“The Buccaneers” showrunner Katherine Jakeways had Nan St. George’s (Kristine Frøseth) “choice” in the love triangle at the end of Season 1 in mind from day one.
Frøseth thinks Nan brings out playfulness in both of her love interests —Guy Thwarte (Matthew Broome) and Theo (Guy Remmers). She also hinted that Guy brought out Nan’s old self before the big reveal that she was conceived out of wedlock.
In the finale of the Apple TV+ drama series, loosely based on Edith Wharton’s final, unfinished novel, Annabelle “Nan” St. George makes the ultimate sacrifice for her nonbiological sister Jinny (Imogen Waterhouse), who desperately needs to escape her abusive husband Lord Seadown (Barney Fishwick). Instead of running away with Guy, Nan marries Theo, Duke of Tintagel, so that Guy can take Jinny far away from Seadown.
“We always wanted it to be Jinny that she chose,” Jakeways said. “[It] was so important to us to make that the end game. In the writer’s room. We did a lot of ‘Who’s team Theo who’s team guy and I know that there’s been a lot of that since it’s come out. It’s been thrilling to see but it’s not really about whether she’s team Guy, team Theo or things like that. She is Team Jinny and team her friends and team getting Jinny out to safety.”
Guy climbs into Nan’s bedroom to confess how much he loves her and asks her to escape with him to Brazil, and then the pair sleeps together. Jinny knocks on Nan’s door to ask her for help, Guy hides behind the bed and once he hears the situation, he immediately volunteers to help Jinny.
“We wanted it to be a show about female friendship. We’re absolutely here for the love triangle and the romance and we took that very seriously, but the bottom line is at the end of the series, no matter what’s gone before with Jinny and Jinny has treated Nan badly and made bad decisions and been desperately unhappy and been ostracized from the group,” Jakeways said. “Whatever man [Nan] might be choosing or whatever marriage she may not be having on any day, the minute [Jinny] knocks on that door, ‘I need your help’ and she’s her sister and she’s got bruises all over her and she says ‘I need to get out.’ Nothing else matters.”
The love triangle at the core of the series between Nan, Theo and Guy went through many changes from book to screen.
“We talked a lot about it. We had various versions of it in our head, and obviously, we’re very conscious that in the book, she marries Theo, and she marries him very early in the book, actually, and it’s very clearly a bad choice from the start,” Jakeways said. “[There were] lots of things that we developed and took in a slightly more contemporary direction, but the character of Theo the Duke, is quite different in the show. We wanted to make that love triangle between Nan and Guy and Theo feel [like] both options were realistic for her. In the book, it’s quite clear who we should be rooting for and we kind of wanted to leave that a little bit more for the viewers to make their mind up as time went on.”
Jakeways seemed to hint that Guy is Nan’s true love.
“If Jenny hadn’t knocked on that door on that day, I think Nan probably would have gotten the courage with Guy and gone,” she said. “But [Nan] has no doubt that she’s done the right thing, and Theo is not a bad man. She has thought for some of the first series that he was the man for her. He’s not Seadownand he comes with a lot of baggage because of his title and his responsibilities, so she’s taking on a lot by marrying Theo, but she does it without hesitation.”
Matthew Broome and Guy Remmers agreed that Nan’s choosing Jinny was the perfect ending in a separate interview with TheWrap. The actors are also hopeful for a second season, as is Frøseth.
“[Guy] comes out and he says ‘How can I help? and it always makes me cry because he’d just do anything for Nan. And of course in that moment, you just don’t react. It’s just you don’t think twice,” she added. “It’s just, ‘Let’s get Jinny out.’ So they do whatever they can do and then they’ll reap the sort of aftermath of that in the next in the next months and years, I assume.”
All episodes of Season 1 of “The Buccaneers” are now available to stream on Apple TV+.
