S03.E05: Freedom & Whisky

[SassAndSnacks]

3 hours ago, gingerella said:

Joe is a faithful friend and colleague, and I loved the scene where Claire insists on finishing one more bit of removal on a patient before closing and Joe's just watching her like, "Girl! You are crazy, and I'm here for it, but DAMN, that was risky business!"  I loved so many of Joe's comments in this episode - "Fuck fate!" "I've watched you life a half-life for 15 years...If you have a second change at love, you should take it."

Joe is absolutely the best.  I adore him, and I wish the show had used him more. 

3 hours ago, gingerella said:

I'm still wondering if what throws me off when she speaks is that she has a very American accent and it plays oddly against all the lovely Scottish lilts and burrs?

I think this is part of it, as well as the fact that she is usually the only one with an American accent, and she isn't American.  I also struggle with her inflection, I believe.  She raises her tone at the wrong point sometimes, as in it hits on the wrong syllable.  

3 hours ago, gingerella said:

because let's face it, you have this redheaded child and neither you nor your wife are redheads - it had to come up a lot over her childhood, not just the day she was born.

Hubs and I are both brunette and we have a redhead.  When we was very little, we got a lot of comments.  I thought that had stopped, but just this weekend whilst waiting for an ice cream the woman in front of us turned around and asked "Where did you get that red hair?"  So yes, people surely said something.  

3 hours ago, gingerella said:

Claire doubting her own desirability now that she's 20 years older hit close to home, I know that feeling as of late and it's hard to grapple with.

I thought this was so real and so well done.  No matter your age, 15 and crushing on a boy, in your 20s and going on a first date, your 30s and in the throes of motherhood, your 40s and aging, you want to look desirable to the person you love most, certainly if you haven't seen them. 

Her insecurity was so relatable at any level, but digging deeper into her, it isn't as though she and Frank were having a physical relationship.  She wasn't with anyone else.  Had anyone wanted her, physically wanted her since the living room interruptus with Frank?  Had anyone felt that they absolutely HAD to have her they way Jamie did?  I thought her asking Joe if she was attractive was incredibly pure, and I could see myself doing it.  Of course she feels insecure.  How many of us have given ourselves a hard look in the mirror one morning and been like, "wait a second...I'm not 25 anymore?!"  

3 hours ago, gingerella said:

The Batman theme music just was the icing on that scene's cake!

I didn't think I would love it, but I did!!

3 hours ago, gingerella said:

Do I wish I'd seen how Claire got to the Stones again? Yes, I would have, and perhaps that's in the books but there wasn't time for it in the show? ...  In my head that is more satisfying to know, but again, perhaps it's in the books.

The whole section is completely different in the books.  Well, really...the whole search for Jamie and Claire actually traveling back is different.  The show was very liberal with this part of the adaptation.  I appreciate both for what they are.  

3 hours ago, gingerella said:

Claire lost the amethyst that was in Jamie's father's ring

Twas a ruby, if my memory serves.

[SassAndSnacks]

3 hours ago, Anothermi said:

There has got to be a better way to deal with long-but-non-plot-related passages of time .

I agree. Claire's story wasn't given nearly the care that Jamie's received. 

3 hours ago, Anothermi said:

I hope Claire experienced just a little of Jamie's trademark empathy when/if she thought about Sandy after that. Also interesting was the difference between how Sandy Travers viewed Frank—he would have hated all the fuss—and Claire's—he would have quite enjoyed it. I don't see one being wrong and one right. It just shows the difference in their experience of him. 

This is really interesting, and your comment has me thinking about that exchange differently.  I had always been annoyed with Sandy.  The nerve.  I find myself wondering how Frank painted Claire to Sandy.  He clearly never conveyed that Claire told him they should divorce years prior.  Did he let his bitterness seep through in his conversations to Sandy?  Was Claire brought up at all.  

But then I remember that I don't like Frank at all and don't want to live in his world.

How's THAT for empathy?! (Maybe I should hang out with Jamie more?  Yes, please!)

