The Buccaneers Recap ‘The Duchess of Tintagel’: Nan flexes her power

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The Buccaneers Season 2 Episode 1 Recap and Review

On the very first episode of The Buccaneers, Nan mused that she was never supposed to be the main character. At the time, she was best friends with the magnetic Conchita and younger sister to the beautiful Jinny; she was not the one marrying an English lord or debuting in British society with the express purpose of finding a husband. Fast forward to the second season, and she was now Duchess of Tintagel. Ignoring the advice of the Dowager Duchess to be silent, to be obedient, Nan showed up at the black and white ball wearing fiery red, with a long train shimmering up the steps of the castle as eyes and whispers and gasps followed her. To create a new narrative, to get her sister Jinny off the front pages of the newspapers, Nan went full main character and embraced her now exalted role in society.

I enjoyed Nan going full Duchess. How we got here, I have some concerns about. Let’s dive into it, and welcome to The Buccaneers Season Two!

The first season ended with Jinny fleeing with Guy (after Seadown beat her up, the villain), and Nan marrying Theo to protect her. There was a scene that morning before the wedding, when Nan went to Theo’s painting retreat; I thought at the time that she told him what was going to happen, that they had a frank conversation about their impending marriage, or at the very least, a conversation about Jinny’s situation. Apparently, none of that happened. Nan’s frank conversation happened not with her then husband to be but with his mother, who saw her and Guy in her room.

I have long thought that the Dowager Duchess seemed to be a bit too nice to Nan. It was true that she had been wanting her son to get married, and it must have felt a relief when he finally fell in love. But, Theo was a young man. He could afford to wait years to find someone to marry. It felt off, this rush from his mother to marry him off. It made me think there was something about him that we have not yet been told. It prevented me from truly feeling the passion in his words each time he declared his love and devotion to Nan. 

When the Dowager Duchess found out about Nan’s illegitimacy, she did try to send her away. But, when Theo insisted on marrying her anyway, on standing by her against society’s whispers, the Dowager Duchess again accepted the marriage. I would have thought that finding out Nan had slept with Guy the night before her supposed wedding to Theo would be the last straw, but it still wasn’t.

Would it have been a humiliation for Theo if the wedding were cancelled at the last minute? Of course, but it would have been more humiliating if Nan gave birth to Guy’s child, which was a possibility the Dowager Duchess would have known. Why tie your only son and current holder of an ancient dukedom to a woman in love with another man, a woman who already exhibited her faithlessness the night before their wedding? That seemed to be the deal Nan struck with the Dowager Duchess, that if she married Theo, not only would her Duchess title protect Jinny, the Dowager Duchess would, too. 

So, in a show that emphasised how English aristocrats looked down on American nouveau riche searching for titled husbands, a very wealthy and powerful English Dowager Duchess forced an American heiress who was born illegitimate, to marry her son the Duke, whom every eligible young woman in England wanted, even after finding out that said American heiress slept with said Duke’s best friend the night before their wedding? Unless the show later tells us otherwise, I am going to assume there is something about Theo that made his mother desperate to marry him off. I want to feel bad for Theo, because he married the woman he had been avoiding all his life, a woman who only married him for his title, but this suspicion over this hidden something about him is making me hold off. 

Nan looked determined when she married Theo, but almost immediately afterwards, she started having panic attacks. First, it was Conchita who tried to calm her down and called her a hero. Next, it was the Dowager Duchess, who reminded her of their deal and told her she now had two jobs – never to breathe a word of what happened to Theo, and to make him happy. Third and finally, it was to her Aunt Nell (Leighton Meester!), who finally got to calm her down after telling her that when something could not be fixed, stop regretting it and get on with the life you chose. 

And get on Nan did. Theo finally found her, and the two of them went for a walk on the beach, where they consummated their marriage whilst Nan thought of Guy. By this point, I wished the show had slowed down a bit. The pacing made Nan look not the young and confused good natured woman that she was, but someone inherently deceitful, given how quickly this happened. To be clear, I don't mean that Theo and Nan should have waited longer before having sex. I am saying it would have been better to allow scenes to breathe. It is not solely about how much time has passed in-world; it is about how each scene is presented and transitioned. The Buccaneers packed much story in this single episode, and as much as I tend to appreciate packed storytelling and quick pacing, this is one of those times when I believe the story could have benefitted from slowing down, from lingering on the complexity of Nan's emotions, from visually exploring the Theo who shied away from marriage for so long only to finally reach it with a woman he was not even certain would show up on their wedding day.

