Season 3 is here! My intention is to write an “Insta-Reaction” post for each episode soon after viewing, to share some initial thoughts, questions, reactions — you name it.

Warning:

I may be talking about events from this episode, other episodes, and/or the book series… so if you’d rather not know, now’s your chance to walk away!

Outlander, episode 303: “All Debts Paid”

The official synopsis (via Starz):

In prison, Jamie discovers that an old foe has become the warden – and has the power to make his life hell. Claire and Frank both put their best foot forward in marriage, but an uninvited guest shatters the illusion.

My take:

Major plot points:

Once again, the episode follows two separate timelines, as we see Jamie and Claire’s separate lives.

In Claire’s world:

• Claire and Frank’s marriage is worse than ever. There seem to be occasional warm moments during Claire’s medical school years, but then we find out that they have an “agreement”, which allows Frank to cheat so long as he’s discreet about it.
• Claire and Joe Abernathy graduate from medical school. At a graduation celebration at Claire and Frank’s house, Frank’s girlfriend/mistress/”harlot” shows up an hour early for her assignation with Frank. A holy row ensues later. Claire felt humiliated in front of her friends and colleagues. Frank reminds Claire that she’s the one who first allowed someone else into their marriage.
• They discuss divorce, acknowledging that their marriage is a sham, but decide to stay together because of Brianna.
• Jumping ahead several years, Brianna graduates from high school, and Claire is a busy surgeon. Frank informs Claire that he wants a divorce, has been offered a post back in England, and want to take Brianna with him. Big fight. Bottom line: Brianna, at age 18, can decide for herself.
• Frank leaves after their fight, and Claire is called back to the hospital to perform surgery. After the surgery, Joe finds Claire to give her bad news: Frank has been killed in a car crash.
• Claire says a tearful good-bye to Frank, and tells him that she did truly love him once. He was her first love.

In Jamie’s world:

• Jamie is a prisoner at Ardsmuir prison. It’s awful. Rats abound, and the men are cold and sick.
• Jamie is the only Jacobite officer in the prison, and is the only prisoner kept in shackles.
• Lord John Grey arrives to take up his post as the new governor of Ardsmuir. His predecessor (Harry Quarry!) lets him know that Jamie is the unofficial chief of the men, and that Grey should seek him out.
• This is the same John Grey (then known as William Grey) who scuffled with Jamie back on the eve of Prestonpans.
• Murtagh lives!!! He’s at Ardsmuir with Jamie, sporting a white beard. He appears to be quite ill, but Jamie is able to negotiate with Grey for medical care for Murtagh.

• Jamie and John eventually develop a respectful relationship, but John misreads Jamie’s openness and makes a slight pass, which Jamie rejects and can’t seem to forgive.
• By the end of the episode, Ardsmuir is being shut down. All prisoners are sentenced to transport to the American Colonies, where they’ll serve 14 years in indentured labor before earning their freedom, if they survive the passage. Murtagh is sent off for transport, but Grey has other plans for Jamie.
• John takes Jamie to a beautiful English estate called Helwater, where he’ll serve his sentence. John now considers all debts of honor paid.

Insta-reaction:

Another glorious episode — perhaps a bit of a slow burn, but full of tremendous performances all around. The character moments are fully realized and heartbreaking and REAL.

Okay, Claire and Frank. What a bitter, sad state of affairs. At the beginning of the episode, as Frank is cooking breakfast and Claire suggests they go see a movie, it seems for a moment as though they’ve reached some sort of pleasant middle ground in their marriage. But no. Frank has seen the movie already, and it’s clear that he’s seen it WITH someone — and that someone is not just a work colleague. Apparently, they’ve agreed that Frank can do as he please and see other people, so long as he’s discreet, and he’s kept his word. And is seems like Claire is okay with this, so long as she doesn’t have to think about it too much. She seems to have perfected the art of denial.

Frank’s discretion slips later on, though. Years later, Claire hosts a party at their house celebrating her medical school graduation. There’s to be a dinner at a restaurant following, which Frank will be skipping… but the dinner is scheduled for 7:00, and Frank thought it was at 6:00. Did he really get the timing wrong, or is this his passive-aggressive way of humiliating Claire? His girlfriend shows up at their house an hour early, and Claire answers the door. Oh, if looks could kill! The girlfriend is shown into the house to stand mutely near Frank while Claire and all her guests walk past them to leave for dinner. Yikes. Painful.

