WITH LOVE, MEGHAN: A HIGH TIDE RAISES ALL BOATS
Original Airdate: August 26, 2025
Special Guest: Jose Andres
Mentions of "Joy": 0
Mentions of Flower Sprinkles: No
Passive-Aggressive Moments: 0
Gushing Praise for Markle: "You have a great accent".
As we close out Season Two or Season One Part Two of With Love, Meghan, one thing stays with me about the season (and probably the series) finale A High Tide Raises All Boats.
Santa Barbara Sea Urchin.
What is it about Santa Barbara Sea Urchin that stays with me? I think it is that anyone thinks that Santa Barbara Sea Urchin is the perfect dinner treat for a very special occasion. I think it is the concept of Santa Barbara Sea Urchin being a realistic dish for people that is one of A High Tide Raises All Boats' many oddities.
Santa Barbara Sea Urchin will be one of the myriads of dishes that Her Royal Highness Meghan, Duchess of Sussex will present to the With Love, Meghan crew as we close out the series. This will be a "thank you" soiree for all the work that the With Love, Meghan crew has done over these past two seasons.
In other words, a wrap party.
Despite having been a working actress for over twenty years, Meghan Markle cannot bring herself to call this get-together a wrap party. In any case, Markle has to get so many things together. First stop is the Jonata Winery, where Jonata /Hilt Estate winemaker Matt Dees will present the Duchess with a variety of wines. They will also wax rhapsodic about the winemaking process, which is nature running its course.
After that, Meghan finally greets galloping gourmet Jose Andres. Andres goes around the world, bringing food and presumably "joy" through his World Central Kitchen. He also brings gifts for the Duchess Hostess with the Mostess: a massive chunk of blue cheese and Iberian ham.
There will be lobster, paella and uni served for the crew. The uni is the edible part of the sea urchin. And this is where the Santa Barbara Sea Urchin comes in.
Meghan has gone down to Santa Barbara to get the sea urchin from commercial fisherwoman Stephanie Muty. Muty shows Meghan how she harvests the urchin. Both Meghan and Andres (who knows Stephanie) are bullish on how Muty is into sustainable fishing. Muty also shows Markle how to open up the sea urchin and pull out the Aristotle's lantern. This process does make Markle a touch squeamish.
She is more squeamish when Andres refers to the urchin's "gonads". Mrs. Saxe-Coburg & Gotha pretty much loses it when Andres cuts open the live lobsters and chops its head off. Still there is food to prepare for the crew. Everyone invited, including Stephanie Muty, loves the food and the avuncular Andres. With that, A High Tide Rises All Boats celebrates everyone and everything With Love, Meghan related, presumably joyfully.
A High Tide Raises All Boats ends with the song that has the refrain "Don't let it be the last time". I find this to be a very strange way to end With Love, Meghan's second (or first) season. Is Her Royal Highness making a subconscious acknowledgment that this foray into lifestyle influencing is coming to a close? As with Spice Up Your Life, my mind wandered into how With Love, Meghan could have been better had Mrs. Sussex opted to go a different route. Having her as our semi-royal guide through various California wineries might have, dare I say, been interesting.
Then again, had that been the case, it would have put the focus on both the wineries and winemakers like Matt Dees. That would diminish Markle, which would be impossible for Mrs. Sussex. People come to see and listen to her, not to her guests. At least in Markle's mind.
Dees comes across as someone who is knowledgeable, enthusiastic and actually pleasant. None of those attributes can be ascribed to Markle. In perhaps the worst comparison I can make, Meghan Markle reminds me of Joseph Stalin. After Lenin's death, Soviet propaganda was careful to not feature Lenin alongside films glorifying Uncle Joe. "You cannot have two Suns in the sky", I believe Soviet filmmakers were told. Granted, this might be apocryphal. However, the maxim of not having two suns in the sky fits the titled lady of With Love, Meghan.
Markle can, on occasion, let someone else take charge. Many times, on With Love, Meghan, the Duchess will have professionals run things. She more often than not protests on how this will be her first time doing XYZ. I find it rather schizophrenic: how she can be learning something for the first time while also being a regal entertaining doyenne.
This is my first encounter with Jose Andres, though I have heard of him. He comes across as a cooking Robin Williams, with a rapid-fire delivery and manic manner. It is curious that unlike past chefs on With Love, Meghan, Andres seemed more willing to adore his "lady". This is more than Spanish courtliness. When Meghan was repeating what she had learned about sea urchins, Andres behaved as though Markle was relating fascinating and new information to him.
"Oh my god. You took a class in biology, in marine biology", Andres gushes to the Duchess. Sheepishly, Meghan replies, "I just talked to Stephanie". Andres was exceedingly complimentary to Markle. Past chefs featured on With Love, Meghan have been pleasant to cooly tolerant of Markle. Andres, however, was quite delighted to be with her and even learn from her. I doubt anyone ranging from Ramon Velazquez to Clare Smyth would have called her his "young Jedi".
As a side note, while I'm not well-versed in Star Wars lore, shouldn't Markle have been his "young padawan"? Yet, I digress.
Back to the Santa Barbara Sea Urchin. I go back to a question that I had long ago. Who exactly is the target audience for With Love, Meghan? Who is going to go and buy Santa Barbara Sea Urchin? Who is going to actually prepare such an esoteric dish for a get-together? Granted, I do not care for seafood.
I also have never heard of a "uni" except as part of a Golden Girls joke involving Sophia Petrillo's vajayjay. Still, is serving uni and whatever concoctions Andres literally whipped up something that the average consumer would serve?
After seeing A High Tide Raises All Boats, I was left thoroughly unimpressed with Jose Andres. He seems very frenetic and exuberant. He is also unsentimental about cutting up live lobsters. A big personality, however, did not translate as someone that I would want to learn to cook from.
One aspect of A High Tide Raises All Boats did puzzle me. The Duchess of Sussex presents this as a "thank you" party for the With Love, Meghan production crew. Had she called it a "wrap party", which is what it was, I do not think viewers would have batted an eye. Instead, I think that by presenting it as a "thank you" party, it suggested generosity and "joy" rather than the end of her production.
I will not attempt to read the minds of the With Love, Meghan crew. I trust that they enjoyed their time working with the Duchess of Sussex and did their best to bring about a good program. They cannot be faulted for With Love, Meghan being terribly boring and uninformative about entertaining. At least we learned that the mysterious "Aitch", also known as "my husband", does not like lobster.
Perhaps that is why Aitch did not appear in A High Tide Raises All Boats. There was nothing that Prince Harry could eat.
Not even Meghan Markle's uni.
Could he know the whereabouts of Hawthorn Markle?
1/10
Next Episode: Holiday Celebration
