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Outlander: Ep. 207 Review – Faith, Heartbreak in 3 Acts

In a season and a half, Jamie and Claire have faced so much drama, violence and heartbreak that you want to say “Enough! Let these people live in peace for a little bit!” You want to say that, but you know that doesn’t make for great reading or great TV – and this week’s episode was GREAT. As we roll into Emmy consideration season, I hope this is one of the episodes that Starz submits to voters – there will be no doubt then that this show is worthy of every award.

Let’s start first with the prologue. I really wish that the news about a young girl (Niamh Elwell) as the character Bree had never been found late this week – I would have liked you all to have seen this the way I did, with no speculation, worry that this would be a “half-Frank” piece, or that she would be some manifestation, dream or otherwise. This little bit, showing Claire in 1954 with her 6 or 7 year old daughter Bree, the child she was pregnant with when she came back through the stones in the season opener, was just enough – and helped bookend the episode in a beautiful way. No direct reference to Claire’s heartache, no sadness, just a gentle mother and daughter moment. I’m not terribly sure of the significance of the heron – I looked back at the end of last week’s episode to see if Claire saw a heron then (she didn’t) – but it made for a lovely, small moment, The wings of a great bird are referenced later in the episode, or it could just be a way of bringing up Claire’s memories. “When were you in Scotland, mama?” “A long time ago.” We’ll have to listen to the podcast for an explanation of this.

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Act I – Claire’s Heartbreak

Claire’s pain from  the loss of her baby is multiplied – by Jamie’s betrayal and continued absence. Of course, she doesn’t know at this point that he can’t come to her – do you think anything would keep him from her if there was any way? And she can’t imagine that he would abandon her at this moment either, as angry as she is. It’s taken everything out of her, including her will to live – she seems to just wait for death. The Madonna statue falling and breaking was a quite literal reference to Claire in her situation, maybe a little heavy-handed, but appropriate. Until Master Raymond arrives to put her back together! I wasn’t at all surprised that Bouton understood him and obeyed. The voiceover through much of the past season and a half has irritated me more than a little bit, but it was necessary, and beautiful, here – “I could feel the tiny deaths of the bacteria that inhabited my blood,” Claire says. How else to convey this? Who really is Raymond, and how is he doing this? “What do you see?” he asks, and she responds that she sees wings. blue wings. “Hmm. Blue, the color of healing,” he answers. “The wings will carry your pain away, Madonna.” Could this be the heron she tells Bree that she’s seen?

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Raymond is one of my favorite characters, and I know many of you feel this way – and Dominique Pinon has him down to a T. “I didn’t call you Madonna because you were with child, my dear. Everyone has a color about them. All around them, like a cloud. Yours is blue. LIke the Virgin’s cloak. Like my own.” And his final line to her  “As I told you before, we will see each other again. Have faith.” He’s telling her to not only trust that things will work out, but to hold her child, Faith, close to her heart.

Claire’s homecoming is where I lost it. The servants’ show of respect was so lovely – Suzette rushing up to kiss Claire’s hand, the rest of the footmen and maids bowing their heads. And Magnus, who only had thoughts of saving her life at the Bois de Boulogne – Claire gives him the thanks and respect that would have been unheard of in the 1700s, but was, to her, only his due. (I’m tearing up writing this…) We haven’t seen much of the interaction between the Frasers and the servants, but it’s obvious that it wasn’t the typical dismissive, class-based relationship (think the Duke of Sandringham and his secretaries, both this season and last). (What has happened to Murtagh? Has he still not returned from disposing of Prince Charles’ wine? That’s a question we don’t have an answer to.)

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And then we come to the reason Jamie broke his promise to Claire. Didn’t your heart break for Fergus? Yes, last week we were all yelling at him to get out of that room – we knew what was coming, nothing good ever happens around Jack Randall. But, he tells Claire, “I have a  talent for stealing,” and he saw a little bottle of perfume he wanted to give to Milady… Of course Jamie challenged him. Not only is Fergus his responsibility, but there was no way – NO way – he could let Jack do to Fergus what Jack had done to him. His promise to Claire probably didn’t even occur to him at that moment, or the next or the next. And it was likely not until he was ready to leave that he realized what he was doing, and he scribbled that quick note to her – “I must,” without any explanation.

Outlander Season 2 2016

Outlander Season 2 2016

Without this bit of information, was Claire prepared to let Jamie rot in the Bastille? Or would she eventually have come to her senses and done what she could to free him, even if she still couldn’t bear to look at him?

Act II – The Star Chamber

As brilliant as Acts I and III of this episode were, this was my favorite part. From the costumes – King Louis’ dressing gown was gorgeous, and Claire’s beautiful peacock dress fit her so well – to Gary Steele’s AMAZING sets, to the music (in the entire episode, to be sure – Bear is a genius – read about his Paris music process here), it all lifted the wonderful script above even what I thought we would see. The Star Chamber itself was a masterpiece.

Claire enters the King’s bedchamber, fully accepting what she expects to happen. Did you see the little face of “ew” when she sips the warm chocolate from New Spain? It was likely very bitter, compared to what we think of now as hot chocolate. And his generous gift of an orange from one of his 1,000 trees was, no doubt, a mark of favor. (But why does his wig never fit quite right?)

