More 8x03 thoughts. I realized on another rewatch that Claire’s emphatic nod when Jamie says “you think very highly of yourself” evokes both Season 5 and Season 2 in striking ways.
In 5x01, Claire asks Jamie “where are you going?” when he turns away from their conversation about the militia and fears for Roger. He tells her “If Tryon wants his Scot, I’ll give him a Scot.” Jamie puts on his kilt and becomes a Highlander again, and when Claire sees, she gives him a small nod. She does the same thing in Season 2 when Jamie tells her “no turning back now” after he sends Dougal to meet the Bonnie Prince. Then, Claire answers “Je Suis Prest.” This is effectively to declare, “I am a Fraser, whatever comes.” In both S2 and S5, the music is Bear McCreary’s “Moch Sa Mhadainn.”
Bree quotes the Fraser motto earlier in the same episode, about her wedding, to say she is a Fraser about to become a MacKenzie. Later in the episode, though, Claire acts as her interpreter explaining why Jamie has lit the cross. Claire has taken on the role Murtagh once played for her, translating the oaths at the Gathering. Which is especially poignant on the show when the militia is forming to oppose Murtagh and the Regulators.
In Season 2’s “Je Suis Prest” Claire is struggling with her PTSD and her fears of returning to war. Her nod is her telling Jamie, “I am where I want to be, my place is at your side even in war.” In S5, it is that and “I know who you have been. Who you are now. And whatever battle comes next I will be there.”
In 8.03, Claire’s nod is more emphatic, possibly to emphasize the battle is internal and the responsibility is heavier. It is “I will fight your demons with you, because that is a battle too, and we won’t lose. We are Frasers.”
The romance author Jayne Ann Krentz once said on the Fated Mates podcast that genre fiction is how cultures transmit their values. What love is, what honor is, what truth is. And it’s why the callbacks to earlier OL seasons in the final season are both satisfying and reassuring. If Claire is nodding, saying yes in the face of battle, Outlander is still about choices. About what one does for love, for family, for home. About Claire and Jamie saying, with and without words, “Always.”
