Top Ten Moments from Outlander Episode 402: Do No Harm

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There comes a point in every season of Outlander where there is an episode that I just do NOT want to recap. For whatever reason the episode didn’t resonate with me, or I found it difficult to put into words what I thought of it, or more often – I can’t find TEN THINGS that I loved about it. After all, these Top Ten Moments are not recaps, not really. In fact, not at all. I’m not telling you every thing that happened in each episode with pithy little remarks, hoping for likes. I’m breaking down what I thought was BEST about it: sometimes that’s hard because there is too much that was good, and sometimes that is hard because an episode, on its face, isn’t praise-worthy.

Such was the case with “Do No Harm,” the second episode of Outlander season 4. There have been times when this has happened before – where I come away from an episode knowing its overall theme and message were not something I could do away with in favor of talking about Jamie’s pectorals. Or (The Garrison Commander) where I just suck it up, focus on the positive and ignore the bulk of an episode that left me feeling raw and unnerved. But I don’t want to do that this time.

I don’t mean to imply that the episode was poorly written, that the set design was shoddy, that the actors were phoning it in, that the dialogue was cheap. You can tell there was craft and effort put into “Do No Harm” (although I wish more effort had been made to have it helmed by African American writers/director). But overall, an episode dealing with the realities and horrors of slavery, in which the primary point-of-view is a modern white woman just removed from the American Civil Rights Movement and in which the slaves are set dressing and secondary to her pain of being forced to witness them, leaves this modern American white woman with less to say and lots of reasons to say less.

There WERE great moments in this episode, the least of which is Maria Doyle Kennedy’s appearance and performance. She’s a favorite of most of ours from The Tudors and Orphan Black. She plays Jocasta with elegance and cunning. She’s graceful and a generous actor. I love seeing Jocasta versus Claire; it’s a different dynamic all together from Jenny or Mrs Fitz or Louise.

I loved Jamie’s tears at seeing his maternal aunt again. Watching him remember and look for his mother in her face and her speech was wonderful, a quiet way in which Sam Heughan was able to channel Book Jamie near perfectly.

I loved the actor playing Ulysses, Colin McFarlane. I’ve always found Book Ulysses menacing and withdrawn, but he played him with staid grace. His Ulysses was avuncular and quietly erudite.

I was excited to see John Quincey Myers, played by Kyle Rees, because he’s such a beloved character. His conversation with Ian was good-natured, even if it showed Ian’s naïveté. I laughed out loud at the actors acting out the skunk smell, as if the smell WOULDN’T have hit their noses when he was still a football field away. I was super into Jocasta’s upholstery.

Jerome Holder as Rufus provided an incredibly moving and intimate performance. I was in tears along with him. These are the types of things I might have put in a regular Top Ten Moments. But it is here that I have to stop talking about the things I liked about Outlander Episode 402, and give voice to those whose takeaways are way more important than mine.

Top Ten Comments about Outlander Episode 402: Do No Harm

 

 

There are many more comments and tweets from these Outlander fans. It is worth reading their entire feeds tonight before you make judgement calls or comments of your own about the depiction of slavery and lynching in “Do No Harm.”

If any of these ladies would like to join us on our Hangoutlander panel tomorrow night, feel free to email me at [email protected] or DM on Twitter (@bethorne) as we would love to have you. 

About Beth

Current Obsessions: Fantasy novels. John Krasinski. Melina Marchetta. Edinburgh. Captive Prince and Yuri on Ice. James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser. New words. Gay wizard regency novels.

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