Outlander Recap and Reflection! The Big Wedding! Meet Jamie and Claire Fraser! Enter our Outlander Contest!

The moment we’ve been waiting for has arrived! The wedding of James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser to Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp!

The format for this episode is quite different and there are quite a few changes from the book so we definitely want to hear what you think of this episode below!! Remember there are prizes to be had for chatting with us! Also, international folks may want to comment as we may randomly select folks for something…

Recap – Episode #107 “The Wedding”

It’s 1940s England and a carefree Claire and Frank are heading to lunch with his parents. Frank suddenly stops and proposes to Claire in front of the Registrar’s Office. She’s surprised since she hasn’t even met his family yet. Frank smiles and says they’ll never meet Claire Beauchamp and will, instead, meet Mrs. Frank Randall. Of course, Claire agrees…

…and we suddenly switch time, place and grooms and see Jamie and Claire kiss to seal their marriage.

Schreeeeech!!!!! Wait! WHAT?!?!?! We’ve waited all this time and that’s all we get to see???

O ho! We will see the events leading up to the vows, but they are told in flashback so, like Claire, prepare to jump back and forth in time.

Jump: Claire and Jamie in the local inn’s, um, honeymoon suite. The wedding party is still going strong downstairs and the MacKenzie men hang around to make sure the final bit of wedding business is taken care of (i.e.. the consummation). Claire fortifies herself with liquid courage and asks Jamie why he married her. She felt that Dougal gave her no choice and Jamie wryly states he didn’t feel he had a choice either…

Jump: It’s the day before and Jamie is talking with Dougal and Ned. The two are presenting Jamie with their plan to save Claire – marriage. Ned talks legalese about the situation and Dougal uses his verbal power to convince Jamie. (We know what a poet Dougal is!) Dougal reminds Jamie of the benefits of something along the lines of “grinding his corn” and he also reminds Jamie that Black Jack Randall is after Claire.

Jump: We’re back at the honeymoon suite and Claire realizes Jamie’s done all this to protect her. Jamie vows his family and his life to protect her. Touched by the declaration, Claire puts down the drink, but isn’t quite ready to seal the wedding deal and stalls by asking about his family.

Montage! Jamie talks about his family – his father, his mother Ellen MacKenzie, etc… Claire also talks about her family. The newlyweds chat so they can finally get to know each other a bit.

Angus and Rupert burst into the room and interrupt the closeness of the moment. Dougal has sent them up to see if the marriage is now official. Jamie shoos them away amid all kinds of colorful, helpful tips from them men. Angus, in particularly, has lots of suggestions today.

Jamie and Claire are now alone in the room. Awkward pause…

Neither is quite ready to make the Big Move, but Jamie offers to help Claire get off her impossibly tight, but lovely corset. (For being a virgin, he sure knows his way around women’s clothing.) She reciprocates by taking off his kilt. And, well, things escalate from there…

Officially married now!!

Although she had fun, Claire realizes that she’s officially a bigamist and adulterer. She heads out of the room to get some space and greeted by the rest of the traveling MacKenzie men who are pleased to see her disheveled state, indicating she and Jamie are official. Jamie suggests she get back in the room and he gathers provisions to maintain their strength. Before he can head back to the room, a very broody Dougal demands thanks for arranging the marriage. Jamie formerly thanks him (while dressed in only his shirt).

Claire and Jamie munch on the goodies and continue to talk (with more whiskey, of course). She’s still not completely comfortable with him, but he plays with her hair and calls her “mo duinne” which means “my brown one.”

To deflect the moment from escalating, she comments that he’s wearing a new kilt…

Jump: It’s before the wedding and Murtagh has just returned from scouring the countryside. He found a Fraser widow with a kilt he could borrow so that Jamie could be married in his true clan’s colors. Murtagh is worried that Jamie will be too easily identifiable as a wanted criminal if he’s wearing a Fraser kilt with his red hair. Jamie is determined to be married once and to do it in a way that would make his mother proud.

Jamie asks if Murtagh thinks his mother would like Claire. After some grumbling, Murtagh gets nostalgic and talks about Ellen MacKenzie’s smile and says that Claire’s smile is just as sweet. Awww! This is likely the most romantic thing we’ll ever hear from Murtagh.

