Outlander 2-1 Through a Glass, Darkly Thoughts, Screencaps and Poll
What did you think of this episode of Outlander? I'd love to hear it in the following poll and/or comments!
Poll Outlander 2-1 Through a Glass, Darkly
My thoughts here!
That was a very emotional episode and I enjoyed it very much. I liked the way they combined Claire going back to the future and her life there, and the life back in time, in France. The books don't go into the future life in detail and I guess it is too much to hope that the series would take the time to do that, but it is one of the things that I always imagined... what it would have been like.
"I wished I were dead..." The whole scene starting from that monologue was so painful. The way Claire asks the man on the road "who won?" And wails as she hears his answer brought on the first bout of tears. But it didn't end there. There were also a lot of scenes I just couldn't watch directly with my eyes to the screen. I had to keep my eyes lowered and watch from the side of my eyes for feeling discomfort for Claire, for Frank and for Jamie a bit. Let me see if I can "quickly" go through the episode.
First of all she wakes up in the circle and finds her stone is missing from the ring - readers of the book will know the significance of this little bit - but it was quite painful to see her searching in vain in the long grass of the circle, then let out the wail, clutching the grass. I wasn't sure if the show would go with the book on the timing of her returning to her time until she talks with Mrs. Graham but it looks like they haven't changed that. Through out this whole part of the ep I kept wondering how they were going to go with the ep, if her "adventures" back in time were to be addressed as bouts of memory and more emphasis put on her new life. I'm guessing the main emphasis is going to be on the past, but this makes it easier to take us to the future once in a while as well and that would definitely be interesting.[Spoiler (click to open)]I like the idea of being able to see Brianna grow up with Claire and Frank and how Claire ends up becoming a doctor etc.
Claire is walking in her 18 century dress down a modern concrete road and at first doesn't recognize the honking of the car horn for what it is. The first question she has for the driver is, what's the year? and secondly, WHO WON? Itt brings tears to my eyes even on second watch, the way she crumbled to the ground when she hears that the British had won the battle of Colloden.
I felt the significance of starting the main episode with the ep with the sleeping form of Roger<3 Then there's Frank, walking into the ward in the hospital. There is one thing different about the show here which I think is significant. Frank doesn't find out that Claire is pregnant until Claire tells him. In the book, the doctors had already told him. I guess Claire told the doctors not to tell him? I'd think a full physical would have revealed that fact to the doctors.
I love Claire's reaction when Frank comes into her room. First assuming it is one of the nurses and not even looking toward the door to see him, asking him to turn the radio off and remarking how noisy everything is. Such a nice touch. I can totally understand how loud it would seem, cars, people and even the radio and music would seem loud after being back in time. And then she sees him in the window and, there's the sharp intake of breath when she realizes it's Frank. Frank himself is also so emotional and the actor really does a great job with all the scenes.
Then, as he leans into her telling her how happy he is to see her, she has a flashback of Black Jack Randall and she just gasps and pulls back and Frank realizes at least that she has been through some real trauma and is careful to keep his distance after that. He waits for her to tell him what happened, and I do like that they actually waited on that. Claire has someone to confide in - Mrs. Graham - to whom, I guess she tells everything. Reminder that Mrs. Graham is the one who predicted that she would have two separate lives and marry twice, but not in sequence, in parallel. She is also a leader of the modern-day druid society so she more easily believes Claire.
Mrs. Graham: Don't spend the rest of your days chasing a ghost. Not when there's a man, a real flesh and blood living man who loves you still with all of his heart.
Of course at this point, Frank doesn't know of the pregnancy and Claire doesn't think that he would want to stay with her if he knew. She I guess decides at this point that she needs to tell him everything. Frank has gotten the clothes checked out and found that they are genuinely 18th century. It is easlier for him to come to terms with the idea that she was telling the truth.
But more than that, for him it's just enough that she is back and as she tells him how she doubts he believes her, he reminds her and us that she is not considering how the past two years had been like for him. How people had told him that Claire probably had just run away with another man and he should stop looking, but he could not. Also quite remarkable changes in expression when she tells him she was pregnant. First joy, as he explains later, then I'd think rage and pain, that she had been able to have a child with someone else when she could not with him. He can accept she had a relationship with another man, but once it becomes concrete, in the form of a child, it's a different matter. The reality comes crashing home in a sense.
Amazing scenes once again. Frank and Claire both!
And Reverend Wakefield and Frank's talk about accepting Claire's child as his own - my favorite part of course is after Roger comes in and Frank begs him not to start talking about "God's plan."
