The Twist That Should Have Been in The Buccaneers

SPOILERS for The Buccaneers Season 2 Episode 4

I’m not going to pretend that I loved the twist we did get in the most recent episode of The Buccaneers. Theo and Lizzy honestly could be an endgame couple, but starting them off as an illicit affair where Theo is still entirely, if not in love with, at least preoccupied with Nan, and Lizzy is at her most self-destructive, is not the way to do it. But I fully understand the need for a twist. It’s mid-season, and things need to shift in the main arcs. So instead of harming Lizzy’s arc so massively, let’s try something else, and something that’s actually more grounded in the completed text version of the original book. Here’s what I would have written, and how my twist would go down.

The Duke shows up dramatically at the charity event. He drops the big bid on the vase, everything going just the same. Lizzy even asks Theo what he wants, and he reply oh-so-casually, that he wants another drink. Theo even gets more or less the same dressing down, but instead of coming from Lizzy, it comes from Hector. The two of them know each other, so let’s get a little more energy and heat from them. After such a dramatic speech, Theo ends up staring at Hector’s lips before tearing himself away.

We spend more time at the party, lingering there rather than rushing through all the storylines unfolding. Separately, Conchita and Mabel concoct a plan to get her married off to someone who will let her have her own life, and when Mabel presents it to Honoria, Honoria is upset, so that creates some tension there but lets Mabel and Conchita stay on the same side. Hector then talks to Lizzy about how he was selfish about chastising the Duke, so she encourages the two of them to talk.

Hector goes after Theo and finds him in a grove or something. Hector apologizes, and so does Theo, who starts to open up about his feelings around Nan. He confesses to trying to drown it out with drink and possibly…other pleasures. Then he kisses Hector, who is shocked and kisses him back for a moment, just in time for Lizzy, who has come looking for them to check how things are going, to see. Hector pulls back and tells Theo that while he still has regard for him as a friend, the things that happened when they were younger can’t happen anymore, especially because he’s marrying Lizzy and he cares for her.

Then, when he puts Lizzy back in the carriage and says he just wants her to be happy, her “How could I not be?” has a wildly different meaning, especially since she didn’t see Hector pulling away from Theo. Now, Lizzy has a ton to think about heading into the two weeks before her wedding.

This actually fits with the finished version of Edith Wharton’s novel, where the Duke was actually gay. However, it keeps the more problematic aspects of that from becoming an issue. Since the show’s version of Theo isn’t an abusive villain, it doesn’t link that to his sexuality. I also think Theo in the show ought to be bisexual, and his interest in Hector more of a bid for familiarity and someone he feels comfortable with, who admires and cares for him, above all else. I also think it would add a particularly interesting layer to both his pushing of Lizzy toward Hector, a sign of his honest admiration for the man, as well as his speech to Lizzy about Hector not deserving her, born of jealousy to see his former lover moving on while Theo’s relationship is imploding.

It has the vibes of infidelity and scandal that the show is clearly looking for. It’s a massive reveal that could create many storylines to come. It shows us that we maybe don’t know Hector as well as we could, something for Lizzy to consider, while not resorting to making either him or Theo a cheap villain in order to create plot. And, probably biggest of all, it doesn’t utterly wreck Lizzy’s character while giving her an internal struggle to grapple with over the next few episodes. And again, it fits with the book while not being beholden to it, the mark of a good adaptation.

So there’s the twist I would have written into The Buccaneers Season Two Episode Four.