I need Mary and Doug to show up at the inn so we can have an exchange that goes like:

Mary: Stede?!

Stede: Mary?!

Ed: Mary?

Stede: *remembering dinner at Anne and Mary Read's house* Ed...

Mary: *doing the math* Ed?

Stede: *affirmatively* Ed!

Ed: *confused, pointing at himself* Ed.

Doug: *also confused* ....I'll go wait in the carriage.

ofmd s3 episode where stede buys a horse and it's treated as much like buying a car as possible, including:

second hand sleazy horse salesmen

with his lot of used horses

stede being such a mark at first glance but proving he knows stuff about horses actually

asking questions like pound of oats to the kilometer or something

taking horses for a test ride

asking about special features each of the horses have

price negotiating

stede riding home on his new horse and ed freaking out

"YOU BOUGHT A HORSE WITHOUT CONSULTING ME FIRST??? AT LEAST TELL ME YOU GOT 0% INTEREST FOR 12 MONTHS ON THAT THING!"

arthur ii

anyway the season 3 premiere opens on a closeup shot of Izzy opening his eyes, washed in a blue hue <3 he's waking up in the gravy basket :3 he meets buttons there and they walk around talking, pretty much having the same conversation to the one Ed had with Hornigold - about his reasons to keep living, pros and cons, all that. and he decides to live.

stede and ed have been quietly coming to izzy's grave without telling the other, but they both know. one day/night one of them is keeping watch, when he hears something stirring in the grave.

The episode ends on a shot of a hand sporting a spade tattoo popping up from beneath the soft earth <3333

Collating all the incidents referring to fake heads, removal of heads, missing heads, obscured heads and general use of a fake head as misdirection, because they keep on bringing it around.

Given Blackbeard's historical death involves his head being off, I feel that this is All Very Relevant to how our lads'll eventually make their getaway in S3.

"And then the third season would be about what happens when the couple is a little bit older and maybe they try to run a business together. How does that go? How do they keep the relationship together? Seeing stuff like that in a fantasy setting between these two characters would be great, because there's a lot of naturalistic stories you can do in this comedy world. I want to see them hang onto each other as they move into a different phase of their lives."

I want to see them run a bed and breakfast SO BAD.

okay okay okay i'll talk about theories bc David wont shut up and let me be sad for a minute without disgusting rancid syphilitic hope BUT

I heard someone say that Jenks said that the inn thing wouldn't work out, right? So Izzy being buried in their "yard" wouldn't be keeping him close.

so what if Buttons does find a way to bring him back, after Stede and Ed have been dragged along back into piracy (bonus for ed burning their inn down like ann and mary)

And when all hope seems lost and Slippery Rick is abt to claim victory i want izzy to come stumbling in, finding them over impossible distances. I want Ricky to say "I thought I killed you?!"

And I want Izzy to nod in agreement and say "you did, i'm here to return the favor"

I think in season 3 we need to have Ed visiting Izzy’s grave regularly. Like in the first episode we look at Ed and Stede’s life as innkeepers and it’s become a daily thing that Ed will go to Izzy’s grave and sit with him. Sometimes he just sits there in silence, sometimes he cries, sometimes he talks to him about his day, sometimes he rehashes old memories of the two of them from the good ol’ days. Most of the time he does it alone but some days Stede goes with him to support him when it’s too painful. No matter what he goes every day.

This also is the perfect opportunity to bring Con back to film some flashbacks from before season 1

I'm hoping for buttons and the sea to be the first couple who visit the inn, like seagull!Buttons just drags in buckets of seawater, and when Stede and Ed finally give him a room in exchange for random beach stuff, he keeps sneaking in more and more seawater that it just floods the inn.

Imagine a S3 where the Revenge gets a letter (series of drawings) by carrier bird (Buttons) and Frenchie announces to the crew, "We've been invited to a party for hoity toity people" with a smile and then it flashes to an over the top amalgam of the French party and Calypso's birthday but it's Ed and Stede's wedding.

I think it would be so funny if they ignored consistency between episodes/seasons just one time with Ed's enormous trust no one back tattoo and in s3 it's been replaced with like a smiling skull and a heart and like trust in love written on it idk what exactly but it's just. Never explained or mentioned.

in my ideal timeline I spend 18 months completely delusional about how successful stede and ed will be as innkeepers and then 3x01 will show them scaring away customers, customers yelling at them for poor service, and the whole building collapsing leaving stede and ed crying and distraught and I will immediately let go of my completely unfounded beliefs and go on with my life

Since they buried Izzy on land, and so close to Ed and Stede too, instead of putting him on a boat and burning it down for example, there is a non-zero chance that Izzy will rise from his grave with the help of Buttons.

Foreshadowing the "Blackbeard's head strung from a mast" and using fake heads to escape in S3 energy

Headcanon (or. How I Made Sense of the S2 Finale):

After Izzy's death, Stede underestimated the grief of the crew and tried to act like everything was business as usual.

After an especially insensitive comment, Frenchie chewed out Stede for coming up with such a stupid plan that cost Izzy his life.

Ed tried to come to Stede's defense, but Frenchie finally stood up to Ed and dressed him down entirely, telling him he didn't get a say because of all the abuse he put Izzy through in life.

The crew were so impressed that they unanimously voted for Ed and Stede to leave the ship and Frenchie to become captain

Beginning mental preparations for when in s3 we see Ed's swallow tattoo and it has a dagger in it

That finale.

Where do we go from here?

So historically, I was thinking, Israel Hands was a real person. Captained a ship alongside Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet. Got shot in the knee by Blackbeard.

Historically, there was a Republic of Pirates: Nassau. Historically it was destroyed by a former privateer: Woodes Rogers. In OFMD we have the fictional Prince Ricky filling the role of Rogers.

Historically, Rogers was in contact with Benjamin Hornigold, who hunted down pirates who escaped like Charles Vane and Blackbeard, who was settling down on Ocracoke Island in America.

So...

if Prince Ricky is in contact with Hornigold, who we have established as an existing person in the OFMD universe (in Ed's interactions with CJ and his presence in Ed's deathbed hallucinations) we could have, in a potential follow up to season two, Hornigold as a pirate hunter, going after Ed and Zheng Yi Sao. Our girl Zheng is hunting Prince Ricky. Ed and Stede as innkeepers are doing exactly what we established earlier this season didn't work for Anne and Mary. And they're whim prone people and the inn was a whim. They will get bored. Both of them. They will miss the crew - Izzy said it, piracy was about belonging, about community, and that's what at least Stede has been looking for, and I think Ed too - Ed was looking for a place where he could be this softer self who looks at fish scales and eats marmalade. And they were working on building that and they threw it away and I don't think that can last.