Episode 807: "Evidence of Things Not Seen" (SPOILERS!)

Here are my reactions to Episode 807 of the OUTLANDER TV series, titled "Evidence of Things Not Seen".

*** SPOILER WARNING!! ***

There are MAJOR SPOILERS below! If you don't want to know yet, stop reading now.

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I'll preface this recap by saying that as always, these are my personal reactions only, and I'm well aware that some of you will disagree with my take on this episode. Show-only viewers will probably have a different view, but for a diehard fan of the OUTLANDER books like myself, it's hard to find words to describe how awful this episode was.

The episode started off really well, but after the first twenty minutes, things went off the rails very fast. By the time we get to the end of this episode, in my opinion, OUTLANDER has well and truly "jumped the shark", in multiple directions at once, and it's hard for me to see how the show can recover from this.

The episode opens promisingly enough, with Jamie exploring the terrain at Kings Mountain (on the border between North and South Carolina), scouting out the land in anticipation of the coming battle that Frank Randall's book mentioned. This scene is based on BEES chapter 106, "The High Ground".

It was a small mountain, not even half the height of a Scottish beinn, but the sides were steep and thickly forested. He was following a cattle track across the face of the mountain--the local people grazed their stock sometimes on the top of the mountain, because there was a good meadow--but oak and maple saplings and a scurf of low bushes were creeping over it, and the track had vanished altogether by the time he made it to the summit through a screen of pines.

He stood at the edge of a long meadow, growing in a sort of saddle-shaped depression. [....] There were rocky outcroppings near the edges of the plateau. Not large ones, but for a single rifleman, a decent vantage point--if you could make it that far and not be picked off struggling up the mountainside.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 106, "The High Ground". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

As Jamie climbs up the mountain, we hear Frank Randall in voiceover, reading from his book, THE SOUL OF A REBEL, describing the terrain and explaining that Major Patrick Ferguson and his Loyalist militia held the high ground.

"The initial ascent was perilous, with many a Rebel picked off as they clawed their way up the mountainside," Frank's voice continues, as we see Jamie climbing that same mountain. I thought that was a very effective visual. It's easy to imagine Jamie and the other men climbing that same mountain during the actual battle, under fire from the Loyalists above.

"Only twenty-eight [Patriots] fell," Frank says.
"Including me," Jamie says, sounding as though he really believes it.

The "title card" in this episode is a pair of hands making the lace veil that is featured later in the episode.

In the next scene, Jamie tells Claire what it was like to stand on Kings Mountain. He wanted to find some evidence that Frank's book was wrong, but all the details of the terrain matched the account in the book.

"Everything he wrote made sense."

Meanwhile, in Savannah, Fergus is teaching his sons how to work the printing press. I thought this was a terrific scene, although it's not in the book. Little Henri-Christian, in particular, is very cute! I like the little stepstool that Fergus made for him.

"I don't want to disappoint you, Papa," H-C says. "I'm ... different."
"You could never disappoint me," Fergus assures him. "And there's no shame in being different." He indicates the wooden hand he wears in replacement for the missing one. "You may be small, but you're capable of great things."

Awwwww! Speaking as someone who grew up with a disability (I was born with cerebral palsy and have difficulty walking), that strikes me as exactly the right thing for Fergus to say. He's come a long, long way in his attitude toward children like Henri-Christian, and I'm glad to see it.

Fergus looks at the boys very seriously. "This will be yours one day, mes fils. The pen is our sword, and we can never lay it down." That last line is based on the following line from BEES:

I cannot leave undone the Work of Freedom to which I am called. You put the Sword into my Hand, milord, and I will not lay it down.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 153, "Special Delivery". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

In the next scene, we're in Lord John's house in Savannah, and William is looking at the finished portrait of Amaranthus and baby Trevor, when Amaranthus comes in. This scene is mostly straight from the book. William tells her that he found Ben, now a General in the Continental Army, under the name Rafe Bleeker.

