Now that we got that out of the way, why don’t we venture into that rabbit hole known as Outlander fandom drama? The online cavern of all things Sam Heughan known as Scotland Now reported that the queen herself, Diana Gabaldon, supposedly revealed that the show will “jump the shark” in an upcoming episode. She has since blasted the online paper for taking her quotes out of context, but it did have us pondering:
- What the hell is jumping the shark? (Answer: its origins started with Happy Days when the Fonz literally jumped over a shark and thus began the downfall of that show. Sounds awesome to me.)
- What moment is she talking about?
Many fans speculated that this week’s episode, “The Fox’s Lair” is the one that made the leap. After watching it, I have to say I still don’t know what moment jumped the shark. Also, I’m kinda sad that there wasn’t a literal jump the shark moment like if Jamie and Claire are sailing home to Scotland and a shark attacks their boat, and Jamie rescues Claire by jumping the shark. Now, that would be must see TV. Oh, well.
However, this episode was a mixture of the familiar with some surprises. So let’s jump the shark together, shall we? (I know I didn’t use that right, but I don’t care.)
Top Ten Moments From Outlander, ep 208: The Fox’s Lair
1. “Sing Me a Song of France Long Gone”
So, apparently the Frasers are back in Scotland if you couldn’t tell from the opening credits. Gone are flashes of ruffled sleeves, carriages on cobble streets, cleavage, and French lyrics. Just as you were this close to memorizing it in order to perform it at your next Outlander dinner party. Now what are you going to do during the karaoke portion of the evening?
We now have shots of rolling Scottish hills, potatoes, and moobs.
I miss the French boobs.
But what’s memorable about the opening credits are its revelations. Get ready for some over analysis.
If these credits could talk, they would scream, ¨Bitch, I’m back!¨ Here’s a little run down if you forgot the following characters.
Spoiler alert: Claire (or whoever) is one of those drivers who leaves no space between the sternum and the steering wheel.
Oh, and clearly she returns to Scotland because hello, right driver side and castle that is not the Scientology Celebrity Centre in LA.
We noticed that too: Um, there was so much we noticed in these new credits, we don’t know where to start. How about this: who is holding his head while lying fetal position on the ground? Fergus? Jamie? Ron Moore?
2. Goin’ Back, Back to Scotland, Scotland
So, I both loved and hated this opening.
I, for one, have been clamoring for Outlander to return back to those beautiful Scottish hills, the soft babbling brooks, and yards of piss set tartan as far as the eye can see. And we did get it, for five minutes. We’ve had seven episodes of French court, French wine, French whores, and French two pump chumps. But the return to Lallybroch is deemed only montage worthy? And of course it was accompanied by a Claire voice over that had to interpret what we were seeing and provide the Cliff Notes version of ¨Last season on Outlander.”
But alas, we are back and given a lesson on the various ways to make potatoes.
I’ll admit it: I liked this scene. It gave us a quick respite from the drama that unfolded in the previous episode and showed us that Jamie and Claire were healing together. Of course this is Outlander and according to the unofficial Outlander Ratio, for every one minute of peace you have to have ten minutes of drama.
Enter the mail, Bonnie Prince Douche Nozzle, and his skill in forgery.
We noticed that too: The MacKenzie family is expanding with that subtle name drop of Aunt Jocasta.
3. Sibling Rivalry
It wouldn’t be Lallybroch without Jenny and her RBF. Oh, I missed you, Jen.
Our first real interaction this season between brother and sister is of course, a fight. They get into each other’s face, voices rise, and their Scottish accents become so thick with indignation you need to turn on your closed captioning. It’s good to see nothing has changed.
And what’s the nucleus of their argument: their grandfather. A man, we find out, disowned his own son and attempted to kidnap Jamie’s mother. Y’know, the typical family drama.
Here’s my opinion on Jenny: yes, she can be somewhat annoying, her behavior sometimes may emasculate Jamie, and I wish we had more between siblings than this fight but their relationship is realistic. As someone with a brother, I have no qualms telling him what I think and vice versa, personal feelings sometimes be damned. And their fights are not malicious. They fight because they only want the best for each other and those around them. And honestly, it’s Jenny’s antagonizing that pushes Jamie to step up to the plate.
