I'm in the blanket fort. Door's the blue cushion

Idk if this is a hot take or not, I personally have not seen too much talk about it.

But…

I don’t think stede was going to meet ed at the beach whether the Chauncey of it all happened or not. I don’t think he PLANNED to abandon ed, in either scenario, but he was never going to make it to the dock.

Oh, HARD agree.

The thing about what happened with Chauncey is that it's not about Chauncey, it's about externalizing all of Stede's guilt. Stede's guilt is really a defining motivation all season long, and it's coming to a head in this episode, not just because he feels like he's ruined his family, but because he now also feels that he's ruined Ed. Stede is trying to live a life he can actually be okay with, but he's going about it in a way that's hurtful to everyone - it's why I think Stede calls back to the "we only have one life" line while he and Ed discuss running away to China. It's good advice, but he's taken it to mean "just up and leave without getting the closure everyone needs." That's what Ed was doing, too, talking about leaving their old lives behind entirely (the China plan was like Ed's version of what Stede did at the start of the season). It was never going to work.

And certainly Stede didn't know he was never going to meet Ed at the docks. But something was always going to happen to force his guilt to a head and send him back to Mary and the kids so he can leave properly.

The ‘only have one life’ link passed me by there too. Good catch. @piratecaptainscaptainpirates

There’s some interesting foreshadowing in 102 actually. The ‘They’ll never see Papa again’ from Ghost Nigel is Stede’s feelings about abandoning his children. And when Stede is doing the therapist’s couch with the indigenous islander about his lack of Nigel guilt, the islander says ‘Perhaps this guilt concerns something else…Everything is coming from you. Until you resolve this guilt, you’ll continue to be haunted’, which is exactly what happens with Chauncey turning up manifesting all of Stede’s guilt.

Stede has to go back to Bridgetown because the way he left the first time caused everything to be in flux. Stede’s mind seems to go quiet for a time between Ep5-8 because he’s distracted by fun times with Ed. But once the proverbial hits the fan, Stede’s haunted again by his actions. He believes he’s a coward in the way he handled his leaving, and until he can put that right, he cannot move forward with anything else.

So, no. He was never going to China because that isn’t where the narrative is going.

A lot of Stede’s behavior is also relentlessly cheerful, and we see the cracks in the facade throughout—he wants to make the best of everything and he is naturally inclined to optimism and buoyancy, but at times it seems brittle or even hysterical. One of the few instances Stede seems really and fully relaxed is when Ed kisses him. He’s using his cheerfulness to ward off the underlying guilt and terror that he’s made a horrible mistake and ruined everyone’s lives. He’s waiting for the “bill to come due” and then is given a reprieve and faced with something that he truly does not believe he deserves, in the form of Ed’s love and being able to let go.

Agree with all of this. And I think Stede knows this to be true, at least on some level. And that is why he doesn't tell Ed about Chauncey (at least, not right away). Because the truth is, it was never about Chauncey.

Ed is leaving.

Of course. Of course Ed is leaving.

Ed has always been going to leave. Stede has known that, even before Ed told him about the murder plan that wasn’t on the cards anymore, before he had dragged Ed on that stupid little treasure hunt, before Calico fucking Jack had shown up and reminded Ed of just how much fun he’d had before he’d ever met Stede.

The sweet man had been trying to let him down easy for weeks, and Stede had just refused to listen, couldn’t let go of how happy spending time with Ed had made him, of finally having a friend. He had clung on and dragged it out, and now Ed remembered what he’d been missing out on, with Stede.

Every step that Ed takes toward the dinghy slowly presses the air from Stede’s lungs like another stone on the pile; every heartbeat a tight, sharp squeeze, as everything but sorrow empties out of him.

He really had almost convinced himself that he might manage to keep up with Ed, to live up to palling around with Blackbeard himself. It’s silly, really, he reflects. Stupid, honestly. What buffoon could really stand there and expect Ed to stay? What right does Stede have to ask that of him?

But every fiber of his being is screaming at him to do it, to reach out, call to him, beg him not to leave Stede behind, to please forgive him, please, please, still be my friend, I can do better, please, being with you is like tasting oxygen for the first time, it makes the world warmer and brighter and safer, and if you leave it will take all of the air out of the whole world and I will die a slow cold suffocating death, please…

He doesn’t say any of it. He has no right. He can’t think of what to say, really. Even if he tried right now, none of those words would come out; just a hollow, thunderous wailing. He can feel it building like a hurricane, just behind his sternum, swelling down into his guts and churning them like a storm surge. The most he can do is hold it back, his muscles spasming with the force of it. He can’t even control his face, is barely aware of it beyond the trembling, and the hot tears welling in his eyes.

Ed is leaving because Stede sucks the fun out of everything, even pirating, He isn’t a real pirate, or a real friend, or a real husband, or a real man, no matter how hard he tries, and nothing will ever change that. Being stranded on an island with nothing but some rum, a dinghy, and Calico pissing Jack is preferable to spending one more night on the Revenge with Stede. All is right in the world.

It’s probably better, if Stede is being honest with himself, that Ed leaves now, before Stede inevitably gets himself and the rest of the crew killed in some terrible manner. Ed had said it himself, most pirates he knows are dead; and they had all had a much better handle on what they were doing than Stede ever would. Ed knows that Stede’s time is probably almost up, and absolutely should leave. He doesn’t deserve to go down for the likes of Stede. And that’s all that would happen.

He couldn’t even protect a bird, for fuck’s sake.

Of course Ed is leaving.

It just makes sense.

Stede knows it makes sense because it hurts so much. That’s how his life works. All the things that feel good are wrong, and all the things that hurt are right, and to be happy would mean the misery of everyone around him. Because he’s broken. Just a broken little boy who never earned a thing in his life, particularly not respect, pretending to be a man and fucking it all up.

Why would Ed want to spend his one life dealing with that, when he’s the best pirate who’s ever lived, when he could do anything?

Clearly, he doesn’t.

And Stede completely understands. Except he also doesn’t.

Because things had been going so well until now, especially since Izzy had left. They had been getting along roaringly, it had seemed like Ed was finally starting to become at ease, they had been co-captains…

Obviously, Stede had misread things, as is his wont. Even though it had felt different this time, had felt like maybe his happiness wasn’t a poison that corroded any other life it touched after all. But it wasn’t different at school, or with Mary, and it isn’t different now. It will never be different, no matter what he does or where he goes or how hard he hopes.

It would be easier if he could stop hoping so much, and accept the truth: he doesn’t get to be a part of anyone’s happiness; he’s just not that kind of person.

But he won’t— can’t purchase his own happiness at the expense of Ed’s.

So Stede says nothing, standing there suppressing the tremors as Ed disappears over the side of the ship; as the dinghy is lowered and Calico shitting Jack’s smug voice floats up like a mocking poltergeist; as the sound of oars sloshes way into the night; as the crew shuffle about and mumble about getting some sleep or food; as Buttons continues to keen, and it’s almost like it’s for the both of them; as he walks numbly back to his cabin and sits in the window seat, wrapping his robe tightly around himself and staring out at the dark waters.

Bless you. Bless you for a thousand years.

I bet if Samba released enough BTS material, we could cobble together the Jenkins Cut of 2x08!