“He said it was your idea,” William said mildly. “That he should pretend to be dead.”

“I couldn’t stop him.” She spoke to the yellow toile de Jouy wallpaper, through her teeth by the sound of it. “I begged him not to do it. Begged him.” [....] “I wanted a coward, you know,” she said. “A man who’d stay away from danger and blood and all those things.”

“And you thought I might be one?” He was curious, rather than offended.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 118, "The Viscountess". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

If she wants a coward, she's misjudged William pretty badly!

William says he must tell Hal and John that Ben is alive but turned traitor. Amaranthus looks panicked at the idea, terrified that the British will hang him.

"You agreed to marry me!" William says.
"Nothing has to change. We still can."

So she sees no problem with being a bigamist?

At this awkward moment, Lord John comes in. He says Hal is en route from London. Just as in the book, William tells him that he's seen Ben, alive, in the Continental camp. Amaranthus isn't looking well at all.

She’d gone the color of egg custard and had her lashes lowered--to hide her telltale eyes, William thought cynically. She wasn’t crying; there were no tears on her cheeks. He’d never seen her cry, and wondered briefly if she could.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 118, "The Viscountess". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Meanwhile, Bree and Marsali are shopping in a market in Savannah. Marsali's comments about Fergus possibly being the heir of the Comte St. Germain come partly from WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART'S BLOOD:

"Fergus says if it had been a romantic novel, it would have been criticized as too implausible and nay publisher would touch it.” [Jamie] grinned at the thought, but then sobered. “Still. Fergus says he hasna the slightest intent o’ having anything to do with the matter, as even if it were true, he doesna mean to be a pawn for someone else’s interests--and if it’s not true, still less.”

(From WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART'S BLOOD by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 112, "Daylight Haunting". Copyright © 2014 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Marsali fantasizes out loud about what it would be like if Fergus did inherit such a fortune. Bree says she and Roger will be meeting with one of Francis Marion's agents that night to give him gold in exchange for the guns Colonel Marion promised them. Then they'll collect the rifles the next day, and take them home with them to Fraser's Ridge.

What happens next is a very abbreviated version of a scene from BEES chapter 71, "Rolling Heads". Suddenly a ripe tomato goes SPLAT! in the middle of Marsali's back. It was thrown by a young man, obviously a Loyalist, who calls Marsali a "Rebel bitch!"

"Tell your filthy frog of an 'usband to mind what he prints! No more of his rubbish!"

It's not nearly as scary here as it was in the book, where they made a serious attempt to drown Bree in the nearby creek. Still, it's a warning that they'd do well to take seriously.

Back on Fraser's Ridge, Fanny is talking to the bees. This scene is not in the book. She puts on her mother's locket, the one with "Faith" inscribed on it, and looks through the small cloth packet containing her precious possessions. Suddenly she starts crying, "No, no, no!!" Claire comes to help, and Fanny explains that she can't find a square of lace that belonged to her dead sister, Jane.

Fanny says that her grandmother was a lace-maker in Paris, where her mother lived when she was a girl. You can see Claire thinking: could this be a clue to the mystery of Faith's miraculous survival?

Back in Lord John's house, the discussion with Amaranthus, Lord John, and William picks up where they left off. William says, "You were protecting yourself from being cast out." She agrees at once. The next bit is reworded somewhat from the book, but the gist of it is the same.

“Whereas,” William went on, not without sympathy, “if you were Ben’s widow, he’d be more likely to receive you with open arms.”

“And an open purse,” Lord John murmured, looking into the depths of his brandy.

Amaranthus turned her head sharply toward him, eyes gone suddenly dark.

“Have you gone hungry a day in your life, my lord?” she snapped. “Because I have, and I would happily become a whore to keep that from happening to my son.”

She rose, turned on her heel, and hurled her glass very accurately into the hearth. Then she stamped out, leaving blue flames behind her.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 118, "The Viscountess". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Once she leaves, John cautions William against getting involved in a relationship with Amaranthus, who is still legally married to Ben.