Plus, their confrontation leads to Angry Jamie and Angry Jamie is hawt.
4. The Dynamic Duo
One of my beefs with this season has been the lack of Jamie and Claire time in the land of wine and painted on heart moles. Moments together were either cut short by arguments, a monkey-bitten prince on a roof, or fade-to-black editing. Even at the conclusion of “Faith,” with Jamie and Claire holding hands over the gravesite of their first child, the scene cut to credits, leaving us to wonder what impact this would have on their marriage.
I guess Claire was right. Scotland was what the Frasers needed to heal.
If the other episodes lacked in Claire and Jamie time, this episode made up for it. Whether it was foreplay over potatoes (Are they consider a Scottish aphrodisiac?), to Claire’s almost change of heart about changing the future, to Jamie’s revelation about his father, the Frasers have clearly come out the right side of rock bottom. Plus we got a leg hitch worthy of Twilight’s Eclipse status.
5. Rock-A-Bye Jamie
Before this season began, I came up with my wish list for what I hoped I would see translate from book to screen. On my list, I included a wish I thought had a long shot at making it. It’s like when you’re a child, and you make that Hail Mary pass and ask Santa for the Fisher Price deluxe kitchen set complete with fake food and cooking ware.
So what was the moment? A Mourning Jamie with his niece.
Well, Merry Christmas to me. Ron D. Moore is my Santa Claus.
Maybe I’m biased but this moment was near perfection for me. There was no voice over, just the soft whisper of Jamie speaking Gaelic to his niece, mourning over the loss of his daughter. It was both heartwarming and heart wrenching. Plus it brought many women’s fantasy of Sam Heughan as a dad to life, so score.
Last episode, we were with Claire as she experienced the loss of her daughter, felt the grief and anguish of her loss. This moment was Jamie’s turn – he also lost his child, but it didn’t try to match Claire’s experience because a woman losing her unborn child is a different experience from a man losing his unborn child.
And then Jenny’s insight only heightened the pathos of this moment:
A man has to wait until the child is born, and then they hold their bairn, and feel all the things that might be and all the things that might never be, and weep not knowing which one comes to pass.
Yep, I’m crying again. Thanks, Janet.
We noticed that too: Jamie calling the baby “mo chride” and breaking our hearts even more.
6. Foxy Grandpa
Nobody puts fun in dysfunctional like the Fraser/MacKenzie family. This episode we got to meet the titular character, The Old Fox aka Lord Lovat aka Jamie’s grandfather (Okay, Outsplainers, grandsire) aka dirty, ass old man who looks like he would pinch your ass as his way of saying, “Thanks for letting me cut in front of you at Starbucks because you thought it was only a matter of time before I see my maker.”
He’s clearly not your dear beloved grandpappy, and that’s obvious within the first frame of him. And yes, this portion of the episode was all about showing you how much of a bastard the old fox is and how many people hate/fear him. To be honest, there were times when I wanted to fast forward the political talk, especially during the whole Goodfellas feast.
We got it: this very powerful man practically holds part of the rebellion in his wrinkled, liver spotted hands.
But what I did love was the fight between grandfather and grandson.
Once again, Jamie uses Claire’s reputation as La Dame Blanche in order to save her from being a lynch pin in his grandfather’s quest to gain Lallybroch, a charge that almost had her killed in the previous season. It was all about the juxtaposition of the two men: Lord Lovat’s power is in-your-face and intimidating but Jamie’s is a slow fuse that gradually builds up to a crescendo. And to see Lovat’s face by the time Jamie was through describing what happens to a man’s balls when he ravishes La Dame Blanche and throws his drink (not Lovat’s false teeth but whatever) into the fire, well that’s just a beautiful Hallmark moment.
7. The Hoo-er Awakens
Since Annalise is left behind in France, we need to be reminded that Claire isn’t the only person who wants to ride Jamie’s on-ramps to dirk town.
Welcome back, Laoghaire.
