Season Three Episode Three: All Debts Paid
Flash back scenes in the intro are extremely helpful reminding us not only that its been far too long since season two, but also that we have so much to look forward to in the coming weeks. The birthday cake itself in the opening is a sign enough that we all are wishing we could hurry along.
Boston 1956 - Enter Claire and Frank sitting down to a real English breakfast because apparently little Bree is too American and they need to fill her with something different.
Poor Frank looks like he needs to gain a little anyway, skinny hard working professor that he is. We notice too that Frank is the one using the stove, guess Claire finally gave up on using it after the last attempts previously did no go so well. We see the two still have playful conversation and seem civil right up till Frank hits her with the oh, "I was being discrete." Really Frank. Really? You couldn't go out with your hard working wife just one night to see a film just because you have seen it before?! Not so sure he was actually turning her down at first though.... sigh..... I know he clearly wants to run a second life divergent of Claire, but that was heartbreaking. On a sunny note though he did figure out it is always important to feed Claire.
By the way that thing hanging on the wall is called a telephone or any of the young ones out there. Naturally my own children have never seen one actually on the wall, they are practically as rare as common sense these days. On another note Bree is an artist as we discover later in the series so of course she probably had lots of drawings all over the house.
Now back a couple hundred years!
- Ardsmuir Prison 1755
Enter John Grey getting the general run down of the prison. First thing we hear is not only is it gloomy but the only way the guards survive themselves is by enjoying a lot of drinks. We learn the general little there is to do except over course paperwork, hunting, and looking for the gold supposedly sent by France to aid Charles Stuart.
That is the look of a man who just discovered among the many Scottish prisoners is Red Jamie Fraser. He was notorious during the rebellion and very much a man Lord John Grey (LJG) would remember. We know at this point in Jamie's life really everything has been taken from him. I would go back as far as his horrible abuse by Black Jack, to the death of Faith (1744), up to losing Claire through the stones the day of Culloden. After spending years hiding in a cave he ultimately gave up himself to the prison,leaving his family behind. Everything stripped away from our beloved hero.
All in all this prison looks fairly dark and dreary, which is standard for prisons. Our beloved Jamie is in chains and appears to be the only one which indicates how dangerous he is in the eyes of the British. You can tell all of his fellow prisoners seem to look up, as he sits down we hear a very familiar voice.... Murtagh! Was that Murtagh? I thought it was a ghost at first or maybe just Jamie hearing him in his head. But then........
Aye it is him. Well it would seem he did not die in the Battle of Culloden. I always say unless it happens on screen, did it really happen? And I must also say both me and my wife practically jumped off our seats faster than that guy in Jaws when he saw the shark.
Well his indeed has. And now Jamie is discussing the new governor in charge of the prison, Lord John Grey. Of course Jamie does no quite remember who he is yet. It becomes increasingly more real when we see our beloved Murtagh sounding very sick and apparently dealing with rate bites. We do know that tartans and kilts have been banned as well as the use of gaelic among the Scots. The British tried so hard to rip apart everything about Scotland culture and heritage. So much was lost. I am beginning to believe the 'lass that is gone' refers to Scotland herself.
Speaking of a lass that is gone.... You can see both the pain and sorrow in his memories here of his lass that has gone. He does remember some of her tricks in the healing process using such plants. A true testament that ever all these years, she remains constantly on his mind.
We go from there into the office of John Grey who has brought Jamie in to introduce himself. Jamie will of course continue to act as spokesmen and representative for the prisoners. We learn also the rats in the prison are everywhere. Now in all fairness of this one, he hardly looked like he was going after LJG's meal. Jamie tells John he hopes he deserved whatever he did to deserve being in charge of this prison. Clearly not the place you send the best of the best British officers.
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Boston 1958
Back to the future with Claire and her graduation party. Another snapshot into the lives of Clare, Frank and little Bree. So good to see her classmate Joe Abernathy is there to bring some life to this tense scene.
Frank you really should know better, being a man of schedule and all, to know what time the dinner reservation was for and all. Just remember Frank, you are not only disappointing Claire but also this darling little angel. Not to mention the rest of us who have been fighting for you for oh so long.
Any dad worth his salt should be melting with those eyes and just gone and celebrated Claire's graduation! Oh the drama.
As I said, tense scene. At least we have confirmation Frank is seeing other ladies. He did seem rather bothered that he got the reservation time wrong but nevertheless big mistake inviting this other chick to his house. At his point Claire should have just invited her in, perhaps to the back herb garden.... Oh, excuse me I mean Dr. Randal. Quite an accomplishment especially in that time period.
