Outlander 2x13 Review: “Dragonfly in Amber” (A Love Story for the Ages) [Contributor: Rae Nudson]

“Dragonfly in Amber”

July 9, 2016

There were a lot of surprises in this season finale of Outlander: the year the show flashed forward to, the return of Geillis, and the circumstances of Jamie and Claire’s goodbye, to name a few. But the show grounded each moment in emotions, and every surprise was deeply felt, rather than played for shock.

The first surprise was a flash forward to 1968. Claire is a surgeon now, and her and Jamie’s daughter is 20 years old. Brianna is beautiful and stubborn, just like her mother and father, and to see Claire remember Jamie when she looked at her daughter was a lovely understated moment that showed how much Jamie is still a part of her life.

Jamie and Brianna came to Scotland for the wake of the Reverend, who helped Claire and Frank merge past and present. He does this again in death, as Claire and Brianna stay in his house once more, and Brianna researches her parents. Bree learns of her mother’s missing three years when she finds the newspaper article of Claire rescued by fairies. Because she’s as smart as her mother, she does the math and realizes that Claire was three months pregnant when she returned to Frank. So she asks Claire for the truth, and Claire tells her.

Only Bree isn’t as trusting at first as Jamie was when he learned of Claire’s time travel — and I don’t blame her. She’s never felt particularly close to her mother because Claire has always has her head in another world, and when she hears of Claire’s time travel for the first time, Bree assumes it’s a way for Claire to avoid taking responsibility for an affair.

But as the flashbacks show, Claire has never run away from what she views as her responsibility, even when she probably should.

The flashbacks all take place on the day of the battle of Culloden — what this whole season has been building toward. Only that’s not exactly right. The show revealed the outcome of the battle early on, and the battle has never seemed like the lynchpin for the season it was meant to be. This episode shows that the season has really been building toward Claire and Jamie’s goodbye, and that their relationship is the backbone of the series and what it is constantly moving toward.

The flashbacks take place hour by hour and minute by minute to show the fraught, tense moments that lead to Claire going back through the stones. This tense pace is a good match to the languid pace in 1968. The contrast allows each time period to shine on its own, and it makes sense that Claire and Jamie’s goodbye is too rushed and comes too quickly, while her memories of him linger on slowly in her life without him.

The circumstances of Claire and Jamie’s goodbye hadn’t been revealed before, and I had assumed that Claire had to find the stones on her own, after the battle started and she had to make an escape. I never would have assumed the reason they were running away was because she and Jamie murdered Dougal.

Dougal overhears Jamie and Claire talking of killing Prince Charles in a last-ditch effort to stop the rebellion. Dougal doesn’t want to hear explanations of Jamie’s betrayal and starts to fight Jamie as Claire looks on. The fight ends with Jamie and Dougal in a horrible embrace, with a dagger between them, each trying to push the dagger toward the other. Claire sees Jamie struggling for his life and does what she always does — she jumps in to save him, even if it means murder. If their bond wasn’t clear before, they sure are bonded now after they murdered together.

With this act, everything changes for Jamie. Dougal’s death by Jamie’s hand is immediately discovered, so Jamie and Claire make some quick moves to ensure that the Frasers won’t lose Lallybroch, and that Claire and her unborn baby are safe.

Jamie pleads for Claire to take his child and go back to the future, where they could be safe. Claire and Jamie know that they each would die for the other, and it was harder in some ways for Claire to choose life because that meant a life without Jamie. But she honors his request and agrees to go live in the future where she can raise their child.

Their goodbye was the most powerful scene in an intense, extended episode. Claire and Jamie’s love is the most powerful force in a world that includes time travel and fate. Their love is more powerful than any act of history, and Caitriona Balfe’s and Sam Heughan’s performances absolutely sell it. In their goodbye, you could feel the sadness, the deep love, and the fear and anxiousness that came with wartime decision making. Just like real life goodbyes, it was beautiful and horrible, it came much too quickly, and it would never last long enough.

One particularly great aspect of Balfe’s performance came in 1968 when she was remembering Jamie. When she finally told Bree the truth about her father, you could see Claire’s desperation to speak about Jamie. She had been alone with her grief and memories for so long that when she finally was able to talk to talk to her daughter about her past, she was bursting with the desire to speak about Jamie and share the memories of him.

This is in stark contrast with how she speaks about Frank. In 1968, Claire announced that Frank had died in an offhand way when she was speaking to Roger. After two seasons of going back and forth between him and Jamie, after torment about cheating on him and then going back to him, after a whole season that moved toward her life with Frank, he died off screen and is barely mentioned. It seems odd to me that Frank wasn’t more incorporated into the season, or into the entire show. I wish their relationship was built up a little more, even though I know her love for Frank doesn’t compare to her love for Jamie. They still had a life together, he still raised her child, and he still took up a lot of her emotions, especially in season one, when Claire felt so conflicted between the two. The show never really made a case for her and Frank’s relationship, so it never seemed like a fair fight for her attention between the two.

To flash forward to Frank in the first episode of the season and then largely ignore him throughout the rest of the season felt unsatisfying to me. Frank has always felt like a footnote instead of a proper chapter in Claire’s life, and I wish more time was spent with him, if only to see more of Tobias Menzies doing his thing. I guess in a show about time travel I shouldn’t count him out completely, but I do wish that Claire’s life with him was more incorporated into the season, instead of using it as bookends in the season opener and closer. Developing Claire’s relationship with Frank could have added depth to the show and emphasized the themes of parenthood and family, different senses of self, and fate and choices.

On the other hand, I have to commend the show for its tight focus on what works: Claire and Jamie. After all the genres it’s dabbled in, Outlander made it clear in this finale that it’s first and foremost a love story.

Aon rud eile:

• I didn’t get to this in the review, but Geillis is back! We got to see her younger self before she traveled back to the past. It turns out she is a husband killer no matter what time period she’s in. It’s interesting to see Geillis study and prepare so much for her trip — I hope Claire learns something about time travel by using Geillis’ notes.
• It looks like next season Bree and Claire may travel back to the past to find Jamie once again. It also looks like a sweet romance was brewing between the Reverend’s son and Bree. 
• I think Bree will be a brilliant character to add to the story — and she seemed so like Jamie in her personality — but everything she said sounded like a line to me, rather than natural conversation. I hope the writing for her loosens up a bit and that her acting skills match that of her on screen parents.
• I am thrilled to learn that Fergus survived his trip to Lallybroch — which we know because the deed he was carrying was successfully delivered.
• Murtagh on learning Jamie killed Dougal: "I can't say I'm surprised. I'm only surprised it took you this long."
• It’s been a fantastic season, and thanks for reading along with me!

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Outlander 2x11 Review: “Vengeance Is Mine” (Heads Will Roll) [Contributor: Rae Nudson]

“Vengeance Is Mine”

Original Airdate: June 18, 2016

In a tense episode that has Claire spying once again, many storylines from the season are wrapped up.

The episode begins slowly with Prince Charles and his men at an impasse once again. Jamie and the prince want to head straight to London — the prince because he wants this rebellion to end quickly (with a victory) and Jamie because he wants to do anything that will change the course of the rebellion from what Claire has told him happens in history. But none of the prince’s generals are willing to support a march to London, and the prince leaves in a huff.

But Jamie’s skills at diplomacy are on display — and are enough to make a higher-ranking general worry about Jamie’s influence on the prince. To get Jamie out of the way, once the prince is gone, the general orders Jamie to take his men and head to Inverness. We know from the first episode this season that Inverness is where the battle happens that separate Jamie and Claire and sends her back to the present time. As they march closer, their fate is coming closer, too.

But before they can get too far, the British find them and fire on their camp. The men scatter, with Jamie, Claire, Rupert, Murtagh, Dougal and Fergus on horseback trying to outrun the British. In a terrific chase scene, the British close in on Jamie and his people and manage to shoot Rupert in the eye (yikes). But before Rupert falls of his horse, Dougal is able to jump from his horse to Rupert and pull him back to safety. Dougal is far from my favorite Scotsman, but he has been showing his courage and skills in battle since this rebellion started, and that jump was mega cool.

Rupert’s injury, though, is mega gruesome. Claire has been acting as doctor and dentist to the men in the army, and their families, and she shows her medical acumen once again as she removes the bullet from Rupert’s eye and sews it shut to heal. Outlander is consistently one of the grossest shows I watch — and I watch Game of Thrones — and this episode was no exception. And Rupert’s eye was only the second-grossest injury this week.

