Outlander Recap and Reflection! Season 2 finale! Roger and Bree! The big goodbye!

The death of a major character, a new time period, the introduction of two major characters, the return of another…yes, it must be the season finale of Outlander! This super-sized episode covers not one, but TWO time periods so join us as we cover this epic finale!

Recap – Episode #213 “Dragonfly in Amber”

1968 – Inverness

Roger Wakefield is all grown up, having eaten lots of biscuits. He’s got a house full of guests since his foster father, the Reverend Wakefield, has just passed. Among the mourners is a bonnie red-headed lassie and her mother, Claire Randall. Yes, Randall. Claire and her daughter, Brianna, were in London when they heard of the reverend’s passing and came up to Inverness to pay their respects. Roger can’t quite place Claire since it’s been about 20 years since they met and he was still playing with toy airplanes.

Claire mentions that the reverend was close to her deceased husband Frank Randall (RIP Frank!) and suddenly it all clicks for Roger. He remembers how close Frank and his father were. Yes, time has passed and Claire is now a surgeon while Brianna is a history major at Harvard. Oh yeah? Roger is a history major at Oxford. Oh really? So much brains in one conversation.

Claire asks after Mrs. Graham, the reverend’s housekeeper and druid who knows about the stones. She’s passed on, but her granddaughter, Fiona, works for the house now. Yes, times have changed, including Claire’s hair which is a anchorwomen-worthy helmet with artful grey streaks that most women would kill for.

Roger oh so casually asks if Brianna has seen the sights of Scotland and she informs him they are supposed to head back to England that night. Roger offers to let the Randall women stay in the big house and Roger beams when they agree.

Claire’s finally back in Scotland, so she helps herself to a dram of whiskey later that night. Well, good to know that some things never change, even after 20 years. Roger joins her and talks about the massive undertaking of packing up his father’s stuff. He doesn’t want to let go of some rare books about Bonnie Prince Charlie as his ancestors fought at the Battle of Culloden. Claire, understandably, perks up a bit. Roger explains that his birth name is MacKenzie. Yeah, Claire used to know some MacKenzies…

Roger, clearly grieving, asks Claire how do you say goodbye to the person you love the most. Claire confesses she’s never been good at that. They’re gone and you have to go on because that’s what they would want. Let the emotional upheaval begin!

Claire returns to the room she’s sharing with Bree, who’s already asleep. Claire tucks her in bed and whispers that Bree is “so like him…”

April 16, 1746 – Near Culloden

“Him” being James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser whom we now see on the day of the Battle of Culloden. Jamie is trying to reason with Bonnie Prince Charlie one last time. Charlie thinks today is his destiny and he’s not turning away from the battle. Murtagh reports that the English are on their way. It’s time to mobilize the Scottish army.

Claire grabs Jamie to talk about one last-ditch, desperate move to stop the battle…

1968 – Inverness

Roger is driving Bree around the countryside and takes her to the ruins of an old fort. The young pair talk easily about history and family. Bree calls her father (Frank) the kindest man in the world while her mother always seems off in her own world. They arrive at a scaffold and Bree shivers and thinks the place is creepy. Well, they are at Ft. William which is where her real father was whipped several times and her mother was almost raped. Creepy is definitely one word for it…

Claire is also driving around the countryside, and she heads up to the ruins of…Lallybroch. The place is run down without a roof or windows and filled with the ghost of her past conversations with Jamie, Jenny and more. Jamie’s echo recites a love poem by Catallus (book readers – you know the one…)

(Sob!!!)

April 16, 1746 – Near Culloden

Claire takes Jamie to a quiet place in Culloden House so she can reveal her final plan – to assassinate Prince Charlie which should stop the rebellion and the battle. She can slip Charlie some yellow jasmine for a peaceful ending, just like Colum. Ooops. Yeah Jamie’s not too happy to learn that Colum committed a mortal sin by taking his own life. Claire asserts it was Colum’s wish to die peacefully and she helped him to do that. Just like she can send the Bonnie Prince off. Jamie considers the idea…

1968 – Inverness

Bree and Roger are on a beautiful overlook near a lake and she asks him if he remembers the last time he saw Claire and any “big incident” that might have happened. She found some of Frank’s old letters from the reverend and one mentioned something about an odd incident that he didn’t want to commit to writing. Roger doesn’t remember so he volunteers a peek at his father’s old journals if she wants to dig further.

