Episode 710: "Brotherly Love" (SPOILERS!)
Here are my reactions to Episode 710 of the OUTLANDER TV series, titled "Brotherly Love". I thought this was a terrific episode!
*** SPOILER WARNING!! ***
There are SPOILERS below! If you don't want to know yet, stop reading now.
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The episode opens with a flashback of Jamie and his best friend Ian Murray as young boys in Scotland, practicing sword-fighting, as Ian's father, John Murray, looks on.
"Fight as brothers, and ye'll never lose. You must stand on Jamie's left, son [see note below], for you must always protect your chief's weaker side, and never leave it."
This is based on something Jenny told Claire in DRAGONFLY IN AMBER:
"I remember, when they were young, auld John told Ian it was his job to stand to Jamie’s right, for he must guard his chief’s weaker side in a fight. And he did--they took it verra seriously, the two of them. [....] Watch them sometime, when they’re walking the fields together. I dinna suppose they even realize they do it still, but they do. Jamie always moves to the left, so Ian can take up his place on the right, guardin’ the weak side.”The scene shifts to Jamie and Ian as they were when we saw them in last week's episode. Ian is dying of consumption (tuberculosis). He and Jamie go up into the hills near Lallybroch and find a quiet, peaceful spot to sit and talk, as friends and brothers, for the last time. Much of the dialogue here comes straight from ECHO chapter 81, "Purgatory II", including Jamie's memory of becoming "blood brothers" with Ian when they were boys. I love the way they ended this scene:
(From DRAGONFLY IN AMBER by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 33, "Thy Brother's Keeper". Copyright © 1992 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)
"Ye came to me, said ye'll be my brother."
"Aye. Of course I remember."
"I've loved you as one ever since."
Ian dies soon after that, with Jenny and Jamie at his side. Later, in the graveyard, Jamie and Jenny have a quiet moment alone, to mourn Ian together. This is one of my favorite quotes from ECHO, and I'm very glad they included it here, with only a minor change from the book.
“Where d’ye think he is now?” Jenny said suddenly. “Ian, I mean.”NOTE: In case you're wondering, Jamie is left-handed in the books, but right-handed in the show. They tried for a while in Season 1 to have Sam play him as left-handed, but it didn't work very well, and they soon abandoned the attempt.
He glanced at the house, then at the new grave waiting, but of course that wasn’t Ian anymore. He was panicked for a moment, his earlier emptiness returning--but then it came to him, and, without surprise, he knew what it was Ian had said to him.
“On your right, man.” On his right. Guarding his weak side.
“He’s just here,” he said to Jenny, nodding to the spot between them. “Where he belongs."
(From AN ECHO IN THE BONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 84, "The Right of It". Copyright © 2009 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)
The title card for this episode shows the famous Liberty Bell, very appropriate for Philadelphia. Note that in Jamie's time, the bell did not yet have the famous large crack in it; according to Wikipedia, that happened sometime in the 1840s.
Claire and Young Ian arrive in Philadelphia, looking exhausted after their long journey. Ian is anxious to find Rachel. I was surprised at the size of Philadelphia, with its distinctive row-houses already dominating the streets. Contrast that with what we've seen of colonial towns in the show in previous seasons, like Wilmington. This is clearly a major city by comparison!
As they come into the city, they immediately encounter a British army checkpoint, but it's all right, Ian has a letter from British General Burgoyne assuring their safe passage. Claire makes her way to the house where Lord John's nephew, Henry, is staying, which turns out to be owned by a free black woman named Mercy Woodcock. The dialogue here is based on ECHO chapter 48, "Henry". Lord John appears, in full Redcoat uniform, including epaulets denoting his rank as Lieutenant Colonel. I was a little startled by that, as we haven't seen him in uniform in quite a long time.
Mercy explains, "He's protecting me, ma'am. I am for independency." In a city under British occupation, being a supporter of the rebel cause is dangerous, to say the least!