After Claire stitches up Rupert, she and the men hide out in a church to try to recover, but soon the British catch up to them. As the British get closer, Jamie and his men try to come up with a plan. Jamie, always the hero, thinks he should turn himself over since he is the one with a price on his head. Maybe by turning himself over, his men and Claire would be able to escape. Dougal, of course, wants to stay and fight. And Claire, of course, wants to pretend to be a British woman taken by the Highlanders — again. She reasons that the British wouldn’t hurt her and they can trade Claire for their freedom.

Not only has Claire done this plan several times now and it seems boring to rehash once again, but I also feel like they are banking a lot on soldiers’ sense of duty and gentlemanliness. Her plan works — again — but eventually, as the solders get backed into a corner with this rebellion, I feel like their sense of propriety will fade away. I know they didn’t have much time to come up with a plan, but this doesn’t seem like the best they could do. Especially since it separates Claire and Jamie and will lead them both into enemy territory. But for now, Claire goes off with the soldiers, and Jamie and his men get away unharmed.

This episode is stronger than the last few, and much of that is because the focus is back on Claire and things are moving quickly. Watching her think on her feet is always a delight, and she starts scheming right away when she sees a beggar that she recognizes. When the soldiers tell her she’s going to Belmont, rather than the garrison she and Jamie expected her to be taken, she is able to get a message to Hugh, when he runs into her (on purpose) on the street. When she arrives at Belmont, she realizes it’s the house of the Duke of Sandringham.

The duke doesn’t give her away, but there’s no pretending that they are happy to see each other. With the duke’s return, so much of what happened in Paris comes back as well. Starting with Mary, who is staying with her godfather, the duke, before she gets married off to another dreadful Englishman.

Mary has never been in charge of her own life, and it’s brought her nothing but sadness. But in this episode Mary is fed up and decides to take charge. She pleads with Claire to talk to her godfather to get her out of her upcoming nuptials, and when that fails, she takes things into her own hands — quite literally.

Before Mary’s coup, though, Claire has a tense, delightful dinner with the duke. Claire and the duke are both wicked sharp and great at hiding their loyalties when needed. The duke has been playing both sides of this rebellion for so long that I wasn’t sure which side he was actually on, and Claire wasn’t sure either. He says that the British have noticed him playing both side as well and have stationed men outside his home to keep an eye on him. He tells Claire that he is tired of being watched and wants to help Claire so that Jamie will rescue him as well and bring him to a safehouse. Claire agrees, falling right into the trap that he has laid.

When Claire is talking to the duke, she notices that his valet has a birthmark — the exact birthmark of the man who attacked her and Mary. She realizes quickly that the duke had a hand in their attack in Paris, and when he can no longer keep up the charade, he comes clean. He cruelly says it was his idea to rape her and Mary because the Comte St. Germain, who hired him to repay a debt, wanted to kill them. He tells Claire she should really be thanking him.

The duke has always been a weasel, but he has never seemed truly evil to me until this moment. He has always been callous, but I didn’t think he was capable of anything this terrible — if only because he seemed too much of a coward to actually make a big move. But he proved his lack of humanity when he hired men to rape his goddaughter — traumatizing her and shaping her life forever.

When Mary learns of his betrayal, she gets her revenge. Everyone she knows has tried to take away her agency – including Claire, her one friend, who broke up her romance with Alex. But when Mary hears that the duke set her up and his valet is the man who raped her, Mary picks up a knife, and then used it. She stabbed her rapist and took back her future. During the commotion, Jamie and Murtagh were able to get into the kitchen to try to help Claire and Mary. And when Murtagh learned that the duke had orchestrated the attack, he used his axe to cut off his head. (This is the grossest injury this week — it was a bloody mess.)

Mary, calm now, tells them she thinks they should probably get out of here. And so they leave the bodies of their enemies behind and go out into their future. (Even though it looks grim, I am sure the future will be brighter for Mary now.)

Aon rud eile:

• Jamie’s prayer over Claire while she was sleeping was very sweet and shows that their relationship is staying strong after the pain in Paris and the fear of war. 
• The pacing of this episode started slow but picked up considerably, making it a fun, tense episode to watch.
• I guess Jamie's kidneys are fine? Claire was worried last week, but no mention of it this week.
• I'll be on vacation next week, but I'll be back for the finale. 

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Outlander 2x10 Review: “Prestonpans” (Win the Battle, Lose the War) [Contributor: Rae Nudson]

“Prestonpans”

Original Airdate: June 11, 2016

This entire season has been built around the Scottish rebellion, and now that the battles have finally started, I’m not sure I care about this war. Perhaps it’s that the focus during the uprising is on Jamie and his clan, who have been missing from the first half of the season. Perhaps it’s because there are so few scenes with Jamie and Claire together, which provide the emotional sparks for the show. This war provides a lot of kindling for a story, but nothing lights it up. Instead we’re left with plot and moving parts that make up a war story — a death, a sneak attack by night, a child who joined the fighting when he was told not to, patients in a hospital — but not enough emotion to tie it all together.

Upon some Googling, it looks like much of this episode was historically accurate. The leaders of the war arguing about how to attack, the Jacobite and British positions on a mushy field, the sneak attack by night and cover of fog, and the excellent care provided to the British wounded is all true. So is the length of the battle (minutes) and the number of men lost by the Jacobites (not many). It’s interesting to the history major in me to learn this much about the Jacobite uprising, even though it’s a fictionalized account. If I were a professor teaching about the uprising, I would definitely show this episode in class.

When the leaders of the Jacobite army can’t stop arguing about what to do, Jamie helps get things going by convincing Dougal to take his horse out into the muddy land, close to the British Army, to test the ground and see if it would be solid enough to bear horses and soldiers. It’s a risky move to go that close to the British, who surely would fire on a moving, living target, but Dougal is up for the task to prove his mettle to the king.

The ploy works, and Dougal impresses Prince Charles. But he also discovers the ground is too soft to support their army. It’s also too soft to support the British army, who won’t cross it either. So Jamie has to find another way in, with the help of a boy whose father owns the land they are on.

With his instructions, the army finds a solid way to the British troops, so they attack that night. Fergus, who doesn’t want to be left out and feels useless doing “women’s work” at the hospital, goes with the Jacobites, even though Claire and Jamie told him he couldn’t join the fighting. I was worried that the show would end up killing Fergus, a child who’s been through so much already. He survived, but he killed a British soldier, and that act leaves its own mark on him.

Claire heads up a makeshift hospital to tend to the wounded, and she cares for the British just as well as her own men. But she isn’t able to save everyone. Jenny’s husband looses a man, and Angus has an injury Claire can’t see that proves fatal. Angus brought Rupert in for care after the battle because Rupert had giant gash in his side from a sword. Claire sews it up and told Angus he likely had a concussion and to stay awake, but Angus assures her he is fine. So Claire didn’t realize that he had been hit by a cannon and had internally injuries until it was too late and he was drowning in his own blood.

One thing I did like about this episode was the focus on friendship. Angus and Rupert had mirror counterparts among the Jacobite army, who they of course didn’t get along with. But this other pair of best friends was going through the same fears and uncertainties as Angus and Rupert, and cared about each other just as much. The men seemed to come to a sort of truce at the hospital, when they were both watching over someone they loved.

All the clues were there that Angus wouldn’t make it: He said goodbye to Claire before the battle and asked for a kiss, and he went over everything he was leaving to Rupert (including a barmaid, who Rupert reminded him wasn’t Angus’ to give). He also left Rupert his sword, which he had never used, and which Rupert picked up and took with him after his friend died.

“How many men had I seen killed in war?” Claire asks. She’s been through this before, and the effects of war are catching up to her. No one can escape the fear and pain of war, and as Jamie says, war always tastes bitter — even when you win.

Jamie was injured as well, though he came back to Claire bounding with the energy of victory. But Claire sees a mark on his shirt and learns a horse had stepped on him. She asks Jamie to pee in a jar so she can see if there is blood in his urine, but this urine test gets interrupted when the prince walks in to the hospital. But Jamie seemed unfocused and off to me, and I wouldn't be surprised if his injury is more than it seems, like Angus’ injury was.

Jamie was able to show off his diplomacy and skill at strategy, along with his skills at fighting. He gets Dougal to test the ground when the army needs to take action, and he gets the prince to agree to promote Dougal and send him ahead to scope out the enemy after Dougal interrupts the Prince’s victory speech and tries to attack a British soldier. Jamie is the prince’s greatest asset, and I’m sure he will need his skills many more times in this war.

