#outlander 06x06

[gotham-ruaidh]

I believe him. Completely. He and I have been though things that you couldn't even imagine - and this...I promise you, it won't come between us.

-- Claire to Malva, 6x06 "The World Turned Upside Down"

---

What haven't Jamie and Claire endured, for each other's sake?

Neither of them could have imagined on their wedding day exactly what they would face. Had they known, would they have married anyway?

Well, Claire says it herself in the very first episode: "Even now, after all the pain and death and heartbreak, I still would make the same choice." Because to not choose each other, would be a life truly not worth living.

For posterity - here's my list of exactly what Jamie and Claire have been through. What they've endured for each other - and precisely why their love is so, so strong:

Physical harm

Sexual assault

Death of a child

Inability to raise their sole living child together

Living in exile

Prison

Giving their body to another man, to guarantee each other's safety

Marriage to another person - full of spite and regret and pain and the ghost of each other

Homelessness - multiple times

Poverty

Starvation

Loss of reputation

Murdering others - multiple times

Inflicting physical harm on others - multiple times

Marching with an army

Illness

Death of a grandchild

[gotham-ruaidh]

I have looked forward to seeing this conversation on screen ever since I learned in 2013 that Outlander would be adapted into a series.

It's been almost 9 years of waiting.

But oh, was the wait worth it.

--

“It’s a great comfort,” he said at last, “to see the sun come up and go down. When I dwelt in the cave, when I was in prison, it gave me hope, to see the light come and go, and know that the world went about its business.”

He was looking out the window, toward the blue distance where the sky darkened toward infinity. His throat moved a little as he swallowed.

“It gives me the same feeling, Sassenach,” he said, “to hear ye rustling about in your surgery, rattling things and swearin’ to yourself.” He turned his head, then, to look at me, and his eyes held the depths of the coming night.

“If ye were no longer there—or somewhere—” he said very softly, “then the sun would no longer come up or go down.” He lifted my hand and kissed it, very gently.

-- A Breath of Snow and Ashes

(credit to @alohamochridhe for the beautiful gifs!!)

[gotham-ruaidh]

I can't tell you how thrilled I am to have finally seen one of my all-time favorite Jamie and Claire exchanges make it to the screen.

I'm talking about Jamie and Claire's heart-to-heart in the aftermath of Malva's accusation, in 06x06 "World Turned Upside Down."

Not only did the actors get the tone of the conversation absolutely PERFECT - and not only was the blocking of the scene just PERFECT (they start the scene so far apart from each other - mirroring how far apart emotionally they feel - and by the end of the scene they're holding each other close, showing that they're back as a unit once more)...

...the setting of the conversation is just perfect.

Let me explain.

In "A Breath of Snow and Ashes", Claire similarly (dramatically) exits the conversation right after Malva makes her accusation. She walks off into the woods. It takes a few hours for Jamie to find her. And the conversation plays out between them, alone, in the woods by a spring.

But in the series - she doesn't go too far from home. She goes to the stables. Exactly where Jamie knows he'll find her.

And when they talk about it - she can see *everything* that's at stake.

Jamie.

The house.

The stables.

The tenants bustling in the background.

All of it - literally laid out in front of her.

To her back is nothing - which is the life she'd lead, were it not for Jamie.

In front of her is the man she has - willingly - sacrificed everything for. The man with whom she's built a hard-won life, all on nothing but the rock-solid foundation of his love for her.

As she looks at Jamie, she's also looking at the entire life she's built. A life that - as she says - means NOTHING if her love for Jamie is not true.

All of which makes what she says - that she believes him, that she knows he loves her as she does him - that much more poignant.

[gotham-ruaidh]

What is there to possibly be angry about? The show is phenomenal this season!!

I won't even share what they claim to be angry about. Not worth your and my time.

And I think this is the strongest season since Season 1. I couldn't be more pleased.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - when I first read Outlander in the spring of 2005, the consensus was, it's it too bad that these books can never be adapted into a movie or miniseries - but that's OK, because they are big and complicated and it wouldn't do justice to the story or characters.

When it was announced in 2013 that the Starz series was in the works, I couldn't have been more skeptical. I watched the premiere with trepidation in August 2014. And as soon as Murtagh marched Claire into the cottage, and I saw Jamie hunched by the fire with his injured shoulder...I said to myself, all right, this probably won't be too terrible. And then towards the end of the episode, when Jamie falls off the horse and Claire curses a blue streak while mending his shoulder, and he looks up at her wide-eyed in the dark...I said to myself, holy shit this is the moment Jamie falls in love with Claire, and I was hooked.

From that moment, I've hoped the series would make it this far - that we'd see one of my all-time favorite exchanges, from "A Breath of Snow and Ashes":

“But we are here, all of us. And we’re here because I loved you, more than the life that was mine. Because I believed you loved me the same way....Will you tell me that’s not true?”

“No,” he said after a moment, so softly I could barely hear him. His hand tightened harder on mine. “No, I willna tell ye that. Not ever, Claire.”

And this week, we finally did.

I can't find the words to express how overjoyed I am.

[gotham-ruaidh]

“D’ye want to know what it is, really?” he asked, and I could see from the dark blue of his eyes that he meant it. I nodded, mute.

“Above all creatures on this earth,” he whispered, “you are faithful.”

...“Well,” I said at last, with a deep sigh of my own, “so are you. Quite a good thing, really. Isn’t it?”

-- A Breath of Snow and Ashes

[gotham-ruaidh]

Holding each other close. Comforting each other.

[gotham-ruaidh]

Do you think they will explore Claire’s fears about the things Malva said to her in her ether induced sleep, that she is old, dried up, not attractive with the short hair, etc? It seems as if those are real fears Claire has with herself subconsciously about how Jamie will/does see her. Your thoughts?

I hope so.

I really loved this scene not just because of what the hallucination of Malva said - but because in the book, the words Malva used to taunt Claire are words that Claire tells herself, in the aftermath of Malva's accusations.

In the series - having Claire hear them come from Malva, even a hallucination of Malva - makes the words sting that much more. For we literally see Malva voice Claire's deepest fears.

In the book at least we don't see Jamie and Claire address these fears directly - he tells her (right after she's sick) that he still finds her beautiful, but given that Malva's death takes place quite a bit after that, clearly those fears still ring true...

Here's the passage from the book, where Claire's mind races:

You’re an old woman.

See how the veins stand out on your hands.

The flesh has fallen away from your bones; your breasts sag.

If he were desperate, needing comfort . . .

He might reject her, but could never turn away from a child of his blood.

I closed my eyes and fought a rising sense of nausea. The hail had passed, succeeded by heavy rain, and cold steam began to rise from the ground, vapor drifting upward, disappearing like ghosts into the downpour.

“No,” I said aloud. “No!”

-- A Breath of Snow and Ashes

[gotham-ruaidh]

"I wonder where the sin-eater is?"