Outlander Season 4, Episode 2

This review is for the two whole people that read the last one.  I got you, boos!  BTW, that's not an exaggeration. Literally 2 people viewed that blog post.  It's cool, though.  I actually don't blog because I expect anyone to read this; I do it because it quiets my mind.

Anywhoo... episode 2 continued the ridiculously bad greenscreenery of episode 1 but other than that, it was an improvement.  Claire and Jaime settled in at Riverrun with good old Auntie Jocasta and Claire did her best to hide her 20th century feelings about slavery from her 18th century contemporaries... Oh wait, no she didn't!

Claire knows that she needs to act the part of a normal 18th century white person of means, who would have been all about the slavery but she just can't.  This makes Aunt Jocasta curious but Aunt Jocasta's neighbors hulk-level-angry.  Claire's moral judgment (and interference in a lynching) is not welcome and threatens not just the status quo of life in the Southern U.S. but also the lives of everyone at Riverrun, including the 180 slaves that live there.  Thus Claire learns a harsh lesson when she realizes it actually would have been kinder to everyone if she played along and pretended to be cool with slavery.

I recognize that this is a crazy complicated topic and the writers and showrunners really had their work cut out for them on this one.  I think they mostly succeeded but they could have been a little less obvious and ham-handed.  Saying "I don't agree with owning people" or "it's unfair since they don't have a choice" made the scenes feel clumsy.  I think it would have been more realistic but just as "dangerous" if she had stayed quiet but still helped Rufus.

Still, I think the episode worked.  It was really powerful, and of course awful, to see the lynching carried out in the end but I think it was necessary.  It established the brutality of the people that Claire and Jaime are surrounded by, the violence that seems to follow them wherever they go, and the futility of Claire's attempt at a good deed.

It also sets the stage for why they won't stay in Rivverun (I'd say "spoiler alert" but let's be honest, if you're reading this it's because you've read all the books and obsess about the Outlanderverse too!) and will instead choose to chart their own course in the mountains. 

I have to say though, the best part of this episode was the preview for next week, which shows that Brianna and Roger will be here soon!  I am so friggin' excited!  I could (and will at some point) go on and on, but I LOVE when Bri and Roger settle with Claire and Jaime and the family really takes root.  

The early Outlander books are great but it's the later books that slay me.  I love how the series starts as Claire and Jaime's love story and evolve into this epic story of a family and their efforts to stay together despite everything pushing them apart.  

There were also hints during this episode at young Ian's fascination and future with the Native Americans, which is another favorite plot point of mine.  I was about 6 months pregnant with Jason when I read that part of the book and cried and cried.... and then cried and cried again when Ian came back to his family.  Basically, I'm looking forward to a lot of crying in future episodes!