Aon rud eile:

• The prince tells Jamie to order Claire to treat British soldiers before the highlanders. Jamie knows Claire wouldn’t obey an order that interrupts care at her hospital, and the prince tells Jamie that surely Claire would obey an order from her lord and master. Yeah, right.
• This is 30 years before the American Revolution, but the British army is already showing they can be defeated by a rebel army. 
• The color of the Redcoats looked especially bright among the grays and blues of the foggy Highland landscape.

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Outlander 2x09 Review: “Je Suis Prest” (Preparing For War) [Contributor: Rae Nudson]

“Je Suis Prest”

Original Airdate: June 4, 2016

Claire and Jamie prepare for war mentally and physically in an episode that sets everything up for the end of the season.

Jamie has the men he asked for, but he certainly doesn’t have any soldiers. He and Murtagh put in place some training for the men his grandsire sent that includes learning how to march and shoot on command. Jamie knows that to defeat the British soldiers, the Highlanders will need to be as organized and disciplined. Or at least somewhat organized and disciplined – Jamie can only do so much.

The men Jamie has to work with are messy and inexperienced, and Jamie doesn’t have much help to get them into fighting form. Jamie does see the return of some family and friends, but the only help they bring are dirty feet and a bad attitude.

Everyone’s favorite sidekicks, Angus and Rupert, are back – along with Jamie’s uncle Dougal. No one is less pleased to see Dougal than Claire, but Jamie says he appreciates Dougal’s heart and commitment to the Jacobite cause. What Jamie doesn’t appreciate is the way Dougal ignores Jamie’s orders and acts like he knows better how to prepare an army to fight the British. Jamie has seen Redcoats in action, and Dougal hasn’t. Jamie is the laird of these men, and Dougal isn’t. But Dougal is obsessed with wanting to look good and continues to interrupt Jamie’s teachings with plans of his own.

Both Claire and Jamie shut Dougal down. Claire’s withering remarks of hello to Dougal (“It wouldn’t be Scotland without you, Dougal”) turn to words of pure disgust after Dougal threatens to tell Jamie about his proposal to Claire before Wentworth Prison. Dougal wants Claire to tell Jamie that Dougal would be an asset to the men, but Claire has no inclination to do him any favors and she definitely doesn’t believe he is an asset. After telling Dougal exactly how similar he is to the Greek God Narcissus, Claire tells him to eff off. (I’d like to think Claire is responsible for introducing all of Scotland to the F word.)

But this doesn’t stop Dougal from trying to take over any chance he gets. He interrupts Jamie’s speeches to show the men what a Highland Charge looks like, and he brings armed men into camp in the hopes that they will join the army. Jamie puts him in his place and tells his uncle that if he can’t follow Jamie’s orders, he can leave. Dougal does love himself, but he loves Scotland more, so he acquiesces.

Jamie is a good leader, but I find him a boring leading character. Jamie’s weaknesses are the kind you list in job interviews: He cares about people too much! This makes a great dream-hubby and general, but not the strongest leading role. He’s best when he’s with Claire, and Outlander is best when Claire’s inner life is the focus.

There was some focus on Claire, but not enough to turn the episode from just “solid” to “great.” Claire is suffering from PTSD from her time in World War II, and being this close to a battlefield is drudging up some of her worst memories. The flashbacks were nice to see more of Claire’s history, but it made me realize how much I’m missing flash forwards. What was the point of visiting Claire’s future in the premiere if the show hardly goes back there? I would love to see how the memories of training the Highland soldiers affects Claire in the 1940s.

The flashbacks were also a bit heavy-handed. When Claire is frustrated with Angus’s dirty feet, the show flashes back to her giving a speech on how to prevent trench foot during WWII. The flashback then cuts to Claire looking at Angus, only a young British soldier is sitting in his place. The audience should be able to make the connection between Claire and the soldier in her flashback without needing to see him literally take the place of Angus immediately after a flashback, so it seemed like an unnecessary trick. It would have been more powerful to have the solder show up separate from the flashback, to show that he’s in Claire’s subconscious even when she’s not thinking of him outright.

After hearing gunshots and collapsing on the field, Claire finally tells Jamie what she experienced and why she is struggling now. Jamie says she can go back to Lallybroch, but Claire says she never wants to be alone and helpless again. So she stays, as we knew she would. Claire would never be away from the action, even when the action brings her pain.

And it’s a good idea to keep Claire around. Not only can she use her skills for healing, but you never know when you need her quick thinking and acting skills. Just like last week’s display at Lord Lovat’s, Claire once again uses a performance to get what she needs. When a young soldier from the British camp tries to kill Jamie, Claire pretends to be a British woman taken hostage by the Highlanders. She pretends to plead for the boy and says she will give in to Jamie if he lets the boy go. Wanting to play the hero for an English waif, young William Gray tells Jamie everything about the British camp. When Jamie lets him go with his life, William says that he now owes Jamie his life. He also promises that once the debt is paid, he will kill him. I’m sure we will see William again.

This episode looked particularly Scottish, especially in the greens of the landscape and the characters’ clothing. The grass looks shockingly green against the blue skies and muted clothing, and the stunning landscape partly makes up for the lack of meaningful plot. I like seeing Jamie and Claire back in their Scottish clothing; they look much more comfortable and at home.

Aon rud eile:

• The new heading for this section is “one more thing” in Gaelic. At least, I’m pretty sure it is. If you know Gaelic, hit me up in the comments.
• Instead of war drums, the Highlanders have war bagpipes.

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Outlander 2x08 Review: “The Fox’s Lair” (Old Habits Die Hard) [Contributor: Rae Nudson]

“The Fox’s Lair”

Original Airdate: May 28, 2016

Claire and Jamie are back in Scotland, enjoying the calm domestic life, which of course can’t last for long. The two easily slip back into their old life and back into their old ways.

The Fraser family — including Jenny, Jenny’s husband, Murtagh, and Fergus, who did come back with Jamie and Claire — looks like they truly enjoy each other’s company as they harvest some very large potatoes. Jenny and the cook are unfamiliar with the spud, so Claire and Fergus tell them how they are cooked. Fergus’ way is my favorite: baked, with some butter and salt. Claire and Jamie share an adorable kiss after he needles Claire about her cooking abilities, and that’s how you know it’s all going to go downhill quickly. When the mail comes in, Jamie finds out that his cousin in Paris forged his signature on a document that supports Charles Stewart’s divine right to the British throne, making Jamie a traitor to the crown.

When talking over their options, Claire and Jamie decide they can’t run away. The only option they can live with is to stay and fight for Prince Charles because if they can’t stop the uprising, they can at least try to win it. This is not exactly a twist, since it would be very unlike Jamie and Claire to leave their family and community to be annihilated without at least trying to help, and I am not looking forward to the pain and suffering that I know will come for Jamie and Claire.

To give themselves their best shot at winning this war, Jamie decides he needs to ask for help from his grandfather. (I am definitely going to start calling all grandpas “grandsires” from now on.) His grandfather, Lord Lovat, is a monster, willing to do anything to get what he wants, including threaten to rape his grandson’s wife. Even Claire and Jamie, who are experts now at political maneuvering, can’t keep up with Lord Lovat’s manipulation.

The political calculations in this episode were not my favorite. Tough to follow and mostly dependent on despicable people, it felt like Jamie and Claire were in back in Paris trying to change the outcome of a war. After everything they’ve been through, Claire and Jamie easily fall into their old tricks and it’s tiresome to watch. It’s a familiar story now: Claire is threatened with rape, Jamie tells people Claire is a witch to scare people into leaving them alone, Jamie and Claire attend a disastrous dinner where they try to manipulate everyone into doing what they want.

Claire did show that she learned to leave some things up to Jamie’s discretion, especially when it comes to his family. When she first visited the Frasers, Claire’s outspokenness got her and Jamie into trouble. But this visit to Jamie’s family, Claire leaves the room when Jamie asks her to and she keeps silent at dinner. It’s frustrating to be subject to the kind of sexism where women are considered decoration at the dinner table, but it’s smart political tactics to sit back and observe and allow Jamie to lead discussions with his grandfather.

By staying out of Lord Lovat’s way, Claire is able to help put together a plan. Laoghaire — another unwelcome blast from the past – has traveled with Colum Mackenzie to Lord Lovat’s unofficial war conference. Colum is on the opposite side of Jamie and wants Lord Lovat to sign a pact of neutrality rather than support the rebellion. Lord Lovat’s son Simon is infatuated with Laoghaire, and Claire convinces Laoghaire to help build Simon’s confidence. With some newfound gusto, Claire hopes Simon will stand up with his father and convince him to send men to fight for Prince Charles.

