Outlander Homepage Originals
Time travel is an intriguing concept on which to base a story. After all, anything is theoretically possible with time travel. People can change history without knowing it, or meet their own ancestors or descendants. Somehow, Diana Gabaldon’s novels have always made time travel seem almost plausible, yet in the final episode of season 7, the show runners have gone rogue, introducing a whole new plot twist that even the author Herself hadn’t seriously contemplated. It is a twist that brings huge implications for the final season and certainly represents the biggest departure from the books. Not for nothing did Master Raymond say to “have faith”!
As the episode begins, we see two young girls laughing as they run through a sunny field towards their mother, who envelops them in a hug. A dragonfly is seen alighting on a stalk of wheat. It is only a fleeting glimpse before we are back in the present, where Jane is being questioned by a journalist on the murder of Captain Harkness. Stating that his readers will ‘want to know’, the man asks what had motivated her to stab Harkness 26 times. Jane, knowing that her cause is lost, has no interest in playing along and answers flippantly, suggesting that perhaps the devil was whispering in her ear and correcting the man when he talks of her “abominable offence.”
“You call it abominable,” she says. “I call it glorious.”
When the man asks her if she understands that she is damned to hell for all eternity, Jane shows no emotion.
“Then Hell it is,” she replies, adding that her only regret is that Harkness is no longer alive, so that she could do it all again.
The man is unimpressed at being mocked and cautions Jane to make wise use of the hours she has left. Jane smirks, as he tries yet again, entreating her to let him record her story.
“Let us know you,” he says.
Jane fixes him with a stare. She knows him, she replies. He only wants the sordid details in order to sell his broadsheet. If she had anything to say, she tells him, he would be the last person she would tell it to.
“I will not give any more of myself to any man,” she says.
“That’s a pity,” he replies, “as I may well be the last person you speak to.” As he leaves, he has one final comment, that hits home where no others have. “I understand you have a sister,” he says. “She’ll likely read this, or word of it will reach her, I’m sure. Wouldn’t you rather she hear your words than mine?”
Jane nods, imperceptibly, obviously upset now. The thought of Frances is the one thing that can still affect her.
Claire has survived the operation and lies recovering in the church. Jamie has not left her side and is talking to her, holding her hand. He wishes he could give her his blood, he says, but remembers that it isn’t possible in this time.
“Surely our blood would flow, one into the other,” he says. “My blood kens yours like its own. Blood of my blood, Sassenach,” he whispers, his voice breaking, “That’s what we said. And it is the truth.”
“I’ve decided not to die,” Claire whispers in response and Jamie lets out a long breath of relief and strokes her face.
Despite her pain, Claire remembers what it felt like when she thought Jamie was dead and she won’t do that to him, she says. Jamie reminds her of what she had called him at Saratoga: a vainglorious, pigheaded, grandstanding Scot and comments he could now do the same, but will have mercy on her this time. He kisses her forehead and she sleeps, as equally relieved, Rachel and Denny watch them both from a distance.
The emotions shown on Sam Heughan’s face throughout this scene are brilliant. We are left in no doubt as to the simultaneous relief and anguish that Jamie is experiencing. Bravo to him.
William approaches Lord John. He tells him that he is in desperate need of help, which John immediately offers to give. William explains that it concerns a young woman accused of murder.
Taking this news in his stride, John asks for more details.
“Who is this young woman?” he begins.
William explains that Jane has been under his protection, adding that she is also a whore.
John waves away further comment about Jane’s choice of profession, asking only if Jane is guilty of the crime. William admits that she is, but there are extenuating circumstances and he wants to go and speak on her behalf. John promises to do what he can and tells William to wait for him.
Claire has recovered enough for Jamie to leave her side, and as he steps out into the fresh air, he sees Ian riding towards him. Ian tells him that that he and Lord John had found William and that the young man is safe.
Rachel and Jamie then tell Ian about Claire, quick to reassure him that the worst is over. Jamie adds that he has sent Bixby with news to place his troops under the command of Lafayette.
“You’re not going back to the army?” Ian asks.
“No,” Jamie replies.
“Will they accept that?”
“They’re going to have to,” Jamie tells him, before turning and going back into the church.