Claire is in Inverness and parks in the same spot that Frank did 23 years ago before she went through the stones. (Nice echo here!). The city hasn’t changed that much, except for some “Free Scotland’ graffiti — so really, some things don’t change. Claire is inquiring over who owns Lallybroch since it’s clearly not been cared for. The registrar’s office finds the earliest documentation on the title – it’s a transfer of title from James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser to James Jacob Fraser Murray (his sister Jenny’s oldest boy). The document is signed by one Murtagh Fitzgibbons Fraser and one Claire Beauchamp Fraser. After that, Lallybroch has stayed with the Murrays for generations. While she’s there, Claire asks about doing a genealogy for Roger.

That night, Claire asks how Bree’s date went with the handsome, intelligent, deep blue-eyed and “lovely physiqued” Roger. Claire is older, but clearly not dead. Bree dodges the question. Claire isn’t forthcoming about her day and Bree wonders if Claire ever loved Daddy (Frank). Claire says, yes, she did.

April 16, 1746 – Near Culloden

Dougal overhears Claire and Jamie plotting to kill Prince Charlie and, well, he’s not a fan.

1968 – Inverness

Roger is running an errand at the local university and Bree is tagging along. She wanders into a pro-Scotland talk given by Gillian Anders who we also know by the name Geillis Duncan! She’s praising Bonnie Prince Charlie and talking about how different their lives would be if he’d won Culloden. She ends with a “We are Bonnie Prince Charlie! Scotland! Scotland!” chant.

Bree, the historian, chats with Gillian/Geillis afterwards and points out later Scottish monarchs who pulled the country together. Gillian/Geillis shrugs and says they were raised Anglican and don’t count. (Side note: Bonnie Prince Charlie grew up in Italy, but sane arguments probably don’t mean much to Geillis.)

Bree introduces herself and Roger catches up to them and also meets Gillian/Geillis. She hands the pair a flyer for an upcoming rally before they leave.

Meanwhile, Claire is visiting the Culloden museum and muses that the statue of Bonnie Prince Charlie is too tall. Among the artifacts, she spies a large piece of amber with a dragonfly in it. Remember back to season one when Hugh Munro gave that same amber to her as a wedding present?

April 16, 1746 – Near Culloden

Dougal’s outrage over Jamie’s betrayal of the crown is bubbling over. There’s name calling and, yes, violence. How else would Dougal react when Jamie, who has everything Dougal wants, is committing the ultimate treason?

It’s a mighty struggle between the two strapping warriors until Jamie is straddling Dougal and trying to push a dagger through his heart. Dougal is rather mighty so Claire jumps in to add her strength and the pair manage to shove the knife through Dougal’s heart.

Oh Dougal! To die like this and not on the battlefield for Scotland!

 

1968 – Inverness

Bree and Roger head to the attic to find the reverend’s journals. (We’re really hoping the reverend’s journals were of an academic nature or reading your father’s diary could be really awkward.) They’re startled by a rat and Roger makes up a “rat satire” song to encourage the rats to head to a new home. Bree is charmed. She may not be the only one…

Roger spots his old toy airplane and Bree spots a box marked “Randall.” They find a box of Randall family treasures including (Frank and Claire’s wedding photo) and Black Jack Randall’s military commission. They find a letter from Frank telling the reverend to stop doing research on Black Jack since he’s “not the man I thought.” Points to Frank!

