Watch: Outlander Offers Resolution as Its Men Work Through Trauma
Photo Courtesy of Starz
Keri Lumm reviews “Famous Last Words” for Paste—you can watch the video above or read the transcript below:
After a harrowing cliffhanger, we start off with a very much alive Roger! Although back at Oxford. Bree is watching his class interact about famous last words.
He says some nonsense as a joke when asked about his own final words, but then says “I’d rather history forget my name, as long as my words and my deeds are remembered by those I love.”
That is the end of happy, but I liked how they showed the true (near-)end of his life as silent movie flashbacks. Roger is brought back to life, but seen from his own mind. It’s a creepy, awful replay of an unimaginable horror.
Except, it’s not unimaginable, I guess, since we are all watching it.
He’s alive though, and after that crap with Murtaugh, I’m relieved.
But Roger is not recovering. Physically, he is fine, but he still won’t even try to talk, and is obviously still struggling with the emotional and physical pain of his near-death experience.
Throughout the hour, when Bree or Claire try to encourage him, he always returns to his horror in that black and white film sequence.
Meanwhile, Jamie and Jocasta lay Murtaugh to rest. She of course wanted to do more, but what could be done? She is married to someone else.
Bree and Roger are struggling, and she is trying everything to help him, but nothing is working. Lord John Grey is there with good news for Roger: He will be getting 5,000 acres, and he encourages Bree with an astrolabe. It’s very sweet of a man who is in love with her father, is the stepdad to her half-brother, and her previous fiance!
Marsali also tries to help Roger and reads him his tarot cards. It doesn’t end well.
Roger does eventually use his voice in a moment of panic when Jemmy tries to touch the stove, but it is almost as if he regrets it immediately.
Just when you think things can’t get sadder, Jamie and Claire go into the woods to play with their grandchild when they see a wild boar. If we learned anything from Season 1, it is that wild boars kill people.
But just as Jamie is about to kill it, someone else takes care of it first. It is IAN!
It’s unbelievable, and Jamie is thrilled to have his nephew back. Ian is dressed like the tribe, but still himself—only, very obviously traumatized.
Jamie and Claire have dealt with trauma and tread lightly, but they do try to encourage conversation. It’s too bad they do not have a mental health professional on the land; Roger and Ian are in need of some serious help.
Roger and Ian spent time together in Season 4, and the two end up going off on the land together. But Roger will not talk to Ian, even though they had been through a harrowing experience together last season. He just won’t’ do it.
While they are gone, Claire realizes that she is missing her hemlock, a poisonous herb and she suspects Roger has it.
We then see Roger having a flashback, with him in vivid color standing on a cliff’s edge, but he does not do anything rash…because he sees his wife’s face.
It turns out that Ian is the one who is in danger; thankfully, Roger stops him in time.
Ian then tells Roger that his wife is lost to him.
The two head home, and Roger finally speaks to Bree and she feels hopeful about their future.
Outlander airs Sunday nights on Starz.
Keri is a professional chatterbox who loves watching TV & movies, reading about pop culture, and gawking at any craziness on the internet. You can follow Keri on Twitter.
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