Do you think it’s ok to not have to put “Spoiler alerts” for a current season? Maybe put that in the title?
This was my favorite episode of the season for sure!
I was disappointed in the episode. I love Brianna throwing her mother’s pearls down in front of everyone. Plus, having Jennie see Jamie’s daughter.
I’m not crazy about too many storyline changes.
^ this is the benefit of having forgotten a lot of the story, I think.
I never used to miss seeing…
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…Frank, but it was lovely to see him again. Also all the Mackenzies, even HER, who was so nice at first.
I admit I get tired of the homesteading-in-America stuff and enjoy the time travel and supernatural aspects of the story a lot more as the books (and show) progress.
I don’t recall how Roger knew he might time travel? He’s a Mackenzie and the only other one he knows about in real life is Jamie and he can’t travel. How did Roger decide he could? From meeting Geillis and learning about the gemstone angle?
I think he thought it was that you tried and either could, or couldn’t. And of course he knew about the gemstones.
I haven’t read the books so I’m hoping Jemmy’s mother isn’t horrible and is Roger’s ancestor (or that Jemmy is).
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It is my understanding the actress who played Jenny was not available while they were filming this year. If so that would have eliminated following the story as it is related in the books. Things I liked, the empathy between Frank and Leoghaire situation, the portrait of Leoghaire as a caring person even though I think they spent too much time on that (she was a good mother though obsessive compulsive and pathological about Claire) and the story of Roger on Bonnets ship.
Things I didn’t. The beginning. Really walking from Craigh na Dun to the coast in winter with a small bag and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? I really did miss Bree meeting her father’s side of the family and feeling a sense of family. Izzie was a prepubescent girl not someone old enough to be Bree’s older sister. They did a good job of casting her father though.
Over all I was underwhelmed by an episode I really looked forward to. I suppose it moved the story forward and won’t significantly affect supposed future events. What it doesn’t do is create a vision for Bree of a father who is loved and respected by many not just her mother. She never gets to know him through his letter to Jenny and you don’t get a sense of the anticipation she had in the books of meeting her father. It mostly seems like a by product of warning her mother. I thought Ian’s acceptance of her as Jamie’s daughter was poorly done. Again in the books it was obvious by just looking at her. She never learns where she gets her drawing talents from. I could go on and on about the things the episode ignored. We move on. Season 4 was to have so many highlights and for me at least most have fallen flat so far.
Roger had experienced the “noise” when they saw Gaelis go through the stones. He also had a conversation with Fiona who was now the caller (she had taken over from her grandmother.) I believe she had Gaelis book which discussed a lot about going through the stones. Claire had told him Gaelis was his ancestor.
Thanks @lvvcsf .
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She had? I thought that was a lot later, especially with the baby and Mackenzie mom on the ship.
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I hated this last episode with the exception of the Frank flashbacks (I love Tobias Menzies and think he humanized Frank in a way that wasn’t possible in the books).
Bree reuniting with the family at Lallybroch was one of the best chapters of the book. IMO, it could have been done with just Ian and his children instead of the totally fabricated interaction with Leoghaire.
I also though Lizzie was badly cast but I bet there is no intention to follow her storyline as written in the book.
Someone wrote on Diana Gabaldone’s post on FB that this is now feeling like badly written fan fiction instead of an adaptation of the books. I tend to agree.
(And my husband, who never read the book, fell asleep in the first 10 minutes. He said he’s done watching).
“SpoilersSomeone wrote on Diana Gabaldone’s post on FB that this is now feeling like badly written fan fiction instead of an adaptation of the books. I tend to agree.”
Great description of the episode and most of season 4.
@momofsenior1, I also went and read DG’s Facebook page this morning and the comment about the fan fiction. I totally agree! Although we would have missed Jenny. I would rather them have worked around her being gone and still included the pearl incident, seeing Ellen’s portrait, then sense of how much Jamie is loved.
It was nice seeing Laoghrie as a normal Mom and her best self, but they could have worked that in just a little and not let it be a whole new storyline. I’d love to know DG’s thoughts, but we never will. I can only assume she is thinking “ok, just wait until you read all the comments”.
I really hope they don’t screw up the reunion. I think not casting Bree as she is physically portrayed in the books was a big, big miscalculation. So much of the story centers around her physique and her resemblance to Jamie.