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Alright back to Jamie's time and some crazy looking dude wandering down the road. More on him in a moment.
Oh yes "thank you for coming".... Jamie is thinking..... Yeah because I had a choice in the matter. But alas LJG needs Jamie's help translating the mad ramblings of the wandering man who speaks of cursed gold. We do kind of wonder thinking back to last season and the rumors of gold being spread around. Jamie of course is an expert with languages, seems to come natural for him. So of course he can help as long as he gets his chains taken off in return. His other condition is for LJG to give blankets to the men in the prison, again always thinking out for the best of those under his charge.
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Back to Boston and Claire's time, evidently later that same graduation evening. Claire waiting very mad as Frank comes in and the two exchange a eloquently written exchange of words involving their mutual dissatisfaction with each others behaviors. Frank defends his date, Sandy is her name, claiming she is a Harvard professor in historical linguistics. If we pause on that for a second it does make you wonder if she is helping Frank in his quest to learn more about the Jaobites and his own mortal enemy. None the less its heart breaking to see that he simply does not want to stop being there for Bree. Ultimately it is worth him not having freedom as long as he can be Bree's dad.
'Green is not your color Claire.' Funny considering that brings up a lot of Scottish memories. To go into that even more you can see Jamie is still very much still owner of Claire's heart.
It may just be that Jamie is the reason she is crying more so than the ultimate evidence of betrayal, but the green pillow in-between those two speaks volumes.
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Back to Jamie speaking with the man who was wandering, Dustin Kerr. He has much to say about the Frenchman's gold being cursed. He also mentions the White Witch which makes Jamie suddenly very interested. This same title is one which had been once given to Claire long ago in France. So this leads Jamie to believe it could be she has returned. Kerr speaks of Jamie's family and the Silkies. These are the seals which are located off the shore of Scotland. Jamie's father was also known for his silk black hair so there are a few unanswered questions for now.
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Boston 1964
Short snippet here of Bree's sweet 16. Looks like a small intimate gathering of just the three. Of course Bree wants a car which Claire shuts down while Frank says, wish away. Clearly Frank is playing more agreeable parent in this relationship. Sneaky Frank. Personally my own kids will be working and earning their first cars. Probably far more of a luxury back then anyway. Of course Claire is a Doctor and he works at Harvard so.... yeah with one child they should be able to buy a car easy enough. (I used to have money, then I had kids, now they have my money)
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Back to Jamie
Jamie tells Murtagh about his encounter and I love the response he gets. Murtagh evidently knows all about Claire traveling through the stones pregnant with Bree. It is great that even in the darkest isolation of prison Jamie has someone to talk to. Though its probably easier this way than having him narrate his way through the show. Oh how I do miss Claire's narration. Alas people talking to themselves is always helpful. I love that Murtagh wishes Claire and the baby safe wherever or whenever they are and is praying for them. Sweet.
Moving on now back to Lord John inviting Jamie to dinner, again trying to get as much from him as possible regarding the gold or anything else which might be of use.
Jamie is the one who ends up leading the conversation, convincing John to let them set traps for meat and gather plants to help their teeth. We have Claire to thank for Jamie's great looking teeth apparently, and for the importance of eating your vegetables as every parent says during dinner. It is from this conversation we also hear Jamie tell John of his wife who is gone. Such heartbreak.
When Jamie sits down to eat we see a wonderful smile upon tasting the pheasant in the wine sauce. Lord John sees Jamie is far more than just a simple minded Scot. He is a man of class and knowledge and excellent table manners. I must say Claire probably helped with some of those manners too. We just need to get her back so he can get on back to smiling more often! Those poor prisoners sit and savor every piece of the dinner if only in their imaginations as Jamie recounts the meal to them. Seriously the looks on those faces are awesome.
Heading outside into the wide open spaces Jamie somehow manages to escape with the help of his fellow prisoners. Quite the tricksters really. Still I would have rather seen Jamie take off in a run.... we all know he probably could. Somehow still he manages to make for the Silky Island.
Not much is known about the Island at this time, perhaps some flashbacks in the future. But for Jamie to swim out there I must say its impressive. Maybe he had some help from the tide, or took a ride on a seal.