Claire mentions to Lord John that she will need vitriol (sulfuric acid) in order to perform surgery on John's nephew. In case this isn't clear, what she is proposing is to make ether for use as an anesthetic, as she did on Fraser's Ridge. Fortunately, there is no hint whatsoever that she is intending to take ether herself! (Thank God, we're done with all that nonsense from Season 6!)
In the next scene, we switch to Roger's point of view. He and Buck have just arrived at Geillis Duncan's house in Cranesmuir. Roger is stunned by this encounter with his many-times great-grandmother (who is also Buck's mother!) but he gets control of himself and explains that they are here in search of treatment for Buck, who has something wrong with his heart.
Geillis listens to Buck's chest with a wooden Pinard stethoscope, similar to the one Claire used to examine baby Mandy in Episode 702, "The Happiest Place on Earth". This is actually a clue that she is a time-traveler, because the Pinard won't be invented until 1895.
As Geillis touches Buck's chest, she gets a strange expression on her face, surprise, but not quite recognition. "Do I ken ye, sir?" Hearing this, Roger thinks (in voiceover), "Ye should. He's your son."
Geillis prescribes "boiled foxglove, steeped in tea". Foxglove is dangerous, but it contains digitalis, which will help Buck's heart. She goes out to the garden to collect the foxglove, leaving Roger alone with Buck to fill him in on exactly who Geillis is (a time-traveler from 1968) and what we know about her. It's also a convenient way to remind viewers (especially those who may not have seen Seasons 1-3 in a while) of some of these details.
"She's killed five husbands in all, or she will. And she tried to kill Bree. She's...disturbed." Insane, he means.
Buck wonders if Geillis knows Rob Cameron. Roger considers that, but there seems to be no connection between him and Geillis, and no motive for Rob Cameron to bring Jem to this time.
Meanwhile, back in Philadelphia at Mercy Woodcock's house, Claire is examining Henry, who is very weak, in a lot of pain, and can barely eat. Claire learns that Henry has had three surgeries to try to remove the musket balls from his abdomen, but one ball still remains. Denzell Hunter made one more attempt to remove it a few months earlier, but was unsuccessful. His description of the medical situation here comes straight from ECHO chapter 88, "Rather Messy".
In the next scene, we find William standing near a busy market in Philadelphia, helping Rachel with her shopping. William chats with her for a few minutes, obviously attracted to her. Suddenly Ian's dog, Rollo, takes off running down the street for no apparent reason.
He was following a scent, so much was clear. But what kind of scent would make the dog do that? Surely no cat, no squirrel ...Rachel runs after the dog, but quickly loses track of him in the crowd, calling, "Ian? Rollo!" Suddenly we see Arch Bug pop up seemingly out of nowhere. He has followed Rachel all the way here, hoping she will lead him to Ian.
“Ian,” she whispered to herself. “Ian.”
She picked up her skirts and ran flat out in pursuit of the dog, heart hammering in her ears, even as she tried to restrain the wild hope she felt. The dog was still in sight, nose to the ground and tail held low, intent on his trail.
(From AN ECHO IN THE BONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 97, "Nexus". Copyright © 2009 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)
Ian has a joyful reunion with Rollo, calling him "cù snog", which means "nice dog" in Gàidhlig. He looks around for Rachel, but she is nowhere to be found.
In the next scene, we're back in Cranesmuir at Geillis Duncan's house in 1739. Geillis makes an attempt at seducing Roger. "Perhaps if we kent each other better, it might...arouse our memories?" She starts to caress his chest, but Roger manages to stop her, saying he's a married man. Roger asks her if she knows a "Robert Cameron", but she says no.
Their conversation is interrupted by a knock on the door. It turns out to be Dougal MacKenzie, looking very much as he did in the early seasons of the show. I was expecting this, of course, but it's good to see Graham McTavish again!
In the next scene, Claire is performing surgery on Henry Grey. Note the use of the masks, quite unfamiliar to Denzell and Mercy.