The fight later that night between Claire and Frank is terrible (although brilliantly acted). I read in an interview with Caitriona Balfe that they were going for a “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” feel here, and they really nail it. The years of slow poisoning of the relationship lead to this scene in which Frank is drunk, Claire is angrily smoking, and the venom between the two is fully on display. Frank should never have invited his mistress to the house, of course — especially not on Claire’s graduation night. But really, who can blame him for pursuing love and affection when there is none at all in his home? Claire and Frank are both essentially good people, but they do awful things to each other. In our time, they never would have stayed together all those years. But Frank has seen fathers shut out of their children’s lives after divorce, and he will not risk his relationship with Brianna, despite Claire’s assurance that she would never try to keep them apart. Frank has some justice on his side when he points out to Claire that her promises don’t really mean a whole lot.

Finally, when Brianna graduates from high school, the moment of truth arrives. Frank informs Claire that he intends to accept a post at Oxford and take Brianna with him to live in England… and Claire’s not invited. He wants a divorce, and wants to remarry his girlfriend as soon as he can. It’s a bitter and angry scene once again, and yet another that makes it clear that Claire will absolutely never have room for anyone in her heart but Jamie. We also learn, at least from Frank’s perspective, that between her medical career and her yearning for Jamie, Claire has not been a particularly present mother, something Brianna hinted at at the end of season 2 as well.

Frank walks out, Claire goes to the hospital to perform surgery… and Frank dies. Claire’s good-bye to Frank is yet another quietly heartbreaking moment. She did love him… once.

And the Jamie story:

Ardsmuir is just as awful as we’d expect. The men are sick and cold and starving. And yet, when John becomes aware of the rats in the cells and orders a guard to have cats brought in, thinking he’s doing good by getting rid of vermin, Jamie points out the flaw in the plan: The prisoners count on the rats for food. They’d rather endure the filth and the bites and not lose the meals the rats provide.

Fan favorite Murtagh, who dies at Culloden in the books, is alive! Although not doing very well, with a nasty cough and seemingly very weak. Still, it’s wonderful that he and Jamie are together. Jamie does the best he can to care for Murtagh and the other prisoners, remembering his lessons about medical herbs  from Claire. It’s sweet to see Murtagh speaking of Claire, although the pain on Jamie’s face — poor man has really nothing to live for.

Later, after a piece of the plot that involves a dying man who may know the whereabouts of missing gold and a prison escape — an overly convoluted piece of the story — we see an incredibly powerful scene between  Jamie and John. Jamie makes clear that he realizes who John is after all, and basically begs him to settle the debt between them by ending Jamie’s life. As John holds his sword to Jamie’s throat, there’s an almost ecstatic look that crosses Jamie’s face. His suffering will finally be over. It’s not to be, though — John is far too honorable to hurt or kill an unarmed man.

John and Jamie develop a friendship of sorts as they meet in John’s chambers to eat, play chess, and have Jamie serve as the informal representative of the prisoners. They’re evenly matched in terms of sensibility and intellect and seem to truly enjoy one another’s company. Jamie finally opens up about his wife, and John shares the story of losing someone himself. Without being 100% explicit, it’s clear that this “particular friend” who died at Culloden was a man that John loved. All might have been well, had John not misinterpreted Jamie’s sympathy as perhaps something more than just compassion. John places his hand on Jamie’s, and Jamie threatens to kill him if he doesn’t stop touching him.

Oof. Poor John. The tears running down his cheeks! And poor Jamie too. Had Jamie not had the experiences he did at the hands of Black Jack Randall, perhaps he could have more kindly declined John’s interest. But this situation is all too familiar for Jamie: He’s a prisoner, at the mercy of a British officer, with no power of his own, subject to a redcoat who holds his life in his hands. It’s just too much. Of course Jamie reacts with coldness and the threat of violence. This is a man who suffered PTSD from his torture for years — given his past, he actually shows a great deal of restraint!