3 hours ago, Anothermi said:

I'm glad they switched the trope about and made it Jamie. Sent me off from this episode with a chuckle. 

Yes!  Sort of a running theme.  Jamie as the virgin.  Jamie fainting.  Jamie seen crying more often than Claire is.  Flips the stereotypes around.  

Edited May 25, 2021 by SassAndSnacks

[Anothermi]

4 hours ago, SassAndSnacks said:

Twas a ruby, if my memory serves.

Looks like an amethyst to me? (the light was better on screen. This is a little dark.)

Edited May 25, 2021 by Anothermi

[SassAndSnacks]

18 hours ago, Anothermi said:

Looks like an amethyst to me?

It DOES look purply.  It is a cabochon ruby in the book.

[gingerella]

3 hours ago, SassAndSnacks said:

23 hours ago, Anothermi said:

Looks like an amethyst to me?

It DOES look purply.  It is a cabochon ruby in the book.

Rubies can look purple-ish, it's a fairly common undertone in rubies.

I've been thinking about Claire leaving Boston and the 1960's and it is irking the hell out of me that there was no plan in place to send a message to Brianna and Roger that she found Jamie. Grrrrr!

On 5/24/2021 at 4:02 PM, Anothermi said:

The echo of Jamie's plan for keeping his loved ones safe after Culloden in Claire's plan for Brianna after she returns to Jamie through the stones. Deed to house? - check. Bank Accounts? - check. Resignation? - check. Appropriate clothes? - check. (It's almost as if they took my advice from the preceding episodes. 😉

Yes to all of this @Anothermi! I was thinking about this and it's yet another mirror scene, and they are always so satisfying to see. It's clear Claire isn't planning on returning again, so she's dotting her i's and crossing her t's, and she's learned well from Jamie's pre-Culloden game plan. I wonder if she ever thought about what she'd do if she could go back... And even though Brianna all but pushed her to go back to Jamie, I don't know how a mother leaves her child for what she has to assume will be forever...

On 5/24/2021 at 6:56 PM, SassAndSnacks said:

On 5/24/2021 at 4:02 PM, Anothermi said:

I hope Claire experienced just a little of Jamie's trademark empathy when/if she thought about Sandy after that. Also interesting was the difference between how Sandy Travers viewed Frank—he would have hated all the fuss—and Claire's—he would have quite enjoyed it. I don't see one being wrong and one right. It just shows the difference in their experience of him. 

I have to think she did because she could have really exposed Candy (sorry but I enjoy calling her that now!) as the other woman in front of her own colleagues, but she held back, and she excused herself as quickly as she could before she said something she'd perhaps regret. It's clear Joe knew Claire and Frank were unhappy, and I'm guessing they had conversations about it, but it's not clear if Frank's colleagues knew or not. Frank said he was 'being discreet' but still...While Frank was being a petty little bitch not going to Claire's graduation party (which I found unforgivable), I cannot see Claire intentionally ignoring Frank's work events, unless she was busy with her actual doctoring, which could be a valid excuse to Frank's peers. I don't even know why I'm going on about this other than Candy bugged the shit out of me and I'd not have been as polite as Claire was.

I'm going in tomorrow night for the next episode...I can't wait!

[Cdh20]

Did anyone notice how utterly glowing Claire is ( once she is in the past)? She looks young, & fresh, & nervous, & excited! 

Edited May 26, 2021 by Cdh20
Adding a thought

[Cdh20]

On 10/11/2017 at 6:54 AM, Pallas said:

In 1968, A Charlie Brown Christmas was broadcast on December 9th. But as noted elsewhere, the Dark Shadows clip was -- truly and remarkably -- from the December 23, 1968 episode.

Was this information available somewhere on the internet? That would be very handy! 

[gingerella]

8 hours ago, Cdh20 said:

Did anyone notice how utterly glowing Claire is ( once she is in the past)? She looks young, & fresh, & nervous, & excited! 

