Outlander: Memory and Angels, Season Finale Ep. 716 – Review

This half season has gone so quickly, hasn’t it! Because of the split, it’s hard to think of Season 7 as a comprehensive whole, but as an 8-episode mini-season, this was wonderful. Every episode was well-written, beautifully acted, and very emotional. Of course, the season finale is no different. While I’d still say that last week’s episode was the best of the eight, this one was not far behind! And as I usually try to do, I found the theme for this one – memory.

It begins as several episodes throughout the series have begun – with childhood memories. We’ve had them with Brianna, with Jamie, a little bit with Roger (remember the little plane?) and now Jane and Fanny are remembering what was probably one of the few lovely memories they have, likely before their mother died, skipping through the cat tails chasing dragonflies. It’s a sweet and beautiful remembrance, for two girls whose subsequent lives were short on both the sweet and beautiful.

Much of the episode moved fairly quickly, trying to wrap up a number of storylines. John and William are reconciled, Ian and Rachel are facing major new stages in their lives together, and well, we knew Claire survived, didn’t we? I could have done without the two minutes spent on Claire getting out of bed and getting to the bucket, but I suppose since we had a pee scene with Jamie, when he met Brianna, it’s only symmetrical to get one with Claire. I don’t  really see the point of it – it wasn’t dramatic, it didn’t really further the story, and we could have used that two minutes for, I don’t know – what will Buck do now that the “mission” is over; seeing Jemmy meet his great-grandfather rather than just hearing about it. There must have been three other things  they could have used that time for!

John and Jamie…

There was one not-quite-wrapup that I wish had been more. John comes to see Claire and check on her, and he says to her, “You should be resting, my dear.” Yes, that did seem a bit more tender toward her than he had been before their…. um, ill-fated marriage, but Jamie’s response was still a bit chilly. “Dinna be  calling her that,” he gruffs at John. John gets it – “You should be resting, MRS. FRASER,” he repeats. And while Jamie bristles, Claire rolls her eyes. She knows her man. I would have liked SOME bit of rapprochement between the two men, but I guess Jamie’s just not ready. Pig-headed Scot…

John and William…

Speaking of pig-headed, William takes after his father – both of them, I suppose.

Jamie and William…

You knew he would ask at some point, didn’t you? For William, finding out that he is not, in fact, the son of the late Earl, but instead the son of the estate’s groom, has been a huge blow. And while he felt he had no choice but to ask the next most competent person for help with Jane, someone with (as he sees it) less scruples than his adopted father Lord John, he’s certainly not at all happy or comfortable with it. But it does give him the opportunity to get some of his questions asked. Hasn’t every adopted child wondered where they come from, who their parents are? “Tell me how I came to be. I want to know what happened with my mother when you lay with her that night.” But Jamie really is a man of principal, and wouldn’t disparage a woman, especially one that he was intimate with. “A decent man doesn’t speak of such.  That’s not what you want to know. What you want to know is, did I force your mother? I did not. You want to know, did I love your mother? I did not.”

William is still young, naive, and romantic- much can be excused if Jamie and his mother were star-crossed lovers. “Did she love you?” “She was very young,” Jamie replies. “And it was my fault.” But William had heard a few things about Geneva, growing up with his grandparents and his aunt. “Everyone says she was beautiful. Arrogant, impulsive. Heedless.” But Jamie saw her a little differently, maybe from the perspective of time. “She was courageous. Did they tell you that, at least? Her family, folk that kent her. She was bold, curious, confident.”

“Are you sorry for it? Are you sorry for it, damn you?” William needs to know. “She died because of it. And I shall feel sorrow for her death and do penance for my part in it until my dying day. But no, I am not sorry.” I loved both the hesitant gesture Jamie makes to touch his son, hopeful that they’ll find the beginnings of a relationship, and the quick scenes of Jamie and young Willie, of their “stinking Papist” bond, of their tearful goodbye. This episode, “Of Lost Things” in Season 3, is one of my most favorite episodes. And while William is not one of my favorite characters, I can definitely sympathize with this young man, who lost both his parents at his birth, in mysterious circumstances. He is still much loved, completely taken care of, but every child needs to know their parents and that they didn’t leave because they didn’t love them. He has a lot of maturing to do, but hopefully some of his healing and growing up can start with this conversation. Even though, as he throws at Jamie while walking out, “I will never call you father.”

Jane

There was definitely something about Jane, something translucent and transcendent. Actress Silvia Presente played the brave, sweet, but ill-fated prostitute beautifully, slightly mad, not railing against her fate, but believing that what she did was the right thing to do. I’m not quite sure what “the inquisitor,” as he’s named in the credits, actually was – reporter? Jane refers to broadsheets (which were newspapers of the day), and the man tells her he may be the last person she ever talks to. She was smart and lovely, and would have made something better of herself except for the circumstances she found herself in as a child. It’s no surprise that William was attracted to her, and that her death – by her own hand, in her own time – was a huge tragedy (and she was faintly humming the tune that Fanny sung in the church). Waving to the “hundred thousand angels” of the Northern Lights, she bid them come down and take her to the heavens – a memory of their mother that Fanny tells Claire about – rather than let her beloved young sister see her hung. (Yes, while it’s rare, the Northern Lights do appear that far south.)

