When The Buccaneers ended its first season with the cliffhanger tease that Nan's biological mother had come to Nan and Theo's wedding, it was set up as a game-changing narrative decision. However, throughout season 2, Nan's biological mother, Nell, was barely included.
The decision to introduce the character in the season 2 premiere, only to ignore her existence until the seventh episode, squanders the momentum and intrigue of the cliffhanger, especially as the season 2 premiere barely did anything other than introduce Nan and Nell face-to-face. Throughout season 2, The Buccaneers barely uses Nell in a meaningful way.
The Buccaneers tries to utilize Nell during the divorce trial by having her officially reveal herself to be Nan's biological mother. However, the lack of Nell's involvement in the plot, and Nan's lack of an official emotional reaction about the reveal in all the months since coming to the conclusion that Nell was her biological mother, takes away from this storyline. After Patricia and Nell originally leave England after the wedding, Nan shows no emotional reaction to the situation, as the narrative becomes entirely about Nan's regret in marrying Theo, the feelings she still has for Guy, and how Nan and Theo's marriage forces them together in a way they both now wish to undo.
Nan's storyline became heavily focused on her desire to help Jinny stay away from Seadown and how the position of being a Duchess could help her do that. In that decision, The Buccaneers veered entirely away from the potential of seeing Nan build any sort of relationship with Nell. "All Rise" tried to do a lot with a little, aiming to show Nan and Nell meeting again, fighting, and reconciling all in the span of one episode without any of the growth that came before or any of the payoff that would come after, as Nan, Guy, and Patricia returned to England while Nell stayed in New York.
Maybe The Buccaneers had bigger plans for the idea of Nell when the season 1 cliffhanger was written. That is certainly how it seems when the cliffhanger suggests that Nell's arrival in England could have real repercussions for Nan. However, that is not the case at all, and while making sure not to write Nell as a villain in Nan's life was a positive decision, at least that angle would have had her more involved. Instead, for the narrative to make such a point about Nell's arrival, only to do nothing with it other than basically confirm her to be Nan's biological mother, is the most anticlimactic approach season 2 could have taken.
Season 2 has hurt the series in various ways, from separating the main girls and splitting them off into different corners to stripping the series of its bolder and brasher, more "American" humor and attitude that made the characters so unique in England. But, not taking advantage of the opportunity to explore a unique approach to Nan, getting to know the woman who is her aunt and biological mother after the series originally made Nell seem so important to the family's past, makes that entire element of season 1 come across as if the stakes and emotional investment are irrelevant.
Nan and Nell not having any sort of relationship or interaction for several episodes takes away some of the emotional investment in what their relationship could be, other than being glad that Nell had finally appeared on screen again to pick up this plot line that had been dropped in the face of so many romantic problems among the main characters.
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