Hi and welcome to K Let's Talk, the podcast where we breakdown
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Let's talk, this will be my Outlander Season 8 Episode 6
review titled Blessed Are the Merciful.
As always, if you are looking to avoid spoilers from the books or
the TV show, please do keep on scrolling.
So in the wake of episode 5 and at the beginning of episode 6,
we find Captain Cunningham waking up on Claire's table in
her surgery and he is still unable to move his legs.
When Claire finally enters the room, she tells him that he's
fortunate to live to see another day, but he doesn't believe that
she's actually there to help him, and because of his
injuries, he's wet himself and still hasn't realized that he is
paralyzed. This is when his mother,
Elspeth, appears and asks Claire if she's ever seen anyone with
this condition before. Claire, to her credit, is honest
with her and says it's unlikely that he'll ever walk again.
But beyond that, only time will tell and Elspeth answers and
says it usually does. Starting off this episode which
is titled Blessed Are the Merciful with this scene between
Captain Cunningham, Claire and Elspeth is foreshadowing for the
end of the episode. And where that line in the book
actually comes from. Jamie actually delivers the
line. Blessed Are the Merciful, for
mercy shall be shown them right before he gives Elspeth
permission to bring Captain Cunningham back home to England.
On the porch, Jamie and his men are discussing their plan over a
DRAM, and Josiah tells Jamie that they rode as fast as they
could and managed to cut the men from the 96 off at the border of
the Ridge. Evidently, there were only 20 or
so of them and they handled them, and Cleveland admits that
that's because he took all of them out on his own.
Cleveland tells Jamie that he now has nothing to fear any
longer, and Buck and Jamie share a glance with one another that
lets the other person know Cleveland is a little unhinged.
He takes the opportunity to remind Jamie that he had warned
him about Cunningham and that he wants to make a show of him by
taking advantage of the fact that he's still alive and in his
custody. This points out one of the main
obstacles Jamie will be grappling with within the
episode, and that is what to do about Cunningham.
For Cleveland, though, he makes a point to remind Jamie that he
didn't like the way that he spoke to him the last time they
talked, and he would have been perfectly fine if Jamie had been
taken by Cunningham. And so, because he took care of
that regiment of men, Jamie now owes him.
This is exactly why Jamie had said he'd be making a deal with
the devil in the previous episode.
And so Buck and Josiah can tell that Cunningham is very
dangerous to cross, and we know that Jamie feels the same way.
And that is when Frank's voice returns and plays over the
screen in Jamie's head, telling him it's your own fault.
You knew his help would come with a price.
The overlay of Frank's voice once again is a mixture in the
show of direct text from the book, and then also Jamie's own
internal thoughts that he feels are now framed from the
information he's getting from Frank's book.
It's a clever way for us to be able to know what his inner
dialogue is, but also continuously remind us as
viewers that Frank's book is very much guiding him through a
lot of his decision making. When Cleveland walks away, Jamie
calls out. You have my word.
And that's when he leaves the porch and enters into the
surgery in order to talk to Cunningham.
I loved the shot of his boots walking into the room because it
highlights the fact that he's still able bodied and about to
converse with someone who is now paralyzed.
And when Jamie enters the surgery, he asks Cunningham what
he has to say for himself. And Cunningham asks where his
men are. Jamie tells him that they're
alive awaiting their fates, and Cunningham asks Jamie if he
would have his wife save him only so that he could have the
cruel pleasure of seeing him put to death, and then asks if
Jamie's going to kill him as he does throughout the Outlander
storyline, Jamie says he wouldn't be able to kill him
strictly because Claire would not allow him to harm someone
that is under her care. This is when Cunningham admits
to the fact that he is no longer able bodied or able to change
his stars. This condition is as bad as
death to him now. He had imagined an honorable
death for himself, and that too now is gone and has been taken
from him. I think for a moment Jamie can
agree that not being able to give yourself an honorable death
would be very hard for someone like Cunningham or himself.
