The season one finale of HBO Max's pirate comedy 'Our Flag Means Death,' explained — and why fans are calling for a second season

• Warning: Spoilers for season one of "Our Flag Means Death."
• "Our Flag Means Death" is an HBO Max comedy series about a wealthy man who leaves his family to become a pirate.

HBO Max's "Our Flag Means Death" ended on a sad note but one that leaves fans hopeful — and impatient — for a second season.

The new comedy series is loosely based on the real life of the "Gentleman Pirate," Stede Bonnet, a wealthy landowner who left his wife and children in the early 18th century to become a pirate. In the first season, Stede Bonnet (played on the show by Rhys Darby) and his bumbling crew encounter the infamous pirate Blackbeard (played by Taika Waititi, who also produced the series and directed its first episode) and they agree to help each other.

After the season finale, which aired on March 24, the show became the top new series in the US, according to Parrot Analytics. With the show's growing fanbase and cries for a second season, many viewers are hopeful the show will get renewed, though HBO hasn't yet announced whether it will return.

Stede is on a mission to save his crew after returning to sea

At the end of episode nine, Stede had returned home after realizing he was not cut out for pirating.

After being arrested by the navy and put into forced labor, he and Ed — the name Blackbeard goes by in the show and a nickname for the real Blackbeard's given name, Edward Teach — express their love for each other and kiss. They plan to run away together, but Stede instead goes home at the end of the episode after a failed assassination attempt on his life by Chauncey Badminton, the vengeful twin brother of Captain Nigel Badminton, who Stede accidentally killed earlier in the season.

Unfortunately, in the finale, it is revealed that Stede's wife Mary (Claudia O'Doherty) had moved on after his unexpected disappearance, allowing their children to thrive, beginning a new relationship with her art instructor Doug, and becoming a professional artist under the moniker "The Widow Bonnet."

After Mary attempts to kill Stede for returning and ruining her life, the married couple decides to air out their grievances for the first time. Stede admits he has fallen for Ed, and with Mary's support decides he must return to sea to be with him.

With help from Mary and Doug, Stede enacts an elaborate fake-death scheme — or "fuckery," as Stede calls it, invoking Ed's phrase for elaborate illusion-making from earlier in the season. He returns to the sea to find most of his crew marooned on an island, not yet realizing it was a scorned Blackbeard who left them there.

'Our Flag Means Death' breaks up Stede and Blackbeard in the season one finale and sets Blackbeard on a dark path

Calls for "Our Flag Means Death" to be renewed are mostly due to those in love with the romance between the show's two leads, Stede and Blackbeard/Ed. While the show started as a typical comedy, it quickly turned into a rom-com as Ed and Stede form a bromance that turns into unambiguously romantic love.

In episode 10, Ed returns to Stede's crew and spends most of the episode heartbroken about being left behind by his lover. However, after some soul-searching and more than a bit of prodding from his villainous first mate Izzy Hands, Ed becomes the ruthless Blackbeard again and decides to turn back to his vicious pirating ways.

This includes stranding most of Stede's crew, kidnapping the rest to join his own new crew, and changing his flag to a skull aiming a spear at a heart.

Fans who quickly latched onto this relationship and the other prominent LGBTQ+ relationships on the show, making fan art and expressing their love for the characters on social media, are keen for a second season to reunite the two lovers. In addition, many fans from the LGBTQ+ community have praised the series for including that representation in a big way instead of relying on arguments of historical accuracy.

There is also the question of what happened to Lucius (Nathan Foad), Stede's scribe, another gay character in the series who's part of another popular romance with Black Pete (Matthew Maher). Lucius was pushed off Stede's pirate ship by Blackbeard in the finale to show the start of the captain returning to his cruel behavior since Lucius is the emotional heart of the crew.

We do not see Lucius for the rest of the episode, implying he died, but given how beloved the character is, many fans are hoping the writers wouldn't kill him off in such a discreet and sudden manner.

The creator, David Jenkins, and stars Waititi and Darby have not ruled out a season two in interviews after the finale, but for now, viewers will just need to wait and see.