John returns to William with news. Jane has signed a confession, admitting to stabbing Harkness, only taking issue with the number of times she had done so before slitting his throat. William says that Jane had only stabbed the man once, but John comments that even once is enough.
William explains further, telling John that Harkness was a depraved man who had used Jane abominably and had bragged of it afterwards.
“It would have turned your stomach,” he says.
“I dare say,” John replies, adding the observation that dangerous clients can be a hazard of the whoring profession. But William offers further explanation, telling John that the madam had sold young Frances to Harkness, paying for her maidenhead.
John asks whether William loves Jane. William hesitates, finally saying that there is something about her that he can’t explain. He had tried to protect Jane, he says, by buying her for the night.
“I didn’t stop to think that he would come back,” he laments. “I likely made things worse for her.”
But John offers some comfort by telling William that there was no way he could have made things any better, save marrying Jane or killing Harkness himself.
“And I don’t recommend murder as a way of settling difficult situations. It tends to lead to complications, though not nearly as many as marriage.”
It is a wry observation, but yet it somehow manages to lighten the mood a little - no doubt largely due to David Berry’s immaculate delivery.
William asks where Jane is and John tells him, before adding that under martial law, there will be no trial. The army will do what it deems fit, John says, and Jane will be executed. Placing his hand over William’s, John reminds him that Jane’s death won’t be entirely in vain.
“She did save her sister,” he says.
“You think you bloody know me, don’t you?” William replies.
“Yes, I think I do, William,” John says with a smile.
Jamie brings water over to Claire, but it is not water that she wants. So begins a humorous scene where Jamie helps her to relieve herself, despite her objections. She wants Jamie to leave the room, but he insists on holding onto her to stop her from falling flat on her face.
Afterwards, Claire stops him from taking away the pail. She wants to check her urine to see if there is blood, she says, as her kidney is very sore. Jamie brings a candle over so that she can check immediately and not fret.
“Is it bad?” he asks, when she looks up at him.
“No, it’s fine,” she replies. “It’s just… I love you.”
Jamie kisses her hand and goes to take the pail outside, but she asks him not to leave and to lie down beside her instead. She is cold, she tells him, and so he pulls her close to him. Claire rests her head on his chest and tells a story about elephants, stating that when a female elephant is dying, sometimes the male will try to mate with her.
“Either you’re feverish again, or you have some perverse fantasies,” Jamie remarks, before asking her - does he really want him to do something similar?
“Not this minute,” she says, “and I’m not dying either. The thought just occurred to me.”
Suddenly looking up at him, with a look of longing on her face, Claire asks if they can go home. Jamie promises that they will go, just as soon as she is feeling well enough.
Later, Claire is tossing restlessly when a shadowy figure appears behind the curtain.
“Madonna,” a voice whispers.
It is Master Raymond and Claire, not surprisingly, is amazed to see him.
“Were you trying to leave us again?” Master Raymond asks gently.
“I didn’t mean to,” Claire tells him. “I was shot.”
“It is not time, Madonna,” he says.
Claire asks what he is doing there and he says he has come to ask forgiveness,
“For what?”
“Some day you will know.”
Master Raymond kisses her hand again and the image of blue wings appears. He leaves as quickly as he had come, and Claire is soon jolted upright. Unsure whether she has dreamt his visit or whether it had actually happened, Claire asks Jamie if he has been in the room all night.
“Where else would I be?” Jamie answers.
Claire asks if he has seen anyone during the night, specifically a man in a hooded cloak. Jamie answers that no-one has been there and Claire tells him that she thought she had seen Master Raymond.
“When I lost Faith,” she says, “when I almost died, he was with me.”
Jamie suggests that this must be why she had dreamed of him, adding that he doubts the day Master Raymond had spoken of - when they would all see each other again - is likely to be today.
Eyes filling with tears, Claire asks Jamie if he thinks she will see Faith again when she does eventually die.
“I ken you will,” Jamie answers, stroking her hair. “It’s what makes death easier to bear. It’s what Murtagh meant when he said that it doesn’t hurt a bit to die.”
Claire gives him a small smile in return, but it is obvious that the whole experience has unsettled her.
Buck and Roger are slowly leading the horses away from Lallybroch, when a boy suddenly appears in their path. Roger stares, unable to believe his eyes. It is Jem. The two run towards each other and embrace.
