I think Claire looks older, but not Jamie. I can’t wait until next week. I thought it was a fairly well done re-enactment of the reunion scene. I was actually nervous with her…shes a good actor. I’m incredibly underwhelmed with the actor who plays Sophie. And more than a bit ticked off at whoever didn’t cast a tall one. Brianna height and hair were such a huge part of her in do many ways. I’m just not loving the Roger/Bree story on the tv show.
@conmama, the show doesn’t air next week. For some reason it’s taking a week break. Torture!
But it is going to be an “extended” episode, whatever that means.
@Nrdsb4 …thanks for the heads up!
I agree with @conmama about Catriona Balfe’s acting. She portrayed the anxiety/nervousness so well. She clutches her stomach, she is breathing hard, her face is flushed, eyes bright-all things that would actually happen in this situation.
I thought the actress playing Brianna did a much better job this week. The Mom/daughter moments were touching and believable.
Didn’t Claire tell Joe Abernathy before she left in the book? I remember him being a keeper of practical things when Claire is away.
I don’t think Brimis such a bad actress, it’s the shortness of the actress that is so upsetting. Truly, they could just dye the hair of an actress that fit the bill.
@greenwitch yes she did. I think they just didn’t have enough time but I would have liked to see that. I did think the actress playing Breanna did a better job this week! I can get around the physical attributes if the acting is good!
I hate the two week break though. At least I’m going to see Secret Garden musical Saturday so I have something going on!
I’d like some advise. A male fan of Outlander here. Two of my favorite genres are historical fiction and sci-fi/fantasy. Outlander satisfies both. I have read all the books and watched all of the episodes. My wife will never read the books, they are far too long and she is a thorough reader (meaning she takes her time reading) so she would never take on a series of books like that. She is also not an avid TV watcher so there is no way she’d want to watch all 30 some plus episodes in an attempt to catch up.
I am trying to figure out what 5 or 6 episodes would give her the gist of the series so when I watch the new episodes she could watch with me without being totally lost. I rewatched the last episode of season 2 followed by the first episode of season 2 and found that those 2 episodes covered a lot of ground chronologically and set up season 3 nicely. She’d definitely have to watch the first episode of season 1. What others would people recommend?
Nice of you, Ivv. I’d say the first of each season, a middle episode, and the final of the season.
@lvvcsf there are a lot of recap sites out there that she can check if she just doesn’t want to be lost.
Like this 2 minute video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l1y8pT5ygA
Found season 2/ep 9 trailers through the current ones - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxo9U_U0PVs&list=PLsqfjvqjitQ09Eu0XTlqf0I1d9qWmtXm0
If you look around I bet there’s something similar for season 1 and the first half of season 2.
So she can get the gist and get caught up in under an hour.
(And then, IMO, want to catch up on ALL of it :))
By the way, I am totally psyched for Sunday. I really really hope they do it justice. The Wedding was fabulous and I expect a similar take on this…haven’t seen who wrote and directed but I hope it’s the same combo as S1 Ep 7…
I watched it last night - just couldn’t wait and I was up late anyway. It was really well done, I thought.
Won’t say more until those of you who watch tonight see it…
Oh goody…i can’t wait! I typically watch Monday because I feel like I’m a little too tired to watch on Sunday.
Kind of sad I didn’t save it, now. Enjoy @conmama !
I thought it was good, but didn’t love it. I stayed up and watched when tired, so maybe that was why.
Spoilers
It seemed that Jamie was more interested and excited about talking about his son, then excited in learning about Bree. Remember in the books how he broke down? Maybe Sam.couldnt act that, but it was one of my favorite parts in the book. The awe, yearning and heartbreak of not knowing his daughter wasn’t captured, at least for me. Catrionas acting seemed to capture it, but she’s a better actor IMO.
Loved seeing Young Ian…he has that homely, good humored nature character nailed.
SPOILERS:
I was disappointed that they (actually the audience) missed out on that “moment” where Jamie breaks down. I was pretty stunned that they had Jamie tell Claire about Willie rather than letting her find out on her own as in the books. I don’t believe for a moment they changed it because they had no confidence Sean could pull it off. I think it has to do with the fact that yet again decisions have to be made to condense the book, and they just are not always going to do it the way I might want every time.
Was happy with the casting of Fergus and Ian.
Overall I thought the episode was well done.
I watched it again, then re-read that part of the book.
SPOILERS
The spirit of the reunion was there in the show, for me. I’m sure there’s a TV reason for expediting the Willy info and it’s about time. Also skipping big Ian’s walk in on them looking for little Ian, probably the same reason.
I could pick on some decisions but the only thing that really was jarring to me was the Claire voiceover during the dinner. They could have communicated the catching up with dialogue, they didn’t need her to say they were catching up during a montage of them eating and not talking! I was never a big fan of the Claire voiceover but in some cases they were necessary. This time, it just took me out of the nice space I was in while watching. I got back in OK.
But that’s a quibble. This was one of the best episodes since season one ended, for me.
I’m going to need to re-read. TBH the later books are sort of a blur for me. I read them so fast and all at once.
OTOTH, DG has been posting excerpts of the new book and I’m very excited to read that, whenever she finishes!
I’ve been following a Scottish YouTube blogger named Shaun who has fallen in love with the show while not having read the books. He actually has started reading them, but has not made it to Voyager yet. His blog for today talked about how he felt Jamie’s reaction to the photos of Brianna seemed very muted in comparison to how he would have imagined a reaction to a)seeing photos of the daughter that you never imagined you would learn anything about in your lifetime and 2)seeing photos to begin with, in an age where there was no such thing.
He also thought Fergus would have had a much more emotional reaction to seeing a “ghost” in the street 20 years later.
I did disagree with his opinion that he would rather have had less reunion sex and more dinnertime convo. He wanted to hear how each of them described their lives in the past 20 years.
Anyway, I’ve enjoyed his video blogs. He says the history of the clans and their downfall is just not covered in Scottish history classes at all, and the show has ignited a passion for learning all he can about the history of his country. He has taken trips to Culloden, toured other locales around Scottland, etc., all because of the show.
I disagree too, but I’d have liked dinnertime convo rather than Claire’s voiceover describing dinnertime convo 
I liked the parallels they did, visually, to The Wedding episode. Different from the books, harking back to the show instead.
I actually fell asleep. Have to watch it again.
In the book, Claire wore an off-the-rack dress, Jessica McClintock, or the like, rather than making something for herself. I remembered it vividly, because I had a dress of that type at the time. Roberta Flack wore the same dress in a video of Killing Me Softly. 