Oh, it was heartbreaking to see Jamie pulled off in one direction while Murtagh is taken off in another. They didn’t even get to say good-bye! A sentence of transport could easily be a death sentence — many of those being shipped to the colonies won’t survive the journey. John is again sparing Jamie from possible death, both from his sense of a debt to the man as well as the emotional connection he now feels for him. Jamie may not realize it yet, but John has given Jamie a gift with his new terms of imprisonment at Helwater.

Minor complaint: John rides his horse with Jamie led behind with a rope attached to his wrists as they travel from Ardsmuir to Helwater… for three days? Are we really to believe that John would drag Jamie along like that for so long? Maybe the show producers were going for dramatic effect, but it actually seemed ridiculous to me (and — book note — Jamie rides a horse too in the book version), and not in keeping with John’s sense of dignity.

Insta-reaction wrap-up:

I do need to watch this episode again. (I watched in on my phone while on a plane, and missed some dialogue — and the tiny viewing screen resulted in my not recognizing Murtagh until about halfway through the episode!). I’m sure I missed some key moments, lines, looks — these episodes are all so rich, and deserve full attention!

I am thrilled that the show is keeping Murtagh around. Based on the events of the books, I feel certain that Jamie and Murtagh will reunite later this season and that Murtagh will have an ongoing role in the story. There’s another character from the books he could easily replace, and given that Murtagh is a fantastic character whom fans love, I think it’s a safe bet that we’ll see more of him.

This episode was light on action, but that’s okay. The character moments are really what matters here. For once, I’d say that at least on my initial viewing, the Claire parts were even more powerful than the Jamie parts. The slow, tortured disintegration of Claire and Frank’s marriage is so painful and so well done. Tobias Menzies has done a phenomenal job as both Black Jack and Frank, and it’s sad to think that his time with Outlander is now over (although there’s always the possibility of flashbacks, I suppose). Claire and Frank should never have stayed together, and although they did so with the best of intentions, they were simply miserable for much of their 20 years together.

In the books, we’re led to understand that Frank was unfaithful to Claire throughout their marriage, post-time-travel, and we don’t particularly have sympathy for him. (Diana Gabaldon has also alluded to readers only getting Claire’s perspective in the books, so how certain can we be that Frank cheated at all?) Here, Frank is definitely involved with someone, but it’s unclear whether this was multiple affairs or one long-lasting relationship. It’s easier to feel sympathy for TV Frank — he’s in a loveless marriage, through no fault of his own, and lord knows he’s tried to reconnect with Claire. He seems to have had her blessing to seek love (or at least sex) elsewhere — Claire only minds when his outside activities impact the illusion they’re maintaining of having a happy home. As someone who never cared for book Frank or felt much compassion for him, it’s good for me to more fully see the pain the man suffered all those years and his basic decency in the face of an impossible situation.

It’s interesting that the show hasn’t kept Claire and Jamie’s stories in perfect parallel, time-wise. Claire’s story is now caught up to where we saw her at the end of season 2, more or less. I assume we’re ready to pick back up with her, Roger and Brianna searching for signs of Jamie in the historical records. Meanwhile, there are still quite a few significant years ahead for Jamie, most of which I believe will be covered in next week’s episode.

All in all, I continue to be impressed with season 3. The story structure is being handled with great care, and the acting is out of this world. No one wants to see Jamie and Claire apart for too long, and yet, the work the cast is doing in conveying the sorrow of their lives is A+ material.

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Season 3 is here! My intention is to write an “Insta-Reaction” post for each episode soon after viewing, to share some initial thoughts, questions, reactions — you name it.

Warning:

I may be talking about events from this episode, other episodes, and/or the book series… so if you’d rather not know, now’s your chance to walk away!

Outlander, episode 302: “Surrender”

The official synopsis (via Starz):

Hiding in a cave, Jamie leads a lonely life until Lallybroch is threatened by redcoats pursuing the elusive Jacobite traitor. In Boston, Claire and Frank struggle to coexist in a marriage haunted by the ghost of Jamie.

My take:

Major plot points:

Once again, the episode follows two separate times. We see Jamie’s world in 1752, and Claire’s in 1949.

• Six years have passed since Culloden. Jamie is a silent, shattered shell of a man, living in a cave in the woods near Lallybroch.
• Despite being in hiding, a legend seems to have sprung up about the “Dunbonnet” — a red-haired outlaw who covers his hair with a brown bonnet.