“Are you all right? Are you hurt? Where the hell have you been?” Roger asks tearfully.
“I’ve been with Mandy,” Jem answers.
“What do you mean?” Roger asks, and Jem turns, to reveal Brianna and Mandy appearing out of the fog.
With a cry of joy, Roger runs to them. It is a beautiful family reunion, with a moment of humour when we see that Esmeralda the 20th century doll has made it through the stones after all. The family turn to look at Buck, who has been standing back, holding the horses.
“Buck, tell me this is real,” Roger says.
“Aye, it’s real,” Buck replies, stepping forward to join the group hug.
Claire is resting again, when Lord John walks into the room and sits next to her bed.
“I came as soon as I heard,” he says, taking her hand and asking how she is.
“I’ve been better,” she tells him, before asking the same question of him, immediately slipping into doctor mode and trying to sit up to examine his eye.
John is amused. “The doctor does not make a good patient, I see,” he says. “The eye is quite good. You should be resting, my dear.”
“Dinna be calling her that,” says a voice from behind them. Jamie has entered the room and it is obvious that nothing between them has changed.
Claire withdraws her hand, as John repeats his instruction, with a new pointed term of address. “You should be resting, Mrs Fraser,” he says again.
Uncomfortably, Jamie does at least express his gratitude to John for finding William. John replies that he is in no need of thanks, given that he also has a vested interest in William’s welfare. Jamie asks how William is, and John explains that William is on a fool’s errand, before reassuring Jamie that the young man is only in danger of having his heart broken, something that he cannot be saved from.
“What brings you here?” Jamie asks.
“I suppose you think I have come here to fight you for the favours of this lady,” John replies, sardonically.
But Jamie is in no mood for levity. He counters by saying that he doubts John has come to continue their discussion over what had happened in Philadelphia, prompting John to ask if anything remains to be said in that regard.
Claire is rolling her eyes over the posturing on display and holds out her hand to John in conciliation. He sits next to her once again, as she tells him that she had never had the chance to properly thank him for what he had done for her.
“You saved my life,” she says, as Jamie glowers nearby.
“We saved each other’s,” John replies, with a gentle smile. “Goodbye Mrs Fraser,” he says, kissing her hand.
But the look he gives Jamie as he walks away is far from warm.
This is another scene where Jamie does not come off particularly well in the exchange. His continued anger towards John seems almost churlish, particularly when Claire has openly thanked John for saving her. Considering Jamie would instinctively do anything to have Claire whole and safe, his attitude towards John, even with the post traumatic complications factored in, seems inconsistent. It is nonetheless a beautifully acted scene between Caitriona Balfe, Sam Heughan and David Berry.
Time has passed and Claire is much improved. Denny is leaving and comes to bid her farewell.
“I never want to do that again,” he tells her. “It’s different on patients thee does not know.” Operating on someone who is considered family, someone they love, is something completely different and Denny asks Claire if she has ever had to do that. She replies that while she has had to heal loved ones, she has never had to do actual surgery. If she had to, she adds, she hopes that she would do as well as he had. He smiles in tearful gratitude.
Brianna is in 1739 Lallybroch, looking at the portrait of Ellen Mackenzie. Outside, she talks to Brian, commenting that he looks as if he has seen a ghost. Brian replies that if he didn’t know any better, he would have thought that he had. Brianna apologises for startling him and they discuss the house. Brianna describes Lallybroch as the most beautiful house she has ever seen and Brian tells her that it was the woman he built it for that was special. He misses Ellen every day, he says, particularly with his son away at university.
Brianna continues, telling Brian how grateful she and Roger both are to him for opening up the house to them. He quotes scripture to her about entertaining strangers, in which the strangers are described as being possible angels. While not exactly time travel, this is probably the closest description that applies to his situation, although Brian does not know it.
He asks Brianna if she is only a Mackenzie by marriage, adding that his wife had also been a Mackenzie.
“You remind me of her,” he says. “The resemblance is striking.”
Brianna deflects, saying that their eyes might be similar, but Brian argues that it is more than that.
“Coincidence, I’m sure,” Brianna lies smoothly, before adding that she knows what he means. “Sometimes when I feel inexplicably close to someone, I look to find connections and similarities,” she says. She mentions the similarities in their names and the fact that her father is as devoted to her mother as Brian was to Ellen.
