So, we finally get the jump forward that book fans have been looking for all season. Twenty years have passed since Claire said goodbye to Jamie and traveled back to her own time. Her daughter Brianna is an adult, and Frank Randall is dead. Oh yeah, and we have to keep flashing back to the preparation for the battle of Culloden, too. Can't forget that.
Cons:
This episode was split up between the final preparations for the Battle of Culloden, and flash-forwards to Claire and her daughter Brianna twenty years later, in the year 1968. I enjoyed almost everything in the episode on its own merit, but there was too little of the stuff in the past, and too much of the flash-forward stuff. As a result, this episode felt like a solid Season Three premiere, rather than a Season Two finale. Usually finales are supposed to wrap up the plot threads of the season, but we didn't even so much as see Charles Stuart in this whole episode, and the battle wasn't depicted at all. I think we'll probably get some of that next season, but for me it left a very incomplete feeling to the season, to not be able to see how some of these things were resolved.
As a result of the Culloden stuff getting so little screen time, a lot of plot had to happen very quickly. In short, Jamie and Claire discuss the possibility of assassinating Charles Stuart to prevent the battle from taking place. Dougal overhears, and attacks Jamie. Jamie is forced to kill his uncle in self defense. Rupert then walks in and sees Jamie leaning over the dead Dougal, with the knife still buried in his chest. Rupert promises to give Jamie two hours before he tells everybody what he's seen. Jamie rushes to make preparations - he signs a deed giving over Lallybroch to young Jamie Murray, his nephew and namesake, so that the land won't be seized after the failed rebellion. The Murrays never rebelled, after all. Jamie entrusts the deed to Fergus and sends him off to ride for Lallybroch. Then, Jamie has to take Claire to the stones at Craigh na Dun. They say their final goodbyes, and Claire goes through the stones.
That's a lot of stuff to get through! And I liked the way this stuff was being portrayed, but one consequence of the rushed nature of these scenes was that there were too many coincidences. Jamie and Claire were really foolish enough to discuss murdering Charles where anybody could hear them? Dougal happened to come by at just the right moment to hear everything, and Rupert happened to stop in while Jamie still had his hands on the knife buried in Dougal's chest? The deed passing the land on to young Jamie really survived through the ages to the twenty-first century for Claire to find? Things were working out a little too neatly.
As far as the flash-forward material goes, I thoroughly enjoyed it... for the most part. But I have to say, I'm not 100% convinced by Brianna yet. It has nothing to do with her physical appearance - I rather think that this show has been smart not to adhere too strongly to the physical appearances of the key players. Being a slave to physicality isn't going to help them tell the story correctly. Honestly, Brianna just seems a bit... bland right now. I hate to say it. I'm not sure if it's the actress or the writing, or some combination of both. I don't hate the performance by any means, but Brianna didn't come across as a distinct human being to me. She seemed like a plot device, or an exposition machine, and not the fully fleshed out character I'm used to from the books. But then again, this was one episode, and it had a lot to cover. I have high hopes that Sophie Skelton will settle into the role and impress me in the future, but I have to be honest... my first impression wasn't totally great.
As a result of the Culloden stuff getting so little screen time, a lot of plot had to happen very quickly. In short, Jamie and Claire discuss the possibility of assassinating Charles Stuart to prevent the battle from taking place. Dougal overhears, and attacks Jamie. Jamie is forced to kill his uncle in self defense. Rupert then walks in and sees Jamie leaning over the dead Dougal, with the knife still buried in his chest. Rupert promises to give Jamie two hours before he tells everybody what he's seen. Jamie rushes to make preparations - he signs a deed giving over Lallybroch to young Jamie Murray, his nephew and namesake, so that the land won't be seized after the failed rebellion. The Murrays never rebelled, after all. Jamie entrusts the deed to Fergus and sends him off to ride for Lallybroch. Then, Jamie has to take Claire to the stones at Craigh na Dun. They say their final goodbyes, and Claire goes through the stones.
