Love is not weightless or free. There’s a cost, and a weight of love (which, incidentally, is one of my all-time favorite songs, The Weight of Love, by the Black Keys). Jamie and Claire certainly feel it, but all of our Outlander characters are dealing with that weight in this excellent episode. This one is probably my favorite of the season.

I almost always look for a theme to each episode. I can’t think of another one where the theme, intended or not, jumped out at me so clearly. And for each person, the weight this week was worry and fear – Jamie and Claire’s fear of losing each other, John and William’s fear of exposure and identity, Brianna and Roger’s fear of separation. Writer Danielle Berrow used a combination of Diana’s original text and dialogue, and extended scenes to convey the depths of emotion and fear of loss to the greatest effect I’ve seen this season. Even though Diana herself wrote last week’s terrific episode, there was way too much crammed into the hour to make much of it as emotional as this episode was.

Jamie and Claire

We don’t get a lot of Claire voiceover any more – probably for the best – but this week, it was particularly well used. Foreshadowing, heart-tugging, and reflective, Claire knows better than most how devastating war can be. And we’ve seen so much death in this show that we can somehow be a bit numb to it – but her speech in the opening montage brought all of the anguish and anxiety back.

Even people who won’t go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. A life can be snatched away, frittered or thrown away, ended peacefully in one’s bed, or in horrific pain on the battlefield. Lives lost in conflict, needless bloodshed. How many people have died that way, how many still would? It doesn’t stop, it doesn’t get better. As Murtagh once said, there’s always war coming. War is inevitable. And death is too.

Jamie and Claire are on the eve of another battle, this time with Jamie leading a large group of men. Claire, just recovering from presuming Jamie dead, knows exactly what it would feel like if that were true – for her now, this is not an abstract fear. She’s lived through it once, with a fortunately happy ending, but it’s like passing by the spot where you were in a terrible accident – your stomach clutches, you’re ultravigilant. You don’t want to ever go through that again. Yet here she is, with the very real prospect staring her in the face.

The sound of the drum outside their tent punctuated Jamie’s introspection really well. “It’s hard to sleep so close to battle,” he tells Claire. “Ye ken, the only time I’m without pain is in your bed. When I lay in your arms, my wounds are healed, scars are gone.” He, too, has felt the weight of believing Claire is dead, and fears for a time when it could truly happen. This episode is one of Sam Heughan’s best – his emotional range was huge in this one, from the most passionate declarations made in the dark, to the absolute horror of watching her life slip from him and not being able to do anything about it.

Claire has, until now, avoided the life-threatening injuries (apart from the Malva-induced illness) that have taken some of Jamie’s cat lives. But as we’re about to let out a breath, thinking the battle has gone well and everyone lives, Claire is shot, right in front of Jamie. And how frightening that was!  Dr. Leckie tells Jamie there’s nothing more he can do, but Jamie won’t take that – he can’t. Claire has to be her own doctor, telling him that drinking water could kill her, and to find Denzell, the only person she believes can do anything about this. In the midst of the crisis, General Lee has called for Jamie to attend him. But Jamie has his priorities straight – Claire first, the rest of the world be damned. “Sir, I resign,” he writes in Claire’s blood on the back of the runner.

The use of lighting was terrific, highlighting the intimacy you can find at night, as we watch Jamie and Claire speaking quietly outside under the stars. “See the sky? That’s a kind of abyss, is it not?” Jamie asks.  “And yet I’m not afraid to look into it,” Claire responds quietly. “There are stars there, makes a difference. The stars are burning out, according to the second law of thermodynamics.” Of course, Jamie wouldn’t know this, but his faith and philosophy are still strong. “I suppose man can make all the laws they like. God made hope. The stars will not burn out, nor will we.”

And that is echoed in Jamie’s declaration to Claire, barely conscious on the operating table, “I love you, Sassenach. The stars will not burn out nor will we. Lord, I ken this is your house. But your angels have no dominion here. Do not send them for her. If you do, I will not let them take her. I will not.” And he turns to Claire – “Don’t leave me.” She answers, “I won’t.”

But as the episode ends, over the credits, we again see the stars – winking out one by one, until all that’s left is one bright one shining in an otherwise black sky. Claire’s life not burning out? This was a 5-tissue episode, for sure.

 

It’s In The Details

The title cards for the show are always something to pay attention to – a quick glimpse of a hand or coat – who is that? But this week, the title card was really interesting! A major throwback – Frank, long gone, holding a  young Brianna’s hand, presumably at a museum of some sort. Take a close look at the painting they’re examining – is that Claire on the left, tending to a wounded man, and Jamie on the right, commanding his army? Balfe Nation pointed this out on Twitter (no idea who first noticed it, this is just where I saw it).