While working on this plan, which seems iffy at best, Claire also learns that Lord Lovat’s seer has had a vision of Lord Lovat facing an executioner. But who holds the axe — the British or the Jacobites — is unclear.

When Claire’s plan of confidence-by-seduction doesn’t work, Jamie thinks he will need to sign over Lollybroch to get Lord Lovat to agree to send men to the cause. In a Hail Mary pass, Claire interrupts Jamie and pretends to have the same vision the seer told her about. Only Claire changes the outcome to look like the Jacobites are executing Lord Lovat. Lord Lovat gets predictably angry and heads toward Claire with a knife in his hand – only to be stopped by his son. Simon declares his father and Colum to be old fearful men, and he says he will fight with Jamie because it’s the right thing to do. It looks like his newfound confidence did something after all.

After this display, Lord Lovat still decides to sign the neutrality agreement. However, he also decides to send men with Jamie and Simon. By doing both, Lord Lovat thinks he has both sides covered no matter who wins the war.

This episode moved Jamie and Claire toward the inevitable war between the British and the clans, but it was more full of plot mechanics than real emotion. And honestly, if I never see Laoghaire again it will be too soon. I don’t get why she’s still obsessed with Jamie, and I don’t much like this one dimensional character.

Un Petit Mot:

• I suppose I should change the title of this section now that Claire and Jamie aren’t in France anymore. 
• I guess Jamie and Claire are just leaning into Claire being a witch now. 
• Claire and Jamie are now convincing people to fight in the rebellion, which in itself could change the course of history and lead the rebellion to actually happen. Maybe if they had sat this one out, it would have fallen apart before it got going. Time travel! It’s tricky!
• Simon was a delightful doofus, and Laoghaire should get some points for not running away when Simon started reciting poetry at her. 
• “My grandfather is not opposed to decoration at the dinner table, as long as the decoration doesn’t speak.”

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Outlander 2x07 Review: “Faith” (Tragedy) [Contributor: Rae Nudson]

“Faith” 

Original Airdate: May 21, 2016

In an affecting episode, Jamie and Claire endure more tragedy and come out the other side broken, but surviving.

This, along with the episode last season where Black Jack Randall tortured Jamie, was one of the toughest episodes of Outlander to watch. The episode was stunning – visually, emotionally, and even in the way it used sound. It was the culmination of Jamie and Claire’s time in Paris and, like them, I am ready to go home to Scotland by the end of it.

Humanity’s capacity for suffering – both inflicting it and enduring it – is astounding. And this episode contained so much suffering. It opened with Claire in the hospital, where her baby was stillborn. She woke screaming for her child, and Mother Hildegarde had to give her the terrible news. With Jamie in jail for dueling, she had to go through this tragedy all alone.

After some complications with the birth, Claire came down with a deadly infection. With Bouton the dog by her side, she sunk in and out of a fevered sleep. And deep in the night, she got a visit from her friend Master Raymond, who was able to use his magical abilities to heal her.

I’m gonna be straight with you all: I personally do not like when TV shows include storylines of losing babies. I find it almost unbearably sad. Having said that, I embrace the telling of women’s stories, and unfortunately, losing a child is a story in real women’s lives far too often. I think a lot of time there is not enough talk about what it is like to go through this experience – so real, live women are often left alone with stigma and shame. Likely you know many women who have experienced the death of a child, and you may not even know it because they haven’t talked about it. To those women, I love you, I see you, and I see your pain.

Now, this television season – on Outlander and on other shows – women’s suffering has been featured heavily. Women are raped, women mourn deaths of their loved ones, and women have been killed off so often it’s hard not to think that the writers and networks see them as expendable. In a real world that often doesn’t take women’s pain seriously, their suffering is frequently used as narrative fodder. I believe this episode focused on Claire’s pain in a beautiful and tragic way. It didn’t minimize her pain, and it allowed Claire complicated, human emotions, and she is a fully formed, complex character.

But how much capacity you have to watch women suffer is deeply personal. I wouldn’t blame anyone for not wanting to see one more woman raped, to not want to see one more woman killed, to not want to see one more woman go through one more tragedy on their television screens. I get that sentiment completely and would not judge you for it. Women’s pain should be taken seriously, but it is not the only thing women have to contribute to a narrative. Even though Outlander handled Claire’s tragedy with respect – and I believe it did – it’s impossible to completely divorce Outlander from the rest of television and the rest of our culture. I don’t have any answers here, and I don’t think it’s black and white. But in general, I believe the more that women are involved in making stories, the more varied, complex, and respectful their stories will be. (It's worth noting, perhaps, this episode was written by a woman: Toni Graphia.)

Caitriona Balfe did have a wonderful performance, and you could see so much anger, heartbreak, and despair in her eyes and the way she held herself. You could see her body change when she was filled with rage at Jamie and soften after she talked with Fergus.

After Claire returns home, Fergus finally tells her what actually happened in the brothel and what led up to Jamie’s duel. After Fergus went into an open room in the brothel to try to steal perfume, he was trapped and raped by Black Jack Randall. Unfortunately, this story seemed glossed over on the way to get to the rest of the episode. Also unfortunately, it seemed like it was inserted as a convenient plot device: BJR had to do something bad enough to get Jamie to break his promise and bad enough that Claire would understand his betrayal. After Fergus tells his story to Claire, he is not seen again. I wonder if Jamie and Claire will take him with them when they leave Paris.

Another thing that Fergus’ story does is give Claire focus again (possibly making it more about Claire than Fergus). She was living in a deep depression after the death of her baby, but Fergus’ story woke her back up and allowed her to understand Jamie’s point of view, even though she was still mad at him for going to the duel. Her first point of action became to get Jamie out of jail.

To do this, she makes a private appointment with the king. Mother Hildegarde warns her that the king will likely expect to bed Claire if she asks for any favors. Turns out he does expect that, but first he enlists her to help with a trial.

The trial takes place in rather impressive chambers off the king’s bedroom. Claire enters, unsure of what she is supposed to do, and sees the king’s executioner at the ready. He is on hand because the king is trying two people for doing dark magic: the Comte St. Germain and Master Raymond. (Hm, Claire’s biggest enemy and best friend, how perfect.)

The trial was impressive to watch, but more impressive was Claire acting the part of La Dame Blanche. The king asked for her help because he heard the rumors of Claire’s abilities and thought she would be able to spot any dark magic inside the men. If she did, the king was going to execute him. Claire immediately assumed the persona of La Dame Blanche and expertly manipulated the situation. She came up with a plan to try to spare both men’s lives by giving them a poison – really a non-deadly concoction she could whip up – and saying that if the men survived, they weren’t evil. She gave it to Master Raymond first, who then put something in the mixture that turned it deadly. The Comte’s turn to drink was next, and he was dead after one sip.

After the trial, the king said he still needed payment from Claire for freeing Jamie. When the king asks you to do something, there isn’t real choice. If everyone is living at the pleasure of the king, that means your death could be the pleasure of the king as well. And a choice of having sex with a king to save your own life and the life of your husband is not a choice at all. The king had power over Claire, and when he raped her as payment for getting Jamie out of jail, it was rape, not a voluntary, consensual transaction.

The king was good to his word, and Jamie was let free. After visiting their daughter’s grave, Claire and Jamie head home to Scotland, carrying the weight of their tragedies together.

Un Petit Mot:

• This entire episode reminded me of a Game of Thrones episode (throw the Comte through the Moon Door!), and BJR is reaching Ramsay levels of sadistic evildoing. 
• “If it comes to sacrificing my virtue, Mother, I’ll add it to the things I have already lost in Paris.”
• The way this episode used sound was wonderful. The sounds of the city were completely silent, muffling the life of the city just as Claire felt her life was muffled.
• The set and costume department should get a raise. Both were beautiful, especially the room where the trial took place and Claire’s dress and veil when she visited Faith’s grave. Just stunning. I also love that Claire wore a Scotland-inspired gown when Jamie came home.
• Oh yeah, the episode checked in with the future for a second, showing Claire with her daughter in the Boston in 1954. I wish there was more time spent in the future, but it was good to see the show hasn’t completely forgotten about Claire in America.

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Outlander 2x06 Review: “Best Laid Schemes” (Broken Promises) [Contributor: Rae Nudson]

“Best Laid Schemes”

Original Airdate: May 14, 2016

I am as glad as anyone to see Jamie and Claire reconciled and sleeping together again, but Jamie’s 180 seemed awfully fast after their argument last week when Claire asked him to spare the life of Black Jack Randall. As it turns out, their reconciliation was too good to be true, and Jamie breaks his promise to not touch BJR at the first opportunity he gets.

