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Let's talk, this will be my Outlander Season 8 Episode 5
review titled Send for the Devil.
As always, if you are looking to avoid spoilers from the book or
the TV show, please do keep on scrolling.
So episode 5 starts with Claire and Jamie harvesting honey from
the bees at the big house and we hear Jamie call it ambrosia,
which means the food or drink of the Greek gods and implying that
their honey tastes delicious. Claire asks Jamie if he has
anything he would like to tell the bees and we get a more of a
contextual line where Claire reminds the viewer that they're
alone because Bree and Roger left them to go to Savannah and
everyone is away from the big house except for Buck who can be
seen playing with the kids in the grass.
Jamie and Claire talk about the fact that the bees haven't said
much to Claire herself since she started talking to them, and
this is foreshadowing again for her continuing to talk to them
just like she does in the 9th book.
Jamie also tells Claire that Buck promised to fight alongside
him at the Battle of Kings Mountain, which means that Jamie
has told him about the battle. And for Jamie, because he knows
that he's a time traveler, there's no point in keeping that
information from him. Buck being in this time is show
cannon only, this doesn't happen in the books.
And so they also have to then come up with a way to address
the fact that Jamie killed Buck's father and Claire killed
Buck's mother. So the two of them decide that
that is something they're going to keep from him because he
doesn't need to know that they are responsible for his parents
deaths. Having Buck be in this time is a
show Canon change that I actually think works well here.
We already had a lot of ground laid establishing that he's very
close to Breen Rogers children and feels protection protective
over them. And I think having him play a
role in this particular episode too, he's an easy character to
kind of plug in and the actor who played him really impressed
me last season when we first saw him show up on our screens.
So I was happy that he was included in this plot again.
While he's playing with the children, we can hear a twig
break in the woods and he turns around and tells the kids to run
to the house. And that's when he starts to
walk towards the edge of the woods to see what is approaching
them. Buck so seamlessly falls into
this secondary role of defending the house, just like Jamie.
You can totally tell that they are cut from the same cloth
here, and Jamie can tell from Buck's behavior, even at a
distance that something's wrong. So we see him coming up behind
Buck, and that's when Whitaker emerges from the woods and warns
Jamie that Cunningham is coming for him.
So in this very quick intro, we already are laying the
foundation of who's currently at the Ridge and what the main
issue in this episode is going to be, which is the threat of
Cunningham. That's when we get the title
card, which is a shot of this drummer boy at the rebel camp
where Rodger was left in the last episode, with the drums
signaling that the battle is beginning.
This is foreshadowing to the events of the episode, but also
for a character that Rodger is going to be interacting with in
this episode as well. At the big house, we continue
the conversation with Whitaker, who explains to Jamie that he
and some of his men were hunting with the Cherokee, and this is a
change from the book where the character's name is Cloud Tree
and is a Native American himself.
In the book version, he hears cunning at the Cherokee villages
where he's been trading, but in the show, Whitaker says that he
overhears some white men talking about the Cherokee joining a
loyalist militia that Cunningham is putting together, and that
one of the men said Cunningham would soon be in charge of
Fraser's Ridge. This is when Whitaker mentions
the name Ferguson again and this gives Jamie pause because
Ferguson has been arresting rebels raising militias and
Cunningham means to attack Jamie and bring him to Ferguson as an
example to the other rebels. And in the book Cunningham
actually got tired of waiting to hear back from Ferguson about
Jamie after he invited him to the Ridge to take care of Jamie
and so instead he decided he was going to arrest Jamie himself
and bring him to Ferguson directly.
In the book, this is when Jamie asks Cloudtree about a man named
Scotchie Cameron or Alexander Cameron, but in the show they've
omitted his character and his involvement in this plan that
Jamie comes up with in order to defend himself from Cunningham.
In the show, Jamie asks Whitaker when this attack is going to
happen and Whitaker tells him that all they said was in a few
days because Cunningham is waiting on a man named Partland
who is coming from a settlement of 96 with his own militia in
order to help him. Jamie then tells Whitaker he
owes him a service and he will not forget his help, but
Whitaker says he's actually the one that owes them for what
Claire did for his family and he's worried that if anyone were
to find out that he had helped Jamie that his family would be
in danger and so Jamie promises him that no one will find out
that Whitaker had warned him. Back in Savannah with Amaranthus
and Trevor, we can see that Brie is painting them in the study
when William arrives into the room.
Interestingly, William enters this room and approaches with a
very knowing smile on his face and this is the first time we
get a insight into Bree's mental state because we can see her
nervous about the sound of cannon fire.
Bree asks William what he thinks about the painting so far and we
get a close up of the portrait that Brianna has been working on
before Amaranthus and Trevor leave the room.
Williams reaction to Amaranthus is all Bree needs in order to
bring up that she knows he has a crush on her, and William tells
her that she doesn't need to keep painting if she's worried
about her husband and changes the topic of conversation.
For Breonna, it's a worthwhile distraction, and so instead she
asks William if he was able to spend anytime with Jamie after
he found out that Jamie was his father.
