Well, it is time for season three. And I apologize for some of
the language I will be using. Normally, I strive to keep my blog posts family
friendly, but one character this season will not allow that to be possible so
you’ve been warned.
And boy, has stuff ever happened. First, Elizabeth (Heida
Reed) has the baby, Ross’s (Aidan Turner’s) baby, for the record. A healthy
bouncing baby boy, Valentine, born after a difficult delivery, interrupting the
wedding night of cute couple number one, Caroline and Dwight (Gabriella Wilde
and Luke Norris). And Elizabeth may have been a devoting mother several years
ago when Geoffrey Charles had been born eightish years ago, but she has trouble
relating to this baby. Nowadays, we would call this post-partum depression,
back then, she gets away with ignoring the crying baby and being given a
medication to calm her nerves. Drug addiction may not be far away. And when the
baby gets rickets, George (Jack Farthing), does not want anyone to know as it
has the reputation for being a poor man’s disease.
George is also the worst human on Earth, but more on that
later.
I guess I’ll go to Ross and Demelza now. The season starts
for her with announcing that she’s with child again. At least Ross takes the
news somewhat better than he did the second time around, but Julia’s death is
no longer fresh in their minds and Jeremy is still a healthy little boy. But
she is also fetched home by her brothers, Sam and Drake (Tom York and Harry
Richardson, looking much younger here than in last year’s Doctor Thorne) as her father is dying. Her brothers, mostly Sam,
have also taken preaching and she allows them to turn the storehouse into a
church. And, of course, Demelza needs to deals with Ross and all of his crazy
crap, like forging an illegal expedition to France to rescue Dwight from the
French prison, which leads to him also nearly getting arrested.
And the rescue mission does happen, but it is dangerous,
with one fatality and Drake gets shot, but lives. Thank goodness, considering
he is one of the only decent men left on that show. But upon his return, Dwight
suffers from severe PTSD. Caroline tries to help him, but she’s just so out of
touch. Ross steps in and urges Dwight to let Caroline in and share his dreadful
experiences and how difficult it is to enter back into a life of luxury after
experiencing such hell, with death all around him as the guards had beats on
who would die next and then would sack of deck by killing whomever they wished.
Plus, he is used to sleeping on a molding pile of straw. Yet, they pull through
and are the only couple I still like by the end of the season.
Then there is another new character, Morwenna (Ellise
Chappel), Elizabeth’s cousin whom George brings in to be a governess for Geoffrey
Charles so Elizabeth can focus on their new baby. She is nice and kind and
sweet and innocent and falls in love, against her wishes with Drake. Drake
learns to read just so he can worthy of her. They are such a cute couple, but
George sets his sights on aligning himself with a shady family. Side Note: Ross
is offered the position of magistrate but simply cannot judge his fellow men
and turns it down so George is offered it and accepts. Demelza is pissed.
George lets this wealthy family’s son off with rape and
tries to get Morwenna to marry a crappy widower clergyman, who is a creep,
Whitworth (Christian Brassington). Even Elizabeth thinks so, and she’s married
to the creepy George. And she doesn’t stand
up to him.
Then there is the harmless prank of Drake filling the Poldark
pond with frogs and getting away with it. But George gets his just revenge. As
George is sending Geoffrey Charles away to boarding school, Geoffrey presents
Drake with his Bible to remember him so George accuses Drake of theft, and
punishment for that could result in death so George strikes a deal with Morwenna,
if she marries Whitworth, then Drake will be set free. This is a twist that no
one seems to have figured out.
So she marries him and is instantly pregnant, forced to have
sex every night as that is her main purpose in Whitworth’s mind. Whitworth
treats women as sexual toys. And then, for whatever reason, Morwenna’s sister
comes along to help with the children. (Whitworth is a widower with two young
daughters.) Rowella (Esme Coy) is very different. She’s aware of sexuality and
that Whitworth has a foot fetish. When Morwenna was asked how far along she
was, she doesn’t know, while Rowella does not seem to have that problem.
Morwenna, after being laid upon by Whitworth, says her mantra
that she loves Drake Carne, which is what she must keep telling herself to keep
from going crazy.
Now, Whitworth really is the world’s biggest prick. Morwenna
has difficult delivery and he prays for her to die, and is noticeably upset when
she survives. He won’t let her nurse and that grieves her, but the best is when
he rapes her, not long after she has given birth, after he was specifically
told by Dr. Ennis that he should abstain given that she just had a baby. Dr. Ennis
is livid. But this is the 1790s, there is no such thing as martial rape.
Whitworth is just awful.
In the end, he and Rowella start having coitus for reasons
that you don’t fully understand. But she announces that she is also pregnant
and will marry the librarian, if the price is right but Whitworth is reluctant
to do that. Clearly, the idiot doesn’t understand how blackmail works. And
Morwenna overhears, she is livid. Using the only tool she can, she banishes her
husband for her bedroom and says that if he ever touches her again, she will
smother the baby (which is a boy). Whitworth may not really love his children,
but he knows that a son is valuable so for now, Morwenna won’t be used for sex.
Elizabeth, for what its worth, really gives it to George in the
finale as he remains jealous of Ross, with good reason, as the two kiss in the
one episode. Now, George is also a truly repugnant human being. When beloved
Aunt Agatha (Caroline Blakiston) dies, she doesn’t get a funeral or even a
proper headstone, which angers Ross. When something upsets him, he votes to
raise the price of grain so more people starve. And, just to get back at Ross,
he has his hunchmen destroy Drake’s blacksmith shop. He is bitter and jealous
and Elizabeth rips him a new one and swears that she only had sex with two men,
her first husband and weasel-face George. He finally got the telling off he’s
deserved since episode one. Yet, somehow, I think their marriage is now stronger
than ever.
And Demelza cheated on Ross, which I was fine with but felt
guilty about it and Ross finally came to his senses and says that if the
opportunity ever comes along for him to run for public office, he will take
that opportunity as he fully should.
While this show is excellent, with flawless performances and
is historically accurate, the time gaps are often annoying. For example, the
time between Dwight returning home and their second wedding is enough time for Morwenna
to get married and be visibly pregnant and I feel that that should have been tightened
up just a bit more.
And, lest we forget, Ross is also basically a rapist, from what
he did to Elizabeth last season, but Whitworth is far worse. It is a shame that
women are treated so poorly in this series, but that is undoubtedly reflective
of the times. I’m certainly glad that things have changed. And I hope that a
miracle can happen and Drake and Morwenna can get back together, if Whitworth
hasn’t scarred her too much. Grade: B+
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