Series: The Doll (Lalka)
Episode: Season 1, Episode 4
Year: 2026
Country: Poland
Setting: Warsaw and Zasławek
Based on: The Doll by Bolesław Prus
Stanisław Wokulski: Tomasz Schuchardt
Izabela Łęcka: Sandra Drzymalska
Ignacy Rzecki: Dariusz Chojnacki
Streaming: Netflix
The Doll Season 1 Episode 4 begins with Wokulski fighting a duel over Izabela’s honour and ends with their growing intimacy shattered by the revelation of just how far he has gone to possess her.
Wokulski fights the Baron
Wokulski faces Baron Krzeszowski in a pistol duel following the Baron’s insults. His shot strikes his opponent indirectly, injuring the Baron’s mouth rather than killing him.
The duel unexpectedly improves Wokulski’s social standing. Aristocrats who previously mocked the merchant begin treating him with greater respect.
Meanwhile, Tomasz Łęcki secretly arranges for his heavily indebted Warsaw tenement house to be auctioned. Wokulski plans to buy it anonymously and instructs his representative to keep bidding, whatever the cost.
Izabela wants to buy The Ivy
Izabela discovers that The Ivy is changing direction. Despite being a women’s publication, its owner plans to remove its female writers and make the magazine less radical.
Izabela decides that she wants to buy it herself.
At Countess Zasławska’s country estate, Wokulski takes her ambition seriously. Rather than dismissing the idea, he asks whether she understands the costs of paper, ink, printing and labour and offers to help her learn how the business works.
Their relationship then changes dramatically.
Izabela admits that she likes him and suggests they begin calling each other by their first names. The distance between the aristocratic Izabela and the merchant Stanisław seems, briefly, to be disappearing.
Eventually, she asks Stanisław to come to her that night.
The auction becomes a disaster
Back in Warsaw, the auction of the Łęcki tenement house does not go according to plan.
Bidding spirals upwards as Wokulski’s representative follows his instructions to continue at almost any price. He eventually secures the property for 155,000 roubles, considerably more than its real value.
Even that cannot rescue Tomasz. He has accumulated so many debts against the property that the proceeds from the sale are insufficient to clear them.
Wokulski has spent an extraordinary amount of money trying to protect the Łęckis, but their financial problems run deeper than he anticipated.
Izabela learns the truth
At Zasławek, Izabela admits that she is in love. For the first time, Wokulski appears close to achieving what he has wanted since returning to Warsaw.
Then Starski intervenes.
He tells Izabela that Wokulski paid Marianna to spy on the Łęcki household, gathering information about Izabela’s habits and private life. Starski also claims that Wokulski paid him for information – and for his silence.
The revelation transforms Wokulski’s devotion into something much more disturbing from Izabela’s perspective.
When Stanisław finally arrives for the intimate meeting she arranged, he finds a very different Izabela waiting for him. She demands to know whether Starski’s accusations are true.
Wokulski insists that he can explain.
Izabela orders him out.
Historical background
Duelling and the code of honour
Although duelling was illegal or officially discouraged across much of 19th-century Europe, it remained closely associated with masculine honour among aristocrats, military officers and other members of elite society.
Warsaw’s tenement houses
Rapid population growth transformed Warsaw during the 19th century. Multi-storey tenement houses became an important form of urban property and investment, although mortgages and competing creditor claims could make ownership financially precarious.
Galicia and the early oil industry
One aristocrat tells Wokulski that the future lies in oil and that he has bought land in Galicia. The region, then divided under Habsburg rule and today spanning parts of Poland and Ukraine, became an important early centre of the petroleum industry, with commercial oil production developing during the mid-19th century.
Where to watch: The Doll (Lalka) is available to stream on Netflix.
Watch the trailer
Languages (availability may vary by region):
The Doll is available on Netflix with the original Polish audio and English, German, French, Spanish and Ukrainian dubbing. Subtitle options include English, German, French, Spanish, Polish and Ukrainian
Previous: The Doll Season 1 Episode 3 recap
Next: The Doll Season 1 Episode 5 recap
