Warning: This story contains spoilers from “The Buccaneers” Season 2, Episode 4 …
“The Buccaneers” Season 2 has introduced a forbidden romance plot that even the actors involved say they couldn’t have predicted.
In the first few episodes of the newest season, Aubri Ibrag’s character, Lizzy Elmsworth, and Guy Remmers’ character, Theo, Duke of Tintagel, exchanged a few lingering glances during their interactions that suggested there could be an attraction between them.
But on the surface, Lizzy and Theo appeared to have a strictly platonic friendship as he married her close friend Nan (Kristine Froseth) last season. Meanwhile, Lizzy struck up a courtship with Hector Robinson (Jacob Ifan) in the Season 2 premiere.
During a tension-filled moment in Episode 3, Lizzy gleefully approached Theo to tell him that Hector had proposed, and the duke had an unusual response. Instead of simply congratulating her, he told Lizzy her fiancé was “entirely unworthy” of her.
He called Lizzy “sensational” and added that a life with Hector would be “pleasant,” leaving her nearly speechless and marking a palpable shift in their dynamic.
They suddenly acted on those growing feelings in Episode 4, titled “Ice Cream,” by sharing a secret, passionate kiss at one of Hector’s events. Lizzy seemed to second-guess her decision and ran off — only to meet up with Theo later at his castle. The episode concluded with a steamy sex scene that showed the pair entangled in his bed sheets.
If you were slightly caught off guard by the ending, you weren’t alone. Ibrag tells TODAY.com she was initially “surprised” by their characters’ sudden turn from being friends to having an affair.
“When I got the scripts and stuff, I was like, ‘I suppose this kind of makes sense,’” she says. “I don’t think it’s anything that either of us expected, because we don’t really interact in the first season.”
“Like, at all,” she adds. “Just briefly when I say ‘hello’ in the background or something. But it was a bit of a surprise.”
Despite their lack of interactions last season, Remmers says their characters’ journeys have been similar up to this point.
“They’re both characters who were kind of unfairly wronged in the first season, and were stung by love …” he explains.
“By the people they trusted most,” Ibrag chimes in.
“Exactly,” he continues. “So, when we started reading the episodes, it actually made sense that these two people would find each other.”
Ibrag then mentions a scene from Episode 2 that some fans say foreshadowed the season’s romantic twist. During the episode, Theo takes Lizzy, Nan and Hector on a tour of his estate. Theo and Lizzy share a private moment in which her confides in her and tells her that he sometimes hears Nan crying alone in her room, adding, “I think my wife has a broken heart.”
Later, Theo shows the group his family’s mausoleum and the long line of those laid to rest there. After the episode aired, fans on X pointed out that the camera panned to Lizzy when Theo spoke about where his wife would be buried.
Ibrag says that scene made her realize there was a spark between the characters.
“I feel like that’s the moment for me and the plot that’s like, ‘Oh, Lizzy recognizes this wound in Theo.’ And I feel like Theo probably sees that wound in Lizzy in some way,” she shares.
From there, the two were able to establish a strong emotional connection that then developed into a romantic relationship, she says.
Wait, What About Nan?
While some viewers might question Lizzy’s actions this season considering her unbreakable bond with Nan, Ibrag says she has been enjoying exploring new sides to her character in Season 2.
“I think she swallowed her tongue a lot more in the first season, and kind of buried everything down. But I think this season, we see this side of her that is like, ‘Wait, I also deserve happiness and love and all of those things,’” Ibrag says.
“She’s just more of a savage. She’s more of a savage girl, especially towards the end,” she teases. “But I still think she has a really good heart, and all of her affair stuff comes from a place of genuine feeling and love.”
As fans have watched Lizzy become more confident and daring, they have also seen other aspects of Theo’s personality. In Episode 4, he begins to spiral and dances before interrupting Hector’s event.
Remmers empathizes with Theo and understands the “questionable decisions” he and other characters have made so far in Season 2.
“I think all these characters that make these questionable decisions come from a place of love and being hurt,” he explains. “I can kind of see each character’s perspective and why they do those things. Theo really has to deal with lots of discoveries and hurt and heartbreak. And he does spiral out of control at a point and does some things that are probably a little bit out of character and (that) he may regret.”
Even though Theo is brooding onscreen, behind the scenes, Remmers had a fun time playing him, particularly during the filming of the dance scene. Set to Bleachers’ “Modern Girl,” Episode 4 opens with Theo dancing with no inhibition in the wake of finding out Nan slept with his best friend, Guy (Matthew Broome), the night before their wedding.
“The dance scene was, honestly, one of the best days I’ve ever had on set,” Remmers says. “Not even on set, just in my life, in general.”
“I was very nervous, but it was an extremely beautiful, liberating scene to do. In that situation, you just have to completely let go. I hope that came across on screen, but it was a lot of fun,” he continues.
Ibrag says, “You had an intense day on set that day.”
“Yeah, we had a dance scene and a sex scene,” he replies. “It was a physical day.”
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