⚠️Spoiler Warning⚠️

Jamie and Claire in the painting, with Frank and Bree looking on?!? Take a closer look at the title card for #Outlander Episode 715: ‘Written In My Own Heart’s Blood. pic.twitter.com/ydlTRl0Y5V

— Balfe Nation (@balfenation) January 3, 2025

I’ve blown this up a bit and circled Claire and Jamie:

Connie Sandlin, one of my fandom friends, found this in Wikipedia: The painting in the title card was of “Molly Pitcher.” (The painting has been changed by Starz for the show.) The deeds in the story of Molly Pitcher are generally attributed to Mary Ludwig Hays, who was married to William Hays, an artilleryman in the Continental Army. She joined him at the Army’s winter camp at Valley Forge in 1777, and was present at the Battle of Monmouth, where she served as a water-carrier. Her husband fell and she took his place swabbing and loading the cannon, and was later commended by George Washington. The incident was recorded by Joseph Plumb Martin in his memoir published in 1830.

Roger and Buck

The weight of love is seen very clearly here. Buck holds it – wanting to know who his parents are, if his father was a time traveler like him and his descendant Roger. “I don’t think your father was a time traveler,” Roger tells him reluctantly. “But your mother was… or is.” These two have had a bond of sorts – Buck is completely displaced, once by traveling far into the future, and again by overshooting his own time and going back to before he was born. And Roger can no longer keep this secret about his parents from him, now that he’s met both. Diarmaid Murtagh has really captured this role, and I’m glad they recast the Buck part from Graham McTavish in season 5 (especially since he had to come back as Dougal).

There are definitely times when storylines from the books would have been great to include in the show, and this is one of them. Even if you’re not a book reader, you may be interested in finding this section in Written In My Own Heart’s Blood (which is also the name of this episode) to expand on Roger and Buck’s search and everything that comes out of it. If you decide to go back and read it, look to start with chapter 104, “The Succubus of Cranesmuir.” This is where they first meet Geillis – but Buck already knows she’s his mother. One thing to understand here, however, is that Roger’s throat has never really healed from his hanging, and he still has vocal problems. This figures prominently in the books, but was dropped by the show fairly quickly. 

Buck is furious that Roger didn’t give him this information upfront when they first met Geillis and Dougal. But by the time they reach Lallybroch, he seems resigned to it. The mystery of letters in the desk continues – Roger writes a letter to Bree, telling her that he’s ended up in the wrong time, hasn’t found Jemmy, and is feeling the weight of the family’s separation. I really felt this weight also on Buck, as he told Roger that he’s not a good person, and his story of compromising his wife to make her  marry him. Relate this story and Buck’s behavior toward Roger during the incident that led up to the hanging – his anger at what he saw as Roger flirting with Morag that hit his guilty conscience for having done the same to get her to marry him.

He’s learned, though, and grown – he recognizes that his wife is probably, in the long run, happier without him, and he offers to go back to Brianna and let her know the situation (because there’s no guarantee she’ll ever see the letter). Will we see him arriving in the 1960s only to realize that he’s missed her? Brianna, feeling the same weight of separation, has embarked on a journey with the children to find Roger, and isn’t where they think she is. She’s counting on Mandy’s strange psychic abilities to find her father – let’s hope Bree is able to grab Mandy before she’s gone without them! (Again, this is a change from the books, so I’m hoping that the final episode will fill in a few details that weren’t even fleshed out in book 9, Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone.)

Looking Toward the Season Finale

One quick note: there is NO EPISODE NEXT WEEK! The show is taking a gap week, and episode 16, the season (not series) finale will be shown on January 17, immediately followed by the premiere of Sam’s new show The Couple Next Door. I’ll bring you a preview of this show next week!

There is SO much to wrap up in the finale! In the current episode, Jane has been arrested for the murder of Capt. Harkness, and William has promised her young sister Frances that he won’t let anything happen to her. Can he keep that promise? Will Denzell be able to save Claire and keep that final starlight from burning out? Does Brianna find Roger? And while us book readers think we know how the episode will end – do we? Will we be surprised?

If you’ve read Book 8, you probably anticipate the season ending, and I truly hope that we’ll get what we’re waiting for. But more than that, I hope we have a satisfying ending that will give us something to hold onto for what will probably be nearly a year’s Droughtlander before Season 8!

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