"Whatever feelings you have, any association with her beyond what is perfunctory familial duty would be improper and impermissible."

They argue a little further, then William leaves the house, still angry.

The next scene is taken mostly from the book. Fergus arrives home to find Marsali scrubbing the tomato stains out of her clothing. He notices a note tucked inside the front door.

[Marsali's] voice died away as she opened it and began to read. I could see that the writing inside was brief; within seconds, the blood drained from her face.

“Marsali.” I reached toward her, and she thrust the note into my hand and rose swiftly.

Ladybird, ladybird, the note read, fly away home. Your house is on fire and your children are gone.

(From WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART'S BLOOD by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 111, "A Distant Massacre". Copyright © 2014 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

"Put it in the drawer with the others," Marsali tells Fergus. So this isn't the only note they've received. They try to make light of it. Then Henri-Christian comes out, filthy from playing with the ink, but cute as always.

His parents smile at each other. "He's beautiful, even covered with ink," Fergus says.

"I willna let idle threats scare us away from something that brings [our sons] so much joy," Marsali says.

And a few minutes later, Fergus and Marsali are in their bedroom, having sex. This sex scene was well done, and I was relieved to see them using a different position than the boring and repetitive one we've seen so often in recent episodes.

Up to this point, about 20 minutes into the episode, they've stayed reasonably close to the books, but that's about to change in a major way, starting with the next scene, where Jamie and Claire talk about the mysterious bit of lace that Fanny lost.

"I seem to recall a lace-maker in Paris, across from Master Raymond's apothecary. I went there once. I heard a child's cry that day."

This makes no sense to me. It was well over thirty years ago. Why would Jamie recall such a small detail?

Claire speculates about why Mother Hildegarde called the baby Faith, and then she admits that she's scared of what's coming, with the Battle of Kings Mountain getting closer every day.

In the next scene, which is not in the book, Lord John is sitting on the stoop of his house at night when Percy comes to see him, saying he has information about Richardson, who "intends to make his way to Savannah soon." But it quickly becomes clear that the real purpose of his visit is to be alone with John.

"You're looking well, John. As handsome as you did at our parents' wedding. You recall that day?"

This is a reference to an incident in LORD JOHN AND THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLADE, where John and his stepbrother Percy attended the wedding of John's mother, Benedicta, and Percy's stepfather, Sir George Stanley. That was in 1758, more than twenty years ago, at a time when John and Percy were not quite lovers, but very much attracted to one another. Considering the very memorable events of that day (including Lord John helping to deliver his cousin Olivia's baby!) it's impossible for me to imagine that John has forgotten any of it.

They stood close together, the full skirts of their coats brushing. He felt a stirring among the folds of blue velvet, and Percy’s hand brushed his.

No more than a touch, but he breathed deep, and embarrassment faded into awareness.

Tonight.

They had made a solemn pact, the two of them. After the wedding breakfast, they would go away and spend the rest of the day--and the night--together, though hell should bar the way.

Grey crooked one finger round one of Percy’s, very briefly, then let go. He realized that his thoughts had gone well beyond the limits of what was suitable in church, and tried to force his attention back to the solemn spiritual event being enacted in front of him.

(From LORD JOHN AND THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLADE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 17, "In Which a Marriage Takes Place, Among Other Things". Copyright © 2007 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Percy's behavior makes it abundantly clear that he's still attracted to John, but John doesn't reciprocate -- at first.

"There was a time when you loved me, John, if only you were sufficiently honest with yourself to admit it."

Percy moves to kiss him, and to my astonishment, John doesn't push him away! They embrace in a passionate kiss, as though Percy's betrayal twenty years before had never happened. (That's very much out of character for John, in my opinion.) And at that moment, William walks in, catching them in the act.

At this point on the first viewing, I started yelling, "No! No! NO!" at the TV, because in the books, John has always been extremely careful to keep his sexual orientation private, never even hinting at it in front of William. And now, William has discovered his secret by accident, in much the same way that he learned of his true paternity by overhearing John saying "your son" to Jamie in Season 7.