April 16, 1746 – Near Culloden

Pirate Rupert has wandered into the crime scene with a dead Dougal on the floor and bloody dagger in Jamie’s hand. Whoops! Should have locked that door, maybe? Rupert’s duty is to avenge his chieftain. Jamie pleads for 2 hours to take care of things (he looks meaningfully at Claire) and promises to return to answer for his crime. To honor their past friendship, Rupert agrees, but then he wants to end Jamie. As if the looming battle of Culloden wasn’t enough…

1968 – Inverness

Claire is wandering the historic Culloden site. There are various markers to pay tribute to the different clans who fought the battle. Claire finds the Fraser marker and sits down for a long chat with Jamie. She promised not to pursue the past and she’s kept to that for 20 years.

She tells Jamie that he has a daughter, Brianna – named after his father – and that she won’t cry because he wouldn’t want it. She confesses that she was angry at him for a long time because he made her live a life she didn’t want. But he was right to make her go and that she sees Jamie in Bree. She proceeds to tell him everything that’s happen in the past 20 years. It’s time for her to let go and, for the first and last time, its time to finally say goodbye…

…no, we’re not crying…..just horrible allergies…need another tissue…

Bree and Roger are going through the papers and she finds the paparazzi photo of Claire just returned through the stones. Yep, the news clipping reveals the incident the reverend was referring to. Bree wants the truth of what happened, no matter what.

When Claire returns, Bree storms up to her and wants to know what Claire’s been up to. Bree accuses Claire of going to see her father, the man she had an affair and spent three years with. Bree’s seen the article and did the math, you see. Claire returned from “the fairies” three months pregnant.

Roger wanders into the room, having found something in the reverend’s notes, and then notices the tension in the air. He tries to leave, but Bree insists he stay for this very awkward conversation. Poor guy!

Claire confesses there was another man, her real father. Frank wanted to raise Bree as his own so they moved to America and she promised not to tell her. Bree wonders if this trip to Scotland was so she could meet her real father. Claire informs her that her father is dead, but he would have raised her if it wasn’t for the Battle of Culloden. The normal excuse for why a dad isn’t around, right?

April 16, 1746 – Near Culloden

Claire and Jamie are catching Murtagh and Fergus up on current events. Muragh raises an eyebrow, says what took you so long and what do we do next? Always pragmatic. Jamie pulls out the title change document that will give Lallybroch to his nephew. It’s post-dated to a year ago before Jamie was considered a traitor. (This way, Lallybroch can’t be seized by the Crown.) Murtagh and Claire sign the document as witnesses.

Jamie orders Fergus to take it to Lallybroch. The boy wants to stay and fight, but Jamie wants Fergus safe and this document is the future of Lallybroch. He convinces Fergus to go…

It’s a quick farewell to Fergus. Hugs and kisses from Claire and a little bow from Murtagh. Then our wide-eyed, curly-haired urchin is off.

1968 – Inverness

Claire has completed telling her tale to Bree and Roger. Bree thinks her mom is cray cray. Claire pulls out the old deed to Lallybroch as proof, but Bree thinks the name is just a coincidence. She’s mad that Claire would have an affair and cheat on Frank. Bree storms off saying she wished Claire had died and not Frank. She definitely has her Aunt Jenny’s temper!

Claire finds the pro-Scotland rally flyer and sees the picture of Gillian and knows its Geillis. This is the year that Geillis will go back and since she saved Claire’s life in Scotland, and got burned at the stake for it, Claire wants to find her. She heads to Gillian’s house and finds her drunk husband who says Gillian is out with her pro-Scotland peeps. Gillian is always doing research and scribbling in her notebooks. He passes out and Claire sees the notebooks, full of notes on traveling through the stones. Yeah, Claire “borrows” those. Clare discovers that Gillian had all sorts of theories on stone travel. She thought a person needed human sacrifice (ewwww!) and gemstones to guide the journey.

Meanwhile, Roger and Bree are at the pub. He’s telling her to keep an open mind and they are getting along nicely when Gillian pops up and says hi. She says they missed a great rally and she’s leaving tonight to further the cause. Uh oh…

April 16, 1746 – Near Culloden

Jamie is saying goodbye to Murtagh. Once the battle starts, Murtagh is to take the Lallybroch men back home. No one will notice in all the confusion and there’s no point in letting them all die. Jamie plans on getting Claire to safety and then returning to Rupert and/or the battle. Murtagh agrees to put the men on the path to safety, but then he’ll return to fight with Jamie.