But he makes a point to lean down and say to him that he has
made his bed and now he must lay in it until Jamie can determine
an appropriate fate for him. At the very least.
This is another example of how Jamie, when needed, can be quite
cutting. But at the end of the day, he
does have a heart and he's not going to make a rash decision
based strictly on his emotions. He has a lot more at stake now
and he needs to think things through in a way that he can
live with. At the end of the day.
It also makes it clear that for as much as Jamie had planned the
confrontation at the lodge, he had not thought beyond it and
what he would do with Cunningham.
After that scene ends, we get the title card for the episode,
which is this beautiful sunset shot of young Ian's son running
through the grass. The shot itself is in slow MO so
we can actually see him running alongside a dog, which we will
later learn is related to Rolo. And it's also giving us a
glimpse into the larger storyline of the episode that
surrounds young Ian, Rachel and Ian's first wife Emily.
Above the woods we see Ian and Rachel travelling N together to
New York as a reminder they had both left in order for Ian to
see what has happened to his first wife and son after hearing
that their village was attacked and burned.
We see Ian standing looking out at the river and he tells Rachel
that he recognizes it and when she approaches him with Auggie,
this is when Ian starts to share more of his experience with the
Mohawk with her, including that of his marriage.
Season 4 was so long ago that it's important that the show
remind us all about his lived experience and how much it
really did shape him and still informs much of his behavior and
the man he's become. Rachel allows Ian to open up
about Emily by telling him that she knows he loved her and that
he can talk freely about her in front of Rachel.
Ian admits that he does think about Emily now and then and
Rachel thinks that it's OK for him to given all that they
shared together, including a child.
But she's clearly jealous and Ian says that he knows they were
not meant to be together and Rachel is sorry for him given
the circumstances. Ian then holds Auggie and speaks
to him in Mohawk, telling him I love you in that language.
And you can tell that it's upsetting Rachel.
And I really loved the way that Rachel was portrayed in this
episode and how the actress Izzy portrayed her because she
captured beautifully just how real and raw the emotion of
jealousy can be when it's not rooted in something petty, but
entirely in your love for another person.
This is when we cut back to Savannah and catch up with Bree
and Roger's storyline in the aftermath of the battle that
Roger took part in. And we see Brianna reading the
letter that he had written before the battle, and he
explains what he wrote to her and why he felt so compelled to
fight in that battle. He admits he felt compelled to
fight after being at the camp and it had given him a feeling
of purpose and a renewed conviction to him.
He compares that feeling of going through the stones and
feeling like he's being pulled apart to his conflicting
emotions and Brie tells him she doesn't want to hear it, but
Roger asks her to listen to him because he needs to tell her
it's made him realize that he wants to be ordained.
This is when he starts to describe the blast that sent him
flying and remembering the feeling he had as a boy of being
caught by his father in the tunnel the night that his
mother. He never knew how he was able to
live through the bombing of the underground, but he remembered
being caught by his father from the stairs and is putting
together that because he saved his father when he sent him
through the stones, as a result, his father was able to save him.
This again is all taken from the novella A Wind on the Leaf of
All Hallows which is one of my absolute favorite ones and if
you have not read it, I highly recommend it.
Roger then explains to Bri that this makes them a part of
history, even though they didn't know they were a part of it yet,
that they couldn't change God's plan, but they were always a
part of it. And so he knows that he's called
to do the Lord's work and to be there in that time period.
Brie supports his decision and that's when Roger takes her to
bed, which is when we finally get a hint that their third
child from the source material will make an appearance before
the series ends. That's when we cut back to the
Continental camp and pick up the storyline with Ben and William,
who had entered into this tent at the end of episode 5.
Ben is rubbing his cheek after he's been punched in the face
and tells William he deserved to have been punched.
William then picks up a paper from his desk and finds the name
Wraith Bleeker. This is the same name that's
used in the source material, and it's quite funny when you're
reading the book because William is absolutely gobsmacked from
this and swears quite a bit about it in his own head.
