Episode 802: "Prophecies" (SPOILERS!)

Here are my reactions to Episode 802 of the OUTLANDER TV series, titled "Prophecies". This was a fantastic episode, with a lot of material taken straight from the books. I really enjoyed it! It's also the first episode directed by Caitriona Balfe, and I thought she did a great job!

*** 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 to 1775 London. This scene, which is not in the book, features William with his cousins Henry and Ben. Ben, the eldest of the Grey brothers, has just received his commission in the army, and is being posted to Boston. William gives him a small toy soldier, for luck.

"You gave him to me when I first came to this house," William says. "You made me feel a part of this family." (Presumably, when Lord John became his stepfather when William was six years old.)

Ben says he'll keep the little soldier "as long as I wear this uniform". Book-readers will see this as foreshadowing of later events!

And speaking of foreshadowing: the "title card" for this episode is a bear, munching on berries in the woods. The sight of him made me shiver a bit, knowing what's coming next.

The scene with Fanny looking into the microscope and Claire explaining about stomach acid and mucus comes almost word for word from the book.

“Your stomach has very thick walls, though, and they’re covered in mucus, so--”

“My stomach is full of snot?” She sounded so horrified that I had to bite my tongue and turn away for a moment, under the pretext of fetching a clean slide.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 26, "In the Scuppernongs". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

The other part of their conversation also comes from BEES, but in a later chapter. I love it when the writers combine two unrelated scenes like this.

Claire warns Fanny that she must be careful what she says about her background (living in the brothel) when speaking to others on the Ridge.

“[Not] everyone who lives on the Ridge has had such experiences, and many of them have never met anyone who has. Most of them have lived in small villages in Scotland, many of them aren’t educated. They would be shocked, perhaps, if you told them very much about...where you lived. How you and your sister--”

“They’ve never met whores?” she said, and blinked. “I think some of the men must have.”

“Doubtless you’re right,” I said, trying to keep my grip on the conversation. “But it’s the women who talk.”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 35, "Ambsace". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

I liked the way Claire reassures Fanny: "[Jane] wanted to protect you from that life. And she tried to keep you safe. And now, we will keep you safe. Always."

The next scene, with Jamie and Roger sawing logs, is not in the book, but I thought it was well done. I have to say that I really like Roger's look this season! (I was never a fan of the beard.)

Jamie says it was good of Roger to forgive Buck for getting him hanged.

"He's a good man. Sometimes good men do things, thinking them right, only to realize later that they were mistaken. Shouldn't we forgive that?" Like Jamie beating the crap out of Roger in Season 4 and giving him to the Mohawk, for example? You can almost see that thought pass between them. Roger forgave Jamie for that mistake, too, eventually.

Jamie tells Roger that Frank's book mentions the Overmountain Men who will fight on the side of the Patriots -- in particular, John Sevier, Benjamin Cleveland, and Isaac Shelby. They're all real historical figures, but Roger hasn't heard of them. And he's skeptical that Frank's book was referring to Jamie specifically.

"There are a good many men named Jamie Fraser in Scotland, and I’m sure there are plenty here, too.”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 62, "A Stranger's Face". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Captain Cunningham, the retired Britisn Army officer we met in last week's episode. This scene is based on an encounter between Roger and Cunningham in BEES chapter 22.

"Roger tells me that perhaps we met on the level," Jamie says.
"And we parted on the square!" Cunningham replies, giving the Masonic handshake in response.

So Cunningham, like Roger and Jamie, is a Freemason. You can feel the tension between Cunningham and Jamie ease perceptibly after that. Jamie invites him to come to their next Lodge meeting.

Meanwhile, back in London, William's cousin Henry is getting married to Mercy Woodcock, the free black woman we met in Episode 710, "Brotherly Love". The ceremony is a quiet affair, with only a few people in attendance (including Denzell Hunter, whom I was glad to see!), because interracial marriage is banned in Pennsylvania. (You may recall that Lord John was adamantly opposed to the idea of Henry marrying Mercy in Episode 711, for that reason.) In the books, we have no indication that Henry and Mercy actually married, though Henry was clearly in love.

I didn't care for this scene, because it seems designed mainly to give William a chance to speak to Henry alone.

Henry notices at once that something's bothering William. He demands to know what's wrong.

"We can talk tomorrow. Today is for celebration," William says, but Henry is not to be put off so easily.

