OFMD S02E08, season finale
Oct. 26th, 2023 08:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitSome reactions, with spoilers,
I had forgotten that this series was only going to have 8 episodes, so I was initially confused when just this episode dropped today. But it does feel like an ending, for the season and possibly for the show. (Thank you, David Jenkins et al, for not leaving us on a cliffhanger this time.) There are definitely ways to continue the plot if the show does get renewed, but this is a satisfying ending if it doesn't.
I wasn't entirely surprised when Izzy died. He's the character who would be hardest to integrate into any kind of happy ending, despite how much he's changed recently. And of course the classic villain redemption arc ends with the villain dead, although Izzy didn't quite get the heroic self-sacrificing moment he probably would have liked. (This ending goes some way towards reconciling me with the breakneck pace of his development in S02--he wasn't going to have any more development, so the show made the points it wanted to make, even at the cost of some handwaving and sketching rather than really exploring.)
It was a couple of extra-textual things that most surprised me about Izzy's death: first, that the show would write off one of its most popular characters, and second, how very much I felt it even while also finding it appropriate and, in a storytelling way, satisfying. I never thought Izzy would end up meaning so much to me. He was, as Ed said, a nightmare; he was the character of my heart, in ways I don't fully understand and slightly worry about.
I'm glad that Ed and Izzy got to say goodbye--Ed needed it even more than Izzy did. And while I didn't quite cry during the death scene, I started to cry at the end when we saw that the "inn" is close to Izzy's grave. They didn't leave him all alone.
As for Ed and Stede, I think their reunion was handled well in the sense that a lot of it was offscreen. We know where they stand, and we didn't need to see them work it out (which I like to think they did, during a lot of long conversations). We did have two big declarations of love, of course, one distanced from us via Stede's message-in-a-bottle (which finally settles the question of whether Ed can read), and one gently kept from getting too soppy by Stede's (very loving and only slightly smartass) Han Solo reaction moment. What moved me more than either of them, I think, was the way Ed glanced over at Stede during Lucius and Pete's wedding.
Also on the subject of undermining romance: while this was a happy ending for Ed and Stede, it's worth thinking about how much it's predicated on violence. Ed kills a whole lot of people, directly, when we know he didn't want to. Maybe in a weird way that's good for him, so he can start coming to terms at long last with killing his father. I don't know yet what I think, except that the show's attitude towards violence continues to be weird and contradictory. And that there's been very little unalloyed happiness this season; it's all built on loss and grief . . and what adult happiness isn't?
Back to Izzy for a moment to note that the defense of piracy could really only have come from him, hungry as we now know him to have been for love, and unconcerned--as we always knew--with moral questions. Pirates are good, says Izzy, for the only value of good that matters to him. I don't think we're meant to accept that defense at face value--all those shots of all those corpses, shitheads though most of them were, call it into question--but it's true for Izzy, and Izzy's right that someone like Prince Richard can never understand it.
I don't have much to say about the other characters; most of their arcs got a bit neglected this season. It was nice to see Buttons (??) again at the end, and I'm happy for Lucius and Pete, and sorry for Fang who is grieving Izzy yet again. I think the show could have done really interesting things with Oluwande and Jim, and the fading out of their romance (which absolutely was built up as a big romance in S1) but not of their friendship. If only there had been time.
Given the gutting of HBO by Discovery/David Zaslav, I'm betting there won't be another season. If there is, I'd like to see Stede and Ed backgrounded (but of course returned, perhaps temporarily, to the Revenge) in favor of giving the remaining characters some development. But, well. Without Izzy, I have to admit that for me it won't be the same.
under the spoiler cut.
I had forgotten that this series was only going to have 8 episodes, so I was initially confused when just this episode dropped today. But it does feel like an ending, for the season and possibly for the show. (Thank you, David Jenkins et al, for not leaving us on a cliffhanger this time.) There are definitely ways to continue the plot if the show does get renewed, but this is a satisfying ending if it doesn't.
I wasn't entirely surprised when Izzy died. He's the character who would be hardest to integrate into any kind of happy ending, despite how much he's changed recently. And of course the classic villain redemption arc ends with the villain dead, although Izzy didn't quite get the heroic self-sacrificing moment he probably would have liked. (This ending goes some way towards reconciling me with the breakneck pace of his development in S02--he wasn't going to have any more development, so the show made the points it wanted to make, even at the cost of some handwaving and sketching rather than really exploring.)
It was a couple of extra-textual things that most surprised me about Izzy's death: first, that the show would write off one of its most popular characters, and second, how very much I felt it even while also finding it appropriate and, in a storytelling way, satisfying. I never thought Izzy would end up meaning so much to me. He was, as Ed said, a nightmare; he was the character of my heart, in ways I don't fully understand and slightly worry about.
I'm glad that Ed and Izzy got to say goodbye--Ed needed it even more than Izzy did. And while I didn't quite cry during the death scene, I started to cry at the end when we saw that the "inn" is close to Izzy's grave. They didn't leave him all alone.
As for Ed and Stede, I think their reunion was handled well in the sense that a lot of it was offscreen. We know where they stand, and we didn't need to see them work it out (which I like to think they did, during a lot of long conversations). We did have two big declarations of love, of course, one distanced from us via Stede's message-in-a-bottle (which finally settles the question of whether Ed can read), and one gently kept from getting too soppy by Stede's (very loving and only slightly smartass) Han Solo reaction moment. What moved me more than either of them, I think, was the way Ed glanced over at Stede during Lucius and Pete's wedding.
Also on the subject of undermining romance: while this was a happy ending for Ed and Stede, it's worth thinking about how much it's predicated on violence. Ed kills a whole lot of people, directly, when we know he didn't want to. Maybe in a weird way that's good for him, so he can start coming to terms at long last with killing his father. I don't know yet what I think, except that the show's attitude towards violence continues to be weird and contradictory. And that there's been very little unalloyed happiness this season; it's all built on loss and grief . . and what adult happiness isn't?
Back to Izzy for a moment to note that the defense of piracy could really only have come from him, hungry as we now know him to have been for love, and unconcerned--as we always knew--with moral questions. Pirates are good, says Izzy, for the only value of good that matters to him. I don't think we're meant to accept that defense at face value--all those shots of all those corpses, shitheads though most of them were, call it into question--but it's true for Izzy, and Izzy's right that someone like Prince Richard can never understand it.
I don't have much to say about the other characters; most of their arcs got a bit neglected this season. It was nice to see Buttons (??) again at the end, and I'm happy for Lucius and Pete, and sorry for Fang who is grieving Izzy yet again. I think the show could have done really interesting things with Oluwande and Jim, and the fading out of their romance (which absolutely was built up as a big romance in S1) but not of their friendship. If only there had been time.
Given the gutting of HBO by Discovery/David Zaslav, I'm betting there won't be another season. If there is, I'd like to see Stede and Ed backgrounded (but of course returned, perhaps temporarily, to the Revenge) in favor of giving the remaining characters some development. But, well. Without Izzy, I have to admit that for me it won't be the same.
