thingamajig

I need to rewatch tonight's episode and a) not compare it to the book and b) not have to explain what's going on to my husband ;) but I'm not thrilled with some of the changes they made, especially with Claire being so slow to figure out that Dougal is a Jacobite. Doesn't she figure it out almost immediately in the book? And I loved her line about how "I don't know what the Gaelic for 'to King George's health' is but I doubt it sounds like 'bragh Stuart'" or whatever it was in the book, which they didn't really use in this episode (whatever she actually said was weaker/not as funny).

"Not surprisingly, it left me half smothered in the greasy quilts with a knee in my back, being beaten within an inch of my life." That's not a spanking. I get why he did it and I'm OK with how things play out (only because he agrees to never do it again), but IMO it's definitely not just a spanking like you'd give a naughty child.

Yes, she knows that Dougal plans to take her to Ft. William, and she's excited because that will get her closer to Craigh na Dun. I don't think she realizes that this means she'll be seeing Randall, specifically, though. He isn't mentioned by name. Maybe they changed that conversation just because hearing Claire think/voiceover yet again about how much she wants to escape to the stones would be redundant or boring after taking almost an entire episode up with an escape attempt.

Yeah, as a book reader I found this confusing. In the book he says that he'll take her to Fort William so that "the commander there" can help her find her family in France (though Claire suspects that Dougal also wants help in figuring out who she is). No mention of needing a healer along. It's a pretty straightforward conversation and I wondered why they changed it. I wonder if they're rearranging the plot some more?

Well, they left the castle at the butt-crack of dawn. Maybe Claire was too tired to ask why Jamie is coming along, and they'll have that conversation next week when the sun is actually up. ;)

Unless they make him dye that too...

Oh, duh! I forgot what order that all happened in.

Yes, I just read that scene last week. He's off hunting with Sandringham and doesn't show up until they're about to toss Claire in the Loch ("What also floats in water?") but she was putting up a fight so they stripped her down and were whipping her. He rides up, tosses the rosary over her head, and rides off with her. They basically head straight for Lallybroch after that.

I can't remember what exactly he said but I'm pretty sure it was something about the "feral cat" they picked up, and her acting tame now? Sheathing her claws? Something along those lines.

Yes, as soon as she turned around and started putting together a "potion" I said, "Oh, Claire. That's gonna get you burned at the stake." Since they already used Jamie's speech to Claire that comes after she tries to save the baby, I assume they're leaving that scene out and using scenes like this and the sick boy as evidence that will be used against her instead.

Diana's cameo was adorable. I need to rewatch before I have anything else to say, since a friend was messaging me about unrelated matters while I was trying to watch. Oh wait, Claire was also adorable when talking to Jamie about walloping Dougal over the head. I'm still not entirely on board with the casting for Claire but I loved her there.

I skim/skip a lot when I'm rereading the books.

I thought they looked less distractingly weird. I don't know if they were done differently, if it's because he wasn't wearing stockings, or if I was just distracted by his bare ass.

Yeah, I don't like that. I could have done with, say, a less-detailed description of amputating a leg to make room for more character moments.

I didn't bother to reread the previous book before this one this time (I usually do when the new ones are published) and this was the one thing that almost made me go back and skim the book again to try and figure out when that happened. Glad to know I didn't actually forget it.

I know only a little about plants, so when I saw the one she was talking about, the shiny, waxy-looking leaves said "poisonous" to me. Which is probably what they were aiming for. But I totally get what you mean about it taking you out of the story. I was just reading a similar incredibly pedantic :) discussion on Ravelry about the knitwear on the show. It's all lovely but highly anachronistic. I'm sure to most people it evokes a feeling of old-fashioned and/or rustic, but if you know much about knitting or historical costumes it's a jolt to see chunky cowls, etc. on an 18th-century character. I think the show sometimes chooses to evoke a certain mood rather than be completely accurate, and that's fine except when it's within your area of expertise and is a distraction instead of an enhancement.