Sadly Tantoo does not live long...
I enjoyed the episode of the simple pleasure of watching the wonderful Tantoo Cardinal on the screen. Elegant, dignified and wise.
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A lot of the questions posed in the comments are answered in the post show interviews with the series creators. They spoke about trying their best to make the Cherokee episode as respectful and authentic as possible. Perhaps they could’ve done better but the reviewer here seems not to have been paying attention...the Cherokee couldn’t kill the outcast because he was already dead for them they were not “unwilling or unable”.
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@Jo Convenient that there's a 'white savior' handy to take care of what the indigenous people are 'unwilling or unable' to do, eh? (And good shows don't require 'post-show interviews' to rationalize what the episode has failed to accomplish.)
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That Cherokee brave spoke English like he had gone to Oxford. Give me a break!
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@Sam Kanter agree. that made me LOL, because how silly it looked like. I thought it was funny that they hadnt thought about that when writing the script. Jamie trying to speak their native tonge when the NA seems to have a PhD is English.
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@Ixone Villafruela The ignorance of "How!' and "My name Tonto. You Masked Man," are long over. The Cherokee lived among the white settlers at that point for over a hundred years, and were just as capable of learning languages. In fact, if it wasn't for the natives, many of the white settlers would have died from starvation. Yeah, maybe they spoke it a bit too polished. But Caitriona Balfe is Irish, and she does a pretty fair English accent too. It's fiction. Sit back and enjoy the show.
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I think that the discovery of the obituary by Roger will turn out to be much like Claire feeling that she knew for certain in Paris that Mary had to marry Black Jack Randall in order for Frank to eventually be born because Claire had seen a record of it. But as Claire discovered, the record wasn't accurate and reality turned out to be far different than she imagined.
I think that the obituary is incorrect about naming Jamie and Claire. Instead, perhaps another couple died in a fire and they were mistaken for Jamie and Claire. Perhaps an item of Jamie's or Claire's is found among the debris and it's assumed it was they who perished. Or perhaps there's another reason for the error in the obituary, which we will discover. It's not as though the obit would be corrected even if the truth is discovered, not in that time and place.
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@LaurenBClarification: the record Claire sees of Randall marrying Mary is accurate, but Claire's assumptions about what it meant (they had a baby together) were incorrect.
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Re "...Documentation that your mother definitely found her first husband after she traveled 200 years back through time...".
Not to quibble but Claire's 1st husband was Randell -- not Fraser.
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@Haudi BUT.....she married Jamie in the 1740's, and married Frank in the 1940's.....hmmmm. So Frank was her first husband, but Jamie was married to her before Frank was.
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Finally, a scene in which both Roger and Brianna are sympathetic: the phone call. Last week my husband and I both despised Roger for being a total jerk, with his arrogant attitude toward Brianna's desire to finish her studies and have a life, rather than give in to marriage and get stuck being Roger's fantasy baby-making machine.
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Best episode of the season imho
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This much I know is true: I would like one, just ONE, historical show helmed by white people to give it over to people of color, indigenous peoples, FOR EVEN JUST PART OF AN EPISODE. I’m begging for anybody but the same white people. Just imagine this same episode from Tantoo Cardinal’s character’s perspective (the elderly Native American woman). Outlander has been, in some respects, groundbreaking TV. The “Faith” episode alone - when have you seen TV approach miscarriage and its attendant loss so deftly? And let’s not forget “The Wedding” episode - defying the traditional male gaze, hey, we are all about that business. I think this is what disappoints me most about this show. I get my hopes up that it will show us something different, as it has done before, and then it relies on the same kind of white savior narratives. I applaud its efforts to transcend truly problematic source material (so very, very rape-oriented - Author, there are other plot devices that move a story forward), but I do wish the show would take greater risks. When you have somebody like Tantoo Cardinal at your disposal, it’s criminal not to build an entire narrative around her.
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@Jill If you hang on long enough, and if the series stays true enough to the book, you'll get your wish.
Jamie is her second husband, technically.
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@JJ Frank is her first husband, but she was married to Jamie before she married Frank. LOL figure that one out
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I don’t want to be that person who is always saying: “But in the book...”, *ahem*......but in the book, Jamie (with Claire) fights an ACTUAL bear. And it’s freakin’ awesome.
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@Patricia Sears But harder to film.
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I wonder where Jocasta's mansion really is or is it just a facade? How did they ever find such a setting in Scotland? The upholstery, by the way, is awful and does NOT look like the 1760s AT ALL.
