If you didn’t watch the season finale of Outlander this past weekend, please don’t continue reading as we don’t want to ruin the episode for you.
For those of you who did watch the episode it was amazing and definitely set us up for the next two seasons which have already been confirmed by Starz. With the idea that this season finale is just an introduction to the coming third season, we have to accept that Jamie and Claire have failed in their mission of stopping the Battle of Culloden. After all their hard work this season, they were unable to stop the battle that would lose Scotland her freedom for the foreseeable future.
But we aren’t brought to 1746 Scotland in “Dragonfly in Amber”, rather Scotland in 1968. We are introduced to a 40-year-old Claire, who has returned to Scotland for Rev. Wakefield’s wake and a 20-year-old Breanna and a much older Roger. Brianna, as it turns out, is the daughter of Claire and Jamie (which is quite obvious by her looks) and Roger is the young boy we saw in the past, Rev. Wakefield’s adopted son. Sadly, Frank is nowhere to be seen, as he has passed away recently, which Claire seems not as sad about as she should be. Claire doesn’t really seem to have much life in her at all really, looking everywhere for signs or memories of the man she really loved, Jamie Frasier.
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Brianna Randal and Roger Wakefield
From the start, it’s clear that Roger and Brianna have some feelings towards each other, some base attraction. Yet as the episode progresses and we are faced with the reality that we are going to see the moment when Jamie and Claire have to say goodbye to one another, the episode isn’t as heart wrenching as we thought it would be. We see Claire traveling to various locations to bring up old memories of Jamie and even going to say goodbye to him at where she believes he is buried on the battlefield, but the episode seems more about hope than sadness. Hope for Brianna and Roger and the future, rather than hope that Claire will disappear back into the past.
But that hope for the past begins to burn, even if it’s a soft ember, when a familiar face returns to the episode. Geillis Duncan, or rather Gillian in this time, travels back. This gives Claire hope that she can go back, but it’s what Roger has found on the one she loves, that gives her hope.
Through the course of the episode, Roger and Brianna begin to discover that something happened in 1948, but they don’t know what happened. So they start digging and that digging leads Brianna to think that her mother had a simple affair (which, she kind of did have an affair), but when Claire begins to explain, Brie pushes her away, not wanting to hear any crazy ramblings from her mother. This leads to the end of the episode beautifully, when Brie finally believes her mother after watching Geillis disappear through the stones.
By the end of the episode, we learn that Jamie Frasier survived the Battle of Culloden and is in fact alive (if you think of the fact that Claire can travel back in time to him) and it leads fans to believe that Claire will be taking a trip back in time once again. But will Brianna and Roger go with her? Personally, I think Brianna will go with her mother, but will Roger?
Speaking of Roger, he’s a huge plot twist that has been thrown into the mix. We discover who Roger really is, a MacKenzie. He is a direct descendent of Dougal and Geillis, and how freaky is it that they end up meeting in the episode?
The entire episode is definitely full of emotions, from sadness to anger from Brianna, it’s interesting to see what will happen in the upcoming seasons. What repercussions were there for Jamie killing Dougal? How did he live his life without Claire?
I guess we’ll find out in the next season.
Photo Credit: Starz Entertainment, LLC.
