Outlander: Pharos (8x09)

I love Lord John so much, I'm willing to look past a lot of stuff that's not good about the show these days... he's my weakness...

Cons:

Obligatory statement that the Faith thing and Fergus's death still feel pointless and cruel and neither played into this episode at all. Jamie talking about his son William meanwhile I'm like... you're supposed to be in intense grieving for Fergus but of course he doesn't come up at all... whatever.

I also felt like the time jumping in this episode was kind of perfunctory and bizarre. Even as a book reader I had sort of forgotten Bree was even pregnant and I kind of chuckled when suddenly in voice-over Claire was just like "oh yeah, here's Davy" like. What an afterthought.

My only bigger note for the cons section is... hmm. This might be difficult to fully articulate. It's been a minute since I read the book, and of course book enjoyers are eagerly waiting for the John rescue mission to come in book ten. I do wonder what similarities it will all bear to what we've seen here. But let's ignore the book, and go purely on what we see on our screens here. At the end, when John tells Percy he has to sign an affidavit confessing to trying to smear John's character and kidnapping and all that... I kept thinking, my god, Percy should want to sign the damn thing. It's bad, of course it's bad, but like... that confession he wrote and signed implicates HIM as much as it does John, in committing the crime of sodomy, right? Like, the fact that Percy was blackmailed into doing that, and at no point did the show point out that this would have also ruined his life... it really bothered me how unclear the stakes were.

I also feel like Percy is an interesting character because he's a coward, and our big heroic lead characters all have such disdain for him for not being brave enough to risk his life to protect a loved one, and then in the end he kills himself like... immediately, upon the prospect of potentially going to prison for life? Surely he could have tried to weasel his way out for a little longer. It just felt... fuzzy, to me, if that makes sense. And I don't really share Jamie, Claire, William, and John's utter distaste for Percy. The man was forced to confess to a crime on paper, twice, once by Richardson's threats, and once by John's. What exactly was he meant to do in this situation? 

Pros:

But honestly. As a book reader I really have been waiting for this John rescue mission for years and years, and it was satisfying to see at least some version of it play out on my screen. I love how catty and sarcastic John is, he's such a fun character. He stands up well under rough treatment, he's so clever getting a message to William with his ring. I loved the look on John's face when the door bursts open and it's Jamie on the other side. Like, what on earth must have been going through his mind at that moment? Jamie complimenting the beard was really cute, and the hug with William was everything! We love Claire holding a gun on Richardson and saying she's here on behalf of her former husband. This is such a weird twisted little family situation and I am, as always, obsessed with it.

I have to wonder, again, how this is going to go down in the book, because I kind of can't picture book Jamie saying some of these things to John when they have their reconciliation conversation. I think it's more likely that they both decide to just move past it and say all there is to say with a couple of pats on the shoulder and awkward nods lol. That said, I did love seeing it play out this way too. The minute Jamie says "I have decided to forgive you" is so funny. You just see that Jamie thinks he's nailed this whole interaction, meanwhile John's got steam coming out of his ears, and Claire is rolling her eyes so hard at the both of them.

And then for Jamie to say it felt like a betrayal, what John said to him about his night with Claire, and John saying he was trying to explain something that couldn't be explained... John did need an apology from Jamie; Jamie kicked the shit out of him which was totally unwarranted. In my fantasy version of this conversation, Jamie would allude to the fact that he has a specific reason to despise the idea of a man touching him in that way, beyond just a heterosexual aversion to gay sex. Like, that's another thing that I sort of wish the show would go into more, is that Jamie does love John, he considers him a dear friend, but he does think his proclivities are unnatural and sinful. Claire is put off by John's homosexuality too. They're both homophobes. Like, that's undeniable. I understand why the show wouldn't want to delve into all the messiness of this, but I think it does make things a bit more interesting. I'm not putting this as a "con" of the episode, though, I still liked what we got. I liked Jamie apologizing, I liked John being snarky and then sincere, I liked them sitting down to play chess. I liked Claire challenging Jamie to deny that he loves John.

William and Amaranthus's last conversation was nice, I like that they were able to part with respect and friendship, and that they aren't going to try for a very ill-advised romance. I do wonder what Amaranthus's long-term plan would be from here; her husband is still alive, whether the world knows it or not! I'd watch the spin-off about Lord John, William, and all their gang... I love them so much.

I really enjoyed Claire and Richardson's conversation; any time there's a scene where time travelers encounter each other unexpectedly in this story, I find it really satisfying. I was a little miffed at Claire for letting him go but also at least it made sense why she would have great sympathy with his cause. This show has a bad track record of actually dealing with the racism and slavery thing that's just sort of hanging over our heads constantly. At least this was an attempt to acknowledge it, and I do think it's enough to justify Claire making a reckless choice. And of course John shooting Richardson right between the eyes was horrific and also satisfying in equal measure.

Brianna and Jamie have a scene at the very end of this episode which I enjoyed, where Bree implores her father not to go to the battle where he is fated to die. We've seen within this episode that history cannot be evaded, and Jamie thinks this might be the only way to keep his family safe, to stop the war in the back country. I am, at this point, extremely curious as to what they are going to do to wrap up this show in one more episode. I assume we've seen the last of the bulk of our side characters, that John, William, etc. won't appear as their stories are basically wrapped with this one. I assume we'll see Jamie's ultimate fate, and I wonder whether that will include some reference to his ghostly image looking up at Claire in the window at the very start of the first Outlander book and season!

I don't even know if I think this was a super good episode of TV, but it was an episode that had plenty of Lord John in it, and heartfelt conversations, and William got to hug his other dad, and at this stage in the game, what with the decline in the quality of this show overall, I'm just glad to be getting these precious little morsels however I can.

7.5/10