• The redcoats come by Lallybroch regularly to harass the family and search for Red Jamie. They arrest Ian over and over again to try to force information from the family.
• Things come to a head for Jamie when he’s nearly caught in the house soon after Jenny gives birth to Young Ian, endangering the entire family. Next, Fergus taunts the redcoats who follow him, until one cuts off his hand. Jamie rushes him to the house and his life is saved, but Jamie feels terrible about the horrible danger the family is in because of him.
• Finally, he decides that Jenny should turn him in to the redcoats, so that the family will collect the reward offered for his capture and clear themselves of any further suspicion.
• The night before this plan goes through, Mary McNab brings Jamie a final meal in his cave, trims his hair and shaves his beard, and invites him to sleep with her as a last comfort before he goes to prison.
• The next day, Jamie and Jenny put on a performance for the British, who show up during Jamie’s supposed homecoming and take him off to prison.
• Meanwhile, in Boston, Claire continues to dream of Jamie. While she’s resumed a sex life with Frank, she does so with her eyes shut, and Frank realizes that she’s still with Jamie in her heart and in her head.
• Brianna is about a year old, and although Claire has thrown herself into motherhood, she misses having something meaningful to contribute to the world.
• By the end of the episode, we see Claire attending her first anatomy class at Harvard Medical School, where the professor scornfully remarks that between her and the “Negro” student, they’ve become very progressive. The other students (white, male) act like jerks, but Claire and Joe Abernathy, the sole African American student, introduce themselves, and it’s clear that this will be the start of a lasting friendship.

Insta-reaction:

This show. Really. They are just ON this season, and it’s glorious.

Poor Fergus. The actor playing him is so adorable and sweet, although I believe this is the last time we’ll see him. By the time we focus on Fergus again (assuming more or less the chronology from the books), years will have passed and we’ll have an older actor playing the character. Meanwhile, though, this Fergus has grown up a bit since season 2 — he’s taller and his voice is deeper! Such a sweetie. The scene with the British officers was horrible*, although I appreciate how faithful to the book the scene was where Fergus and Jamie talk afterwards, and Fergus reminds Jamie that he’d once sworn to support him for the rest of his life if he ever lost his hand while in Jamie’s employ, a very real possibility for a pickpocket. (How ironic that he finally suffers this fate after “going straight”, no longer a pickpocket but just a boy working on a farm.)

*Does it strike anyone else as implausible that the soldiers would pin Fergus down and chop off his hand? Why would they do this? Maybe they’d beat him or take him away, but really, cut off his hand? It seems so out of place. In the books, it’s accidental. Same perpetrator (British soldier), same outcome for Fergus, but a little easier to accept than an act of outright brutality that’s just a bit too out there.

Jamie is so shattered in this episode. It’s painful to look at his face and realize that his life is just completely empty. He loves Jenny and her family, but as Ian points out, Claire is Jamie’s heart, and now his heart is gone. Gotta love the Dunbonnet look on Jamie, with the long hair* and scraggly beard. Such a wild man! The scene where he brings home the deer to feed the family and silently butchers it shows Jamie’s awful, continuous pain so clearly.

*Although if the point of the “dun bonnet” is to cover up Red Jamie’s signature hair, it’s not very effective. Those glorious red locks flowing past his shoulders are not exactly inconspicuous.

I did feel that the episode should have shown the world beyond Lallybroch in the Scotland scenes. Based only on the show, you might assume that the Fraser/Murphy family is specifically being targeted, when in history, we know that this was the time of the Clearances, when the British army ravaged the Highlands, destroyed the clans, and left the people starving and under constant threat of imprisonment and worse.

Meanwhile, the Claire and Frank scenes are an odd mix of hopeful and hopeless. There is a spark, such as when Claire and Frank coo over Brianna (and it doesn’t hurt that Frank is clad only in a towel at the time). Claire is a sex-positive woman, and there’s only so long she’s going to go without. In the two sexual encounters between Claire and Frank (as well as in the scene of her pleasuring herself while Frank sleeps), Claire takes the lead and does what feels good to her. Frank is too astute not to get what’s going on. No matter how much he loves her and wants her, he recognizes that she used to look at him while they made love, and now she keeps her eyes closed. Not very subtle, Claire. At the beginning of the episode, they’re sleeping side by side in the same bed — but by the end, they say good-night and sleep in twin beds, in the same room but with empty space between them. This marriage is not doing well, no matter the happy faces they put on for company.

