The Luminaries
An adaptation of the Man Booker-prize winning novel, this epic drama tells the 19th-century tale of love, murder and revenge as men and women travel across the world to make their fortunes on the wild West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Starring Eva Green and Marton Csokas.
- Metascore62
- 2020-2020
- 1 season
- Starz
- Action & Adventure, Drama, Suspense
- TV-MA
An adaptation of the Man Booker-prize winning novel, this epic drama tells the 19th-century tale of love, murder and revenge as men and women travel across the world to make their fortunes on the wild West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Starring Eva Green and Marton Csokas.
Season 1 Episode Guide
6 Episodes 2020
Episode 1
Fingerprint
Sun, Feb 14, 2021 56 mins
Nine months earlier Anna Wetherell meets Emery Staines on a ship bound for the goldfields of New Zealand and agrees to meet him later at his hotel The Majestic. However Anna is illiterate and is sent to a different hotel by the scheming Lydia Wells, who appears to have a plan to use her for her own ends. Meantime in The Majestic Hotel Emery Staines is advised by a fellow drinker Francis Carver that he would be better off trying his hand at prospecting in nearby Hokitika rather than in Dunedin. Carver tries to persuade him the enter a Contract of Sponsorship, in which he, Carver, will provide the necessary funding and equipment needed to prospect, in return for an even split in any gold he finds. However the offer is interrupted by an attack on Carver by a 'chinaman', which is repelled. A contemporary view of events shows Anna now to be a drug addled prostitute trying to secure her release from gaol using gold sewn into a dress she's wearing. She also has some connection with recently deceased Crosbie Wells, husband of Lydia Wells.
Episode 2
The Place You Return
Sun, May 24, 2020 57 mins
Anna Wetherell overhears a conversation between Francis Carver and Lydia Wells regarding her husband's gold find and it sounds as if they are plotting to steal it, a conversation she later relates to Crosbie Wells. She discovers that Lydia Wells lied about the hotel where she was to meet Staines and manages to locate the one he was actually staying in. When she arrives she finds he has already left for the goldfields so she sets about tracing him through an advert in the local paper. He responds in the next edition that he awaits to hear from her, but Lydia Wells burns the paper delivered to her house before Anna can see it. Meanwhile Emery Staines decides to take up Carver's offer of a Contract of Sponsorship in order to prospect for gold in Hokitika. Lydia spikes a flagon of alcohol with Laudinum before offering a glass to both Crosbie and Anna. As they fall into a stupor Lydia takes her husband's gold and begins to sew it into the hems of a dress.
Episode 3
Leverage
Sun, Feb 28, 2021 56 mins
Crosbie Wells awakes from his drug induced stupor to find that his locker key is missing. He suspects that the gold in the locker has been stolen and in a rage retrieves the key from Lydia, only to find that the bag of gold is a lot lighter than it should be. Later on he has a violent confrontation with his wife's lover and former convict Francis Carver, both of whom he believes has stolen his gold. Anna Wetherell is taken to Hokitika by a goldfields magnate Dick Mannering where she begins her descent into drugs and prostitution.
Episode 4
The Other Half
Sun, Mar 7, 2021 58 mins
Emery Staines finds out that Anna Wetherell is in Hokitika working as a prostitute in a brothel, but his attempts to see her are thwarted by the owner. Whilst Anna is lying unconscious in a drug induced stupor Quee Long discovers gold sewn into the hems of the dress she is wearing and tries to pass it off as his own at the assay office, where its validity is in question. Staines has a violent confrontation with Francis Carver who is determined to know the whereabouts of Crosbie Wells.
Episode 5
Paradox
Sun, Jun 14, 2020 59 mins
Lydia Wells realises that politician Alistair Lauderback is heading for Hokitika travelling overland and could meet up with Crosbie Wells, thereby finding out that she and Francis Carver had stolen his ship and his gold, the result being prison sentences for both of them. Walter Moodie arrives in town and encounters a council of men holding a secret meeting, and tells one of them that he has uncovered a secret on the ship he arrived on, the Godspeed. Carver gets to Crosbie Wells' cabin and forces him to drink poisoned alcohol.
Episode 6
The Old Moon in the Young Moon's Arms
Sun, Mar 21, 2021 58 mins
Anna Wetherell is about to go on trial for the murders of Emery Staines and Crosby Wells but she needs to prove her innocence by convincing the judge that Staines is not dead and if found can testify as a witness to her innocence. Carver had been masquerading as Lauderback and in her defence Anna produces one of Crosby Wells's letters to prove Carver was a swindler. Emery Staines is found alive and his testimony proves there was a gold fraud perpetrated by Carver. Francis Carver is called to give evidence and during his testimony the true murderer of Crosbie Wells is revealed.
