Outlander: The Doldrums (3x09)

Okay! We're getting in to the part of the book series that I love the most - the stuff in the colonies. I mean, first Jamaica. But you know what I mean. Across the Atlantic. Let's see how the show does with this latest shift in the story!

Cons:

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'm still pretty concerned about the pacing. This episode is so jam-packed with stuff that I feel like a lot of the important character beats are being rushed through. Like Willoughby is a character we've barely met, and Claire having a couple of short conversations with him isn't enough to make the moment where he tells his story truly land. Or how about Jamie telling Claire that if she wants, he'll take her back to the stones. That should have been a huge deal, but there were so many other things to worry about that we sort of just brushed right by it. And the episode ends with Jamie and Claire being separated which... well, I know it happens in the book, but in terms of the show it's been a very short amount of time since they were reunited and it feels a bit disruptive to throw in another separation at this point.

Pros:

I know I said the Willoughby stuff was a bit rushed, but this actor just killed it with his moment. He grabs everybody's attention with such heartbreaking intensity and theatricality. It was one of the highlights of the episode.

Fergus and Marsali? I'm all about it. A smart change from the books is that they never mention Marsali's age. She's technically supposed to be fifteen, and Fergus is thirty, which always really freaked me out. Here we're maybe fudging a bit in either direction and making believe that she's a bit older and he's a bit younger. Whatever. Point being, Marsali is great. I like her disdain for Claire and her hard-headed determination to get what she wants. Claire, it must be said, has some problems getting along with other women. As a book reader I know the ultimate fate of Marsali and Claire's relationship, but it's fun to see this early drama. It feels realistic to what might actually be going through their heads.

Fergus is adorable and I will love him forever and always. I liked the moment when he talked to Jamie and said he'd hoped that he'd be happy for him. He didn't tell Jamie about his courtship with Marsali, Jamie's step-daughter, because he was a coward. I'm reading more into it than is probably actually there, but to me this all ties in to Fergus' unofficial place in Jamie's life. Sure, Jamie has taken him up as a son and will always be there for him, but he doesn't bear Jamie's name or have an official role in the family. His insecurity about asking Jamie for his blessing is about more than just Marsali - it's about getting approval from his father figure.

We end the episode with Claire boarding a British ship to assist with an outbreak of Typhoid fever. I was disgusted and impressed with the scene where she goes belowdecks and sees all the sick men. It was a truly disquieting and visceral sequence of scenes. I'm pretty excited to see Claire take charge as a bad-ass physician and whip this boat into shape. Necessity often leads to opportunity, and in this case we see Claire, despite being a woman, thrust into a role of power and leadership. Mere minutes later, her power is taken from her as the ship takes off with her still on board, leaving Jamie and the others behind on their own ship. I like this strange dynamic of Claire being both prisoner and high-ranking healer at the same time.

One final note: they did a new West Indies themed opening, like what they did when they were in Paris, and it got me super jazzed for the coming episodes. I love the attention to detail that goes in to the opening credits.

That's all I'm going to say about this episode for now. It isn't the strongest of the season, and in some ways almost feels like filler, despite the sometimes frenetic pace of the exposition. But at the end of the day, there was still a lot of good stuff going on here, and if nothing else I feel like we got several jumping-off points for plot lines I'm excited to see explored.

8/10