Jump: We’re back with Claire and Jamie in the honeymoon suite and she is impressed that Dougal delayed the wedding long enough for a Fraser kilt to be found. Jamie explains that he had several conditions for the wedding…

Jump: It’s the tail end of the Ned/Dougal/Jamie conversation, after Ned has presented his legal arguments and Dougal has presented his. Jamie agrees to wed Claire, but on three conditions: they will have a church wedding with a priest…

Jump: It’s the day of the wedding and Dougal has to do some fancy coercion to get a priest to marry the not-quite-happy couple so quicklyDougal and his men spar with the ailing priest with bible verses and blade. Finally, Dougal offers new windows for the church and suddenly they have a willing priest.

Jump: Also on the day of the wedding, Angus and Rupert head to the blacksmith to fulfill Jamie’s second condition – a proper wedding ring. They use some silver from a key that Jamie carries.

Jump: Ned took care of Jamie’s third condition – a proper dress for Claire. Where does one find a fancy dress on short notice? Why at a house full of fancy ladies! Yes, straight-laced Ned headed off to visit the local ladies “with loose morals” who happen to have a dress that someone ordered, but never wore. Impressed with the coin that Ned’s willing to pay for the dress, the girls get awfully friendly and Ned is nothing, if not accommodating.

Jump: We’re back with post-wedding Claire who is amused by all this effort in one day. Jamie asks what she was up to and she laughs and picks up a bottle of wine. He laughs as well.

Jump: It’s the morning of the wedding and Claire is groggy and hung over. Murtagh is waking her up to get dressed.

Jump: Back in the honeymoon suite, Jamie asks if she remembers anything from the wedding. She confesses she remembers parts of the day, but had a monstrous hangover. Jamie says he remembers every second…

Jump: It’s now just before the wedding ceremony and Jamie, in full highlander regalia, steps into the meadow to meet Claire in her gorgeous wedding gown. Claire is stunning, but apprehensive. Jamie gives her a formal bow.

Claire has one last protest — that she doesn’t even know his real name. He introduces himself as James Alexander Malcom MacKenzie Fraser and she introduces herself as Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp.

Before they head into the church, she takes off her wedding ring from Frank and tucks it in the dress.

Jump: Cut to the wedding vows where Claire is able to remember Jamie’s full name flawlessly (even hung over!) and he puts a ring on it. Then Dougal slices open Jamie’s wrist and Claire’s as well. He grabs their cut wrists, places them together and wraps white linen around them. Jamie and Claire then seal the ceremony with a blood vow and a kiss.

Jump: Jamie finishes telling his recount of the wedding ceremony and Claire is feeling frisky again. She asks him to take off his shirt and she gets a good look at him, scarred back and all. Fair is fair and Jamie wants his turn so Claire takes off her chemise. As you can guess, things progress from there… This time, Claire provides Jamie some lessons this time — things he didn’t get from watching horses.

Later, Claire goes out for more provisions and runs into Dougal who’s just informed Black Jack Randall of Claire’s new status as a Scot. She’s now free from his persecution since she’s the niece of the MacKenzie and, well, let’s not anger Colum. Claire’s relieved and then Dougal makes a move on Claire.

Whoa! She states that she’s Jamie’s wife. Dougal is going to say more, but Rupert walks into the room so Claire gets a chance to skedaddle out of there. Close call!

Jamie wakes up from a nap to see Claire pensive by the fire. He gives her a strand of pearls that belonged to his mother, one of the few items he has from her. It’s precious to him, just like her. Then he shows her how just how precious she is to him.

The next morning, Claire is getting dressed and Frank’s wedding ring shakes loose. After a rather blissful night with Jamie, Claire now has two wedding rings, two husbands and perhaps needs to rethink what she’s going to do next…

Ah!!!! Only one episode left for this part of the season!!!!!!!!

Reflection – what did we think?

Alicia: I’m still trying to decide if I liked this format. It felt really disjointed. I laughed a lot, but the constant back and forth…mmm…still feeling that out.

Erica: Definitely unexpected. The scenes are so vivid and specific in the book, that it’s hard for the show to match it and show you something new. I enjoyed this episode, but I didn’t love it. It’s not the strongest episode of the season, but then the last couple have been really great.

Erica: The jumping around allowed the story to build up to the ceremony and gave it more emotional resonance (which may be why they did it). It was a bit jarring, but I had less of a problem with that than the omission of some favorite lines of dialogue. The real heart of the wedding night is building a connection between Jamie and Claire and I felt like that the episode missed some depth because of those missing bits. I’ll talk more about that in the Book Reader section because those lines may still come back in another time and place and I don’t want to spoil anyone.

Alicia: However, I think they did a great job with handling the Wedding Night and not making it gratuitous. And, Jamie…bless his heart…LOL! Thankfully Claire seems willing to teach him a thing or two.

