Poldark Series 2, Episode 10: Recap and Review
That's because everyone's got inner turmoil. Pouting and glowering beneath his exquisitely-tousled locks, Ross is at war with himself. After his infidelity with Elizabeth, his marriage to Demelza teeters on a cliff edge. He can't get it together to make a decision. Who will he choose?
Ross tries to get back into Demelza's good books with talk of money and wealth: thanks to the newly-discovered tin lode, Wheal Grace is now prospering. Demelza, however, is indifferent. Her wounds are still raw and she continues to treat him with contempt and disdain.
He's met his match. Ross asks Demelza how long it will take her to forgive him, as if she's the one that's in the wrong. She throws his question back at him by telling him about her thwarted liaison with comedy Scotsman Malcolm McNeil. It's the truth but there's no trust left and Ross' usual sanctimoniousness and arrogance is no longer charmingly Byronic, it's just irritating.
It drives them apart: determined not to settle for second best, Demelza decides to go back to her family with their son, while Ross gets out his army gear and contemplates rejoining his regiment.
Before he does so, there's more gusty galloping, this time to Trenwith to discuss the sale of Geoffrey Charles' Wheal Grace shares with George. It's not long though before it descends into a slanging match. When George tells Ross to go back to his "scullery maid" it's akin to pouring petrol on a smouldering fire.
We were due another spectacular fight and this time Ross pushes George's face right up to the gates of hell. In his demonic rage – presumably sprung from the passion that caused him to rape Elizabeth – he has to be dragged away from shoving George's face in the fire. Which is perplexing: all those boxing lessons, George, and you still need three men to help you?
But Ross still has a softer side. While putting his affairs in order in preparation for a long spell at war, he discovers the identity of the mysterious benefactor who advanced the loan that enabled Wheal Grace to stay open: the lovely Caroline Penvenan.
Hurrah! Ross' leather boots tread the steps up to her sumptuous London mansion, and it means we get to see her again. She too has inner turmoil – it's clear she still misses Enys, as he does her – but expresses it much more elegantly. When a diabetic Ray Penvenan informs Doctor Enys of Caroline's forthcoming nuptials to a Lord Coniston of Windermere, Enys is overcome. Motivated to sign up to the military as a naval surgeon, he cuts a dash in his uniform and wants a long, desperate and bloody war so he can gain experience and hopefully forget his lost love.
Or can he? Supping with his comrades in a tavern the night before he is due to leave, he turns round and sees Caroline standing right behind him. It's a lovely moment, made possible by Ross, who has played Cupid and reunited them both. Finally love has triumphed over pride and misunderstanding, although I am struggling to see Caroline slumming it in Enys' humble cottage.
Better that than a prisoner in luxury, though, like Elizabeth. "You must know I've had no dealings with Ross since before our marriage," she tells George. It's not a lie, but conceals a whole load of truth about their "dealings" before. Having won Elizabeth, George is now treating her as horribly as we knew he would. Not only does he want to erase all memory of Francis and send Geoffrey Charles away to school, he also wants to enclose Trenwith, making it private land.
Given the weakness of his actual muscles, it's a chance for him to flex his metaphorical ones: psychopath henchman Tom Harry patrols the boundary. When Demelza – "the maid", as Prudie calls her – is shot at Jud sees red and, inspired by the French, rouses his compatriots, a rowdy rabble with pitchforks and axes, to burn Trenwith down. As George and his cronies stand amid the flames, a gunshot is heard. George comes face-to-face with Ross.
It would be great if they just shot each other, but they don't. Ross tells everyone to pack it in and, in full view of Elizabeth, he claims Demelza. But she's not so easily won over by this Prince Charming moment and won't be ruled by what he did. "I am fierce and proud and steadfast and true, and I'll never settle for second best," says she. Unlike Elizabeth, Demelza does not need riches from a man. Time will tell if Ross can back up his pretty talk with meaningful action.
Elizabeth, pregnant – supposedly with George's child – is now on her own. "What did you expect," says Aunt Agatha, "when you made a pact with the devil?" True to the law of TV drama, this impending birth does not bode well. A prediction: George will not complete his domination of Poldarkland with a Warleggan heir as the chances of the baby being a dark-haired Ross mini-me are pretty high, I'd have thought.
After all that, even I've got inner turmoil. This last episode of Series 2 was characteristically plot- heavy and none the worse for it, with enough time for a spot of sea-staring at the end too (as with Series 1, we end Series 2 on a cliff). However, I think the next series will need to be vigilant against implausible have-your-cake-and-eat-it plotlines and Ross becoming increasingly dislikeable.
Here's to all hell breaking loose.
It's amazing that Debbie Horsfield lacked the guts to be more accurate in her adaptation of Graham's fourth Poldark novel, "Warleggan". In the novel, Ross had definitely raped Elizabeth.
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