A big part of Breonna being in Savannah is her being able to
talk to William and help give him a little bit more direction
and also aid in him coming to terms with the fact that Jamie
is his father. And that's something that both
she and Lord John understand is that she's the only person
that's going to be able to connect to him on that level.
So when she asks William if he was able to spend any time with
Jamie, it's a pointed question. She's trying to find a point of
entry to get him to open up about his feelings so that she
can share her own and let him know that he's not having this
singular experience. William then tells Bri about the
time that Jamie helped him look for Jane, and Bri knows about
Jane, so she says as much. And William admits he never told
Jane just how much she meant to him.
And that's when Brianna starts to open up to him directly and
talk about her experience of finding out that Jamie was her
father. She tells him she was 19 when
she found out about Jamie but didn't meet him until years
afterwards, and she already had a father who she loved and
idolized. But by the time she learned that
Jamie was her dad, Frank had already died.
Which made it worse somehow, because it felt like everyone in
her life had lied to her for her entire life, including her
mother, and she was never able to rectify those feelings with
Frank either. She was so angry she made a
cutting remark that she wished it was Claire instead of her dad
who had passed away. And you can see William relating
to that experience so deeply. And he asks her how she ever was
able to get over it. And she says that she got to
know Jamie and that is kind of what allowed her to come to
terms with everything about herself.
And it seems like William doesn't like that answer, but he
accepts it all the same. In the book, there's so many
instances where I found William to be behaving in a very bratty
manner, and the few scenes that I found him most redeemable were
the ones where he was conversing with Brie.
And so I'm glad that the show is giving these scenes room to
breathe and really establish that they have so much in common
and are going to be able to find that commonality in so many
areas of their lives as soon as William comes into the fold of
the family. And Brie is really the one
extending that olive branch and approaching him about it in a
way that doesn't incite anger in him every time they talk about
the situation back at the big house.
Whitaker reliefs and Jamie, Claire and Buck are starting to
come up with a plan, and Jamie acknowledges that he knows
Cunningham will not attack him at the house.
He would have learned about how everything went down with the
Brown family. What I loved about this scene is
how much it highlights Jamie's ability to think bigger and we
can see that he knows that Cunningham will wait for him to
be somewhere exposed and pulls together his thoughts to decide
that it would be at lodge. And while both Claire and Buck
are approaching this as an immediate need to solve the
problem and get rid of Cunningham quickly, Jamie knows
that there's repercussions to that and he has to play the game
as though it's much bigger than Cunningham.
Buck wanting to just eliminate the problem right away is very
akin to how his father would have reacted in this situation.
Jamie's biggest concern is learning who amongst him is a
follower of Cunningham's because taking out Cunningham won't stop
his followers from trying to go after Jamie after.
And Jamie is also worried about this militia from the 96 and he
knows that he has to cut it off. So because Jamie's own militia
is untrained and unprepared, he has to make a deal with the
devil, which is the title card of the episode.
That's when we see Jamie hand Josiah a letter and we are left
in suspense wondering who. So after Jamie announces that he
has to make a deal with the devil, we see him hand Josiah a
letter and we are left waiting and wondering what Jamie's plan
entails and if this letter will get to its recipient in time.
And that is where the show cuts over to Roger and he is still at
the Continental camp preparing for the battle.
The show then uses a voice over in order to catch us up with
what's going on in his world right now.
He has handed his sword to fight with and even though they have
watered down Rogers character quite a lot so far in this
season, they're trying to make it seem like this battle and his
involvement is a very big plot point, even though it doesn't
really amount to anything. My critique of the voiceover is
that it sounds incredibly rehearsed.
And so we walk through the days of Roger preparing to fight
while he writes out this letter that he intends to send debris.
And so the voiceover being overlaid on screen is the
contents of that letter. We see him in his uniform
amongst the men, feeling the camaraderie that they are all
experiencing and the nervous energy that would come from
preparing for battle. And at the end of that
monologue, we hear him say Christ let him live through this
battle and warns that if he doesn't, he'll have Bree to
answer to this uptight shot of Rodger holding the letter up to
his forehead. And the voice over technique
that they use is very similar to how it's done in Blood of My
Blood with Claire's parents and their letters that they wrote
back and forth to one another. And I think this joke about God
having Bree to answer to would hit harder if Bree was closer to
the version of her in the books, because she's far more
intimidating I find in the books than the show version of her,
which is much softer and less intimidating than I think most
book readers would describe her being.
That's when the drums begin and Roger starts to watch the men
grab their guns and we start to see the young boys that are
scared of battle, including this young drummer who again, is
presumably the man or the boy in the title card from the top of
the episode. That's when we see Roger
approach him and give him encouragement that God is with
them and we hear the boys speaking French and that's when
Roger speaks French back to him and we hear the line just we
pray, which is an omen because that's the Fraser motto.