BREAK ME LIKE A PROMISE

The first promise broken in the episode comes when Jamie tells Murtagh he won’t duel BJR. I have never seen Murtagh so disappointed as when the duel was canceled. Jamie tells Murtagh the duel is off, but he doesn’t yet tell him why, creating a bit of tension between the longtime friends. Murtagh would follow Jamie to the ends of the earth, but he is getting tired of being left in the dark while Claire and Jamie’s schemes keep getting more outlandish. They also get him to help them fake smallpox, and Murtagh doesn’t even know why.

With Claire’s healing knowledge — and surely some help from Master Raymond — Team Claire makes up a mixture that will make people sick with what looks like the symptoms of smallpox without actually giving them the disease. Jamie is to then take this mixture and sneak it onto the ship that is carrying the wine that Prince Charles is trying to sell to get money for his war. Jamie is the unfortunate test subject of this concoction, and Claire looks very pleased with herself when it starts to work and he doubles over in pain. During what is surely a rough night for Jamie, he and Claire decide that they can’t keep Murtagh in the dark any longer, and Jamie tells him the truth. All of it.

The Fraser clan appears to be a very trusting bunch. Jamie believed Claire when she told him she was a time traveler, and now Murtagh believes Jamie. With a solid punch to the jaw for waiting this long to tell him, Murtagh forgives Jamie and is glad to be in on the whole plan.

Which, of course, doesn’t work. The crew gets sick from Claire’s potion, but they hide it from the harbormaster and no one claims it is smallpox, so the ship and cargo aren’t affected at all. To top it all off, Prince Charles then asks for Jamie’s help in transporting the wine — the very thing that Jamie was trying to prevent. Jamie has no choice but to say yes, or it looks like he isn’t willing to help Prince Charles at all.

Meanwhile, Claire is working hard at the hospital. While cleaning up a patient, she gets word from the other healer there — who happens to work as an executioner for the king — that the Crown is going hard after practitioners of the black arts. Claire immediately thinks of her new friend Master Raymond and goes to warn him. I don’t know if Master Raymond is trustworthy — Claire has a knack for choosing friends with something to hide — but he assures her that he will leave at once to keep himself safe. For as much secrecy as Master Raymond promises, it seems like an awful lot of people know that Claire frequents his services, which could put her in danger as well.

CASUALLY CRUEL IN THE NAME OF BEING HONEST

Claire and Jamie are back on the same side, and it looks like their fight last week is in the past. That is, until Jamie brings it up again while he’s rubbing Claire’s feet. In his eyes, he said, he has saved Claire’s life as many times as she’s saved him, so they are even. He owes her nothing — and therefore doesn’t owe her saving Frank’s life. Claire pulled back from him and asked why he promised her he’d leave BJR alone then. Jamie responds in typical Jamie fashion and says that it’s because he realized if something happened to him, he wanted Claire to go back to be with someone who loved her and would take care of her and their child. He asks Claire to promise that she would go back to Frank and live her life, and she agrees.

We know Claire keeps this promise — it’s what opened up the season, after all. I’m a little disappointed the show hasn’t incorporated anything from the present. I know that Claire has tried to move on with Frank, but I don’t know how she’s doing in that time. One thing that is definitely a puzzle with the timeline is Claire’s pregnancy. She is very far along now and looks like she could give birth at any minute, but in the present time, she isn’t even showing yet. Is she pregnant with another child, maybe?

Claire’s pregnancy is the cause of several scares this episode. When she is working with at the hospital, Mother Hildegarde notices she is bleeding and tells her she must rest. Mother Hildegarde doesn’t seem worried and tells her this is quite common for women this far along in their pregnancy, but it seems worrisome to me.

On top of this, Claire gets quite a shock when she gets home from the hospital and finds out that Jamie ran into BJR at the brothel and broke his promise to her by challenging BJR to a duel once again. Claire demands she be taken to the dueling site at once and it is clear that this distress is not good for her or the baby.

When she arrives at the dueling site, the duel is already underway. Claire is afraid to yell for Jamie because it could be a deadly distraction for him while he is in the middle of a sword fight. As she looks on in anguish — because of worry for Jamie and physical pain due to something going wrong with her pregnancy — Jamie fights to save his life or end BJR’s, and in doing so end Frank’s life. As Claire sinks to the ground in pain, Jamie stabs BJR in... well, in the penis. Presumably, this would make it so that BJR could not have any children in the future, dooming Frank anyway, even if BJR lives. As the fight is ending and Claire passes out from pain, and the royal guard comes in to arrest Jamie and BJR for dueling.

It’s not looking good, y’all.

Un petit mot:

• “If you believe your wife to be a witch, then who am I to contradict you.” Well, Murtagh, you’d be a perfectly reasonable person, actually. 
• Rolling my eyes at Claire trying to end poverty in her gossip session with the society ladies. I know it’s important, Claire, but read the room!
• After the plan to destroy the ship and the wine doesn’t work, Jamie comes up with a new plan to have Murtagh pose as a thief and steal the wine. It works, but it means that Murtagh will be away for a bit while he sells the wine in Portugal.
• “I will miss his happy face.” Fergus, going in for blood.

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Outlander 2x05 Review: “Untimely Resurrection” (The Trouble with Time Travel) [Contributor: Rae Nudson]

“Untimely Resurrection”

Original Airdate: May 7, 2016

Claire is playing with fire, and it’s not a good look on her. For someone whose life was turned upside down by mysterious forces she couldn’t have possibly foreseen, Claire sure does think she can control everyone else’s future. When Claire and Jamie started out on their undercover plan to change the future, Jamie was concerned he would lose himself if he pretended to be someone else. Claire is starting to lose herself completely, doing bad things for what she thinks are good reasons — but that’s what bad people tell themselves all the time.

This episode picks up just a few hours after the disastrous dinner party of last week. Jamie has just gotten back from the Bastille — a fortress in France that was used as a prison. Jamie and Claire start to piece together what they know about the attack on Claire and Mary, and Murtagh brings back some valuable information to add: notably, that the attackers were members of a gang called Les Disciples. To get into the gang, you have to take a woman’s maidenhead — by force if need be, apparently.

Claire and Jamie also figure out why the men ran away from Claire after calling her La Dame Blanche. Jamie accidentally started the rumor he was married to a witch to keep the women away from him at the brothel he frequents with Prince Charles. Not Jamie’s brightest move, considering his wife was almost burned at the stake after she was accused of being a witch not too long ago. This is great gossip, of course, so this rumor spreads from the brothel to the streets, and even into Les Disciples. What’s unclear to me is how they knew Claire by sight, and why they decided to attack her in the first place if they were afraid of La Dame Blanche, who is a mythical sorceress. And if they didn’t see the women before they attacked — well, that seems like a poor strategy for a criminal to use. Especially since a way into the gang is to take a woman’s virginity. If they didn’t know who they were attacking, how would they know she was a virgin?

So some of the attack is still not quite hanging together for me, but maybe I’m being too picky; I’ll move on. Speaking of, Mary is also trying to move on — from the horrible thing that happened to her. Her life is significantly changed. One thing that is sort of odd to me is that her life plans are changed more by the false assumption that Alex raped her than her actual rape, which no one knew about. But I guess it’s all out of the bag after Alex and Jamie were taken to the Bastille and tried to explain what really happened, so maybe people do know that Mary was really raped? Though you’d think that they would try to keep that a secret for the same reasons they didn’t want to tell anyone about it last week. They could easily say that Mary and Claire were mugged and leave the rape out of the reports.

Anyway, what I really want to focus on is the lovely scene between Mary and Claire. It was really touching to see Claire check in on Mary, and it was heartbreaking to see Mary say she felt ashamed and that she would never be the same, before asking Claire if she was going to have a baby. I think this scene was really great, and it focused a lot on the consequences of the attack physically, emotionally, and socially for Mary. She is no longer betrothed to her old, gross fiancé, and her uncle is making her leave France once she’s recovered. The rape changed Mary’s entire life, and it changed her forever. And it’s great to see the show acknowledge that.

This scene between Mary and Claire makes Claire’s betrayal to Mary sting all the more. Mary gives Claire a written account of the attack to deliver to the Bastille to help clear Alex Randall’s name. When Claire realizes that Mary and Alex are in love and plan to marry, she worries that she has jeopardized Frank, who is a future descendant of Mary and Black Jack Randall, not Mary and Alex Randall. She contemplates burning Mary’s letter, and she goes to Alex to convince him not to marry Mary.

