‘Poldark’ season 2, episode 7 review: Ross’ smuggling struggle; Dwight’s heartbreak
Entering this weekend’s new episode of “Poldark” on BBC One, our general sentiment was one of hope. How could it not be, given that Ross found generosity at the hands of Caroline’s secret donation, and Dwight himself was prepared to run away and marry her? This was a chance for the two characters to find a fresh start, and turn around their fates after a series a recent struggles.
Unfortunately for Ross and Dwight, both of them live within a fictional universe, and neither one of them has the ability to see what we do as viewers — otherwise known as how there could still be misery just around the corner. For Ross, he looked at his smuggling trip to meet Mark Daniel as a way to turn around his future fortunes. What he did not expect, meanwhile, was the arrival of an ambush, just like what Dwight did not expect was to be slowed down with medical duties. Demelza handed down a warning that such an event could be coming, and maybe we saw these men in return blinded so much by their idealistic futures that they did not want to envision it possible.
You gotta at least give some credit to Dwight here, who listened enough to concerns that he conducted an investigation of his own … and realized that something crazy was going to be going down. Here’s the problem: It may have been too late to stop anything from happening. He found himself trapped, and in turn, late in his journey to see Caroline. Suddenly, their hopes of an elopement and a future were getting closer to crashing down. Caroline eventually penned him a heart-wrenching letter, unaware of the incident that ended up slowing him down along with his medical duties.
From an action standpoint, the battle scenes tonight were arguably the strongest in the BBC series’ short history, and to go along with that there was something wonderful about seeing Demelza in her own way trying to help. She did her best to keep the smuggling operation from being exposed, but it was clear the moment Ross returned, there would be trouble awaiting him. George took great pride in this, mostly in how he used the revelations of Ross’ role in smuggling to troll Elizabeth in grand fashion. George obviously has grand plans for her, which are further reminders of precisely how this man is still the worst.
Episode Grade: B+. In terms of producing compelling entertainment, this episode had it all. Unfortunately for Ross, it was full of reminders that this is a man who cannot catch a break or get ahead in life. He returned to Demelza at episode’s end okay after the battle, but think of this as a temporary reprieve.