We're back! It feels like it's been forever since this show was on the air, but I guess it was May 2022 when we last left off, in quite a dramatic fashion, with Claire arrested for a murder she didn't commit, and Jamie separated from her, desperate to save her before it's too late!
Cons:
To start, I do not like the new vocals on the intro. Mostly they were okay, but that weird breathy whisper thing at the very end fading into the episode title card, was just bizarre.
The voiceover is still a weakness of the show. A holdover from a concept that wanted to use Claire's first person POV from the books. There's one instance of it early on from Claire where she's talking about how she knows how long the Revolutionary War will stretch on, and it just felt like an unnecessary emphasis on something we could have gotten just from looking at her face as the other prisoners spoke of the hardships they were facing.
Brianna is still the weak link as an actor. I think I've realized that she's no good at anything but the extremes. She has a really infectious sweetness when she's playing super hyped and excited, and I've seen her do despair and pain very well too. But when she just needs to have a normal conversation with her husband, it sounds super stilted and I feel like I can basically see her reading the lines off a script. It's too bad, I really wish I liked her more. Book Brianna is going to reign supreme, I'm afraid.
I remember that in the book, the nature of Malva's wrongdoing was left a little more vague. We get the story here from Christie that she is in fact the daughter of his wife and his brother, that both Malva and her mother were witches and constantly doing wicked, evil things. The extent to which Tom is just being a violent misogynist is more vague in the books, I feel. This episode felt a bit too sympathetic to Tom's perspective, seemingly giving him a free pass on abusing his daughter because of her "wicked" ways. Which, from what I can tell, include things like "wanting to have sex" and "being terrified of her father finding out about her pregnancy with her own brother". I wish this episode had been a little less kind to Tom. I know he's about to do this incredibly brave and noble thing, but still.
Pros:
The strongest part of the Roger/Bree plot: Roger quoting Ali and getting recognized by Wendigo Donner! I don't think it happens quite like this in the book, but it's the same idea, someone else from the future recognizing a fellow traveler based on a reference to future pop culture. It happened with Geillis when Claire quoted JFK, I believe. I like the ambiguity here, the way Wendigo's presence with Brown's men makes Roger think about the nature of being a bystander. Brianna insists that Wendigo is culpable for Claire's horrible abuse at the hands of Brown and his men, because he stood by and did nothing. Roger points out that he found himself working for Bonnet when he first came through the stones, and was thus witness to his horrible actions, and was unable to do anything to stop him. When do we give people second chances? Does the fact that Wendigo is from the future create a bond between him and the other travelers? I'd certainly be curious and fascinated to find other time travelers if I were Bree and Roger!
The main plot can basically be broken down like this: Claire is a prisoner, but gets pulled onto the Governor's ship to help care for his pregnant wife. Tom Christie decides to turn himself in for the murder of his daughter Malva, out of love for Claire, and also responsibility for Malva's actions, and Claire thus gets to go free.
This is pretty book accurate, though it's a lot more fleshed out with detail in the novel from what I remember. Claire has to pose as a forger for a time on the ship, which is fun. I did think this all worked out very well. Jamie's intense focus on finding Claire is of course great, and I love Ian going to bat for his Auntie, doing everything he can to help protect her.
The comedic highlight for me is when Jamie and Claire are first reunited, and they fall into each other's arms on the ship, kissing passionately. The guard stands there awkwardly for a while and then says: "Excuse me, this is not permitted." It was really funny.
Also, gotta do a shoutout for our first mentions of Lord John of the season; Jamie uses John's name in order to get an audience with the governor and dodge suspicions of being a rebel, straddling a fine line. I love Jamie using Lord John's super intense and inappropriate crush on him in order to further his own ends, that's never not going to be funny to me. I hope we get to see John this season.
Probably the dramatic highlight for me was Jaime and Tom talking about what Tom was going to do for Claire. Jamie ultimately talks about the respect he has for Christie, the ways in which even through their disagreement, he wants to honor him. I think Tom is a bad person, or whatever, but I think Jamie is giving a man walking to his death, the last gift he knows how to give him. I love that Jamie has the capacity to be a jealous person, but when he knows that Tom is in love with Claire, he doesn't resent his love for her. He sees it as the great gift it is, given the circumstances.
So, yeah, there we are! I will say that this episode doesn't feel much like a season premiere, in the sense that it's clearly continuing on (and indeed wrapping up) a story that we spent all of last season on, but I think that's because of pandemic stuff, were they had to cut the last season short, and this one is almost like a "part two" of season six. I'm excited to see where we go from here; I've read all the books in this series, many of them more than once, but they're so long and so much happens, that often I'm only remembering the details once I see them play out on the screen!
8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment
I'd really appreciate hearing what you think!