“You remind me of him,” she continues, “his good heartedness. His strength.”
Brian tells her that he believes her to be right. He says that when Ellen died he never changed the locks. Some grief-stricken people can close the door to their hearts, he muses, but his had remained wide open. Memories of Ellen come unbidden after all this time, and he is open to catching a glimpse of her somewhere.
“Today I have, in you,” he says. “I’d swear you could have been a daughter of hers, and yet it seems you are no relation.”
Brianna deflects again, commenting that the one thing they all have in common is that everyone is somebody’s daughter or son. (The fact that she is, in fact, his granddaughter is information that she obviously doesn’t share!) She thanks Brian again for everything that he has done, adding that the story of how he helped them would be told in their family for a very long time.
“You’re a braw lass,” Brian compliments her, and with a smile, she walks away.
This was a touching scene, albeit a bit sad, in that Brian can have no idea as to his relationship to Brianna and the rest of the Mackenzie clan.
Claire is trying to undress and struggling with the laces. Jamie playfully suggests using his dirk, but their gentle flirtation is interrupted by a knock at the door. Going to answer it, Jamie is shocked to see William and even more shocked when William says that he needs Jamie’s help.
“I gather it’s a dangerous matter?” Jamie asks.
“Life and death,” William confirms.
Mistaking Jamie’s silence for refusal, William begins to stalk off in a huff, saying that he will do it himself.
“If you could, lad, you’d never have come to me,” Jamie observes. He tells the younger man to wait, while he goes inside to tell Claire.
“It’s William,” he says. “He needs me.”
“Now?” Claire asks.
It is obvious that Jamie is torn about leaving Claire, but he adds that William has never asked anything of him.
“Go,” Claire says immediately.
Jane is standing looking out the window at the night sky. She is drunk, and gulps from a bottle, while humming a tune. It is only as she waves at something unseen that we realise the tune that she is humming is somewhat familiar…
Jamie and William have arrived at the meeting house where Jane is being held, and notice that there is only one guard. William comments that he supposes no-one expects a whore to have any friends. Covering their faces with bandannas, they creep over to the window. Using a trick Brianna had taught him, Jamie silently breaks the window, covering it with paper before hitting the glass.
“The girl I met in Wilmington. My sister,” William realises.
But there is no time to continue the conversation. The window broken, Jamie helps William inside, before jumping in himself.
Inside, the two men begin to look around, but the sound of keys in the lock announce the arrival of the guard. Jamie stands in plain sight as the man enters, while William hits him from behind. Jamie throws his son the keys and begins to tie up the unconscious guard, while William calls for Jane. He runs upstairs and unlocks the door to her room, but it is too late. She is slumped on the floor, her wrists slit. She is dead.
William cradles her head, distraught. Jamie enters and solemnly crosses himself, expressing how sorry he is.
“I can’t leave her like this,” William tells Jamie.
But they don’t have much time. William undoes Jane’s chains and lays her on the bed, while Jamie cuts a lock of her hair.
“For her sister,” he says by way of explanation.
William looks down at Jane’s body. “I wanted to save you, Jane,” he says. “Forgive me.”
Jamie looks out the window and sees lights getting closer. People are coming.
“We need to go,” he tells William. “Now.”
Back with Claire, Jamie tells her what has happened, including the fact that Jane has a sister.
William has brought Frances to the church, taking her hand and leading her inside, where Jamie and Claire are waiting for them.
“Would you like to take a seat, sweetheart?” Claire asks gently, and Jamie pulls out a chair for the young girl. He gives Frances the lock of Jane’s hair, allowing the little girl a moment before suggesting that she could go to the Ridge to live with them.
“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 live,” Jamie promises.
William says that he wants to bury Jane decently, but that he is not able to claim her, because he isn’t family.
Frances speaks at last, saying that she is not leaving until she has seen her sister and Jamie promises to take care of it. He comments that the British owe him a favour for what he had done for Simon Fraser.
“Thank you,” William says, before adding that there is one more favour he wishes to ask of Jamie.
Sensing that this will be a personal conversation, Claire suggests to Frances that they go outside for something to eat.
Left alone, William asks his favour. He wants to know how he came to be, he tells Jamie, and what had happened on the night that Jamie had slept with his mother. “Being who I am, I have a right to know,” William says.
