Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

reviewing 3 Body Problem; Black Doves; Bosch; Citadel; Criminal Minds; Dark Matter; Dune: Prophecy; Fauda; For All Mankind; Foundation; Hijack; House of the Dragon; Luther; Outlander; Presumed Innocent; Reacher; Severance; Silo; Slow Horses; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Surface; The: Ark, Diplomat, Last of Us, Lazarus Project, Orville, Way Home; True Detective; You +books, films, music, podcasts, politics

George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.

Friday, November 22, 2024

Outlander 7.9: Powerful Separations

Outlander 7.9 was finally up on Starz tonight. It was an episode high on emotion, low on battling, and medium on time travel.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

As readers of this blog will know, time travel and alternate history are my favorite kinds of stories, as a reader, a viewer, and an author. Outlander has always had a powerful time travel component -- it's of course the very basis of the story -- but often kept in the background (I'll remind everyone that I've watched every episode but not read a page from the books).

Episode 7.9 actually had a little more time travel than usual. Claire feels terrible that she can't do anything to help Ian's father (also named Ian) with his advanced tuberculosis. There's an implied time travel in this difficult situation. She doesn't say this (and apparently doesn't think this), but she could travel to the future and come back with some powerful antibiotic. That's probably why she tells old Ian's wife (Jenny) that it's too late to do anything to help old Ian. But I think there's a slight possibility that she could change her mind and take a trip to the future to get some antibiotic. As it is, she does make a decision to travel to America to help Jamie's son who has a wound she can do something about. And it's great that young Ian is accompanying her, for reasons of the heart.

But the big time travel piece comes from Roger, who along with Buck go back in time to rescue Roger's son Jemmy from the kidnapper Rob. Not that I like to see couples separated -- I'm a hopeless romantic and like to see couples together -- but I've always thought the best stories in Outlander happened when couples were apart in time, desperate to get reunited. The Atlantic was a big ocean to transverse back then, so Claire going to America has some of that power that comes from separation, but I'm especially looking forward to seeing what Roger's journeys in the past bring him and therefore us.

It was also good to hear Claire tell the family about the dangers of going to France, given what she knows about the impending French Revolution and its Reign of Terror.

As for the non-time-travel, it was very good to see Jamie's family at close hand. I'm glad Outlander is back on television. And I expect to be reviewing every episode of this second half of the the seventh season.

See also Outlander 7.1-2: The Return of the Split ... Outlander 7.3: Time Travel, The Old-Fashioned Way ... Outlander 7.7: A Good Argument for the Insanity of War ... Outlander 7.8: Benedict Arnold and Time Travel

And see also Outlander 6.1: Ether That Won't Put You to Sleep

And see also Outlander 5.1: Father of the Bride ... Outlander 5.2: Antibiotics and Time Travel ... Outlander 5.3: Misery ... Outlander 5.4: Accidental Information and the Future ... Outlander 5.5: Lessons in Penicillin and Locusts ... Outlander 5.6: Locusts, Jocasta, and Bonnet ... Outlander 5.7: The Paradoxical Spark ... Outlander 5.8: Breaking Out of the Silence ... Outlander 5.9: Buffalo, Snake, Tooth ... Outlander 5.10: Finally! ... Outlander 5.11: The Ballpoint Pen ... Outlander Season 5 Finale: The Cost of Stolen Time