Episode 305 Freedom and Wiskey

 

Season three is surpassing all of my expectations for what good television is all about. This episode once again proves to be a highlight of raw emotion this book evokes in the reader. I feel like the writers have finally gotten the core of what Diana’s Outlander series is all about.

Earlier this week on Twitter I mentioned that they would end on the bell tinkling in the print shop and then black out. They exceeded even my wishes and went a few minutes beyond that with him actually seeing her and then fainting as tho he saw a ghost. And I thought, Perfect! What a genius move. Let them see each other for a brief moment and then stop it. Then next episode pick it up with him waking up in her arms and realizing she is not a ghost. It was awesome! Thank you Outlander writers for getting it right once again. You have done justice to the best book in the series and I love you for it.

But enough of my boring preamble heaping continual praise on the staff of our favorite TV show, you came here for a recap, so le’s get it done, shall we?

1. Watching Claire doing surgery up to this point was always quick and brutal, even when in the eighteenth century. But Doctor Claire is wonderful. It’s almost instinctive how she operates cooly, under pressure, without any hesitation. She just knows what to do and how to do it. She finishes a harrowing medical procedure like, “What, you can’t do this?” and Joe looks on in wonder.

These two deserve their own show. I can totally see Fraser and Abernathy, MD as a TV show. Full of mad hijinks, solving mysteries, and saving patients.

2. Bree is in school learning about Paul Revere, something she should have learned a long time ago in grade school, but this isn’t the same thing. This is the truth of the fictional midnight ride, which was rewritten to give Paulie boy a bigger role in the historical account. Bree is all, “Speaking of lies, try living one for eighteen years, boyo.” I love the fact that she’s doodling a picture of gothic arches and its spot on perfect. She couldn’t care less about Mr. Revere.

The instructor pulls her aside and tells her she is failing. Duh, I’m not interested in history, but give me three pieces of cardboard, some bubble gum and a sewing needle and I’ll give you the Sistine chapel.

The instructor says, “I knew your father, he was a friend of mine, which means I kind of have to look out for you, ya dig?“ She says he doesn’t have to worry about her, it’ll work out. She’s fine. Oh boy, another woman saying she’s fine. This instructor better get out of the room.

Later, she goes home and takes a look around the house with all of Frank’s things. She is remembering the man who raised her. I think at this moment she realizes that despite the bloodline, she really was his daughter and he loved her very much.

3. Fraser and Abernathy are at it again. They’re drinking in his office, talking about what happened in Scotland. “Joe,” she says, “What happened in Scotland stays in Scotland.” but he’s insistent.

“Did you meet a man, Lady Jane?” he asks, and she’s like a blushing bride. It’s so cute to see her happy finally when she thinks about Jamie. But she explains, “He’s someone from my past, and I tried to find him again, but it didn’t work out, so I guess fate had other ideas.” And Joe is all, “Fuck fate.” like, Lady Jane go out and find this guy because judging how you’re thinking about him right now, he makes your lady parts burst.

Joe, you have no idea.

 

4. Roger arrives with news and goes to the door to hear a right good stramash between the Fraser girls. He thinks twice about ringing the doorbell, but he’s here, so he can’t just go away. Bree whips open the door with a “What?!” and he’s standing there in all his dorky nerdiness going, “Hi, it’s me. Was just in the neighborhood, figured I’d stop by?”

Well this is awkward. Coming into town in the middle of a Bree/Claire screaming match. After a hug from Claire, the two are right back at it. Turns out Bree wants to withdraw from Harvard and move out, which Team Claire is all against and Team Bree is all for.

Claire, Bree doesn’t want to go to school right away. And do you blame her? Here’s a girl whose father died, her mother takes her to Scotland to find a guy who actually turns out to be her REAL Father, completely blindsides her with that information, tells her that her mother is a time-traveling witch who tried to change history, and then proceeds to search for said ghost.

