The return of The Buccaneers confirmed my worst fear: nothing has changed. Weak script, poor acting, and an unresolved desire to be either Bridgerton or The Gilded Age. Given the number of recent cancellations, it’s a surprise this show even made it to a second season. But setting aside everything bad — which, in this case, is pretty much the entire show — let’s dive back into the drama.

We find Nan exactly where we left her: at her wedding party, hysterically drifting between guests and the garden, swinging between tears and smiles. Her emotional instability doesn’t draw empathy because she never gives us time for it. Her dilemma is that the “price” for helping her sister escape an abusive marriage was marrying a man who loves her, is wealthy and loyal, but… he’s not Guy. Worse: her mother-in-law, who knows the whole truth, insists that the answer lies in being “obedient to the institution of marriage.”

Nan is already a figure in a perpetual state of flight (she’s NEVER still in any scene — if interrupted, she instantly finds a reason to flee), and the word “obedience” works as a trigger. For some reason, for now, she continues to oscillate between tears and smiles, hiding from Theo what happened the night before the wedding.

Forget, for now, the theory that Mrs. Testvalley is secretly Nan’s biological mother. She’s out of the picture. Who arrives instead is the protagonist’s “aunt,” Nell, played by Leighton Meester. Turns out Nell is Patricia’s younger sister and betrayed her 19 years ago by sleeping with her husband, Tracy, because she was feeling “adventurous.” Now, she questions Patricia for cutting ties — even while admitting she left the child from the affair in Patricia’s care — and blames her for not allowing mother and daughter to meet. Talking about malignant narcissists in fiction is almost redundant at this point: every current drama series seems to revolve around them. Gone are the days of truly decent characters.

Nan meets Nell with a hint of unease, but they quickly bond. Of course! It doesn’t take long to realize that the dynamic between Nell and Patricia mirrors that of Nan and Jinny. Nell announces she’s staying for good, and Patricia declares she will (finally) divorce Tracy.

Among the buccaneers, there’s a bit more progress. Conchita takes charge of her (ruined) family’s finances and identifies a new revenue stream: helping other rich American women marry equally ruined nobles. There’s so much wrong with that concept, it’s almost chilling — especially considering the show’s supposed intent to modernize its characters, who actually want titles and love, not just a strategic marriage. Conchita’s venture feels, at best, incoherent.

Mabel and Honoria remain secretly together, but there’s potential for a new love triangle. In my view, the true heroine of The Buccaneers is not the insufferable Nan, but the sweet and traumatized Lizzy. A new romantic interest emerges for her, but the exchanged glances and closeness with Theo haven’t gone unnoticed. At this point, they’re the couple I’m rooting for the most.

And far from England, Guy and Jinny are posing as husband and wife in Italy, hiding from her real husband, Lord James (Conchita’s brother-in-law). He’s using the press to try and track her down, and that — surprise, surprise — “forces” Nan to act in the way she loves most: with drama and self-promotion. At the black-and-white ball, she shows up dressed in red to guarantee front-page headlines. All, of course, just to help Jinny. And that’s where we are — waiting to see what happens next week.