I really wanted to tell Henry, "Be careful what you wish for," because the news, of course, is that Henry's brother Ben is dead. What an awful thing for William to have to say to his cousin on his wedding day! Henry is clearly devastated, even breaking down in tears. William promises to do all he can to find out the circumstances of Ben's death.

In the next scene, we're back on Fraser's Ridge, with the women (Bree, Lizzie, Rachel, and Amy) picking berries in the woods. The bantering among the women is mostly taken from the books:

“I don’t think I’ve ever met a Quaker before,” Brianna said after a slightly awkward pause. “Is ‘Quaker’ the right word, by the way? I don’t mean to—”

“We say Friend,” Rachel said, smiling again. “Quaker is not offensive, though. But I think thee must have met at least one. Thee might not know, if the Friend chose not to use Plain Speech in talking with thee. Most of us don’t have stripes, spots, or any other physical mark by which thee might discern us.”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 4, "The Women Will Ha' a Fit". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Amy reminds them that she came to the Ridge a widow with two bairns. She seems amazed that Evan Lindsay wanted to marry her, but the marriage is clearly bringing her joy. Possibly for the first time in her life, judging by her tone of wonder when she speaks of her new husband.

Whatever Amy was going to say next is interrupted as she swats away biting insects with an annoyed gesture. She moves farther up the slope, a few yards away from the other women. Meanwhile, the women's talk turns to pregnancy and childbirth. Lizzie tells the story of her first child, Rodney's birth. This is taken from her account in A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES:

“My back hurt something dreadful, all last night [....] and then when I got up to go to the privy this morning, all the water burst forth from betwixt my legs--just as ye said it would, ma’am!” she said to Claire. “And so I said to Jo and Kezzie they must run fetch ye, but I didna ken quite what to do next. So I set about to mix up batter for to make hoecake for breakfast”--she waved at the table, where a bowl of flour sat with a jug of milk and two eggs--“and next thing, I had this terrible urge to--to--” She blushed, a deep, becoming peony color.

“Well, I couldna even reach the chamber-pot. I just squatted there by the table, and--and--pop! There he was, right on the ground beneath me!”

(From A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 77, "The Eighteenth of April". Copyright © 2005 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

As the others laugh, keep your eyes on Amy, who has moved farther up the slope. Suddenly we see a large black bear, moving quickly toward her. We don't see exactly what happened (we are spared the sight of the bear with poor Amy's head in its mouth, at least!) but we can hear the screams.

Jamie, Roger, and Cunningham hear the screaming, too. The next thing we see is Jamie, bursting through the door of the New House with Amy's bloody form cradled in his arms. He yells for Claire. The rest of this scene is riveting and emotionally intense, very much as I imagined from the book:

Brianna had evidently met Jamie on her way; he had Amy Higgins in his arms, bringing her down the hill as fast as he could manage, Bree stumbling behind him, moving like a drunk. All three of them were covered in blood.

“Oh, Jesus,” I said, and ran up the hill to meet them.

[....]

A good portion of the left side of her face had simply been torn away. The scalp was lacerated, one eye had been gouged from its socket, the orbit and cheekbone splintered, and the white bone of the broken jaw exposed, seeping blood welling up around the remaining scarlet-stained teeth and dribbling down the side of her neck.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 26, "In the Scuppernongs". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

I thought they did a good job of showing how gory the wounds were, without making them so gruesome as to be unwatchable. As Claire examines Amy, we see young Aidan in the background, struggling against Bree's attempts to hold him back, desperate to reach his mother. Just as in the book, the idea that this happened with the children right there makes it all the more horrifying.

Claire looks at Jamie, and shakes her head slightly. The wounds are too severe. She can't save Amy. There's nothing any of them can do. She talks to Amy, reassuring her, "Aidan is here. Evan's on his way with Orrie." Hoping that she can hold on until they arrive.

I remember that feeling well, from my dad's final hours in 2016. Waiting for my sister's plane flight to arrive, telling my dad over and over to hold on a little longer, that she would be there soon. And somehow, he did hold on, just barely, but long enough for her to get there before he died.

Amy's husband Evan arrives with Roger. Evan wants Amy's young sons, Aidan and Orrie, to see their mother one last time before it's too late. Roger goes with them, leaving Bree to stare at her own hands, still covered in Amy's blood.

This is so heartbreaking, listening to poor Evan begging Claire to do something, when there's nothing that she can do. Watching Claire apologizing to the distraught husband, it occurred to me that she must of course have been through this many times in the course of her medical career. She and Jamie watch in silence as Evan and Aidan say goodbye.

