Poldark Series 1, Episode 7: Recap and Review

It's all kicking off in Poldarkland. As the series tumbles towards its climax there's a lot of plot and no time for sea-staring. Plus, we're warned that there are going to be 'upsetting scenes'. Ooh! Are we ready?

First, a mysterious figure gallops along the cliff edge and leaves a note in a wall. It is handsome Captain Blamey with instructions for Demelza to give to Verity about their elopement. Verity and Demelza go to a lot of trouble to keep their note-passing secret, but unfortunately this time it's done on the grounds of Trenwith, and in full view of Mrs Tabb.

Then there's dishy doctor Dwight Enys. How come he's still single? An antidote to the hilariously-named Dr Choake he's devoted to his profession, and his house is a mad laboratory of bottles, jars, and bones. What's this? Is he making a trifle? No, he's playing with a fresh body part.

Enter Karen. She wants him to play with her body parts too. "You've already made me whole again," says she, sidling up to Dwight and telling him to kiss her. This seduction scene is better than Ross and Demelza's, especially when we cut to Karen's husband Mark – "as cakey as custard" – banging in the mine. And when a rockfall causes him to go home early, Karen is nowhere to be seen.

After waiting outside Enys' house for three hours, Mark sees Karen leave and knows he's been cuckolded. What follows is highly reminiscent of a scene from Of Mice and Men when, during their confrontation, Mark unintentionally breaks Karen's neck and she hangs from his arms like a ragdoll.

All that bird symbolism has not gone to waste: we always knew Karen was going to fly away, but not like this. The starling Mark tamed for her must have been wondering where she went. As Enys goes to look for Mark to apologise, Mark goes to look for Enys (incidentally, did anyone else think that the axe by Mark's front door was a little over-signposted and that he was going to chop Karen up with it? Or was that just me?...).

Cut to Francis, who finds Ross doing his paperwork in the inn. Ross rolls up his documents but not before Francis has had a good look at the list of Carnmore investors' names. "I know I have your discretion," says Ross. Famous last words.

Meanwhile, Verity leaves Trenwith for a life on the ocean wave with Captain Blamey. Hoist the spankers on the gaff and anchors aweigh! At last she gets to explore Blamey's rigging, and he can taste her posset.

But these sweet scenes are short-lived, and joy in this episode is fleeting. It's not long before Francis learns of Verity's elopement via a note she left with Aunt Agatha. Jumping to conclusions without properly considering Mrs Tabb's evidence, Francis is quick to condemn Ross, convinced it was he who helped Verity elope using Demelza as a go-between. After a spectacular shouty bit in which Francis laments his family, his life and everything, who should slither out from the shadows but snake in the grass banker George Warleggan?

Ostensibly there to cancel debts Francis accrued through his cousin Matthew Sanson's fraudulent gaming practices, George has ulterior motives. Playing Francis like bagpipes, pumping and squeezing him until he squeals, George elicits the information he wants as Francis rattles off the Carnmore investors' names he saw on Ross' documents in the inn (amazing memory feat there – I'd have struggled to remember any from such a short upside-down glimpse). Now the Warleggans can withdraw Carnmore funds. What was that Ross said earlier about the Warleggans only benefitting themselves? With his fingers in his ears singing 'la la la', Francis is too dim to see through George's manipulation – or anything beyond the brim of his silly priapic hat.

Meanwhile, news of Karen's murder is about and Poldarkland is strewn with constables and soldiers. With Jud and Prudie gone after Jud disgraced himself with drunken behaviour, Demelza is left alone at Nampara – to bake pies (hurrah!) – as Ross goes to Trenwith for a shouty show-down with Francis about Verity. Perhaps also drawn by the smell of pies, dishy Doctor Enys arrives at Nampara looking for Ross. But before Demelza can tell him to leave, there is another knock at the door.

It is Mark and his brother looking for somewhere to hide. Told to wait in the kitchen by Demelza, Enys nevertheless comes out – and face to face with Mark. Brave Demelza manages to keep the two from throttling each other until Ross comes back. When he does it's all  smugglers' coves and rowing boats at dusk as Ross and Mark's brother arrange a tension-drenched getaway across the ocean for Mark. 

Ross only just makes it home in time before soldiers come for information about Mark. After making one of the quickest dress changes in TV history, Demelza comes downstairs to play the lady and offer Ross' old comrade Captain MacNeil her kidney pudding (which he turns down, the fool). Mindful of what happened to poor old Jim Carter, Ross lies through his teeth about Mark to Captain MacNeil, who offers him advice about black squid.

Which makes a lot more sense than what Ross does next. Growling and brooding moodily over liquor glasses, he still has yet to realise that it was Demelza who helped Verity elope. When she confesses to him, Ross' sanctimoneousness is irksome. Not only that, but he also blames Demelza for the Carnmore investors losing their livelihoods.

Has the brandy gone to his head? If he had not left top-secret information on display in public, like a memory stick on a bus seat, Francis would never have passed the Carnmore names on to George Warleggan in the first place. Moreover, when Francis passed the names on to George he was convinced it was Ross who had engineered Verity's elopement, not Demelza, and so technically it wasn't her fault at all.

"Can you forgive me?" she asks.

It's not you who needs forgiving, Demelza. But better bake a few more pies, just in case.