Alex listens to Claire’s concerns and tells her that he loves Mary enough not to condemn her to a life of penury and nursing his illness. So he says he won’t marry her, and he leaves Claire, looking heartbroken himself. I was hoping that Alex was just telling Claire what she wanted to hear before eloping with Mary and leaving Claire behind forever, but Mary’s sweetheart is likely telling Claire the truth. If someone who cared about Mary raised concerns to him, Alex would likely listen to those concerns.

Claire pretended to be Mary’s friend just to throw her under the bus for an uncertain future. (It’s almost as if Claire hasn’t read any stories about time travel, and how messing with the past is always a bad idea!) Claire has no idea what the future holds for Mary, but she is willing to destroy Mary’s happiness to try to get what she wants — even though Claire’s involvement is likely what changed the future for Mary to begin with. She knows Alex is ill, so what if he dies before he and Mary have a child, or any other numerous scenarios that could happen that still results in Frank being born way down the line? Claire is meddling for selfish reasons, and the fact that she is pushing a young, innocent girl into the arms of someone as terrible as Black Jack Randall is really despicable, no matter the reasons for it. I’m starting to think Claire and Jamie should never have come to Paris, and instead just gone away and lived out their lives with each other far away from the politics of France.

Since they couldn’t stay away, they are now deep in the middle of a web of lies and tricks they can’t get out of. If Claire’s morals are getting murkier, it’s no wonder that evil found her again in the form of Black Jack Randall. BJR is back, running into Claire and Jamie in Versailles — which is pretty brilliant since neither of them can draw their swords at Versailles without being sentenced to death for drawing a weapon in the presence of the king.

When Jamie challenges BJR to a duel at a later time, Claire realizes once again that Frank’s future is in danger, so she pulls another selfish trick and makes a false accusation against BJR that gets him thrown in the Bastille long enough to talk Jamie out of fighting him. She pleads with Jamie to spare BJR’s life so that Frank can be born in the future, which is really honestly a terrible thing to ask of Jamie, even if it’s true. In a heartbreaking line, Jamie asks Claire if he must bear everyone’s weakness and not have any of his own.

Claire and Jamie — okay, mostly Claire — are starting to cross lines they can’t come back from on their quest to change the future. Because of the reveal from the beginning of the season, we know that it’s all fruitless, and their moral descent is for nothing. Claire has to ask herself how far she’s willing to go to change the future, even if it haunts her past.

Un Petit Mot:

• Where can I get some of Claire’s robes? Plus her floral and goldenrod outfit is one of the best ever on the show. It was so gorgeous.
• Claire seems weirdly okay with Jamie planning murderous revenge. As long as it doesn’t get in the way of her plans, that is.
• I love that Jamie and the Comte St. Germain refuse to speak each other’s languages. St. Germain speaks in French to Jamie, and Jamie speaks English to him. They understand each other, but they are not going to relate on anything, not even the language they use in conversation.
• The scene where BJR, Jamie, and Claire reunite was wonderfully acted. All three of them tried to keep their cool in front of the king but were clearly fighting many different impulses. 
• The last scene of Jamie and Claire was quite beautiful and made them look so isolated and alone.

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Outlander 2x04 Review: “La Dame Blanche” (A Series of Unfortunate Events) [Contributor: Rae Nudson]

“La Dame Blanche”

Original Airdate: April 30, 2016

Oh, boy. That was a lot, huh? When the episode began, I thought it was about cultivating intimacy and what it means when that intimacy changes and falters. I thought it was about how Claire and Jamie reconciled and began to let the other back into their hearts and beds, or how Louise had different levels of intimacy with her lover, her husband, and her friend Claire. I thought it would be about how these characters masked their intimacies when they were at a very public dinner party, and how all of that maneuvering is mirrored in Jamie and Claire’s relationship and new careers as spies.

But then the episode suddenly became about another rape to further the plot.

Claire’s young friend Mary has started to come out of her shell. She met and fell in love with Alex Randall, Black Jack Randall’s brother, after they met at Versailles, just as Louise said she would. Mary seems peppier now, and even Fergus has picked up on her bright eyes and new perfume. Mary went with Claire to the hospital to help after many people were injured in an explosion, and when Mary and Claire went to leave, they found their carriage wheel was broken. Based on the opening clip of a mysterious man with a mark on his hand unscrewing the wheel, it seems likely this was sabotage. The only solution to get to Claire and Jamie’s dinner party, where they’ve invited all the players in their political chess game, was to walk home.

It was on this walk that Claire, Mary, and Murtagh were attacked by a man with the same mark. Murtagh was beaten, and Mary was attacked and raped while Claire was restrained. As soon as Claire’s hood fell off, the attackers ran away, claiming she was “la dame blanche.”

Claire and Murtagh bring Mary back to their home and help her get inside unnoticed. They did not alert the authorities because Mary’s future would be ruined if society found out she was no longer a virgin. Claire and Jamie have a heated discussion about the unfairness of the situation and how it wasn’t Mary’s fault she was raped, but even a feminist from the future can’t change their situation. They leave Mary with her love, Alex, and Claire warns him not to give her too much tonic because it causes visions.

Of course, Mary wakes up, has a vision that Alex was the man who attacked her, and he tries to restrain her to keep her from interrupting Claire and Jamie’s dinner party. The dinner guests include Prince Charles, the Duke of Sandringham, the Comte de St. Germain, and Claire’s friend/Prince Charles’ lover Louisa and her husband. Claire and Jamie set it up to set a trap for Prince Charles. They were hoping that if he learned that his lover, Louise, was pregnant with his child in front of everyone, he would expose himself for the fool he is, which would ruin his chances of getting any funding.

But because Alex is restraining a screaming Mary, that quickly becomes the event that derails the dinner party, rather than Charles’ foolishness.

Outlander has handled Jamie’s rape with consideration and storytelling heft that has focused on Jamie’s tenuous recovery and the horror that spread to so many areas of Jamie’s life. I’m not sure the same consideration has been taken for the women who were victims of rape or assault on this show. Time will tell how it addresses Mary’s rape, but right now it looks a lot like a plot device.

I don’t think shows should never include rape – it’s unfortunately a common occurrence, and of course stories should address it and work to tell the stories of rape victims. Women have to deal with rape and the threat of rape during every day life all the time, so absolutely that should be reflected in stories. But it is also exhausting and horrifying to watch over and over again, and it has come up quite often in Outlander. I don’t have any answers here, and I generally trust Outlander to handle women’s stories with care. But your mileage may vary, and it’s worth thinking about how and when stories about rape are told.

In Mary’s case, the scene focused on her, and not her attacker, whose identity hasn’t been revealed yet (unless that mark has been revealed before and I can’t remember?). The show also focused on the consequences of the rape, including Mary going into shock and being unable to go to authorities. I like that they addressed that because so many women, even today, have legitimate reasons for not turning to the authorities. It may not be fair that many women feel like they can’t go to the police for help, but it’s reality that women are often punished for coming forward about rape.

But, ultimately, I wish I wasn’t spending this entire review talking about rape because there was a lot of other great things in this episode I’d rather be talking about, and I definitely would have preferred to watch Jamie and Claire acting as spies at a high-stakes dinner party than watch a young girl be attacked and raped in an alley. As soon as I knew Mary’s life was entwined with BJR’s, I expected sexual violence was in her future. But it didn’t have to be.

Un Petit Mot:

• Claire also gets poisoned in this episode, likely by the Comte St. Germain. Her enmity with the Comte is blossoming nicely, and I wish there was more of the dinner party so they could have spent the evening trading passive aggressive comments. 
• The way scenes were framed when Jamie and Claire were fighting were beautiful. Jamie and Claire were alone in the frame, and the camera was close on their faces, making it seem like they were whispering to the audience, but making them seem so alone. Later, after they reconciled, the camera was just as close on their faces, but they were both in the frame together after renewing their close bond. 
• I am so glad that Claire didn’t drag out telling Jamie about BJR being alive. But I don’t think his cheerful demeanor was as good of a sign as Claire seemed to think it was. 
• The candlelight on this show is just beautiful.
• Claire’s deep blue cloak was stunning. And where can I get a robe like hers? 
• “You mean sleep with my husband? My lover would be furious.”

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Outlander 2x03 Review: “Useful Occupations and Deceptions” (Bouton the Wonder Dog) [Contributor: Rae Nudson]

“Useful Occupations and Deceptions”

Original Airdate: April 23, 2016

Claire wakes up alone in her bed. That image alone should have told me there was trouble between the couple who normally can’t stay away from each other in the bedroom. But Claire and Jamie are finding out that being spies is not as sexy as it sounds.

