Four Things We Want to See in ‘Poldark’ Season 4

The fourth season of Poldark is almost upon is, so that means its time to dive back into the world of tri-corner hats, beautiful Cornish countryside and long-suffering romances.

Season 4 will kick off on September 30, and will follow Ross’ journey into the world of politics, as he makes good on his promise to fight for the people of Cornwall.

Since Season 3 was basically a study in how miserable the show could make every character before we all just stopped watching out of despair, it’s likely that Season 4 has to give us a little more in the way of joy. Or, at least, so you’d think.

We already know that Ross will be getting a new nemesis in the form of socialite Monk Adderley, but Season 4 needs something more than just a new villain to hate on. Here are our suggestions for four must-have plot twists for Poldark’s fourth season.

Let Morwenna Be Happy For Once! No one character suffered as much in Poldark Season 3 as poor Morwenna Chynoweth. Denied true love with the poor younger brother of Ross’ wife Demelza, she was instead blackmailed into marrying the town creep – Reverend Whitworth – who abused her, treated her like garbage and slept with her sister. (That she married him to save Drake’s life only makes the situation more heartrending.) So after almost a full season of watching poor Morwenna endure terrible thing after terrible thing, it’s time to let her experience some joy again.

At the end of last season, Morwenna finally stood up for herself, forbidding her husband from touching her ever again. Whether that plan will ultimately be successful is anyone’s guess. (Though, given this show’s love of angst, it probably won’t.) But at least Morwenna’s started to fight back a little bit, which has to count for something. In my happy place, Whitworth gets eaten by a bear or something similar this season, but I’d settle for him just getting arrested or something similar. Whatever gets him out of Morwenna’s life the quickest.

I haven’t read the Poldark books, so I don’t know if this is the point in the story at which Drake and Morwenna actually get back together or not. (Since it’s pretty obvious they’re going to at some point.) But the two of them were one of the only really compelling romances in Season 3, since Ross and Demelza’s relationship imploded and Caroline and Dwight disappeared after they got married. Poldark is the sort of show that needs a romance somewhere at its center, so it doesn’t seem like it can keep these two apart for too much longer.

Fingers crossed, anyway..

Give Drake and Caroline Something to Do! Remember when Dwight Enys and Caroline Penvenen got a lot of screentime? Wasn’t that nice?

Sure, the two lovebirds finally tied the knot in Season 3, and that was awesome. They’re adorable together, and the episode where they had to deal with Dwight’s post-France PTSD was incredibly moving. But that’s literally all they did in Season 3, and then both characters pretty much disappeared from the series’ entirely for the bulk of its back half.

The duo needs a legitimate storyline in Season 4, and that storyline needs to be about something more substantial than just showing up whenever Ross and Demelza need assistance in some way. Caroline is very rich, so one would think she’d sort of be their gatekeeper into the world of politics and society high rollers. Maybe it’s time for Dwight to get anxious about marrying up? Or perhaps the two of them could move to London with the Poldarks? I’m open to anything, just as long as the Enyses don’t just vanish again..

Make Ross Less Annoying! So, Ross Poldark is kind of a jerk sometimes. That roguish abrasiveness is just part of his personality and sometimes it can get pretty out of hand. He does mean well, though, and when Poldark remembers to balance his attitude with his genuine desire to help others it actually makes him into a tolerable hero. But one of the most irritating things about last season was its repeated focus on Ross as a brooding mess rather than a crusading hero, particularly when his character is so much more likeable when he’s working out an overly complicated plan to smuggle grain to the poor than he is when he’s complaining about how everyone wants him to go into politics.

Now that Ross is in politics, it’s honestly a perfect time to get back to the root of his character. His realization in the Season 3 finale that he had to fight for those who couldn’t fight for themselves was a huge step in the right direction, and Poldark needs to basically keep up that tone throughout these new episodes. Ross and George’s inevitable clashes in Parliament will be so much easier to stomach if they’re about larger issues of care and duty, and not about their decades-long jealousy fest involving their childhoods and choices in wives.

This show is named Poldark, after all. We’ve spent a huge portion of the past two seasons struggling to like the series’ titular hero, so it’d be really nice to feel good about rooting for him again.

Enough with the Ross and Demelza Angst. After three full seasons, we probably really shouldn’t still be wondering whether Poldark’s signature couple even likes each other, let alone wants to still be married. But that seems to be where we’re at, following a third season that showed the Poldarks once again refusing to communicate, as Ross ignores Demelza’s input and she quietly seethes at his choices. No wonder Demelza finally decided to even the score on the adultery field. Yeah, Hugh Armitage is kind of a drip, but at least he listens to her.

However, now that both of them have cheated and both of them are aware of the other’s infidelity, here’s hoping we can just call it all square. After countless repetitive storylines about this – Ross and Demelza’s tumultuous relationship is just tiring. Ross never seems to learn from his mistakes – not really – and Demelza can’t seem to ever truly break from him. We get it. They're a mess, but they can't quit one another because there is real love there. So do we really have to watch them go round this some variation of this story again? There has to be a new story to tell here, right? It’d be lovely to watch the two of them actually work as a team now that Ross is in politics. (The idea of Demelza as a proper politician’s wife is kind of hilarious, to be honest.)

There are, of course, plenty of other storylines to hope for in Season 4. Will Sam actually get something substantial to do? Is Drake doomed to mope forever? Is Elizabeth still a laudanum addict? We won’t know until the season starts, but it’s fun to think about in the meantime.

What would you like to see in Season 4? Let’s discuss in the comments.