‘Outlander’ Season 4, Episode 12: The Last Word

I am mystified by the absence of a recap for the finale. Did Ms. Valentine quit or was she fired one episode short? Anybody else among the commenters know? Did people like seeing Murtagh and Jocasta get together?

I agree that "Adagio with Strings" was the wrong music selection. It immediately conjured "Platoon" for me. The image of Willem Defoe and the music are too well-known to be used to evoke tragedy in other films and TV series. It will be interesting to see what the writers do for the final episode. It certainly won't be the same as the novel.

The scene with Roger and the burning couple with Adagio for Strings (the idea lifted from Oliver Stone's "Platoon") was appallingly trite. It made me lose faith in the entire Outlander enterprise as worth watching. Ugh!

Does anyone know whether the screenwriters for Season 4 are the same as for Seasons 1-3? Season 4 seems to me to differ markedly in coherence from the previous seasons. I think that it must be very difficult to condense Drums, as it will be for all subsequent books. Despite the storytelling problems evident this season, I'm enjoying the series as I did the books. I'm eager to see what happens with Murtagh. He is as compelling in his own way as Claire and Jamie.

I read your weekly reviews of Outlander with an open mind each week, and with each passing week, it seems more apparent you've just made up your mind to dislike the show this season. Because of that, I don't see that your critique really serves to truly analyze these characters or the story lines in a way that provides readers with anything to process the episodes more deeply.

I've always found Roger, both in the books and on television, to be particularly insufferable. It would have been far better, in my opinion, if he had not survived his ordeal and Brianna married Lord John, particularly in light of what is to come in his story arc and Brianna's eventual discovery that his adopted son is actually her brother. As for Brianna, she is a most formidable and compelling character on the page but much less so on the screen, due in large part to the horrible miscasting of Sophie Skelton in the role. While Roger and Brianna will remain prominent in the story going forward Jamie and Claire will thankfully be resuming their primary roles next season, if the writers stick to the book.

"And all the while, “Adagio for Strings” plays — a musical shortcut to suggest tragedy, scoring a scene that doesn’t have the groundwork to be tragic on its own. " Oh please. I was crying my eyes out. Her goodbye to her baby and her suicide gave Shakespeare a run for his money.

I haven't read the books. Tried to when I discovered the show its first season. The writing--I know this is blasphemous to Diana Gabaldon admirers--not that compelling. But the character of Claire is a gem and Caitriona Balfe brings so much talent to it. Sometimes I too think it's a mistake for the producers to make the writers stick to the books, but what's impressed me is how even with that mandate they've managed to bring contemporary insights about gender and sexuality and racism and colonialism (WWII British nurse flush off defeating the Nazis must come up against/acknowledge the cruel history of British colonialism) to the show in ways that connect to contemporary conversations. It would be nice to have someone write these reviews in ways that feel less scolding to fans. It was Roxane Gay's writing about the show that first led me to watch it. If I knew nothing of it save from this critic, I'd never tune in.

I never understood Brianna's motivation or desire to visit Bonnett and "forgive" him in the book and I still don't understand it here in the TV series. Why - because she got a letter from Jamie? She never struck me as the religious or forgiving type.

Comments about this season, across different platforms tend toward a general consensus that without question - the Jamie & Claire story is the heart of Outlander. And so is Scotland. Sam Heughan and Caitrona Balfe were compelling from their very first scene together. Any one else in this story (excepting perhaps Lord John or Murtagh) pales by comparison (which does not suggest that there are not many characters that were engaging throughout (like the entire group of Highlander characters in Season 1) But whether it is casting or the characters as written (or directed) the Roger/Brianna story is weak and often boring. Episode 12 was all over the map, and the amount of time given to Roger & the Mohawk was excessive. Hoping for a stronger finale and a very different Jamie/Claire centric next season.

I haven't been a real fan of this season, I think in part because the story no longer takes place in Scotland, but America. The beauty of the first two seasons, (in spite of the conflicts) was breathtaking. Another reason is because Jamie & Claire's relationship is no longer the heart of the story. Instead we seem to have a couple who have zero chemistry - Brianna and Roger. Their "love" for each other simply is not believable. If they are to replace Jamie & Claire as the show's romantic couple, it's going to be a tough sell. Bonnet most assuredly survived that explosion, otherwise no need to show us that he managed to retrieve the keys to free himself. I love Lord John's character, but I'm not going to be happy if he actually does marry Brianna. That's a bit over the top considering his relationship with Jamie, her father. The look on Claire's face when she discovers the current state of things between Lord John and Brianna will be priceless. I'm hoping for a more interesting season next year. This episode was one of the better of this season, but I've had enough Roger to last a lifetime. Bad casting with that one. Outlander - get your act together. I want to keep watching!

