The Buccaneers 1×08, “Wedding of the Season,” finds a few answers to 1×01, “American Poison.” Still, its most moving response is the complete story it tells by including “Long Live (Taylor’s Version)” by Taylor Swift in the season finale’s closing minutes. Those final sequences and that song are in direct conversation with the series premiere and “Nothing New (feat. Phoebe Bridgers) (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault).”
It’s a musical bow on The Buccaneers’ debut season.
“Long Live (Taylor’s Version)” is a beloved song for Swifties as the talented artist penned the song, in part, about her relationship with her fans. The track has been a personal tie between Swift and Swifties since its initial release in 2010. After “Wedding of the Season,” “Long Live (Taylor’s Version)” is an invisible string that binds Nan St. George, Jinny St. George, Lizzy Elmsworth, Mabel Elmsworth, and Conchita Marable together.
The lyrics’ high school to royalty imagery chronicles Swift and her fans’ evolving relationship in the early 2000s, and it nicely fits with the story of these five young American women who take England by storm in the 1870s. Nan, Jinny, Lizzy, Mabel, and Conchi leave the comfort of the wish-granting high school of New York for the high-stress, potentially high-reward environment of England. They gain and sometimes lose titles and riches over The Buccaneers’s Season 1, but the one constant in their lives is each other.
The show’s use of “Nothing New (feat. Phoebe Bridgers) (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)” underscores how England’s society sees them as disposable while emphasizing their distinctly opposing viewpoint. Of course, their friendships with each other naturally ebb and flow throughout the season as external forces pressure their hearts and minds, including Conchita reckoning with her husband’s toxic and racist family or Mabel trying to maintain love in a society that has yet to accept LGBTQIA+ relationships.
Still, The Buccaneers bookends its season with a paramount takeaway. Conchi tells the girls, “Darlings, we always come first” in “American Poison,” before the needle drops on Swift’s track, the five best friends remind each other of that long-lasting sentiment.
Their shared bravery reverberates through Mabel, Conchi, and Lizzy’s heroic walk down the aisle, knowing that Jinny is already further away from James Seadown than she has been in a very long time. It’s perfect that Lizzy, whom he tormented, gets the final look at Seadown that says everything his gut already tells him – he lost.
“‘Long live all the magic we made’ / And bring on all the pretenders, I’m not afraid,” playing then is expertly-timed music supervision. In the best way, it knocks the wind out of an already nearly breathless sequence. After a season of non-linearly learning to let go of the shame he inflicts on her, Lizzy isn’t scared of Seadown anymore. He is the pretender of man that the castle gates keep away as “Long live all the mountains we moved” plays.
These girls will do whatever it takes for each other, even if it means defying societal expectations to combat a monster. Hence, the apt use of “I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you” and “I was screaming, ‘Long live that look your face,’” when the camera lands on Seadown’s frightful expression after he races around the castle to no avail.
Swfit’s lyricism aids “Wedding of the Season” in delicately balancing multiple tones when “And bring on all the pretenders / One day, we will be remembered” scores Jinny and Guy’s carriage ride away from the people they love. Of course, Matthew Broome’s longful look out the window reflects on a hopeful end for him and Nan, somehow. Moreover, it’s a complicated reminder that Jinny has people fighting for her so she will be remembered.
Her friends – her sisters – implemented an exit plan with a built-in failsafe to save her (and her unborn baby’s) life. Imogen Waterhouse’s performance grapples with those life-altering implications from the second Conchi tells Nan and her sister, “You both need to go,” to this shot of her in the “Getaway Car” – or getaway carriage.
The Buccaneers exemplifies its considerate storytelling in that beat of reflection leading into Nan’s hands in Theo’s during their marriage ceremony with “Hold on to spinning around / Confetti falls to the ground / May these memories break out fall” in the background. Those lyrics speak to an evolution of girlhood as Nan goes from an independent young woman to the (still independent, only differently) Duchess of Tintagel. The memory of saving her sister’s life by wielding the power of her newly implemented title will break the fall of marrying the best friend of the man Nan loves.
But, unbeknownst to Nan, it also translates to another change in her life, too – her biological mother being alive and inside the castle. Now, every memory she has of keeping her shoulders back and her head high, of dancing with her friends, falling in and out of love, and everything in between must break her fall when a rug she doesn’t even know exists is pulled out from under her in what will hopefully be The Buccaneers Season 2.
Likewise, Tracy and Patricia’s memories with Nan will have to cushion the fallout of Nan’s biological mother appearing after they sold a fabricated story to Nan. Those lines of Swift’s song have a ripple effect throughout the ensemble – and the series.
They lead directly into the lyrics, “You held your head like a hero / On a history book page,” introducing Nan as the new Duchess of Tintagel. Yes, Nan can make history with this new role, but the beauty is that she already has. In sacrificing her romantic happy ending (for now, presumably), Nan, Conchi, Lizzy, and Mabel can hold their heads like heroes that history will want to remember. They made a vow to each other before this era of adventures began, and they kept true to it with heroic effects. To each other, they are the end of every chapter and the beginning of every age. Long live The Buccaneers!
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What did you think of The Buccaneers‘s season finale?
The Buccaneers Season 1 is streaming on Apple TV+.