On a positive note for Claire, I’m thrilled to see her starting medical school (where I’m sure she could run circles around all those awful people in her anatomy class — how many of them have performed amputations and sewn up battle wounds, hmmm?). However, I would have liked to have seen some discussion of this between her and Frank. Was he supportive? Did he realize she needed something in her life besides house and baby? Or is he just so defeated already by her distance that he sees this as maybe a way to ground her in her life a bit more? I know a one-hour episode can’t possibly include everything, but I feel like there’s something missing as background to Claire’s showing up in anatomy class.

Jamie’s interlude with Mary McNab was sweet and nicely done. She’s a kind woman who appreciates what Jamie has done for all of Lallybroch and knows how he’s about to sacrifice himself. Her offer of comfort and healing is something Jamie needs, even if he doesn’t think he wants it. It’s been too long for him since he’s allowed anyone to really reach him or touch him, and just for this moment, he’s able to make a connection.

The parallels between Jamie and Claire’s lives lie largely in the sexual encounters shown. Claire reconnects sexually with Frank, but always with Jamie on her mind  and in her fantasies. Jamie abstains from human contact, barely even speaks when he’s around people, and is thoroughly withdrawn from other people, living only in his mind and with his memories of Claire. He does finally allow himself to be touched by Mary, which perhaps is a first step for Jamie in accepting that his life with Claire is truly over.

By episode’s end, both Jamie and Claire have made life-changing decisions — Jamie by turning himself in and facing years, or possibly a lifetime, in prison, and Claire by enrolling in medical school. They’ve both been feeling trapped by what their lives have become, although Claire is opening a door to professional freedom and achievement, while Jamie will not be free for a long, long time.

The episode title, “Surrender”, is an interesting choice. Jamie has surrendered to the British, but I’d say he’s also surrendered his isolation and mourning, finally giving in to the reality of his life without Claire. He’s lived in limbo for all these years, but now he’s accepting that this is the life he has. Claire makes it clear that she’ll never give up her longing for Jamie, but she too takes steps in this episode to embrace living this new version of a life — and while she’ll never fully connect with Frank (could there be a wider gulf than the foot separating their two beds?), she’s surrendered to the need to find meaning where and when she is. A surrender is not a happy condition — it implies giving up and giving in — but there’s also an element of acceptance: The person surrendering can’t have what he or she truly wanted, and now they agree to move forward and accept the punishment or consequences, without what they desire most.

Such a sad way to think about Jamie and Claire’s lives. And no wonder adult Brianna feels that her mother was never truly present emotionally.

Insta-reaction wrap-up:

A powerful, moving episode that’s quite faithful to the overall flow of the book, even keeping intact certain pieces of dialogue. I feel that the Jamie and Claire sections really flow together well, and the cutting from one era to another never feels jarring. The mood I get from all this is interconnectedness  — despite the distance and years between them, there’s still a firm tie between Claire and Jamie that can’t be undone or ignored.

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Season 3 has begun! My intention is to write an “Insta-Reaction” post for each episode soon after viewing, to share some initial thoughts, questions, reactions — you name it.

Warning:

I may be talking about events from this episode, other episodes, and/or the book series… so if you’d rather not know, now’s your chance to walk away!

Outlander, episode 301: “The Battle Joined”

The official synopsis (via Starz):

After living through the Battle of Culloden, Jamie is at the mercy of British victors, until his past provides his only hope of survival. Meanwhile, a pregnant Claire attempts to adjust to life in 1940s Boston.

My take:

Major plot points:

We follow two separate plot threads, Jamie’s and Claire’s.

• Jamie wakes on the battlefield in a heap of bodies, half-dead and with visions of the last day flashing before his eyes.
• We see him at Craigh na Dun after saying good-bye to Claire, then arriving at Culloden, where Prince Charles still thinks he’s going to have a victory.
• We see flashes of Jamie on the battlefield, carnage all around him, finally killing Black Jack Randall while receiving his own seemingly fatal wound.

