Outlander

Credit: Starz

I’ve had incredibly mixed feelings about the final season of Outlander on Starz. It’s crazy to think that this show has been airing for twelve years now (the series premiere dropped on September 20, 2014) for a total of 8 seasons.

This week’s penultimate episode was quite good, finally giving us some closure with Lord John Grey and Jamie and William. Jaime and William largely mended their relationship in the previous episode, but we got this great moment with Jamie riding away and, at the last moment, turning back. This, of course, is a direct parallel to the first time Jamie left William, when the lad was just a boy, and purposefully not turning back.

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It’s all very poetic and beautiful and clearly this will be the last time Jamie ever sees William or Lord John, at least in the show. Which is as sad as it is fitting. (Though judging by the preview for next week’s episode, this might not be the case. It just feels that way).

Meanwhile, Jamie and Lord John finally have the talk they’ve been putting off for apparently two whole years (I wasn’t aware so much time had passed) and Jamie finally, finally sets aside his pride and apologizes. He also explains why he was so offended, and Lord John gets to really tell him what’s what in the process.

When Lord John then begins to roll up his sleeves, Jamie prepares for a beating (which he certainly deserves) only to have Lord John challenge him to a game of chess instead, the game they’ve been playing with one another for decades now. Again, a very poetic and fitting reconciliation. Bittersweet, too, knowing this is likely their last time together. At least they end things on good terms.

Oh, and the scene of Jamie and William coming out of the water in the boathouse was very Rambo, very spec ops and badass.

Recently, I wrote about how Claire was really been given the short end of the stick this season. Thankfully, this latest episode gave us a bit more of the show’s protagonist. She finally got out of the house and joined Jamie and William on the Lord John rescue. This led to her having a really terrific scene with the man who kidnapped Lord John, Ezekiel Richardson, and a pretty massive revelation: Richardson isn’t a madman, he’s a time traveler trying to put an end to slavery. He thinks that if he can tilt the war in the Crown’s favor and put a stop to the revolution, that the king will end slavery by royal decree. It’s a sensible enough plan, though his methods leave much to be desired, and he ultimately sways Claire into freeing him.

Then he makes a very poor choice and walks directly out the front door, where three men who have no reason to keep him alive are waiting. Lord John shoots him in the forehead, thus proving Claire’s point that you really can’t change history, only be part of it as it unfolds.

In my piece about Claire, I argued that having so many time travelers really makes her less unique as a character, but I actually found this scene quite fascinating and I wish this season was longer so that these stories had a bit more room to breathe (though, again, adding yet more new storylines to the final season isn’t great). The rushed feeling this season extends to smaller details. For instance, we never get a conversation between Claire and Jamie about Ezekiel being a time-traveler. We just move on to the next thing, rush toward the end.

What’s Missing From Outlander’s Final Season

That’s the thing. As good as this episode was, with just one episode to come I don’t believe it’s even possible to end this show the way it deserves. Watching the preview for next week’s finale, we see Jamie give a rousing speech about fighting for freedom (it’s all very Braveheart), and some nice shots of Roger, of Young Ian and Rachel kissing, of Jamie stroking Claire’s cheek as they lay in bed, and of Claire doing the “worried Claire face” look. There’s some nice shots of Fraser’s Ridge, some battle scenes, Claire screaming (as she sees Jamie killed?) and so forth. We see William on his horse, so maybe that wasn’t the last time he and Jamie see one another.

So what’s missing? Two things, actually. First, and I realize this is a bit vague, is the sense that this is, in fact, the end. It doesn’t feel like it to me. It just doesn’t feel like we’ve reached an ending point that really works. Maybe the final episode will change my mind, but as of right now it just doesn’t really feel like a final season, or at least not the finale of the final season. This is a bit harder to pin down, I suppose, but it just feels like the end of another storyline, not the end of the story itself.

Second, and I know I’ve been beating this drum for sometime, but we’re still not back in Scotland. I think that would feel like a satisfying ending. Jamie and his family heading back to Lallybroch. Some sweeping shots of the Scottish Highlands draped in fog. A homecoming to a place that’s not only dear to the characters, but to fans of this series.

This is the missing piece. The truth is, I just don’t care at all about the Revolutionary War in this context (which isn’t to say I don’t find the history interesting and it certainly is ripe for many great stories). I don’t care about this fight for freedom and our heroes’ dog in this fight, in part because Richardson was absolutely correct in his assessment of an American victory over the British: Slavery is still very much a thing and will continue to be for another century. So much for freedom. There’s something very futile about Jamie fighting in this war; futile and unnecessary. Having a few black militiamen join his cause doesn’t really change that, given the fate of enslaved people in North Carolina for the next hundred years.

All that aside, this show was at its best in Scotland. It’s why a lot of us started watching and what many fans have been yearning to return to for years. Yes, we loved the time travel and the romance and the characters, but the setting was just as important, a character in its own right. I didn’t do the Outlander tour when I visited the Highlands last year, but it was a magical, overwhelmingly beautiful place and one of the most incredible experiences of my life. No offense to North Carolina, but it just doesn’t compare.

Given that the show is ending on its own terms rather than following Gabaldon’s books (the last of which is not yet written) there’s no reason not to send the characters back to the place it all started. Get Jamie in a kilt again. Roger, too, and all the lads. While we’re at it, get Marsali and her brood (and her soon-to-be wee bairn) out of harm’s way and back to Scotland with them. There’s literally no reason she should be off on her own after Fergus’s tragic (and frustrating) death.

Oh well. Here’s hoping that the finale is still good, even if it doesn’t bring us home.