Reverend :Well at the risk of forfeting your worst expectations, I will say this. A child without a father, and a man without a child have been given this chance to find one another and yes, I would call this part of God's eternal plan. What you choose to call it Frank, well, that's up to you.
Frank: We will raise this child as our own. Ours. Yours and mine.
Clare: Raised in a lie?
Frank: No. with a father. A living, breathing man not the echo of a memory that they can never catch.
Claire: Not a ghost.
Frank: Precisely.
Claire: You have other conditions
Frank: Only one. While I draw breath on this earth, I cannot share you with this man. No more search.... You must let him go.
Claire: I know. I promised him I would. He made me promise that I would let him go. So I will. I accept your conditions.
Frank: You have made me very happy, and I hope in time, I will make you happy to.
Claire here with tears in her eyes with the grief of having to let Jamie go, and Frank so happy that he has Claire back. Claire gives Frank the clothes to burn, but as she reluctantly tries to take off her wedding ring, Frank tells her that she should take her time. I wonder if she ever takes it off and when. Wonderful scene.
And then we have some lovely shots of Claire where we can actually see the color of her eyes LOL As she looks up at the sky in the window, and then in the airplane.
A great switch to the past with Frank holding out his hand to her to take the last step onto the ground of Boston, and to Jamie helping her down from the ship in France. "To new beginnings."
The past part of the episode was interesting but not as emotional. Claire first convinces the somewhat doubtful Jamie that they need to deceive the Jacobites and try to stop them from the rebellion so that they can save the highlands and the lives that are sure to be lost.
Claire: I'm right here, and I'm not going away.
Then Jamie has to convince Jared that he actually is a Jacobite by showing him his scars.
And also convince Murtagh to help them.
Jamie: One day we will tell you the reason. I vow to you. I will tell you everything that has happened and why, at the proper time.
Murtagh: Aye. That would do.
Claire: And when would be the proper time?
Jamie: You tell me Sasenach. You're the one from the future.
Claire gets them in trouble with Count Germaine when she tells everyone that his crew has small pox, thereby he has to destroy everything from his ship to its contents. That scene in the warehouse was definitely one of the scenes I couldn't look at the screen directly
So I am interested in what happens in future episodes more than what happened here. It's basically just an introductions into their dealings isn't it. For the time being, I am very interested in seeing how Claire goes into business as a healer and the interesting people they are about to meet :D
Very good beginning!
Poll Outlander 2-1 Through a Glass, Darkly
My thoughts here!
That was a very emotional episode and I enjoyed it very much. I liked the way they combined Claire going back to the future and her life there, and the life back in time, in France. The books don't go into the future life in detail and I guess it is too much to hope that the series would take the time to do that, but it is one of the things that I always imagined... what it would have been like.
"I wished I were dead..." The whole scene starting from that monologue was so painful. The way Claire asks the man on the road "who won?" And wails as she hears his answer brought on the first bout of tears. But it didn't end there. There were also a lot of scenes I just couldn't watch directly with my eyes to the screen. I had to keep my eyes lowered and watch from the side of my eyes for feeling discomfort for Claire, for Frank and for Jamie a bit. Let me see if I can "quickly" go through the episode.
First of all she wakes up in the circle and finds her stone is missing from the ring - readers of the book will know the significance of this little bit - but it was quite painful to see her searching in vain in the long grass of the circle, then let out the wail, clutching the grass. I wasn't sure if the show would go with the book on the timing of her returning to her time until she talks with Mrs. Graham but it looks like they haven't changed that. Through out this whole part of the ep I kept wondering how they were going to go with the ep, if her "adventures" back in time were to be addressed as bouts of memory and more emphasis put on her new life. I'm guessing the main emphasis is going to be on the past, but this makes it easier to take us to the future once in a while as well and that would definitely be interesting.[Spoiler (click to open)]I like the idea of being able to see Brianna grow up with Claire and Frank and how Claire ends up becoming a doctor etc.
Claire is walking in her 18 century dress down a modern concrete road and at first doesn't recognize the honking of the car horn for what it is. The first question she has for the driver is, what's the year? and secondly, WHO WON? Itt brings tears to my eyes even on second watch, the way she crumbled to the ground when she hears that the British had won the battle of Colloden.
I felt the significance of starting the main episode with the ep with the sleeping form of Roger<3 Then there's Frank, walking into the ward in the hospital. There is one thing different about the show here which I think is significant. Frank doesn't find out that Claire is pregnant until Claire tells him. In the book, the doctors had already told him. I guess Claire told the doctors not to tell him? I'd think a full physical would have revealed that fact to the doctors.