William calls him a coward for essentially killing his whole
family with grief by faking his own death, and he asks Ben what
would have made him turn his coat.
That's when Ben asks him if he's heard of a man named Thomas
Paine, who is a founding father. He had met him in a Tavern in
Philly and when he was taken prisoner, he decided to read his
pamphlet called Common Sense. In that pamphlet they make the
argument that the monarchy was oppressive, that self
governments was the key to prosperity in the new world, and
Ben was convinced that the Americans were right.
Despite going through all the proper avenues to make sure he
wouldn't be discovered as alive, William had to go looking and
now he knew that he wasn't dead. As Ben explains why he decided
to turn his coat and fake his own death, you can tell that
William internally is struggling to justify how he could do this
to his own family. And that's when he says to Ben
that he wishes he had been dead. And to his credit, he's proving
Ben's point because both Ben and William realize that if Hal Gray
knew that his own son had turned his coat, he might die of shock,
but also of disappointment. When William eventually brings
up Amaranthus, Ben is ultimately surprised that he knows about
her and realizes that Uncle John must have let her and Trevor
stay with him. Initially.
I think that William felt like it was a power move to bring up
Amaranthus, but Ben ends up admitting that it was her idea
for him to fake his death, and this realization ultimately
wounds William so much that he accuses Ben of lying.
You can see his internal thoughts spiraling here because
of what we know just took place between him and Amaranthus.
In the episode before this, when Williams says he doesn't
understand how Ben could leave his beautiful wife, Ben reminds
him that it's none of his business.
And and is suddenly on to him and questions why he would be
comforting his own wife in her grief.
This is when William's immaturity is on full display
because again, he's got his back against the wall.
And he goes for the low blow here and tells Ben, yeah, I've
been comforting your wife in her grief.
And the innuendo there is enough for them to start fighting
again. And rightfully so because
William has undoubtedly crossed a line here.
This is when we see the two of them wrestling one another
before William is ultimately pulled off of Ben by his
officers. He demands that William be taken
to the guardhouse to be watched closely and held prisoner.
And that's where we leave William before we cut back to
Ian and Rachel in New York. The two of them are cooking
themselves dinner when they're approached by one of Ian's
Mohawk friends, who tells them what had happened.
Ian immediately warned not to go to the old village because
there's only ashes left and it would only upset him.
He also tells Ian that his own village is gone as well, and
even though a lot of people escaped, most of them perished.
Once he knows that Ian and Rachel are there in order to
find out information about his wife, he tells Ian that there is
somebody who may be able to help him find out their fates.
We then cut back to the big house where Jamie is sitting at
a table writing and Claire approaches him and starts to
read over his shoulder when he asks her if he's left anything
out. Claire asks Jamie if he would
really shoot the men on sight if they were to ever come back onto
his land and Jamie says yes. So this is how we know that he
is now writing letters to the men that have betrayed him on
the Ridge. To Jamie's point, he knows
people will watch to see how he reacts to this attack, and
Claire asks what that then means for the wives and children of
those men. At this point, Jamie is very
much fueled by his anger, and so he's very curt about how he's
going to handle the situation with the wives and men.
The men wronged him and therefore they must leave and
that means that their wives and children are included in that.
He ends up referencing Bell Book and Candle, which is a quote
from the book where Jamie writes to his tenants that they're all
evicted from the land and should depart within 10 days to clear.
This is when she tries to reintroduce some logic into this
and can tell that he's operating with a lot of his emotion and
not his logic. She plants the seed because we
do see him move forward with these letters, write them all in
this montage and carry them out and deliver them to everybody
that they are sent out to. We then get to hear Jamie
reading the letter out loud that he sent out to all of these men
and it does warn that if they are to return after they are
required to leave, they will be shot on sight.