Touching bromance scene!

1968 – Inverness

Bree tells Claire that she accepts her father is some non-Frank dude, but let’s not call him a guy from the eighteenth century. Bree wants to know more about Jamie. Claire is happy to talk about him and her love for him.

Later, Claire asks Roger and Bree if they know Gillian and they mention that she’s off on a journey. Claire realizes that Geillis is going back tonight and she needs to stop her. But oh wait! Claire realizes that she can’t because Roger’s genealogy revealed that he’s descended from Dougal and Geillis’ baby. (Bree is rolling her eyes.) If they stop Geillis from going, what will happen to Roger?

Roger suggest finding Gillian and at least warning her about not getting burnt at the stake. Bree is angry that Roger is feeding her mom’s crazy. Roger pulls Bree aside and states he really doesn’t believe Claire, but he sees this as a way for her to face this elaborate tale she’s telling and to let it go. Bree agrees.

April 16, 1746 – Near Culloden

The Scottish “army” is gearing up to march while Jamie grabs Claire and his horse. She wants to stay, she wants to run away, but Jamie knows there’s no escape for Red Jamie, the traitor. He’d rather die in battle than get hanged or face MacKenzie justice for Dougal. He needs to get Claire away since she’s pregnant. She denies it so she can stay with Jamie, but he knows better since he’s kept track of her menstrual cycle throughout the rebellion. (Can’t decide if that’s the most romantic thing ever, or one step away from crazed stalker. It’s a toss up.)

He reminds her that she promised, back in Paris, to go back through the stones to Frank if he was gone. Jamie insists that she goes with the bairn to a safe place. It’s time to go to Craigh na Dun and the stone circle…

1968 – Inverness

Claire, Roger and Bree are also headed to Craigh na Dun. Gillian really believes it takes a human sacrifice to open up the stones. Since she has a thing for sacrificing her husbands, she lights her husband on fire. The trio head towards the stones just in time to see Geillis disappear through the stones. Roger and Bree try to figure out what they just witnessed amid the loud buzzing noise from the stones. (Cue climatic – bum, bum, buuuuuuummmmmm – here).

April 16, 1746 – Near Culloden

Jamie and Claire arrive at Craigh na Dun. Jamie tells Claire to pass on a message for Frank – he’s grateful, he trusts him and he hates him. (Sounds reasonable.) Claire hears the buzzing from the stones and wants Jamie to journey as well. He can’t hear the buzzing and he knows that the future is not his place. Jamie’s destiny is Culloden, but he promises to find her again. Even if it means 200 years of purgatory.

He delivers one of the hottest lines ever, and then they have a quickie moment (yeah for kilts!) because no one could resist that line. Seriously.

The moment ends with the first sounds of battle in the distance. Claire gives him the dragonfly in amber and they recite their pagan wedding vows. You know, blood of my blood and bone of my bone. (Swoon.) Jamie gives Claire his father’s ring and she promises to name the baby after Jamie’s father. With one final kiss, she heads through the stones, leaving Jamie to face death on the battlefield.

1968 – Inverness

Bree saw Geillis disappear so now she’s a believer. She wants Claire to promise to tell the truth only. Claire remembers a similar promise she made Jamie on their wedding night.

Roger returns, after running to make an anonymous call to the authorities (no cell phones in 1968, ye ken?), and Bree asks him to tell Claire the news that Reverend Wakefield had discovered. Roger didn’t understand it at the time, but now that they’ve heard Claire’s story, it all makes sense. The reverend learned that a Fraser officer from Lord Lovat’s regiment survived Culloden and escaped capture. There were five Fraser officers in Lord Lovat’s regiment and four of them were memorialized so they know that those four died. The last officer, the survivor? James Fraser.