Used as Grey was to the swift brutality of army surgeons, Mrs. Fraser’s preparations seemed laborious in the extreme: she swabbed Henry’s belly repeatedly with an alcoholic solution she had concocted, talking to him through her highwayman’s mask in a low, soothing voice. She rinsed her hands--and made Hunter and Mrs. Woodcock do the same--and her instruments, so that the whole room reeked like a distillery of low quality.Denzell is fascinated by his first look at the internal organs of a living patient. Claire locates the musket ball and successfully removes it from Henry's intestine.
Her motions were in fact quite brisk, he realized after a moment. But her hands moved with such sureness and ... yes, grace, that was the only word … that they gave the illusion of gliding like a pair of gulls upon the air. No frantic flapping, only a sure, serene, and almost mystic movement. He found himself quieting as he watched them, becoming entranced and half forgetting the ultimate purpose of this quiet dance of hands.
(From AN ECHO IN THE BONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 88, "Rather Messy". Copyright © 2009 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)
Rachel and William wait for the surgery to be over. "I wish I had your faith," William says, and as though reminded by the word, pulls out a wooden rosary from his pocket. Keep an eye on that rosary! It will be important later.
Rachel's dialogue indicates she's disappointed that she didn't find Rollo, and anxious to see Ian again. But her delivery of those lines is so flat, almost emotionless, and I didn't care for that. Ian is the love of her life; couldn't she show a little emotion when talking about him?
The next scene with Claire and Mercy Woodcock is not in the book. In the show, Walter Woodcock died in Episode 706, "Where the Waters Meet", but in the book, we never found out what happened to him after the evacuation of Fort Ticonderoga. It's a touching scene, and I liked the actress playing Mercy.
Rachel goes to a nearby barn, looking for Rollo, but instead encounters Arch Bug, who is intent on killing her! Meanwhile, Ian has made his way to Mercy's house, where Denzell greets him with relief, telling him where to find Rachel.
The confrontation with Arch Bug is very close to the book, except for the setting, and I thought it was very well done, fast-moving and suspenseful.
“Thee will surely die,” she said, and made no effort to keep her voice from trembling. “The soldiers will take thee.”Ian and Arch Bug fight, and Arch wounds Ian in the arm with his ax. Just as he raises his ax for the killing blow, William appears. He fires his pistol, killing Arch.
“Oh, aye, they will.” His face softened a little then, surprisingly. “I shall see my wife again.”
“I could not counsel suicide,” she said, edging as far away as she could get. “But if thee does intend to die in any case, why does thee insist upon--upon staining thy death, thy soul, with violence?”
“Ye think vengeance a stain?” The beetling white brows lifted. “It is a glory, lass. My glory, my duty to my wife.”
“Well, certainly not mine,” she said heatedly. “Why should I be forced to serve thy beastly vengeance? I have done nothing to thee or thine!”
He wasn’t listening. Not to her, at least. He had turned a little, his hand going to his ax, and smiled at the sound of racing footsteps.
“Ian!” she shrieked. “Don’t come in!!”
(From AN ECHO IN THE BONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 100, "Lady in Waiting". Copyright © 2009 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)
I liked the next scene, with Ian and Rachel, very much! It's been clear for a long time that Ian is in love with Rachel, but here he finally says, "I love you." Most of the dialogue here comes from the very last scene in ECHO.
“The world is turning upside down,” he blurted. “And you are the only constant thing. The only thing I--that binds me to the earth.” [....] “I would turn Quaker for your sake, Rachel, but I ken I’m not one in my heart; I think I never could be. And I think ye wouldna want me to say words I dinna mean or pretend to be something I canna be.”Awwwww!! I love this bit in the book, and I'm so glad we got to see it here! Rachel is a terrific character, and I think Ian is very lucky to have found a woman who not only loves him but accepts him for what he is.
“No,” she said softly. “I would not want that.”
