The Buccaneers Ending Explained: How It Updates Edith Wharton's Story
While the 1995 miniseries correctly depicted both American and British elites insulting Conchita to her face and behind her back, unfortunately, the casting of Mira Sorvino, an Italian-American woman to play a woman of color undermines this message in hindsight.
“We wanted to take a character like Conchita who is so free spirited and vocal and educated and articulate and say what happens when the man of your dreams then doesn’t actually protect you from a world that is not welcoming,” Willis says.
Even though Conchi (Alisha Boe) in The Buccaneers doesn’t have an accent, her character faces more intense colorism and racism because she cannot pass for white. By the end of “Wedding of the Season,” Conchi has a happier ending because Dickie exerts his influence to protect Conchi and Minnie from the worst elements of society. Most importantly, infidelity doesn’t have the same impact on her story in comparison to the 1995 miniseries. While both Conchi and Conchita face losing their inheritance, Dickie earning his inherited title in “Wedding of the Season” means that he has more power to protect his family from the more racist members of British society.
Mabel ditches living a closeted life with her fiancee Miles (Shobhit Piasa) to be with Honoria (Mia Threapleton). Mabel and Honoria’s relationship is likely a huge reason why The Buccaneers is appealing to audiences not normally interested in period dramas. It is nonexistent in the 1995 miniseries, which may be a disappointment to fans of their storyline. The main queer character in that series is a man who chooses to marry a woman and have affairs with men which significantly affects the question of whether queer people deserve a happily ever after or a happy for now in romance stories. There’s also the disparity between depictions of queer men versus queer women’s relationships.One can argue that while this plotline was ahead of its time it also falls short today because of changing attitudes around queer representation in media versus depicting historical homophobia.
Jakeways and the creative team intentionally wrote Mabel and Honoria’s relationship to acknowledge this history. “We have included storylines, not storylines that weren’t happening at the time, but storylines which there would’ve been different language for at the time and that would’ve potentially not been written about at the time. We’ve tried to include that in the knowledge that those were experiences and relationships that would’ve been happening, but were probably unspoken.”
The great thing about the period drama genre as a whole is that every generation has adaptations of the classics that can speak to them. The Buccaneers makes Whartons’ story about female friendship and the realities after the “happily ever after” relevant and relatable to younger and more diverse period drama fans. Some viewers may see these differences as a negative but audiences are demanding more stories where POC and queer characters are more than conduits for depicting historical trauma on screen.
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