Jamie spends all day working at the winery and all night working his sources at a brothel. It seems like he hasn’t slept in days, and he’s been spinning his wheels with Prince Charles for so long that the prince is starting to notice his meeting with the finance minister keeps getting delayed.

Meanwhile, Claire is at home, running a household and… having tea. As I said last week, Claire has survived in the world by finding a place for her to work and making herself indispensable. So when she finds herself with nothing to do but spill tea with her new friends, it’s no wonder she is feeling adrift.

While telling her new young friend Mary about the birds and the bees, Claire finally remembers her family history and that, in an unsurprising reveal, Mary is Frank’s great, great, great (I’m not sure how many greats) grandmother. What is surprising is how the shy, seemingly insecure Mary will navigate her elderly fiancé, her flirtation with Alex Randall, and eventually marrying Alex’s brother Jack. Knowing how terrible Jack is, I am worried about little Mary’s future.

As Claire struggles with totally normal household problems, like the fact that her mortal enemy is alive and he needs to stay alive for a while longer so that her first husband can eventually be born, she gets a little moody and takes it out on her household staff. Which includes her lady’s maid, who is banging Murtagh.

Good for Murtagh for finding something good in France! After Claire admonishes him for stealing away the person who could mend her lace, Claire and Murtagh have a very sweet moment where Claire tells him that Black Jack is still alive. Murtagh says that Claire has to keep this a secret, and he’ll keep it a secret with her, or Jamie will run back to Scotland to really kill him dead, and likely get caught and hanged in the process.

This seems a little suspect to me. Do we really think Jamie, who knows he has a price on his head, would leave his pregnant wife to take a ship (which he hates) back to Scotland to face Jack Randall? It would maybe be his first instinct, but doesn’t it take weeks to get back to Scotland? He probably would cool off at some point and remember he has a baby on the way and a woman he loves. To me, this sounded like a stretch to get Claire to keep a secret and create some drama between her and Jamie.

But Claire and Jamie seem to have enough drama between them without having to create extra reasons that don’t totally make sense. When Claire goes to work at a charity hospital to feel useful again and use her healing skills to help people, Jamie is upset. And I get it. He’s been working day and night on a plan that she created. He hasn’t had a second to himself to feel useful or passionate about anything. In fact, he’s been feeling pretty useless because none of his plans are working in his favor. His meeting with the finance minister helped get Prince Charles financing faster, not stop the financing completely. Jamie can win at chess, but that’s about the only thing he’s mastered so far as a political operative.

So when Claire isn’t waiting for him when he comes home with yet another problem he has to solve, he gets mad. And, look, it’s not fair to expect Claire to do nothing but wait around for him – and I’m not thrilled with his dismissal of her healing as playing with potions. But to feel frustrated with their situation is very real and very human.

Claire, bold woman that she is, decides to keep helping at the hospital, even if Jamie doesn’t like it. Everything Claire does is bold, from the first week in France when they got a man’s ship burned to save the town from smallpox, to the very dresses she wears when she’s out and about. The jewel-toned purples and marigolds in Claire’s clothing set her apart from the pastels and natural colors the other women wear. She has always been an outsider, and in France she keeps working outside of conventional systems to get what she needs.

And it’s a good thing she did, or we wouldn’t have gotten to see BOUTON THE MAGICAL DOG. Bouton, the hospital’s pet dog, can smell patients to find their ailments. He is gentle and adorable and perfect, and why isn’t this entire series about Bouton?

Sorry, back to business: Jamie is stealing Prince Charles’ letters – or, rather, hiring a pickpocket to do it for him – and he needs some help to figure out the code the letters are written in. So Jamie turns to the German-speaking nun Claire works with who also happens to love music. She also is BFFs with the composer Bach. If all of this sounds a little convenient, that’s because it is. Just as convenient as everyone speaking English to Jamie and Claire, even though Jamie and Claire can speak perfect French. The rest of the episode is entertaining and beautiful, so these conveniences are less egregious than they would be in a lesser show, but hopefully the writers won’t rely on contrivances for much longer. Claire needs to stop keeping Black Jack a secret, like yesterday.

Un petit mot:

• Wait, seriously, how did Jamie figure out that code? Starting at the third letter of the end of a section? What?
• “His name’s Fergus. Actually its Claudelle, but we agreed that was not very manly.”
• I am loving Claire and Murtagh’s blossoming friendship. I’m so glad Murtagh stuck around this season.

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Outlander 2x02 Review: “Not in Scotland Anymore” (Bread and Circuses) [Contributor: Rae Nudson]

“Not in Scotland Anymore”

Original Airdate: April 17, 2016

Well, now I know what nipple pasties looked like in the French court at Versailles in the 1700s, which is not a sentence I ever expected to say.

The same likely goes for Claire, Jamie, and Murtagh, who find themselves in the alien world of Paris in 1744. The visual storytelling of the show really shined in this episode, and everything from the landscape of the gardens to the landscape of woman’s “honeypot” highlighted the differences between Scotland and France.

Claire is great at adapting to new circumstances – I mean, the woman traveled through time and turned out okay – but even she is off kilter in Paris. With servants everywhere, attending to her every need, no one wants Claire to do anything. For a woman who survives by making herself indispensable, that must be a bit frustrating.

Claire’s temporary home in Paris has light streaming in, and when she walks through the halls in her blue gown next to giant windows, it looks like she’s walking in the sky. This alone is different from Scotland, where walking through the halls of Castle Leoch looked dark and underground. The color palette in Paris is bright and sunny as well, with greens as bright as the grass, light blues, and shocking purples.

The colors pop out on the screen just as much as Jamie and Murtagh stick out from their surroundings. No one is taking this transition harder than Murtagh, who complains that the entire city smells like a chamberpot. When he and Jamie practice swordfighting on the well-manicured lawns of Paris – a perfectly normal event where they are from – they create quite a spectacle. Murtagh, of course, reacts to the crowd that has gathered by yelling at them go away -- Jamie, ever the diplomat, says you can’t blame the French for gawking when dueling is outlawed.

The pair make a great team and their attitudes and strengths balance each other out. Murtagh is focused and loyal, but he has trouble fitting into Paris life. Jamie is good at schmoozing and blending in, and he needs someone to help watch his back. Where Jamie goes, Murtagh goes – even when that means a French brothel.

Jamie’s cousin Jared has arranged for the Bonnie Prince Charlie, instigator of the Jacobite rebellion and the very man whose plans Jamie and Claire want to foil, to invite Jamie to a meeting to discuss the political environment in Scotland. The prince isn’t in France on official business, so he can’t make arrangements in official courts and instead invites Jamie to a brothel. (I’d like to say business meetings have changed a lot since the 1740s, but I’m not sure that’s true.)

Andrew Gower does a great job as Prince Charles, playing him as an unbalanced man-child who listens only to God. When Jamie and Murtagh both tell him that the clans in Scotland need more reason to fight for a king in another country than the idea that it’s God’s will, the prince ignores them completely and threatens to unleash his royal wrath. Then, he quickly pivots and hires Jamie, who the prince deems a true patriot, to go to French court and schmooze the finance minister into trying to get the prince money for his army. With this meeting, it’s clear the prince is not going to listen to logic or actual military strategy, so Jamie knows his own strategy must change. After talking with Murtagh and Claire, the team decides the best way to stop the rebellion isn’t to convince the prince it’s not a good idea, but to cut off his funding at the source.

Claire’s job, then, becomes to find their way in to the French courts. Luckily, Claire has made a friend in a free-spirited and rather charming woman who epitomizes the style of the period.

Forgive me a quick detour in French history: Claire and Jamie arrive in Paris 30 years before the American Revolution and 40 years before the French Revolution. The seeds of the revolution are being planted in French society, and part of why the French people become disillusioned with the monarchy is because the monarchy got richer as its people got poorer. The monarchy shows off its wealth in every possible way, but mostly with lavish parties and fashions – which are on full display at Versailles. Versailles itself is luxury for the sake of luxury, with huge decorative gardens, a hallway made entirely of mirrors, and, as Jamie witnessed, even a luxurious royal chamberpot that looked like a throne.

Fashion in Paris was determined by the monarchy and reflected the monarchy’s values. This trickle-down, highly decorative style is nearly as opposite from the Scottish highlands as you can get – it’s no wonder Murtagh is struggling. In Scotland, everything has a function and everyone has a job to do to survive in the unforgiving landscape. In Paris, nearly nothing is for function. Claire’s friend has a pet monkey just for kicks, and she spends money and time waxing her legs and her “mound” – to borrow the 1740s vernacular. (I had no idea that bikini waxes have been around since the 1700s, but based on what we just talked about with luxury in France, I am not surprised that the women of the French court were keen on them.)