I did like this montage because it really hammers home the fact
that if Jamie had to handwrite every single one of these
letters, he had multiple opportunities while writing it
over and over again to revise what he wanted to do and he did
not. His conviction was sound here.
He had made this decision and was to stick to it, which I
think ultimately says a lot about how he handles things.
At the very end of the episode, he delivers Hiram Crombie's
letter by hand, and this is in front of many people of the
Ridge to set an example. But this is not from the book.
Crombie is not a part of this list, nor is he used to make an
example of in the source material.
This show change is meant to come up with a conflict and give
us a reason to side with these women because we've now gotten
to know Hiram Crombie is a character and we have a little
bit more empathy towards him, which then hopefully should help
you understand why Jamie is able to fold by the end of the
episode. I love the shot when Hiram comes
out and starts to Babble on about how he regrets what
happened at Lodge and Jamie asking if that is an apology.
Because the way it's shot and framed, Jamie's on the left,
Hiram's on the right, and it puts Hiram's wife directly in
the middle of the two of them. So it's foreshadowing again that
this is going to be about her. Jamie asking if this is an
apology is really highlighting how petty he feels about all of
this. But we watch him put his foot
down and he tells him that the Beardsleys will take over the
trading post and he has 10 days to leave.
Jamie leaves Hiram looking at the emporium that he has built
from scratch on Jamie's own land and has to sit with what he's
done. And ultimately, that is the
lesson that Jamie wanted to impart on him.
Back in New York, we watch Rachel and Ian enter into an
absolutely beautiful home to await the master who lives
there, and we hear Ian and Rachel talking about a man named
Joseph Brandt who has a foot in both worlds, as evidenced by his
large and beautiful home. That's when we see Joseph Brandt
approaching the two of them with his wife Catherine, and they all
sit down together to talk. In the book, Ian's mother Jenny,
is actually with them when they travel to New York and speak
with Joseph and Catherine. So again, omitting her from this
storyline and not having her come to America changes a lot of
the tone of this scene because Jenny offers a lot of commentary
and also comedy. As a historical figure, Joseph
Brandt is actually quite influential and in the book he
has a lot more of a lead up into explaining his significance
during this war as compared to the show.
Ian had been sent to meet him at Shadow Lake in Season 7, but
this is the first time we're actually seeing him on our
screens. And in terms of historical
context, he was an ally to the King who led his people against
the rebel colonists during the war and was later granted
territory in Canada and resettled there.
They pick up quickly that Rachel is a Quaker and they ask Ian if
he is still with the Continentals, and Ian admits
that their journey is because he had to find out what had
happened with Emily. Joseph accuses him of joining
them and leaving the Mohawk on purpose, but he clarifies that
he didn't want to leave the Mohawk and that that was not the
reason why he left. But ultimately, Joseph's opinion
of Ian has been made before he even opens his mouth.
His wife asks Rachel how she feels about that, and Rachel
admits that the spirit has moved Ian to look for his wife and
child, even though he doesn't address them as such, and he
wants to know if he should mourn for them.
She is allowing him to do that because he has felt so-called to
do it. They go back and forth over the
violence inflicted against one another and both Rachel and
Catherine admit that it would be much simpler if the women were
in charge of things. There's definitely a kinship
formed between the two women and you can tell that they have a
lot in common and admire each other's spirit.
This is when Catherine grants Ian the information that his
wife is still living and is staying there with them, but
Joseph does not allow Ian to see them and asks them to leave.
Back at the Ridge, we see Jamie building a chair when he's
approached by Mrs. Crombie and she asks him for an audience.
That's when we see all of the women and children behind as she
approaches him and starts to beg for mercy.
Jamie then asks her to get up and if their husbands all put
them up to this. At that point she says no, their
husbands actually forbade them. He reminds her that they are
fools and traitors taking a risk like that by siding with
Cunningham and she reminds Jamie that their husbands betrayed
them all as well. She asks him again that they not
be sent away for their husbands actions and Jamie knows that
they cannot guarantee their husbands good behavior.
