‘Poldark’ Recap, Season 2, Episode 6: The Snitch Of Cornwall

Good morning, my gentle Poldark fans! For weeks the show has been teasing out a storyline involving a dastardly informer, a right scallywag who is snitching on all the honest law-breaking smugglers of the community. Poldark Season 2, Episode 6 finally delivers on this storyline! The truth is shocking! The truth is overwhelming! The truth is…the snitch is that boring sail-maker who has the hots for Limpy McGee. I don’t even remember this guy’s name. I think it’s Charlie. It might be Chaz. It might be Charlton Wharton. I’m not sure. Can I editorialize here and suggest that Poldark needs to stop pivoting the plot around glorified extras?

But let’s back up. See the reason why we care about Charlie the Snitch is because Ross and Demelza have allowed the smugglers to use their cove as a landing point and their house as a staging point for all this illegal activity. You would think that these two would wise up and stop breaking the law to make ends meet, but alas. Master and Mistress Poldark are rogues and they must chafe against the yoke of oppression at every turn!

That said, Ross is trying to make money the honest way. Well, sort of. He’s going to track down wife-killer Mark Daniels to find out where Marky Mark saw that legendary cache of copper. Ross is so certain of this plan. You know why? Because “Mark Daniels swore!” Okay, need I remind everyone that Mark Daniels hugged his cheating wife to death. Can we not make him a hero? Just saying…

Ross and a couple of his sidekicks board a ship — yes, a ship! (Sorry, I like ships.) — and sail to whatever secret island place Mark is hiding. However, when they find him, Mark isn’t exactly in his right mind. He’s clearly going through some kind of trauma and can barely make sense. Suddenly it dawns on Ross that he shouldn’t pin his hopes and dreams on a man who once hugged his wife to death.

While Ross is galavanting on the sea, some stuff happens at home. There’s this whole ridiculous thing where George tries to make Elizabeth believe that the French Revolution is coming to her doorstep. Anxious, she sends Ross a letter that he never gets because he’s sailing towards disappointment. Elizabeth is so mad he doesn’t write her immediately back that she rides to his house and has a sassy exchange with Demelza. The whole thing is even more ridiculous when you consider Ross is gone for like THREE DAYS. I’ve waited longer for texts back from fuckboys than Elizabeth can for a hand-written note. This frustration naturally leads her to George, who it seems (???) proposes to her by the end of the episode. I’m not sure though. The best part of this subplot though is Old Crone Aunt Poldark starts walking around with a gun.

However, the big exciting part of the episode is something I’ll dub “Ye Tragedie of Good Dr. Dwight Enys.” Dwight has decided to leave his happy life curing scurvy behind to be with the wealthy and beautiful Caroline. The catch? They have to leave in the night like scoundrels and elope. Caroline has it all planned out. Dwight even bids his close friends farewell. But then Limpy McGee hurts her knee again and Demelza convinces Dwight to make one last house call.

Now you might think that Limpy McGee might try to seduce Dwight and that would be the thing that kills his romance with Caroline, but no. Limpy McGee’s sail-making fiancé Chazbot is strangely AWOL from a smuggling run. He called in sick, see, and Dwight immediately knows something is up because as the town’s only doctor, he would have known about this. Dwight decides to do the right thing and races over to Chazbot’s home to confirm his suspicions. Boy, are they confirmed! And then there’s a weirdly intense fight scene…

Dwight is running out of time to make his rendezvous with Caroline, but he also knows that if no one warns Ross and the gang, they will be ambushed in the cove. This is a time without cellphones, a time without texting, WhatsApp, or Slack. So Dwight has no way of tipping Caroline off. All he can do is race against time and light a big brush fire to warn his friend. Dwight’s a cool dude.

The final act of the episode is a complex race against time that had me clutching my imaginary pearls. Ross goes solo in a fight to evade capture. Dwight gets clocked over the head by a soldier. Demelza sneaks past Redcoats to warn Ross that home’s not safe. Caroline’s pug Horace gets cold in the carriage. It’s all *a lot.*

In the end, Dwight is held over night and missed Caroline. Caroline leaves him a depressing note implying they will never see each other again. Ross disappears for a hot minute, worrying Demelza, but later emerges from a secret space within their already secret floorboard cache. Oh, and the Snitch is found dead on the beach.

All’s well that ends well, I suppose. Although I must say I do hope Caroline returns. I like her pug a lot.

[Watch Poldark, Season 2, Episode 6 on PBS]