Claire, the quickest adapter of the Murtagh/Jamie/Claire trio, is quick to pick up on the French fashion and ways of doing business, and she shows her savvy when she wears that knockout gown to Versailles. The image of Claire walking down the stairs in that gown was breathtaking. And that’s the point: Claire knew that standing out as a stylish and sexy woman would be an advantage at a court that values appearance and sensuousness over substance.

It works for her. The minister of finance notices her and makes untoward advances that Jamie quickly stops by pushing him out into a lake on the grounds of Versailles. Because of Claire and Jamie’s diplomatic skills, they turn this potentially embarrassing event into a way to bond with the minister. They will keep his philandering from his wife if he will befriend them. And with that, they’ve made their first conquest in the French courts.

Also in court, Jamie meets the king (and suggests a way to relieve his constipation), the trio runs into the Duke of Sandringham, and Claire learns that Black Jack is actually alive.

This will certainly throw a wrench into their plotting, and it will definitely affect Jamie’s recovery, which is already precarious. Until next week, mes amis.

Un petite mot:

• I wish they would stop showing the close up of Jamie’s mangled hand in the “previously on” segment. 
• The scene right as the opening credits ended that showed a woman getting dressed with the help of a maid was a nice callback to the first time Claire got dressed in Scotland, with the help of Mrs. Fitz. 
• Wow was there a lot of blood in Jamie’s nightmare. 
• Claire has made so many friends this episode, including the man who runs the local apothecary.
• “They never allow their exquisite manners to interfere with their baser instincts.” 
• Is everyone in charge in France completely unbalanced? Possibly. 
• “The bite of a man is desirable, but the bite of a monkey, not so much.” 
• “Your honeypot is bare!” 
• Okay, Claire’s dress was unbelievably gorgeous, but I am not certain that she could curtsey without accidentally flashing everyone around her.

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Outlander 2x01 Review: “Through a Glass, Darkly” (This will be Trouble) [Contributor: Rae Nudson]

“Through a Glass, Darkly”

Original Airdate: April 9, 2016

Here’s what I know: Claire has come back from the past. She is still pregnant, though I’m not sure how far along. She has been in the past for two years, and two years have also passed in the present time. I know that the present is almost as foreign to Claire now as 1743 was to her at first. And I know that Claire is grieving Jamie, even as she reintroduces herself to Frank. I also know the look on Claire’s face when she looks at Jamie is the most alive and the most in love that Claire has ever looked.

But how she got to the present again, I can only guess. And what led her from arriving with Jamie in Paris to the Battle of Culloden is still a mystery, one to be unfolded throughout the season.

Opening the season with this reveal is a great move. It adds a ticking clock and sense of dread to all the story that will come before Claire gets back to Craigh Na Dun. Knowing the end of Claire’s story (or at least this chapter of her story) doesn’t take away from enjoying the story at all. It adds a layer of complexity because we know Claire and Jamie’s efforts are futile, and we know they won’t get that happy ending, at least not yet. But that doesn’t mean their efforts or their time together are meaningless – quite the opposite. The trying is what matters, that’s what makes them who they are and makes their story so touching.

1948

When Claire lands in the present at Craigh Na Dun, she is devastated. Her body is still wearing the clothes of the past, and her mind is still trapped in the 1700s. She frantically asks the first person she sees who won the Battle of Culloden, the battle she knows would doom the Highland people if the British won. He tells her the British did win, and Claire knows her efforts, and her husband in the past, were doomed.

Claire is taken to a hospital, which calls her husband in the present, Frank, to come and get her. Claire can’t stand the noises of this world, with all its technology constantly buzzing around her. She also can’t stand to look at Frank, who looks so much like her and Jamie’s tormenter, Black Jack Randall.

After Claire leaves the hospital – but not before a photographer sneaks in to take a picture of the “woman kidnapped by faeries” – she becomes obsessed with reading as much as she can about the battle to see if she can glean Jamie’s fate. She immediately speaks openly with Mrs. Graham, the same housekeeper who helped host Claire and Frank on their second honeymoon that started this adventure, but it takes her a while to speak openly again with Frank.

It seems to me that no matter what year you are in, you will never find kinder people than Mrs. Graham and the Reverend Wakefield. Not only do they provide a welcoming place to stay for a couple dealing with extraordinary circumstances, but Mrs. Graham believes Claire’s time traveling story (or at least acts like she does) and Reverend Wakefield gives Frank wise counsel after he finds out Claire is pregnant with another man’s child.

Claire’s talk with Frank –when she finally tells him of her time traveling, being deeply in love with another man, and then, finally, being pregnant – was a beautiful tragedy all in itself. Even though Frank is alive and in the present, he is the one who looks like a ghost as he listens to his wife. They talk all night, and the light around them makes everything look gray and dull, as if they are in between night and day, the past and the present.

Tobias Menzies does an incredible job on this show playing both evil incarnate Black Jack Randall and emotional, helplessly in love Frank. Last season he got to show off how great he is at being terrifying, and now he can finally show off how great he is at playing Claire’s other husband. His statements of love for Claire were emotional and touching, and when he learned Claire was pregnant, you could see the unbridled joy on his face quickly turn to confusion, and then pain, when he realized the child wasn’t his. And when his pain and anger quickly turned to violence as he charged on Claire, barely holding back his fist, you could see he had some of his ancestor Black Jack in him after all.

By the end of their time at Inverness, Claire and Frank come to an agreement. They will stay together and try again, and they will raise Claire’s child as their own. (Which is probably a better choice than telling the baby its father has been dead for 200 years.) Frank decides to accept a job at Harvard, so he and Claire set off for the States. When Claire reaches for Frank’s hand after they land in the U.S., the show takes us back to the past again – but cinematically this time, in a beautiful flashback to Claire landing in Paris with Jamie.

1745

Back in 1745, Claire and Jamie arrive in Paris, right around where they left off last season, and they quickly form some terrible plans and make some terrible enemies.

Claire is determined to change the outcome of the Jacobite rebellion, so she convinces Jamie to infiltrate the Jacobite movement to bring it down from the inside and stop the rebellion before it starts. Full disclosure, I come from the Harry Potter school of time travel, where even if you go back into the past, you can’t change anything with your time traveling shenanigans. Because, you know, it’s already happened. I’m not as familiar yet with Outlander’s time traveling rules – maybe they are different – but I think this plan will fail for a bigger reason: Jamie is likely sympathetic to the Jacobite cause. And if he believes in the cause, and his family and friends are the ones fighting for this cause, he likely will join the cause for real – to keep it going, not to stop it. This makes sense for Jamie and Claire, who are already in a losing battle with time itself. Just because you know the results, that doesn’t mean it’s pointless to try.

To set this plan in motion, Jamie and Claire meet up with Jamie’s cousin Jared, who can help get them into the Jacobite movement. Jared quickly accepts them and says he will set Jamie up with the Jacobites and his wine business (running a wine business in France sounds like the best job ever, am I right?) After this meeting, Claire takes a walk and runs smack into some trouble, which is par for the course, I guess.

When a ship gets into the harbor and takes a sick man away on a stretcher, Claire sees them and immediately identifies the sick man as having smallpox. So, of course, she does what any logical pregnant woman would do and walks away from the area to alert the authorities, or someone she trusts, of the situation. Just kidding, she runs right into the fuss and gets as close as possible to the sick man to see if she can help. She has had the smallpox vaccine, so she says she is safe from the disease, but I don’t know that I would have done the same thing if I were in her position. I don’t know if that makes Claire braver than me or more hard headed, but maybe it’s a little of both.

Claire’s insistence that everyone know this man have smallpox so that the authorities can handle it correctly and burn the ship he came from to get rid of the disease quickly inserts her into quite a mess. The man who runs the Smallpox Ship is the Comte St. Germain, a nobleman in France who holds grudges and was likely smuggling something on the ship that was destroyed. And with that, Claire and Jamie have made their first enemy in France.

Next week, they head to Versailles and wear gorgeous clothes. See you then.

Un petite mot:

• New opening images! They incorporate Paris along with images of last season.
• Claire, I’m not sure the story about calling your husband a sadist is as cute as you think it is.
• “I wouldn’t change you to save the world.” 
• Apparently both Jamie and Claire can speak French. 
• In the beginning of the episode, Claire says she will continue with the life she no longer wants because she made a promise. Was the promise Claire made to Frank, when she married him, or to Jamie when she promised she would move on? I’m betting it’s the latter.
• “France. Reeks of frogs, just as I remember it.” Murtagh, glad to have you back.

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