“No,” Jamie counters. “No you haven’t.”
Besides, Jamie says, that isn’t what William really wants to know, He wants to know whether Jamie had forced Geneva, and whether or not he had loved her. The answer to both of these questions is no.
“Did she love you?” William asks.
“She was very young,” Jamie replies. “But it was my fault.”
William has seen the portraits of his supposed father, he tells Jamie, adding that he knows the Earl of Ellesmere was much older than his mother.
“I’m not stupid you know,” he says, asking then if Jamie had slept with Geneva before or after the wedding. Jamie replies that he would never have deceived another man in his marriage.
“Believe that of me at least,” he says.
William tells Jamie what he has always been told about his mother: that she was beautiful, arrogant, impulsive and heedless.
“She was courageous,” Jamie retorts. “Did they tell you that at least? She was bold, curious, confident.”
These are adjectives that sit better with William and he asks Jamie if he is sorry for any of it.
“Are you sorry for it, damn you?”
“She died because of it. I shall feel sorrow for her death and do penance for my part of it until my dying day, but no. I am not sorry,” Jamie replies. He strokes William’s cheek and we see a brief flashback of the young William hugging Jamie farewell. Both are touching moments, broken by William’s next declaration.
“I will never call you Father,” he says, before walking outside.
The scenes between Jamie and William do much to establish the complex, yet undeniably growing bond between the two men. Charles Van de Vaart does a great job of showing how confused William is at this point: with feelings of anger, guilt, curiosity, grief and gratitude all playing a part. Meanwhile, Sam Heughan shows an equally conflicted Jamie, desperately wanting to be accepted by William as his father, but trying to be content with the relationship as it currently stands.
Jamie and Claire have brought Frances to a graveyard. Jamie explains that the Colonel he has spoken to has said that this is the place where Jane is buried. Yet the graveyard is just a mass of white crosses and Frances asks which one belongs to Jane. Claire admits that they don’t know.
Frances begins running up and down the rows of crosses calling for Jane, before completely breaking down.
“Where is she?” she sobs.
Claire and Jamie follow and Claire says she will go and talk to the young girl alone. Jamie hands her a small cloth-wrapped bundle and waits behind.
Frances asks Claire if she thinks Jane will go to hell for what she did. Claire replies that she thinks that God would understand the circumstances.
“She killed that man for me. Now she’s gone. It’s my fault,” Frances sobs.
“You would have done anything for your sister, wouldn’t you?” Claire asks, adding that Jane was doing the same. “It wasn’t your fault.”
Claire asks Frances to tell her something she remembers about Jane. “Memories are the things that keep people alive,” she explains.
And so Frances begins to reminisce. She tells Claire that their mother used to take them to see the dragonflies and that Jane would hold the insects on her finger.
“I’m quite fond of dragonflies myself,” Claire says, as Frances continues, saying that Jane used to let her touch their wings.
“Tell me something else,” Claire encourages her.
Next, Frances tells Claire that Jane used to love the dancing lights, blue and green in the sky.
“Our mother used to say that it was a hundred thousand angels dancing, and if you waved at them, they would reach down and carry you up to heaven.”
We see a flashback of Jane on her final night, and now we understand why she had been waving out of the window.
“That’s beautiful,” Claire tells Frances, reassuring her that she is not leaving Jane, because she will carry her sister in her heart wherever she goes. Claire pulls out the cloth-wrapped bundle and hands it to the young girl, explaining that inside are Jane’s belongings. Frances unwraps the bundle, picking up a locket. Claire asks if it is a picture of Jane, and Frances replies that it is their mother. Claire asks if she can see it, and Frances hands the locket to her.
Claire looks at the picture inside, but it is when she closes the locket that we see a visible reaction. The word “Faith” is engraved on the locket’s front.
“It’s a beautiful name,” she says, simply, before asking Frances if she is ready to go.
As they stand, we can see Claire deep in thought.
For such a young actress, Florrie May Wilkinson continues to astound as Frances. She portrays emotional scenes with such raw honesty and easily holds her own against her considerably more experienced scene partners. She should be phenomenal to watch in season 8.
