Outlander Season 4, Episode 6

John Gray returns!!!! I have to admit, I totally forgot about this part of the story and was so happy to see that cutie’s face.  When I think about the “why” of this episode, I think we’re again being forced to consider the 20 years between Jaime and Claire’s original relationship and this rekindling.  They’ve done their best to fill each other in but new nuggets of information keep coming through the cracks and reminding them of the distance.

The other main point of this episode was to have us reflect on Jaime as a father.  The poor guy has two children but hasn’t been able to be a true father to either.  For his daughter’s sake, he sent a pregnant Claire back the future to be safe with Frank.  For his son’s, he never acknowledged his paternity and left the estate when Willie’s resemblance to his horse-master was about to become a little too noticeable.

So in this episode we are reintroduced to Jaime’s son Willie.  He’s a bit of a brat but that’s to be expected since he’s a Duke (or something along those lines).  We also learn that (a) Jaime is still willing to give up his life for a son that he hasn’t seen in 5+ years and never had the opportunity to raise; and (b) we are probably going to see Willie again, judging by his knowing glance back at his real papa.

To be honest, not much actually happened in this episode to move the plot forward but I loved it anyway.  It served to build a lot of the foundation that you might otherwise miss from the book.  For better or worse there’s a lot of extra fat in the books.  Sometimes it’s annoying and I found myself skipping forward to the meat but other times I really enjoyed getting immersed in the minutia of Claire’s and Jaime’s relationship.  This episode was kind like that minutia!

And for those of us book geeks, you can feel the slow boil toward the other key plot points, namely the ones involving Ian and Brianna.