Okay, so is Claire’s confrontation with Lolita in Plaid the jump the shark moment that we should have all dreaded? Because I wasn’t too crazy about this scene but not for the obvious reason. Yes, bringing back Laoghaire begging Claire to forgive her indiscretion is a complete departure from the books. But I didn’t mind that.
I didn’t like this scene because of Claire.
The girl – who, by the way, you essentially bitch slapped to the middle of next week because she placed a thorny weed under your bed – is standing there, asking you to forgive her after her lie almost ended your life and how do you respond? By telling her that you initially wanted to watch her burn but decided to pity her instead. Wow, Claire. Calm down.
Sure, we could chalk it up to Claire entering into a new state of rectitude. But the whole “I pity you” comment was completely cliched and anti-climatic. Anything other than those words would have been better. Ignoring her, walking away without saying anything to her and showing Laoghaire that she’s dead to you would have been better. Letting her know what the left hand tastes like since she had a sample of the right one would have been better. Casually saying, “Did you wash your hair? It looks really clean” would have been better. (See New Girl to know why that’s the ultimate insult.)
But Claire’s pity? Ugh. I’d rather have her bitch slap.
8. Matchmaker, Matchmaker
So, how do you change the mind of a cantankerous, vindictive, treacherous old man? You seduce his weak, mild-mannered, wall hugger of a son. But when you have met your quota of sleeping with other men in order to save your husband and Scotland, whom do you turn to? Who would be so low to flirt with a man for political gain?
This girl.
After reminding Laoghaire once again that Jamie doesn’t love her – FFS, Claire, just let the girl sniff your husband’s dirty ass shirt that’s in dire need of Clorox – she takes advantage of the teen’s need for forgiveness and enlists her skills in flirtation (Anyone remember how well that went down at the harp concert with Jamie?) with Young Simon. And what does Claire throw in to sweeten the deal? Jamie’s forgiveness.
Well played, Claire, you minx.
But of course, the young girl messes up, shows her boobs to the guy and scares him off. There seems to be a pattern with this girl.
9. Practical Magic
The seduction of the son didn’t work, your husband is about to sign away his land and lose his home and clan in the process. What’s a girl to do?
You play on the grandfather’s fears of the supernatural. From her conversation with Maisri (and yes, I had to look up how to spell that), Claire learns that Simon has been warned about his death and he’s just a tad bit sensitive to the news. Using this to her advantage, Claire freaks the shit out of good old grandsire, stops Jamie from signing over Lallybroch, and stops us from almost falling asleep because damn, this scene took forever.
Her outburst, along with a nod from Tits McGee, also helps Young Simon to stop being a mouth breather and demand his father send men to fight for Scotland.
Of course all this backfires – so we think – and the Lord Asshole signs the neutrality agreement. But being a sly fox, he sends his men anyway with the belief that if they’re caught, it’s on his kid and that’s whose neck will be in the hanger’s noose.
Father of the year.
10. My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Before Jamie and Claire return to Lallybroch, it’s the obligatory “Say goodbye to your guest stars before they leave.”
After seeing Colum off to endure a carriage ride that’s sure to snap his birch tree branch legs in half…
Jamie, with a nudge from Claire (who is clearly delusional due to the fake fainting and “visions” because why else would you push your husband when he knows what this biatch did to you?), reluctantly thanks Laoghaire for showing her girls helping their cause.
And in a move no one saw coming (I’m using italics because it’s obvious we saw this coming), Laoghaire totally asides us in with this tidbit:
I hope one day I can earn your forgiveness, Jamie…[wait for it] and your love.
We get it kid: you’re still hung up on the man. Welcome to a majority of my teenage angst. The blatant foreshadowing this season has made me forehead slap so many times, I practically knocked myself out after this moment. Did we need to be reminded, yet again, that she still wants his love? Didn’t the shirt sniffing moment already do that?
And before she has a chance to inhale Jamie’s sporran, Laoghaire is dumped onto a wagon and taken off to most likely the third season.
What did you think of the Fox’s Lair? What moment do you think “jumped the shark” or was spot on?