The use of I am ready is another narrative call back to season 1
when we heard Jamie announce that that's the Fraser motto to
Claire. We also can think of so many
times prior to battle when mentally the Frasers are talking
themselves up and trying to convince themselves that they're
ready. And for Roger to hear that would
probably help him calm his own nerves, even though he's trying
to offer that support to this young boy.
Back in Savannah, the cannons continue to go off and Brie is
sitting at the table, unable to eat.
And that's when William comes in and approaches her and confirms
that the sound is not coming from the ships anymore.
The battle he knows, has begun, and he doesn't agree with the
choice to attack by the marshes. So again, it's an insight into
the fact that William, even though he's not serving in the
army right now, is very clever in terms of strategy and
understands what is actually going to be happening out on the
front lines. And it's then that he asks why
Rodger was out of town. And Bri finally admits that he
is at the Continental camp. William tells Bri that Lord John
is at headquarters, but had asked William to give Brianna a
flag to hang in the window so that if the Continentals were to
come into the city, they would know that Brianna is on their
side and that she would be kept safe in their home while he is
away. I've always found the very quiet
way that Lord John lets Brianna know how much she means to him
is one of my favorite bits of writing in the book series.
I think that Bri in the book again is depicted so
differently. But I I do think that the show
has done a good job of maintaining the fact that the
two of them are so close and that Lord John feels so strongly
about her and puts her in such high regard alongside William,
especially given the fact that they are siblings.
I think the argument can always be made that Brianna reminds
Lord John of Jamie and that that is in part why he cares for her
so deeply. But I also think that he has
come to know Brianna as her own woman and can identify parts of
her that are also very clear and as her own person, separate from
her parents. He has found a kinship in her
that I think is really beautiful.
Back at the battle, we see Roger running through the woods as the
men are retreating and that's when he spots the young boy that
he went into the battle with originally.
But first he starts to see men who are dying, witness the
horrors of this battle, and amongst those men he finds a man
leaning against a tree and hears his final words and is able to
provide him comfort in his final moments.
This moment, I think is the most effective way to showcase why
Roger felt called to be there in the moment and how he was useful
at this time. Because he's not holding a gun,
he's not actively fighting in the battle, but he's providing
comfort to the men who are not going to make it home to their
loved ones. And I think that he finds great
purpose in that, and more purpose still when he carries
the young boy back to the camp and puts him in the hands of a
doctor. This is when we see Denzel
Hunter back on our screens again.
And I was so happy to see him because he's such an underrated
character. And I also love the actor who
plays him. I think he's done a really great
job of taking someone who doesn't have a lot of screen
time and making him very impactful when he is on our
screen. You can see when he's at work
how similar he is to Claire and why the two of them would have
found such a strong connection in one another.
And him being on screen in this high stakes situation and and
being able to be that calm presence is just so nice to see,
especially when he interacts with Roger because Roger is
frantically trying to make sure that this boy is going to live
and he doesn't realize that he's talking to Rachel's brother.
His interaction with Denzel is the first of a few connections
being drawn in this episode. But I noticed that he starts
speaking French with the young boy and I can't remember when
Roger could speak French. I don't know if that's book
cannon, I couldn't find it in my research of the books, but it
felt like this sudden announcement that Roger spoke
fluent French. When Denzel is able to
successfully remove the bullet, that's when Roger decides to run
back into the action in in order to find more men.
And when he's on his way up the hill, that's when there is an
explosion in front of him. And the show once again uses it
to circle back to the novella. A leaf on the wind of All
Hallows and Roger's connection with his parents and the moment
that the tube station collapsed in London when he was a young
boy and his father was able to save him.
So not only is this little clip able to tie us back to last
season and the scenes that we saw between Roger and his own
father, but it puts it back in the forefront of our minds so
that we can start thinking about the time loop theory that Roger
is going to bring up later on. With Brianna back on the Ridge,
we can see Lizzie standing above the trading post on the hill
beside the lodge, and we see her with this basket full of flowers
and then reaching under her skirts to hide something beneath
a log there. And when we see her
strategically leave the basket of flowers that tips us off to
know that she's also part of this grand plan that Jamie has
put together alongside Josiah and Kessie.
Her family has always been loyal to the Frasers, so it's nice to
see that all of them are involved in protecting the Ridge
in this way. Back in the big house, Jamie and
Claire are both preparing for the night ahead, and through
their dialogue, they tell us that the grandchildren have been
sent away in order to be kept safe.
Claire tells Jamie she knows where the weapons are since
she's going to be at the house alone, but Jamie really doesn't
feel like Cunningham would ever come to the house or go after
her at the house itself. That's when he turns and asks
Claire how he looks and she says you'd scare the devil himself.
This definitely feels like a call back to season 5 when Jamie
comes around the corner and has Kilt preparing for the battle
and Jamie tells Claire he doesn't want to scare the devil
tonight, he needs the devil on his side.
He hasn't heard from Josiah yet, so he's going into this plan
somewhat blindly, and Claire reiterates that she doesn't want
Jamie to go, but Jamie promises her that he's going to execute
the plan regardless of Josiah and refers to Best Laid Schemes,
which is a nod to Season 2 Episode 6.
