Picture it. April 9th, 2016. A hungry crowd of American women and men sit in front of their TVs, heart pounding and biting their nails in anticipation. This was it. The moment that eleven months of Droughtlander finally ended with the words "Previously on Outlander." There was a collective scream of excitement in households all along the East Coast and beyond and people on the edge of their seat as the first scene opened to Caitriona Balfe's Claire, laying on grass.
I don't know about you guys, but I feel like we're in for some depressing shit.
After the slightly altered opening credits and Skye Boat Song (partly sang in French) commence, we're back to the story and Frank purposefully steps into our lives again after a long eight episode absence. He's the concerned husband, a man shocked to discover his wife has been found after disappearing near on three years ago and you can see the nerves as he slowly enters into the hospital room where his wife lay, staring out the window.
I wish I had a funny and clever caption for this scene, but it's just too depressing.
Now this entire first half of the episode was not written like this in the book but I think what Ron Moore and the writers did with the material was fantastic, and I'm going to go out and just say that TV Frank is far superior to Book Frank. In the book, Frank flips out when Claire tells him her story, and literally loses his shit. Now, for a lot of people, this turns them off of Frank in the books and makes him out to be some sort of super dick for it, even though he's completely within his rights to flip his shit. I've written an entire article on the issues I have with the Frank Hate in this link here, if you want to read more detail about that. TV Frank, on the other hand, is very humanized. He's seen throughout his time on screen as understanding, hopeful, angry, relieved, nervous, and desperate.
Seriously, TV Frank is way better than Book Frank.
So, Frank and Claire are onto new beginnings, but what happened that led her back to the stones? A question that is starting to be answered when the scene transitions back to the past and to France.
The depression and melancholic look of the film is replaced with a bright and bustling port and with Claire and Jamie and Murtagh. I don't know about you guys, but finally seeing Claire and Jamie together made me literally scream out loud in happiness. FINALLY! As great as Frank was in the first half hour, I was so ready to see Jamie's sexy ass again and there he was, dressed well enough, still pained, his hand bound and dealing with a good bit of sea sickness. At least he's finally got his sense of humor back eh? At least of a fashion.
Murtagh's look of disgust as he talks about Frogs really mimics my own face when I get told to stop obsessing about Outlander.
Obviously, Jamie is still recovering from his terrible ordeal with Black Jack Randall and there's almost a motherly feel to the scene when she tells him "I'm here." Her voice is soothing and soft, reaffirming that she isn't going to let him go so easily.
They set their goal to try and stop the Jacobite uprising so as to prevent Culloden. Of course, it has already been revealed that the terrible Battle of Culloden Moor will happen, so it makes the optimism of Claire and Jamie a little harder to swallow and we as the audience, cheer them on, even though we know their endeavors will end in failure. Meeting Jared Fraser was certainly interesting and it's a shame we shan't see to much more of him. I like the passionate guy, that's for sure. Jared promises to get Jamie in on the Jacobite cause and to meet with the leaders of said cause, while also giving up the reins of his winery as he goes off on another business venture. It is after this meeting, that there is a panic on board a newly docked ship and as Claire is not the type to hold fast and leave things be, she jumps right in and lo and behold, the ship is infested with Smallpox.
"Seriously Sassenach, can you stop being selfless for once?There's no room in the past for you to be a decent person."
Smallpox being one of the most dangerous diseases in the world before vaccines were invented, causes everyone to panic and it is then that we meet Stanley Webber's Comte St. Germain. Now, I've seen Stanley Webber act before as Juan Borgia in Netflix's Borgia but seeing him in that powdered wig did make me giggle a little (not even gonna lie). Even so, the man cut's an intimidating figure and thanks to Claire's selfless act, he now has to deal with the fact that he's losing an entire shipment of cargo that he would have willingly put to the masses, knowing about the possible spread of small pox. Greedy selfish bastard.
Is it bad that I think he's kinda hot?
Of course, losing all of that cargo certainly would put quite a hole in his finances so it's really not all that surprising that he would try to save himself money despite the horrendous outcome of spreading possibly small pox tainted cargo. Jamie notes that it sure doesn't take Claire long to make enemies but he still loves her anyway and they have a big ole smooch right there as St. Germain's ship lights up the night sky.
I'm sure the Comte will forgive them for making him lose a fortune. He seemed rational to me.
Now I did find the pacing of this episode a little off and while the Frank and Claire moments were engaging, words can't describe how happy I was to finally see Claire and Jamie together again after months upon months of waiting to see them back in action. I do think it's obvious that Season 2 will blaze through the source material a little faster than the original season of Outlander did with it's book. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, though with the liberties taken to Frank's story line might make some people upset. I'm not going to be upset because I really found Frank's character far more endearing here than I ever did in the book. I happen to like that such liberties were taken with the story line but that's of course, my own personal opinion.
Overall, the first episode was really great, and while the original premier of Outlander seemed slow to start, this one was full of raw emotion from the very beginning, gripping us by the heart strings and holding us tight through all of it. It set's the scene perfectly and makes sure to immerse us once more in a story we all love.
Though I love Wee Roger most.
So what were your thoughts on the premier? Did you enjoy it? Anything negative to say about it? I'd love to hear from you so be sure to leave a comment below or leave one on our Facebook page or on Tumblr.
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Until next week, Sassenachs!
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