‘The Buccaneers’ Has No Clue What To Do With This Main Character, and It’s Extremely Obvious

Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for The Buccaneers Season 2.

The Buccaneers is an ambitious series that immediately introduces five heroines in its opening moments. Nan (Kristine Froseth) undoubtedly gets the most screen time as she is torn between Theo (Guy Remmers) and Guy (Matthew Broome). Meanwhile, between her financial woes and difficult relationship with her in-laws, Conchita (Alisha Boe) has gotten her own storylines. So has Jinny (Imogen Waterhouse), who developed a relationship with James (Barney Fishwick), escaped his abuse, and is now making a life for herself and her son in Italy with Guy. Even Mabel (Josie Totah) has a secret relationship with Honoria (Mia Threapleton) and a conflict with her mother over her sexuality. However, all of that leaves Lizzy (Aubri Ibrag) alone on the sidelines. Unlike her friends, who have married or at least found love on their trip to England, The Buccaneers hasn’t been kind to Lizzy, but Season 2 is only making the problem more evident.

Despite being a constant in her friends’ lives, Lizzy has yet to earn the spotlight. She has always been supportive, trying to help Jinny, encouraging Mabel, and listening to Nan’s emotional struggles, but all of that has overshadowed both her trauma and her joy. Lizzy is stuck in the background of her friends’ storylines and romances. Though this has been a problem since the beginning, the show’s most recent episode is a prime example, as an event that should be about Lizzy becomes more focused on everyone else’s drama. While, admittedly, there is a lot going on in the series already, it’s past time for Lizzy to be the heroine of the central story rather than a side character for everyone else’s journey.

In ‘The Buccaneers’ Season 1, Lizzy’s Storyline Never Gets the Attention It Deserves

Aubri Ibrag and Barney Fishwick staring at each other in The Buccaneers Episode 2 — Image via Apple TV+

The Buccaneers’ choice to ignore Lizzy is not a new thing. The issue begins in Season 1, when, despite traveling to England to find a suitable husband like her friends and sister, Lizzy is the only one who doesn’t manage to find a romance. Initially, she competes with Jinny for James’ attention, but James only uses her. In fact, he convinces Lizzy to undress in front of him and then leaves her there, humiliating her, only to propose to Jinny soon after. Throughout the rest of the season, he reminds her of this experience, from which she doesn’t have time to heal. This puts Lizzy in a difficult situation, but the season brushes past her trauma. She ends up watching her friend marry the man who was so cruel to her, and her main focus becomes helping Jinny, though her attempts aren’t accepted. Though Lizzy makes herself available to help, Jinny doesn’t acknowledge her situation until much later.

The show’s lack of attention towards Lizzy isn’t helped by her disappearing for a time, returning home when she feels there is nothing left for her in England. She ultimately decides to rejoin the others to help her sister, Mabel, who would be forced to return to New York alongside her and endure their mother’s watchful eye. Plus, returning to England allows her to keep an eye on Jinny in her new marriage to the abusive James. Even this choice isn’t about what Lizzy herself wants, but what her friends need. In Season 1, Lizzy is consistently there for her friends, but her loyalty comes at the expense of her own character journey.

Kristine Frøseth and Leighton Meester in

Alisha Boe Gives Kristine Froseth a Wedding Day Pep Talk in ‘The Buccaneers’ Season 2 Sneak Peek [Exclusive]

Nan confronts her future in the return of Apple TV+’s Gilded Age drama this week.

‘The Buccaneers’ Season 2 Makes Lizzy a Supporting Character in Nan’s Story

With Jinny separated from her friends in Season 2, it seems like Lizzy should have a chance to come into her own. She begins the season with something of a blank slate while everyone else is embroiled in their own drama left over from Season 1’s ending. At first, The Buccaneers introduced a new, promising element to her storyline with a love interest in Hector (Jacob Ifan). However, the season is rapidly approaching its midpoint, and Lizzy and Hector’s romance has hardly gotten any attention. While they have moved forward with an engagement, they have only shared a few conversations; by comparison, more about James and Theo is revealed before Jinny and Nan’s respective relationships with them progress in Season 1.

Instead of developing her romance in Season 2, Lizzy has spent more time entangled with Nan’s story as the new duchess confides in Lizzy, who must decide whether to give Nan a letter from Guy. Not only is she stuck playing the supportive friend again, but Lizzy also begins a flirtation with Theo. While this development does put her at the center of things, it’s a complicated situation that interferes with Nan’s life. There is no way forward for her and Theo, and both know that. Though everything between her and Theo has been innocent so far, Lizzy is again caught up in a friend’s love life, making her romance more about a potential threat to Nan’s marriage than her own future.

‘The Buccaneers’ Latest Episode Is the Perfect Example of the Show’s Mistreatment of Lizzy

Aubri Ibrag and Jacob Ifan as Lizzy and Hector in The Buccaneers — Image via Apple TV+

There has never been more evidence that Lizzy has been stuck in the background of The Buccaneers than in Season 2, Episode 3, “Get Her Out.” With a storyline that revolves around Lizzy’s birthday party and even features Hector’s proposal, Episode 3 should be largely about Lizzy, but that is not the case. Instead, the hour revolves more around Nan and Theo’s falling out, Conchita’s argument with her pupil Cora (Maria Almeida), and the Dowager Duchess’ (Amelia Bullmore) past. Once again, Lizzy is overshadowed, but this time, there is little excuse. Her engagement to Hector doesn’t even seem to help much because it’s had so little build-up. The Buccaneers Season 2 has only exacerbated its Lizzy problem, and it’s getting old.

Throughout the series, Lizzy has been stuck playing second fiddle to her friends, even when she should be at the center of the story. After brushing over her trauma and her budding romance, it is long past time for The Buccaneers to give Lizzy some well-deserved attention. While five leading women with their own storylines are a lot to balance, Lizzy is sidelined more often than anyone else, and it has become a major issue. In Season 2, The Buccaneers has once again failed to give Lizzy an important story that doesn’t revolve around her friends, and as this becomes a pattern, it only proves that the series has no idea what to do with this character, despite the fact that she holds just as much potential as the other ladies do.

New episodes of The Buccaneers Season 2 stream Wednesdays on Apple TV+ in the U.S.