The Droughtlander is Almost Over!

Man, I wish I was clever enough to have come up with that one. Sadly, no…. I guess a career as a Vulture TV Critic is not on my horizon.  L

I’ve never blogged about Outlander before but I decided that for Season 4 I am going all in, with a weekly review.  Why?  Because it’s my favorite book series and sits with Buffy, GOT, and The Golden Girls in my circle of all-time favorite shows.

It’s funny because I’m not a huge sci-fi nerd and I’ve never been into romance novels, and yet Outlander hits this sweet spot that I didn’t even know I had.  The story is truly epic, spanning generations and continents, and at the same time it also feels like a small story about love and marriage.

Season 4 starts on November 4^th so I thought I’d provide a brief (I mean, really brief) recap of the 1^st 3 seasons for those of you who want to try out Season 4 without having to watch 30 hours of TV first.  I’ve got you, boos!

Here it goes… oh shiz, where do I start?  I’m actually going to give a linear recap, even though the show lays it out piece-meal and in a much more interesting narrative.

Claire (Catriona Balfe) and Frank are happily married. On a trip to Scotland they take up a friendship with a local reverend and historian.  Claire touches a mysterious rock formation (think Stonehenge) and is transported about 200 years back in time just prior to the infamous battle of Culloden, when the Scots lost their tribal status. Claire believes she’s trapped in the past and falls in love with Jaime (Sam Heughan), who she has been forced to marry for her own protection.  The Big Bad is Captain Jack Randall who is an ancestor of Frank and played by the same actor (Tobias Menzes, who is also amaze-balls as Edmure from GOT).  Captain Jack terrorizes Claire and tortures and rapes Jaime.

Claire and Jaime’s crew rescue Jaime from Jack.  Claire and Jaime take refuge in Paris to escape their foes and emotional demons of Scotland.  If Season 1 was all about bringing Claire and Jaime together, Season 2 is all about tearing them apart so they can find each other again.  They do, becoming adopted parents to a pick-pocket orphan named Fergus (who becomes one of my favorite characters in the whole series) but a pregnant Claire is sent back to the future just as Jaime goes into battle, expecting to die.

Claire gives birth to a verra red-headed Jaime-like daughter, Brianna, and she and long-suffering Frank settle back into domestic life to raise Brianna together.  Claire believes Jaime has died and tries to love Frank as she did before her time-traveling escapades but just can’t.  A dejected Frank turns to other women and we see the next 20 years of their life in vignettes.  After Frank’s death, Bri and Claire travel to Scotland to attend the funeral of the reverend from Season 1 and befriend Roger, the reverend’s adopted son.

Roger and Bri grow close as they help Claire search the reverend’s historical archives for some record of Jaime, who Brianna has learned is her biological father.  They learn that miraculously, Jaime survived and created a new identity for himself after the battle.  Claire does the needful by saying a tearful goodbye to her daughter and traveling back in time again to live the rest of her life with her one true love.

Claire locates Jaime in the past easily, but finding each other proves more difficult.  20 years have passed and there are some serious awkward moments.  Jaime finds out that they have a daughter and sees proof in the form of photos that Claire has smuggled back in time with her.  Fergus is now a grown-ass, very handsome man who is in love with Jaime’s step-daughter (Sigh, he did marry again while Claire was gone. I guess you can’t blame the man!).

Because it’s Outlander, there are about a million obstacles and shenanigans that are way too detailed for this kind of high-level summary so I’ll just tell you where they end up:  shipwrecked on a beach in Georgia, ready for Season 4 to start!