Ian and Rachel are lying in bed, discussing the fact that Jamie and Claire will be leaving the following morning for the Ridge. Rachel asks if Ian wants to go too and he replies that he had wanted to talk to her about it. He owns land there, he tells her, given to him by Roger. Farming is mostly peaceful, but he acknowledges that Rachel would miss her brother if they left. So he offers another alternative - that they join Denzell with the army, where Ian could continue as a scout.
Rachel agrees that she would miss Denny but reminds Ian that he has told her many times how beautiful it is in North Carolina.
“Is it a place where we could be happy? A place where we could raise our family?” she asks.
She gives him a meaningful look, that Ian interprets correctly. Rachel takes his hand and puts it over her belly. She is pregnant, and they kiss joyfully.
In the morning, they wake and Ian calls out for Rollo, saying that he had promised Claire that they would forage for her during the day. But Rollo does not respond to Ian’s whistle. He is lying still and suddenly Ian realises that something is wrong.
“No,” he says, walking towards his faithful companion. “No no no.” He starts to sob as he realises. Rollo is dead.
Rachel comes to comfort him and Ian turns to her.
“He waited, I think,” Ian says, “until he ken you were here for me.”
Ian tells her that he needs to bury Rollo. He knows a place and that will be back by mid afternoon. Immediately, Rachel says that she will go with him, but he hesitates, saying that it is a long way.
“Then we’d best get started,” Rachel responds. “I married him as well as thee.”
At Lallybroch, Brianna and Roger kiss, each sharing their fear that they would never see each other again. Roger says that he will kill Rob Cameron, but Brianna assures him that they are all right.
“And here,” she adds.
“Aye,” Roger says. “In 1739.”
Brianna tells him that they won’t stay, unless Roger has taken a liking to the time.
“It was cool that the kids got to meet their great grandfather,” Roger says,”even if he didn’t know it.”
“And Aunt Jenny,” Brianna adds. "My aunty is younger than me.”
Brianna tells him that when she got his note and realised that he had met his father, she had wondered whether she would also have met a younger Jamie.
It is the beginning of an important conversation. Jamie is alive in the current timeline, albeit much younger, and they could wait for him to come back from university .Roger says he wishes he could have spent more time with his father, to really talk to him. He wonders if Jerry is dead, or stuck in another time.
“I’ll probably never know, will I?” he asks.
“No,” Brianna replies. “So where do we belong now? We have a home and a life in 1980, but Mandy is well now and I really miss my parents.”
“So it’s not a question of where we belong,” says Roger, “it’s when.”
Ian is loading his and Rachel’s belonging onto the wagon. Jamie comments that it doesn’t seem right to see Ian without Rollo by his side.
“The Ridge won’t feel the same without him,” Ian agrees.
Claire goes in search of Frances. As she heads back inside the church, she can hear the young girl singing. Disbelieving, she recognises the words. It is “Beside the Seaside,” the same song that she had sung to her own dead daughter Faith, back in France, many years before.
“How could you possibly know that song?” Claire asks.
“My mother taught it to me,” Frances replies.
As Jamie appears and tells them both that they are packed and ready, a brief montage ties Claire’s memories together: her dead child, the blue wings, the locket, handing over her child to Louise, Master Raymond’s promise that they would see each other again and his advice to “have faith.”
“What is it Sassenach?” Jamie asks Claire.
“I think Faith lived,” Claire says, her eyes full of tears. “I think our daughter lived.”
So ends season 7 and so begins the last ever Droughtlander. It is one doozy of a cliffhanger, all the more so because it is a complete departure from the books. The Faith plot line has already been heatedly debated on fan sites since the episode aired, with opinion split as to whether it will ultimately be a good or bad thing. Diana Gabaldon has stated categorically that while Jamie and Claire do have a brief “What if” discussion in book 9, Faith definitely did not live and nor does Claire ever believe that she did. The new twist has apparently come from a conversation where Diana Gabaldon had said if she had ever written a second graphic novel, she might have included a storyline where Master Raymond had actually saved the baby. That graphic novel never came to pass - but it appears that its storyline may well do so in season 8.
Time will tell…
This recap was written by Susie Brown, a writer and teacher-librarian who lives in Australia. She is not a fan of the Faith lived storyline, but is trying to keep an open mind while waiting (impatiently!) for both season 8 and book 10!