That's a lot of stuff to get through! And I liked the way this stuff was being portrayed, but one consequence of the rushed nature of these scenes was that there were too many coincidences. Jamie and Claire were really foolish enough to discuss murdering Charles where anybody could hear them? Dougal happened to come by at just the right moment to hear everything, and Rupert happened to stop in while Jamie still had his hands on the knife buried in Dougal's chest? The deed passing the land on to young Jamie really survived through the ages to the twenty-first century for Claire to find? Things were working out a little too neatly.
As far as the flash-forward material goes, I thoroughly enjoyed it... for the most part. But I have to say, I'm not 100% convinced by Brianna yet. It has nothing to do with her physical appearance - I rather think that this show has been smart not to adhere too strongly to the physical appearances of the key players. Being a slave to physicality isn't going to help them tell the story correctly. Honestly, Brianna just seems a bit... bland right now. I hate to say it. I'm not sure if it's the actress or the writing, or some combination of both. I don't hate the performance by any means, but Brianna didn't come across as a distinct human being to me. She seemed like a plot device, or an exposition machine, and not the fully fleshed out character I'm used to from the books. But then again, this was one episode, and it had a lot to cover. I have high hopes that Sophie Skelton will settle into the role and impress me in the future, but I have to be honest... my first impression wasn't totally great.
Pros:
But I loved this episode. Truly, I did. Despite the rushed nature of the stuff back in the eighteenth century, I adored a lot of the scenes we had.
First of all, Dougal's death scene was intense. Claire helps Jamie push the dagger down and into his chest, and it's honestly pretty brutal to watch. Dougal wasn't attacking Jamie simply out of rage. His heart was broken over Jamie's betrayal, and that was harder to watch by far. Dougal is one of the more complicated characters on this show, and his death is just as complicated as his life. His loyalty to the Jacobite cause is such that he would have died proudly on the field of Culloden, believing his death worth something to the future of Scotland. He has now been robbed of that chance, which is just so sad to think about. At the same time, it's almost a relief to see him die. He was never going to stop causing problems for Jamie and Claire as long as he was alive.
Murtagh gets a million gold stars for his brief moments in this episode. First off, his reaction to learning that Jamie has killed Dougal was fantastic. He basically just raises his eyebrows and says he's surprised it took this long for it to happen. He also refuses to leave Jamie when it comes time for the battle. See, Jamie wants Murtagh to lead the Fraser men away from the fighting. He knows the fight is hopeless, and he doesn't want their blood to spill for nothing. He, on the other hand, will say goodbye to Claire and come back to face his death on the battlefield. He knows that the notorious traitor Red Jamie won't survive the rebellion no matter what, and he'd rather die fighting. Murtagh agrees to help the Fraser men get away, but he insists that he'll come back and fight with Jamie. Jamie tells him that he doesn't want him to die for nothing... but that's not with Murtagh is doing. "I'll be dying with you," he says, in that matter-of-fact tone of his that invites no argument. God, I love Murtagh. He's the character from the books that has transformed the most for me in the show. I love him a lot.
But I loved this episode. Truly, I did. Despite the rushed nature of the stuff back in the eighteenth century, I adored a lot of the scenes we had.
First of all, Dougal's death scene was intense. Claire helps Jamie push the dagger down and into his chest, and it's honestly pretty brutal to watch. Dougal wasn't attacking Jamie simply out of rage. His heart was broken over Jamie's betrayal, and that was harder to watch by far. Dougal is one of the more complicated characters on this show, and his death is just as complicated as his life. His loyalty to the Jacobite cause is such that he would have died proudly on the field of Culloden, believing his death worth something to the future of Scotland. He has now been robbed of that chance, which is just so sad to think about. At the same time, it's almost a relief to see him die. He was never going to stop causing problems for Jamie and Claire as long as he was alive.
