Poldark Season 2: 10 Changes from the Books to the Small Screen

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The Elizabeth and Demelza Confrontation

Much of the season finale shifts around the last chunk of Warleggan in terms of timing or actually adds things in wholesale. For an example of the first, one need not look further than people learning of Elizabeth’s pregnancy.

Verity actually tells Demelza about it via letter in Warleggan, while there’s no such implication that anyone outside of George and Aunt Agatha know in the show. Also, Winston Graham doesn’t actually include Aunt Agatha doing the math for Elizabeth, at least not at the end of Warleggan.

For an example of adding things in, one can look to the above scene. It doesn’t happen in the book. In fact, Demelza does not dramatically pack and go to Verity’s for that matter. She threatens to leave, and she does confess what happened with McNeil. However, it doesn’t happen until the closing scene of the novel. Ross proceeds to start groveling by presenting her with jewelry.

Someone does get shot in both the book and Poldark, however. It’s just not Demelza in both instances. Garrick the dog actually is shot in Warleggan, since he and his mistress “trespass” on Trenwith’s property. In pain, he bites her, and that’s the wound that sends Ross back to Trenwith to hash it out with George.