Outlander: Down the Rabbit Hole (4x07)

I'm actually quite torn... see, the problem is, I really don't like a lot of what this episode chose to focus on. But the performances and the way these scenes were written and shot were quite good, so it's like I'm looking at the best possible version of something that I disagree with at its core. Sort of. I don't know. Like I said... torn.

Cons:

Let's start with the element I'm the most clearly displeased with: Laoghaire. I don't have a problem with Bree being found by Laoghaire, and I liked the moments with her and little Joan well enough, but there are a couple of big issues here. One is that they play the "misunderstanding" and "dramatic irony" card way too heavily. Laoghaire is apparently so bitter about Jamie that she is willing to unburden herself to a random sassenach stranger. Brianna and Laoghaire discuss Jamie abandoning the family, being bewitched by another woman, all while Laoghaire doesn't know Bree is Jamie and Claire's daughter, and Bree doesn't know that she's hearing about her dad. This might have worked for a bit, but the pacing is pretty sluggish, and it takes way too long into the episode to get past this basic comprehension hurdle.

Also, Laoghaire is just... a weird character. They've never quite been able to balance her villainy with the sympathy we're clearly supposed to feel for her. I could understand Laoghaire becoming cold upon finding out that Bree is Jamie's daughter, but I thought we were going to go down a more sensible route, and have Laoghaire wordlessly usher Brianna out of her home, or even tell her the truth about Jamie and demand that she leave. That would make sense. But screaming at her, locking her up, threatening her with an accusation of witchcraft? Jeez, Laoghaire. Calm the heck down.

The other very unfortunate consequence of these scenes is that it means Brianna spends hardly any time at all at Lallybroch. I gather that scheduling conflicts made the actress who plays Jenny unavailable. That's unfortunate, but these scenes still could have been worked out in a better way. Bree should have spent most of the episode at Lallybroch. She should have spent it with her uncle Ian, with her cousins, in the space where her father grew up. In the books, these scenes are important moments for Bree to start to learn who her father is for herself, and we missed out on some valuable stuff by spending so much time on Laoghaire.

I found the scenes with Frank and Bree to be much stronger, but the same overall problem comes up here. I'm not a purist when it comes to adapting the books, far from it, but the thing about this series is that it is full of incident. A lot happens. There are tons of characters, and tons of stuff goes on, and I'm fine with cutting stuff out or rearranging it, adapting it, expanding it, reducing it, whatever. But I felt this episode resembled Season One's "The Search" a little bit, in that it takes little hints from the book and bloats them to an extent that's unsustainable. Tobias Menzies is a fantastic performer, and the scenes between Frank and Bree were genuinely touching... but they went on too long, and they took away from so many moments that would have enhanced the story and Brianna's character in a stronger way.

For example, we learned last season that Frank died in a car crash. This is in the books, although Frank is a much less sympathetic character there, at least from Claire's point of view. The fact is, Gabaldon uses "car crash" in the really contrived and cliche way that writers do when they need to kill someone off whose time in the story is over. The fact that Claire's parents died in a car crash and then so did her husband... it strains credulity. By having a scene where Bree talks to her father's tombstone and wishes she'd stayed with him instead of leaving on the night of his death, we're only drawing more attention to a silly plot contrivance. Then there are things like ghost-Frank showing up at the end to nod encouragingly to Brianna as she sets off on her quest to find Jamie. I love the emotional underpinning of that - it's Bree getting permission from the man who raised her, her father, to go and find Jamie, the father she's never met. But the actual scene read as way too cheesy, despite Skelton and Menzies' best efforts.

I said that I don't mind changes from the books, but I do question the casting of Lizzie. I get why they changed Brianna so she's not this extremely tall and striking presence, but Lizzie is supposed to be a child - a waif, a pathetic little wisp of a girl. They cast someone who's taller than Bree, and looks older than her too! That's a pretty dramatic departure.

Pros:

Wow. That's a long section of "cons." But like I said, this episode was pretty confusing for me, and I imagine pretty polarizing for a lot of fans of the show. Let's get in to some of the good stuff.

The performances. I've been a skeptic of Sophie Skelton since day one, but she was really strong in this episode, and has indeed been getting stronger all season. I liked the way she played off of the various people she encountered along the way. I like that Brianna's got this gentle, quiet way about her, but you can sense the fire underneath. Not unlike her mom. She's strongest when playing off of Frank, which is why, despite some hesitation about these scenes being included, I'm ultimately pleased that we got to spend some time with Brianna and Frank, and understand the true love and devotion that existed in that father/daughter relationship. Brianna's decision to go back in time to find Jamie and Claire makes perfect sense, but there's this little aspect of it that must feel to Bree as if she's choosing Jamie over Frank. We see that Frank was an excellent father to Brianna, and this makes Brianna a much more complex and interesting person, and rounds Frank out into a three-dimensional character as well. I might have wished for less screen-time, but I enjoyed the heck out of the performances here.

The scenery. The beginning scenes, where Bree is walking through the Scottish wilderness on her own, are, again, perhaps a bit too long. The pacing could have been shaved a bit, saving more time for Ian, or for Lizzie's introduction, or whatever. But I can't deny that it looked beautiful, all the same!

Roger's scenes with Stephen Bonnet. Early in the episode, I was almost inclined to put the Roger material in the "cons" section along with a lot of the rest of the episode. But by the end, I realized that I had been holding my breath, jaw clenched, every second that Roger and Bonnet were on screen together. Obviously as a fan of the books I know what's coming, but I honestly think even without that, I would have more than enough to hate Bonnet with a passion. There's the moment early on, when Roger is asking for passage, and Bonnet keeps saying no and trying to leave, and Roger keeps insisting, keeps pushing. It's so tense, and such a good use of dramatic irony (much better than with Laoghaire and Bree). See, we know that Stephen Bonnet is a villain. We also know that Bree isn't in the Americas yet. Roger is fighting so hard to get to Bree, but what he's really doing is throwing in with a horrible villain that will actually be taking him farther away from Brianna. It's aggravating in the extreme, and I kept wanting to yell at my screen - don't do it, Roger! Just wait for another boat! That's excellent storytelling.

I like that Outlander maintains a tone of mysticism that allows for the coincidences to feel like a part of the larger fabric of fate. It doesn't bother me that Brianna stumbles upon Laoghaire, for example, or that Roger ends up on Bonnet's ship. Similarly, it doesn't bother me that Roger happens to find, on that ship, certain MacKenzies who bear quite the significance going forward. I suppose I'll keep quiet so as not to spoil it for anyone, but keep your eyes and ears open! I liked the bits we got with Roger caring for this mother and child, and I'm excited to see more of that develop.

This review is pretty long, but I felt like I really needed to take the time to suss out my complicated feelings on this episode. As I finish writing all of this out, I'm still torn about what my final conclusion is. I didn't hate this episode. Far from it. I appreciate taking the time to flesh out Bree and Roger as their own characters, and to take a pause from Claire and Jamie's story for a week. But there were choices made here that I'm having trouble getting wholly behind.

7/10