The Buccaneers' Best Season 2 Romance Belongs to Blanche and Reede

[The following contains spoilers for The Buccaneers Season 2, Episode 5, "A Whole Love."]

Well, well, well, if it isn't the adults in the very gilded room showing the youths how romance is done in Season 2 of The Buccaneers. What a twist. What a journey. Let us all be grateful that in its sophomore outing, The Buccaneers has allowed the Dowager Duchess of Tintagel (Amelia Bullmore), formerly relegated to the stern mother role, not just to have desire, but to grapple with it. It allows her to yearn. And in the process, the Dowager Duchess — or Blanche, if you're so inclined — and her long lost love, Reede Robinson (Greg Wise), steal the show.

For the most part, the second season of the Apple TV+ series about five young wealthy American women searching for husbands and titles and maybe love in England has dialed up Season 1's angst and soapy turmoil to such levels that it feels much less rambunctious, less sparkly. Five episodes in, there is a feeling of bleakness that wasn't there before. Everyone seems unhappy, and there's less optimism that they'll be able to change what they find less than fulfilling about their current situations. Season 1 ended with Nan (Kristine Frøseth) giving up her great love, Guy (Matthew Broome), so that he could help protect her sister, Jinny (Imogen Waterhouse), while they hid her from her abusive husband, Lord Seadown (Barney Fishwick). Nan married Theo (Guy Remmers), the duke in love with her, so that she could harness the power that comes with his title (and that the Dowager Duchess promised, if Nan didn't go all runaway bride on Tintagel) in order to find a way to safely bring Jinny home. So it's no surprise really that Season 2 feels much less fun — no one, especially once Theo learns of Nan's true feelings, is happy where they are. Even when Nan runs off to visit Guy, now hiding out in an Italian town with incredible gelato apparently, their reunion is short lived, mostly awkward, and ends in a blowout fight that leaves them both more heartbroken than they were before. They are trapped, and they know it. Nan and Guy faced obstacles in Season 1, but the angst of it all was met with dreamy romance. In Season 2, it's just a drag.

ALSO READ: The complete guide to summer TV

The newest young coupling introduced this season doesn't fare any better. Brooding Theo, who has recently learned that his wife is just not that into him, spends… what, one hour tops alone with Lizzy (Aubri Ibrag), and he is enthralled. Once Nan flees England for Italy and informs Lizzy on her way out that "it's always been Guy," Lizzy reciprocates the duke's feelings. By Episode 4, they're having sex all over the castle. By Episode 5, Lizzy's wedding day to a boring but safe MP named Hector Robinson (Jacob Ifan) approaches, Nan is back, and these two dopes are in love and don't know what to do about it. Since divorce is out of the question for a duke, the best Lizzy could hope for is the position of beloved mistress, and Lizzy does not hope for that. By the end of the episode, Theo gets a Billy Crystal-in-When Harry Met Sally run to stop Lizzy from marrying Hector, but his speech takes a turn: He doesn't think she should be with him either. He can't give her the life she deserves. 

On paper, it all sounds like a soapy dramatic feast, but in practice, the Lizzy and Theo romance is so condensed for time, and mostly made up of lustful looks, that it is not at all as compelling as it could be. When Episode 5 ends right before Lizzy decides whether to walk down the aisle or not, it's hard to find a reason to root for either option. It's not that a Lizzy and Theo connection couldn't work; it's just that this iteration is so flat and forced that it's hard to care.

And it certainly doesn't help their cause that the other newly introduced romance of Season 2 blows them out of the water in every regard. The rollout of the love story between Blanche (the Dowager Duchess) and Reede Robinson (yep, he's Hector's dad) is the perfect example of writing two characters with a little history, placing them in the hands of two very capable performers, and simply letting them do their thing. Blanche and Reede don't get a ton of screen time — their storyline is a C-story at best, and Reede doesn't appear until Episode 3 — but they make every moment count. 

From the second Blanche clocks Reede across the room at a party, you're invested. Even before they speak, even before they are standing in front of each other, Bullmore and Wise have immediate chemistry. More than that, they imbue their characters with a look of both knowing and longing, so that before a line is uttered you know that not only do these two characters know each other, but they definitely had a thing going on. While the interactions between Theo and Lizzy feel superficial and forced, even the teasing and banter between Blanche and Reede when they finally reach each other on the dance floor feels easy and authentic. They are presented almost as a vision of how the Nan-Guy-Theo love triangle could turn out: Blanche and Reede were madly in love in their youth, but she gave him up to marry a duke. It's clear that they are still in love with each other, and yet Blanche, now dealing with the Nan and Theo crisis, still refuses to give up her work as the caretaker of the Tintagel line and get the happily ever after she and Reede deserve. So, much like the younger romances on the show, there is angst here, and there is heartbreak for sure, but there's no anger or impetuous decision making. There is wistfulness and a care for one another that perhaps only comes with age and experience. It is such a refreshing and surprising example of a love story, especially for this Gen Z-branded series. 

In Episode 5, after two episodes of Blanche regretfully but lovingly refusing to just go for it with Reede, who wants to give a life together a go even now, after all this time, Blanche arrives at Reede's house on the morning of Hector and Lizzy's wedding and doesn't even try to act cool and come up with an excuse. (Again, just the look this man gives when he sees her tells a whole story.) She is there for him, she tells him. Now that Nan is back, she feels like she can leave Tintagel behind. "Does this mean it could be your time?" he asks her, hopefully. "I think, perhaps, it could be ours," she responds. Friends, if you are not clutching your chest at the sheer amount of romance this exchange is dripping in, you are a lost cause. They joke about getting into some "elderly foolishness," even with their janky knees, and then they kiss. It is soft and lovely and certainly more satisfying than any of the younger couples' sex montages this season. 

In fact, it's precisely because of the softness and the subtlety that not just that kiss but Blanche and Reede's entire storyline thus far (let's be honest, this is The Buccaneers, and you know there will be bumps in the road ahead for these two) is so effective. When scenes or emotional beats feels so over the top, they can read as false, but every scene shared between these two feels authentic. You immediately buy their history and their lingering feelings, because they never feel foisted upon the audience. Pair that with two actors who can so effectively convey yearning, and who know how to make their characters, and this couple, feel lived in with minimal screen time, and you have everything you need to let what is meant to be a minor subplot completely soar. In a season that feels so much heavier than the previous one, Blanche and Reede's love story is keeping the dreaminess and the fun from Season 1 alive. The Buccaneers isn't their show — it very much belongs to the younger generation making terrible decisions and stumbling around with their hearts wide open — but how wonderful and surprising that it's these two who are giving us something to root for, reminding us exactly how good romance is done.

New episodes of The Buccaneers Season 2 stream Wednesdays on Apple TV+.