Jamie survived Culloden?
Jamie wasn’t captured?
Claire reasons that if that’s true, then Jamie may still be alive…. and she has to go back.

Reflection – what did we think?

Erica: All the non-book readers finally get why the internet exploded with exclamations of “Roger!” each time we saw the wee lad in previous episodes. We finally got Bree and Roger!

Alicia: ROGER! I admit, in the books, I’ve always loved Roger a close second to Jamie. No one will top Jamie, but Roger had always been way up there. I loved the casting.

Erica: So far, so good! I loved hearing Roger talk about a “fucking barbecue” which was how Geillis described her imminent burning at the stake. I guess some things run in the family!

Alicia: Right? So funny. I do like how they had all three hear the buzzing but didn’t make too big of a deal from it. I mean we all are having that “aha” moment but I like there wasn’t a huge “OMG, we all hear the buzzing?”

Erica: So we didn’t get to see the Battle of Culloden, but this is true of the books as well – that doesn’t happen in Dragonfly in Amber. Are you disappointed we didn’t see the battle?

Alicia: Mmmm…yes and no. I kind of wanted to see the fighting start and then the episode end, but you’re right in that it’s true to the ending of the book. The goodbye scene. I’m a mixed bag about it. It was lacking a certain connection, then there were moments of intense connection, and then it was lukewarm, then intense…what did you think?

Erica: I agree. Some moments were great, but I’m not sure that it’s clear that Jamie expects to be dead in a few hours. Claire is leaving him, but he’s also going to be DEAD! I didn’t feel that desperation and intensity.

Erica: Technically Dame Diana Rigg becomes the newest member of the Game of Thrones/Outlander club. She joins the likes of Tobias Menzies (Edumure Tully) and Clive Russell (Lord Lovat/the Blackfish). Kind of an odd opening to this episode, but it clearly puts us in a different era. Well, that and Claire’s new grey streaks and glasses.

Alicia: Claire’s aging. At first I was bothered but then again, it’s not uncommon nowadays for women to look a lot younger than their years. So I accepted she was supposed to be mid-forties. It’ll be interesting to see how they keep that next season.

Erica: They need to keep it subtle since she’s going to be wearing that look a lot. I have a feeling they may play with it a bit next season.

—–BOOK READERS DISCUSSION – (Spoiler Alert!!)———————————
Erica: They included the Catullus poem! That was the change that bothered me the most last season, but they found a way to include it. A beautiful way of inserting it into the story.

Alicia: I know. And the lines he’ll deliver to God when he sees him. YESSSS!

Erica: They saved the most romantic lines for this episode! On the flip side, we got to see Geillis again! I was surprised that they brought this forward into this season. It was a nice way to quickly give Claire some credibility with Bree and it was fun to see Lotte again!

Alicia: Well…they do see Geillis go through, they just don’t meet her before hand, but it was great to see Lotte. I do kind of miss that they didn’t have Roger nearly go through himself like the book.

Erica: We were hoping to see Culloden and got this instead. Not complaining since it does work and that means we can still look forward to seeing some of it next season.

Alicia: While I think they did a good job sticking to the book in essence, the one thing I wished they had included was having Claire and Jamie carve their initials into each other’s hands. It would’ve been a nice touch to see her touching the scar or having Bree remark on it.

Erica: After 20 years, a scar would have faded unless Jamie really, really sliced her hand open and that would definitely ruin the romantic moment. They omitted other evidence like the pearls and her grandmother’s portrait, but I think they needed to simplify.

Erica: Overall, this was a terrific season. I think I need some time to process a bit, but they really got so much right and added some little gems as well.

—–END OF BOOK READER DISCUSSION ——————————————————

That’s it for the season! What did you think? Did you swoon? Did it live up to expectations?

Droutlander begins now and will last until sometime next spring (probably) when it moves to Sunday nights! The Outlander season 2 soundtrack is due out in October so look for the DVDs/Blu Rays in the fall as well!

Stay tuned!

Comment below or email us at Erica@MikeTheFanboy.com or thenovelstrumpet@gmail.com
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