Yes! I meant to mention this last night... When she's in 1968 Boston, Claire is beautiful, as always, but she does look 20 years older. Perhaps it's her dress and hair style and/or her makeup? But when she arrives back in 1766 Edinburgh she looks like a fresh-faced ingenue! Most especially in the last scene, where she's in the upstairs of Jamie's printing shop, her face doesn't look much different than when they said goodbye at the Stones in 1746. I was wondering if that has something to do with time travel or just her dress/hair/and no makeup. I rather think it's the latter because Jamie has aged 20 years, he of the terrible, awful, no good greasy wavy bangs...*aHEM*

Then again, it could also be in part just how Jamie sees her, as if no time as passed at all. Hard to know when time travel is involved, so I'm going with the most logical reason!

Edited May 26, 2021 by gingerella

[SassAndSnacks]

4 hours ago, Cdh20 said:

Did anyone notice how utterly glowing Claire is ( once she is in the past)? She looks young, & fresh, & nervous, & excited! 

 

23 minutes ago, gingerella said:

I was wondering if that has something to do with time travel or just her dress/hair/and no makeup. I rather think it's the latter because Jamie has aged 20 years, he of the terrible, awful, no good greasy wavy bangs...*aHEM*

Then again, it could also be in part just how Jamie sees her, as if no time as passed at all. Hard to know when time travel is involved, so I'm going with the most logical reason!

Yes!  I always felt it was because she felt unburdened.  She's where she's met to be.  She can take off her "costume" - her makeup, her modern clothing, let down her hair (figuratively since she actually pulled it up).  This is where she feels alive, he makes her feel alive, and so she looks more youthful, joyful, and alive.  

[Anothermi]

6 hours ago, gingerella said:

but she does look 20 years older

I did notice that Claire looked older in 1968 than she did in 1766. In the 1960s there was an article about Jane Fonda that declared women as old as 30 could  now be considered sexy!

Yet, that look still comes across as older looking than less heavily made up women. So Claire would have looked younger even in 1968/69 if she stopped wearing that makeup!

But, a google search of life expectancies for men and women in the 1700s gives men an average lifespan of 49.4 years (average explains those who lived much longer). It was harder to find similar info for Scottish women but— given the hard life and lack of effective medical care—I would have to assume women's average life span was even shorter. 

Claire had just spent 20 years in an era with ever-improving medical treatments, so I don't doubt that she looked a lot younger than people in the 1700s. 

6 hours ago, gingerella said:

Then again, it could also be in part just how Jamie sees her, as if no time as passed at all.

I tend to agree that was part of what was being conveyed. He even said so. That and the fact that the women around him would have looked so much older at her age. 😆 

Edited May 27, 2021 by Anothermi

[Camera One]

I think the hair and makeup made a big difference, plus they made an effort to make her look older in the 1960s.  In the last scene, she's basically the actress as is even though she is supposedly 20 years older.   Or if we want to remain immersed in the world of the show, going through the stones provide a facial pumice treatment that erases years from your skin!  

[Cdh20]

As a makeup lover I loved Claire’s 60’s makeup. And Cait looks good in every era! I meant her excitement to see Jamie was written all over her face. She never had that expression the whole time she was in the 1900’s. 

[Camera One]

7 minutes ago, Cdh20 said:

As a makeup lover I loved Claire’s 60’s makeup. 

She looked very classy.

[SassAndSnacks]

Can we also talk about Claire’s 1960’s knit wear game? That cobalt sweater (jumper) she was wearing when she had dinner with Roger was A+. And the dress she wore when asking Joe if she was attractive, love. 

[Pallas]

On 5/24/2021 at 6:23 PM, gingerella said:

Brianna's reaction made me think she's destined to be an architect, not a historian, but she said something about it being her Scottish heritage and I've no idea what that even means. Jamie was no architect, that's for sure.

Scotland is famous for its architects and castles, of many eras. Jamie was not a builder but his father was: he built Lallybroch, still standing in 1968.