“That dog is a wolf, is he not? [....] And yet he is thy boon companion, a creature of rare courage and affection, and altogether a worthy being?”
“Oh, aye,” he said with more confidence. “He is.”
She gave him an even look. “Thee is a wolf, too, and I know it. But thee is my wolf, and best thee know that.”
(From AN ECHO IN THE BONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 103, "The Hour of the Wolf". Copyright © 2009 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)
Next, we have a brief scene with Claire foraging for medicinal plants in a lush garden. I realized immediately that this must be Bartram's Garden in Philadelphia, which we saw in MOHB. On her way out, she passes through a checkpoint guarded by British troops, who let her through without incident.
Meanwhile, at Lord John's house on Chestnut Street, the black housekeeper, Mrs. Figg, collects the mail and discovers a letter sent from Jamie to Claire, written shortly after the elder Ian's death. We learn some important things from this letter:
- Ian the Elder has died, and Jamie has seen Laoghaire's daughter Joan safely settled into her convent in France.
- Jamie has been meeting with some friends of Benjamin Franklin, in France. (Presumably, seeking support for the American side in the war.)
- He has booked passage to Philadelphia on a ship called the Euterpe, and should be arriving soon. Naturally Claire is happy and relieved to hear this!
Meanwhile, back in Geillis Duncan's house in 1739, Roger stares in fascination at Dougal MacKenzie, his many-times-great-grandfather.
Dougal seems amused. "Ye look as though you've seen a ghost."
"No, sir. But if you have something that might relate to my son, perhaps I'm seeing a guardian angel." This line isn't in the book, but I liked it.
Dougal hands him a pair of small objects that he thinks might belong to the "faerie-man". Roger's reaction comes straight from the book:
For an instant, he didn’t know what the hell he was seeing. He picked it up; it was light as a feather, dangling from his fingers.Wow! Just imagine what Roger is feeling now. His father's plane went down in WWII, when he was a baby. To be touching something that actually belonged to Jerry MacKenzie....
Two disks, made of something like pressed cardboard, threaded onto a bit of light woven cord. One round, colored red--the other was green and octagonal.
“Oh, Jesus,” he said. “Oh, Christ Jesus.”
J. W. MacKenzie was printed on both disks, along with a number and two letters. He turned the red disk gently over with a shaking fingertip and read what he already knew was stamped there.
RAF
He was holding the dog tags of a Royal Air Force flier. Circa World War II.
(From AN ECHO IN THE BONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 43, "Apparition". Copyright © 2009 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)
But Dougal's attention has already turned elsewhere. He notices Geillis Duncan, greeting her as "the procurator fiscal's new wife" and kissing her hand. For those of you who remember Geillis and Dougal's relationship in Season 1, here is the moment it began, four years before Claire arrived at Castle Leoch. Notice Buck staring at them. They'll be his parents, eventually.
"Perhaps you could show me your wares," Dougal says. I laughed at that. She's all too willing!
As soon as Roger and Buck are alone, Roger explains the significance of the dog tags to Buck. I love the look on his face as he says, "My God. The faerie-man isn't Rob Cameron. It's my father! He's here!" Richard Rankin does a wonderful job of showing what Roger is feeling here.
I should note here that the story of Jerry MacKenzie's disappearance is told in "A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows", a novella included in Diana Gabaldon's story collection, SEVEN STONES TO STAND OR FALL. It's a wonderful story, highly recommended! A standalone e-book edition is also available. See my FAQ page here for more information.
The next scene, between Claire and Mercy Woodcock, is not in the book, but it provides a necessary explanation for what happens next. Mercy has been working for the Continentals as a courier, taking letters out of the city. She has a letter for General Washington, but she's afraid she has been seen, so she asks Claire to deliver it instead. But it's very dangerous!
