The Buccaneers Ending Explained Does Nan Marry Theo?

Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for The Buccaneers season finale.

The Big Picture

• The Buccaneers ' season finale is filled with twists and turns, leaving fans eagerly waiting for Season 2.
• Nan feels pressured into marrying Theo despite being in love with Guy Thwarthe, leading to a heartbreaking decision.
• Jinny faces abuse from Seadown, but with the help of her sister and friends, she plans to escape and start a new life.

After five weeks forcing us to loosen our corsets and hold onto our pearls just to be able to keep up with its fast pacing, Apple TV+'s The Buccaneers came to an end with its eighth episode. And, boy, what a finale this was! Twists and turns at every corner spelled unexpected fates for Nan (Kristine Froseth), Jinny (Imogen Waterhouse), Conchita (Alisha Boe), and Mabel (Josie Totah), and a last-minute revelation dragged us to the edge of our seats just as we were getting ready to relax. A question lingers in the air: who on Earth is Nan's real mother? Could she be Miss Testvalley (Simone Kirby), as many fans of the show have come to theorize, or is she some other character that just hasn't been introduced yet? For now, all we have is our guesses, and all Apple TV+ has is a bunch of anxious fans waiting for Season 2.

But, as previously stated, the final episode of the first season of The Buccaneers isn't just about the questions, no matter how pressing they might be. "Wedding of the Season" is also about the resolutions. We've all spent seven episodes following the adventures and misadventures of the Americans during their stint in Britain. Now it's time to find out where it all leads. Does Nan marry Theo (Guy Remmers) and become Duchess of Tintagel, or does she accept that her heart truly belongs with the destitute Guy Thwarthe (Matthew Broome)? Perhaps both? Does Jinny come to terms with what Seadown (Barney Fishwick) is doing to her, manipulating her and cutting her away from her friends? Does Richard (Josh Dylan) find the strength to stand up to his parents and finally make Conchita happy? What about Mabel and Honoria (Mia Threapleton)? Do they find room for their love in a world that is not willing to accept them for who they are?

That sure is a lot to wrap up, but The Buccaneers manages to bring all of its storylines to a close with seemingly little effort - at least for the time being. In case you're wondering about what goes down in the finale, whether because you skipped a few minutes or lost track of what happened in the show, here's a breakdown of all the major plot points of "Wedding of the Season."

The Buccaneers

The Buccaneers are the daughters of America’s new rich — beautiful and untameable, despite the best efforts of England’s finest governesses, they are on their way to London to snare themselves an aristocrat, low in funds but high in class, to make a perfect match.

Nan Feels Pressured Into Marrying Theo

Series creator Katherine Jakeways wastes no time in showing us that poor Nan is less than excited about her upcoming marriage to the Duke of Tintagel, but that she still might have no choice. In the very first scene of "Wedding of the Season," the show's protagonist is given a tiara by her soon-to-be mother-in-law as both a wedding gift and a reminder that she's not the most important person in the upcoming ceremony. The Duchess, who, by the end of the episode, will become the Dowager Duchess, makes it clear that the wedding is all about Theo rising to his duties and that she expects no more improprieties from her daughter-in-law. She's referring to, of course, Nan's big speech in Episode 6, in which she revealed the secret of her parentage to the Duchess and of all her guests after being exposed by Seadown. Though the scene had a happy outcome, with Theo deciding to marry her no matter what, it left a bad taste in the Dowager Duchess' mouth. And, now, she wants to make sure that Nan has no other surprises in store.

But Nan has a lot going on. For starters, she's evidently in love with Guy Thwarthe, something that the show makes even more obvious by giving us a scene of the two planning to escape to Brazil and then sleeping together. Nan's heart is so packed with feelings for her fiancé's best friend that she's about to explode. However, she can't find the strength to actually say no to her wedding. She tries to open up with her mother, but is soon discouraged. After all, Patti (Christina Hendricks) plans on using her upcoming status as mother of a duchess to finally walk out on her cheating husband, and who is Nan to deny her such freedom?

