of the Blackbeard role and also the golden age of piracy, etc, is fine I guess. I'm not going to pretend I'd like it but if it had been set up as those arcs driving the season for Ed and Izzy, that's a different story. But looking at what actually happened in Season 2 and the Ed/Izzy arc in it, it was more about grappling with what had happened in the first two episodes. So following from that arc, what does Izzy's death symbolize? Ed being free from accountability and guilt over what he did to Izzy?

Don't get me wrong, that's not what they were going for at all. I actually don't think it symbolized anything and was just (unsuccessful and badly done) emotional manipulation, which is what happens all the time with characters dying. But it really does make Izzy's death far more upsetting, and not in the weirdly enjoyable way that you can love a tragedy. They went so far with Ed's actions in the first two episodes, and at the time I loved it! But it's become clear that OFMD doesn't really have the emotional range to handle a storyline like that. So they just didn't, for the most part.

So now we have a story arc where Izzy got mutilated repeatedly, got shot, got his leg amputated, attempted suicide, started to heal and move on and form meaningful connections outside of Ed while adjusting to his disability, and then dies. While spending his entire death scene apologizing to and reassuring Ed, and while the whole crew he'd been bonding with just sort of stand around looking vaguely sad. And mind you the timeline of this whole season has been like two weeks.

i agree with a lot of the complaints about the pacing issues in s2 and have made plenty myself. but in a way i do think they're also overblown--this season is great! and if you're really gonna focus on the pacing, s1 also very much had these issues. i'm not someone who thinks the show needed ed and stede to meet to work, but a lot of the earlier episodes especially are a little messy and it's the latter half of the season that really came together for me. so while i'm sure the move from 10 -> 8 episodes hurt things, this is also just kind of a flaw of the show period.

also, i've seen people complain that the first three episodes should've been condensed to make more room later in the season, and not gonna lie wildly offended. you don't mess with perfection, i.e. the 2.02 breakup boat episode arc

coming back a few hours later to just fully admit i want izzy to be a little meaner and pettier. not because i don’t love him/think he’s ooc/think his arc is badly written. i just miss his anxious little purse dog henchman era. hashtag brave, etc

speaking of messiness, i don't in any way think this will happen but in an alternate world where this show has 15 episode seasons and/or less going on plot-wise, stede and izzy should sleep together while ed and stede are on another break.

and i'm not talking about it resulting in high drama or romantic feelings or steddyhands, etc. it would just be really fun and funny. regrettable one night stand followed by frasier "room service" type episode when ed returns, etc.

i want to Post about izzy in episodes 6-7 but i don't want to make any sweeping statements about his arc before the finale, where i'm sure 1000 things will happen and some of them may address my issues.

but regardless. beneath the cut for being slightly negative i suppose:

My current prediction with Ed and Izzy this season is that they are (obviously) going to have a proper conversation, I assume in the finale, and... it's not gonna go well. I think Ed will be able to heal his relationships well enough with everyone else by that point, at least to the extent that everyone's able to interact with him casually.

But Izzy is different. Not only did Izzy get hurt in a way nobody else did, but their relationship was already complicated and dysfunctional for a long time before all this. And while Ed wants to be accepted and liked, if Lucius or Jim or Archie are never able to get to a place where they're properly friends with him, I don't think it will matter all that much to Ed? But again, Izzy is different. Even if their relationship was toxic and unbalanced, Izzy's care and approval and ease around him did mean a lot to Ed and it won't be the same to him if Izzy is able to be around him, but never close again.

And the fact that Izzy had to go full denial to move forward and the way you can see his boundaries and resolve cracking when he learns Ed has talked (positively) about him to Stede--yeah, I just have the feeling that the talk will be good in the sense that it'll be like lancing a wound, where they both finally get out some ugly emotions without purposefully being malicious to each other. But it won't end with them being friends or okay with each other again.

Well! And it doesn't even bother me that much when I'm watching, maybe I'm just used to shitty lighting. But whenever I see an unedited cap out of context I'm just squinting at the screen trying to figure out what's going on