He reminds clear that Cunningham doesn't want him dead, only
captured. And this reference to Best Laid
Schemes isn't exactly a great omen considering that in the
episode it's referring back to and Season 2, Jamie went back on
his word to Claire and fought Blackjack Randall and that led
to Claire losing Faith. If Jamie's plan fails, he vows
he'll fight tooth and nail every man with him.
And the music here is very similar to Season 1 when Jamie
goes off to Preston Pans. And that's when we hear Claire
ask it will not be today, will it?
And Jamie kisses her knuckles like he always does and says I
didn't think so Claire, but I will not lie to you.
I think it will be an evil night.
It's a great use of dialogue pulled directly from chapter one
O 8 and go and tell the bees that I am gone.
And a perfect segue into the following scene.
Jamie and his Ardsmere men head to lodge and we can see him spot
the basket of flowers that Lizzie left there, take a deep
breath and walk into the building knowing what is to
come. Thankfully, Jamie knows that he
has a handful of men who are going to have his back in this
situation. They've all been briefed on the
plan and now all they have to do is execute it and hope that
Cunningham doesn't act out of character for what Jamie has
assessed within him. When we see Cunningham, he is
talking to Hiram from Crombie. And again, this is foreshadowing
for the changes that they're making to Hiram, Crombie's
character, and how he's associated with Cunningham
himself in the show version of this story.
And that's when we see Cunningham finally approach
Jamie. And that's when Jamie asks,
shall we begin? And I really loved the
characterization of Cunningham here.
The actor who plays him has done a great job making him seem very
villainous under the surface, but shady, shifty.
We're not able to really understand what he's going to do
next, and he carries himself in a way that made him I find very
compelling as a character to watch on screen.
Back at the big house, Claire is setting up her surgery and the
nerves are evident on her face and as she lays out all her
tools and prepares for everything, we see her taking a
drink of whiskey and watching out the window.
That's when both us as viewers and Claire lookout the window
and spot L Smith Cunningham approaching the house, and the
two of them are in the same boat, awaiting the fate of the
men in their lives. And this scene with her and
Elspeth, and also the scene in Lodge are taken almost directly
from the source material, including the dialogue.
Inside Lodge. Jamie starts to lead the
conversation and Hiram Crombie begins, and the way that they
shot this is so brilliant because we get a very clear
sense of who's in that room and how Jamie is scanning it
throughout this entire meeting. This wide angle shot is really
brilliant because it makes us feel like we are truly in the
room because we can see all three walls around Jamie.
We're also up and above him, looking over his shoulder, so it
replicates how he must feel standing in front of all of
these men, and it allows us to see the faces of everybody in
that room and scan them just like Jamie is.
Hiram Crombie mentions a neighbor needing help and Jamie
is taking the opportunity while he's speaking to watch the men
closely and notes that Cunningham is talking to the man
beside him and that another one of them leaves the lodge out the
door. And this is how Jamie starts to
piece together who among him is loyal to Cunningham and not to
him. As he's thinking through this,
the next man, McClure, stands up and says he's having a dispute
with his neighbor, a man named John Coyne, over well water, and
that he'd like someone to go with him to talk to him.
Jamie immediately says he will go, but McClure points out that
Jamie is his friend, so he'd like someone on his side, too.
And that opens up the window for Cunningham to offer his help and
says that he's free tomorrow at noon because he has, quote, no
other plans. The look on Jamie's face here is
so smart because you can tell that he's happy almost in a way,
to know he's lying ahead of time and have the upper hand here
because Cunningham so seamlessly lies to everybody in this room.
And Jamie knows that beneath that facade, he is a total and
complete snake. Back at the big house, Claire
offers Elspeth a drink. And Elspeth tells Claire she had
to come, and that's when Claire tells her pretty candidly that
they already know about Cunningham's plan.
And for Elspeth, I think that comes as a shock.
But then I also think in the back of her mind, she must have
known that Claire and Jamie would have someone on their side
here protecting them in this way.
And so she offers Claire the knowledge that he won't hurt
Jamie unless he has to, and that she's aware that Cunningham
would do the same. She offers that the two of them
could pray together over the situation, and Claire pretty
candidly points out that there are no prayers suitable for the
occasion. And I love this scene between
her and L Smith, and I really enjoy all the scenes in the book
and the show between the two of them.
I think this actress did a wonderful job conveying this
character and giving her a lot of depth.
Back at Lodge, Cunningham stands and starts to speak on loyalty
and brings up being loyal to the Crown, King and Country and this
is immediate what sets Jamie off to the point where it comes
across as Cunningham specifically egging him on.
For this reason. This is one of the highlights of
the episode and it's pulled directly from the source
material. When Jamie confronts him and
asks what brings this to mind, Cunningham points out that he
knows they're not supposed to bring politics into Lodge and
that's when Jamie overrides him and says I will say but one
thing dear friend. And he says that in Gaelic.
