'Poldark: Season 3, Episode 6 Recap

Previously, on Poldark: Morwenna makes up her mind to refuse George’s marriage plans for her, deciding that a life – even if it’s a poor one that's below her station – with Drake is what she wants. But when George frames Drake for theft and, as magistrate, threatens to have him hanged, Morwenna must marry the equally vile Reverend Whitworth in order to save his life. Elsewhere, Dwight struggles with a bad case of PTSD, and does his best to push Caroline away, but a heartfelt conversation between the two goes a long way toward getting their marriage back on track. (If you need a full recap of last week's episode, we have you covered right here.)

This week’s episode is certainly full of drama. But Poldark’s unfortunate tendency to skip over showing us the reasons that characters are suddenly behaving in wildly different or inconsistent ways remains a problem.

What an unfortunate spot for a time jump. Like many period dramas, Poldark has a bad habit of leaning on time jumps to advance the story when it’s convenient. This isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the world, given that most sweeping stories like this tend to cover many decades by the time everything is said and done. However, also like many period dramas Poldark has a terrible habit of picking the absolutely worst moments to skip the story forward in time, and its characters suffer for it. This week is no different.