Poldark Recaps

Previously on Poldark: The feud between Ross and Vile George Warleggan intensifies, now that Ross has managed to escape prison. Warleggan manages to buy up more shares in Wheal Leisure, install his creepy flunky on the board, and has Jud nearly beat half to death. To make matters worse, it turns out that the Poldarks are flat broke, and have to sell almost all of their early possessions to come up with enough money to pay the interest on the loan. Elizabeth manages to get Ross and Demelza to attend Francis’ harvest party, and the family finally mends fences. While they’re at Trenwith, though, Ross and Elizabeth share a weirdly intimate conversation, where he decides to reminisce about how perfect Elizabeth is and how great they were together. Which of course Demelza overhears. She’s not happy about it, but somehow Ross manages to figure out that she’s pregnant, which smooths things over between them for now.

Need more details? You can find last week’s recap here.

Thankfully, Poldark Season 2 seems to be building into a much more entertaining experience the further away we get from Ross’ trial. The bulk of this week’s installment is built around the main Poldark family foursome, and it’s really pretty great to watch. 

Previously on Poldark: Ross is arrested and put on trial for encouraging wrecking and inciting a riot. Vile George Warleggan makes it his personal mission to try and get Ross thrown in jail for life or hanged, because he hates him completely. For some reason. He even tries to bribe Ross’ awful servant Jud to testify against him. After much angsting from literally every other character on the show about Ross’ future and a long speech to the jury where he talks about how rough poor people have it in the world, Ross is acquitted, just like we all knew he would be. New characters the Penvenens arrive on the scene, and Miss Caroline is quite taken with Ross’ dishy doctor friend Dwight Enys.

Need more details? You can find last week’s recap here.

Ross’ trial is over, so we’re on to a whole new story this season. Let’s get into it. 

Previously on Poldark: There is…kind of a lot. Hit the recaps if you need to catch up.

It’s finally here! Season 2 of the critically acclaimed, massively popular period drama Poldark is upon us, full of drama, romance, beautiful costumes, and painfully attractive people (hi, Aidan Turner!).

So let’s talk about it.  

Previously, on Poldark: Behold the drama! The Warleggans are mad that this mysterious new smelting company has arrived on the scene and is forcing their company to pay more for the miners’ products. They vow to find out who’s behind this and ruin them (even though they’re pretty sure its Ross and his friends). Former Nampara servant Jim gets sick in jail and ultimately dies, basically because he was forced to live in horrible conditions in prison, and Ross is devastated. Meanwhile, Francis is terrible at being poor, Verity’s started seeing Andrew Blamey in secret again and the Warleggans throw a ball, which excites Demelza until she realizes that Ross has no plans of calling off the drinking bender he’s been engaged in since Young Jim died. Anyway, the party goes on, Ross gets wasted but still manages to bust George Warleggan’s friend as a card cheat after he nearly gambles his own mine away, and Francis finds out about Verity’s secret love life and forbids her from seeing Blamey ever again.

Oh, and Ross’ Cute-But-Dumb Doctor Friend has an awkward, ongoing flirtation with one of the village ladies, who is very married, and there’s all kinds of gossip about their relationship. (Which, wow, girl is like injuring herself on purpose to see him, so this relationship is all kinds of healthy on every level.)

Whew. They pack a lot into an hour, let me tell you. Luckily, tonight’s season finale is a special two-hour installment, so prepare yourselves. (Warning: This means the recap is probably also going to be supersized, so bear with me.)

Previously, on Poldark: Lots of stuff happens! Demelza has a little girl, whom she and Ross decide to name Julia. She’s also decided to entertain herself by doing her best to reunite Verity and her somewhat problematic ex Andrew Blamey. She is ultimately successful, and the two confess that they still have feelings for one another in the middle of a miners’ riot, because what could be more romantic? In other mining related-news, Ross and some of his miner buddies have decided to form their own smelting company, to try and mitigate the influence of the Vile Warleggans and also to get a better price for their copper. Francis, certified idiot, manages to lose his family mine, Wheal Grambler in a card game, with a shady friend of George Warleggan’s, but Elizabeth vows she’s not going to let the family’s diminished circumstances get her down.

Previously, on Poldark: The best episode of the season happens! People do things and are likeable! It’s amazing! Specifically, Ross and Demelza break the news to the rest of their town that they’re married and they get a variety of reactions: some people are happy for them (Verity), some people think it’s a terrible idea (Ross’ investors) and some people are basically just laughing at them (pretty much everybody else). But that’s okay, because Ross and Demelza are too adorable to care about what the rest of the world thinks of them. Verity even visits Namara to bond with Demelza and teach her how to do noble lady things like dance and fold napkins. Meanwhile, Uncle Charles drops dead, fueling Francis shame spiral of poor life decisions even further, and the attempts to mine Wheal Leisure continue, which means I learn more about mining techniques than I’ve ever cared to know. The Warleggans crash Christmas dinner with the extended Poldark clan because they are trash garbage people and things are super awkward, but it all ends happily when Ross confesses to Demelza that he’s in love with her, and she tells him she’s pregnant.

Man, they cram a lot of stuff into one episode of this show!

Previously, on Poldark: Lots of stuff happens, finally! Ross manages to successfully reopen Wheal Leisure, the family mine, and everyone’s hopefully they’ll strike copper any day now. Ross and Demelza end up hooking up after her father tries to convince her to leave Nampara, and when they realize their relationship can’t continue as master and servant after that, (surprise!) they get married! Meanwhile, at the other Poldark residence, Elizabeth has a baby boy, Uncle Charles has a stroke, and Francis has a complete personal meltdown (gambling and prostitutes are involved) because he thinks his wife is still hung up on Ross.

Previously, on Poldark: Everyone loves to talk about mining. Ross is thinking about reopening his father’s mine (Wheal Leisure) and has to jump through a lot of hoops – including his cousin’s anger – to secure the funding to do so. In personal matters, Ross’ life also continues to be terrible – despite his fixation on Elizabeth and their constant flirtation, he’s crushed to learn that she’s pregnant and committed to staying with Francis. Luckily, Demelza is there to help out, and shares Ross’ love of mining (UGH SHUT UP ABOUT MINING) so get ready for that flirtation to get going, I guess. And Awesome Verity Poldark manages to finally meet a nice man, find out he maybe murdered his wife, forgive him, watch him shoot her brother in a duel and break up with him, all in one episode. Go on, girl.

And now that we're all caught up - onward!

Previously on Poldark: Ross Poldark returns from the Revolutionary War in America to find that everyone thought he was dead and has moved right on with their lives, among other Very Bad Personal Issues. Ross’s father has passed away and left the estate in such ruin that he has almost no inheritance, his sort of girlfriend Elizabeth has gotten engaged to his cousin Francis and the family servants are somehow still living in his house with hay and a bunch of random barn animals. Welcome home, dude. Elizabeth marries the cousin while literally everyone Ross knows tries to convince him to give up on Cornwall, move to London and start over. He’s not having it because he has like an emotional attachment to the land or something to that effect, but he does do a lot of moping around about it before coming to that decision. Oh, and he rescues a random street urchin who turns out to be a super pretty girl named Demelza and hires her to be his kitchen maid. And, for future reference, Ross went to school with a smarmy dude named George Warleggan, who is a banker and an obviously terrible person and they hate each other, so that will surely turn out well.

Second episode, folks! Let's do this!

It’s finally happened – the highly touted, highly anticipated remake of classic romantic period drama Poldark, starring The Hobbit’s Aidan Turner and a host of other very pretty people, has arrived.

So let’s talk about it.