And this dialogue is so beautifully written, it says
this is not my own, but a thing said by our forefathers some 400
years ago. As long as but a hundred of us
remain alive, never shall we under any conditions be brought
under English rules. And then Jamie points out that
they are fighting for freedom alone, and no honest man gives
that up, but with life itself. And all of the delivery of this
is so impactful, especially when he looks Cunningham directly in
the eyes as he's delivering these lines and quoting this
oath basically that Cunningham adheres to.
And the look on his face is just perfect because he's void of all
emotion in his eyes. And you can tell that he's just
met his match and Jamie totally. And that makes Jamie even more
of a threat than he had felt he was before.
And it's at that moment that Jamie decides to close lodge
with a prayer. And Hiram Crombie realizes that
something's going on here. And again, that foreshadows what
they're going to do with his character in this storyline.
And it's while everyone has their heads bowed that Jamie
leaves. And I loved how we can see that
all of the men who are in on it with Jamie lean into this plan
so heavily and allow him the opportunity to escape.
We watch him slip out the back door quietly and undetected.
And we get this beautiful, uptight shot of Cunningham's
face when he opens his eyes, looks up and realizes that Jamie
knows what's going on. And that's when we hear him say
God damn it, leave with his men out of the lodge and run after
Jamie looking for him. By that point, Jamie has
collected the pistol that Lizzie had left for him.
Under that log, we get more confirmation of who is on
Cunningham's side as they all exit lodge together and Jamie is
cataloguing the men's faces and names.
And that's when we see him run into the woods and meet up with
Kezie and Buck who are waiting for him.
When Jamie and the rest of the men get to their meeting point
in the woods, they all hash out who's a traitor, and Jamie tells
the men that Cunningham wants him alive and he will not be the
one who brings death here tonight.
But for him, anyone in the woods is a traitor to him and the
Ridge. And so the men are acting in
accordance to how Jamie wants to handle this plan, which is not
to have anyone get killed for no reason, especially since this
fight is primarily between him and Cunningham.
Then we watch all the men dispersed to their decided
locations, and we still are not clear if Josiah was able to
successfully deliver the letter that Jamie had sent.
As night falls, we can see that there's a storm coming in the
direction of the Ridge and Claire and Elspeth are still
sitting by the fire waiting for news of what's happened.
Elspeth asks where the children are and Claire tells her that
the kids are away, but Fanny is asleep upstairs and I was
confused as to why Fanny wouldn't have been sent away
with the children too. But she does help Claire in the
surgery when they come back, so presumably that is why.
And that's when Elspeth says 5 more years and admits to Claire
that she believes in Cunningham's prophecy that he
will see his son in seven years. But to her, that doesn't mean
that he will kill Claire's husband, it only means that
Jamie will not kill him. That's when Claire bites off
that that must be a comfort to Elspeth.
And Elspeth tries to justify the fact that Cunningham only wants
to bring Jamie to Ferguson, but Claire is very quick to remind
her that he's being brought there to be hanged for the sake
of Cunningham's own advancement. Elspeth says it's for the sake
of his king, his honor, and as an officer of that king, and
says that Jamie earned his own execution by betraying the same
king. But then she backpedals.
Because I think at the core of everything, the two of these
women identify that they love these people.
And war is ugly, and it's leading to very ugly things.
And sometimes the way that you rationalize things like this is
very irrational. So Elspeth backpedals and says,
we were going to pray, weren't we?
That's when we see Hiram Crombie and he's armed, walking around
in front of the trading post when Jamie approaches him from
behind and knocks him unconscious.
The show makes Hiram Crombie a obvious traitor and uses him as
an example later on in this episode.
In the book, he's not on the list of men who Jamie orders to
leave the Ridge. But that's when Jamie enters
into the trading post and finds Cunningham's office empty, and
Cunningham appears behind him. Then, asking to talk, he disarms
himself. Jamie tells him to leave his
land on foot or in a box, and Cunningham truly feels like he
is immune to death. This prophecy is driving him to
make very irrational decisions. He says that he has a box
waiting for him in five years time, and that's when he instead
pulls a knife. And once again, I think the
performance here for Captain Cunningham's character is just
so unhinged and wonderfully done.
And that's when the fight between these two men ensues.
One thing about this scene between Jamie and Cunningham is
that the book does not drop us into the scene as it's happening
in real time. We actually learn about what
happened during the fight later on, and Jamie is retelling it to
Claire. So for the purposes of the show,
they were able to kind of reconstruct what happens in this
fight scene and make it work for the set pieces that they had in
the show. It makes for a big climactic
moment in the episode, sure, because we can see these two men
fighting in hand to hand combat. Naturally, the implication is
going to be that Jamie is the stronger of these two men, but
we see that Cunningham actually gets him in a precarious
situation quite a few times over the course of this fight,
especially when he wounds Jamie in his chest.
The choreography of this fight scene was pretty well executed
because it has so many different layers to it.
We see them using rope, we see them reaching for weapons, we
see them knocking weapons out of each other's hands, punching
each other, and Cunningham actually gets the upper hand a
few times on Jamie, especially with his weapon being knocked
outside of this trading post and into the dirt.