Staging their first on the beach was a nicely layered choice, though. It was the place where Theo and Nan first met, the place where she accepted his proposal, it was their place. That thoughts of Guy consumed Nan in the one place where she and Theo truly connected was a pretty strong signal about this ducal couple’s future. 

Nan did eventually tell Theo about Jinny’s situation, but neglected to tell him about Guy’s role in it. Theo later found Guy’s coat in the coat rack, which had Guy’s embroidered handkerchief, and brought it up with his mother. The Dowager Duchess smoothly lied, that as far as she knew Guy left right after New Year’s Eve to travel the world. So Guy was penniless and lost his house, but he had enough money to travel the world? 

For much of the episode, Theo acted the man who married a woman he loved, but perhaps with some uneasiness due to the rocky route he and Nan took to get to their wedding. Given how the show had now pivoted from a love triangle (Nan had decided she loved Guy and she only married Theo for her sister), could the show be exploring a different match for Theo? Last season, we saw Theo relaxed with Guy and Nan, but he was only mostly polite to others, so it was a bit jarring to see him comment on Hector Robinson’s jawline whilst talking to Lizzy at the wedding reception. When he and Nan arrived at the black and white ball, it also looked like his eyes quickly found Lizzy in the crowd. After what Lizzy went through with Seadown, I just want her to be happy. The episode built up a very probable match with Hector Robinson, so I’m not sure where this thing, if there is a thing, with Theo is going. 

The Marables

Matches were now Conchita and Richard’s business. When Richard told Conchita about his father’s ill health and the fact that they would now be responsible for the family’s struggling finances, Conchita immediately offered to go through the books herself. She also told Richard that the family needed to have a frank talk, which they did, without Seadown.

First off, Conchita’s father would have paid a substantial dowry upon her marriage to Richard. Was this dowry given to Richard (and already spent, perhaps to pay down debts), or was it kept by Conchita’s father and invested (and eventually lost)? Was it a little of both? 

Secondly, Seadown would have received substantial dowry from Jinny’s father, that was a major reason for him marrying her. There was no discussion of his parents going to him for some help. Did they already know he would say no?

Just to give a bit of context, when Consuelo Vanderbilt married the Duke of Marlborough, her dowry was rumoured to amount to 2.5 million dollars in railroad stock, equivalent to almost 100 million in today’s money. It doesn’t look like the St. Georges, the Elmsworths, and the Clossons had Gilded Age Vanderbilt money, but the dowries would still be quite large. 

As the Lord and Lady Brightlingsea absolutely refused to sell their country house, their horses, or their paintings, Conchita thought of another way to rescue the family finances. A chance meeting on the street with Mrs. Merrigan and her daughter Cora gave her the idea. Though wealthy in New York, Cora was losing hope over finding a husband in English society, where she was viewed as a grocer’s daughter and where her family had no connections. For an agreed upon figure, Conchita and Richard would handle Cora’s schooling, introductions, and chaperoning. The same figure would then be paid once she walked down the aisle. It was a marriage consulting service that Jinny in particular might have benefited from when she first arrived. 

What of Jinny?

Jinny and Guy were pretending to be a married couple as they traveled ahead of Seadown’s ceaseless search. Since neither Guy nor Jinny had money, my assumption was that the Dowager Duchess provided them with the funds they needed. Nan had been under the impression that Jinny would eventually be able to come home, but the Dowager Duchess disabused her of this notion. ‘Nobody in the world has the power to bring her home without consequences. With a duchess for a sister, the law won’t follow her.’ But, as Nan pointed out, Seadown would.

Jinny’s situation was further complicated by her pregnancy. Once the child was born, Seadown would have legal right over him/ her. It would be interesting to see how the show would handle this. Would we perhaps get some court scenes?

In case we do, here’s some interesting information from the UK Parliament site. Bear in mind that The Buccaneers is set in the 1870s.

‘The Custody of Infants Act of 1839 permitted a mother to petition the courts for custody of her children up to the age of seven, and for access in respect of older children.

The Infant Custody Act of 1873… allowed mothers to petition for custody or access to children below the age of 16, but not in all circumstances.

Women who were the victims of male violence in marriage were given protection under the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1878. This allowed them to obtain a protection order from a magistrates’ court. It was in effect a judicial separation and gave them custody of their children.’

It is never easy to watch a storyline about abuse, but The Buccaneers handled Jinny’s and Lizzy’s stories with sensitivity last season. The writers have my faith that they will navigate this season with the same amount of sensitivity.