Evan asks Roger to pray for Amy, and what follows is straight from the book:

“Lord God, be merciful unto us,” he whispered. “Be merciful. Hold her in the palm of Thy hand. Keep her always in the hearts of her children.”

Amy moved. Her head turned a little, toward the boys, and she opened her one eye, slowly, so slowly, as though it was an effort equal to lifting the world. Her mouth twitched once and then she died.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 26, "In the Scuppernongs". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

I think they did a wonderful job with this whole sequence! It's very emotionally powerful, just as in the book.

The next scene is not in the book, but I thought it was well done. Ian comes home to find Rachel sitting on the front steps, her skirts bloodstained. I thought Ian's concern for her and their unborn child was touching and very believable. Then Jamie comes out and announces, "She's with the Lord now."

Meanwhile, somewhere in New Jersey, William has arrived at the Continental Army camp, to try to find out more about the circumstances of Ben's death. Unfortunately, the camp's commander doesn't have any information. William asks for Ben's personal effects, and for someone to show him the location of his grave.

Back on the Ridge, Bree is distraught over Amy's death. She had a rifle, but it happened so fast that she never had a chance to fire. She tells Claire that she intends to join the hunt for the bear. "I need to do something," she says.

Claire is surprised by Mrs. Cunningham's arrival to help lay out Amy's body. She's even brought Amy's burial shroud, just as in the book. That was a kind gesture. Maybe she's not the Wicked Witch of the West, after all.

Meanwhile, the men (and Bree) are preparing for the bear hunt. Jamie brings young Aidan a musket and says, "You're coming, too." And when Bree asks if he's sure about that, Jamie says, "Aye. He's a right to see his mother avenged."

This is a little different from the way it's described in the book, but then, Book Aidan is older than his TV counterpart, perhaps twelve years old. I thought it would be helpful to show what Book Jamie is thinking here, to explain exactly why he thinks Aidan should come. There's more to it than just vengeance.

“I-I-I’m c-c-coming,” Aidan said, though his chin wobbled so much you could scarce understand him. “T-to hunt the b-bear.”

“Of course ye are.” Jamie squeezed the fragile shoulder and, after a moment’s hesitation, let go and turned toward the house. “Come with me, a bhalaich,” he said. “We’ll need to fettle ourselves before we go out.”

Every instinct he had was for avoiding the house, where Claire and the women would be laying Amy out. But he’d been younger than Aidan was now when his own mother died, and he remembered the desolation of being shut out, sent away from the house while the women opened the windows and doors, covered the mirror, and went purposefully about with bowls of water and herbs, completing the secret rituals of taking his mother away from him.

Besides, he thought bleakly, glancing down at the blanched wee lad stumbling along beside him, the boy had seen his mother dying in her blood little more than an hour ago, her face torn half away. Nothing he might see or hear now would be worse.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 27, "Cover Her Face". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

"Dying in her blood," indeed! <shudder> But Aidan is with the hunting party as they ride out.

Back in the house, Claire and Elspeth are washing Amy's body. I was a little startled to see her nude body lying on the table. It struck me as gratuitous, even voyeuristic. Did we need to see her completely naked, when we wouldn't have seen her that way when she was alive? But maybe the point is to illustrate that it's just a corpse; it's not Amy anymore.

Most of this scene comes word for word from the book, and I thought they did a terrific job with it. Elspeth is quite matter-of-fact through the whole process. She's done this before, many times, though possibly not with a corpse this horribly mangled. Death is inevitable, a part of daily life in the 18th century.

Claire suggests that they cover Amy's face with a cloth, to hide the horribly mutilated sight, but Mrs. Cunningham disagrees.

“I’ve buried three husbands and four bairns myself. Ye always want to look upon their faces, one last time. Nay matter what’s happened to them.”

Frank. I’d looked at him, and said my last goodbye. And was glad that I’d had the chance.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 27, "Cover Her Face". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

They are not yet friends, but they're comfortable enough with one another now to exchange first names. We learn that Mrs. Cunningham's name is Elspeth.

As the hunting party gallops through the woods, they hear gunshots. Coming to a stop in a small clearing, Jamie moves out cautiously on foot, only to find Captain Cunningham crouched beside the dead bear, already beginning to butcher it.

He tells Aidan, "Your mother's been avenged. This beast won't harm anyone else." To Jamie and the others, he explains that he stayed behind after Amy was killed, to follow the bear's tracks, and killed it himself with his rifle.

