History books don’t often tell the full story, and something tells us that missing from the record of the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778 is the half-naked boy racing to the frontlines with a resignation scribbled out in blood on his back.
That’s where this week’s penultimate episode of Outlander leaves its fictional twist, as Claire (Caitriona Balfe) bleeds out from being shot and Jamie (Sam Heughan) resigns his post as brigadier general (mid-battle!) to be by her side. Book fans certainly knew something major was coming, as the title of the episode, “Written In My Own Heart’s Blood," is also the title of the eighth book in author Diana Gabaldon’s series. Claire begins the hour narrating a montage of all the traumatic things that have happened in the heat of battle and passion in this series, so as you can imagine it’s a lengthy one. But it can all be summed up in one of her many foreboding sentences: “War is inevitable, and death is too.”
Outlander has wrestled with the specter of death and what it leaves behind all season. First, Jamie “died” onboard a doomed ship bound for America, only for him to show back up in Philadelphia having missed the boat. Roger (Richard Rankin), searching for his son Jemmy in the past, manages to locate the father he thought disappeared without a trace during World War II, unearthing the scars of his childhood he thought were long buried. Now, a persistent and stubborn Claire, who forcibly put herself in the thick of danger to offer her talents as a doctor when the reigning physician refused her services, is bleeding out on a surgery table that sits beneath the pulpit in a church-turned-hospital. As a longtime viewer, it’s hard not to feel like we've been here and done this before.
After seven seasons, nearly 100 episodes, and countless near-death experiences, the repetitive nature of death knocking on Claire and Jamie’s door has lost its touch, even if it is directly from Gabaldon’s pages. Audiences know that Claire and Jamie aren’t going to die, so to put them through paces is just tiresome. With that being said, this episode wisely seems aware of how unconcerned audiences will be with this latest brush with mortality, so it offers a few things to make it interesting. First, Claire’s goodbye with a restless Jamie before battle allows the audience to learn about his mother's passing, a tragic story in which he watches her death through his brother’s grief. It’s a moving yet somber note off which to send Jamie into battle. But the episode also uses (albeit a bit erratically) stylish new sepia-toned asides where Claire has conversations with Jamie in her head, set against an impossibly starry sky. It allows us to get into her mind without hearing her standard narration. Her consciousness is less refined, more desperate to understand what she is feeling. It’s interesting, and could possibly be a nice recurring place to retreat as the show begins to reckon with its final run of episodes.
Lastly, perhaps the most intriguing thing about Claire being on the wrong end of the bullet is that now she is relying on others to save her. Her dabbling in ether, her sexual assault, and her miscarriage were all traumas she had to face, at least in part, internally. This new crisis puts her in the hands of others, specifically, Denzell Hunter (Joey Phillips), who Claire has been training all season to address injuries just like this one in the 18th century with a 20th-century approach. Yet Claire is still there telling him what she feels, and her instinct that the bullet is likely in the liver. By the season finale, we suspect Claire will have one less bullet in her body and be on the road to recovery. Yet, what I hope comes out of this isn’t a new scar and another story for the grandkids (more of them in a moment).
I want Outlander to take the inevitable new lease into its final season and change up its definition of drama. Audiences have watched Claire and Jamie come together and fall apart in equal measure for going on 40 years now, it is time to let them be old people. Claire is in her 60s by this point in the books, and Jamie is pushing it himself. Once Claire survives, I hope this show will take time to settle into the golden years the Frasers so richly deserve for the final run of episodes. Don’t get me wrong, I love the drama and the fact that these two people can’t seem to avoid every major figure in the Revolutionary generation. All of it has kept me watching for a decade now. But please let this be the final shot of Claire and Jamie’s war with trauma. I say this knowing full well the show will continue to do the most up to the end, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t long for the quieter days at Fraser’s Ridge. This show has ventured far from its cozy corner of North Carolina, and even farther from the misty mountains of Scotland. It’s time to give our heroes a break, and not put the weight of winning the American Revolution on their backs.
