SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for the first episode of The Buccaneers Season 2.
The Buccaneers are back for a second season, which premiered June 18 on Apple TV+, with a new famous face in tow — Leighton Meester.
Meester makes her appearance and debut in the elegant, elaborate world of the period piece — set during The Gilded Age in America and England — on the heels of Nan’s (Kristine Frøseth) wedding to Theo (Guy Remmers), The Duke of Tintagel. Her presence causes quite a stir between Nan’s parents Patricia St. George (Christina Hendricks) and Colonel Tracy St. George (Adam James), who debate the reason for her attendance at Nan’s wedding in hushed whispers.
“It’s a really fun part because it’s immediately a juicy mic drop,” Meester told Deadline ahead of the show’s Season 2 premiere. “But then, thankfully I did get a chance to really get to know Nell and what her intentions were.”
In a quick conversation between Patti and Eleanor, who goes by Nell, Meester, clad in a bright magenta dress, reveals just barely that she is Nell’s biological mother. On top of that, Patricia introduces Nell to Nan as her sister, meaning Nan only knows her as Aunt Nell. Nan’s illegitimacy became a big subject of conversation last season when the news leaked out ahead of her engagement to Theo. The Duke of Tintagel ultimately looked past this change in her identity and status, while Nan’s father and Patricia told her that hernreal mother was dead and a nobody.
“She shows up at a wedding of her biological daughter. I really grappled with, ‘Why is she doing this?’ And I think it’s also fair for her not to know why at first,” Meester continued. “She has been holding something inside for so long, and the pain from a distance having to be separated from her child, and then also from other family, and her reality and what her life has looked like since. Filling all of that in was a pleasure and also interesting and challenging because she doesn’t necessarily do things the way that I would do.”
Nell and Nan establish an interesting connection when the new Duchess of Tintagel calls out to her secret real mother from a hiding spot and informs her of the context in which she married Theo. Nan did it in order to gain the power to keep her half sister Jinny (Imogen Waterhouse) safe from her abusive husband Lord James Seadown (Barney Fishwick). Nan struck a deal with Theo’s mother (Amelia Bullmore) because Guy Thwarte (Matthew Broome) had been in Nan’s room and bed the night before the wedding, caught by The Dowager. The agreement was that Nan marry Theo and that Theo’s mother help keep Ginny safe in exchance for Nan not telling Theo of his mother’s involvement and Theo’s mother not spilling the beans about Guy.
L-R: Kristine Frøseth as Nan St. George and Leighton Meester as Nell in ‘The Buccaneers’ Season 2
Apple TV+
“[Nell] comes in with some advice that I’m like, ‘Interesting.’ I wouldn’t necessarily do that, but I understand why, 150 years ago, somebody like Nell would take the opportunity to say, ‘Here is me reflecting onto you, to some extent, how can you be happy in your life?’ So I think she’s saying ‘You made a decision for the right reason. Take this advice. Move on with your life’. I think that’s something that Nell wishes she could do, but she just can’t.”
Nell specifically advises Nan to “cry, shout and dance,” whatever she has to do to move past the pain of her decision — because Nan feels she’s married the wrong man and wants to be with Guy — when it gets to be too much.
“There [Nell] is standing in front of [Nan] even without the right words, and it’s too bad, but it also is the way it goes,” Meester said. “This is a period drama where people hush away things. It’s really interesting to let out little release valves a little bit here and there. And lots of drama and some quippy lines with Mrs. St George, as well.”
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