Taken by surprise, Lord John stammers out an incredibly awkward explanation, claiming that Percy is "a colleague" and they were "discussing business". But William is neither an idiot nor a child. He understands perfectly well what he's just seen: proof that his beloved Papa is a sodomite. (Homosexuality was a capital crime in England at the time.)

"I thought there was nothing worse than having a traitor for a father," William says. He brings up John's time as governor of Ardsmuir Prison. "How is it that a warden cared enough about a prisoner -- a traitor! -- to agree to raise his son?" Good question!

William calls him "a liar, a hypocrite, and a sodomite!" At that, John finally loses his temper.

"James Fraser and I were friends! And you have no idea what we have sacrificed for you! The lengths that we have gone to, for you, to protect you! I've had enough of your ingratitude! [....] If you ever dare to speak to your father that way again--"

"I don't have a father!" William says, and stalks angrily from the room.

This is the first of three major plot twists in this episode that contribute to my sense that the show has "jumped the shark", because it's wildly out of character for John, to put it mildly! My immediate reaction to this scene was that the TV writers have tossed a grenade into the middle of John and William's relationship, just when William had begun to heal from the revelation of his paternity in Season 7, and I didn't like that at all.

In the next scene, we're back on Fraser's Ridge. Jamie brings Claire a letter from Ian, sent from Philadelphia, along with a pamphlet Ian got from a girl at the brothel who knew Jane, featuring "salacious and gory details of the murder" of which she was accused. The pamphlet is based on the story Jane told the journalist at the beginning of Episode 716 ("A Hundred Thousand Angels"), but with some additional details, passed down from Jane's grandmother:

"My mother's name was Faith Pocock. As my grandmother lay dying, she told my mother an incredible story. One day, a strange little man from the apothecary came with a baby. He asked her to look after it, and said he would come back, but if he didn't, she was to find Lady Broch Tuarach."

But by then, of course, Jamie and Claire had left France, and less than two years after that, Claire was gone, back to her own time.

"Years later, my mother learned that this lady lived in the mountains of North Carolina. Our family was on our way to find her when our ship was taken by pirates, and our parents were killed. [....] If God owes me anything -- and believe me, he does -- he'll help [Fanny] find this lady when I'm gone, so she has a chance to be safe, to be loved, as she deserves."

"Faith was coming to find us," Claire says. Both she and Jamie are stunned by this revelation.

This is the second "jump the shark" moment: a much bigger shock than the first, at least to me. Faith and her family were coming to America specifically to find Claire. "Preposterous" and "contrived" do not even begin to describe this plot twist, in my opinion. I don't even have words to convey how much I hate this. It's like a truly awful fan-fiction story, with far too many Highly Improbable coincidences, and I don't find it even slightly believable. An "incredible story", indeed, in the literal sense of the word.

But before we can even begin to process what we've just heard, the scene changes again, and we're back in Savannah at Fergus and Marsali's home. Germain wakes in the middle of the night, smelling smoke. The house is on fire!! This sequence is loosely based on MOHB chapter 120, "A Crackling of Thorns", with some important differences.

Fergus and Marsali wake the children, but they can't find little Henri-Christian. Marsali takes the girls out safely, while Fergus heads for the roof where the boys have gone.

When Germain began finally to talk, sometime toward dawn, he said they had gone out [onto the roof] to be cool and to look at the stars. They had fallen asleep and not waked until the slates they lay on began to feel hot--and by then smoke was rolling up through the cracks of the trapdoor. They’d run across the roof to the other side, where a similar trapdoor let them into the printing loft. Half the loft had fallen away and the rest was on fire, but they’d made it through the smoke and rubble to the loading door.

(From WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART'S BLOOD by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 121, "Walking on Coals". Copyright © 2014 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Fergus finds Germain and Henri-Christian on the roof, as the house is engulfed in flames. The fire brigade arrives and a crowd gathers, including Roger and Brianna, watching in horror.

