Outlander finale: a rant
36% of the screen time in this episode is dedicated to show graphic rape&torture, suicidal thoughts and gore scenes. 36%. more than 1/3 of the episode. If this is not rape&tortureporn and trying to emotionally scar and rape your audience, Idk what it is.
I haven’t seen any of the Wentworth cell scenes (bar the initial one) as I literally cut out those minutes from my file (thanks to everyone who posted detailed descriptions and precise timestamps). Guess what: THE EPISODE WORKS ANYWAY! I understand how much Jamie was damaged WITHOUT WATCHING A SINGLE SECOND OF HIM BEING RAPED. That Mad Max Meme is FUCKING RIGHT.
hey girl: I don’t need to see the pain and humiliation you suffered as a sex slave. I believe you.
So being the “bravest show on tv” and all the praise they are getting for how great they are at depicting male rape and rape in general is lost on me. As I read elsewhere, Tv doesn’t need more “rape equality”. Tv needs LESS rape, stat.
Jamie laying wide eyed in that first shot was enough to show me how scarred and damaged he was by what happened to him during the night. Sam Heughan won’t get awards but he deserves it.
Episode went from fine to great to rushed and flat in the end.
Cait really brings it, before and after the final flashback. The “I will have you any way I can, always” it’s really moving.
But after that is rushed and patched up. The way they deal with the branding was stupid, it implies Claire didn’t check Jamie’s body for other injuries, what kind incompetent Combat Nurse would do that? But i guess DRAMA is more important that Claire being competent, right?
I hate HATE HATE with all my soul the whole “I want to kill myself” arc. When Jamie asks BJ the death he owes him, that it fine. in that moment wants to die and he is going to get executed in few hours anyway. But after that? NO WAY. Suicide is a MORTAL SIN. There’s no redemption for it. Soul goes to HELL for that. Eternal damnation. Catholic Jamie would Never EVER do it. and for this out of character bullshit, one of the best dialogue and imagery of the book is cut:
“He wanted me to crawl and beg, and by Christ, I did so. I told ye once, Sassenach, ye can break anyone if you’re willing to hurt them enough. Well, he was willing. He made me crawl, and he made me beg; he made me do worse things than that, and before the end he made me want verra badly to be dead.”
[…]
“It’s … difficult to explain. It’s … it’s like … I think it’s as though everyone has a small place inside themselves, maybe, a private bit that they keep to themselves. It’s like a little fortress, where the most private part of you lives-maybe it’s your soul, maybe just that bit that makes you yourself and not anyone else.” His tongue probed his swollen lip unconsciously as he thought.
“You don’t show that bit of yourself to anyone, usually, unless sometimes to someone that ye love greatly.” The hand relaxed, curling around my knee. Jamie’s eyes were closed again, lids sealed against the light.
“Now, it’s like … like my own fortress has been blown up with gunpowder-there’s nothing left of it but ashes and a smoking rooftree, and the little naked thing that lived there once is out in the open, squeaking and whimpering in fear, tryin’ to hide itself under a blade of grass or a bit o’ leaf, but … but not … makin’ m-much of a job of it.” His voice broke, and he turned his head so that his face was hidden in my skirt. Helpless, I could do nothing but stroke his hair.
He suddenly raised his head, face strained as though it would break apart along the seams of the bones. “I’ve been close to death a few times, Claire, but I’ve never really wanted to die. This time I did. I …” His voice cracked and he stopped speaking, clutching my knee hard. When he spoke again, his voice was high and oddly breathless, as though he had been running a long way.
and later
“Sassenach?”
“Yes?”
“Ye know the fortress I told ye of, the one inside me?”
“I remember.”
He smiled without opening his eyes, and reached out a hand for me.
“Well, I’ve a lean-to built, at least. And a roof to keep out the rain.”
I don’t care about the Jamie and Claire sex scenes being cut from the finale. But I call Ron “we couldn’t logistically film the cave scene” bullshit, when he rent a fucking ship, had it going up to Scotland to film from an helicopter that final scene. No way that is less expensive and challenging than build a tank in the studio.
I miss this bit of dialogue so much:
I was crying for joy, my Sassenach,’ he said softly. He reached out slowly and took my face between his hands. “And thanking God that I have two hands. That I have two hands to hold you with. To serve you with, to love you with. Thanking God that I am a whole man still, because of you.”
Claire says 8 Months since she arrived. This means Ep 1-8 = 6 weeks Ep 9-16 = 6 months. Talk about fucked up pace of the show. It FAILED SPECTACULARLY at addressing the passing of the time. And yet they had 2 filler episodes in 1b. But this belong to another post.