I was taken aback by that at first, but you have to admit that it's a quick and tidy way to avoid having to film the actual bear hunt! Still, it's a change from the book, and it makes me wonder: Is Cunningham really trying to be helpful, or does he have other motives? We get a clue to that in this next exchange:

Aidan: "But you could have died!"
Cunningham: "There was no danger of that, I assure you, though this bear proved a formidable foe."

Why is Cunningham so sure there's no danger of him dying? Stay tuned; the explanation will come a little later in this episode.

The next scene finds William standing by the grave of his cousin, Benjamin Grey, telling him the latest news. "Amaranthus and Trevor are well. Henry's married the love of his life." This scene, which is not in the book, seems deliberately designed to parallel the one that follows it, and I thought it didn't really add anything on its own.

In similar fashion, Claire stands by the beehive on the Ridge, telling the bees about Amy's death.

I reached out and put a hand on the hive, feeling the lovely deep hum of the workings within. Amy Higgins is gone--is dead. You know her--her dooryard is full of hollyhocks and she’s got--had--jasmine growing by her cowshed and a good patch of dogwood nearby.

I stood quite still, letting the vibration of life come into my hand and touch my heart with the strength of transparent wings.

Her flowers are still growing.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 30, "You Should Know". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

I love this passage, especially that last line, and in fact I wrote a post in 2022 inspired by it: The OUTLANDER universe as a garden. So I'm delighted that they included it here. The wording is changed slightly from the original, but the deeper meaning I saw in it hasn't changed at all.

In the next scene, Rachel goes into labor. Ian is justifiably worried. I was glad to see they remembered this bit:

“If--” he started, then stopped to gather himself and started again. “When the babe is born, will ye wrap him--or her,”--he added hastily, “in this?”

It was a small skin, soft and flexible, with very thick, fine fur in shades of gray and white. A wolf, I thought, surprised. The hide of an unborn wolf pup.

“Of course, Ian,” I said, and squeezed his arm. “Don’t worry. It will be all right.”

(From WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART'S BLOOD by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 144, "Visit to a Haunted Garden". Copyright © 2014 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

In the next scene, William is back in the American camp, speaking with a soldier who knew Benjamin Grey and lets him look through Ben's personal effects. William checks the breast pocket of Ben's coat and finds that the little toy soldier he'd given Ben for luck at the beginning of this episode is missing. What's going on? Is Ben really dead?

Back on the Ridge, Rachel gives birth to a healthy baby boy. I loved Ian's reaction as he held the child for the first time. "He's the most beautiful lad I've ever seen." Awwwww! I'm really happy for him and Rachel.

Fanny, watching this, is clearly upset. "At the brothel, no one was ever happy about a baby coming." This line isn't in the book, but it makes sense to me. I suppose another mouth to feed wouldn't be welcome.

The discussion of baby names comes from the very end of WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART'S BLOOD:

“The last I heard, Rachel was suggesting Fox--for George Fox, you know; he was the founder of the Society of Friends, but naturally they wouldn’t call the baby George, because of the king. Ian said he doesn’t think highly of foxes, though, and what about Wolf, instead?”

Jamie made a meditative Scottish noise.

“Aye, that’s no bad. At least he’s not wanting to call the wean Rollo.”

I laughed, opening my eyes. “Do you really think that’s what he has in mind? I know people name their children for deceased relatives, but naming one for your deceased dog ...”

“Aye, well,” Jamie said judiciously. “He was a good dog.”

(From WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART'S BLOOD by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 145, "And You Know That". Copyright © 2014 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

The next scene, with Jamie and Ian, isn't in the books, but I liked it very much. Ian wishes his mother Jenny could see wee Oggy, and so do I. It's a shame that she isn't there with them in America, in the show.

"I'm afraid I canna offer anything in the way of advice," Jamie says. "I never got to do the things you're about to do." Awwwww!! I've always thought it's very sad that he wasn't able even to hold his own children when they were small.

Jamie offers a toast to the new baby: "Slainte mhath 'ille agus beatha fhada shona." That's something like "Good health, lad, and a long, happy life" in Gàidhlig.

In the next scene, Claire meets a stranger approaching the house on horseback, looking for Jamie. He's a very large man, but he declines to give his name. It turns out that this is Benjamin Cleveland, one of the Overmountain Men mentioned in Frank Randall's book. Most of this scene comes straight from the book.

Cleveland says that some of the landowners "over the mountains" are raising their own militia, to protect their land from the Tories, aka Loyalists who support the British side in the war. For example, Captain Cunningham.