On the roof, Fergus ties a rope around Germain's waist and tells Henri-Christian, "I need you to hold on to your brother."
"No, Papa! I won't leave you!"
"I'll come down right behind you."

Germain steps toward the edge of the roof, with Henri-Christian clinging like a monkey to his back, and Fergus slowly lowers the rope. Partway down, Henri-Christian loses his grip, and falls. At first I thought they were depicting the scene described in the book:

Germain bent his head over his brother’s, and I thought I saw his lips move, saying, “Hold on tight!” And then he stepped out into the air, both hands clinging to the rope, Henri-Christian’s stocky legs wrapped round his ribs.

It happened instantly and yet so slowly. Henri-Christian’s short legs lost their grip. Germain’s grab failed, for the little boy was already falling, arms outstretched, in a half somersault through the smoky air.

He fell straight through the sea of upraised hands, and the sound as his head struck the cobbles was the sound of the end of the world.

(From WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART'S BLOOD by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 120, "A Crackling of Thorns". Copyright © 2014 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

But the outcome here is quite different. As Henri-Christian starts to fall, Roger raises his hands and manages to catch the little boy before he hits the ground. It's an obvious echo of the scene in last week's episode, where Roger remembers his father catching him just before the roof of the tube station collapsed.

Henri-Christian is safe, apparently uninjured. Moments later, Germain reaches the ground, yelling, "Where is my brother??"

With the boys safe, all eyes go to Fergus. He has just time enough to see that the boys are OK, and to smile down at Marsali. Then the floor where he's standing gives way, and Fergus falls straight down, into the inferno below (!!)

And this, of course, is the third "jump the shark" moment in this episode. Diana Gabaldon has talked about a storytelling technique she calls the "Rule of Three", and you can see that clearly in this episode. Three unexpected plot twists in quick succession, each more shocking than the last, and the third one, the most shocking and devastating of all.

But being able to see the pattern doesn't lessen the shock of this moment, at all. They killed off Fergus!!! How could they possibly kill off such an important character, when that didn't happen in the books?

Diana Gabaldon responded to that in a PARADE interview:

“I can tell you that they killed Fergus because they (personally) couldn’t stand to kill Henri-Christian (several of them told me it was the final line of that scene from the book-- ‘…the sound of his head striking the cobbles was the sound of the end of the world’ that horrified them so much they couldn’t stand to do it onscreen,” Gabaldon says by way of explaining such a major story change. “I suppose they thought they had to kill somebody. Personally, I thought if they were too chicken to do it right, they should just have eased back and burned down the print-shop--but (luckily) not my call.”

Back on Fraser's Ridge, Jamie wakes in the middle of the night with the sound of Marsali's scream -- "NOOOOOO!!!!" -- still echoing in the background, as though he somehow sensed it from hundreds of miles away. But he says only, "I have a terrible feeling that something is wrong."

In the next scene, Roger and Bree are in Lord John's house, trying to come to terms with Fergus's death.

"If anything were to happen to me, would you stay here, in this time, with the kids?"
"No," Roger answers at once. "Nothing is going to happen to you."
"But if it did?"
"I would stay. Of course. This is our home. Our whole family's here. The four of us belong here."
Bree reaches down and puts Roger's hand on her belly. "Five," she says.

Awwwww, Bree's expecting again! I hope the baby will be born before the season ends.

I thought the next scene was really well done. Bree comes into the room where Marsali and the children are staying, to find the four kids snuggled together on the bed and Marsali sitting on the floor, grief-stricken and exhausted. "I'm afraid to let them out of my sight, ever again," she says.

She remembers laughing with Fergus over the anonymous notes sent to the printshop.

