The Buccaneers 1×07, “First Footing,” is a heart-aching reflection of the characters attempting to find solid ground before a new year begins. After a season of tumultuous changes and realizations, this penultimate episode juxtaposes a celebratory gathering filled with pomp and noise with quiet introspection filled with authentic breakthroughs. It’s some of the best, most contained character work The Buccaneers delivers thus far, further exemplifying its ability to get sharper every week.
A lot of the time, “First Footing,” written by Roanne Bardsley and directed by Charlotte Regan, is personified as chaos with more and more moving parts entering a scene.
Conflicts overlap to the point that storylines crash together. Still, The Buccaneers‘ character-driven purpose is necessarily clear as subtle performances cut through the noise. Namely, Imogen Waterhouse, Josh Dylan, and Christina Hendricks deliver such believable, lived-in performances throughout “First Footing.”
Mothers and Daughters
Waterhouse’s steadily understated and underrated performance as Seadown begs to break Jinny and make a Virginia who molds around his every whim is agonizing.
The show’s restrictive costuming for Jinny (The high collars from The Buccaneers 1×06, “It’s Christmas,” still stand out) accompanies this brutal arc about an abusive relationship, as does the script including something as initially as inconsequential as Jinny shifting the blame from “we” to “I.” Even though The Buccaneers explicitly depicts Seadown’s manipulative behavior, those more minor details are equally significant.
Though Patricia may not be entirely aware of those, “First Footing” does an excellent job showing how well she knows her daughters. The camera sticks with Hendricks as Patricia realizes something isn’t right with Jinny and Nan has feelings for Guy. The relationship between those three women is one of the most intriguing dynamics within this show, which is why The Buccaneers 1×04, “Homecoming,” is one of the best episodes this season.
The Buccaneers bringing back Holly Macve’s “Subruban House” from the end of “Homecoming” to mark the beginning of a new chapter for Patricia is excellent attention to detail, presenting additional subtextual meaning to her undoing her hair.
Alternatively, “First Footing” features a different kind of unraveling for Jinny as she presumably realizes she is pregnant. Waterhouse depicts Jinny’s panic as she rips open her clothes to find the breath she’s been chasing since Seadown stifled her. It’s a distinctive choice to highlight Jinny’s inner conflict in a rare, solitary scene, similar to the quick one during “It’s Christmas.” Likewise, The Buccaneers intentionally does not reveal what happens during Jinny’s getaway carriage ride. That moment is hers — not Seadown’s.
A Disassembled Love Triangle
Being the season’s penultimate episode, it’s no shock that “First Footing” is overflowing with dramatic twists, but one that has been a long time coming is the slow dissolvement of The Buccaneers‘s love triangle between Guy, Nan, and Theo.
Nan’s feelings for the two friends aren’t nearly as complicated as Guy and Theo’s friendship. Once Nan knows the (uber swoon-worthy) contents of Guy’s telegram and finds a reason to be angry with Theo rather than confront her feelings for Guy, it’s evident that the love triangle is unbalanced. Guy’s off-screen proposal to Jean throws a more significant wrench in a romantic future for Nan and Guy than any feelings for Theo.
The heartbreaking result of that development is that Theo realizes as much. Guy Remmers plays that broken-hearted young man so delicately well.
One clever choice is having Theo spur Guy to read the telegram by reciting his oldest friend’s written words. It doubles as a reminder that Theo is still in the room, even when Guy spills his heart to Nan, and that Guy breaks Theo’s heart, too. That friendship doesn’t hold a candle to the girls’, but it is a sticking point that the show should explore more in a hopeful second season. Matthew Broome and Remmers work well together.
“First Footing” allows the actors to expand their characters’ friendship from that brief scene in the first batch of episodes and The Buccaneers 1×05, “Failed Betrayal.” Their final scene is especially effective in conveying their shared history that pre-dates their respective feelings for Nan, and their parting is quite moving because it does feel like these young boys are becoming men who may not see each other the same way again.
Conchi and Richard Redefine Family
In a completely different moment of reflection, Richard begins to recount his dynamic with Miss Testvalley and realizes how abusive and toxic their dynamic was from a very young age. A scene with his sister, someone who was also around during that time and unconditionally loves Richard, feels honest to the characters. Mia Threapleton wears her heart on her sleeve as Honoria in “First Footing” — with Richard and Josie Totah‘s Mabel.
Still, Josh Dylan is the standout performer in Season 1’s penultimate episode.
Dylan is consistently and quietly great throughout the season, but his work during “First Footing” is incredibly excellent and nuanced. His scene with Fenella Woolgar as Lady Brightlingsea is so intense that it keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat. For example, for an instant, it seems as though Lady Brightlingsea will say she never knew about Miss Testvalley’s inappropriate and intimate relationship with her son. Instead, his mother becomes a complicit party in this traumatic experience for Richard.
Dylan’s performance makes Richard appear as the young boy confronting this trauma, paired with how his mother dresses him like a child. The brutal irony is that Lady Brightlingsea is still not caring for her son; she’s making him presentable to preserve a reputation that she believes he could unravel — not Miss Testvalley. Dylan’s delivery of “And I was barely a man” is like a dagger to the heart, but not Lady Brightlingsea’s. It doesn’t even rattle her to see her son in such pain. It’s gut-wrenching to hear Richard’s vulnerability met with a “man up” sentiment, even in the 1870s.
Thankfully, “First Footing” finds a more receptive audience for Richard in Conchi. Alisha Boe‘s grounding presence as Dylan walks through Richard’s breakthrough regarding his family is a testament to their chemistry and ability to make their characters’ relationship feel lived-in. Though he doesn’t divulge everything, it’s written across Boe’s countenance that Conchi understands Richard better from what he does communicate. Conchi’s reminder that they are each other’s family feels like a break in a toxic cycle, a theme that reverberates throughout “First Footing” and The Buccaneers as a whole.
Hopefully, the young characters can continue doing so for many more seasons.
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The Buccaneers streams new episodes on Wednesdays on Apple TV+.