I loved the framing of this shot where we have Jamie standing on
the left and Mrs. Cunningham on the right, because it's putting
them on equal footing with this visual break between them with
the post of the porch, and it's foreshadowing of the overarching
message of equality between them.
Mrs. Crombie points out that surely Jamie must know what a
wife might do to a man who has taken a roof from over his wife
and children's heads. And it's in that sentiment that
you can see Jamie soften here. Despite that, though, you hear
him say that he cannot honor a contract with a man who would
see him hanged. And despite his deep guilt, he
watches the women leave. But by lingering on Jamie's face
and watching him Mull over what just transpired between himself
and the women, we can tell as viewers because we know his
character so well that he is reconsidering.
We see Ian and Rachel in the aftermath of their meeting with
Joseph Brandt and his wife Catherine, and Ian begins to
apologize to Rachel for bringing her here because he can now tell
that he has pained her. Rachel, to her credit, says that
she's OK, but Ian knows that she is lying.
And that's when the blood gates finally opened between these two
and they're able to share their true feelings about what's
actually going on here. For Rachel, she admits that she
didn't think she'd feel this way, and she is ultimately a
woman who's not immune to feelings.
What it comes down to is wondering.
If Ian would have left Emily if he had had the choice, and Ian
is honest and says he cannot say yes.
So she knows that Ian would have been with Emily still if he had
not been forced away from the Mohawk.
Rachel says that she had prayed that Emily would still be alive
because she knew that a ghost would insert itself into places
that it was not wanted in their marriage.
And Ian says that it's enough for him to know that they are
alive and that they can go home now.
This breakthrough conversation between the two of them I
thought was really beautiful. And it also sets up the next
scene that we will see between them again in such a really
impactful way because it shows Rachel's emotional intelligence
and maturity level here in a way that speaks volumes without it
having to be written so clearly on screen or verbalized between
the two of them. Back at the Continental camp,
William is inside of this cage that he is being held prisoner
in, and we see Rachel's brother Denzel coming in to look after
him. I always love when a show does
this where we see one character and then cut to their other half
or their their partner on screen.
And for Rachel, for us to see her and then immediately go to
her brother is a really nice segue.
Denzel is one of my favorite, more underrated characters of
the show and especially in this season, I think they're
utilizing him in a really great way.
He provides a comedy here that I think is perfect.
Examining William, pretending that he needs to bend over and
asks the private to send away for a bucket of water in order
to free up a moment for him to speak openly with William.
He is going to help him escape from the continental camp.
And so the two of them come up with this plan where Denzel will
fake his death because he had smallpox and then William can
escape in the night. In the book, Denzel is married
to William's cousin Dottie, and they have removed her from the
storyline. So I don't know if we're going
to see Denzel again or wrap up his storyline in the remaining
episodes of the show. But I hope we do because he's a
really impactful person and I think a beautiful character and
I do hope he gets a proper send off here.
But at the very least, William admits that he wants to see
Denzel at the other side of the war.
And I think that should be foreshadowing to seeing him at
the end of the season in some way.
We cut back to Savannah, but this time we're actually going
to be with Fergus's family and not going to Lord John's house.
And we are first tipped off to that fact with this image of the
frog because again, the French are called frogs.
Andre Christian is sitting outside playing with this frog
when he is approached by Rodger asking if Fergus is inside.
The show has given Andre Christian a lot of screen time,
mainly because there is a very important plot point that
involves his character, and we can't be invested in that unless
we spend proper time with the character of Henri Christian
himself. So again, this is foreshadowing
for scenes to come. It's just a little snippet of
context so that we have a face to the name and we feel invested
in his character. And we also see that he has an
interest in what his father Fergus is doing as well, which
is important as we move through the story.
Fergus comes outside with a letter from Rogers.
Comrades in arms and Brie approaches the group and they
discover that it's a letter from Francis Marion, who originally
had denied their request for guns but is now saying he will
provide them after Roger's help and actions in the battle.