Chick is exhausted. And I would probably do the same. She has to process, Claire. Jesus H Roosevelt Christ, did you think she was going to bounce back from a series of revelations that completely changed her life in the course of a few days? I don’t think so. Let the kid have a lie down for a few months, aye?

And I love Roger’s looks here. He’s all, “I didn’t want to show up in the middle of a stramash, but I am a man, and I don’t want to say a word so Imma stay out of it.”

Finally, a horn honks and Bree grabs the moment to end the argument and leave. She is as stubborn as her father. As she’s leaving, she looks at roger and says, “Maybe we can hang out sometime.”

5. After catching up on Christmas traditions, Claire and Roger go into the living room and chat over a glass of wiskey. She wonders if having a traditional American Christmas is really why Roger showed up here and he’s all, “Nope. I have some news.”

“I’m a historian, its what I do,” he says. And I’m all, Oh yeah! Me too, Mr. Mackenzie. “I’m like a dog with a bone. I can’t let something go.” so he brings a paper over to her and shows her. “I found him.”

After explaining that the paper shows Jamie wrote a bunch of stuff like Freedom and Wiskey and a Robert Burns poem that couldn’t have been written at that time, he drops the bombshell, “Alexander Malcolm, Printer.”

He’s alive in 1765. Well, this news doesn’t’ have the effect Roger was expecting. Claire doesn’t know what to do. She’s angry at first that he did this because she resigned herself to leaving Jamie in the past. Knowing that she could go back and find him hits her like a ton of bricks. She argues that she can’t leave Bree in this condition. Bree needs me now, more than ever. I can’t leave her with all the stuff that’s happening right now.

Yes, Claire. Yes, you can. Then Roger and Claire agree not to tell Bree this information for what it will do to the girl and I’m all, Claire, you have to! She’ll be fine! She’s Brianna Fraser, daughter of the King of Men. She’ll rule the world one day.

6. She’s in Abernathy’s office looking over the bones of a skeleton found in a cave in a cave in the Caribbean. Claire picks up the skull and says, “So Horace sent you over a one hundred and fifty year old murder victim?”

Joe says there was a bunch of artifacts with her as well. And then he picks up a few bones and says, “Yep, here’s your proof. She was murdered in the cave with a dull blade. Somebody tried to take off her head. She wasn’t black. She was a middle aged white lady.

Then he segues to her. “What’s up? You look happier.” Well, she explains that she told Bree that the Scot was her real father, and that’s why the kid has been going a little wonky lately. Joe says, “Well, nobody thought you and Frank were Ozzie and Harriet. If you have a chance of real love, take it. Bree will understand.”

 

7. Roger is going after my own heart here. Dark Shadows is on and he’s all about it. In case you didn’t know, this is a soap opera about Vampires. And yes, it was a lot better than whatever that stupid sparkly vampire book written by a hack several years ago.

Bree comes in to find him rotting his brain on daytime TV and asks what his colleagues at Oxford would say. He’s all, “They would probably be right here watching because they’re all big nerds just like me.”

He apologizes for showing up at the worst time possible, but then she’s fine with it. He expresses an interest in Boston Cream pie and lobster, and she’s all, “I can help you with that. But first I have to go do this thing at Harvard. There’s one last Frank thing we have to go through before getting into the meat of this episode.” and he is totally down with that because anywhere close to Bree is the best place to be.

8. Frank Randall is getting his own endowment program at Harvard. The dean is all, “Frank was good, he was great. Ra Ra Frank Randall.” Claire doesn’t want anything to do with this whole thing. Especially when she meets

This bitch here. Sorry, but I have little regard for Blondie Harlot. Now I understand that Frank had to get his jollies off with someone other than Claire because the whole Jamie is better than you think, but come on! I was waiting for Claire to splash a drink in her face. Remember the graduation party when Blondie showed up and embarrassed her? Yeah, I didn’t think you’d forget that day. Just for that, she should have gotten a Claire Fraser Slap. And notice I say Fraser, because the Randall section of her life is over, thankfully.

