"You are alive. You are whole. All is well."
Hello everyone!
This week, we are back at it in the wilderness of North Carolina, 18th century, with our favourite clan of Frasers and Mackenzies.
Starz knew what they were doing when they had a mini-break between the previous episode, The Ballad of Roger Mac, and the one that aired this weekend, because the anticipation and anxiety built and crested over the weekend we were bereft of the storyline, and I think some viewership might have even spiked.
If you recall, we were literally left hanging by the time it was all over for the Regulators and their ilk, and everyone and their mother wanted to throttle Graham McTavish's new character whenever he showed his face on screen.
You gotta love the man. He has such a talent, and adding a wig onto his bald pate was incredibly amusing given we're all so used to Dougal and the shiny orb of a head.
But I digress.
We basically all know what happened before. Now, we need to figure out what happens AFTER.
Outlander, and Famous Last Words, here we go.
If you haven't watched any of the episodes yet this season - and if you're an Outlander fan I can't see how that could happen - the links to all the previous recaps and reviews can be found at the bottom of the page. Hopefully you enjoy them!
Once you're done, come check out the current one.
Famous Last Words actually begins with showing us Roger back in Oxford, where Brianna is visiting him, and he's giving a lecture on - wait for it - famous last words.
Nothing subtle about THAT, all things considered, but it does show us a little more of Roger (and his dynamic with Brianna) in his own environment and with the bonus of his own historian training. Because even while he and his belle talk about the silent films they're going to see, we clock back in with the Frasers - silent film style.
In black and white, and with no sound whatsoever, we witness them cut Roger off the tree he'd been hung from, and Jamie realizes the man's still alive, which prompts Claire to quickly perform a tracheotomy (aka cut into his windpipe and insert a small tube so he can breathe because his airways above his throat are clogged due to swelling from the rope). The entire family takes a deep breath of relief, considering they all thought he was a-goner, and the action fast-forwards to the point when Claire can remove the tube, the scar has healed, but Roger's speech (and voice in general) have not returned.
Brianna's worried about that - she tells her mother about meeting a soldier who fought in Vietnam, who had what she called a 'thousand yard stare'. Claire identifies it as shell shock, or in more modern terms I suppose it would be a form of PTSD (just a form, remember). It seems to be what Roger has, as well.
And no wonder.
Throughout the episode, smart camera work and incredible acting by Richard Rankin take us right into Roger's head as he relives, time and time again, what happened to him - and honestly by the time the silent movie of the hanging was rolling for the third or fourth time, I was ready to run around in circles, waving my arms in the air like Kevin McAllister, screaming.
Can you imagine what it must be like for a victim of that kind of brutality?
It's difficult. Let's just keep it like that. And it doesn't help that everyone around them, while meaning well, keeps applying subtle pressure to go back to the way things were.
How come nobody figured out Roger would NEVER be the man he was? I mean, he himself thinks he might just be the hanged man, from one of the tarot cards Marsali reads for him; Jamie should have been the first to point it out, considering his own harrowing experience some thirty years past, but I suppose he can be excused, given his own grief.
His remains are buried on Fraser land, not too far from the Big House, and Jocasta makes the trip to say her farewells, singing a lovely (read: heartbreaking) dirge over his grave. She tentatively asks if she might have a headstone made, knowing it's not her place, but I can't really see Jamie denying her the privilege - plus he's got his own emotions to deal with, as well.
While he might have been stoic enough in his younger years to bear the burdens without breaking down, age is catching up with our King of Men and emotions aren't as easily concealed anymore. He seeks solace with his wife, asking her if she has any medicine for what he's going through.
Time, says Claire sadly as she holds him. Just time.
So, yeah. I suppose Jamie is preoccupied.
They're also dealing with Tryon's sort-of apology which Lord John arrives with at the beginning of the episode (David Berry is a JOY even if he pops up for five minutes, tops): Tryon has granted Roger and Bree 5,000 acres in the back country, which makes Bree mad because, hello, no one can just BUY her forgiveness!
