Well, we’re winding down. Just two episodes left. I have some quibbles coming from a book reader perspective.
Some of this was a bit clunky. For instance, why would Jamie write Lord John all the way in Virginia to keep an eye on Bree and give him a letter to give her? Why not just give it to Murtagh? And who is keeping an eye on the livestock while Murtagh is hunting down Bonnet?
I thought Fergus had a job, that’s part of the reason they stayed in Wilmington. Now he doesn’t? Losing a limb was not unheard of back then, so I don’t think it would be difficult finding a job he could work at. I do love feisty Marsali.
It was great to see Bree being all I am Women Hear Me Roar with Jocasta, until Jocasta pointed out it’s not just her reputation that will suffer, but also her child. Bree still has some adjusting to do to this time period.
In the book, Bree sees Lord John leaving a slave cabin in the middle of the night, not nailing a judge in the pantry. It’s implied Lord John has a “consensual” relationship with the slave, but I can understand the show not wanting to open up that particular can of worms. Still, sodomy was a hanging offense so I wish the writers had shown Lord John to be a bit more discreet.
At the end of the last episode Roger is shown about to touch the standing stones, with the implication being that he’s going back. The open of this episode shows him back with the Mohawk. Something got lost there in the editing.
Could I interject and ask a question as I on;y watched most of the first season and unless I missed one or two, I never understood the basic relationships premise. Before she first went into the past, did she hate her husband? Was he a jerk? I can’t fathom the idea that because her husband’s ancestor was a scumbag that she just falls for Jamie and decides to ditch her husband. Certainly not as fast as she did. I think I’d have to spend many years trapped in the past before I gave up on the idea that I might get back and maybe then I’d consider building a new “love” life. Please clue me in. Or is what I think I saw basically it.
No, she didn’t hate Frank. They were separated due to the war and were trying to reestablish their marriage in Scotland. The show, by necessity of time, has to collapse events…for instance, in the book, Jamie and Claire spend several months at River Run with Aunt Jocasta before going out on their own. They basically have 13 hours to tell the story on Starz when the author can spend pages and pages and pages on the written story.
I think if Claire hadn’t gone back through the stone she would have been content with Frank, but Jamie was her heart, her passion.
No Claire and Jamie in this one, but since all they’re doing is walking to New York there’s not a lot of action there. Bonnet’s escape played out differently in the books, in that in the books there’s no Murtagh to rescue and Bonnet’s henchmen help him escape.
I can understand Roger’s frustration with literally everything. He traveled through time to find Bree, reunites and marries her, storms off after a big fight, then gets kidnapped to stay on the Gloriana, makes his way BACK to Fraser’s Ridge only to get beaten up by an angry father in a case of mistaken identity. He’s so done with the 18th century. Then he runs into a priest who can’t see past his faith to do the humane thing that would also save his life (I’m reminded of the Ray Bradbury short story about what Jesus would look like on other planets.) It’s the belief that matters.
Germaine should be a toddler by now, but huzzah! Fergus and Marsali are headed to the Ridge!!
Well, it doesn’t EXACTLY end the way Drums of Autumn does, but that’s okay. Having Murtagh alive is certainly throwing a wrinkle in things.
I’m glad they did the callback to Otter Tooth. That will be important later, as will the opening scene of this episode.
Very gracious of Jamie to allow Roger to punch him a few times, all things considered. I would have liked to see Claire use the maggots on Roger, but book vs film means not all things can make it.
I simply love John Bell as Ian. What a talented young man.
Mrs. SMV at first kept saying that Bell “just wasn’t Young Ian”. But he’s certainly grown into the character, I feel; first as a callow, feckless lad, then maturing into a strong and decent man. Bell’s done a good job showing that process.
Good episode, overall. But one plot hole that was probably addressed in the book, which I can no longer remember: where did Roger go for the two months Brianna, Jamie and Claire spent at River Run? He’s wearing the same ragged clothes, but he’s clean and has a horse. What has he been doing?
That was a great scene, especially the culmination in his line, “Take me to see my son”. I wish they would have spent a little longer after that, before having it interrupted by the soldiers coming with Tryon’s letter to Jamie. That felt too rushed - the Roger-and-Bree scene needed another beat. (The history pedant in me grumbled that Tryon probably wouldn’t have sent a whole troop of soldiers to deliver a letter, and in the absence of urgency, the cavalrymen would be trotting or walking, to spare the horses. But I understand the dramatic purpose the galloping redcoats served.)
Wait, Claire and Jamie were at River Run for two months before the soldiers showed up? I wasn’t paying close attention. It looked to me that the soldiers showed up right after they arrived, and I was wondering how they knew so quickly where Jamie was.
BTW, I guess I was wrong about the standing stones Roger seemed to see after escaping the Mohawk. Based on the presentation, it looked like he imagined seeing the stones, but I guess he really did. Doesn’t explain how he was standing, apparently in the same spot in the same position, but with no stones visible when the Mohawk came upon him.
Jamie is told by Murtagh that Bonnet died in the jail explosion. Don’t have the books at hand, is he dead-dead or do we see him again? You can spoiler the answer if you think it’s necessary.
[SPOILER]In the book, he’s executed on a stake that will be covered at high tide. Brianna rows out to talk to him, and ends up shooting him as a mercy. IIRC.
However, the actor who portrayed him has such a sly, evil charm, that I suspect they might keep him alive as an antagonist. He mentioned in one episode how terrified he was of dying by drowning in grey, dirty water - precisely the death to which he was condemned - so I’m guessing he’ll be around to suffer that fate (or perhaps die at Bree’s hand, as in the novel).
The show has already diverged from the novel in keeping one character, Murtagh, alive, so there’s precedent for changing the original story. I think we’ll see Stephen Bonnet again.[/SPOILER]
I don’t think they’ve started filming yet. I had heard next year. But Book 9 is supposed to be out this year, so we have that. I just hope the non book readers understand it’s a story about a marriage, not just a love story. As the family grows so do the number of characters, but Jamie and Claire are still the center.
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“I am hoping to finish writing BEES by the end of 2018, but no publication date is set yet by myself or my publisher. A publication date will be posted on this website when known.” from her official website. Based on that, I don’t think we will see it this year.
