Hyla

Jamie's face throughout this whole episode! Most notably when Lady Dansury said he could go back to Scotland and the scene when he was saying goodbye to his son - excellent expressions and acting! I expected the time spent at a place called Helwater to be a whole lot darker and more miserable than it was. Jamie seemed to have it pretty good, master of horse, comraderie with the other grooms, the respect and trust of the family. Lord Dansury diffused all sense of danger right away telling Jamie he knew exactly who he was and had already reconciled with losing his son in the rebellion. Major John Grey had not lied about his prisoner's identity to save him from transport as I thought from the end of last episode. Lady Dansury wasn't around enough to be a threat, Lady Isabelle was sweet, and Grey was a regular visitor and chess partner. The darkest aspect was Lady Geneva. I felt bad for her. She seemed miserably unhappy and that unhappiness seemed to drive her behavior. She wasn't even trying to fight being married off to someone she described as vile and old enough to be her grandsire. Instead taking it out on the one groom who her fiancee had expressed particular revulsion towards and one she probably suspected her parents didn't know was a notorious Jacobite. And one she could blackmail by threatening his family. He was the perfect target to punish all of them (including Jamie who she might blame for the death of her brother too.) It was of course awful for Jamie, as previous posters have already said, to be forced yet again to bargain himself sexually to protect the people he loves. And rather decent of him, as Lady Isabelle said, to be kind and gentle with Geneva when he could instead have been angry or indifferent. I didn't mind that it was a call back to the wedding episode of the first season, it gave a good indication of what Jaime was thinking and his motivations for behaving as he did. It was sad at the end of that scene when he dismissed Geneva's feelings for him as only lust. She maybe really did love him in a twisted way, or else he'd be the closest she would ever come. Geneva's revenge plans really backfired on her and it was a bit tragic about the price being her death. I wonder if her old husband purposely didn't sleep with her, was incapable, or if his new bride showed some sign of having sexual experience since she had Jamie to compare him to. Another reason for insisting on sexually innocent brides is a new husband gets to define normal. Maybe Geneva was bitter enough to laugh at Ellesmere or else maybe she tried to make the best of things and took some of Jamie's advice instead of being inert and he wouldn't touch her after that. How perfect the baby was named William since that probably the exact name Jamie would have picked out (hoping to have a Brien/na out there already). The kid playing him was so adorable and so convincingly a fan of "Mac" that I didn't care he didn't look much like Jamie (though I wonder if they could have done something with CGI - yikes!). My favorite scenes this episode were the ones where they stole time together - and they remembered Sawny the snake! (What happened to the real one?) and Jamie could have gone home! But, instead he chose to remain near the only child of three he had been able to lay eyes - but still would not have been able to touch until the boy came of riding age. The 20th century part story did feel like filler as someone above said. I do buy Claire being ambiguous about going back due to the uncertainties and having to leave Brienna and her Boston friends and the life she's worked so hard to build. Her hesitation is a little odd since so many of her first years back were lost mourning for her 18th century life. What I really wish we were seeing was a dynamic Claire who had thrown herself into her work and the issues of the time - Vietnam, the sexual revolution, civil rights! - and thought nothing of going out to eat alone with a black, male collegue in that era. How much Joe must have loved her fire and take no prisoners attitude with all the adversity they must have faced together! And how many people the viewers missed out on Claire telling off! How much more interesting if she's shown committed to this rich life and still decides to give it all up for the chance of taking up with Jamie again, because she loved him that much. Instead, we're shown a Claire who lost her one true love, felt empty about her life despite her achievements, was unable to even connect with her own daughter, and who won't be complete until she finds that one man who is her other half.

This! Frank expected Claire to get over her experience and come back to him as she was before her disappearance and to love him the same way. Frank is book smart, but he's not perceptive about how people work and he doesn't credit Claire for surviving a life-shattering experience or show much interest in getting to know the person she's become. As other posters have said, if Claire didn't have to bury and deny her own experiences and could have been honest with Frank and their daughter they could have all shared a happier home life. How awful if his motivation was spite and he'd been planning that move a long time. The show went so quickly through Brianna's childhood and the breakfast and camera scene only did so much to illustrate her relationship to her parents. Was Claire absent a lot and did Frank step in and help out with homework and bedtime stories and such? Did he and Bree go places together and have a special bond? Did he make it clear to Brianna how long suffering he was and how disappointed he was with her mother so that Bree would feel closer and more loyal to him? If Bree went with Frank to England her dad would get her into Oxford and support her and possibly encourage her to settle down there. Claire's worked so hard to make a life for herself in Boston and intentionally leave England behind it would be a huge blow for her to lose access to her daughter so soon and with Bree being 18 she wouldn't be able to prevent it. I'm not surprised she was angry in that scene. It really was low of Frank to want to take Brianna away from her. He should have filed for divorce years before instead of wallowing in resentment.