It's at that point that Cunningham points it at him and
Jamie is unarmed, and we start to wonder how this is going to
end. But of course, if you've read
the book, you knew what was coming.
Cunningham ends up having a few choice words for Jamie, which
buys other people time to come to Jamie's defense.
The main thing is that he wants to know how Jamie knew that he
was going to go after him, and Jamie simply says that it's his
Ridge and it's his job to know. And that's when Cunningham
admits that his plans are changing and he'd be OK with
bringing Jamie to Ferguson, dead or alive.
This is the look of a man unhinged.
This is a look of a man who has lost his way and he thinks he's
acting in a way that is in service of king and country.
And I think at this point, it's largely just to prove to
himself, out of his hatred or jealousy of Jamie, that he can
follow through on this promise that he's made to himself to
deliver him to Ferguson. Especially when you think about
the line that he never wanted it to come to this.
And I think that that's proof that in some small way, Jamie
was holding a mirror up to his feelings as a person, and that
every point when he thought he was the smartest person in a
room, Jamie was able to outwit him and beat him to the punch.
And that's something that Jamie as a character has always done.
He's very clever, he's very observant, and that has always
been to his benefit. This is the moment when he pulls
the gun and Cunningham is actually shot in the back by
Buck McKenzie, which Jamie obviously was not expecting and
you can see that surprise on his face.
This is a show only change because again, Buck is not in
this time in the main story of the book Canon and the book
never shows us this fight or what happened.
So they're filling in the blanks here with the Buck storyline.
I also think that subtly, it's implying the fact that Jamie
killed Buck's father and now Buck is saving Jamie.
It creates this kind of interesting redemptive arc.
Back at Lord John's, William approaches Brie and tells her
that John has written to the Continental camp and she knows
the battle is now over, but she's still waiting to see
what's happening, so she wants to go to the camp because she
can't keep waiting for news. The one thing about this sort of
storytelling that frustrates me is that in the book, you're
jumping between characters quite often, so it doesn't feel like 1
character is sort of suspended in time.
In the same way that a TV show makes it feel like it seems like
Brie has been standing in this window or sitting at this table
for days because we're only dropping into scenes when she's
looking out the window. And so it makes it feel like she
hasn't had anything to do the entire time she's been in
Savannah. And that can be difficult for an
actor because you're supposed to be conveying that this character
has been sitting in this feeling for days or weeks, and we don't
even know how long it's been. But in reality, in the show,
when you're watching it, it feels like this has all been
happening in one day, and she's just been standing in front of
this window. William actually offers to join
her at first light and go to the Continental camp with her, and
while at first, on the surface it seems like he's doing it out
of the goodness of his heart and wanting to help with Brie, we
also will learn that it's in part because he's still trying
to find out more information about his cousin Ben.
I do think, though, that this is a gesture made out of the
goodness of his heart and his loyalty to Brie, and that in
some small way, through their conversations with one another,
his heart has been opened up to her in ways that are going to
become more impactful later on. And he trusts her.
Back at the big house, Claire and Ellsmith have been waiting
all night, waiting for news in this big Thunder and lightning
storm. And Claire hears the back door
opening to her surgery. And I love this shot where we
follow behind her with the camera into the surgery.
It's like we're being able to see through her eyes in real
time and wondering who is being carried into the surgery.
And that's when Claire discovers that it's Cunningham and that he
has been shot in the back. Jamie then appears and we can
tell that he's still laboring over the cut on his pectoral
muscle. And I love this confrontation
with L Smith because she immediately says he had no
intentions of killing you and Jamie fires back and says you
can ask your son what his intentions were.
Claire immediately jumps into action and her and L Smith and
all the other men in the room work together for her to
diagnose Cunningham, and she suspects that he's been hit by
this bullet in a part of his lumbar that is going to leave
him paralyzed. You can kind of see that
suspicion on her face and she confirms it when she asks him to
wiggle his fingers and toes and he cannot move his feet.
All of the lines that they give to Fannie in this scene are
taken directly out of the source material and I love how they
have her in the book and in the show fall so effortlessly into
this role as being Claire's right hand in command and
knowing what to do ahead of time.
So you can tell through these simple lines of dialogue that
the two of them have built up a rapport with one another and
fannies been paying attention. She knows exactly what to do
before Claire has to tell her to do it.
Elspeth then asks point blank if he will live, and Claire says
she thinks so, but admits that he may not walk.
It may heal because it didn't go all the way through, but it also
might not. And so she asks Elspeth to say
with her because she'll need her help, and we watch her remove
the bullet. Back in Savannah, we see
Amaranthus sitting outside and William approaching from behind.
She can sense him before he even reaches her, and she greets him
with a smile on her face because it's nice to see him after such
a busy day. And we can see her laying it on
pretty thick, saying that she wants to see him in her
waistcoat again. And the two of them start to be
a little bit more candid with their attraction towards one
another, Specifically William, who tries to make a clever joke
by saying he's developed a particular species of feelings
for her. I do think that it's fun to see
William, who is Jamie's offspring and Jamie is so good
with his words, stumble over them a bit and be a little
awkward. And thankfully, Amaranthus, this
finds it amusing. She finds it charming.
