Our Biggest Unanswered Questions After ‘The Buccaneers’ Finale

Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for the finale of The Buccaneers.

The Big Picture

• The biggest question left unanswered in the Season 1 finale of The Buccaneers is the identity of Nan St. George’s birth mother, which has been a mystery since Jinny revealed the truth.
• Jinny’s fate is uncertain after she leaves with Guy to escape her abusive marriage to Lord Seadown, and it remains to be seen whether she will hide, return home, or live under Nan’s protection.
• Patti’s plan to secure her financial future by using Nan’s marriage to the Duke of Tintagel is threatened by the return of Nan’s birth mother, raising doubts about whether Patti will divorce the Colonel or close ranks with him.

When Edith Wharton‘s The Buccaneers first hit bookstores, in 1938, it was an incomplete work. The author had passed away one year prior, leaving behind her final novel as a manuscript in progress. Over the decades, authors have tried to add to Wharton’s original story, making The Buccaneers into a complete oeuvre to varying degrees of success. Still, the truth remains that old Edith herself never penned a proper ending to the stories of Nan, Jinny, Lizzy, Conchita, and Mabel. In the year 2023, this means that fans of Apple TV+’s The Buccaneers have nowhere to look for news about what happens after Nan St. George’s (Kristine Froseth) marriage to the Duke of Tintagel (Guy Remmers). Their only hope is that the show will be renewed for a second season, something that hasn’t been confirmed yet.

But, as it seems, if showrunner Katherine Jakeways has it her way, there will certainly be a Season 2 of The Buccaneers. The Season 1 finale, “Wedding of the Season,” wrapped up with a lot of questions still lingering in the air. The most pressing of them all is, of course, who is Nan’s biological mother, who seemingly appeared out of the blue at the end of the wedding ceremony. But there is also the matter of whether Nan will be reunited with her true love, Guy (Matthew Broome), and whether her mother, Patti (Christina Hendricks), will manage to leave her cheating husband behind with her daughter now being a duchess. And that’s just in the St. George family! We haven’t even brought up the other girls yet.

Indeed, there is still a lot of ground to cover when it comes to The Buccaneers, and with the show’s source material being an incomplete novel, there’s also a lot of freedom to play around with characters and plots. Here are a few questions that a second season of the show should definitely answer.

Who Is Nan’s Birth Mother?

As previously mentioned, the most important question left in the air by “Wedding of the Season” is who is Nan St. George’s birth mother. The topic has been a mystery ever since Jinny (Imogen Waterhouse) revealed the truth about her sister’s parentage to her: it turns out that Nan is not the legitimate daughter of Colonel (Adam James) and Mrs. St. George, but a product of one of her father’s many indiscretions. This information does a lot of damage, especially after reaching the hands of a certain Lord Seadown (Barney Fishwick), who immediately breaks the news to the Duchess of Tintagel (Amelia Bullmore) and nearly puts an end to Nan’s marriage to Theo. However, by the end of the season, the truth about Nan’s birth is already old news, and she and Theo manage to get married no matter what. After the wedding ceremony, though, Nan’s father emerges out of nowhere and informs Patti that the woman who actually gave birth to their daughter is waiting inside the Duke’s castle.

Who is said woman? The question echoes like a bell constantly ringing in the heads of every fan. You see, in Episode 4, the Colonel told Nan that her birth mother was an unremarkable woman whom he met around the city, but that doesn’t seem to be the whole truth. That’s because the same episode ends with a conversation between the Colonel and Patti in which she asks him if he actually told Nan the truth, and he states that no, of course not.

This leads us to believe that Nan’s biological mom is actually someone important to the plot. Many fans have come to believe that she is actually Miss Testvalley (Simone Kirby). And since Miss Testvalley came into the employment of the St. Georges after being fired by the Brightlinsea family for abusing a young Richard (Josh Dylan), there are even questions roaming around about who Nan’s real father is. Wharton never included an illegitimacy plot in her manuscript, so there are no clues to be found there. The fate of Nan’s parentage lies entirely in the hands of Jakeways and Apple TV+.

What Will Happen to Jinny?

While Nan spends the entirety of the first season of The Buccaneers dealing with the fallout of not being her mother’s biological daughter and trying to decide between two handsome gentlemen, the fate that befalls her sister Jinny is much crueler. Charmed by the illusion of chivalry, Jinny marries Lord James Seadown only to find herself trapped in a relationship in which all kinds of abuse, from psychological to physical, are game. Seadown constantly belittles her, gaslights her, accuses her of conspiring against him, drives her away from her friends and family, and even locks her outside their room when he believes she has done wrong. In “Wedding of the Season,” after finding out that Jinny is pregnant and has been keeping the information from him, he hits her, and that’s when she decides to go to her sister for help.