This was another scene that I was a little confused as to why
they had it take place in this particular location, given that
the three of them are so obviously trying to not let
people around them hear what they are talking about.
And yet they continue to stand outside in front of this print
shop, which Fergus is already getting harassed for, and openly
discuss their plans. That's when we cut back again to
the home of Joseph Brandt where we see that Rachel has gone back
to meet with him alone. She begs him to allow Ian to see
his wife and child and makes it clear that the fact that Emily
has his son is not well known. It is a secret.
She admits to him that she's jealous but does not wish to be
consumed by that jealousy. And while she fears that Ian and
Emily may still love one another, she doesn't know how to
move on without Ian being able to see his own son.
And Brandt did not realize this, but once he does, he can see
that Rachel does not want to stand between Ian and his own
child. That fact alone allows him to
grant Rachel that kindness, and by extension, grant Ian the
kindness of seeing Emily and his son.
This scene in particular in the dialogue within it, is some of
my favorite of this episode. And I really think that it's a
moment where Izzy, the actress who plays Rachel, was allowed to
really shine and showcase her skills here because she's so
real and raw in this scene. And I think that you can feel
sympathy for her, but also empathy for her and understand
exactly the emotions that she's been toiling and battling with
for the duration of their journey up into New York.
But also from the moment she read the news that Emily and Ian
Sun might have perished in that fire.
And that sentiment is the through line that carries us
through these scenes where we see Jamie now at the big house
watching the children, helping Claire with the bees.
We can see in this moment Jamie realizing how much joy it brings
him to see the kids helping Claire and watch his wife on
their property, on their land. And he feels guilt over the
women that he would be putting out alongside their children.
And while we don't get the conversation between Jamie and
Claire that takes place ahead of Lodge, we just cut to Jamie and
Claire walking in to Lodge and this meeting that they've
clearly called. It's implied that the two of
them have come to this resolution jointly because
that's the type of relationship that they have and are now using
in order to impress upon these women that their lives can be
handled in a different way and they can have autonomy and
independence from their husbands.
He tells the men and the women in that room that he will revoke
the letter of banishment, but the contracts he made with the
gentleman remain void. From here on he will address
their wives and deal directly with them instead.
And he reminds them that no one is forcing them to stay on their
land. The men do not have to be there,
but the women want to stay, and he will not have men on his land
who plot against him. So instead he'll write new
contracts with the women which make them responsible for the
rents and the land is now theirs and not his.
Anyone who fails to meet the agreed upon contract, we'll have
to answer to Jamie. And the women gladly accept
here. And I love that every time we
are in lodge, we get this wide angle shot where we can see over
Jamie's shoulder and get a full scope of who's in that room.
And in this particular scene, it's especially impactful that
all the women are standing in front of the men.
They're being directly addressed and they are given all of the
control in the outcome of this situation.
Claire and Jamie look at each other so fondly in this moment,
but I think for Claire it's important because this is
something she brought up to him a while ago now, and he arrived
at this conclusion on his own. But she can tell that he listens
to her, and that's the most important part of this entire
thing. For a long time, essentially
since he's met Claire, Jamie has been a man who listens to his
wife and values her opinion and knows that she is intelligent
and smart and worth listening to and considering in all matters
of his affairs. For him to then impart the same
kindness on to these women and allow them to have control over
their own futures would have been hugely impactful but also
questioned quite heavily at the time.
Because this is not the norm for a story and a couple that has
always emphasized that they cannot tell if they are
impacting history or the future, this is a small example of how
the ripple effects would happen for them.
Even though this is so tiny, it would be impressed upon these
people of this era, so much so that it might shape and inform
future thinking that isn't already present.
Claire tells Jamie he did the right thing and he admits that
it could easily go sideways, but it lightens his heart to do it.
And that's when Elspeth Cunningham approaches them.