But this moment has offered William a window to address
feelings that I think he's been struggling with for a while now.
And he points out that you can lose people so quickly during a
war, as evidenced by her losing Ben.
And so he doesn't want things to remain unsaid between them.
And it would make sense that he's feeling this way because
he's about to go into this Continental camp in the morning
with Brianna, and he's been watching Brianna worry about her
own husband for days. He tells her that he's been
considering her suggestion that they get married and if they had
a son, they could give his title to that son.
And Amaranthus is strategic, especially in the book.
I think they've softened her character a little bit in the
show. They've made her arguably a
little more likable. You can see that she does have
an affection for William. That's probably more rooted in
reality than I read Amaranthus's character in the book.
She says she wasn't jesting, but also points out that they
needn't get married straight away.
They could give it a go anyways and maybe just enjoy the try if
the result does not end in a child.
And that's when the two of them share their first kiss with one
another. But this is when you can see
that Amaranthus understands the power she holds because William
says it cannot be like this. And then she encourages him
further. And when he says we'll get
married, it's just like in the book.
And I wanted to smack William upside the head because
Amaranthus takes total advantage of the situation, and they
aren't married. And so if something were to come
to pass between them, he's now on the hook for it.
And he knows that, but he's not willing to say no in the moment.
That's when we go back to the Continental camp.
The next day. We see Roger praying over the
bodies of the soldiers that they lost in this battle and then
Brie and him make eye contact through the tent and reunite
with one another. This is the hug that we saw in
the trailer. We can see Roger holding the
Bible in his hand. The two of them share an
emotional reunion kiss once again.
Brie shoves him and expresses that she's mad at him for
scaring her. And that is when they are
approached by Denzel Hunter and Roger explains to Brie that he
had just discovered this morning that Denzel is Rachel's brother.
So we get the first of the new introductions out of the way,
and then quickly William enters the old.
He reunites with Denzel, who we know he's met before.
And this time it's Roger who's surprised to finally meet
William for the first time. As we watch this reunion happen
between Roger and Bree, Denzel and William, and then all of
them collectively learning who each other is to one another in
this interconnected world, the one thing I wished we had was
just a little bit more breathing room in this moment.
Because. When characters like these
finally get to meet, there's so much that has been unsaid or is
left off the page. And I think the show had the
opportunity to even just give a witty one liner between William
and Roger something of them interacting.
But we don't get that in this scene and I was left wanting
more. Instead, all we get is this
knowing look between Roger and Brie, and to be honest, I think
that's undercutting the importance of William and Brie
connecting in this story. I feel like Brie would want to
have Roger meet her sibling, that's a big deal.
And so being omitted that scene and felt like we were missing
something. But because of that we're able
to spend more time with this reworked moment between Denzel
and William from the source material.
Bree then makes the joke that for a loyalist, William has a
lot of rebel friends, which again is going to become
important as the story goes on. I don't know how much given that
we only have a few episodes left in the season to close out the
story, but at least in the book Canon it is important to note.
And he tells Bree and Roger he'd like to stay a while to catch up
with Denzel, which for the storyline would make sense if
Denzel was married to his cousin Dottie like he is in the book.
But instead they seem to have written her out of the show.
And so he tells Bree go back to Savannah, rest up at Lord John's
house. His letter will still grant her
and Roger safe passage where they can get cleaned up before
they head back to the Ridge. And this is when William asks
Denzel about Rachel. And it's our first clue into the
fact that he is still hung up on her in some small way.
Denzel's able to tell William that she's had a baby and she's
very happy. And that despite any of the
problems that William had with Ian, William's able to admit
that he's very happy for them. Keep in mind that the night
before, he had been fooling around with Amaranthus, so this
man has woman problems up the wazoo.
But having Denzel confirmed that he and Rachel have been
corresponding with one another this whole time is a nice little
way to loop their storyline back together.
Because Denzel hasn't been on our screens much this season.
As Denzel enters into this tent, we can see that William is
afforded this private moment with himself where he's smiling.
And I have to assume he's reflecting on the fact that he
has someone to be excited about now in Amaranthus.
And I really do enjoy this uptight shot of his face because
it feels like we've seen Jamie in this position and posturing
so many times before. It's definitely meant to be some
sort of a visual call back to us looking at Jamie when he's
smiling to himself, thinking about Claire.
And that's when he sees Denzel come out of the tent and hears
the voice of Ben and this amazing shot of his face and the
just disbelief on it. I really loved how it was
captured, and Charles van der Bart did an excellent job in
this entire moment for me. Ben, on the other hand, is
displeased to see William, to say the least.
The two of them are in this sort of standoff in the middle of a
Continental Army camp, and so Ben immediately knows that he
has to pull this into the tent, into the privacy of the tent, so
that things don't get out of hand.
