January 17, 2025

Outlander: A Hundred Thousand Angels (7x16)

Do you ever cry for ten thousand years over the death of a fictional wolf on a TV show? RIP Rollo...

Cons:

Okay, I will say... the Faith thing is dumb? I don't know, y'all. Maybe this is going to happen in the books too but from what I remember about the book version, Claire has this fantasy about maybe Faith lived but it's all pretty vague and unsubstantiated and it's not really true. I really hate the implication that it might be literal here. And like, what are we meant to understand by Frances singing the song, that newborn infant Faith Fraser remembered her mother singing to her and actually remembers the words? That makes zero sense whatsoever, even in the mystical magical logic that this show sometimes implies. I guess we'll wait and see what they do in the final season, but I found that to be a rather dissatisfying cliffhanger. Plus, if true, Jane is William's niece technically speaking which is a little yikes for me, I must say!

I liked the conversation between Brianna and Brian but there was a bit of a pacing weirdness with it, I could have used maybe a bit of tightening and maybe just make it like 20 seconds shorter? It felt like the sentimentality was dragging a bit and undercutting the sincerity of some of what was happening.

I was so, so sure that the end of the episode was going to be Claire and Jamie at the ridge and they'd see Bree and fam approaching from the distance with the "hello the house!" call from the end of book eight! I was so ready for it that not getting it kind of messed with my head. Maybe it's how the first episode of season eight will end, but I just feel like it would have been the perfect season ender just as it was the perfect book ender.

Pros:

But hey. You know, I can complain all I want, but when you cry like seven different times watching a single episode of TV, you know it's a good episode.

I actually did have hope that Jane's fate would be rewritten somehow, even though I knew it was unlikely - what a sad sad thing to have happened. I thought the way it was played was so beautiful, William talking to John about it first and then going to Jamie, the discovering of Jane's body, the way they laid her out and did honor to her, Jamie taking a bit of her hair for Fanny, all of it was just so heart-wrenching.

I really loved the way William navigated things in this episode. The moment where John takes his son's hand and tries to comfort him that Jane's death will mean something because at least she saved her sister... and then William saying, quite calmly, but with just a hint of anger, "you think you know me, don't you?" was just so good. John functions as such an interesting character in this moment because his sympathy is legitimate and he does feel for William's suffering, but he's also pragmatic and not actually that much of a radical that he'd do anything extreme. He looked into the situation, found that Jane was to be put to death, and that's the end of the matter, however much he might regret that. And then William goes to his other dad because he figures Jamie might be down for some breaking and entering where John would not be. So juicy.

The scene where Jamie and William talk about Geneva was one of the times I cried during this episode. That woman basically blackmailed Jamie into having sex with her but none of that matters in the face of this moment, where the kindest thing Jamie can offer William is honesty - he did not love William's mother, but she was courageous and curious and bold, and he deserves to know that. Jamie touching William's face and saying that he could never regret what came of that night, even though he regrets his part in Geneva's death? Oof. Goosebumps. And William, just the way he delivers that line, saying that he'll never call Jamie "father"... now I'm just waiting with bated breath to find out if William ever breaks that rule for himself in the future.

Ian and Rachel are going to have a baby! I think I can say pretty definitively that the Ian and Rachel story-line has won me over and that I find their love more compelling in the show than in the books. Mostly on the strength of the acting; they just seem so genuine and sweet and in love and tender with one another. The biggest crying moment in the episode for me was of course Ian waking up to find that Rollo had died in his sleep. His "oh no, no, no" and his cries of despair were gut-wrenching to listen to and I had real tears over it. Rachel is the sweetest with her "I married him when I married thee" thing. What a good egg.

I really have to give all the props in the world to Richard Rankin as Roger in this episode - I literally went back and watched his reunion with his family three times and cried at it, just on the strength of his performance. The child actors are, you know, they're kids, they're doing just fine, and as I've said before I think Sophie is the weakest acting link on the show as Bree, so to have that reunion hit as hard as it did was mostly thanks to Rankin's bewildered joy. The way he called out Brianna's name! Ooof! And then that last moment, where the perfect little family tableau turns and includes Buck, and he comes over to share in their joy? Wow. Hitting me in the feels big time. That's his family too!

As I said, there was something just a little off about the scene with Brianna and Brian, but I did love Brian's understated performance, and what he said about how when his wife died, he kept his heart open, and didn't shut down, and that that means he's open to finding her out in the world. He sees a glimpse of her in Brianna, even though he'll never understand that he's looking at his granddaughter. It's such a sweet little scenario! And I liked Brianna complimenting Lallybroch, what a cool experience to meet the man who built your house centuries before you lived in it.

In some ways I wish we'd had more angst over Claire getting shot, since when we check in with her in this episode she's very much on the mend... but I also liked getting some gentle recovery scenes with her. Yet another cry moment for me was Denzel near tears when he talked about how horrible it was to have to perform surgery on family - on someone he loves. That's just the sweetest thing, I love seeing Claire in this mentor role, where she is someone Denzel truly looks up to and admires, and they're also bound by a family connection now through Rachel and Ian's marriage. So sweet!

On that note, the young girl playing Fanny gets the prize for child acting on this show, I really loved her performance. It seemed like she was in shock until they got to the cemetery of unmarked graves, and then her grief just spills out of her, and I started crying yet again. We see again how Claire has aged into this really matronly role in the lives of the people around her, I loved the tenderness with which she spoke to Fanny about grief and memory.

Obviously my favorite scene is the one with John and Jamie and Claire, yeesh, this season fed me SO well with all that drama. It's one of my favorite things about the books, the way that even as John and Jamie's relationship is pretty irrevocably fractured by what happened, John and Claire are now basically besties? Like, John coming to visit her because she got hurt, an the hand holding, and calling her "my dear"... and then the extremely sassy "Mrs. Fraser" after Jamie snaps at him for addressing Claire so familiarly... perfection. We must stan. Jamie and John doing their tension glaring while Claire is openly exasperated, like, I half expected her to literally say "ugh, boys," when she was watching them have their little standoff. And then because she's a boss and she's definitely in charge of both of them, she calls John to her side, has him take her hand again, and right there in front of Jamie, thanks him for "saving her life", to which John replies that they "saved each other" and then kisses her hand, calls her Mrs. Fraser again, and leaves... like, Jamie, buddy, you know I love you, but John won this interaction so hard it's not even funny. I love love love it.

I think we'll stop there - lots of stuff to dig into in the eighth and final season, which I believe is already done shooting so should be arriving much sooner than we had to wait for the back half of this season... there's a lot I'm looking forward to and hoping to see, but mostly I'm just wondering if my Lord-John-related good fortunes will continue... I want more of him, I want Percy, I want it all. But also, I miss Fergus and Marsali something fierce and I would love to see them before the show ends! And we've got some epic reunions coming up with Bree and Roger on their way back home at last. I can't wait to watch it play out!

8.5/10

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