"This too shall pass."
Hello everyone!
The one readers have been dreading ever since the announcement that no one had the brains to suggest the Christie subplot should (and ostensibly COULD) have been removed from the storyline altogether.
This was problematic in the books already, and the books are thousand pages long behemoths.
A show that's boxed into eight episodes that can really only cover SO MUCH before it runs out of time should, in my opinion, focus rather on the bigger picture.
And this one had nothing whatsoever to add to the bigger picture.
Plus, I still don't even get it. Maybe someone can enlighten me a little bit? I'm genuinely not trolling, I really just don't understand.
Now that my little Ted Talk is out of the way, let's have a look at Outlander's latest episode, The World Turned Upside Down.
Now, the episode in itself is deceptively simple in plot: Claire & Girl Co discover that dysentery has found its way to the Ridge, and as there's no real cure for it, all they can do is try and help those who contract it, while figuring out the source (this is later done by Jamie). During this process, Claire herself ALSO falls sick, but not with the flux, with something else.
And she has weird visions of snakes and hearts and imagines Jamie cheated on her with Malva in her delirium.
It turns out, though, that one other person has suffered the same kind of ill as Claire, and that one is Tom Christie, which gets Claire to thinking, because two people usually spread the disease from one to the other, but they hadn't been in contact for weeks.
So, what gives?
Well, by the time Jamie's ready to leave for a congress of the Sons of Liberty, it turns out that the give here is Malva, who's pregnant and claims the child is Jamie's.
DUN DUN DUN!
Naturally - and I mean this, unless you're completely daft - viewers know this can't be true, but it IS a shock for the family, and Jamie isn't chosen for the Congress of Philadelphia on the grounds of being immoral (because ... okay?). And while our couple do in fact seem to be stronger than ever even now, and history is rushing towards them while they're dealing with their own storm clouds, the episode ends with Claire once again abusing ether, but then walking out into her garden where she finds Malva with her throat slit.
Being the natural healer she is, she attempts to rescue the baby via Caesarean section, but alas, no dice. And you can imagine people will have a LOT to say with regards to this all once the show returns in two weeks!
That's virtually it as far as plot goes, though - other than Ian offering himself up as potential baby daddy, that is, admitting to Claire that he and Malva had sex, and looking adorably flustered about it because he knows Uncle Jamie's going to have words, and so he'd much rather if Auntie told Uncle about it.
The chances of baby being his are very slim - though the show runners could still surprise us - but I'd like to address the problem I see here and hasn't really been mentioned anywhere else, I haven't seen at least.
That of the character of one James Fraser.
People are so eager and almost THRILLED to accept that he's fathered an illegitimate child, which makes about zero sense. While, alright, the Sons of Liberty don't really know him, the people of the Ridge, however, do, and have seen him out and about and building their community since their arrival. It hasn't been yesterday, either, this place has been rising from the ground up for a couple of years now.
Then in comes a teenage chit whom people will have known for about three months, tops, proclaims that her big belly is because of Himself, and everybody and their mother resorts to: huh, that makes sense!
How?
The Ardsmuir men have been with Jamie for YEARS. Literally. They know he hasn't touched a living soul and yearned for his wife more than anything else. The new settlers on the Ridge can SEE him and Claire out and about during the day and regular business, their open devotion and deep bond - heck, in the episode (brilliantly acted by Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe, as always) Jamie even points out that TWENTY YEARS EARLIER people could see just how in love the Frasers are, and didn't really want to get in the middle (this is mentioned when Jamie explains he was comforted by a woman Claire knew, before he gave himself up to the Redcoats).
So where's the logic, then? Why would people believe MALVA, over their own leader? Other than for forced drama, that is, which was what I saw in the book before seeing the episode, already.
Because it makes no sense. Just because one person says something doesn't mean it's true - more importantly, the person they're saying this about doesn't automatically just get all their good deeds and characteristics erased either!
And so I ask, can someone PLEASE enlighten me on the logic of this? And why the settlers then turned their backs on Claire, too? What was she supposed to do, welcome Malva with open arms and sit her next to the main hearth proclaiming her the new Missus???
This episode and the entire plotline is completely bonkers. Explanations welcome!
xx
*images and video not mine
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