I read the movie invitation over breakfast scene as Frank gently reminding Claire that they haven't been the kind of couple who sees movies together for years and he's been stepping out and doing that kind of thing with other ladies at her request. The way the actor portrays Frank is so charming and sweet it's difficult to see the bitterness and passive aggressiveness unless it's blatant. Which it was with the threat of taking Bree to England and removing her from the life Claire had built for herself in Boston. What a revenge! He really was playing a long game there, waiting it out for Bree to be of legal age so Claire has no say in the matter and throwing out you haven't been a decent mother with all your med school and work that takes you away from home! It was an abrupt, sad end for him. I wish he had divorced and married Sandy years ago and been happy with visitation rights to Brianna. He and Claire stuck it out for so long being so miserable together! I was actually expecting a dramatic death scene for Frank (have to utilize the actor!) Where he would die of a heart attack and have a last interaction with Claire. I know the theme of the episode was unsaid goodbyes, but that was such a sterile, final scene at the hospital for Claire to walk into. With Frank made out to be so sympathetic and having been so unhappy for so long it's rather guilt inducing to be happy Claire is finally free and can start her journey to reclaim her one true love.

Thanks for posting the link above! I've really enjoyed Frank's character in the show and find him to be very sympathetically portrayed. But, I can't help thinking too much so! While I like what they've done giving Frank more of a voice and equal time his presence has really taken away from Claire's story and the integrity of Claire's character. And that's a shame because there aren't a lot of series out there with a strong female adventurer as the central focus. (And I do feel Outlander is Claire's story over any of the other characters). What I would really like to read and am having trouble finding is an article or discussion about how the male point of view has altered Outlander. How a series written by a woman, with a female protagonist and supported by a majority female readership lost out to a male producer, male writers and male viewers who identified and sympathized with him rather than Claire. I've been bothered by interviewers who leave the actors at a loss by attacking the central premise of the story. Like Stephan Colbert did while interviewing Caitriona Balfe https://youtu.be/NMoD8Va_zu8

I wanted to be sure I was remembering it correctly, so I looked up a recap: https://www.google.com/amp/ew.com/recap/outlander-season-2-episode-12/amp/ In the episode "The Hail Mary" Claire follows Black Jack into a tavern and tries to convice him to go through with a marriage to Mary. The date is brought up since he'd only have to be married to her less than a day. Considering how he was feeling in that episode, maybe it does make sense he chose to go into battle that day! The Doctor may be wise and give false dates of death but I think Claire would only give a true date of death. She is intense that way. I completely agree about the showdown! That scene was not a satisfying conclusion considering everything that had gone down between them and how vile Jack was. A different, less pretty and less oddly loving tone would have been appreciated.

Wasn't there a scene last season where she did? If only to reassure the viewers that if Mary married Randall they wouldn't be married that long? I suppose it says something about Black Jack's character that he went into battle anyway, despite knowing the date on his tombstone. Assuming he believed Claire, maybe he thought he deserved to die or else dreamed of meeting Jamie one last time on the field. I think he has to be dead, Jamie would have noticed otherwise what with laying there so long. It would be far too unbelievable if he bounced back from that. I hope they say for sure next episode. (And that this season's big bad is more subtly villainous).

The impression I got from the episode where Claire and Frank spontaneously decide to get married on the way to meet Frank's parents for the first time was that if they had gone with a more traditional wedding Claire would have had only friends on her side of the aisle. And that it had been thoughtful on Frank's part to suggest a type of ceremony that spared her that. I'd have to rewatch the episode to be sure of that though. Last season I just assumed they had been visiting Claire's in-laws in London and for Brienna's sake. I'm so happy season three is here! Just wondering - was anyone else surprised that Black Jack was killed off this episode? I thought for sure they were going to continue to (over)use him as a villain this season. They had made such a big deal about Claire whispering to him the date of his death and then there was that whole scene with Lord Lovett's seer saying she had seen one of her predictions reversed once when a fisherman's father had drilled holes in his son's fishing boat the day she had foretold he would die, and he had lived. I thought for sure they were going to make Claire regret having given that info to Randall. That he would instead choose to lie low that day and surprise everybody. I am glad he's dead, but I'm sorry those beautiful sunsets during the days of shooting inspired the final battle to the death to be so strangely shot. I would had preferred a different tone to Jamie's finally ending the monster of his and so many other's nightmares. (Now that he's back at Lally Broach I hope there is a scene where he gifts the story of that death to young Fergus!) I also wondered about the wound Jamie received at Culloden. He seemed to be touching his leg so maybe it just means he and Ian will both be hobbling around their estate. But, it also seemed to oddly mirror the injury Jamie had given to Randall during their duel. It made me wonder if the series of tragedies that make up the character's life would be compounded by having his ability to father children compromised. Which would make it all the more poignant when he's inevitably reunited with Claire and finds out he has a daughter. This season might be difficult to get through if it's all sad pining for what was lost.