Love the Cherokees--so handsome and dignified. Did Jamie plan an outhouse? He didn't mention it.
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@MBW They have been pretty period specific about clothing & furnishings so far. I'm guessing that just because you didn't like the upholstery has little relevance in whether it was period specific or not. I'm just sayin...
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@Cyn B I have background in 18th century esthetics and believe me such fabric (of course it would have to have been imported from London) is simply NOT what they used in the period. It would have been stronger and more textured as well as in colors that did not show dirt or stains as this would have. Brocades or plain or striped fabrics yes-but NOT that thin looking stuff with such bright colors. If you like it, that's cool of course. As to other period details of course I agree although the French clothes in the Paris sequences were ALL wrong. both male and female.
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Ms. Valentine again seeks to impose a 21st century sensibility on people and events in the 18th century. Whatever Jaimie may feel is the "common ground" between Highlanders and Native Americans, he knows that he cannot change the history of the European immigration to the Americas. Does it seem likely to anyone that land-hungry Europeans would have sailed back home when they discovered that there were Native Americans on the land? Yes, their response to that knowledge was brutal, given their sensibilities and we deplore them now. Jaimie is faced with a moral dilemma and foreknowledge of the outcome. His and Claire's choice is morally compromised by their decision to stay and settle in NC. By extension, we, their descendants are, too. Gabaldon wasn't revising history, just showing one imaginary couple's experience of it. No hero is perfect.
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Yes, I always wondered why Gabaldon didn't choose to put them elsewhere in the colonies, but it probably has to do with the fact that the western Appalachians were indeed settled by the Scots. Which makes one think that the Highlanders were much more like the English than they will admit, in that they were also willing to overlook slavery and take part in the seizure of Native American lands. They were just as willing as the English to exploit the less powerful -- but in order to do so, they had to leave the British Isles, where they were on the lower rungs of power, and find their way to a place where there were people even less politically powerful than they. And then, apparently, the Highlanders in general gladly gave slavery and "Indian" killing a go. So it's clear that in 18th-century America, Highlanders and the English at last share something that binds them to a common cause: the white skin that identifies them as not "the Other." On the other hand, Claire and Jamie have usually been kind and respectful to almost every stranger (unless the stranger turns out to be undeserving), so it is always interesting to see them navigate the waters of human treachery and greed. Like the late Bertolucci's characters, it seems as if they need to cocoon themselves away from as much of the greater world as possible, in order to live in peace with themselves.
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I liked this episode because it shows what this series can do best when it's on the right track: the small moments between characters are just as important as the grand, sweeping events. Claire and Marsali, Jamie gently nudging Claire to tell him what's on her mind (because he knows her soul as well as she does), Jamie deftly maneuvering the political conversation with Governor Tryon, and later telling Claire how he plans to lay out their house and property.
Early in the episode, Jamie instructs Fergus to find men from Ardsmuir to help populate what will become Fraser's Ridge. Wonder if this is foreshadowing for Murtagh's return.
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@Susan - Re: Murtagh...I so hope he is found and then finds his way to Fraser's Ridge...this was one of the most sympathetic and beautifully drawn characters in the series (and the books).
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@dkmezzo I think that's the way it's going to happen. The series writers and producers wouldn't have kept him alive for no reason. It'll be interesting to see how that affects the Frasers' life in the future. Having Murtagh there to help them will change things even more from the books. All the same, I agree with you: I love Murtagh and his return is one departure from the books that I can agree with.
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This episode definitely felt like it was more about setting up the action in future installments, but it's nice to have a breather once in a while. You can see the dilemmas that Jamie and Claire will face in their new home as more settlers arrive. Although I know that Diana Gabaldon chose to make NC the Frasers' American home, I would loved an alternate universe storyline where Claire and Jamie go to early 1770s Boston.
4
The writing and direction were good, but this episode was so slow paced. There was a lack of energy overall. I was even aware of the lead actors’ acting in several scenes. The strongest moments for me: Claire mothers Marsali; Jamie and the bear man fight; and Claire and Adawehi meet for the first time. Supporting actors who brought life to this episode: Tim Downie as Governor Tyron and Iona Claire as Fiona Graham.
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@Laura I felt a call back to Season 1. Thanks to the writers. The bear man’s community had exiled him years ago. I remembered the scene after British army deserters tried to rape Claire. Looking at the men’s corpses, Dougal tells Jamie that’s what happens to men who lose connection to God and country.
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