‘Poldark’ Season 4 Finale Recap: Sins of the Fathers

The end of Poldark Season 4 goes back to the beginning. In fact, for once we actually get a prequel scene set all the way back in 1780. It’s Aunt Agatha’s 85th birthday. Everyone is young and beautiful, and both Ross and George have fluffy ponytails. But that’s not who matters here. Young Elizabeth is who matters. Francis, George, and Ross all long to be in her orbit. Aunt Agatha accurately predicts that Elizabeth will break a few hearts and bear beautiful children. As George wonders whom she might marry, Francis punctures the rosy haze of the moment, declaring, “It will always be Ross.”

In the “present day,” aka late 1799, Elizabeth isn’t basking in sunlight, but lurking in the shadows of Coram Fields, London. She sees a back alley doctor and gives him a fake name, “Mrs. Tab.” (Hello, you can call me “Ms. Indent.”) It seems she is taking Ross’s dumb advice a bit too literally. Since 18th century men don’t know how childbirth works, she wants to deliver her legitimate child by George a few months early so that he’ll believe Valentine is his once and for all. She obtains some kind of potion that will induce an early labor, but the doctor warns there may be complications.

Elsewhere, Caroline is pulling Ross away from dreary London and back home to Cornwall. As they’re being jostled in the carriage ride home, Ross has a waking nightmare that reveals the man he really wanted to kill in last week’s duel was none other than poor Hugh Armitage.

Cornwall is much the same. Drake and Morwenna are creeping around cliffs and caves, nervously trying to reveal their feelings for one another. Drake has come up with a plan: they should get married, but then never bone. He says to her, “Do you not think there be more to life than carnal love?” (Horndog me sniggered as he began to list how fun it would be to hang out with corn and rain, because yeah right.) Finally, Morwenna agrees to walk with Drake, which seems like a nice first step, but in the following scene it’s revealed that means she has accepted his proposal of platonic marriage.

The Family Carne is overjoyed at the news. So much so that Demelza helps arrange a “quickie marriage” at the local church. Meaning, they’ll only have to let the church read the banns once, not three times. Nevertheless, word creeps out. Elizabeth hears the news and is literally like, “Da fuck?”

Now, I’m not sure what Elizabeth’s intentions were, but she visits Morwenna to wish her well and then proceeds to coax her away to Trenwith. Does she want Morwenna to marry Drake? Does she want to give the girl time to reconsider the match? Is she worried she’ll need back up to help execute another false premature delivery? I don’t know.

What I do know is that Ross comes home just in time for the Carne trio to miss Morwenna. Everyone volunteers to go and retrieve her, and Ross squashes this plan because it would only cause more trouble. Then he announces that he will go after her.

Naturally, George arrives home before Ross can intercede. He and Morwenna get into a blistering fight and George throws her out, and then promptly orders a bottle of the ’94 claret. (The best wine for when you’re an asshole and you know it.) Of course, Ross arrives a mere moments later. Another fight erupts, but this one is one-sided, with Ross listing all the ways in which George has won. “What more do you want?” he cries. George doesn’t have an answer.

Ross leaves, but, uh, without Morwenna? She is running alone through the woods, and suddenly Harry and his dogs chase her down. Foul play is clearly on their mind. But wait! Drake shows up with a stick! That’ll…ward them off? Actually what does hold Harry off is a debate about whether or not Drake can fight them if he’s a Methodist. Here’s my question? Is Drake really a Methodist? Or is he just like a go-with-the-flow dude whose brother is a Methodist? Anyway, Drake wins this round. Morwenna is saved.

Later, George and Elizabeth have an awful fight, and it leaves her feeling like she has no other choice. She must take the dangerous baby-inducing booze. Naturally, things immediately go south. George finds her passed out and calls for Dwight to come to the rescue.

Elizabeth’s labor is awful. She’s thrashing and screaming, until finally a (canonically ugly) baby named Ursula is born. (Hey, she wanted to call her that. Not me. I would have suggested Abigail or Mariah.)

For a brief moment, George is not only humbled, but he is happy. He believes now that Valentine is his, and he can share the news that the Prime Minister wants to make him a knight. But things take a turn the next morning. The future Lady Warleggan is in tremendous pain. Dwight sees weird purplish bruising on her hands and feet that suggest some kind of internal issue. Eventually, Dwight finds the poison and looks incredibly concerned.

While this is happening, Caroline visits Ross and Demelza to tell them what’s going on, and Demelza gives Ross the go ahead to go over. Ross bounds in and George gives him a chilly welcome. Our hero, Ross, protests that he’s only there because he’s concerned about Elizabeth. Then George lets it rip: Elizabeth is dead. He screams, “Go see what we have brought her to!”

They brought her to death…

Tragically, it’s up to Dwight to console George. The heartbroken heel says, “Why would I want any of this if she is not here to share it with me?” The one glimmer of hope is that ugly baby, Ursula.

Later that night, Ross tells Demelza that he finally understands what Hugh’s death meant to her as he feels that way about Elizabeth. He explains that he is mourning the memory of the love he had in the past with Elizabeth, and that he is more afraid of losing her. Ross and Demelza reaffirm their love for one another, and it’s one good thing in the wake of tragedy.

The last scene is a happy one: it’s Drake and Morwenna’s wedding day. Verity and Geoffrey Charles are there to wish them well, and while leaving the church, they glimpse George and Valentine visiting Elizabeth’s grave. He somberly says, “She was not a Warleggan.” Verity concurs. “No, she was a Poldark.”

Personally, I think Elizabeth was both, but who am I? Just a woman who recaps Poldark for a living.

Poldark will return for a fifth and final season.

Watch Poldark Season 4 Episode 8 on PBS