Wow! That was... WOW. My favorite episode of this show so far. Geillis Duncan... wow. I was looking forward to this moment the minute I heard they were making this show. The scene at Craig na Dun is one of my favorite moments in the whole book. Let's dive right in.
Claire and Geillis are kept locked up in an underground cellar to await their trial for witchcraft. Geillis seems confident that everything will work out, but when Claire tells her that Dougal and Jamie have both left Castle Leoch, Geillis realizes they might be in serious trouble. At the trial, it seems the entire community is thirsting for their blood. Ned Gowan arrives to be Claire and Geillis' lawyer. Ned is able to turn the crowd less hostile, and calm down some of the "witnesses." Laoghaire gives her own testimony, accusing Claire of taking a potion to make Jamie fall for her. The crowd gets more and more hostile, and Ned cannot stop it.
On the second day of the trial, Ned realizes there's only one thing to do. He can't save both women, but he can save Claire. If Claire renounces Geillis and claims to have been bewitched by her, then her life will likely be spared. Claire and Geillis are given a few moments to talk alone. Geillis demands that Claire tell her what she's doing here. Claire says that she has no reason - it was all an accident, and she just wants to go home. Geillis is terribly disappointed. Back in the court room, Claire decides at the last minute not to scapegoat Geillis, and die by her side. Geillis thinks she's crazy. As a struggle breaks out in the court room, Geillis tells Claire that she thinks it's possible for her to get home again. Then she says the words: "Nineteen sixty-eight!" A shot goes off. Ned was involved in the scuffle. Claire screams at everybody in the room, accusing them of being murderers and horrible people.
Claire is punished for speaking out of turn in the court proceedings - she is lashed upon the back. At this point, Jamie arrives. He defends Claire, holding out his weapons and daring anybody to come closer. Geillis takes this opportunity to announce herself as a witch. She confesses, and she says that Claire was her innocent victim. She then shows a mark on her arm, which she declares to be the mark of the devil. Claire sees it for what it truly is - a smallpox vaccination scar. Suddenly, it hits her. Geillis is from the future: 1968!
Claire and Jamie escape, as Geillis is taken off by the mob. She reveals that she is pregnant. The judge tries to calm the crowd when he realizes that she is with child. Claire and Jamie get away on horseback. Jamie asks Claire to be totally honest with him. He has noticed the scar on her arm, the one that matches Geillis'. He wants to know if she's a witch. Claire tells him she's not - but the truth is just as crazy. She tells him that she's from the future, and she tells him everything else she's been keeping secret. Jamie says he believes her, and that they'll make it work.
Jamie and Claire travel hard for several days. Jamie tells Claire all about Lallybroch, and the life they'll build together. Claire feels torn, however. She can't imagine what her future will look like. Jamie notices, and instead of taking her to Lallybroch, he takes her to Craig na Dun. At the top of the hill, Jamie and Claire say goodbye to one another. Jamie tells Claire that he'll wait at the camp until nightfall, just to make sure she goes safely. Claire sits and thinks for a long time. As she approaches the stones, she realizes that she cannot go. She goes back down to the camp and finds Jamie. She asks him to take her home to Lallybroch. The two joyfully embrace.
If I were to complain about something in this episode, it would be the oddly uneven use of Claire's monologues. I've said from the beginning that they should be more sparing with the voice-overs, and in a way they have been. But in this episode, there was a lot of voice-over work in the trial that I felt didn't need to be there. Then, at the very end of the episode, as Claire reaches for the stone, the screen goes black. We're meant to be tricked, for just a second, into thinking she actually went through to the other side. But if this is Claire's story, and we're meant to be in Claire's head, why do we not get any hints about her thought process during this pivotal moment? It felt unbalanced.
The only other complaint I have is that Claire was the damsel in distress again. I know that Jamie and Claire have a balanced relationship on the whole, but lately I've seen a lot of Jamie saving Claire, and not the other way around. I know where all of this is going, so I guess I hope we can see some more examples of Claire saving herself. It's not the show's fault - it's coming directly from the source material.
But let me tell ya - this episode was SO AWESOME.
First - Lotte Verbeek as Geillis. It's a tricky character, that's for sure, and this woman gets it perfect. She's sympathetic in some ways, but utterly terrifying in others. The character attracts and repulses in equal measure. The highlight of the whole episode for me was the moment when she ripped open her shirt and started shrieking about how she was bearing the son of the devil. She seems to truly care about Claire, as evidenced by her willingness to sacrifice her life. At this same time, she's unsettling in the extreme - she killed her husband, and she's a fierce zealot when it comes to the Jacobite cause. I love all the complexities of her character, especially when I know some stuff from the books that you TV-show watchers don't understand yet. What a great plot twist, huh? Geillis is from the future! From Claire's future, too... farther ahead than Claire has lived.
Every scene with Geillis and Claire is so amazing. These two actresses have such amazing chemistry with one another. I loved the way they did the reveal in the show. It's a little different from in the books. Geillis says "1968," and then later loudly announces that she has the "mark of the devil." Let's be real - that was for Claire's benefit. She wanted to be sure that Claire knew her secret before it was too late. I also liked their talks down in the underground cellar, while they waited for their trial to begin. Claire got in a great moment of defiance when she refused the hand of the man trying to help her up out of her prison. That was an awesome moment.
The court room scene had excellent slow-building tension all throughout. Ned is a delight, and Laoghaire is properly evil at this point. I guess I admire them for going all out with how terrible she is, although I still don't like her much. When Claire was getting whipped, I felt so horrible for her! This show has done an amazing job of setting up so many different associations in the mind of the viewer, so that when Jamie runs in the room and sees Claire getting lashed, we know immediately how horrific such a sight is to him. Not just because he loves Claire, but because he knows how it feels.
Geillis and Claire carried the first half of the episode. Claire and Jamie carry the second. I love them. And they love each other so much, holy hell. Of course there was the hot fingering scene. This is two episodes in a row where we see a sex scene specifically about bringing Claire to pleasure. Awesome! But more than the sex stuff is the actual relationship stuff. The script was particularly strong during Claire's speech to Jamie about how she was from the future. It's a hard concept to sell, but between the script and the phenomenal acting, it worked perfectly. "I'm from the future" is always going to sound hokey, but the emotions beyond the declaration were so sincerely portrayed that I stayed right in the moment with Claire and Jamie.
And then of course there's Jamie's adorable face at the top of the hill, when he stops Claire from going through the stones because he "wasn't ready." And Claire's whispered goodbye. And then the tears in Jamie's eyes when Claire appears back at the camp, choosing to be with him. These two will be the death of me.
I think this was the best episode of the show so far, and it mostly comes down to Jamie being adorably in love, and Geillis being such an awesome character. I can't wait to meet Jenny and Ian next week! I hope the casting works!
9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment
I'd really appreciate hearing what you think!