Poldark Recap Series 1 Episode 1 A Son Comes Home

Note: I have not read the Poldark novels by Winston Graham so these recaps will solely be based on the TV series.

Image from Poldark, streamed via iFlix

We know little of Ross Poldark before he returned from the war two years after he was reported dead. When asked by his superior officer why he enlisted, he said that it was to escape the gallows. His crimes, according to him, were brawling, free trading and assaulting a custom's official. Based on the conversation inside the coach on Ross's way back to Cornwall, his description of his life before the war was likely accurate.

The Ross who returned to Cornwall, however, was a different man. 'I grew up', he declared, and proceeded to show exactly how much. He accepted with as much grace as possible the fact that the woman he loved, Elizabeth, was now engaged to his cousin Francis. He roused his father's servants, Jud and Prudie, and set them to work at Nampara, the house he inherited that had turned to ruin following his father's death. He even inspected one of the two mines he now owned, both of which were already closed. His property already mortgaged to the bank, he could not afford farmhands, so we worked the land himself.

Image from Poldark, streamed via iFlix

Aidan Turner is clearly the main draw of Poldark, but its popularity can also be explained by the way it taps into modern day financial insecurities via a story set in 1783. The Cornwall Ross returned to was a place where taxes were sky high, wages were in the gutter, and the mines from which the people wrested their living were closing one after the other. The Poldarks were one of Cornwall's oldest families, but power in the county was rapidly shifting to the Warleggans, tradesmen who turned to banking and now held at their mercy the properties and futures of too many.

Charles Poldark, Ross's uncle and Francis's father, urged Ross to find his fortunes elsewhere. Charles's motive was not unselfish --- he wanted Ross out of the way because he could see that Elizabeth still had feelings for Ross --- but the stark reality of life in Cornwall that he painted for Ross was true. Ross stubbornly refused to leave, however, and sold the few possessions he had left to fund the bare existence he now lived.

The one moment when Ross entertained the idea of leaving Cornwall was after he had a heated conversation with Elizabeth, who hurried into her marriage with Francis at the urging of her mother. 'From the moment I set eyes on you, no one else existed', Ross told Elizabeth. With violent emotions still raging within him, he came home and found three men waiting for him, and a fight.

Image from Poldark, streamed via iFlix

On market day, Ross rescued a young woman named Demelza Carne from bullies who were forcing her beloved dog Garrick to fight. Demelza was ill kept, she wore her brother's clothes, and there were lashes on her back that proved her tale that her father beat her every day. Ross offered to make Demelza his kitchen maid. Demelza's father alleged that Ross 'stole' Demelza, and enlisted the help of Luggan villagers to beat him up and take Demelza back home.

Whilst Ross worked off his rage on Demelza's father inside his house, Jud and other tenants on Ross's land were engaged in a full scale brawl outside. After she heard Ross say that she was more trouble than she was worth, Demelza left. After his conversation with Elizabeth, Ross had decided to leave for London, and to take Demelza back to her father. After the brawl, however, Ross went after Demelza, and informed Elizabeth, who rode out to stop him from leaving for London, that he was, indeed, staying in Cornwall. 'I lost sight of something. I came in search of it. Having found it, I'm going home.' Elizabeth, proud and beautiful, sat alone atop her horse. Ross, his face marked with the recent fight, had his arms around the awkward and shabbily dressed Demelza, as he made his way back to Nampara.

Strays

■ Ross kept Elizabeth's ring, which he took from her on their days of romance.

■ Ross is a Captain in the army.

■ Unnamed woman in coach: 'How was the war, Sir?' Ross: 'As any war, Ma'am. A waste of good men.'

■ I like Ross's Great Aunt Agatha and cousin Verity.

■ Ross is well liked by his tenants. They consider him a friend and promised to be there for him, whether for brawls or for when his mines reopen.

■ George Warleggan was in school with Ross. Even back then, he already saw that Ross spoke his mind and could get people to follow him.

■ George initially wanted Ross's friendship because the Poldark name could open doors that were closed to Warleggans. After Ross rebuffed him, however, George vowed to take whatever it was that Ross may have in the future.

■ Elizabeth's mother wanted her to be mistress of Trenwith by being Francis's wife rather than marry Ross, who inherited nothing.

■ 'Must you rub my nose on it?' Ross's thundering outburst to his cousin Francis inside the mine when they spoke of Elizabeth was an early demonstration of Ross's volcanic temper.

■ Francis slipped inside the mine and nearly drowned. Ross hesitated before saving his cousin and berated him for not learning how to swim.

■ Ross's injury from the war prevented him from dancing.

■ Charles Poldark's mine was mortgaged to the Warleggan Bank.

■ Ross's father, as the younger son, had the worse lands, whilst Charles had the best. Charles described Ross's lands as barren.

■ Aunt Agatha: 'The dark Poldark or the fair? The stronger rises as the weaker falls. For all is fair in love and war.'

■ Ross bathed Demelza himself. When he forbade Garrick from sleeping inside his house, Demelza went and slept beside her beloved dog.

■ Elizabeth counselled Ross to bring Demelza  back to her father, because people would be quick to judge them. Demelza, after all, was a young woman living in the house of an unmarried man.

■ Prudie and Jud bullied Demelza.