'Outlander' Recap: In Which America Is Very, Very Scary
Write "Droughtlander" on a ball and throw it out the window, because our favorite feisty time-traveling doctor and sexy Scotsman are back for season 4 of Outlander. This time around they're in 1760s North Carolina. What does America hold for them? Let's find out. Here is everything I thought while watching episode 1, "America the Beautiful."
HELLO THERE IT IS OUR JAMIE IN HIS TRICORN HAT.
I know it's sad that Jamie's friend Hayes is awaiting the hangman's noose, but I unfortunately got distracted by this fetching likely scoundrel Stephen Bonnet. Who interferes in someone's last requests to ask for a sip of whisky? Plain rude, if you ask me. And...kind of hot?
Hayes asks Jamie to be in the crowd when he dies, and wants the last thing he sees to be a smiling friend. Which is understandable, but watching Jamie's rictus smile as he watches his friend die, to fulfil Hayes' dying wish, is horrifying.
BOY OH BOY HAVE I MISSED THIS THEME SONG. The season 4 version is extremely soothing, but I have a feeling that will not apply to the show itself.
Poor Young Ian is still haunted by what Geillis put him through last season. The Frasers have been in the colonies for four months and he's still traumatized by the sexual assault he suffered. There's no world in which it's a good thing that Jamie has been through something similar, but at least his nephew seems to find it comforting that Jamie understands what he's feeling.
"I won't bother you again. You have my word." Off goes the pirate Stephen Bonnet. But why does it feel like this is definitely not the last time we'll see him?
Gotta admire a man who flirts with a woman using her two wedding rings as conversation fodder. One point for Stephen Bonnet. But even though Claire is striking and liable to make everyone fall in love with her, he was a bit too interested in her valuables for it to be a casual interest.
It is always astonishing that Claire left her literal daughter, modern medicine, a high-powered job, and TELEVISION behind to return to Jamie's time, but then I saw this scene of her wiping him down with a cloth and I was like, oh yeah, okay.
It worries me when this couple says something like "We have to treasure these moments" because that means death is around the corner just waiting to take a swipe.
Also gotta love a woman who, when a half-naked Scottish god is propounding his theory of faith and love, replies, "That's the first law of thermodynamics."
Laughing out loud at that moony post-sex face of Claire's.
Claire's fairytale America ("a place where the only limitations are a person's own abilities") and Jamie's more clear-eyed version ("a dream for some can be a nightmare for others") may be the two sides of their own journey in their new home country.
Nothing is more fun than watching a smarmy dude condescend to Claire like she won't know anything about politics or current affairs. That smackdown is coming, sir!
Just like everyone else who ever meets him, the governor of North Carolina takes an interest in Jamie-and what Jamie can do for him. It sounds like he needs more people to populate the growing colony.
Once again, Claire being from the future helps the Frasers discuss a rather large decision. Should they stay in the colonies? If they help the governor, "we'd be on the wrong side of history again," Claire tells Jamie. She knows there's a war coming in America's future. A little bit awkward how that keeps happening to them.
But Jamie wants to help shape the country his daughter will grow up in, which is wonderfully Jamie of him. That's Claire crying, not me. So, very quickly, it's settled-America it is.
ROLLO!!!!!!!!!!!! Step aside, Stephen Bonnet. This dog/wolf/whatever is clearly the cutest new castmember.
Of course Young Ian wants to stay in the colonies with Jamie. I can hear Jenny screaming all the way from Scotland.
Wait, did Marsali get nicer since last season?
Jamie's Aunt Jocasta had three husbands from the same clan, who all died? We love a tough-as-nails queen!!!
Get you someone who looks at you the way Rollo looks at Ian's food.
Jamie and Claire have been married for 24 YEARS????????? Both looking good, guys.
This brazen thievery of Stephen Bonnet and crew! EVERYTHING NICE I SAID ABOUT HIM I TAKE BACK TIMES ONE MILLION. And the despair on Claire's face when she realizes the ring she's managed to save isn't Jamie's, but Frank's...she's devastated. Look, I could have told you guys that America was screwed up. "America the Beautiful," indeed.
Outlander airs on Sundays at 8 P.M. ET on STARZ.
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