Murtagh gets a million gold stars for his brief moments in this episode. First off, his reaction to learning that Jamie has killed Dougal was fantastic. He basically just raises his eyebrows and says he's surprised it took this long for it to happen. He also refuses to leave Jamie when it comes time for the battle. See, Jamie wants Murtagh to lead the Fraser men away from the fighting. He knows the fight is hopeless, and he doesn't want their blood to spill for nothing. He, on the other hand, will say goodbye to Claire and come back to face his death on the battlefield. He knows that the notorious traitor Red Jamie won't survive the rebellion no matter what, and he'd rather die fighting. Murtagh agrees to help the Fraser men get away, but he insists that he'll come back and fight with Jamie. Jamie tells him that he doesn't want him to die for nothing... but that's not with Murtagh is doing. "I'll be dying with you," he says, in that matter-of-fact tone of his that invites no argument. God, I love Murtagh. He's the character from the books that has transformed the most for me in the show. I love him a lot.
Fergus!!!!! Again, there wasn't a lot of time for this character, but we finally got a resolution to what we all already knew in our hearts: Claire and Jamie love Fergus as if he were their own son. They tell him as much. Fergus, bless his heart, tries to refuse Jamie's order to bring the deed transferring ownership of Lallybroch back to Jenny and Ian. He doesn't want to leave Jamie and Claire. But they insist, Jamie clapping a paternal hand on his shoulder and Claire pulling him in to a big hug. Since we know what's coming, it's super tragic to watch this final embrace. As far as they know, it's the last time they will ever see each other.
Sam Heughan's acting deserves a lot of attention this week. It wasn't too over the top or melodramatic, and yet it made me tear up more than once over the course of the few scenes he was in. Jamie is determined to send Claire back through the stones, in keeping with her promise to him, but of course Claire doesn't want to leave him. Jamie then says that he knows Claire is pregnant, and that she must leave for the sake of their child. That was such a perfect emotional moment. Jamie seems proud and pleased that he'll have a child, all while being devastated at the impending permanent separation he must face. Then, up on the hill, Jamie sends Claire off with many frantic kisses, and the amazing quote from the book, wherein he says that he's committed all manner of sins, but he has one good deed to weigh against all the rest: "Lord, you gave me a rare woman, and God I loved her well." He also passes her into Frank's keeping with this amazing quote: "Tell him I'm grateful. Tell him I trust him. And tell him I hate him to the very marrow of his bones." Jamie maintains a sort of sense of humor to the very end, but it's with tears in his eyes that he moves Claire's hand forward and helps her to touch the stone. It was some of his finest acting in the whole show thus far, and it makes me extra excited to see what he does with an older, more seasoned Jamie Fraser next year.
I also want to touch on the strength of Jamie and Claire's bond, here. It could be seen as being cheesy, but honestly their love feels strong and real enough to me that I don't ever roll my eyes when they make their declarations of passion and devotion. I think the most telling moment is when Jamie says he would have died with Claire at the witch trials, had he been unable to save her. The suggestion here is that Jamie would allow Claire to do the same - allow her to die with him at Culloden - if not for the child she was carrying. That's some pretty powerful stuff. Their love is not a polarizing, unbalanced and unhealthy thing. They love each other to the ends of the earth, but they will say goodbye for the sake of a new life.
I also want to touch on the strength of Jamie and Claire's bond, here. It could be seen as being cheesy, but honestly their love feels strong and real enough to me that I don't ever roll my eyes when they make their declarations of passion and devotion. I think the most telling moment is when Jamie says he would have died with Claire at the witch trials, had he been unable to save her. The suggestion here is that Jamie would allow Claire to do the same - allow her to die with him at Culloden - if not for the child she was carrying. That's some pretty powerful stuff. Their love is not a polarizing, unbalanced and unhealthy thing. They love each other to the ends of the earth, but they will say goodbye for the sake of a new life.
Ultimately, the stuff in the future was just as interesting as the stuff in the past, and it got a lot more room to breathe. I was worried that I'd be annoyed with the amount of time being spent in the twentieth century, but I wasn't. The plot covers a lot of ground that, in the books, took up hundreds of pages of storytelling. Basically, Claire and Brianna are in Scotland to pay their respects to Roger after the death of his adoptive father, the Reverend Wakefield. Roger and Brianna hit it off, and Roger helps Brianna investigate the mystery of some incident that happened years ago between her parents. The Reverend kept news clippings and research about Claire's disappearance, which is how Bree discovers that Frank can't have been her real father. Claire turned up three months pregnant after a three year absence. Claire tells the whole story, but of course Bree and Roger don't believe her.