• Jamie’s life is ultimately spared by Lord Melton, older brother of John Grey, who considers there to be a debt of honor due to Jamie’s sparing of John’s life at Carryarick.
• Meanwhile, Frank and Claire are beginning their life together in Boston.
• Claire is not well-suited to the life of a faculty housewife, expected to look pretty, stay quiet, and prepare dinner on a modern-day stove.
• Claire can’t allow Frank to touch her. Things are tense.
• Finally, Claire goes into labor, and delivers a healthy baby girl. Claire and Frank declare themselves ready for a new beginning, which is immediately tested by a nurse asking where the baby got her red hair. Oops. Loaded question.

Insta-reaction:

Such a beautiful episode. Really, I couldn’t have asked for better.

Book readers will know that while Voyager starts with Jamie lying wounded on the battlefield, wondering if he’s dead already, we never actually see the Battle of Culloden. It’s quite effective that it’s shown, with all its horror and carnage. The Jacobites are running with swords into the line of fire from guns and cannon, and they just don’t stand a chance.

And that blasted Prince Charles, still dreaming of victory as he shows off his pretty silver cups while the men devoted to a Stuart restoration rush to their deaths. So terribly, needlessly tragic.

Jamie’s vision of Claire on the battlefield is lovely. She’s all he can see, and he has nothing without her.

I enjoyed the brief moments of Murtagh during the battle and the quick interchange between him and Jamie. His fate, at least on this episode, is unknown, although I think it’s safe to assume that he met the same end here as in the book. Or does he? Is the show leaving open the possibility that we’ll see him again? Murtagh’s death in the books was one of the hardest to take. A fan can hope, right?

(But how could he have survived Culloden? The British killed everyone wounded on the battlefield, and if he wasn’t wounded or dead, he would have found Jamie or died trying.)

Where’s Murtagh???

I know, I know… this really is probably just wishful thinking on my part. A key piece of the coming years of Jamie’s life is how alone he is. Having Murtagh there would change the dynamic and shift the story quite a bit, so I can’t really see the showrunners going in that direction. I guess I just don’t want to say good-bye to him. I do love the character!

Rupert plays a heroic role, looking after the few survivors as they await their turn to be executed, before making his own good-bye to Jamie and facing death. I love that he stepped up and acted as a leader in these scenes, and that his parting with Jamie was full of affection, not dwelling on Jamie’s killing of Dougal. It must be nice to have the belief systems of these Highlanders — Rupert takes comfort in the idea of being with Angus once again. (Are we crying yet?)

Hal, Lord Melton, is a book favorite of mine, and while I don’t expect to see him again this season, I felt his portrayal and his handling of the moral dilemma presented by Jamie was quite good. And it was great seeing Jamie end up back in Jenny’s loving care by the end of the episode.

As for Claire — well, this housewife role is clearly not for her. It’s almost painful to see how voiceless and powerless she is as a woman in 1948. This is a woman who advised kings and chieftains, engaged in high-level political scheming, and performed amputations, battlefield medicine, and more. And yet when she offers an opinion at the Harvard faculty club, she’s treated as impertinent and out of line, with nothing of value to say because she’s a woman, and a pregnant one at that. And then later, when the doctor asks Frank about her contractions instead of Claire, and then sedates her against her will — infuriating! We assumed when Claire first arrived in the Highlands that she’d be shoved into a powerless role because of her sex, yet it’s really here in the late 1940s that Claire is more pigeon-holed than ever before.

It does seems an important point that she mentioned that Harvard Medical School began admitting women just a few years earlier, giving a hint of her own next step. Claire is a woman whose calling in life is to be a healer — sitting home making dinner, staying quiet, and not worrying her pretty head about anything absolutely isn’t her.

Likewise, if we really think about it, Claire has never been a housewife before. From the opening of episode 1, season 1, we know that Claire has never had a home of her own. She and Frank married and then were separated by war, which she spent on battlefields and hospitals. They no sooner reunite than they’re separated again by Claire’s trip into the past, where she certainly wasn’t a housewife, instead involved in non-stop action and called on time and time again to use her remarkable skills as a healer. She’s never had a home or the expectation that home was where she was meant to be. It’s so not Claire! Ugh, 1948, you’re the worst.

Poor Frank. I’ve never been all that fond of him, but he does seem to be getting a pretty raw deal here. It still doesn’t really make sense to me that he and Claire chose to remain together and stay married. How can they ever expect to get past the three years they were apart, and the fact that Claire fell passionately in love with another man? I’m not sure either of them is being realistic about the deep layers of hurt and sorrow between them.