Did she actually think Claire would be sympathetic to her situation? “If you had released him, we would have had happiness.” Look, lady, I don’t know what Frank was telling you, but Claire talked about getting a divorce the very night you showed up in your chippy little dress. Did he not tell you that? No? Well then go away because you are going down the right road for a glass of wine in the face.

Spare me your emotionalism. Frank wasn’t a peach in the best Georgia pie you’d ever eaten. He was a downright scumbag. If that’s your thing, then you could have had him. But he refused a divorce, so shut your whore mouth, Sandra Dee.

9. Claire and Bree are walking out of the place talking about Blondie Harlot. Bree saw Frank talking to her in a bookstore once. And then she asks Claire to tell her the truth. Okay, here goes. “Frank was in love with her. They were seeing each other while he and I were married and raising you. And yes, I know I let it happen, and I wanted him to leave so he could be with her but that’s not how things worked out.”

Bree gets all sad for a minute because she thinks Frank didn’t love her. And Claire says, “No, he loved you like you were his own. I loved you. Neith one of us resented you at all. Even when you were born and I held you for the first time, there as nothing but you. It was the most powerful experience of my life.” And she’s right. Parenthood is something you can’t explain that makes you turn absolutely crazy. You really will never love anyone as much as you love your own children. Hell, when my kids were born, I wept. There is no way to explain this to someone who has never held their own newborn. No way in the world.

Claire also has another revelation. Roger found Jamie. Instead of getting upset about it, Bree is all, “Dude, you should totally go and find him! I’ll be fine. But you should go get that sexy hunk of Scot, err my dad.”

10. Watching the Apollo 8 broadcast with a bunch of doctors and nurses, Joe asks “How do you make a trip like that and come back to the world as you know it?” and Claire starts on one of here patented Claire VoiceOvers. He’s right. How do you come back after making a trip like that? I made a trip like that, only in time. You can come back to your life, but it’s not really the same. Can a person go more than once? Yes, Claire, you can go as much as you want. Duh.

11. She is sitting with Bree much later that day. She explains she could go but what will happen with Bree? Bree says she’ll be fine. Really. Go. Dude! Just get the hell out. Go back to Jamie. It is your destiny. “How will I be able to see you get married, walk you down the aisle, see your first grandchild?” and Bree is all, “Mom, there’s another few books to go. I think you’ll see all that in person. Remember I can go through the stones too, so there’s that. Dinna fash, mother.”

Bree finally reveals, “I’ve been wondering which father I’m more like, and the answer is neither. I’m a lot like you. Plucky, string minded, creative, and pretty much as close to a perfect woman as they come. I’ll be just fine, mom. Now go, get your dress together and go find my pops.”

 

12. I swear I’m going to make a commercial for “Fraser and Abernathy, MDs.” This scene is too funny. Claire asks him straight up, “Am I attractive?” and Joe is nothing if not honest.

“You’re a skinny white broad with too much hair and a nice ass,” he says. And she’s all, “Aww yeah..” She explains that she could go back to Bree’s father and he says, “Why not? Don’t worry about how you look. He’ll be in heaven when he sees you. After he passes out because he thinks you’re a ghost, that is.”

13. It’s Christmas and the family is exchanging gifts. Roger gives her a book of the history of Scotland and Claire is all, “I wish I had this book when I went through the first time.” Well it certainly would have helped, yeah?

Bree gives her a necklace with a topaz as the setting. It’s Bree’s birthstone. And Claire will need the gem so she can go through the stones. Then Bree asks what she’ll wear and Claire says, “I’ll make my own dress.”

14. Batman TV theme playing in 60s retro music while Claire is making her outfit for the trip is fulfilling all of my love for that show and Outlander at the same time. I am literally laughing my ass off during this entire montage.