Claire does research of her own, finding the deed that she and Murtagh had signed 200 years previously. She also researches Roger's lineage, upon learning that Wakefield is his adopted name, and he was born a MacKenzie. Meanwhile, Roger and Brianna meet Gillian Edgars, a staunch Scottish Nationalist who has plans to "further the cause." We the audience know that this Gillian, aka Geillis Duncan, plans on traveling back in time. Claire finds out that Roger is actually a descendant of the child that Geillis and Dougal had together, but she still wants to find Geillis before Geillis makes the trip into the past, to warn her and potentially prevent her death. Claire is too late, and she watches, along with Bree and Roger, as Geillis uses a blood sacrifice by killing her husband, and travels through the stones to try and save Scotland in the past. The sight of a woman literally vanishing through stone causes Bree to finally believe her mother. Roger reveals that he found evidence that Jamie survived the Battle of Culloden. Claire, realizing that Jamie survived the battle and might still be alive if she were to travel back two hundred years, says "I have to go back!"
So. A lot to unpack here. First of all, despite the sort of slow pace, I was never bored, and the large amount of information that needed to get across managed to come through. We find out a couple of big shockers: Frank is dead, Reverand Wakefield is dead, Roger is Geillis Duncan's descendant... and Geillis is actually here!
Seeing Geillis again was great. The way they reintroduce her is perfect because we, the audience, know who she is the second we hear her voice, but Brianna, the character who stumbles upon her speech about Scottish nationalism, is the one who sees her first. She has no notion of who this person is, and has thus far lent no credence to her mother's fanciful tale. We also get to see the darkest parts of Geillis. We knew she was capable of murdering her husband - she poisoned Arthur Duncan at Castle Leoch, after all. But now she's done it again! Or rather, she's doing it for the first time, in her own personal timeline. Time travel makes all of this confusing. In any case, Claire's desire to speak to Geillis and try to spare her makes a lot of sense. Here, finally, is a connection to her past, even if that connection hasn't met her yet. It was awesome to bring Geillis' part of the story full circle.
Richard Rankin pulls out a very strong performance as Roger Wakefield, aka Roger MacKenzie. He was immediately very likable, and his scenes with Brianna were Sophie Skelton's strongest scenes as Bree by far, which bodes well for the future of this all-important love connection. I love the fact that Roger sort of takes all of Claire's fantastical stories in stride. He doesn't instantly believe in what she's saying, obviously, but he believes it enough to do some research of his own, and discover the truth of Jamie's fate. His steadfast calmness is what makes Brianna agree to go with Roger and Claire to Craigh na Dun, and he takes the truth about time travel very well, all things considered. I'm really excited to see how Rankin develops the character with time, because as book readers know, he's got a lot of trials and tribulations ahead of him.
Caitriona Balfe was outstanding in this episode. I already gushed about Sam Heughan, but Balfe deserves just as much praise. Her stuff in the past was great, just as it always was, but it was her scenes in the twentieth century that got me really excited for next season. I was understandably nervous about the time jump, since twenty years is an awfully long lacuna in the lives of these characters. But Claire was still... Claire. She's a Claire who, after three years of living in an exciting and dangerous world, is now back to the mundane nature of an ordinary life. She's a Claire who lived twenty years loving a daughter but never fully connecting with her, because of the painful memories of Bree's true father. She's a Claire who lost the love of her life in a very traumatic way, and while she's able to move forward in some ways, she has lost the spark of fire and joy that used to exist within her. This Claire was, in short, believably the same woman that we knew from twenty years previously, with a lot of experiences sitting between what we had and what we now have. Next season, not to spoil anything, Claire and Jamie will indeed reunite. Just as they will have to learn each other again, after such a long absence, we too will need to relearn Claire. I was very impressed with this first glimpse of Claire twenty years older.