This is the moment where the Blessed Are the Merciful line
comes back. So we echo that from the
beginning of the show and get the dialogue taken directly out
of the book, along with Elspeth asking if Jamie is still feeling
generous. She knows that her son cannot
remain on Fraser's Ridge, and Jamie knows that she cannot take
care of him alone at her age. Despite that, she wants to take
him home to England, to a place that she knows if she's going to
spend the final years of her life taking care of him.
And so she asks Jamie to grant her and Charles that kindness.
And ultimately, like so many times before, all it takes is
Claire to look at him for him to grant her permission.
We go back to Joseph Brandt's home and we see that Ian and
Rachel are there to meet with Emily and Catherine is putting
white flowers into a vase which Rachel points out are for peace.
They thank her once again for allowing this meeting to take
place. And that is when the door opens
and we start to realize that Ian is about to be reunited with
this woman after not seeing her for years and then worrying for
presumably months that both her and his own child perished in a
fire. The shot that they use in order
to convey that is over the shoulders of Rachel and Ian, and
we can see through a very narrow gap in the door behind Joseph
Brandt that Emily is approaching him.
So again, it keeps her hidden from us as viewers for a while
so that the suspense can build. What I also love about the
camera work here is that we then flip views and we get to see
what Emily would be looking at as she walks through the door
with Ian and Rachel and their child standing opposite her.
And the looks on their faces are very telling because I think for
both of them this is like seeing a ghost.
When Emily enters, she does it very slowly and her hands are in
front of her chest. She looks very guarded and
unsure about what exactly this conversation is going to look
like and end like. But very quickly, Ian turns his
entire torso to face her, which basically presents himself as
being being open to having this conversation, and he asks if
he's a stranger to her. Emily then calls him a stranger.
She thinks that she knows. This is when she starts to piece
together that Ian is not here alone and wants to be introduced
to Rachel and Auggie. Rachel very quickly says that
she's heard a lot about Emily and their son together and Emily
can tell now that Rachel is in on this secret, it doesn't have
to be hidden from her. They can talk openly about their
own son. And this is when she opens up
and says she has been changed by sorrows.
Since her husband died, she has been having terrible dreams
about the war and now Ian is here and for her that is an
omen. She dreamt of their son being
captured by soldiers who are cruel to him and who force him
to fight in a battle where he is killed.
And at the end of her recap of her dreams, she very abruptly
asks Ian to take him to live with them.
I really love John Bell's expression here because you can
tell not only is he deeply troubled by this dream, but then
it hits him right in the solar praxis that she's asking such a
big thing of him and she says it's because she knows he will
be safer with Ian. This is when she turns her
attention to Rachel and asks if she will allow it and if she
will take her son at her fire. And Rachel to her credit,
without hesitation says. Of course you can immediately
tell that Emily is relieved by this and so she leaves to go
retrieve their son together. And we can see Ian and Rachel
left standing in this room alone with the weight of what has just
transpired between them. In from the door we see Swiftest
of Lizards approach baby Auggie with a puppy in his arms and he
offers his little brother the dog, which we find out is
actually an offspring of Rolo. At some point, Swiftest of
Lizards would have been told that he had a sibling by Ian and
Rachel, and so he immediately addresses him as brother.
I really loved this entire scene because not only do we have the
continuity of the same young child actor playing Swiftest of
Lizards, but I feel like having this representation of Rolo in
one way or another on the show is also going to be a really
nice way to kind of close the loop of that storyline by the
end of this season. And when Ian asks his son if he
still remembers him, Swiftest of Lizards says that he does, which
must have been really impactful for Ian, who probably had been
navigating his life assuming that his own son would not know
or remember him. He immediately runs over to
Rachel and kisses her hand. And so again, it's made clear
here that he had been briefed by his mother prior to this
conversation about what was going to happen between them.
And so he's entering that room already knowing that he will be
going home with them and that this woman is going to be taking
care of him from here on out. Rachel tells Emily that she is
honored that she is entrusting her with her son and that she
will love him as though he was her own.