“I told Fergus, and he said the thing to do was to keep them and read them through several times a day, one after the other. Read them tae each other.” A brief, rueful smile touched her mouth. “So we did, after the bairns were asleep--we’d sit by the fire and take turns reading them. And he’d make fun o’ them, criticizing the grammar and the lack o’ poetry, comparing them one to another, and we’d rank them from best to worst ... and then we’d put them away and go to sleep in each other’s arms.”

(From WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART'S BLOOD by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 111, "A Distant Massacre". Copyright © 2014 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

"After all these years," Marsali says, "I didna ken where I ended and he began. Now, there's barely anything left of him. Not even a body to hold. Just ashes and bones." Oh, that's sad!

"He's in every single one of your children," Bree says, tears in her eyes. "You'll always have him with you."

Meanwhile, back on Fraser's Ridge, Jamie and Claire sit down with Fanny and show her the pamphlet with Jane's story. Slowly, carefully, they tell the story from the beginning, starting from Jamie and Claire's time in Paris in Season 2. Claire explains that while they were living in Paris, she had a baby girl.

"I thought she died right after she was born, but now we know that she couldn't have, because that baby was your mother."

NO! Just NO! I still think this whole "Faith lived" subplot is ridiculous and contrived! Claire held that baby in her arms for hours. How could she possibly have survived?

"We believe we are your grandparents, lass," Jamie says. "Your family, your blood."

Fanny just looks bewildered, trying to take it all in.

"I sang a song to your mother when she was born," Claire says. "A song my mother sang to me. You were singing that same song in the church at Monmouth when we met." (She's referring to the final scene of Episode 716, "A Hundred Thousand Angels".) "Your mother must have sung that same song to you."

Claire goes on to talk about how she looks at Fanny and thinks about all the things she missed, not being able to raise Faith as her own daughter. This is very sad.

"How did she know the song, if she was only a baby?" Fanny asks.
"I wish we knew," is all Claire can say.
"There's so much we canna explain," Jamie adds. No kidding! The whole Highly Improbable scenario raises more questions than it answers.

Claire tells Fanny about a veil made of lace that she once had. "I believe it was made by your grandmother." Jamie adds that he bought it from the lace-maker's shop in Paris, presumably the same shop he recalled much earlier in this episode. This is the same veil she was wearing at Faith's grave in the final scene of Episode 207.

So Jamie was in the lace-maker's shop at some point before he and Claire left for Scotland. He heard a baby crying (presumably that was Faith), but he never got to see her or hold her. This strikes me as both heartbreaking and cruel on the part of the writers. Bad enough that Jamie never saw Faith, in either books or show; did they really have to make it worse by having him come within hearing distance of his living infant daughter and never even know she had survived? I really don't like this!

"Family, well, they can be like lace. Fragile and delicate, full of holes and gaps, like the things we don't know. Like lace, it can be strong, the threads hard to tear apart."

Long before Claire's (seemingly endless) monologue about the properties of lace comes to an end, Fanny has had enough. She looks utterly miserable. "I'd like to go to my room now," she says, and hurries away.

Meanwhile, back in Savannah, Marsali and the children are waking up. I enjoyed this scene. Henri-Christian is lively and energetic first thing in the morning, urging his mother to wake up. He says they have to go back to the printshop.

"Papa said we must rise every day, ready to bring the news to the people, no matter what happens. La plume est notre épée, he says. We can never lay down our sword." Awwww! He's clearly taking this very seriously.

Marsali wonders out loud what she's going to do without Fergus. They married when she was only fifteen, so she can't imagine life without him. Bree reassures her that she will always have a home on Fraser's Ridge. Or she could consider another option: taking up Percy Beauchamp's offer, and having Germain declared heir to the Comte St. Germain's fortune.

But Marsali says no. "Fergus wouldn't want it." When Bree persists, all Marsali will say is, "Bears considerin', but not today. First, I need to bury my husband. I need to take him home."

Back on Fraser's Ridge, Claire grows concerned about Fanny when she doesn't come down for supper. She's not in her room. Jamie and Claire find her at Jane's cairn, alone.