Nan’s mother

With the episode being this packed, we did not have much time with the reveal of Nan’s mother, who happened to be Blair Waldorf, aka the fabulous Leighton Meester. Here is where I once more wish The Buccaneers slowed down a bit. It was disturbing enough that Nan’s mother turned out to be her aunt, Patti’s younger sister Nell. It was even more disturbing that Nell was only 18 years old when Col. Tracy St. George started sleeping with her. 

Through an emotional Patti, we learned that at the time Jinny was born, the St. Georges did not have much money yet. Nell needed a place to stay, so of course Patti allowed her into her home. It was as she nursed baby Jinny that the affair between Tracy and Nell began. I hesitate to even call this an affair because of the massive power imbalance, both in age and in the fact that young Nell had nowhere to go and was dependent on the St. Georges. Nell called Patti out for recognising Nan’s youth but not Nell’s when her husband took her to his bed. Nell had wanted to tell Nan the truth, but in the end, she decided not to. 

Before they left for New York, Patti again reiterated that she intended to divorce Tracy, and that she should have done it two decades ago. There was a thaw in the sisters’ relationship, so much so that Patti gave Nell her husband’s boat ticket. When Nan asked how long the estrangement was, Patti said it was 19 years. Nan would not have missed the significance of that number. Patti might have been vehemently against telling Nan the truth, at first, but it looked like she was softening up there as well.

Nan, for her part, was also over her father and his mistreatment of her mother. When she told him she would have a servant pack his bags and have a carriage ready for him, she sounded like a Duchess rather than his daughter. 

Looking Ahead

And so we circle back to Duchess Nan, whose power, financially and socially, derived from her husband whom she did not love. How would the show navigate this, I wonder. Nan was already stressed over having to lie to Theo all their lives. How long would she be able to, as the Dowager Duchess said, keep him happy? Were Theo’s eyes starting to stray already? Would we have a who is the father kind of drama this season? How long before Guy and Jinny returned to England? What hijinks could we expect from Conchita’s new business? Would Lizzy get the happily ever after she deserved? Would Mabel and Honoria remain the only truly happy couple? 

I am so excited for this season, and I appreciate you all for joining me in these recaps. See you on the next one!

Rating: B

Strays

🌸Nan being 19 years old this episode had me confused over the passing of time in the first season. When Nan first arrived in England, she was not yet old enough to be a debutante. I assumed she was 17 years old. Conchita gave birth soon after. Baby Minnie was still on a pram this episode, so it did not occur to me that more than a year had passed.

🌸Nan, to the Dowager Duchess: ‘I decide what comes next.’ What on earth made the Dowager Duchess think Nan would be the silent, obedient type of wife that she could control? 

🌸The Brightlingseas continued to be emotionally cold when talking to other people, which included each other, but there was this brief human moment when Lord Brightlingsea asked Lady Brightlingsea if she would be all right once he was gone. Lady Brightlingsea waited until her husband had stood up and could not see her before she allowed her mask of cool down; she was wretched. 

🌸I’m trying to remember when Nan may have believed she loved Theo and I am blanking out. She was very pleased to see him when he showed up at Runnymede, back before she learned he was a Duke.

🌸The sky lanterns rising up the slowly darkening sky was beautiful. 

🌸Before she left, Nell told Nan to ‘Do something spectacular’ and ‘Take ownership of this castle, please. Paint it scarlet.’ Nan was a lot like Nell in the same way that Jinny was a lot like Patti. 

🌸I am glad Nan snapped back at Seadown when he told her he wanted to explain to Jinny how sorry he was for how she felt. For what you did, you abusive piece of !

🌸Nan kept asking the Dowager Duchess where Jinny was, but they had previously agreed it would be safer for Nan not to know. 

🌸Conchita recognised Nan’s red dress as her ‘changing the conversation’ which worked. The newspapers had her on their front pages instead of Jinny.

🌸Kristine Froseth is a very beautiful woman, but that hair with the red dress did not suit her. Thematically, however, it worked. It was Nan’s first public flex as a newly minted Duchess. A bit of awkwardness could be expected. Also, a more traditional hairstyle would not have suited her purpose of absolutely standing out. So, I wasn’t a fan of the hair, but it worked for the scene.

🌸Fittingly, the episode ended with Sabrina Carpenter’s Looking at Me. 

Episode Title: The Duchess of Tintagel

Writer: Katherine Jakeways

Directors: Rachel Leiterman, William McGregor

Original Air Date: June 18, 2025

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