She is finished. And she shows it off to the kids. Its not exactly a bat suit but it is pretty much the same thing. It has secret pocket so she can take all kinds of things with her. Like Penicillin, syringes, a batarang, scalpels, and some Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes because it’s been a while since I’ve thrown in a Harry Potter reference.

She has also colored her hair and looks like 18th century Claire again. Roger goes to get something to drink, leaving Claire and Bree to talk. Bree says, “Why don’t we go to the airport with you?” and Claire explains that she doesn’t want to do that because if they go to the stones together like they did in the book, Claire may never want to go.

So a few drinks later, Claire is all set to go. But not before giving Bree the Pearl Necklace that we her mothers and her grandmother’s before that. Oh, and her resignation letter to Joe, because she isn’t coming back to this hospital ever again, I should think.

15. Then she goes off in a taxi to an uncertain future.
But not before we see Bree go into the kitchen, gather herself up, put on a Santa hat, and come back to the living room where Roger has one more present for her. A copy of A Christmas Carol by Darles Chickens. They set down to read it.

The taxi stops. It’s raining. And she gives the Puddle Prologue. She steps out of the taxi and into a puddle wearing the Batsuit dress.

SIDE NOTE: I don’t remember if they did the prologue in season 2, or if there was ever a chance to do it to begin with. If someone can tell me, that’d be great. I’m sure I have some loyal fans out there who will be able to give me an indication.

She is in 18th century Edinburgh. It’s day time, and she just mysteriously ended up here.

SIDE NOTE: On Screen Adaptations. When I took screenplay classes, there was a term that we learned called “Enter Late, Leave Early.” It was basically a truncated screen tactic to keep the action moving. Don’t show the detectives finding a clue and a person to talk to about that, then have them drive over there, get out of the car, ring the doorbell, and get introduced. Put them right there seconds later. We don’t need to see Claire getting into the airplane, the flight over the water to Scotland, going to the stones, and through them. We already know how that works. We want to see her step out of the taxi and be there already. The in between part is boring. That’s why they didn’t show it, and I’m glad. It would have added nothing to the production of this episode.

16. She finds a young child sweeping the streets in the middle of a day in Edinburgh, and asks him where Alexander Malcolm’s print shop is. He’s all, “Carfax Close, ma’am. Oh, and you want to pick up that Saran wrap you just dropped, ya litterbug?” (Book readers will get this)

She goes around the corner, sees this elaborate sign, A. Malcolm printer. And it’s a rather fancy sign for just a normal old printer. But the fans all squee because this is the moment we have been waiting for the last fourteen months. But it’s like two minutes to the end of this episode and I totes know what they’re going to do. She goes up to the door, steels herself for the coming storm, and walks through.

The bell rings, and I’m expecting a black out and roll credits. But it keeps going. Okay, let’s see where they end it. Then she hears Jamie say, “Geordie is that you?” and it jars her because it’s the first time she’s heard that particular slice of heaven in twenty years.

So she walks down the hall and sees him down below with his back to her. And she says, “No, it’s not Geordie, Jamie. It’s me, Claire.” He does a slow turn around, and we see him. But he doesn’t look at her like he’s happy. He’s horrified. And he just stands there for a second and then he passes out. Just goes down to the mat like a champ. Or someone who has just seen a ghost.

She’s all like,

So now we have a two week hiatus to find out what happens. The next episode will make up for it tho, with a 75 minute run time and probably a few hot scenes between our two favorite people in TV land. At least it’s not nine months between “I’ll thank you to take your hands off my wife.” and the rescue of Claire. Oh, and the next one is going to be totally not safe for work or kids. So put them to bed early because we can be guaranteed about 15 minutes of straight up Outlander porn.

So that’s it. See you next time. Oh, and since there wasn’t really any Jamie, here’s a guest Mooney eye look with our Favorite nerd, Roger Mackenzie. Don’t worry, the next week I’m sure I’ll have a million screen caps to choose from with our fair red haired lad.