Still, John urges her to be patient - all WILL be well, with time. He also offers her the famed astrolabe (which in the book had a slightly different storyline, but I don't watch the show to nitpick, so having John there in person to present it was fine by me) and teaches her how to use it, being a gallant smarty pants whom we all love very much.
Honestly, how can you love a character to that degree?
Patience pays off just a little when Roger finds some of his voice after seeing his son try to touch a steaming tea kettle. This, considering it sounds nothing like his daddy used to sound, frightens poor Jemmy, but everyone else is elated. Roger CAN speak! Just not always.
And it's heartbreaking to watch him struggle with who he is now, stripped of the one thing he always considered his biggest gift.
It's at this point in time we watch an adorable game of hide-and-seek between grandparents and Jemmy, and Jamie prepares for a stand-off with a hog holding just a wee knife when an arrow takes the beast down. The apprehension turns to joy when a big wolfhound races down the side to them and they realize Young Ian has returned!
But he, like Roger, is changed. Much more stoic, and unused to the dynamics of the big, boisterous family surrounding him, he ends up sleeping outside and is unable to share his pain (of which Jamie can see he's suffering some) with his uncle, but Jamie isn't the Fox's grandson for nothing.
He packs the astrolabe, Ian and Roger (who carries a paper airplane gift from Bree) on a trip to get all their land surveyed and written down so that they can have official documents for later on if there was ever a need for it, and during this trip the two men work on the tentative bond which was begun when Ian sacrificed himself to the Mohawk so Roger could leave.
They're also both struggling with the will to live (and Claire is worried because some of her deadly poison has gone missing, something she shares with Jamie, reminding him of a time when he himself wanted to die, because what if Roger doesn't want to come back?).
Roger faces his demons at the edge of a cliff, at which point the silent movie of his hanging becomes a coloured, live-action version, and he realizes Bree is the one thing keeping him going.
Likewise for Ian, who's actually the one who stole the poison (and it makes sense, given he probably knows a bit more about herbs than Roger), though he would have probably gone through it if not for Roger's timely intervention. After a little back and forth, during which Ian reveals his wife, while not dead, is lost to him, Roger tells him that until he figures everything out, he should return home to the Ridge with him, and they'll take care of each other.
Pact sealed, the two men do in fact return, and Roger goes to speak - yes, SPEAK! - to his wife. And even though he explains he's different now than before, he also establishes that he LOVES her.
And that will never change.
Shocking, poignant, and incredibly strong, this was a fitting conclusion to the ordeal that began two weeks ago. I was very happy to see John Bell return to our screens sooner rather than later, because his presence ALWAYS makes everything better!
The silent movie reel felt a little bit jarring at first when I didn't quite understand the purpose of it, but once it became a tool to convey Roger's helplessness, and the world he was caught in, it was absolutely amazing. I need to watch the episode again just so I can respond to everything properly this time around.
I do have the one quibble, however, and I'm not sure if it's even the right word, but it rubbed me just slightly wrong.
I felt Bree was too pushy with Roger.
Yes, of course, at some point I suppose some "tough love" as people call it is appropriate - but was it here, really? It had been three months since the hanging. And whereas nobody ever peeped anything at Bree while she was struggling with her own memories way back when (and still does, let's be real), she seemed to believe pressing down was going to work. I don't know though, is that even the right way to deal with a trauma victim? They heal at their own pace. They need to WANT to be helped, and no amount of shocking them or pressuring them will do anything.
Also I thought it was unfair, given how everybody treated Bree and how she was treating Roger, but maybe that was just me.
Because OVERALL, this was a strong, emotional episode, leading us into the last section of the show and all the drama that's still to befall the Frasers.
Really, can you imagine them having some peace and quiet? No? Me neither.
But can we have more Rik and Sophie singing, please?
Until next week, clan!
xx
*images and video not mine
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