This was one of the best episodes this season, but you would never know it by the negative review Ms. Valentine gave it. I decided to Google her and see what her background might be to give credence to her opinions. She is a published writer, but I think the heart of her reviews are based on her jealously of the Outlander series author's amazing success. If she was writing a religious review of the Bible, the Bible would get a bad review as well. Since this review covers a TV adaptation, it comes off even more snarky, since translating the written word to the screen is a monumental challenge. The challenge has been met for the most part by the TV producers.

Yes, the show is uneven. Yes, some of the high adventure seems inorganic to the characters. Yes, the roles for POC lean toward the stereotypical. But I am still enjoying the show, enjoying each episode, & enjoying the performances. The show has made me warm up to the characters of Roger & Brianna, two figures I did not like in the books. Their relationship is way more fraught than Claire's & Jamie's, & it stands on far less firmer footing. They are both pining for each other, but haven't figured out how to communicate honestly. And to be fair, they have been separated so much of the time, that they haven't had a chance to learn how to talk to each other with full trust. Jamie won Claire's heart because they were thrown together & were forced to spend a lot of time in each other's company, which cemented a friendship before they married. Brianna has been busy getting an engineering degree. She is self-aware enough to realize that she is young & has a life she wants to live that doesn't necessarily involve getting married & settling down. Roger is older, more conservative, more focused on love & marriage. There's built-in tension in this relationship, & circumstances have prevented them from having the time together to work through it. I loved the Mohawk guy at the end who tenderly held the child of the woman he loved, even though she didn't love him back. These small gestures underscore one of the series' larger issues: what people are willing (or not) to sacrifice for love.

Lord John was always my favorite character in the books. He was a very likeable character. In fact, Diana Gabadon wrote a series of several separate books starring Lord John.

"And all the while, “Adagio for Strings” plays — a musical shortcut to suggest tragedy, scoring a scene that doesn’t have the groundwork to be tragic on its own." I respectfully disagree. This was one of the saddest scenes in TV; film or theatre history. And why did you omit the music was heard in that other tragic scene, Sgt. Elias's in the film "Platoon"?

My ancestor and her children were attacked on their farm in Deerfield, Mass. by a band of Mohawk in 1696. My many times great grandmother and three of her children, one a baby, one a preschooler, were hacked to death. They buried a hatchet in the skull of her 9 year old son, who miraculously survived. Her 11 year old daughter was also wounded. Her husband, 21 year old son and 13 year old daughter were all taken captive as slaves of the Mohawk, like Roger. They were eventually ransomed back to their relatives. All of this took place during the French and Indian Wars and I’m sure there were atrocities on both sides. But can we avoid pretending that the historic Mohawks were incapable of violence and cruelty to their captives?

As a really big fan of books and TV show, I find that Outlander is the strongest when it is focusing on real, everyday day life relationships and situations and strengths of its characters. Likewise, it is the weakest when it embarks on high powered adventure path leaving characters to catch up. (Events are good as catalysts but not as sole purpose of story). This is why Jammie/Claire relationship is so central to the plot and to the success of the show and books. The attempt to create just the same allure to characters of Roger and Brianna, simply does not work for me. And as the source material gets progressively weaker with every new book, the show will need to start making some hard choices. Follow the books and corner itself into likewise mediocre show or make a leap (as it has done before) and build on the strengths of material and concept. That would mean more space for Claire and Jammie, slower pace and more space for dramatic tension drive by internal conflicts rather than pyrotechnics. How I wished they have created space for Claire and Jamie to explore the rift that their decisions have created in the last episode before reconciliation, for example. This type of space is what has made this show great – not jumping from one high powered action point to another.

I have not been a great fan of this season but I found this one of the most gripping and moving episodes. This was finally a chance for Roger to show why he deserved to be there and the subplot with the Mohawks was also convincing. I fully expect Bonnet to survive and exact some horrible revenge.

Beyond a doubt my least favorite episode of the season if not the entire show. Way too much Roger. Wish he would have gone back to his own time and never been heard from again. And the explosion of the jail? Dribbling some gun powder outside the walls and then it explodes like it was packed full of C4?

I normally wouldn't expect the reviewer for Entertainment Weekly to be more astute than the New York Times reviewer, but that has been the case for this entire season, if not before. Don't bother to read this review, unless you read others. This won't is constrained by the need to be overly politically correct.

I loved this episode. And it finally struck me that Lord John is the real hero of Outlander, deep in his sadness of unfulfilled love To the reviewer - please tone down your negativity about the show. It’s clear you don’t enjoy watching or writing about Oulander

Richard Rankin and Yan Tual were great, but it was the performances of Braeden Clarke and Sera-Lys McArthur that broke my heart. I would have liked to have their characters featured more. I would like, no, love, to watch a show with them in the main cast. And even though I love the books and the season has been pretty true to the books, that's kind of how the whole season has gone for me.

You know, I’ve read all the books, and watched all the episodes. And I can’t help but feeling the reviewer is just focused on being negative. Translating the books into a television series cannot be an easy task; writing one from scratch has to be far less onerous. That being said, I thought this episode was one of the best, if not the best, of an admittedly uneven season. And no comment on the last line ...”back to the idiot hut?”