Claire returns to the same checkpoint she visited the day before. The guard recognizes her, and is suspicious, but eventually lets her pass. She finds the secret hiding place Mercy told her about and puts the letter inside. She returns to Lord John's house, where it turns out she has a visitor.
Entering the parlor, Claire finds Lord John, looking distraught, with a man she's never seen before. The dialogue here comes straight from the book:
“I have--bad news.”But it's true. The other man present turns out to be a naval captain who witnessed Euterpe's sinking. There were no survivors.
“I can see that,” I said, a little tartly. “Sit down, for God’s sake, before you fall down.”
He shook his head like a horse shaking off flies and looked at me. His face was ghastly, shocked and white, and the rims of his eyes showed red. But if it wasn’t Henry …
“Oh, God,” I said, a fist clenching deep in my chest. “Dottie. What’s happened to her?”
“Euterpe,” he blurted, and I stopped dead, jarred to the backbone.
“What?” I whispered. “What?”
“Lost,” he said, in a voice that wasn’t his own. “Lost. With all hands.”
“No,” I said, trying for reason. “No, it’s not.”
(From AN ECHO IN THE BONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 93, "A Series of Short, Sharp Shocks". Copyright © 2009 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)
I liked the way they showed Claire's reaction: total, absolute denial, the inability to take in what they're telling her, and her imagination conjuring up a vision of the ship sinking. Even when she's shown a ship's manifest with Jamie's name on it, she refuses to believe it. Caitriona does a wonderful job, here and throughout the rest of the episode, showing us what Claire is feeling.
"You're wrong," she says. "I would feel it. I would know."
In her fury, she slaps at Lord John, but he's grieving, too. He's struggling to hold back tears as he says, "He's dead, Claire. He's gone." David Berry is terrific in this scene, and the ones that follow.
I love the montage of memories as Claire lies sleepless in bed that night. Jamie's words coming back to her from early in their relationship, and finally, from the end of Episode 512, "When the day shall come that we do part, if my last words are not, "I love you", ye'll ken it's because I didna have time," that wonderful last line from THE FIERY CROSS.
Lord John knocks on the door, but immersed in grief and despair, she tells him to go away.
And just when it seems things couldn't get any worse, Captain Richardson arrives at Lord John's house with more bad news. He intends to arrest Claire as a spy! Lord John sees only one course of action.
“You must marry me,” he repeated.This is the point, on my first reading of ECHO in 2009, when I started saying, "No no no no no!! This is just WRONG!!" (I will have more to say about that next week, after Episode 711 airs and we see what happens next.) Still, the "echo" of Claire being forced to wed Jamie to escape arrest by Black Jack Randall in Season 1 is unmistakable. She has no choice, no choice at all. Even in a state of shock on the first reading, I saw that. But Claire is not convinced, until John points out that she's not the only one in danger.
I’d heard him the first time, but it made no more sense upon repetition. I stuck a finger in one ear and wiggled it, then repeated the process with the other.
“You can’t possibly have said what I think you said.”
“Indeed I did,” he said, his normal dry edge returning.
The numbness of shock was beginning to wear off, and something horrible was beginning to crawl out of a small hole in my heart. I couldn’t look at that and took refuge in staring at Lord John.
“I know I’m shocked,” I told him, “but I’m sure I’m neither delusional nor hearing things. Why the bloody hell are you saying that, for God’s sake?!” I rose abruptly, wanting to strike him. He saw it and took a smart step back.
“You are going to marry me,” he said, a fierce edge in his voice.
(From AN ECHO IN THE BONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 93, "A Series of Short, Sharp Shocks". Copyright © 2009 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)
"Because you are not the only one they will seek. Ian and Rachel, Denzell and Mercy. All Rebels, all suspect."
"They would take them too?"
"Yes. But I can protect you. Please. There is not a moment to lose. Marry me."
And on that very dramatic note, the episode ends.
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I hope you enjoyed this recap. Look here for my recaps of all of the OUTLANDER episodes, and please come back next week for my recap of Episode 711.
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