'Poldark': Season 4 Finale Recap

Previously on Poldark: Ross ends up in a duel with local London sexual harasser Monk Adderley after getting all kinds of jealous and suspicious that Adderley wanted to hook up with Demelza. Adderley dies from his gunshot wound, because it’s definitely fine for the hero of our story to be a man who kills people. Elsewhere, Morwenna flees her mother-in-law’s house before the odious Lady Whitworth can have her committed, but even though she runs straight to Drake, she still insists she can’t be with him, because she doesn’t think she can let a man touch her ever again. (Need more details? You can read our full recap of Episode 7 here.)

This week, we’ve arrived at the Season 4 finale, which sort of haphazardly attempts to paint a rosier moral over the bleak events of this season. No matter how bad it gets, Poldark insists, love makes it all worth it in the end. This episode, though, makes you wonder – at least a bit – if that’s actually true.

Elizabeth Warleggan is honestly one of the great missed opportunities of Poldark. Since the show started she’s basically been an object for men to fight over: First Ross and Francis, and then Ross and George. She’s suffered through widowhood, poverty and marriage to a generally horrible man she didn’t particularly care for at the time. (Her feelings about George now are largely anyone’s guess because…Poldark has never bothered to show us.) We’ve seen her be a dedicated mother, a drug addict and a social climber, but we’ve never spent a lot of time on her point of view. Poldark has always been more interested in the idea of Elizabeth rather than her actual existence as a character, and the bulk of her stories have revolved around what she means or symbolizes for other people.