Denzel is none the wiser, so he offers an introduction to
William, and the two of them play it off as if they are old
friends. For one second you get to see
William relieved at the fact that his cousin is still alive,
before it's dawned on him that his cousin is still alive and is
in a continental camp serving as a general.
When they get inside the tent, you can tell that Ben doesn't
understand how this is happening.
William, on one hand, is thrilled to death to see that he
is not in fact dead and that his suspicions were correct.
And they're able to share this very nice hug with one another
before the realization dawns on both of them and William in
particular, because in a matter of seconds, he resolves himself
to punch Ben in the face again. There's a few changes to this
storyline as we compare it to the source material in the book.
When William comes across Denzel, he asks if Miss Hunter
is around and originally means Rachel.
And he's surprised to find his cousin Dottie, who is married to
Denzel Hunter in the books. And that's when he runs into Ben
shortly after. So they've again eliminated the
character of Dottie here. And Dottie is Ben's sister, so
again, she would have been in on this secret too.
For a character like William, who we've already at the top of
the episode, learned just how deeply affected he is by being
lied to about his parentage, this is just another blow to him
to know that he's been lied to by his cousin and someone that
he looked up to and idolizes. Back at the big house, Jamie and
his men are drinking inside the house while Claire is tending to
Jamie's chest wound. And this is a direct visual call
back to the very first episode of Outlander when Claire was
tending to Jamie's shoulder. Jamie admits to her that he
really thought he was done for until he heard Buck's gunfire,
and Claire asks about Cunningham's other men.
That's when Buck enters into the room and tells Claire that they
all ran away deprived of their weapons and were sent home
feeling less brave about themselves.
That's when Jamie asks for paper because he wants to write down
the names of the men and he starts to list them off from
memory and Claire asks why he needs to write them down and he
says it's so that she can get rid of them if something were to
ever happen to Jamie. All of the names that Jamie
lists off in this scene are taken from the source material,
which makes it a fun little Easter egg game.
But the addition of Hiram Crombie is new and that is show
cannon only. It's in that moment that the men
who are inside the big house with Jamie, Claire and Buck hear
and see men approaching the house on horseback.
And so everybody arms up and heads outside to investigate
because at this point, they're still not sure if this could be
any of Cunningham's men coming to avenge him.
This shot of Jamie looking out the window is very similar to
when the house was under siege in Season 7.
So they really love this kind of shadowy shot of his face looking
out the window. And this particular shot is from
the trailer. So again, it is akin to when the
Browns were attacking their house again.
So for a moment, as a viewer, you're wondering if this is
another group of people coming once again to take Jamie or
attack the house because you don't know if Cunningham's plan
involved other people, if this is the militia he was sending
after. If you read the book, you know,
But as a viewer, you're left in this sort of suspense.
And we see Jamie and Claire exiting the house, armed with
all of the men around them. And that is when we finally lay
eyes on Josiah, who approaches on horseback with all of these
men and calls out hello the house.
Jamie, of course, is relieved to see him, but naturally, it would
seem like he's a little too late.
That's when he starts to explain to Jamie and Claire that they
did manage to find the militia men and take care of them before
they ever reached the Ridge. It's at that point that we see
and hear Cleveland, who tells Jamie that he took care of the
men. He won't have to worry about
them again. And we know that he handled it
in a way that Jamie is in direct opposition of because we saw
Jamie tell his men that he does not want death to befall the
Ridge tonight. And Cleveland, although he
wasn't acting in Jamie's service, is still now associated
with Jamie. And it sounds like he was pretty
malicious with how he treated this 96.
This particular shot I really liked because the makeup artist
in the show, I don't think they get enough credit.
You can see the line around Jamie's neck from where the rope
would have been. Everything about how they do
these very subtle make up decisions to make these people
look like they're up this time is so wonderfully done that you
don't even notice it right away. So I wanted to call that out
because I think that's important to note.
And Cleveland once again starts peacocking.
And I think by now, if you don't know his character from the
book, you can tell that he very much feels like Jamie is
indebted to him and has been the whole way through.
And it's just taking Jamie a lot longer than Cleveland wants it
to for him to realize that he's in the right.
And Jamie can't keep operating from the same moral high ground
that he appears to be. But Jamie has clearly thought
this through. That's why he sent the letter.
He knew he was gambling, taking a chance, associating himself
with Cleveland. But he was desperate, and so
desperate times call for desperate measures.
He doesn't trust this man. We can see that Buck listens to
Cleveland talk and also doesn't trust this man.
He's a loose cannon. He is not to be trusted, and
Jamie knows that. But Jamie also knows that it's
better to keep your enemy close, and at this point, he needs his
enemies as close as possible. And Cunningham is inside his
house. He invites Cleveland inside to
talk and that's when Claire says to him, send for the devil and
the devil appears and that's when we see Jamie ordering his
men to stand down. Everyone re enters the house and
we assume they're coming up with the next stage of the plan
because Ferguson is still a very real threat looming over all of
their heads.