Interesting how we all feel so differently. This is the first episode in awhile that made me want to rewatch immediately, and I was smiling through so much of it. The Laoghaire section had me on the edge of my seat wondering when and how it would blow up.
This thread is the only place I discuss the show, now. I can’t do the forums and Diana’s FB anymore, it kind of ruins it for me to hear so much complaining and anger about how it’s being done. I’ve always felt the show was a different thing from the books, possibly because I started with the show then read the books, so the changes don’t bother me much.
What bothers me much more lately is that the J/C intimate scenes feel really forced to me this and last season (past the first episode). They used to be a highlight especially in season one. I didn’t feel that way about the books so I’m going to blame the writing, directing and/or acting for that.
“I think not casting Bree as she is physically portrayed in the books was a big, big miscalculation. So much of the story centers around her physique and her resemblance to Jamie.”
I think that is where this series “Jumped the shark”. That single casting changed the feel of the entire series and how and where the plot was going to go. I’ve been curious how they were going to deal with the meeting between Jamie and his daughter. I am not confident because this year has felt more like a soap opera than an adaptation of a book. So far I’ve really enjoyed just one episode and that was episode 6.
@ohmomof2, I do understand why you liked it. The scene was Laoghaire was interesting and it was nice seeing her good side. I don’t go on the Outlander FB page much and I never post somewhere that my name and photo is public.
I’m not even that excited for the reunion. I think it’s because I’m not fond of this Brianna and how she is portrayed. But I have to watch anyway.
@conmama I understand.
I’m looking forward to the reunion but dreading the other thing that will happen to her first!
@ohmomof2, oh yeah! That. I have to admit, I’m interested in how they are going to change storylines, now. I wonder if they get a lot of backlash with this season, if they’ll start being mor3 true to the story throughout.
“I wonder if they get a lot of backlash with this season, if they’ll start being more true to the story throughout.”
I suspect most of the filming is done for this season so any changes to the story are set. It may have an impact on future seasons.
I liked episode 408. Yes there were changes from the book but imo they weren’t changes that will substantively change the future story (beyond what they have already done). I hope the same can be said for episode 409.
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I was “meh” on this episode because the chemistry between Roger and Bree isn’t there for me, I guess. Wasn’t feeling the reunion at all. I didn’t get why Bree changed her mind about marrying him, maybe she realized the only good partner for her is a time traveler willing to travel to find her? I mean, what else changed in that time? Plus Roger acted like such a jerk after, but he might have in the book at that point too - so possessive and bossy and weird when he gets caught having hidden the obit from her.He’s not from 200 years ago, he has no excuse to act like he is. Is it supposed to be because he’s Scottish, not American? I vaguely recall their relationship, especially early, annoying me in the books too.
However, the scene after, which I’d been dreading, was done well, I thought, with the focus on the bystanders knowing and doing nothing. I’d forgotten that Lizzie thinks Roger is the one who hurt her, but that was obviously being set up in the episode for later. I think I currently feel Roger will deserve that misunderstanding, TBH.
Not on Team Roger right now 
The play, fine, Washington etc., fine, surgery fine. The switch to Murtagh is working well I think.
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I think they’re both acting rather immature which if one thinks about it they are.
The one thing the show is handling clumsily is Roger’s response to Bree when she wonders how he knew about the fire. All he had to say is he had finally decided to tell her and that’s how he found out she was “visiting” her mother. She never told him what she found out either. The deception kind of went both ways. Argument over.
I suspect the change in storyline with Murtaugh will change the reason Jamie and Bree are united. I’ll be curious what they do with Roger as they haven’t given any indication he is currently after any jewels.
Speaking of Murtaugh. His last name is Fitzgibbons which I suspect means he’s related to Mrs. Fitzgibbons. She is related to Leoghaire. So that means Murtaugh would be too correct?
spoliers blah blah
Murtagh is a Fraser and Jamie’s godfather. He was into Jamie’s mom but she married a different Fraser - Jamie’s dad - instead. (Brian).
Laoghaire is a Mackenzie.
Not sure about Mrs. Fitzgibbons?
Edited to add - apparently she is his aunt: https://outlander.fandom.com/wiki/Glenna_FitzGibbons and Laoghaire’s grandmom, so more than one Fraser has married more than one Mackenzie 
That would have been MUCH better