Jamie shows up while LJG is rather distracted and basically goes from being in position to end John's life to laying his own down in its place. The debt of honor had been discharged and paid in full. Now the look on Jamie's face when LJ refuses to kill him is painful itself. Here is a man stripped of everything he loved and with all that loss is ready to be at his end. Thankfully however this is now the end!
Jamie and Lord John begin walking back to the prison. We see him touch some flowers, obviously thinking of Claire. He tells John that Claire is not dead, but gone. He explains the White Witch and possibilities of it relating to Claire. He sees that she is truly gone though, seeing as he did not find Claire. What he did find was a small box and hands John a gemstone as proof. This makes me think two things. First, really Jamie you only found one stone and if there were more surly he would have stuck more in his other pockets. Second, gems are a key to going through the stones and traveling through time. Interesting enough.
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Ahead a few hundred years to 1966 and we see Brianna Randall (cough cough Fraser) graduating from high school.
She does a great job at doing what every kid does, scanning the crowd for happy parents. Some of those parents in the crowd look a little shocked their kid made it this far. But Frank and Claire of course are no surprised at all. Frank actually might be a bit too happy.
Boy that was a brief snapshot that could have been a photo later.... but moving back to Jamie
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"Some people you grieve over forever." Lord John has a heart to heart over a chess game with Jamie. Seems like Chess brings a lot out of people. Reminds me of the infamous games played by the opposing sides of the X-men movies. At any rate its a tender one and of course brings Jamie to think once more of Claire, not sure he ever really stopped. Jamie says, "the greatest burden is caring for those we cannot help.' This seems to be the life motto of our hero as he is always taken on the burden of helping others around him. And oh his heart aches for his Claire. It is better to have a burden than to have no one to burden over.
Jamie brings up their first meeting where we get to see some snapshots from Season two. Great little tidbit to remind us that our two main characters need to be together, soon! Soon people, soon. But alas they must be apart for a couple decades to grow into the people they need to be. At rate Jamie speaks of how Lord John showed honor by protecting Claire, or so he thought anyway. Fun scene to watch when it occurred.
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Back to the future again with Claire and Frank and the epic last moments we see of them together. He seems to sympathetic at first with all this understanding about surgeries and all. He would have been better off just taking Brianna to England and not being honest with Claire. But it does not go well from there..... he is seeking to move on with his life away from Claire but his biggest mistake was trying to take Brianna with him.
I am not entirely sure it is on purpose that the clock reads 11:30pm. The eleventh hour traditionally is the last hour being midnight, before a new day or new time. It symbolizes an hour of change and decision. Seems appropriate for sure. Oddly enough Claire does say Frank had been waiting for the clock to run out. Oh she is rightfully angry and you can tell Frank is at his end. He seems as if the promises he made in the beginning to raise Bri together have met their completion, at least in his mind. I am sorry to break it to you Frank, but no child is ever ready to be done with their parents. They are a necessity for life.
Everything about the passionate speech between those two in this scene is golden. You can see Frank has met his own end, feeling unloved for the last 18 years by his own wife. Meanwhile he asks Claire if there was a possibility without Bri, if she would ever forget about Jamie in time.
"That amount of time doesn't exist." Has to be one of my favorite lines.
With that we end the long struggle between those two. Frank goes out the door and Claire rushes off to the hospital.
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Oh no the prison is closing and they are getting rid of the prisoners. Poor Murtagh, looks like its off to the colonies for you. Perhaps he will turn up again soon. Yet again one more person pulled out of Jamie's life. Jamie however is led, behind a horse for that matter, off with Lord John somewhere else. Not quite sure why he had to walk, were they afraid he would escape again? Perhaps.
It sure does seem to snow a lot but never seems to stick?! What is that about.
Apparently Jamie is too valuable to the crown as a convicted traitor he is unable to go to the colonies. Lord John means to hand Jamie over to the service of Lord Dunsany of Helwater. Poor Jamie, finally ending up in Hel.....oh Helwater. Right, whew. We shall see what comes of this in the next episode. Lord John gives Jamie a new life though now.
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We cut back to Claire discovering Frank was in a car accident and has died. I knew this moment was coming and I still ended up in tears over it. She tells him she did love him and he was her first love. All the more reason to grab tissues when we watch this show. Seems to be the basic necessity along with a nice drink and some snacks.
With Frank gone now the debts have been paid in full. Jamie has a new life and so does Claire it seems. From here it might be good to review the last episode of Season 2 where Claire and Bri travel to Scotland.
With that episode three has ended and I look forward to seeing what comes next!
Oíche mhaith (goodnight in gaelic).
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