Poldark season 3 finale review: A series of turnabouts

The Poldark season 3 finale saw some about-faces from the earlier narratives of this season, leaving things curiously open for season 4.

Elizabeth Warleggan made George Warleggan cry on the season 3 finale of Poldark, and frankly, that’s all that really matters.

Well, that’s not entirely true. Poldark packed quite a few things into its season 3 finale, including huge turns in three of the major relationships of the show. Unfortunately, Caroline and Dwight were set mostly to the wayside, with Caroline only getting a few lines. Dwight, in his capacity as the main doctor of the show, ends up playing much more of a role — because a lot of people need his care in this episode.

Perhaps most important of his patients is not actually Hugh Armitage, nor Morwenna Whitworth, but Drake Carne. It’s Drake’s beating at the hands of Tom Harry that makes George and Elizabeth’s simmering issues finally come out into the open (and result in the aforementioned crying), that pushes Demelza to really get angry at Ross for ignoring her issues and cause him to dismiss her for one last time, which helps spur her decision to take her gentleman caller down to the beach…

It’s impossible not to address Demelza and Hugh having their little moment. We see Demelza’s knee, which, after several episodes of Rowella putting her stocking feet on display, feels like even more bonkers than it should. Without yelling as the other two women do, she makes sure that Ross knows that yes, he has messed up. “No, Ross. Ask me nothin’,” she says, and that’s the last line of the entire season. In an episode which sees Elizabeth force George to admit to his deepest worry, one he can barely voice, Demelza cutting off a question before it can even be asked is a hefty contrast.

But their relationship isn’t the only one that has seen a fundamental change. Morwenna goes so far as to threaten the life of her baby — even though she promises the child she doesn’t mean it later — just to keep Rev. Whitworth away from her, and Rowella ends up with 500 pounds as well as a marriage to get out of the house.

Oh, yes, things are not going to be the same in Cornwall next season. Ross manages to walk away from George without baiting him too much, although “belief is a beautiful thing” can mean any number of things. Between that, the crying (no, still not over it) and Sir Francis Bassett expressing his displeasure, George is on a down swing going into season 4. About the only people who are trending upward, really, are the Enyses, and that’s mostly because Caroline has been a distinct non-factor in the past few episodes. But Ross is actually planning to be the change. Will the scene with Demelza change that desire?

No, presumably not.

For all that, though, Demelza does come home, and Ross holds her close, and that’s the last thing we see of this season, even though neither of them are particularly okay.

This episode pulls things back together in a way that doesn’t neatly wrap up everything from this season, but doesn’t fall into the trap of putting together a cliffhanger, either. The ramifications of a lot of these events — Hugh and Demelza in what was pretty clearly a one-time-but-still-very-fundamentally-altering-her-marriage thing,  Elizabeth breaking George down, Ross deciding it’s time to get in government — should last well into season 4.

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Other thoughts

• Drake recovers quite quickly, enough to leave Morwenna flowers.
• Emma Tregirls and Sam Carne keep looking at each other. Talk about your slow burn.
• The brief scene of Ross imagining what could happen if he decided to fight Tholly’s grain attempts was particularly graphic, and that seems to have been the point.