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But her surprise when he led her from the bedchamber through the small hallway into the stunning Star Chamber, with its masked guards and large braziers – she was already shocked by his knowledge of her as La Dame Blanche, but she seemed to really get into the spirit of her requested role as judge of not only her great friend Raymond, but her haughty Parisian enemy, Le Comte. I loved Claire’s sotto voce “Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ” as the charges were read. Think fast, Claire! What can you use to get Raymond out of the situation, and cause trouble for Le Comte without killing him? So dramatic! Hand in front of her face, seeing the darkness in all mens’ souls, and including the King in that group was a dangerous strategy, but it worked to her advantage.

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Why did Master Raymond have some kind of poison handy? Was it to kill himself quickly should be turned over to M. Forez? (I personally would rather die quickly from poison than be drawn and quartered, thank you, especially after we heard, in detail last week, what that entails.) AND, did it actually kill Le Comte? (Have you read The Space Between, Diana’s novella that really fits in toward the end of Echo in the Bone?)

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Stanley Weber was FABULOUS in this scene, haughty, unbelieving, confessing his attempt to poison Claire earlier, not caring that he was, so to speak, digging his own grave. And his uncharacteristically English “Oh, well,” realizing there was no way he was getting out of this alive – perfect. “I salute you, Master Raymond, you evil bastard,” he declares. And Raymond’s sly near-wink to Claire – “I know what you’ve done, I know what we’re drinking, let me help you help me” – and the drama of whatever he added to the cascara to turn her poison-detecting stone black – oh, my.

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Last season, we had one definite Wizard of Oz reference (“there’s no place like love”) and one fans thought was a reference (Geillis’ red shoes) – the Wizard was with us again, in one more great line – “Perhaps it was shock of what I’d been through, but as Master Raymond was led away,  what ran through my mind was the line from the film – you know the one – ‘I’m going to miss you most of all.'”

But Claire has not yet paid for the mercy the King is inclined to grant – this was all about showing his power over her, not about desiring her or exhibiting any real interest. It was what men have done from the first day they discovered they had both a penis and a strength advantage over women – use both to dominate. And while Louis may personally like Jamie, it was important to show him that the power over his life included the power over his woman. So a couple of quick thrusts, completely dressed, said basically “I can take what I want, whether it’s something I care about or not, and you have no choice.” And Claire was willing to accept that, she understood how the world worked, and like it or not, she paid the price. “I closed my eyes, and thought of England,” she says in voiceover. (“I thought of England”… a reference to unwanted sexual intercourse – if this seems odd to you, read here for more info!) And she took her damn orange with her. (See below for a link to an interview with tonight’s episode writer, Toni Graphia, where this scene is described as “rape.” My personal view is that it was not rape – Claire went into the chamber knowing exactly what would be asked, and willingly gave herself. I’d like to hear what you think.)

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Act III – Reconciliation

And heartbreak is complete. Jamie comes home, afraid of what he is returning to. Afraid to come near Claire, afraid of her anger and her hatred toward him. He knows what he did, and hasn’t forgiven himself – how can he ask her forgiveness? But he too has had great loss, of his child and potentially his wife. He won’t approach until he sees some sign that she’ll allow it, but they must, at least, have one final conversation, he thinks.”I don’t even know if was a boy or a girl. Claire – do you make me beg?” he pleads. And in the silence, only the clock is heard – it might as well be the beat of his heart, because you can see it so plainly in his face. “Do you hate me for it?” “I did hate you,” she responds.

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She tells him of her breakdown in the hospital, of holding their dead child, of Louise finally being able to take the baby from her arms. “She had wisps of the most beautiful copper hair,” she tells him, and her eyes had a slant to them, like Jamie’s. Every word tears him further and further. She tells him how Louise came to see her, and was finally able to take the dead child from her arms.

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“But…it was me who asked the impossible of you. It was me who put Frank in front of our family. It was me who followed you to the woods.” “Frank was your family too,” he tries to tell her. “But he’s not here. And neither is our daughter. It’s not your fault. It’s not even Randall’s fault, not this time. It’s my fault.” Jamie isn’t willing to accept this – he knows that God gives, and God takes. And he reminds her of something he said to her long before – “I asked your forgiveness once. You said there’s nothing to forgive. Fact is, I already forgive you. Long before today. For this and anything you could ever do.” Is that enough for Claire, that Jamie forgives her when she can do no such thing for herself? “How can we be the same?” she cries to him. “We can’t be. The weight of what has happened here is too much for any one of us to bear alone. The only way we can live with it is to carry it together. We lost our child. But by the grace of God, he may give us another.”

And she confesses to him what she had done, expecting, I’m sure, that he could never accept it. But Jamie understands. “You did it to save my life. Just like I gave myself to Randall to save you,” he tells her quietly. If she can forgive him, he can, again, forgive her. Jamie has grown so much since he thought Jenny had “given” herself to Randall in exchange for his life – he couldn’t forgive her until she made him see that if she had done what he thought she had done, was her honor in return for his life any less valuable than his in return for hers?

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And their bittersweet trek to Faith’s grave in the cemetery next to the convent helps them to both to understand that their shared grief will help them through. And they decide to return to Scotland, and see the end, however it turns out, of their failed interventions.

Read my interview with Maril Davis: Part 1 and Part 2

Hollywood Reporter: Interesting interview with tonight’s writer, Toni Graphia – 
do you think that the King raped Claire?

Follow me on Twitter: @OutlanderTIBS, @ErinConrad2 and @threeifbyspace
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