I love Claire's reaction when Frank comes into her room. First assuming it is one of the nurses and not even looking toward the door to see him, asking him to turn the radio off and remarking how noisy everything is. Such a nice touch. I can totally understand how loud it would seem, cars, people and even the radio and music would seem loud after being back in time. And then she sees him in the window and, there's the sharp intake of breath when she realizes it's Frank. Frank himself is also so emotional and the actor really does a great job with all the scenes.
Then, as he leans into her telling her how happy he is to see her, she has a flashback of Black Jack Randall and she just gasps and pulls back and Frank realizes at least that she has been through some real trauma and is careful to keep his distance after that. He waits for her to tell him what happened, and I do like that they actually waited on that. Claire has someone to confide in - Mrs. Graham - to whom, I guess she tells everything. Reminder that Mrs. Graham is the one who predicted that she would have two separate lives and marry twice, but not in sequence, in parallel. She is also a leader of the modern-day druid society so she more easily believes Claire.
Mrs. Graham: Don't spend the rest of your days chasing a ghost. Not when there's a man, a real flesh and blood living man who loves you still with all of his heart.
Of course at this point, Frank doesn't know of the pregnancy and Claire doesn't think that he would want to stay with her if he knew. She I guess decides at this point that she needs to tell him everything. Frank has gotten the clothes checked out and found that they are genuinely 18th century. It is easlier for him to come to terms with the idea that she was telling the truth.
But more than that, for him it's just enough that she is back and as she tells him how she doubts he believes her, he reminds her and us that she is not considering how the past two years had been like for him. How people had told him that Claire probably had just run away with another man and he should stop looking, but he could not. Also quite remarkable changes in expression when she tells him she was pregnant. First joy, as he explains later, then I'd think rage and pain, that she had been able to have a child with someone else when she could not with him. He can accept she had a relationship with another man, but once it becomes concrete, in the form of a child, it's a different matter. The reality comes crashing home in a sense.
Amazing scenes once again. Frank and Claire both!
And Reverend Wakefield and Frank's talk about accepting Claire's child as his own - my favorite part of course is after Roger comes in and Frank begs him not to start talking about "God's plan."
Reverend :Well at the risk of forfeting your worst expectations, I will say this. A child without a father, and a man without a child have been given this chance to find one another and yes, I would call this part of God's eternal plan. What you choose to call it Frank, well, that's up to you.
Frank: We will raise this child as our own. Ours. Yours and mine.
Clare: Raised in a lie?
Frank: No. with a father. A living, breathing man not the echo of a memory that they can never catch.
Claire: Not a ghost.
Frank: Precisely.
Claire: You have other conditions
Frank: Only one. While I draw breath on this earth, I cannot share you with this man. No more search.... You must let him go.
Claire: I know. I promised him I would. He made me promise that I would let him go. So I will. I accept your conditions.
Frank: You have made me very happy, and I hope in time, I will make you happy to.
Claire here with tears in her eyes with the grief of having to let Jamie go, and Frank so happy that he has Claire back. Claire gives Frank the clothes to burn, but as she reluctantly tries to take off her wedding ring, Frank tells her that she should take her time. I wonder if she ever takes it off and when. Wonderful scene.
And then we have some lovely shots of Claire where we can actually see the color of her eyes LOL As she looks up at the sky in the window, and then in the airplane.
A great switch to the past with Frank holding out his hand to her to take the last step onto the ground of Boston, and to Jamie helping her down from the ship in France. "To new beginnings."
The past part of the episode was interesting but not as emotional. Claire first convinces the somewhat doubtful Jamie that they need to deceive the Jacobites and try to stop them from the rebellion so that they can save the highlands and the lives that are sure to be lost.
Claire: I'm right here, and I'm not going away.
Then Jamie has to convince Jared that he actually is a Jacobite by showing him his scars.
And also convince Murtagh to help them.
Jamie: One day we will tell you the reason. I vow to you. I will tell you everything that has happened and why, at the proper time.
Murtagh: Aye. That would do.
Claire: And when would be the proper time?
Jamie: You tell me Sasenach. You're the one from the future.
Claire gets them in trouble with Count Germaine when she tells everyone that his crew has small pox, thereby he has to destroy everything from his ship to its contents. That scene in the warehouse was definitely one of the scenes I couldn't look at the screen directly
So I am interested in what happens in future episodes more than what happened here. It's basically just an introductions into their dealings isn't it. For the time being, I am very interested in seeing how Claire goes into business as a healer and the interesting people they are about to meet :D
Very good beginning!