Things get even direr when the truth of what's been happening to Jinny comes out. Nan, of course, is still mad at her sister for spilling the beans about her parentage to her husband, who immediately told the Dowager Duchess about the whole affair. She's convinced that Jinny has drifted too far away from her and that she cares about no one but herself. But Jinny hasn't been acting on her own selfish desires. Instead, she's being manipulated by Seadown, who has made his wife's life a living hell with his accusations and helicopter-like vigilance. And, in "Wedding of the Season", the abuse that he has been inflicting on Jinny crosses the line from emotional to physical: after learning that Jinny is pregnant and that she failed to tell him the moment that she found out, Seadown slaps her and grabs her by the arm.

Desperate, Jinny goes looking for her sister, who is shocked to see her with bruises on her face and limbs. Immediately realizing what Jinny has been through, Nan forgives her and enlists Guy's help to sneak her out of the Duke's castle. Unfortunately, they are intercepted by Seadown. Guy manages to hide just in time, and Nan makes up some lie about showing her sister the wedding chapel, but Seadown takes Jinny away. In their room, he apologizes, like abusive monsters tend to do, by giving Jinny a gift: a dress for her to wear as a bridesmaid at Nan's wedding.

Jinny accepts the gift and joins her friends to walk Nan down the aisle. However, it is all a ploy to distract Seadown while she escapes the country with Guy. Sadly, though, Nan is not going with her. Despite loving Guy deeply and confessing her feelings for him as they say their goodbyes, Nan chooses to stay behind and marry Theo. As the Dowager Duchess explains to Patti, she chooses to retain the powers of a duchess so that she can protect Jinny from Seadown's wrath: "One daughter's sacrifice for the other daughter's freedom."

Who Is Nan's Mother in 'The Buccaneers'?

The Dowager Duchess knows all of this because she caught Nan and Guy together in Nan's bedroom as they were returning from their failed rescue attempt. Upon learning that one of her daughters is in distress, and not quite the one that she was expecting, Patti runs out of the church as Guy's carriage crosses the castle's gates. She misses Jinny by just a few seconds but runs into her husband, Colonel St. George (Adam James), who informs her that Nan's birth mother is at the castle. Now, we know nothing of the true identity of Nan's mother. As far as both she and the viewers have been told, she's the product of an indiscretion between her father and a lady of the night. However, a brief conversation between the Colonel and Patti in Episode 4 indicates that this is not the case. Unfortunately, "Wedding of the Season" doesn't give us any glimpse of Nan's mother before the credits roll.

This is the big question lingering in the air at the end of The Buccaneers Season 1, but not the only one. There is also the matter of what Richard will do about his family. In Episode 7, he found out that his mother always knew about his improper and, quite frankly, abusive relationship with Miss Testvalley, their much older governess, but paid her to go away and keep her mouth shut. This shattered all the illusions he had about his family, who he still considered a priority despite them treating Conchita like dirt. In Episode 8, he finally finds it in him to tell his mother off, and to announce to his parents and siblings that he and Conchita are going away together, damn their titles and their money! Alas, there are a few things standing in the way of the couple's happily ever after. The first problem is that Conchita's dad has lost all the family's money, on which they relied for comfort. The other issue is that Lord Brightlinsea (Anthony Calf) has been diagnosed with some terrible disease and has merely a handful of weeks ahead of him. This means that Richard will have to step up as the new Lord Brightlinsea and take responsibility not just for the family's estate, but also for the people that depend on it - including his mother and sister.

With so much going on and so much going wrong, almost no character in The Buccaneers gets a happy ending in "Wedding of the Season." They all have to accept less than the lives they wanted for themselves. The closest we get to a cheerful resolution is Mabel's romance with Honoria, but that too comes with a caveat. In Victorian England, there is little hope for the two of them to be accepted as part of society. But, after calling off her engagement with Miles (Shobhit Piasa) and coming out to Lizzy (Aubrey Ibrag), Mabel is comfortable enough to open her heart to Honoria and tell her that they shall make the best out of their less-than-ideal situation. Considering how gloomy the fates of Nan, Jinny, and Conchita look, we'll take what we can get. Hopefully, Season 2 will come along and deliver a better future for our American girls - even for Lizzy, who seems to have been forgotten by the end of the season. Give the poor girl a story of her own!

Season 1 of The Buccaneers is available to stream on Apple TV+ in the U.S.

Watch on Apple TV+

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