Fanny is upset because she's lost the bit of lace that was her last connection to her sister Jane. She's lost her whole family, and now she's afraid of losing Jamie and Claire, too. "You'll go away or you'll die and I'll be even more alone."

Jamie tries to reassure her. "God tells us that faith is the evidence of things not seen. So I will ask you to have faith in us, lass."

Just then they see a wagon approaching in the distance. It's Roger, Bree, Marsali, and the children, but we don't get to hear what they're saying, as they share the tragic news about the fire and Fergus's death. The voiceover is a distraction, and I didn't care for it. I'm reminded of the scene at the end of Episode 401, "America the Beautiful", where one of Jamie's men is murdered before our eyes, but we don't get to hear how any of the characters reacted. In this scene, I wanted to hear what they said, and especially what Jamie, in particular, said to Marsali. I did like the way he hugged her tight, though.

In the next scene, Jamie is making something out of wood, but he stops abruptly, unable to focus on the task, as the memories overwhelm him. The montage of scenes from previous episodes featuring Fergus through the years is really wonderful, and I enjoyed it very much! As the montage ends, you can see that Jamie is crying.

Fanny approaches, beckoning Jamie to come with her. She leads him to a small cairn she's built in the middle of a field.

"This is for Fergus, and for you. I know he's not with us, but maybe you'll find him here....Grandda." She hands Jamie a small stone to place on the cairn. A very sweet moment!

In the final scene, we see a flashback to 1744 Paris, on the day Master Raymond brings the infant Faith to the lace-maker's shop. He gives her to the woman in the shop, telling her that if he does not return, she must find Madame Broch Tuarach.

I did not like this scene AT ALL. I thought it was totally contrived, both the idea that this woman would be able to care for a newborn infant who is still nursing, and the Utterly Preposterous notion that Master Raymond taught this Frenchwoman the words and melody to a 20th-century English song (which the woman memorized after hearing it only once!), so that she was able to sing it to Faith, who eventually would pass it on to Jane and Fanny.

In my opinion, the writers dug themselves into a deep hole with the reference to the song in Episode 716. After all this time to think about the best way to resolve the question of how Fanny came to know a song from the 20th century, this awkward, Highly Improbable explanation was the best they could come up with? Seriously? It's just ridiculous, in my opinion, not remotely believable.

Worse, the whole "Faith lived" subplot will affect the way many of us view Episode 207, "Faith", and not in a good way. That episode from Season 2 has long been one of my all-time favorites, the only episode in the whole series that used to make me cry. It was absolutely heartbreaking, but they've "retconned" it now to the point where many of the emotional scenes hit differently.

For example:

Jamie: "Let me give ye comfort."
Claire: "How? Can you give me back my child?"
[imagining a narrator's voice] Sorry, no. She lived, but Master Raymond gave her away to a stranger to raise. You'll never get her back. But you'll get to raise her own daughter, eventually. So that will be some comfort to you -- in thirty-five years or so.

Or that heartwrenching "Where's my baby? I want my baby! Give me my baby!" That feels different now, too.

Oh, well. I'm going to try hard to forget I ever saw large parts of this episode, and I don't plan to watch it again. As I said earlier, it's fine with me if you disagree with my take on this episode! Everybody's entitled to their opinions. I understand that many people loved it, and that's fine. I am just not one of them.

Diana Gabaldon commented on TheLitForum on April 17, 2026, as follows:

Let us just note that I didn't send them any comments on this particular script. Out of a combination of "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" and a sense of utter futility.

You can see more of Diana's reactions in the PARADE interview about this episode.

With only three more episodes to go, I'm hoping for better things next week!

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I hope you enjoyed this recap. Please come back next week for my recap of Episode 808, and look here for my recaps of all of the previous OUTLANDER episodes.

Looking for a place to discuss All Things OUTLANDER? Check out TheLitForum.com, formerly the Compuserve Books and Writers Community. You have to sign up in order to read or post on the forum, but it's free. For more about the forum, look here.