Jane and Fanny

This is really the only thing I want to talk about. Could we just lop off that last five minutes and start over? While it’s always  nice to see old friends, I had a sneaking suspicion that I knew what was coming when Master Raymond appeared to Claire. To refresh your memory – in S2, Claire hemorrhaged and gave birth to her child too early for that child to survive. Master Raymond came to her and healed her (in the book, it was much more explicit that he reached into her uterus and we assume removed pieces of the placenta that hadn’t been expelled). But the child was much too early to survive – maybe not these days with all the scientific advances – but certainly in the 1700s, that child could not have lived.

While the speculation came up in Written In My Own Heart’s Blood, both Jamie and Claire agreed that it wasn’t possible. And when asked by a fan about her opinion, Diana didn’t seem too happy with this (unlike her approval of Murtagh’s fate). She also discussed it with Paulette Cohn of Parade Magazine, saying “No part of the ending is from the books, save that Frances’s mother’s name was Faith. ”

So here we are – with sweet Fanny singing a song she could not possibly have known, a song written in 1907, but sung by Claire to her dead baby. “I do like to be beside the seaside,” Claire sang. And both girls have “Claire hair,” wild and curly; Jane’s had a reddish hue that reminded me of Jamie’s (while Fanny was a dark blonde, young children often have lighter hair colors). But nothing adds up in this. If Raymond could heal the child, why keep her from her parents? She still would never have remembered the song sung to her, unless Raymond sang it. But I don’t know where the show can possibly go with this in Season 8, and frankly, I don’t want to know. In the meantime, though, Fanny is safe with the Frasers. They’ve shown her that they care about her, by taking her to the cemetery where Jane is buried, honoring the young girl’s grief and fears. Jamie has addressed those fears – “I’ll take care of you. I promise, you’ll be safe. No  man will ever take you against your will. As long as I’m alive, I promise.” It won’t be easy, fitting into a life that’s 180 degrees from how she expected to be living, but Jamie and Claire will make sure it’s as normal as possible.

Here’s the memory that the girls’ mother couldn’t possibly have, from Season 2.

How could Fanny know this song? She says her mother sang it to her and Jane – her mother, named Faith. And as the realization hits Claire….. my notebook hit the wall. In the deviation scale where Murtagh surviving Culloden is at the top, rated “yeah, ok, I really like this” – which our gamers Charles and Richard would say is Lawful Positive; and with Frank’s mistress Sandy showing up at the house as Chaotic Neutral; this change has to be Chaotic Evil. WHY??? Where does this go? Sure, in book nine, Jamie and Claire discuss this – but ONLY because of the mother’s name, and they come to the definite conclusion that it’s just a coincidence. But with the show – they can’t just drop this now in Season 8.  And there is NO valid explanation for Fanny having ever heard this song.

So where do we go from here? Faith was, at the most, 13 or 14 years older than William, about a year older than Brianna. She would have had Jane when she was maybe 13-15, if we can assume that Jane is now, at the oldest, 18. That makes Jane and Fanny the grandchildren of Jamie and Claire, and William’s nieces. While the possibility that William slept with, and was falling in love with someone who was possibly his niece is yes, kinda yucky, remember that he had no way of knowing.

Roger and Brianna

A beautiful scene between Brian Fraser and Brianna highlighted what she’s been told all her life, that she greatly resembles Jamie’s mother Ellen (although the portrait she stops to look at in the hall doesn’t really look much like her). Brian, Brianna’s grandfather, senses a connection, but has no idea how much of one exists. They discuss Lallybroch, and it’s interesting to hear this, especially as this summer, we’ll be getting Brian and Ellen’s story, and presumably the actual building of the house! “I built it with my own hands, stone by stone. But it was the woman I built it for who was special. My late wife, Ellen. You remind me of her. My Ellen was a Mackenzie as a maiden. When Ellen died, I never changed the locks. In grief, some folk find a way to close the door to their hearts, but mine is still wide open. Her memory comes unbidden even after all this time.” What a lovely segue this is into the upcoming prequel Blood of My Blood, and we were given a short trailer for this program yesterday.

Starz has said – in the trailer – that the prequel will come out this summer, and I’ll give you my prediction now that season 8 of Outlander will immediately follow the end of this show, just as Sam’s The Couple Next Door is beginning tonight immediately after airing episode 716. That would put the season starting some time this fall, depending on when BOB begins (but please note, I have no information that you don’t have, and my predictions are wrong more often than not).

Still, since I (and many many others) expected the episode to end with “Hello, the House!”, that wasn’t completely lost – the  now reunited Roger and Bree discuss where and when they belong. It won’t at all surprise me if Season 8 sees them already on the Ridge, and we don’t get the actual arrival. Seeing them run down the hill, though, and Jamie and Claire’s reaction, would be an appropriate opener.

Ian and Rachel

FINALLY – the last thing I want to comment on is Ian and Rachel. Baby Oggie is coming (the “prebirth”  name given to their child in the books). This joy is tempered with great sadness – the death of Ian’s long-time companion Rollo. Yes, I cried, and don’t lie, so did you. In case you missed it, I interviewed the dog’s owner  in 2023 (this was the second dog to play the role – Dui was the original Rollo, but a Czechoslovakian Wolfdog named Yogi took it over starting in Season 6). Here’s the link to my chat with his owner, Wendy Norris. And I can just hint at this point – look for Yogi in a blockbuster film coming out this spring!

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A note about Sam’s show The Couple Next Door, which debuted on Starz in the US tonight – I’ll bring you my thoughts about the first few episodes over the weekend. Watch for that post! I will not be reviewing this weekly, however. If you haven’t yet watched it, here’s the trailer:

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