“Sing me a song of a young lady who is gone”.
Advertisement
For the sake of clarity (and to avoid space-time-continuum whiplash), I’ll be dividing this recap into past and present. “I do, but there was this man in 1746 I loved more…”
Desperate for more Outlander goodness in your life?
We at ET have already seen the heartbreakingly wonderful finale three times (subtle brag totally intended!), and we can confirm that you’ll definitely need a bottle handy. “You don’t know, and I don’t know, and we never will know”.
Claire is a successful surgeon, who is poised, and independent.
So, what’s 1960s Claire up to while Brianna’s getting her sleuth on? It’s this moment that makes Brianna believe her mother’s story of traveling to the past. Giving a lecture about the heroes of old, and the battle of Culloden. History will change, and lives will be altered by every step taken and decision made.
When the fans next see Jamie and Claire, they will both be older, Heughan teased.
Thanks to that final line (“I have to go back”) we know that Claire will be returning to 1700’s Scotland twenty years after her separation from Jamie. The prince is still an idiot, so Claire comes up with a better idea: kill him. That’s what he’s worrying about, that’s why he’s fighting them, that’s why he’s trying to kill them. The only problem, aside from the moral quandary, is that Dugal overhears. His research shows Jamie escaped the Battle of Culloden. Will Claire ditch her daughter to track down Jamie? Most of it does take place there. Or will the stones take them to 1768 so that Jamie has aged 20 years, just like Claire? The only thing they can do is hope to mitigate the fallout.
So, 1746. Claire came up with a “screw it all” solution and offered to poison Prince Charles. Since Jamie survived, was his best friend able to escape as well? He will fight side by side with Jamie and die, if necessary. Jamie begs for two hours to sort his affairs before Rupert avenges his war chieftain.
Plans are now set in motion. Poor Claire tries to prove herself with an ancient deed to Lallybroch bearing her signature, but Brianna’s not having it and totally hates her now. The Parisian story closed with the unbearable loss of a child in “Faith”, though also included the gaining of a child in Fergus (Romann Berrux).
At this point that’s all I can think about and then I’m hit with another surprise. Fergus is their son in every way that counts, biology be damned.
Claire Heads Back to the Past. We don’t know what Frank and Claire’s marriage was like after Claire returned, but at the very least, they had some kilt-shaped baggage to sort through and it’s not exactly the kind of problem Claire could put on the table at counseling. Claire being Claire, she resists mightily. Brianna and Roger looks through the Reverends things. When they get back to the house.
Claire and Brianna encounter a now grown up Roger who himself is an Oxford historian. The music crescendos as they are together for the last time. “It’s so unbelievable to see Claire kind of back in her time”.
Advertisement
That also means Roger is a descendant of Dougal, who finally meets his demise in this episode. She’s there, and Bree thinks she’s great. She couldn’t stop Geillis from going through the stones because it would have screwed with Roger’s history. She also searches Roger Mckenzie’s ancestry. Bree and Roger just see her as a passionate member of the Scottish Nationalists. Claire, on the other hand, knows the extremes to which Gellis will go. She tells Jamie to use the yellow jasmine she had given to Collum. Their murder of Dougal, for all that it was rushed, was heart-breaking but inevitable payoff to a two-seasons-long conflict, and Geillis’/Gillian’s return was as emphatic and impactful as it needed to be.