Oh, that moment in the hospital when Claire wakes up and says “where’s my baby?”!! Stunning. Such a beautiful and powerful throwback to the tragic stillbirth of her first child. In the moment when Frank brings her newborn daughter to her, we can see hope finally beginning to shine in Claire’s eyes.

Insta-reaction wrap-up:

A stellar beginning to season 3! Kudos to the cast — their emotions are so raw and spot-on. Kudos as well to the production staff, especially in regard to the staging of the battle and its aftermath. Simply breathtaking and devastating.

And furthermore…

I’m just so damn glad that Droughtlander is over! It’s been a long time, but worth every moment of waiting if the full season promises to be as great as its first episode.

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Take heart, Outlander fans! We finally have a date for the start of season 3!

Mark your calendars… let the countdown begin!

I know where I’ll be September 10th. How about you?

So maybe you’ve noticed that I’m a bit of an Outlander fan.

Oops, wrong fandom.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about Outlander, so I thought — on this rainy Saturday morning — I’d gather up the bits and pieces of Outlander-world news that have come up in the last few months.

First, from the world of books:

Sadly, it would appear that we’re not getting the 9th book in the main series in 2017. I know. I know. It’s hard. Diana Herself has made it clear that it takes as long as it takes, and it’s going to take a while. At least we have a title: Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone.

What does the title mean? From Diana Gabaldon’s website:

Talking to your bees is a very old Celtic custom (known in other parts of Europe, too) that made it to the Appalachians. You always tell the bees when someone is born, dies, comes or goes—because if you don’t keep them informed, they’ll fly away.

What does this imply for our beloved characters? Discuss amongst yourselves.

In other book news, there are a couple of new releases to report.

First, there’s a new hardcover edition of the story Virgins now available! Virgins was originally released as part of an anthology (Dangerous Women, edited by George R. R. Martin, published 2013). Early this year, Virgins was released as a stand-alone e-story. And now, finally, I have my very own, very shiny new copy to place on my shelves!

Chronologically, Virgins takes place prior to the events of Outlander, telling the story of Jamie and Ian as young mercenaries (and virgins) in France. It’s a wonderful piece of storytelling, and I encourage fans of the series to check it out.

Unfortunately, the hardcover isn’t available directly from US sellers, but I got mine from Book Depository — and since they ship worldwide, it really wasn’t a problem. (And shipping is free, so the price was reasonable too.)

Second, especially for those who write, or those who want to write, or simply for fans, Diana released an e-book entitled “I Give You My Body…”: How I Write Sex Scenes, which is pretty much just what the title says. It’s Diana’s explanation of her approach to writing sex scenes, with tips and excerpts. The book is also available as an audiobook, narrated by Herself — always loads of fun.

Finally, here’s yet another reason to cheer! While we’re not getting a Big Enormous Book (as DG calls them) in 2017, we will have a new release to gobble up. Coming in June, Diana is releasing a collection of stories from the Outlander world.

Seven Stones To Stand or Fall is now available for pre-order from Amazon and other online sources, with a projected release date of June 27, 2017. The collection includes seven stories, some new and some previously published. The stories are…

Previously released:

• The Custom of the Army
• The Space Between
• A Plague of Zombies
• A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows
• Virgins (yes, again!)

New (!!!)

• A Fugitive Green: A story about Hal and Minnie and how they first met.
• Besieged: About Lord John and his mother Benedicta

From the world of the Starz TV production of Outlander…

Season 3 filming is underway! No word yet on the air date, other than sometime in 2017. There are endless number of fan sites dedicated to the show, with countless behind-the-scenes tidbits and photos, so I won’t bother tracking them down here.

I do want to share the major casting updates of season 3, for those who haven’t seen them yet. New additions to the cast include:

Cesar Domboy as Fergus (all grown up):

Lauren Lyle as Marsali:

David Berry as Lord John:

John Bell as Young Ian:

Wil Johnson as Joe Abernathy:

Hannah James as Geneva Dunsany:

Tanya Reynolds as Isobel Dunsany:

Who else is excited for season 3???

Here’s hoping our long and painful Droughtlander ends soon!

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