Erica: Lol! I remember at the LA Fan event that Sam was looking forward to some loving since he’s basically been beat up a lot until this point!

Alicia: I really liked the added scenes. We don’t see those in the book, but it was fun to see what Jamie was going through, what he was thinking, etc. How the wedding ring got made, the ‘advice’ Dougal was giving, Ned’s legal consultation, Jamie’s demands…I really liked those.

Erica: Well, Book Jamie does describe them in passing, but it’s good to actually see them. The creation of the wedding ring is a change from the books.

Alicia: You can feel the shift happening. I mean Claire still has her wedding ring from Frank and she does talk about him from time to time, but we only see him once and there’s no more 1940’s music so the shift has definitely begun…Did she even talk about getting back to the stones in this episode? If she did it was so fleeting I didn’t even catch it.

Erica: No, she didn’t mention Frank this time. She’s now made a commitment, of sorts, to the 1740’s so she is starting to question where to go from here – stay here or continue her journey to get back to the 1940’s.

—–BOOK READERS DISCUSSION – (Spoiler Alert!!)———————————

Alicia: I feel that they played up Claire’s reluctance and discomfort more in the show than the book and I liked that. I like seeing her struggle between “past” and “present” in the twisted way they are represented to her.

Erica: I thought the book really underscored her reluctance to the marriage so I thought it was pretty true to the book. I was surprised that they changed where and how Claire married Frank since it was supposed to be at the same church. The TV version is more realistic since the church in Scotland isn’t exactly close to their friends and family in England.

Alicia: Mmm…it did seem a little out of character for Frank, but the Frank in the show is definitely a little more mischievous than what I recall from the books. I really liked Frank in the books and I really like Frank in the show. It’s nice that they haven’t done anything to change him so people accept Claire’s growing feelings for Jamie. I feel some shows would’ve made him unlikable in some way, but how can you not like Frank? It’d be a hard decision, no doubt about it.

Alicia: I commend Sam for not shying away from playing an inexperienced lad with a hair trigger…LOL…really made Jamie endearing and added some needed laughter. In fact I found myself giggling a lot in this episode and smiling quite often. A great change of pace from the past couple of weeks.

Erica: I did enjoy that, but, as I mentioned, I missed a lot of the book dialogue. In this version, Jamie isn’t quite so earnestly young and full of “unflagging joy.” He’s more mature and more of Claire’s equal so it’s less about her, um, giving him a bit of education along the way. In the books, Jamie’s romantic interest in her is hinted by his ulterior motives for marrying her. In the show, he seems as reluctant as Claire.

Alicia: Yeah, I liked in the books he was all “I have my reasons I’ll tell ye someday” but I think they tried to get around that with the 3 demands being played out and his reaction to her asking about the key, etc. And I did miss the dialogue in some areas…the bit about how they get horses to mate with scent…when I read that I laughed so hard I had to put the book down.

Erica: Lol! I also miss a lot of the key lines about “That bad, was it?” secrets/honesty and “There’s the two of us now.” Those are such important lines that define their relationship, so I wonder if we’ll see them later; but I was disappointed they weren’t in there. The writers have done a great job of keeping to the spirit of the book and changes are made for specific reasons so I hope we’ll see the reasons for the changes at some point (eg: use “there’s the two of us now’ when they go to Lallybroch).

Erica: Since we’re talking about changes, I find it odd that Jamie gave Claire the pearls after the wedding. I’m not sure why they changed that. They also changed the bit about Jamie’s father’s ring, but I was less bothered by that.  I was most surprised about the new origin of Claire’s wedding ring. Because Claire’s ring is already made now, it can’t be inscribed on the inside with the quote since Hugh Monro he hasn’t given her the dragonfly in amber yet. I’m guessing they wanted to have the ring now so that Claire now has symbols of her struggle on her hands, but I wonder if/how the ring will get inscribed now.

Alicia: That scene with Dougal in the inn when he makes a pass at Claire…hmmm…I don’t remember that from the books, possible set up for the witch trials with her and Geillis? Interesting take…

Erica: They are underscoring Dougal’s preoccupation with Claire. It’s interesting that his obsession with Claire is so strong —  it’s less about him being laird and threatened by Jamie. I think we’ll get an interesting payoff when we get to the witch trials, which will be next year since there’s only one episode left. Sigh! It’s going to be a long winter!

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

You’ve read what we think, but how did you like this episode?
Did you like the format of flashbacks?
Book readers, did you feel the same way we did? Did you miss anything? Love the new stuff?

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