Today's Tuesday TV Touchbase is a solemn one.
We mark the end of Outlander.
Spoiler Alert: I will discuss the ending of the last episode.
If you've seen the episode or do not care about the series but you are amused by watching me suffer through an emotional breakdown, well...
As it says on the title of this blog, I am so glad my suffering amuses you.
So read on if you dare. And be amused by my suffering.
So I watched the series finale of Outlander and...
And...
And...
<gulp!>
I'm gonna need a minute. Sorry!
Let's try that again.
So I watched the series finale of Outlander and...
And...
<sob>
I'm NOT crying! You're crying!
No, you shut up!!
Damn it!
One more time!
So I watched the series finale of Outlander and...
And...
C'mon, Dave-El! Hold it together!
You are an American 100% all MAN!
Who also happened to watch Outlander.
And it's over and I...
And I...
....
And I am going to write this blog post, damn it!
I watched the series finale of Outlander and...
Well, Jamie Fraser died!
But then...
Well, it's complicated.
I actually came late to the Outlander party.
I started watching in the middle of season 2. Jamie and Claire are in France. Claire's pregnancy ends in tragedy with her baby daughter Faith stillborn (we find out at the start of season 10 that no, Faith did not die) and Claire herself bleeding internally and beyond the reach of 18th century medicine.
But the mysterious Master Raymond heals her with a strange and ethereal blue light. We never learn who Master Raymond is although I suspect he's a fellow time traveller.
We see in season 10 that Claire herself seems to possess this healing blue light as she saves a stillborn child on Fraser's Ridge.
All of this is relevant.
Brianna along with Roger and the kids have travelled back from the 20th century to rejoin her parents in the 18th century. Brianna has brought a history book written by her 20th century "father", Frank Randall.
A book that tells of the Revolutionary War battle on King's Mountain in North Carolina.
Where Jamie Fraser will die.
The last episode of the series brings us to that fateful day.
General Ferguson has brought his British troops to the mountain. Jamie leads his militia from Fraser's Ridge to join other Patriots who will fight there.
Claire has accompanied Jamie and his militia to provide medical assistance. And re-write history if she can.
The battle is brutal, fierce and bloody. Bullets whizzing about, swords and bayonets flashing through the smoke and the cries of the wounded.
But just as Claire fears time is running out and Jamie will not escape, there is a lull in the din of battle.
A lull broken by calls of "I give up" and "I surrrender". The British are surrendering. The battle is over.
And Jamie Fraser has survived.
Yay!
Screw you, Frank Randall! You and your book were wrong!
I point and laugh at historians!
Except...
With his forces in disarray and capitulating to the victorious Patriots, a bloodied and beaten General Ferguson pulls out a gun and shoots Jamie in the chest.
This was not in battle. The battle was over. This was a cowardly act of murder.
All of Jamie's men step up to take turns shooting Ferguson. Ian McMurray puts a goddam hatchet in him.
Meanwhile, Claire runs up screaming and sobbing, taking Jamie up in her arms begging him not to die.
Jamie whispers "Forgive me, Sassenach" and dies.
Damn it!
One by one, the soldiers all leave and it's just Claire cradling Jamie's body in her arms as she whimpers "He just needs to rest."
Day turns into night and Claire will not let go of Jamie.
Roger McKenzie returns the next day to find Claire still holding on to Jamie. Sorrowfully, he says that Jamie is gone and he needs to be taken home to the ridge to be buried.
Claire still refuses to let go.
As the camera pulls up from Claire holding Jamie (Wait! Was that...? Did I see...?) we get a flashback...
Flash forward?!
Wibby wobby timey wimey.
We go to episode 1 of season 1 and it's the ghost of Jamie Fraser watching Claire from a distance in 1945.
Who the what how when now?
And then we get a montage of every emotional moment between Jamie and Claire over the course of 10 seasons.
And then....
We're back on the top of King's Mountain.
Claire's hair is completely white. She opens her eyes.
Jamie opens his eyes and breathes and...
Fade to black.
Show's over?!?!
God damn it! REALLY?!?! Is that where we're going to end this?!?!? REALLY?!?!?!
Damn it!
Damn it!
Damn it!
I HATE THIS SHOW!! Whose stupid idea was it for me to watch this show?!?!
Oh yeah, it was mine.
But it's not quite the end.
After the closng credits, we open on a book store in the 21st century. Signing copies of her Outlander books is Diana Galbadon. On the table next to her is an old journal.
A fan asks Diana about it and she replies, "It's wee bit of inspiration."
It's Claire Fraser's journal!
Oh, my mind is blown!
Like I said, I came late to the Outlander party, starting mid-way through season 2. (I did go back to catch up on season 1 later.) The Doctor Who nerd in me came for the time travel but I stayed for the drama. And oh my God, was there so much drama.
I really got caught up in this world of passion, peril, political intrigue, love, sex, death, war and some people just being fucking bastards.
And at the core of it, the undying love of Claire and Fraser.
And as that final second before the end reveals, literally undying.
I'm going to miss this world a lot.
I know there's still Outlander: Blood Of My Blood which is it's own kind of good I suppose but....
It's not the same.
It won't be Jamie and Claire.
SIDE NOTE: In the blog banner that my son Dean drew, the guy with the flowing hair behind me? That's Jamie Fraser.
Well, it's supposed to be. 😉 (Sorry, Dean!)
That is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm still emotionally verklempt.
Raya Yarbrough, take us out with Bear McCreary's Skye Boat Song.
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