Sorry! Now that you all know my level of disgust, lets get into the episode!
Ball and Chain
Marriage is a hot topic this week, particularly how it can be more like a prison than eternal bliss. Hugh Armitage is not the marrying kind. Rather, he’s the chase after women married to men who saved your life kind! Tholly’s daughter also has some interesting views on marriage, professing a woman should have men, “dangling on a string. Once they get her, string’s around her neck.”
Nobody feels more trapped in a marriage than Morwenna. She looks as though she would take a string around her neck over Ossie’s grubby fingers on her body any day.
She gets a temporary reprieve when Dr. Enys instructs Osborne to abstain from sex until after the baby is born, and later until Morwenna recovers from birth. Instructions which Osborne violently ignores when the flirtations between him and Rowella get too much for him. I’m still trying to figure out what Rowella sees in Osborne? In the beginning, I thought she was helping her sister by diverting his attention, but she seems interested in feeding his appetite further. If only she could stop him from taking it out on Morwenna! How could you be attracted to a man who prayed for your sister’s death?! So which is it? Is she actually attracted to Ossie, or is it all a clever ruse to save her sister?
Who’s Your Daddy?
After Aunt Agatha’s little confession right before her death last week, Georgie is growing increasingly suspicious of his son’s parentage. The increased hostility towards Elizabeth gets pretty palatable as well. Alarms really go off in her head when she learns he visited Dr. Enys. When George questions Dwight about whether or not Valetine looked like a baby born a month early, the good doctor had the good sense to tell George there was no way to be certain one way or another. Surly, Dwight has some suspicions too, but at least he keeps these thoughts to himself! So when will we get our Maury moment?
Somehow I don’t think George will react quite like this.
It looks like we’ll have to wait at least another week to get our showdown between Elizabeth and George. In the mean time, Ross has some advice for how Elizabeth should handle her predicament. The pair cross paths while visiting Agatha’s grave (still minus a headstone). Ross tells her if she has doubts about who the father is, to lie! She should save the marriage for Valentine’s sake, as well as her own. He also tells her to have another “8 month baby” to help cement the lie. Will this conversation be the closure they never got when they parted so abruptly after the night they created little Valentine? Could this allow Elizabeth to forgive him and be a force for good in the feud between their families? Ross and Elizabeth end their conversation with a friendly (somewhat lingering) farewell kiss. They kiss just long enough for Prudie, spying from a distance, to misinterpret everything!
Confessions
Does Ross run home and tell Demelza of this minor indiscretion immediately? Ye…NO! Way to toy with us Poldark show runners! We get this beautiful scene where Ross puts all the cards on the table. He tells Demelza about the kiss. He confesses that he still loves Elizabeth, but not THAT kind of love, the “ghost of love.” He goes on to reaffirm his love for Demelza, then…PSYCH! He didn’t say any of those things. He shuts down and bottles it up Ross Style, pushing her further away.
Later, Ross returns from a conversation with Falmouth where he once again rejects perfectly good offers to enter politics and take down his sworn enemy. Sigh. I’m so tired of this story line. He finds Demelza singing to party guests, but she only has her eye on one! Ross FINALLY notices her longing gaze directed towards Hugh. Where have you been the last 3 episodes?! Wake up Ross! When they return home, she does some confessing of her own. She admits to wanting to be two people, one who is still a loving, devoted wife, and the other an adulterous, wanton minx! Maybe not in those words, but she indirectly asks for a free pass to love Hugh for a day. Is this a fantasy conversation as well? Waiting…waiting for it to cut to the reality. It’s real! Ross should ask his wife for a lesson in ball growth. Instead he wonders whether he still has her heart, and she in turn asks for patience. That passionate gaze from across the room was enough to earn Ross’s attention, but is it too late to turn her away from temptation?
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