And you know, watching Rachel, that that is true in every sense
of the word for her. Emily is clearly emotional and
asks to say goodbye to her son one last time.
And so we see the two of them break away and she is able to
tell him to be brave and be good for them and that she loves him
deeply. And you can almost feel her
heartbreaking in this scene. I cannot imagine what this would
be like for her to have been tormented by bad dreams for so
long, worrying about him so deeply, knowing that he is only
getting older and that the war is headed in One Direction.
She is also traumatized by what just happened at her village and
so the relief and also pain that she must feel in watching Ian
and Rachel take her son away from her and into this world
that she is not familiar with but has grown to hate because
they have attacked her own people is really contradictory
within herself. Ultimately, I think the fact
that she trusts Ian so much to do this for her and for their
child is the most loud thing about this whole scene.
She trusts him implicitly, even though she is giving her son to
a man that will be walking in a different lane than the Mohawk
way. That ultimately means that her
son is going to learn different customs and move away from his
Mohawk traditions and ultimately become someone who's living in
that new world. And that's a huge sacrifice.
She asks that she be afforded the opportunity to help name
their son because Ian had named her son for her.
And so she walks over to the baby, who at this point, again,
they've been calling Auggie because they could not think of
a name. And she immediately thinks of 1.
And we get this really sweet shot over her shoulder with her
hand on his head, cradling his head and looking at this child
that has this whole world in front of him and all these
opportunities ahead. And the same breath she is
letting her own son go. She tells Rachel and Ian that
their son's name will be Hunter, which of course for Rachel in
particular is especially impactful and also seems kismet
that she would come up with that name without knowing that that's
Rachel's maiden name. It's a really beautiful way to
end this scene to see off the character of Emily at the end of
this season and also set up this new dynamic of their family as a
family of four and also with this new dog.
And just as we're watching the goodbye take place between Emily
and Swiftest of Lizards, we start to fade into the big house
scene where we're watching another goodbye take place.
This time it is between Claire and Elspeth, who was leaving for
England with her son Captain Cunningham.
This means that Jamie formally gave her permission to take him
away and leave the Ridge and head back to England on their
own accord. And I think for Jamie, watching
this man who is now paralyzed being carted away by his elderly
mother, it must bring him some form of comfort or internal
peace to know that he did not inflict more pain onto this
person. Elspeth then comes up to Claire.
And again, we have this really great shot that shows our two
characters in side profile. So we have Claire on the left
and Elspeth on the right. And I also like that their
costuming is opposite of one another.
So Claire has a white shirt on and Elspeth is still dressed in
her all black. So again, it's that yin and Yang
of their relationship dynamics that we've seen play out over
the course of these six episodes in a very obvious visual
language. The two women clearly have a
great amount of respect for one another, and in their exchange,
you can see that coming across. And the two of them agree that
in another lifetime they may have been great friends, but as
it is, they must say farewell. Elspeth asks Claire if she was
considered a friend or an enemy to her.
And we see them joining hands with one another.
And I thought that this was just really tender and did a great
job of taking what was on the page in the book and really
bringing it to life in a very palpable way.
Because when Claire says friend, I always considered you a
friend. Elspeth kisses her hands and
then leaves to go off on her way with her son.
We see Jamie watching them from up on the porch and then stand
beside Claire while the two of them ride away together.
And Jamie admits to her that Cunningham's departure does not
mean that all of their troubles have gone away.
Ferguson is still out there, and the looming threat of the Battle
of Kings Mountain is also still out there.
And he knows that that man is going to play a part in that.
And as we saw at the beginning of the episode, Jamie is now
operating with this looming threat constantly running in his
head. And now that he's able to figure
out who the key players are in that equation, it's constantly
eating away at him. And so we watched them reenter
the big house and seemingly things have changed.
But for these two, they know that what's coming is coming,
and they still don't have an answer for how they're going to
handle the Battle of Kings Mountain.