Claire does research of her own, finding the deed that she and Murtagh had signed 200 years previously. She also researches Roger's lineage, upon learning that Wakefield is his adopted name, and he was born a MacKenzie. Meanwhile, Roger and Brianna meet Gillian Edgars, a staunch Scottish Nationalist who has plans to "further the cause." We the audience know that this Gillian, aka Geillis Duncan, plans on traveling back in time. Claire finds out that Roger is actually a descendant of the child that Geillis and Dougal had together, but she still wants to find Geillis before Geillis makes the trip into the past, to warn her and potentially prevent her death. Claire is too late, and she watches, along with Bree and Roger, as Geillis uses a blood sacrifice by killing her husband, and travels through the stones to try and save Scotland in the past. The sight of a woman literally vanishing through stone causes Bree to finally believe her mother. Roger reveals that he found evidence that Jamie survived the Battle of Culloden. Claire, realizing that Jamie survived the battle and might still be alive if she were to travel back two hundred years, says "I have to go back!"
So. A lot to unpack here. First of all, despite the sort of slow pace, I was never bored, and the large amount of information that needed to get across managed to come through. We find out a couple of big shockers: Frank is dead, Reverand Wakefield is dead, Roger is Geillis Duncan's descendant... and Geillis is actually here!
Seeing Geillis again was great. The way they reintroduce her is perfect because we, the audience, know who she is the second we hear her voice, but Brianna, the character who stumbles upon her speech about Scottish nationalism, is the one who sees her first. She has no notion of who this person is, and has thus far lent no credence to her mother's fanciful tale. We also get to see the darkest parts of Geillis. We knew she was capable of murdering her husband - she poisoned Arthur Duncan at Castle Leoch, after all. But now she's done it again! Or rather, she's doing it for the first time, in her own personal timeline. Time travel makes all of this confusing. In any case, Claire's desire to speak to Geillis and try to spare her makes a lot of sense. Here, finally, is a connection to her past, even if that connection hasn't met her yet. It was awesome to bring Geillis' part of the story full circle.
Richard Rankin pulls out a very strong performance as Roger Wakefield, aka Roger MacKenzie. He was immediately very likable, and his scenes with Brianna were Sophie Skelton's strongest scenes as Bree by far, which bodes well for the future of this all-important love connection. I love the fact that Roger sort of takes all of Claire's fantastical stories in stride. He doesn't instantly believe in what she's saying, obviously, but he believes it enough to do some research of his own, and discover the truth of Jamie's fate. His steadfast calmness is what makes Brianna agree to go with Roger and Claire to Craigh na Dun, and he takes the truth about time travel very well, all things considered. I'm really excited to see how Rankin develops the character with time, because as book readers know, he's got a lot of trials and tribulations ahead of him.
Caitriona Balfe was outstanding in this episode. I already gushed about Sam Heughan, but Balfe deserves just as much praise. Her stuff in the past was great, just as it always was, but it was her scenes in the twentieth century that got me really excited for next season. I was understandably nervous about the time jump, since twenty years is an awfully long lacuna in the lives of these characters. But Claire was still... Claire. She's a Claire who, after three years of living in an exciting and dangerous world, is now back to the mundane nature of an ordinary life. She's a Claire who lived twenty years loving a daughter but never fully connecting with her, because of the painful memories of Bree's true father. She's a Claire who lost the love of her life in a very traumatic way, and while she's able to move forward in some ways, she has lost the spark of fire and joy that used to exist within her. This Claire was, in short, believably the same woman that we knew from twenty years previously, with a lot of experiences sitting between what we had and what we now have. Next season, not to spoil anything, Claire and Jamie will indeed reunite. Just as they will have to learn each other again, after such a long absence, we too will need to relearn Claire. I was very impressed with this first glimpse of Claire twenty years older.
So there you have it. I don't know if this was the most solid episode ever. The unbalanced relationship between future and past was a little bit awkward, but I suppose I can hope that we'll actually get to see some of the battle in Season Three. In particular, without spoiling anything, there are a few important characters whose fates are determined in that battle, and I will certainly feel cheated if I don't get to see those things play out. But that's not a complaint - it's a hope for a strong future for the show. If this introduction to a twenty years more mature Claire is anything to go by, I think the future is looking bright indeed.
8/10
8/10
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