“I hate a Tory,” Cleveland said, reflectively. He shook his head, but Jamie could see the gleam of his eyes beneath his hat brim. “Hung a few of ’em, down home. Put a scare into the others, and they left.”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 8, "Visitations". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

I like the way Jamie says, "I'll handle the captain, and anything that needs my attention, on MY land."

As Roger enters the shed, notice the very appropriate thunder in the distance. A storm is approaching that has nothing to do with meteorological conditions. We can already see new conflicts beginning to take shape, as the people living in the area begin to take sides. Patriot or Loyalist, Whig or Tory. The American Revolution was in many ways a civil war, and we're beginning to see evidence of that even on Fraser's Ridge.

Later, Roger and Jamie and Claire discuss Cleveland's visit, and his warning about Cunningham. Roger wants to know if Frank's book mentions Cunningham, and Jamie says no. Likewise, Roger's name isn't in the book. Frank doesn't mention any of Jamie's men in his description of the battle at Kings Mountain.

After Roger leaves, Claire tells Jamie that Frank never mentioned Kings Mountain to her, either, in all the years they lived together. Frank made her promise not to look for Jamie in the historical records. "All the while, he was searching for you. Found you. Kept it from me." And she wonders why.

"Maybe he wasna searching for me, Claire. Maybe he was searching for you, to see if you'd leave him." That's not in the book, but it's an intriguing thought!

I liked the next scene, with the Lodge meeting, very much! It's interesting to see how they conduct their Masonic rites.

"Let us invoke the assistance of the Great Architect of the Universe in all our undertakings. May our labors, thus begun in order, be conducted in peace and closed in harmony."

It makes sense to me to condense things a bit by making the Lodge meeting the setting for Captain Cunningham's big speech. The story Cunningham tells here is basically the same as in the book, with a few details changed. But the essence of it is this:

Cunningham's son fell in battle, and just before he died, he said, "Don’t worry, Father. I’ll see you again. In seven years."

The implications are clear:

If the captain believed his son’s word--and very plainly he did--then he must conclude that he was essentially immortal for the intervening years.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 109, "De Profundis". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

And this explains why Captain Cunningham could go out hunting that bear, alone, certain that he would not be killed. The question is, what else will he be tempted to do, convinced that he is, for all intents and purposes, immortal for the next few years?

As Jamie says to Roger, "A man being called by God is one thing. A man who thinks he canna die is quite another."

Meanwhile, back in New Jersey, William is going grave-digging by the light of a full moon, in an attempt to find answers to the mystery of Ben's death. Just as in the book (MOHB chapter 19), though, he discovers that the man buried in Ben's grave is not Ben! There are no answers, only more questions.

Back at the New House, Jamie is reading Frank's book in bed by candlelight. Suddenly he hears Frank's voice: "Seven years from Saratoga, Cunningham said. So he has five more years to live."

And if that wasn't unsettling enough, next he hears the unmistakable voice of Black Jack Randall: "He's not the only one who knows the day of his death."

I loved that! Remember that Claire cursed BJR in the dungeon at Wentworht Prison by telling him the exact date of his death (April 16, 1746). So BJR, too, had a sort of immortality, at least for a short time.

“I do not fear you, Madam. You cannot have it both ways, you know. You sought to terrify me at Wentworth, by giving me the day of my death. But having told me that, you cannot now threaten me, for if I shall die in April of next year, you cannot harm me now, can you?”

(From DRAGONFLY IN AMBER by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 38, "A Bargain With the Devil". Copyright © 1992 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

I'm impressed that the TV writers saw that connection, between BJR's situation and Cunningham's. I noticed it when I first read BEES, but it's not actually stated anywhere in the latter book, as far as I'm aware.

Jamie puts the book aside, overcome with a sudden urge to have sex with Claire right then. (Notice that there's no gratuitous female nudity in this sex scene. That's one advantage of Caitriona being the director of the episode, I suppose!)

Afterward, Jamie hears BJR's voice again: "You're going to die. Who will hold her once you're gone?"

The closed captioning indicates this is Frank's voice, but I don't agree. It definitely seems like BJR to me, and I think it's totally possible that he did say things like that to Jamie in the corse of that horrific ordeal at Wentworth. This is just chilling! And on that unsettling note, the episode ends.
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I hope you enjoyed this recap. Please come back next week for my recap of Episode 803, and look here for my recaps of all of the previous OUTLANDER episodes.

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