SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. OH. MY. GOD! It happened! It finally happened! And it was so, so worth it. Tears, real, actual tears fell out of my eyes at the end of this episode. This is the first episode of the season, thus far, which left me with a most satisfying feeling of catharsis – the laugh I had at Jamie’s expense really helped with that. Finally, we end an episode on a happy note.
I am so glad it didn’t end at the point that I assumed that it would. That would have been so infuriating. I thought that Outlander would do what most other shows do and that was cut to black, end the episode, right as it was on the cusp of giving viewers exactly what they have wanted and been waiting for since time immemorial. I expected the episode to end at the moment she opened the door to the print shop.
But it didn’t! We actually saw her go in. We heard Jamie’s voice. We saw her walk up to him. We saw her speak to him. We saw him turn around and lay his eyes on her for the first time in over a decade. We saw his reaction. We saw him faint. We. Saw. EVERYTHING! And it was so satisfying. Even as I write this (immediately after viewing the episode) I’m tearing up with how overjoyed I am that we actually got their reunion. Finally. Finally!
It was the perfect point to end the episode at. We got enough of their reunion to not feel cheated and to make us eagerly anticipate not just the next episode, but the rest of the season. As much as I would like next Sunday’s episode to deal exclusively with the immediate moments after Jamie fainted, I also want it to be about what he did between Helwater and the print shop. I’m very curious about what he did in the interim and hope that the season covers that sooner rather than later.
I was scared for a little while that Claire would enter the print shop and find Jamie with a whole new family. A wife and a child or two. It was a pretty irrational fear because if Jamie’s time away from her proved anything, it was that he had no intentions and no desire to form a relationship or family with anyone but her. No matter how much he had pulled himself out of his depression over her loss. So really, I’m expecting him to still be single.
After almost an entire episode dedicated to Jamie, we got one dedicated to Claire. Everything in this episode was pushing her toward going back to Scotland and through the stones. Joe with his “F–k fate” , Roger with his evidence of Jamie’s location and Bree with letting Claire go – something that she was always prepared to do. The universe was pushing her toward it and for a while, she wasn’t heeding the call.
I expected her to just jump at the opportunity to go back to Jamie when Roger told her he had found him. Her hesitation, her refusal really took me by surprise. We know that she knew that if Roger had told Brianna that she’d have told Claire to go back to Jamie. I believe that’s why she told Roger not to. So when she did tell Brianna herself – and I’m glad it came from Claire and Roger didn’t go behind her back – it was the moment when we all knew she was ready.
I don’t even really believe that it was her work that was keeping Claire in Boston, 1968. As much as she loved it and would have missed it. She can do her work in Edinburgh, 1766. Bree is what kept her there, so they needed to have the talk that they did in order for Claire to finally decide to go back to Jamie. It was sweet how Bree was kind of the “adult” in the situation. Like a reversal of a daughter going to her mother for advise about boys.
I felt like Roger’s conversation with Brianna at Harvard, was building toward her going with Claire. It certainly felt that way since a good bit of it was about them talking about not knowing their fathers. Especially with his lines about what Reverend Wakefield told him about his father made him know himself better and that in order for a person to know themselves they need to know their history. It made me wonder why no one considered or suggested that Bree go with Claire. Even Bree herself. Isn’t she a little curious to meet Jamie?
It made sense that Bree was having an identity crisis after everything she’d learned about Frank, Jamie and Claire. It seemed like she lost all interest in history since discovering Frank wasn’t her biological father, though, and I like how she had a love for the subject just like he did. But her emotional turmoil about the whole thing went deeper than I would have that. It hurt to hear her say that she thought Frank hated her for looking like Jamie and Claire resented her for being the reason she had to leave him.
The Frank bit hurt more just because we know how very, very much he loved Brianna. She was the reason he stayed in his miserable marriage with Claire and he was going to take her with them once they were divorced. Which reminds me…
At first, when Sandy started to tell off Claire about how she treated Frank, I was like “Who the hell does she think she is? This woman needs to learn her place.” But by the end of her little tirade against Claire, I was on her side. She was right. Everything she said was true and I was kind of glad that someone finally berated Claire for how she treated Frank. Even Joe said that everyone knew that their marriage was a sham. Claire really should have let Frank go.
I’m really confused about how time moves between the past and the present. Didn’t Roger say in the last episode that the same amount of time passes on either side, so Claire’s three years in the 18th century equated to three years in the present? If so, why then is Claire going back to 1766 instead of 1768? Also, Jamie looks like he hasn’t aged as much as her.
Random thoughts:
- Oh. Jamie kept on not using his real name.
- I love that the episode of Dark Shadows that Roger is watching is relevant to Claire.
- Joe is Claire’s Stephanie.
- The inclusion of the Batman theme is hilarious!
- Aww, she gave Bree the pearls.
- Roger better stay in Boston and marry Bree.
Outlander airs Sundays at 10 pm on Starz.
