Darlings, gossip around The Buccaneers Season 2 is swirling after a recent addition to the ensemble. With a fun and on-brand Instagram video featuring the cast, Apple TV+ announced that Leighton Meester will join the acclaimed drama’s second season. The video shows Meester’s character – and the other women – in costume, but it doesn’t confirm who she will play.
While that information is still under wraps, Apple TV+ does share a synopsis for the second season, which reads as follows:
“Now the Buccaneers are no longer the invaders – England is their home. In fact they’re practically running the place. Nan is the Duchess of Tintagel, the most influential woman in the country. Conchita is Lady Brightlingsea, heroine to a wave of young American heiresses. And Jinny is on every front-page, wanted for the kidnap of her unborn child. All of the girls have been forced to grow up and now have to fight to be heard, as they wrestle with romance, lust, jealousy, births and deaths… themes consuming all women of any age, no matter what year it is. Last time we got a taste of England. This time we’re in for a veritable feast.”
The Buccaneers is inspired by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edith Wharton’s unfinished final novel of the same name. The Apple TV+ series that sees “a group of fun-loving young American girls exploded into the tightly corseted London of the 1870s” made a three-episode premiere in November 2023. The series stars Kristine Frøseth as Nan St. George, Alisha Boe as Conchita Closson, Josie Totah as Mabel Elmsworth, Aubri Ibrag as Lizzy Elmsworth, and Imogen Waterhouse as Jinny St. George. Emmy Award winner Christina Hendricks stars as Mrs. St. George, with Mia Threapleton as Honoria Marable.
The second season also stars Guy Remmers as Theo, Duke of Tintagel, Matthew Broome as Guy Thwarte, Josh Dylan as Lord Richard Marable, and Barney Fishwick as Lord James Seadown. With all those roles filled, one character looms large from the first season who has yet to make her on-screen debut on The Buccaneers – Nan St. George’s biological mother.
Nan discovers that Patricia St. George isn’t her biological mother in The Buccaneers Season 1, Episode 1, “American Poison,” and the doubt that information instills in her core identity has ripple effects on her – and the other characters – throughout the rest of the season.
Nan learns the truth from her sister Jinny when Jinny is upset with Nan and lets it slip out after keeping the potentially scandalous secret for 17 years. By The Buccaneers Season 1, Episode 2, “Women or Wives,” Jinny reinforces the societal impacts of Nan telling anyone about her biological mother, as it’s scandalous to be born out of wedlock in the 1800s. She tells Nan, “You say your past doesn’t matter now, but your future, it won’t exist.”
From there, details about Nan’s biological mother gradually unfold. In that same episode, Jinny tells Nan that she discovered the truth in a letter that revealed Patricia and Tracy St. George bought Nan from her biological mother. However, the woman’s identity remains a mystery to Jinny. By The Buccaneers Season 1, Episode 3, “The Perfect Duchess,” Nan decides she can’t move forward in her relationship with Theo (or Guy, because there’s a love triangle between the three) or in her role as a future Duchess without speaking to her mother.
The Buccaneers Season 1, Episode 4, “Homecoming,” is when that confrontation occurs, and it’s one of the first season’s best sequences. Kristine Frøseth and Christina Hendricks give incredibly vulnerable performances while Nan and Patricia have a long overdue conversation. The show allows Nan to say honest to her yet hurtful things to Patricia, like “I’m nobody to you. You have never been my mother.” Before it resolves the conflict between Nan and Patricia, her father, Tracy, makes the wedge larger by preserving his character in Nan’s eyes.
In a stunning display of audacity, Tracy tells his daughter that he “can’t be blamed” for cheating when a young woman shows him attention as he’s gotten older. He speaks fondly of Nan’s biological mother but can’t recall any specifics – only that she died shortly after giving birth to Nan. The end of “Homecoming” teases that as the opposite of the truth, which comes back to haunt him by the season finale. In the meantime, Patricia tells Nan, “I may not have carried you in here (her stomach). But from the second I saw you, I promise you, I have carried you in here (her heart).” That exchange heals a big wound in their relationship.
Alternatively, it deepens the wound between Patricia and Tracy, who continues his flirtations (at least) with younger women. Patricia says she wants a divorce in The Buccaneers Season 1, Episode 7, “First Footing.” She tells him, “I have always deserved more. But I’ve always put my girls first. And no matter how small you made me feel, I made sure they were the tallest in the room. And now they’re letting me stand on their shoulders where you can never reach.” That distance is created by the titles Nan and Jinny receive through their marriages – namely, Nan becoming the Duchess of Tintagel once she marries Theo.
Meanwhile, Nan makes her parentage public – to the people celebrating the holidays with her – in The Buccaneers Season 1, Episode 6, “It’s Christmas.” She knows “motherhood is much more than blood” now and refuses to feel shame because of her father’s actions. “And that might be American, and that might be brash. And maybe I should’ve signaled it with a glove and hoped that no one would see. But I am proud to have survived the revelation. I am proud of my mother. And I am proud to be… I am proud to be,” Nan adds. That newfound confidence is moving to see. Still, it realistically falters.
Some part of Nan believes others will always see her as her “father’s shame,” but the title of Duchess gives her legitimacy and respect in society. That title also gives her mother the stability to leave her marriage. It also has the protection to save her sister from an abusive marriage.
But can it save her from a confrontation Nan never imagined possible? Since halfway through Season 1, Nan believes her biological mother is dead. The Buccaneers Season 1, Episode 8, “Wedding of the Season,” reveals the woman is alive – and she’s inside the castle where Nan is marrying Theo. Luckily, Apple TV+’s Instagram confirmed The Buccaneers Season 2 went into production in June 2024. So, it’s only a matter of time before the series reveals if Leighton Meester’s unnamed character is the same woman in the castle. Ultimately, the anticipation around this character makes it seem very likely.
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Who do you think Leighton Meester is playing in The Buccaneers Season 2? Let us know in the comments below!
The Buccaneers Season 1 is streaming on Apple TV+ now!
