Let’s start with Enys. To the surprise of absolutely nobody watching, he’s got himself a serious case of PTSD. And no wonder, right? Considering all he’s been through? Trouble is, that sort of thing wasn’t really understood back in the late 18th century, and Caroline can’t fathom why her husband jumps at the least sound, doesn’t want to eat the dainties she’s trying to tempt him with, and doesn’t seem to sleep or want to be around her at all. Poor woman’s at a loss, and Enys is no more prepared to explain things to her than she is to figure them out for herself. So, they’re stuck, at the moment.
But enter Ross, savior of friends and marriages! He gets the fairly inspired idea to call in Armitage, who spends a few days with Dwight and is someone he can truly open up to, having been through the same ordeal. They do some talk therapy for several days, commiserating over the fact their loved ones just. don’t. get. it. Afterwards, Enys feels a lot better, and at Ross’s urging, he finally opens up to Caroline. So, it looks like these two crazy kids are gonna be ok. Huzzah!
Meanwhile, over at Trenwith, there are toads. And George HATES toads. So much so, he’d had them kicked off the property previously, but they were re-introduced by Drake and Geoffrey while George was in Truro. George orders the ornery amphibians gotten rid of yet again, but Drake’s in a teasing mood and brings ’em right back. He also has a moment with Morwenna where they get back together. So, Drake’s quite jubilant.
But George is incensed. His kid has rickets, a fact Aunt Agatha’s not going to let him forget soon, the toads are keeping him up at night, and his chance of slithering into the local aristocracy by marrying Morwenna to Whitworth is growing dimmer by the day. Whitworth, by the way, is biding his time exercising his foot fetish with local prostitutes.
George has convinced himself that it’s Ross bringing the toads to Trenwith, an assumption that pretty much everyone thinks is nuts. But it’s not hugely crazy, because Ross used to put toads down George’s trousers at school, so George thinks he’s just continuing the torture. And, hey, if George hasn’t grown up an iota since then, why should he think Ross has? Determined to catch Ross red-handed, George ups the guards around the property at night.
Aunt Agatha and Geoffrey get a message to Nampara, warning them of the guards, but by the time it arrives Drake’s already off on his nightly toad-planting. Demelza gets the note and rushes to warn him, but he’s nearly caught by George’s lead thug, Tom Harry, who fells the kid with a hard baton to the back. Just when things seem a bit bleak, Ross comes out of nowhere, knocks Tom Harry out, and gets his wife and brother-in-law away with a look that says, ‘Damn you Carnes and your troublemaking!’ As if he’s not Troublemaker Number 1 in these here parts.
Tom Harry can’t identify the person he saw, since it was too dark, but fortunately Drake’s going to take care of that for him. George observes Morwenna receiving a note and has Tom Harry follow her to a meeting with Drake where he not only catches sight of a make-out session, but also the giant bruise on Drake’s back. So, the jig is up there.
Drake convinces Morwenna to refuse Whitworth entirely, and to wait until such a time as Drake can support them. She agrees and returns to Trenwith to break the bad news to George and Elizabeth. Drake practically dances home to Nampara, where Demelza is super pleased for him and very optimistic, considering she’s been beating the ‘you know this can’t last, right?’ drum for a while now.
George’s method of dealing with this is to frame Drake for the theft of a valuable bible. It just so happens it’s worth just enough to make the theft a capital offense, so Drake’ll hang if found guilty. And guess who so happens to be the magistrate? George, of course! Ross actually swallows his hatred of this man long enough to go to Trenwith and plead for the life of young Drake, but George is full evil and isn’t hearing it. Ross leaves with a dire warning that the locals will rise up against George again if Drake hangs, and Ross won’t bother stopping them this time.
His next stop is Caroline’s place, to collect Enys so they can both give testimony in Drake’s defense. Enys is only too happy to speak up for one of his rescuers, but before they leave, Drake comes back, having been miraculously released. How about that!
Unfortunately, that release was bought with Morwenna’s imprisonment. George dangled Drake’s life over her, offering to let him go free if she married Whitworth. The Namparans receive a note from Agatha directing them to the church, but by the time they arrive the deed is done. George is practically gleeful, all ‘look how many people I get to make miserable today!’ Morwenna looks like she wants to die, and Elizabeth’s basically like, ‘eh, whatever. Emotions are so taxing.’ Both Demelza’s and Ross’s faces when they look at her say, ‘I hate you so much now.’ Don’t think the rift between those two households is going to be healed anytime soon.
And Drake and Morwenna? Oh, those poor, poor kids. And here I’d been feeling sorry for Geoffrey Charles, facing the prospect of being dispatched to Harrow early.
George has convinced himself that it’s Ross bringing the toads to Trenwith, an assumption that pretty much everyone thinks is nuts. But it’s not hugely crazy, because Ross used to put toads down George’s trousers at school, so George thinks he’s just continuing the torture. And, hey, if George hasn’t grown up an iota since then, why should he think Ross has?
The more I watch this show, the more I cannot help but come to the conclusion that Debbie Horsfield is a disturbed woman. That she would treat George’s phobia toward toads and Ross’ schoolboy bullying and class bigotry as a joke makes me wonder if she is seriously disturbed. Ross not only gets a pass for his past bullying, which had not abated by the end of Series One, but he also has magical cures for PTSD. Oh brother.
I totally understand the frustration of seeing something you love adapted oddly or poorly, but I also feel like calling Debbie Horsfield ‘disturbed’ is overstating the case a bit. She hasn’t turned these people into paedophiles–THAT would be disturbed. Some of the changes the Game of Thrones writers made were kind of disturbed. This is, at worst, a simplification of something that may be a more complex issue. Or it might be that George is just building up a drama to feed his grudge, which he kind of tends to do.
But yeah, the handling of Enys’s PTSD was just… bad.
Both Demelza’s and Ross’s faces when they look at her say, ‘I hate you so much now.’ Don’t think the rift between those two households is going to be healed anytime soon.
Those two DID NOTHING to help Drake and Morwenna. And who does Ross the Rapist think he is to look down on the woman upon whom he had forced himself two years ago?
Oh, but didn’t you hear? According to the actor who plays Ross and all the people involved in the making of the show, that TOTALLY WASN’T RAPE! Because Elizabeth wasn’t saying ‘no’ quite loudly or forcefully enough, and we all know that when a woman says ‘no’ she really just means, ‘try a bit harder.’
I’m being sarcastic, of course. That scene was horrifying and the official response to it repulsive. But of course Ross thinks he can be all morally superior, because Ross ALWAYS seems to think that. Because he’s nice to the miners, you see.
Geoffrey-Charles will probably like Harrow. Aside from the terrible food and the bullying, it was a fun place back then: there were several student uprisings, one of them led by a schoolboy Lord Byron, and the boys’ favorite passtimes were said to be “firing cannons and blowing things up with gunpowder”.
Ok, Now I want to go to 18th century Harrow!
I guess all those new hos moved in to take up the slack when Margaret the Ho moved up the food chain to become a courtesan.