Outlander: Creme de Menthe (3x07)

I suppose any episode following the big reunion is bound to feel a bit anticlimactic by comparison. This is one of those episodes were I liked a lot of the individual moments, but the whole created by them was... well, less than perfect, I guess. Let's dive in.

Cons:

The main complaint I have is that the pacing was a bit too frenetic. I worried about this when I thought about adapting Voyager into a single short season of television, and I was curious as to how it would go, especially given how much time they took in the pre-reunion stages of the story. Unfortunately, this episode seemed to play out my fears. Last week focused on Jamie and Claire finding their way to each other again. This week, we have Claire accidentally killing her attacker, Jamie being forced to move his illegal wares quickly, the seditious materials at the print shop being discovered, the print shop burning to the ground, and none of that is to mention Ian's appearance, Young Ian's sexual awakening, Claire meeting the Campbells, and the reveal of Jamie's secret, that he's married to someone else. All of this crammed into one episode left very little room to breathe and learn more about these characters and how they've changed.

Pros:

As I mentioned, there were many individual moments that I thought were successful, even through the chaos of events. For example, I rather liked the moments we got with Fergus and Young Ian. To absolutely nobody's surprise, I continue to love Fergus with all of my heart and soul. His mentor-ship of Young Ian was adorably unorthodox, forcing me to remember Fergus' less than dignified beginnings as the child of a French brothel. Young Ian's dalliance with the barmaid was actually kind of sweet, if I'm telling the truth. This episode built up enough good will for the character that I really felt it when he was trapped in the burning print shop. After Jamie rescues him, as Young Ian is still gasping for breath, he's apologizing to his uncle for letting him down. Now that is a sweet boy.

More on Fergus - he and Jamie have such a good relationship. I like how they orient themselves to one another, if that makes sense. There's always a hand on an arm and heads tilted close together. There is incredible trust, as well - not only trust that each will keep the other's secrets, but also trust that each can look after himself. Jamie treats Fergus like a man capable of handling his own affairs, and I really appreciate that. During the fire at the print shop, we see Jamie rush in to rescue Young Ian, while Claire and Fergus desperately strain forward against the crowd to see if Jamie and Young Ian are alright. This was a great moment to solidify the family bonds tying these people together.

A highlight of the episode is Fergus and Young Ian talking about Claire. Young Ian is understandably curious about his aunt, a woman he's never met, and Fergus is happy to fill his imagination with images of bravery and brutality mixed together. He tells Ian that Claire was known for her courage in saving men's lives in the heat of battle, but that she was also known for taking a few lives. She's not a woman you want to cross. I love this sort of mythic understanding of Claire. Fergus was around twelve years old when Claire left, so of course he holds "milady" up on something of a pedestal. Oh, as a side note, how cute is it that Fergus still calls them "milord" and "milady"?

The other element of this episode that I really enjoyed was Ian's appearance. His shock at seeing Claire was obviously fun to see. Their reunion was particularly poignant. We got hints in the scenes from next week's episode that Jenny isn't going to be all smiles about Claire's reappearance, and I think Ian's reaction was a good preamble to that of his more hotheaded wife. Ian was undeniably thrilled to see Claire, but the look on his face was also one of deep hurt and disbelief. Claire's excuse about thinking Jamie to be dead wears a bit thin once you start to think about the larger implications. If Claire believed Jamie to be dead, why would she not go to Lallybroch? Or at the very least send word to Jenny and Ian as to her whereabouts? They were all a family, and Claire left behind more than just Jamie when she went through those stones. Of course Jamie can understand the reason for her total disappearance, but the others? They may have a bit of a right to be angry.

Jamie and Claire's argument about Young Ian was another highlight of the episode. Last week was all about these two people finding each other again, and affirming their continued love. This week, the strain of twenty years is starting to show, as well it should. Claire is aghast that Jamie would lie to his brother-in-law about Young Ian, leaving the poor man in distress as to the whereabouts of his youngest son. Claire chastises Jamie for taking Young Ian's life into his own hands, saying that he's not the boy's father. This brings up some anger about Brianna - Jamie says that he had no say in how Claire and Frank raised Brianna, and then accuses Claire of being happy with another man. It's a tense moment, and news of the fire at the print shop comes before they really get a chance to work it out. Obviously Jamie and Claire love each other, but that by itself isn't enough to just erase everything that has happened for two decades.

I think I'll stop there. I'm excited to go back to Lallybroch next week, although I remain nervous about the pacing of this season as a whole. As long as I get sufficient time with Fergus, I'm generally pretty happy!

7/10