The episode ends with Jinny in a carriage with Guy, getting ready to leave the country with him as Nan marries Theo to protect her sister with her newly-gained aristocratic powers. Seadown tries to chase after her, but fails miserably — thank God! But what does the future hold in store for Jinny? Will she hide forever in Brazil or wherever else Guy decides to take her to? Will she return home to Britain and live under her sister’s protection with her child? Will she return to her parents’ home in the US? Again, there’s no abusive marriage in Wharton’s text, though Seadown is described as cold, so it will all be up to Jakeways.

Will Patti Divorce the Colonel?

Patti St. George is tired of her husband’s never-ending parade affairs. She’s tired of being taken for granted and of having her opinion dismissed. This all becomes clear by the end of Season 1 of The Buccaneers as she decides to use her daughter’s marriage to a duke to ensure her financial security, since leaving her husband would also mean leaving his substantial fortune. However, she is also counting on the fact that her other daughter, Jinny, is well-established with Lord Seadown. With Jinny gone from the country and Nan’s birth mom back in the picture to threaten her marriage to the Duke of Tintagel, will Patti be able to follow through with her plan? Or will she and the Colonel have to close ranks to ensure a better future for their children?

Will Nan Be Reunited with Guy?

The matter of whether Nan is in love with Theo or Guy takes over the entirety of Season 1 of The Buccaneers. A series of misunderstandings leads our young protagonist to be unsure of where her heart lies throughout the majority of the show’s eight episodes. Does Guy really love her or does he merely want her for her money? Should Theo have hidden the fact that he knew about her parentage from her? This is merely a sample of the questions that plague Nan’s mind. However, through a love scene and a discussion between the Duchess and Patti, “Wedding of the Season” makes it pretty clear what Nan’s true feelings are: she is very much in love with Guy, but she will marry the Duke in order to keep Jinny safe.

Born not out of love, but out of obligation, Nan’s marriage to Theo is doomed from the start. And Wharton’s novel makes it pretty clear that Nan’s relationship with her husband, called Ushant in the book, is an unhappy one. Her incomplete version of the story ends with Nan being invited by Lizzy (Aubri Ibrag) to a party which Guy will also attend. In the most famous “complete version” of the story, written by Marion Mainwaring, Miss Testvalley helps Nan escape the duke to be with her true love. However, Jakeways seems to be using just Wharton’s manuscript as her source, as far as we know, so there’s no telling what will happen there.

Will Richard Take Over as Lord Brightlinsea?

The Buccaneers Season 1 finale is a true roller coaster for Lord Richard Marable. Sure enough, as soon as he finally finds it in him to virtually break up with his family due to their treatment of Conchita (Alisha Boe), he is hit with the news that his wife’s father has lost all of his money and that his own dad will die soon. This means that he may have to take a rain check on his plans of traveling Europe with his wife and daughter to take over the Brightlinsea estate, as well as the fates of his mother and sister.

What will happen to Richard, and, by extent, to Conchita, in a second season of The Buccaneers? On the one hand, giving up on everything and leaving to live a carefree life with no money surely won’t be as romantic as it sounds, especially not in a show as grounded in reality as The Buccaneers. On the other, Conchie would rather die than spend another day by her mother-in-law’s side, so staying behind might mean the end of her marriage. She’s already threatened to leave Britain before, and she doesn’t seem afraid to do it again.

How Will Honoria and Mabel Make Their Relationship Work?

A great addition Jakeways made to Wharton’s story is the budding romance between Honoria Marable (Mia Threapleton) and Mabel Elmsworth (Josie Totah). Season 1 of The Buccaneers ends on a charming note when it comes to these two, with Mabel calling off her wedding to Miles and promising to be by Honoria’s side as she learns who she really is. However, The Buccaneers isn’t a show to pull punches, and while Lizzy may have accepted her sister’s coming out, the rest of society certainly wouldn’t. Thus, we can’t help but wonder how Jakeways will make such a delicate romance work and develop into a mature relationship in Season 2.

Will Lizzy Get a Story of Her Own?

Okay, maybe this one is a little mean, but come on! Lizzy starts the first season of The Buccaneers just fine, competing with Jinny for the attention of Lord Seadown. However, after being assaulted by him, her sparkle dies. It’s understandable: it’s part of her trauma narrative. The problem is that even after Lizzy regains her confidence, she remains reduced to a second-grade character in the show. Her plot becomes little more than a footnote in Jinny’s story, and even when she mentions going back to Britain, it is not because she wants something for herself, but because she wants to help Jinny. In the final episode of the season, she barely has any lines. In the book, she ends up marrying a politician with whom she has a pretty decent relationship. Now, there’s no knowing if Jakeways will go with this storyline in a hypothetical Season 2 of The Buccaneers. Still, whatever you choose, give our girl something to do! We are begging you!

The Buccaneers is available to stream on Apple TV+ in the U.S.

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