I haven’t seen any of the Wentworth cell scenes (bar the initial one) as I literally cut out those minutes from my file (thanks to everyone who posted detailed descriptions and precise timestamps). Guess what: THE EPISODE WORKS ANYWAY! I understand how much Jamie was damaged WITHOUT WATCHING A SINGLE SECOND OF HIM BEING RAPED. That Mad Max Meme is FUCKING RIGHT.
hey girl: I don’t need to see the pain and humiliation you suffered as a sex slave. I believe you.
So being the “bravest show on tv” and all the praise they are getting for how great they are at depicting male rape and rape in general is lost on me. As I read elsewhere, Tv doesn’t need more “rape equality”. Tv needs LESS rape, stat.
Jamie laying wide eyed in that first shot was enough to show me how scarred and damaged he was by what happened to him during the night. Sam Heughan won’t get awards but he deserves it.
Episode went from fine to great to rushed and flat in the end.
Cait really brings it, before and after the final flashback. The “I will have you any way I can, always” it’s really moving.
But after that is rushed and patched up. The way they deal with the branding was stupid, it implies Claire didn’t check Jamie’s body for other injuries, what kind incompetent Combat Nurse would do that? But i guess DRAMA is more important that Claire being competent, right?
I hate HATE HATE with all my soul the whole “I want to kill myself” arc. When Jamie asks BJ the death he owes him, that it fine. in that moment wants to die and he is going to get executed in few hours anyway. But after that? NO WAY. Suicide is a MORTAL SIN. There’s no redemption for it. Soul goes to HELL for that. Eternal damnation. Catholic Jamie would Never EVER do it. and for this out of character bullshit, one of the best dialogue and imagery of the book is cut:
“He wanted me to crawl and beg, and by Christ, I did so. I told ye once, Sassenach, ye can break anyone if you’re willing to hurt them enough. Well, he was willing. He made me crawl, and he made me beg; he made me do worse things than that, and before the end he made me want verra badly to be dead.”
[…]
“It’s … difficult to explain. It’s … it’s like … I think it’s as though everyone has a small place inside themselves, maybe, a private bit that they keep to themselves. It’s like a little fortress, where the most private part of you lives-maybe it’s your soul, maybe just that bit that makes you yourself and not anyone else.” His tongue probed his swollen lip unconsciously as he thought.
“You don’t show that bit of yourself to anyone, usually, unless sometimes to someone that ye love greatly.” The hand relaxed, curling around my knee. Jamie’s eyes were closed again, lids sealed against the light.
“Now, it’s like … like my own fortress has been blown up with gunpowder-there’s nothing left of it but ashes and a smoking rooftree, and the little naked thing that lived there once is out in the open, squeaking and whimpering in fear, tryin’ to hide itself under a blade of grass or a bit o’ leaf, but … but not … makin’ m-much of a job of it.” His voice broke, and he turned his head so that his face was hidden in my skirt. Helpless, I could do nothing but stroke his hair.
He suddenly raised his head, face strained as though it would break apart along the seams of the bones. “I’ve been close to death a few times, Claire, but I’ve never really wanted to die. This time I did. I …” His voice cracked and he stopped speaking, clutching my knee hard. When he spoke again, his voice was high and oddly breathless, as though he had been running a long way.
and later
“Sassenach?”
“Yes?”
“Ye know the fortress I told ye of, the one inside me?”
“I remember.”
He smiled without opening his eyes, and reached out a hand for me.
“Well, I’ve a lean-to built, at least. And a roof to keep out the rain.”
I don’t care about the Jamie and Claire sex scenes being cut from the finale. But I call Ron “we couldn’t logistically film the cave scene” bullshit, when he rent a fucking ship, had it going up to Scotland to film from an helicopter that final scene. No way that is less expensive and challenging than build a tank in the studio.
I miss this bit of dialogue so much:
I was crying for joy, my Sassenach,’ he said softly. He reached out slowly and took my face between his hands. “And thanking God that I have two hands. That I have two hands to hold you with. To serve you with, to love you with. Thanking God that I am a whole man still, because of you.”
Claire says 8 Months since she arrived. This means Ep 1-8 = 6 weeks Ep 9-16 = 6 months. Talk about fucked up pace of the show. It FAILED SPECTACULARLY at addressing the passing of the time. And yet they had 2 filler episodes in 1b. But this belong to another post.